Beware the Schmagent

Posted on October 25, 2026 by James Scott Bell

“Talking of agents, when I opened the morning paper one morning last week I saw that it had finally happened: somebody shot one. It was probably for the wrong reasons, but at least it was a step in the right direction.” – Raymond Chandler, The Raymond Chandler Papers

Years ago I was teaching at one of the biggest writers conferences in the country. In addition to the conferees, this one always featured an abundance of top editors, agents, and faculty.

This particular year, a new agent was present. He had been an editor at one of the larger publishers, and was now hanging up his agent shingle. As the conference went on, I started to pick up a ripple of excitement among many of the newbies. They were giddy and saying things like, “I just got an agent!” and “He requested a full!” The bottom line was that a large number of brand-spanking new, unpublished writers came away from the conference believing they had a champion to escort them through the gates of the Forbidden City.

A year or so later the agent quit. It turns out his method was to sign as many as he could and throw their proposals out like so much wet spaghetti, hoping some would stick to the walls of the City. Not one deal was made. My surmise is that the powers inside the walls knew a “schmagent” (shady, ineffectual agent) when they saw one.

The real bottom line was that all these young writers were cast to the winds, a precious year wasted in their quest to get published.

I’ve always said having no agent is better than having a bad agent. And it is well known that anyone can call themselves a literary agent. There is no agent exam or licensing requirement.

Back in the days when proposals were submitted on actual paper (which meant printing and mailing costs), and industry relationships were formed in and around New York City (which meant office space), there was a hefty barrier to entry to the agent game. In today’s digital world, a cheap website is all you need to get started. Want to be an agent tomorrow? Get a Wix and start trolling.

According to industry expert Jane Friedman:

However you measure it, I find more literary agents operating today than in decades prior. The Guide to Literary Agents directory, published since 1995, started with about 400 listings. The most recent edition, released in 2021, had about 1,000. According to my own reporting, the number of new agents announced per year in 2023, 2024, and 2025 was at least double the number announced in 2022. If you look at the number of contacts in Publishers Marketplace that carry the agent label, there are more than 3,000, although not all of them have reported deals. The number of Publishers Marketplace editors? About 3,800.

This means there are a goodly number of schmagents, too. Without top-line clients, how are they making money? By charging writers for editorial services. This used to be frowned upon, but recently the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) revised its Canon of Ethics to loosen restrictions. Before the revision, agents were allowed to charge for editorial services to non-clients, but were required to reimburse those costs if they signed the writer as a client. Not anymore. Friedman:

Instead, reimbursement is subject to “mutual agreement” between the agent and prospective client. What I fear: Agents may charge non-clients for editorial work knowing very well they may make an offer of representation and have no intention of returning the money. This would be a straight-forward way to get compensated for what they’re not supposed to charge for. (I do think authors will readily agree to let the agent keep the editing money if representation is on the table.)

And this:

A big part of the problem is that writers have always cared too much about what agents think. Even people with good business sense tend to lose critical-thinking skills when offered representation and have a hard time recognizing that lackluster representation can be more harmful than no representation. Less scrupulous agents already take advantage of writers’ deep desire to be validated or discovered. I fear these changes will only fuel such behavior.

The glittering lights of the Forbidden City still burn bright for many writers (brighter than the innumerable campfires in the forests of the indie world). This despite fewer deals, fewer spaces, lower advances, and tighter contracts. The bright lights are analogous to Las Vegas. Exciting, with a chance to win big (auction, Netflix series, Good Morning America!).

But how many gamblers come away from Vegas with a big score? About as many as writers who make the A-list. But if that’s your dream, at least make sure your agent is not a schamgent.

Look at their website. It should have a list of clients who are actually published. Research several of those clients on Amazon. See who publishes them and what their sales rank is. Scammers are getting quite sophisticated at putting up pretty websites with no substance behind them.
Legit agents don’t make unsolicited offers to unpublished writers, by way of email or social media.
Legit agents do not charge a “reading fee” to consider your proposal.
It must be made clear by the agent that any paid services do not imply or guarantee future representation. This must be explicit in a written agreement.
Search the name at Writer Beware.

All that said, this is not to cast aspersions on agents as a whole. I do believe most operate in good faith. They have to make a living, too, in these most challenging of times. Income from services and third-party referrals can be a benefit so long as the terms of the arrangement are made clear up front, and do not imply a possible offer of representation.

And another thing should be clear: your glasses. Remove the rose-colored tint. This is a business, not a flowery meadow. Your homework: read this article by Jane Friedman.

Comments welcome.

Movies About Writing

Posted on October 24, 2026 by Lindsey Hughes

We spend our days plotting murders, planting clues, and torturing characters, and yet the hardest scene to stage is the one where a writer just sits there writing. Nothing blows up. Nobody gets shot. It all happens inside our heads. That’s why so few movies are really about writing, even though plenty of them have a writer in the lead. Here are my favorites, the ones that capture what it feels like to drag a story out of your head and onto the page. (Mystery fans, there’s even a gangster and an Agatha Christie whodunit in the mix.)

