Love (of writing) in the Time of Covid
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...
FREE RANGE WRITERS
Dave Butler
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Pamela Beason
Gregory Zeigler
Please see the comments section at the bottom of each post. Our authors will appreciate your comments and will most often respond.
- Mar 4, 2020
- 3 min
Taking the Flack
Most authors love to hear from readers, and we are especially grateful for reviews, but sometimes the negative messages we receive are...
37 views0 comments
- Feb 16, 2020
- 3 min
The Goldilocks Rule of Research by Gregory Zeigler
In this cycle of February posts, Free Range Partner Pam wrote about what she had learned from her travel. Partner Dave wrote about his...
111 views7 comments
- Feb 9, 2020
- 3 min
Balancing Act
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...
63 views1 comment
- Feb 2, 2020
- 2 min
Things I've Learned from Travel
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...
22 views2 comments
- Jan 19, 2020
- 3 min
Writing Like a Photographer
By Dave Butler Imagine that you’re a landscaper photographer, visiting the west slopes of the Rocky Mountains for the first time. If...
68 views4 comments
- Jan 12, 2020
- 3 min
Pursuit of the Perfect Scene by Gregory Zeigler
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...
21 views1 comment
- Jan 5, 2020
- 2 min
Why I Can't Write Cozy Mysteries
Cozy mysteries are generally set in a small town with a cast of quirky characters and little violence. Murders are often depicted as a...
16 views0 comments
- Dec 21, 2019
- 3 min
A Few Good Challenges
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...
59 views1 comment
- Dec 15, 2019
- 1 min
Scene Checker by Gregory Zeigler
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...
24 views2 comments
- Dec 7, 2019
- 3 min
Maintaining Focus
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....
20 views1 comment
- Nov 10, 2019
- 6 min
Fiction for the planet: renowned authors of environmental mysteries discuss passions and process.
We’re All in This Together - by Pamela Beason We have only one planet, and trillions of creatures need to live on it. Why should humans...
39 views1 comment
- Oct 20, 2019
- 3 min
50 Shades of Gray
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...
69 views7 comments
- Oct 13, 2019
- 4 min
This theme is deep (as in Grand Canyon deep) by Gregory Zeigler
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...
17 views1 comment
- Oct 7, 2019
- 2 min
Of Plots and Themes
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...
17 views1 comment
- Sep 15, 2019
- 4 min
Wherefore Art Thou?
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,...
28 views4 comments
- Sep 8, 2019
- 3 min
A Few Tips and a War Story by Gregory Zeigler
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...
9 views2 comments
- Sep 1, 2019
- 2 min
How I Write a Book
For some peculiar reason, people are often interested in how an author writes a book. All authors have to find the process that works...
32 views0 comments
- Aug 17, 2019
- 5 min
Looking at the World
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...
50 views4 comments
- Aug 11, 2019
- 2 min
So You Want To Write About A PI?
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...
8 views0 comments