For the past several months I have been listening to many true crime podcasts about people who are trying to fraud their way to acclaim or riches. And because of the cyclical nature of content, the fraud of the season is – medical fraud true crime.

This series had an 80s vibe to it, despite that it’s so modern. Perhaps it’s the uber-wealthy and glamorous guests on the ship, but all the locales were gorgeous, the outfits were bespoke, and the boat seems to gleam in solid gold. What keeps it grounded is the shaggy detective played by Mandy Patinkin who seems hammered the whole time, but also sees everything happening on board this ship.

Recently I had a chat with Sarah Meckler, the host of Golden State Media Concepts (GSMC) Book Review podcast about Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder. In addition to the link to the podcast, she also was kind enough to share with me the transcript of our chat. Here are some of the highlights!

This whole month I will be writing about what I have been consuming and how I can apply what I think works to what I am writing at the moment. Here is what I learned by reading Night Film.

It’s the hot and fast energy to get the words out of your body that will drive you to the laptop, but then you’ll hit a road bump like, what would my character be wearing? Or what would be playing on the radio in the car on this road trip?

Outlines and Timelines are useful tools for plotters, planners, and other type A writers.

Foundational documents are the baseline, off-the-page information I must know about my novels’ community, characters, and time frame with which the story takes place.

When more time is not the solution to your writing problem, it could be because -- in some ways -- it’s just a different type of procrastination problem.

Being a published author means I have to regularly confront the scariest part of being a human – being critiqued. Recently, I read my first truly brutal book review of something I wrote. In the category of roses and thorns in the book business, this was definitely a thorn.