Bullets Over Broadway (1994), comedy written by Woody Allen. A young playwright (John Cusack) wants to make deep Art and doesn’t care whether audiences are entertained. His play’s backer is a gangster who insists his mistress gets a part, so the playwright has to compromise to get the show made. Meanwhile the gangster’s henchman (Chazz Palminteri) turns out to have a real flair for story. He starts making suggestions, proves to be the true talent, and is willing to kill a bad actress to save “his” play. Two creative truths here: writers can be pretentious and untalented, and good ideas can come from anyone.

See How They Run (2022), comedic mystery written by Mark Chappell. A fictional murder mystery set around Agatha Christie’s real play The Mousetrap, full of the drama of turning a hit play into a movie, including the writer battling the director over the script. Better still, the mystery is packed with Christie tropes that echo the play. Fun fact: The Mousetrap has run continuously in London’s West End since 1953, apart from the lockdowns.

Wonder Boys (2000), comedy written by Steve Kloves from Michael Chabon’s novel. Once-promising novelist Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) doesn’t do much writing on screen, but he nails the mania of trying to live up to your own book, and the fear of being eclipsed by a younger, more talented writer.

Shakespeare in Love (1998), comedy written by Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard. Shakespeare falls for Viola, who is disguised as a man so she can act. The romance inspires him to rework his latest play into Romeo & Juliet. It’s a delight to watch this made-up origin story for one of his most famous works.

Sweet Liberty (1986), comedy written by Alan Alda. An author (Alda) watches his nonfiction book get turned into a movie, and the Hollywood folks change it left and right. He fights to protect his book while trying to make the screenplay good. An overlooked gem, with great turns from Michael Caine and Michelle Pfeiffer as temperamental movie stars.

Adaptation (2002), black comedy written by Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman struggled so much to turn The Orchid Thief into a movie that he wrote the screenplay about his struggle. It perfectly captures the agony of not being able to crack a story while everyone around you seems to be sailing along.

The Muse (1999), comedy written by Albert Brooks & Monica Johnson. A blocked screenwriter (Brooks) hires a kooky professional muse (Sharon Stone). She may be crazy, but there’s method in her madness. She helps him find a new idea and gives his wife the confidence to start a business. If only we could all have a muse on call.

Sunset Boulevard (1950), film noir written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett & D.M. Marshman Jr. A desperate, broke screenwriter meets a desperate, unhinged movie star, while a sweet assistant writes her first screenplay. Sometimes being a writer is deadly.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006), comedy written by Zach Helm. IRS agent Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) suddenly hears narration and realizes he’s a character in someone’s novel. What happens when he tries to break out of the plot and falls in love?

Authors Anonymous (2014), comedy written by David Congalton. A group of dysfunctional, unpublished writers welcomes inexperienced Hannah (Kaley Cuoco) into their writers’ group, and they never see her overnight success coming. A comedy about competition and creativity.

Something’s Gotta Give (2003), romantic comedy written by Nancy Meyers. Diane Keaton plays a playwright who turns the heartbreak of falling for her daughter’s boyfriend, a man her own age, into her next hit play. The scenes of her sobbing as she types are hysterical and relatable.

Paris When It Sizzles (1964), comedy written by George Axelrod. Honestly, it’s a mediocre movie. The fun is watching secretary Audrey Hepburn act out each of screenwriter William Holden’s scenarios as he tries to figure out what kind of movie to write.

Bonus: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), romance written by Woody Allen. It isn’t about writing but about the fantasy of living inside your favorite movie. Downtrodden Depression-era waitress Mia Farrow’s life is turned upside down when the romantic lead of her favorite film steps off the screen.

So, TKZers: what does it say about the writing life that nearly all of these are comedies? And where are the great thrillers about writers? Tell me in the comments which writing movie I left off the list.

This is the playbook I’ve built from 30 years in the business: what producers want, how deals get made, and the mistakes that kill great projects. Join the list to get a launch day discount!

Reader Friday-Worst Place Ever

Posted on October 23, 2026 by Deb Gorman

Have you ever been stuck somewhere? An airport, a hospital, a school, or in that place called The Middle of Nowhere? You couldn’t leave, couldn’t find your way…

This poor apple tree, near our home, grows every year in the middle of this ancient concrete slab.

It wants to be out with all of the other trees (I’m sure) producing delicious fruit. But it’s stuck.

I’ve been in airports, hospitals, schools, even in The Middle of Nowhere. But the one place I went—voluntarily, I might add—that was my Worst Place Ever was Vietnam, in 2007. I’ve talked about that here in these halls. Yes, it was the Worst Place Ever, but in some ways it was the Best Experience of my life.

I was there for a couple of weeks with a medical team, helping people who had little resources. That part was good—I learned gratitude in a new way.

But the heat, the bugs as big as barns, strange traffic patterns in the more populated areas, and—last but not least—the plates of dog in the open air marketplaces…all of that made me long for home.

But I was stuck there. Couldn’t leave until the job we came to do was done.

So, TKZers, what is Your Worst Place Ever you were stuck in? And what was one thing you learned from being stuck there?

