Thinkingdog Publishing

There’s a little thing that never shows up on an author bio page, or gets mentioned in the beautiful author interviews, though someone absolutely should. I don’t care how many books they’ve written – every writer will hit a wall. Not a little doubt, not just "hmm, I wonder if this scene is working" kind of thought. Oh no – a real wall, face first, seeing stars, hearing the sound effect kind of moment, and you are absolutely convicted that everything you’ve written is absolute, unmitigated rubbish. How do I know this? Because I have now written fifteen books. Fifteen. So you would think that I have done this often enough and I should, by all reasonable logic, have developed some kind of immunity. A vague memory perhaps, yeah, this usually happens, I’ve been here before, I know how this ends. Alas, there is no immunity. Here is exactly how it goes, in case you are a writer who needs to hear this, or a reader who wants to understand why authors occasionally look haunted ...

Truth time? I have a full-blown, popcorn-in-hand, rabbit-hole-diving addiction to watching videos about how to “do well on social media.” Not casually watching - Studying. Observing. Nodding thoughtfully as someone with perfect lighting and cheekbones blessed by the algorithm tells me that if I don’t post three reels a day, engage for forty-seven minutes before and after, use trending audio from a seventeen-second clip of a remix originally posted in 2024, and position my coffee mug at a 32-degree angle… I will vanish into the void. It is both fascinating and mildly terrifying, and I am not going to do any of it. You want to know how I know? Y’all are taking it so serious. Meanwhile, I am over here half-assing my social media presence because I know I have to. I know I should. I know visibility matters. I know marketing is important. I know the algorithm is a mysterious creature that must occasionally be fed. And yet. I don’t particularly want to be o...

You know that old myth that inspiration strikes like lightning? Yeah. Let’s go ahead and toss that in the compost bin, right next to last week’s kale. As a cozy mystery author, I get asked all the time: “Where do you get your ideas?” There’s this widely held belief that writers are constantly floating around in a bubble of creativity, sipping tea and spontaneously birthing brilliant plots like literary unicorns. Let me just invite you into the real scene at my house. It’s 9 a.m. I shuffle into my writing space, which is honestly just a desk covered in sticky notes, empty mugs, and at least three pens I pretend I don’t chew. I sit down. Crack knuckles. Tell myself, “Today is the day I finish Chapter Four!” And… absolutely nothing happens. Not a plot twist. Not a witty line of dialogue. Not even a suspicious footprint on a doormat. Just blank screen and the sound of Blueberry, my extremely judgmental Papillon, sighing loudly from her perch on the armchair. If you don’t b...