FREE RANGE WRITERS

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...

As she is wont to do, Free Range Writer partner Pamela got me thinking about plots and themes in my novels. Let's look at my first, That...

Every novel has a plot, which is the story line (what happens). But most good novels also have a theme, which is the underlying message...

Following on the heels of Pam and Greg’s intriguing posts, I am often asked by readers and other writers about where I write. For me,...

I'm following my friend Pam's post with a few tips of my own about writing a novel. I'll conclude with a war story about the dreaded...

For some peculiar reason, people are often interested in how an author writes a book. All authors have to find the process that works...

By Dave Butler Unlike Pam and Greg, I don’t have any specific experiences with private investigators. I haven’t worked as a PI, nor have...

In my first novel, The Straw That Broke, I introduced Jake Goddard as a PI who had sort of fallen into the job through his work as an...

I worked as a private investigator for more than ten years, and that experience definitely impacts how I write my mysteries.

When you spend time in wild areas as the three of us do, you’re bound to run into trouble once in a while. We thought we’d pick our most...

What do you do when you're kayaking down a river canyon and your kayak breaks in half?

Don't go backpacking where snakes are denning for the winter!

When I began collaborating with Pamela Beason and Greg Zeigler in Free Range Writers (FRW), they immediately set my mind to thinking...

One glorious day last April. This morning around 7 a.m. before firing up my espresso machine I stopped at the window in our living room....

This is such a beautiful planet, and we share it with so many amazing creatures. I want to experience all the natural wonders I can.