True Crime Thursday – Montana Author Charged with Deliberate Homicide

Posted on October 22, 2026 by Debbie Burke

by Debbie Burke

Photo credit: Spa White SulphurSprings Motel

This story hits close to home.

Kyle Ann Morrow author photo

About seven years ago, a woman named Kyle Ann Morrow attended the Flathead River Writers Conference. She was from White Sulphur Springs, a small Montana town of about 1000 residents. Kyle wore a cowgirl hat, rodeo-style clothing, and matching boots. She was vivacious, outgoing, and wrote rodeo romances.

I only remember brief conversations with her at the conference. Two other attendees recall having longer chats with Kyle who described her books as “rodeo erotica.”

On July 12, 2026, Kyle Ann Morrow, 73, was arrested on suspicion of deliberate homicide in the fatal shooting of Gene Gudmunson at the Spa White Sulphur Springs Motel.

Kyle Ann Morrow booking photo, Meagher County

According to staff, Kyle entered the motel on the afternoon of July 12, spoke briefly with them, then went into an office. The employees heard a gunshot. Kyle then came out of the office and allegedly said, “I killed the [deleted]” and left the premises.

Surveillance video captured a woman who matched Kyle’s description entering the motel with a gun then later leaving the building and driving away in a white Nissan pickup.

Later that day, Morrow was arrested at her home by Meagher County sheriff deputies. With a search warrant, they found a bottle of Jameson in her truck, along with an apparent suicide note and written confession.

The Spa White Sulphur Springs Motel was owned by Gene Gudmunson. Kyle Morrow had previously been employed there.

A Facebook post from 2017 shows Morrow in a cowgirl costume at the motel with a scarecrow that won a funniest scarecrow contest.

Morrow has no previous arrest record in Meagher County.

According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

A volunteer at the Meagher County Community Senior Center said Morrow was an enthusiastic volunteer who visited daily to help serve meals, often bringing in fruits and vegetables from her garden.

She patronized the local library almost daily and her own books were on the shelf there.

KBZK.com/news reported on August 11, 2026 that Morrow pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide. As she was escorted into the courtroom, she smiled and waved at spectators. She did the same on her way out to return to jail where she is being held on $1,000,000 bond.

Morrow’s explicit novels featured what she called “Western justice.” In one book, the main character fantasizes about killing her abusive husband. The first chapter reads: “In the West, hunting season is good camouflage for anyone with murderous intentions.”

Gudmunson was a chiropractor who had bought the rundown motel in the late 1980s and built it into a successful operation. Artist Gary Larson has a studio across the street and painted a large mural on the wall beside the motel’s hot spring pool.

Shortly after the shooting, KTVH.com/news interviewed Larson who was Gudmunson’s friend in addition to being a neighbor:

Larson says the tight-knit community all knew Gudmundson for the person he was and the business he ran, helping bring in tourists from all over.

“I never met a person who didn’t like Gene,” Larson stated. “He’s a very kind gentleman, super kind. He’s generous in ways you can’t even imagine.”

