My buddy Barry Lancet and I have a story coming out in the Mystery Writers of America’s first teen thriller anthology, LIFE IS SHORT THEN YOU DIE.  We’re proud to be included with R.L. Stine and so many other greats in the young reader space.  Coming September 2019!

When I’m editing my novels, I sometimes need quick advice on a grammar (lay versus lie, etc.) and I often turn to Grammar Girl, a great resource for easy to follow grammar advice.  So I was thrilled when the site asked me to contribute a piece on sentence structure.  Here’s my “3 Tips for Creating Sentences with Punch.”

For the past several years, I’ve interviewed some of the bestselling authors in world for my series in Suspense Magazine, “America’s Favorite Suspense Authors on the Rules of Fiction.” The magazine recently turned the tables and interviewed me about my rules. As you’ll see here, most of my advice was shamelessly stolen from the best in the business . . .

For Criminal Element I wrote this tongue-in-cheek article about the secret to literary greatness where I poke fun at myself as well as some great writers, including Harlan Coben, Brad Meltzer, and John Lescroart. The secret isn’t what you think . . .

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The Bald Truth: The Secret to Literary Greatness

Here’s a piece I wrote for Criminal Element, about a trip my son and I took to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s grave, where we found some surprises.

As part of our appellate practice, a morning ritual for my colleague Stanton Jones and I is to open SCOTUSblog to see the latest information about the Supreme Court. Earlier this week, we both sent each other virtually simultaneous e-mails about the morning’s “guest blogger”: the President of the United States.

Now, we’re all familiar with feuding celebrities taking to the Internet to air grievances. From Kanye West’s Twitter war with Wiz Khalifa, to famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s beef with a rapper over whether the world is flat. In this election season, candidates too are regularly swiping at each other on social media.

Welcome to my new website and blog! As many of you know, for the past several years I’ve had a recurring series in Suspense Magazine where I talk shop with other thriller writers—Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Sandra Brown, and more than 70 other amazing authors. I’ve saved those articles in the Archives of this blog, but I thought I’d kick off the new blog with my latest piece, where acclaimed author and writing teacher Steven James gives his advice to aspiring scribes:

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Say the name Steven James to most suspense writers and it’s likely to prompt two responses: Great storyteller. Amazing teacher.