FREE RANGE WRITERS

By Dave Butler Following in the footsteps of Pam and Greg, I interviewed myself about what it’s like to be writing fiction at a very strange time in the worl...

Pam's recent post really resonated with me. Perhaps you can infer that from my rather unhinged comment. Isolation has not been a great time of creativity (un...

Since March 13th, I’ve been in my house with only my two cats for company since returning from the ill-fated Left Coast Crime Conference, which was cancelled...

By Dave Butler I work in sustainable tourism in Western Canada, and every day, I deal with issues such as climate change, land use conflicts, and species-at-...

This snapshot (below) was taken on my way to a skate ski in Grand Teton National Park on a recent stunning April morning. After driving through an elk herd o...

I and my partners in crime (writing) here at Free RangeWriters, Gregory Zeigler and Dave Butler, were recently honored to have all three of our essays appear...

For this week’s post, I thought it would be both fun and illuminating to think about how environmental mysteries can influence conservation … and vice versa....

With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I'm not going to say much about the pandemic. I promise. But as I write this, I'm missing a chance to hang out with...

Most authors love to hear from readers, and we are especially grateful for reviews, but sometimes the negative messages we receive are tough to digest. Becau...

In this cycle of February posts, Free Range Partner Pam wrote about what she had learned from her travel. Partner Dave wrote about his writing process. I tho...

By Dave Butler 5 a.m. arrives extremely early. In the summer, when the sun rises at the same time, it’s tolerable. But in the winter months, here in the shad...

I’m preparing to go on an international trip soon, so I’ve been thinking about all the things I’ve experienced on my travels. As Rick Steves says, “Travel is...

By Dave Butler Imagine that you’re a landscaper photographer, visiting the west slopes of the Rocky Mountains for the first time. If you’re an American, you’...

In my last effort for the Free Rangers posted in the final month of the previous decade (12/15/19) I introduced my scene checker, a legal pad that towers ove...

Cozy mysteries are generally set in a small town with a cast of quirky characters and little violence. Murders are often depicted as a “fun” mystery puzzle f...

By Dave Butler Throw them a challenge! That simple piece of advice remains one of the best I’ve received from other mystery writers in whose skilled footstep...

Rare as Earth gets a checkup. I'm working on a final edit of my novel in process, Rare as Earth. A list, entitled "Scene Checker,"sits upright in a cookbook ...

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of books written by inexperienced writers, and this has made me think back to my early days as a novelist. I completely rewrot...

The Role of Theme and Plot in Environmental Mysteries By Dave Butler Building on Pam and Greg’s reflections on theme and plot, I find the area of ecofiction ...