As of this writing, a trial date has not been set.

~~~

A homicide shakes the foundation of small towns because chances are high that residents either know or know of the victim and/or the perpetrator.

TKZers: do you have experience with a serious crime in a small town? Please share in comments.

Thoughts on Thoughts Revisited

Posted on October 21, 2026 by Terry Odell

Thoughts on Thoughts Revisited
Terry Odell

I’m on the road—or the seas. According to my itinerary, I should be on a boat anchored at Mykonos today. I’m revisiting a post from May, 2022. Since I’m scheduling this before I leave, I have no way of knowing what kind of internet service I’ll have, so forgive me if I don’t respond to comments right away. And, I intend to go ashore and do some sightseeing!

A recent read with the way a debut author handled characters’ thoughts triggered this post. This author handled things differently from my preferences, which pulled me out of the story. Not to say the author was wrong, but it slowed the read. The subject has made it to these pages before, but here’s my take.

I’m a Deep POV person. Doesn’t matter if I’m writing first (rarely, but I’ve done it) or third (where I’m most comfortable, and which is almost first). I want readers to be inside the characters’ heads. The basic 5 senses are obvious, but how do we show what they’re thinking?

**Note: If you’re following the one POV character per scene “rule”, the reader should be well grounded and know who the POV character is, making it easy to know who’s thinking, but there are still techniques that can help.

When I auditioned narrators for my audiobooks, I gave them passages with dialogue, narrative, and internal monologue and told them I wanted it to be clear which was which for listeners. I had one auditioner come back with a “technique” he was very proud of that made it sound like the characters was in a tunnel for thoughts. I gave both that narrator and his technique a pass.

When I was learning the writing craft, having no formal education in the subject, I went to workshops and conferences. One book that showed up on almost every presenter’s Suggested Reading list was Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King. Another handy booklet I picked up was Going Deep with Point of View by Suzanne Brockmann. Together, they laid the foundation for my approach to handling thoughts (among many other things).

What are my thoughts about writing thoughts? My two biggies:

Don’t use speaker attributions/tags to tell the reader someone’s thinking.

If you’ve put the reader in the character’s head, it should be obvious they’re thinking. Per Browne & King, removing “he thought” makes them “unobtrusive to the point of transparency.”

Example:
Had he meant to kill her? Not likely, he thought.
Becomes
Had he meant to kill her? Not likely.

The second gets the same point across and is more effective.
They also suggest using the question technique.

Example:
He wondered why he always ended up killing them.
Becomes
Why did he always end up killing them?

Brockmann says “Anytime you interject she thought, she reflected, she guessed and so forth in this way—that’s you speaking, taking on the voice of the narrator, and your doing this takes the reader outside of the character’s head.”

Beware italics

Italics do have their place, but italicized thoughts should be short—a sentence or two.

My ‘rule of thumb’ is to use italics when the character is talking to himself, and set them off in their own paragraph. Browne & King also suggest it as a useful technique to show a character’s thoughts in the middle of an action scene. Action doesn’t have to be fights and explosions. Here’s an example from my Identity Crisis. The following passage is a mix of narrative and Brett’s thoughts, but there’s only one bit in italics.

After the helicopter had deposited the team five miles down the mountain from the cabin, he, Adam—their team leader—and Fish had hiked up, then taken their positions surrounding the cabin. Since they couldn’t see each other, the only way to communicate was via radio. Then Adam had put the stupid radio silence rule into effect. What did he think? They were all telepathic?

Brett shifted, tightened and released his muscles in an attempt to keep warm. Toes, feet, ankles, calves. Quads, butt, shoulders. After two hours of lying on his belly in the cold, he had doubts he’d be able to move when the order came down. He was an endurance athlete. Not moving wasn’t part of his regimen.

Of course you’ll be able to move. Could be worse. Could be snowing.

Did he detect motion inside the cabin? He adjusted his binoculars. Nothing different. Curtains shifting as the wind blew through rotting walls and broken windows. Brett itched to crawl closer. Hell, just to move, keep the blood flowing.

What does Command know? We’re halfway up a bloody mountain somewhere in Mexico, while they’re sitting on their asses at Ops—where the building was heated, damn it—in San Francisco looking at computer terminals.

Some more examples of the way I handle the technique. Your mileage may vary.

From Falcon’s Prey. Fish is the POV character in this scene. First, a ‘clunky’ version.

“You two are free to get back to whatever you were doing,” Dalton said. “We’ll call if anything changes. Let’s move our seventeen hundred sitrep to eighteen hundred.”

Get back to what they were doing? What did that mean, Fish wondered. Dalton couldn’t think Fish was getting things on with Lexi, could he?

He told himself to chill. He was reading his own thoughts into a casual remark.

He didn’t think he would mind a little diversion. No, for the duration of this assignment, Lexi was the principal. They had plenty to talk about, plenty to catch up on, but getting things on wasn’t one of them.

Fish admitted to himself he had considered it.

Now, the streamlined version, the way it appears in the book. Thoughts should be obvious to the reader.

“You two are free to get back to whatever you were doing,” Dalton said. “We’ll call if anything changes. Let’s move our seventeen hundred sitrep to eighteen hundred.”

Get back to what they were doing? What did that mean? Dalton couldn’t think Fish was getting things on with Lexi, could he?

Chill. You’re reading your own thoughts into a casual remark.

Not that Fish would have minded a little diversion. No, for the duration of this assignment, Lexi was the principal. They had plenty to talk about, plenty to catch up on, but getting things on wasn’t one of them.

Don’t kid yourself. You’ve considered it.

What would the second, cleaner passage look like if all the thoughts were in italics?

“You two are free to get back to whatever you were doing,” Dalton said. “We’ll call if anything changes. Let’s move our seventeen hundred sitrep to eighteen hundred.”

Get back to what they were doing? What did that mean? Dalton couldn’t think Fish was getting things on with Lexi, could he?

Chill. You’re reading your own thoughts into a casual remark.

Not that Fish would have minded a little diversion. No, for the duration of this assignment, Lexi was the principal. They had plenty to talk about, plenty to catch up on, but getting things on wasn’t one of them.

Don’t kid yourself. You’ve considered it.

I don’t know about you, but I find all those italics hard to read—even harder when I’m using my e-reader.

Does this mean you should never use “he thought” in your books? Of course not. It’s only when you’re using them as speaker attributions that you want to be careful. There’s nothing wrong with the “I thought” here:

The bus driver took the corner on two wheels. I was going to die. I thought of all the time my mother had urged me to go to church.

What about you, TKZ peeps. How do you handle character thoughts?

Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Available Now

Beyond the Frame
When the camera lies, who do you trust?

When deepfake photos threaten their careers, dog-park friends Evvie and Colton become each other’s only allies. Evvie, who vanished behind her camera years ago to escape a painful past, uncovers humiliating fake images of herself.

Colton, an insurance adjuster with ranch roots, trusts her eye on a suspicious claim. A family emergency pulls them to Wyoming—where Evvie’s own dangerous secret waits.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Forget Rain Man – Neurodivergent Authors Bust Stereotypes

Posted on October 20, 2026 by Debbie Burke

by Debbie Burke

The 1988 Dustin Hoffman movie Rain Man introduced autism to a wide audience and won four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hoffman), and Best Screenplay.

It also created a stereotype for the face of autism as a humorless savant with uncanny abilities and a flat affect.

Three neurodivergent authors, Oliver Blakemore, V.L. Andromeda, and Mariah Ankenman, shredded that stereotype during their panel at the recent Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold conference in Denver. They were articulate, intelligent, animated speakers who kept the audience laughing with wild, outrageous humor.

Oliver Blakemore author photo

Oliver gestured at the other two and himself, saying, “We’re like aliens.”

At the beginning of their panel, each shared their various diagnoses.

Oliver calls himself “a recovering intellectual and an undiagnosed neurodivergent” with anxiety disorder and a little autism.

V.L lives with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), along with anxiety, depression, and “some other little things.”

Mariah deals with OCD, autism with anxiety, and audio processing disorder—difficulty making sense of what she hears despite normal hearing. “My mother always said I didn’t listen to her.”

The isolation and disruption of previous routines caused by Covid affected all three. That led to their increasing self-awareness of variations of neurodivergence.

Oliver requires structure and needs to schedule every hour to keep him from totally losing track of time. Each hour’s alarm is a specific musical piece that he associates with a particular task.

He describes his soon-to-be-published book City Song as: “Punk rock noir urban fantasy. Dealing with hard questions like, ‘What if I don’t believe in magic anymore?’”

His published short story collection Ragged Museum: Untidy Stories are wildly imaginative, off-kilter fantasy tales that could be called literary in style.

He works in marketing and communication with clients ranging from “baby rock bands” and authors to bars and large startups.

V.L Andromeda author photo

In contrast, V.L. doesn’t function well with routine and structure. Although her actions may seem scattered and disorganized, she says, “My least productive day is usually more productive than most people’s productive days.”

I can personally attest to her productivity. As a conference volunteer and Published Author Liaison, V.L. quickly, efficiently, and graciously accommodated my last-minute request to be included at the Saturday night book sale/signing.

V.L.’s Marks of the Broken series is a “nobledark, romantic fantasy.” Another series is a contemporary thriller romance. The first book Terabytes and Temptation is set in the complex world of cyberhacktivists and espionage where justice is achievable by unconventional means.

Mariah Ankenman author photo

Mariah depends on routines and structure. She creates “fake deadlines” for herself to complete tasks. She’s a plotter who uses photos to visualize her characters and plans out scenes with Dungeons and Dragons precision.

Her routine is obviously effective: she has more than two dozen published books she dubs as “sassy and swoon-worthy romance” from billionaire love stories to dark supernatural daemons.

The panel offered their opinions on TV and film depictions of neurodivergence. They all enjoyed “The Big Bang Theory” series. “Monk” turns his disability into a superpower to solve crimes. Mariah thinks “Scrubs” does a good job representing OCD, where Michael J. Fox continually washes his hands, saying “I haven’t done it right yet.” Oliver talks about “disability villains” but thinks authors shouldn’t blame the disability for bad behavior.

They joked about their challenges when writing neurotypical characters or “normies.” V.L. says, “Dealing with normies is annoying,” and adds the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders used by health professionals) is changing. Many formerly set diagnoses are moving toward a “spectrum” of various disorders.

In their own fiction each has a particular style when crafting neurodivergent characters.

Mariah intentionally writes neurodivergent characters and goes deep with them. Her website even features a page of “Disability Reps” and book titles that include them.

V.L. plays off stereotypes, making divergency funny with punchlines that sum up certain behaviors. Her characters with PTSD are featured as heroes with strong moral compasses struggling to do the right thing in a world that doesn’t value ethics.

Oliver strives for a “holistic understanding.” Neurodivergent characters play roles in his story worlds the same as they do in real life but are not necessarily spotlighted. He views stories as an opportunity to build empathy with readers about different ways of thinking than they’ve encountered before.

Even though all are high functioning productive artists, guilt was a surprising common theme expressed by them.

Mariah is trying to be forgiving of herself when she’s not as productive as she thinks she should be.

V.L. feels no matter how much she accomplishes, it’s never enough.

Oliver’s anxiety requires constant reminders to keep himself on task. He must be succeeding because he’s the 2026 honoree of the prestigious Jasmine Award for exceptional service to Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.

The hour sped by. Afterward, I heard attendees talking about their own experiences with neurodivergence and how reassured and heartened they were by this open, forthright, articulate discussion.

Oliver, V.L., and Mariah are all savants with uncanny abilities whose intelligence and humor energized the room.

Not a stereotype in sight.

~~~

TKZers: Do you include neurodivergent characters in your fiction? Please share in the comments.

Your Favorite Short Story

Posted on October 19, 2026 by Kay DiBianca

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” —William Shakespeare

* * *

We’re all familiar with Shakespeare’s take on the subject of brevity. But in the 21^st century, brevity may be the soul of more than wit as attention spans contract and readers look for instant gratification in their reading material.

An article on wordsrated.com states what we all suspected:

The digital age brought a huge increase of various types of content fighting for people’s time and attention. People have more options than ever on how to spend their time. This variety of things to do alone is one of the reasons why reading time is in decline over the years.

With these factors in mind, our hypothesis was that readers are choosing to buy shorter books as the years go by. Results of our analysis suggest that this is the case, as best-selling books got 11.8% shorter over the last decade.

So, if readers are looking for shorter fiction, why not try writing short stories? There’s a post on Jane Friedman’s site entitled 20 Reasons Why Everybody Should Write Short Stories by Elizabeth Sims that addresses that very question.

* * *

If a novel is a marathon and a novella is a half-marathon, I’d define a short story as a 400-meter race. Even though it’s only once around the track, the runner can’t run at full speed because he/she will slow down dramatically in the home stretch. The race requires a strategy and a punchy ending just like a short story.

And just how short is a short story? It can be anywhere from 1K to 10K words, depending on who you ask. Some say they can even be longer. But whatever the length, the story has to impact the reader in a forceful way.

TKZ’s own James Scott Bell wrote a book entitled How to Write Short Stories and Use Them to Further Your Writing Career. In his book, Jim identifies the one thing a short story must do: “The most important part is emotional impact.”

To that end, here are a few of my favorite short stories that pack an emotional punch:

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry – This story is probably on most people’s lists of favorites. With a theme of selfless sacrifice that defines true love, the story ends with both a surprising and satisfying twist for the reader.

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth – This Christmas story keeps the reader engaged by following the lonely flight of a fighter pilot as modern technology fails and he finds help in a very untechnical form. The surprise ending delivers an emotional jolt the reader won’t forget.

The Apple Tree by John Galsworthy – This is perhaps my favorite, although it comes in at around 17K words which is approaching novella territory. Still, it tells the poignant tale of young love and, sadly, betrayal.

* * *

Here are some short stories I’ve written:

Lady Pilot-in-Command, the Short Story – A young pilot decides on the airway less taken and does the right thing, even though it’s dangerous.

The Clutter Busters – A woman begins to clean her attic, but with the help of some uninvited guests, finds the real clutter is in her own mind.

The Money Tree – A prideful woman learns humility and finds a new purpose in life when the easy money disappears.

Willow Tree Farm – This story is based on the Biblical proverb “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” —Proverbs 25:21-22

* * *

So TKZers: What are your favorite short stories? Have you written any? Tell us about them.

* * *

Cassie Deakin is a talented and experienced private pilot who loves being in the air. But when she agrees to fly a handsome stranger to a meeting in the Nevada desert, she lands in the middle of a drug bust gone wrong, and she’s the only one who can save the day.

Should she fly away from danger? Or listen to the memory of her father’s words to “Never stand idly by when you see another pilot in trouble.”

Click the image to go to the Amazon page and grab a copy of this 99¢ short story.

The Green-Eyed Monster

Posted on October 18, 2026 by James Scott Bell

by James Scott Bell

I love the play and movie Amadeus. (I saw the play in L.A. with the great David Suchet as Salieri.) The gist of the plot is simple. Salieri has dedicated his life to music and managed to rise to the position of court composer in Vienna. Suddenly, a crude young man appears on the scene, with no social graces, and claims to be a composer. Salieria despises this buffoon, but then! Mozart’s music is so lovely, so transcendent, that Salieri cannot deny he is a genius. But undeservedly so! He, Salieri, who lived only for music, was denied the the divine gift, yet it was given to this loutish youth. A fatal case of jealousy takes root. So much so that Salieri declares…well, watch:

Yikes!

Which reminds me of the chapter on jealousy in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.

If you continue to write, you are probably going to have to deal with jealousy because some wonderful, dazzling successes are going to happen for some of the most awful, angry, undeserving writers you know—people who are, in other words, not you … You are going to feel awful beyond words. You are going to have a number of days in a row where you hate everyone and don’t believe in anything. If you do know the author whose turn it is, he or she will inevitably say that it will be your turn next, which is what the bride always says to you at each successive wedding, while you grow older and more decayed. It can wreak just the tiniest bit of havoc with your self-esteem to find that you are hoping for small bad things to happen to this friend—for, say, her head to blow up.

Okay, funny, not funny. Envy is a real B. Fortunately there is a morsel of good we can find in the green-eyed monster. As I say in my book The Mental Game of Writing:

Here’s a surprise for you: Envy is 5% positive. That’s the 5% that tells you that you care deeply about what you’re doing, that you want it to matter to other people, the way some other writers matter.

The other 95% is toxic. Fifty-seven percent of that toxicity wishes something bad would happen to the object of your envy (see Anne’s passage, above). The other 38% of toxic envy is you feeling bad about yourself and your writing, thinking you’re no good and you don’t have what it takes, and maybe never will.

(By the way, those percentages are from my own unscientific imagination, so don’t envy my methodology).

Envy tries to sneak into your head. You mustn’t let it take up residence there. If it tries, write something about it, just for yourself. Getting a confession down on paper helps. Tell yourself not to hold anything against the other writer. The other writer is just doing his thing and getting his own reward.

But what if he really is a rotten human being?

Then go ahead and wish that his head would explode.

For five minutes.

Then forget all about it and immediately get to work on a project of your own.

Festering envy can lead to ugly behavior. There have been several cases in the recent past of authors creating sock-puppet accounts to review-bomb rival authors. You can read about some of them here, here, and here.

Back in the good old days of paper pages, author feuds were slow boils in printed media. I recall journalist Renata Adler’s takedown of her fellow New Yorker writer, Pauline Kael. At the time Kael was the most respected film critic in the country. Adler wrote an 8,000-word review of Kael’s book When the Lights Go Down, declaring it “piece by piece, line by line, and without interruption, worthless.”

Barbara Grizzutti Harrison took a literary hatchet to no less than Joan Didion: “Sometimes her tricks appear to be merely cheap, when in fact they are pernicious…Didion is the lyricist of the irrational. Some people find that charming. I do not.”

But all that was child’s play compared to the years-long feud between Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, both of whom seemed to love punching (Mailer, literally) other writers, e.g., Vidal v. Truman Capote; Mailer v. William Styron and Saul Bellow. The Vidal-Mailer discord began in 1971 with Vidal’s review of Mailer’s book about feminism, A Prisoner of Sex. Vidal grouped Mailer with Henry Miller and Charles Manson (!) as examples of malignant male aggression.

Shortly after this, Dick Cavett had the grand idea of hosting the pair on his show (along with famed journalist Janet Flanner). It didn’t go well for Mailer, who reportedly had a few snorts before going on. Nor did he possess the rapier-like wit of Vidal. One exchange:

Mailer: “Are you ready to apologize?”

Vidal: “I will apologize if it hurts your feelings, of course I will.”

Mailer: “No, it hurts my sense of intellectual pollution.”

Vidal: “Well, as an expert, you should know about that.”

Mailer kept emphasizing his superior intellect, and at one point moved his chair further away from the others, prompting Cavett to ask, “Perhaps you’d like two more chairs to contain your giant intellect.” The audience howled. Mailer had lost the room. But instead of taking the L and moving on, he accused the audience of being unfairly hostile toward him. He looked at them and said, “Are you really all truly idiots, or is it me?” The audience shouted, “YOU!” (You can watch the whole interview here.)

A few years later, at a New York party for the literati, Mailer went up to Vidal, threw a drink in his face, and punched him. Vidal wiped his face and said, “Once again, words fail Norman Mailer.” Mailer demanded the hostess kick Vidal out. She refused. So Mailer left. Later asked about the incident, Vidal expressed “sympathy” for his rival. “After all, it’s not easy being a failure like Norman.” [Note: In their later years Mailer and Vidal did reconcile.]

So why am I bringing all this up? Because we are awash in 24/7 vitriol, thrashing around just to survive in the “mood slime” of digital discourse. (Mood slime was the New York subterranean muck created by all the hate and anger up top, in Ghostbusters II.) Don’t let it get into you. If you feel the tendrils of envy tickling your anterior insula (the part of your brain that processes unpleasant feelings), stop it in its tracks.

Do what you do—write!

Flashback Words of Wisdom

Posted on October 17, 2026 by Dale Ivan Smith

Flashbacks. Some claim you should never use them, and urge instead that you take the information/background/emotional backstory etc. contained in a flashback and find ways to include it in the present time of your story. At the same time others point out flashbacks can be a very powerful technique when used effectively.

Today’s words of wisdom flashes back to three posts about this potentially controversial topic. Joe Moore, James Scott Bell and Kay DiBianca provide insightful advice on how and when to use flashbacks.

Flashback is a writing technique that allows the author to convey backstory (events from the past) while remaining in the present. It usually involves a situation in which something in a current scene causes a character to reminisce or ponder a previous event. The reason to create a flashback is to build character or advance the plot, or both. The secret to successfully employing this technique is to construct a smooth transition into and out of the flashback so as not to confuse the reader.

One of the easiest ways to enter a flashback is with the word “had”.

As Jim walked through his old neighborhood, a distant dog barking reminded him of the day he and his friends had skipped school to . . .

In addition, you want to shift the time progression from simple past tense (As Jim walked) to the past perfect tense (his friends had decided). Once you’ve entered the flashback and established the “past”, you can then revert back to simple past tense. At the conclusion of the flashback, use “had” again to transition back to current time.

Jim climbed the steps of his childhood home knowing those summer days with his friends had been the best times of his life.

In addition to transitions in and out of the flashback, it’s also important that the timeframe in which the flashback covers somewhat matches the real-time in which it’s experienced by the character. For instance, a flashback that covers the highs and lows of a woman’s previous marriage cannot be experienced during her stroll from the kitchen to the bedroom. But it would be an acceptable timeframe if she poured a glass of wine, strolled out onto her back porch and experienced it while sitting and watching the sun set and night fall. The reader must accept that the past and present timeframes are not unreasonably out of sync.

One final thought about flashbacks: it’s not a good idea to use one in the first couple of chapters. They can be quite confusing if thrown at the reader too soon. Wait until your reader has established at least a basic relationship with a character before taking them on a leap into the past. Flashbacks should be used sparingly. Better yet, use other techniques to relay backstory and avoid flashbacks altogether if possible.

Joe Moore—November 11, 2015

The Placing of Flashbacks

My advice here is simple:

Not too early. Get your story rolling with action. Get your readers invested in the characters. Then when you drop in the flashback it will have more impact.

Not too late. With your story hurtling toward the climax, the last thing we need is a scene that whips us into the past.

After the Door Slams. The plot is fully engaged only after the Lead passes through The Doorway of No Return—which should occur no later than 1/5 into the book. My counsel is to place a full flashback scene somewhere just before or just after the middle. (For a full treatment of structure, I humbly recommend my book.)

Getting In and Getting Out

Sure, you can start a flashback by telling us something like, Wendy remembered when she was sixteen…

And you can tell us when it’s over: Wendy stopped herself from thinking any more about it.

But here is a more elegant technique that works every time. When you’re about to go to flashback, put in a strong, sensory detail that triggers the memory in the POV character:

Wendy looked at the wall and saw a spider making its way toward a fly caught in a web. It moved slowly, purposely toward its prey. The way Lester had moved on Wendy all those years ago.

She was sixteen and Lester was the big man on campus. “Hey,” he called to her one day at the lockers. “You want to see a movie?”

We are in the flashback now. Write it out as a dramatic scene.

And how do we get out of it? By returning to the sensory detail (sight in this case) of the spider. The reader will remember that and know we’re back in the present:

Lester made his move in the back of the car. “This won’t take long, baby.”

The spider was at the web now. A wave of nausea hit Wendy as she watched it cover the fly.

But she could not look away.

The Backflash

A full flashback scene is not the only way to deliver backstory information. There’s also what I call the backflash. These are short bursts in which you drop info about the past within a present moment scene. The two primary methods are dialogue and thoughts.

Dialogue

“Hey, don’t I know you?”

“No.”

“Yeah, yeah. You were in the newspapers, what, ten years ago? The kid who killed his parents in that cabin.”

“You’re wrong.”

“Chester A. Arthur! You were named after the president. I remember that in the story.”

Chester’s troubled background has come out in a flash of dialogue. This is also a good way for shocking information from the past, or a dark secret, to be revealed at a tense moment in the story.

Thoughts

“Hey, don’t I know you?”

“No.” Did he? Did the guy recognize him? Would everybody in town find out he was Chet Arthur, parent killer?

“Yeah, yeah. You were in the newspapers, what, ten years ago?”

It was twelve years ago, and this guy had him pegged. Lousy press, saying he killed his parents because he was high on drugs. They didn’t care about the abuse, did they? And this guy wouldn’t, either.

The nice thing about backflashes is they create mystery. You don’t give all the info at once, leaving the reader wanting to know more. You make them wait until the next backflash, and the next…as they feverishly turn the pages!

James Scott Bell—June 5, 2022

What is a flashback scene?

Smartblogger.com defines a flashback as

“a literary device where a story breaks away from the present narrative to delve into the past, by showing us a past event or a scene from the past.”

According to novelist James Hynes in his Great Courses lectures entitled Writing Great Fiction,

“One of the fundamental principles of plotting is the withholding of information.… A plot is the mechanism by which the writer decides what information to withhold, what information to reveal, and in what order.”

If the reader knows there was some disturbance in the protagonist’s past, but doesn’t know the full story, he/she will be compelled to keep reading to find out. When the author decides to reveal that fact, it may be effective to use a flashback scene.

The Power of a Flashback Scene

According to writingmastery.com,

“The beauty of flashbacks is that they give writers the freedom to fully show instead of tell the details of a traumatic or significant event in a character’s history, at the moment when it will be most powerful.”

How to move from the present to the past

Transitioning to a flashback scene can be achieved by a character remembering something from his/her past. Or it can be a break in the story that presents some important background information that is crucial to the narrative. In either case, it’s important that the reader understand where he/she is in the story. To that end, transition can be accomplished in several ways:

A change in verb tense: If the story is written in the past tense, switching to past perfect will clue the reader in.

The use of italics: Although some readers don’t like long passages in italics, I’ve seen this device used and found it effective.

A specific date: A flashback can be a separate chapter or scene that is clearly dated to indicate a previous time.

However you decide to handle a flashback, it’s a device that can add strength to your story.

A Word of Caution

In his book Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell warns us about the overuse of this plotting device.

“There is an inherent plot problem when you use flashbacks—the forward momentum is stopped for a trip to the past…. If such information can be dropped in during a present-moment scene, that’s always a better choice.”

But if you feel the flashback scene is necessary, then JSB advises to make sure it works as a scene.

“Write it as a unit of dramatic action, not as an information dump.”

Kay DiBianca—January 15, 2024

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How do you feel about flashbacks in fiction? Do you use them in your own fiction? Any advice on using them or, if you don’t, incorporating what they might contain in the present time of a novel?

Reader Friday-A Waster of Time, Are You?

Posted on October 16, 2026 by Deb Gorman

As Yoda would ask, “A waster of time, are you?”

That’s his question.

Mine is, “What is your favorite way to waste time?” Now, be honest—I know you’d like to say that you never waste time.

As would I. But we all do, don’t we? Might as well come clean with it. Especially here with our friends.

Oh…mine? Glad you asked. It’s called Quordle. A word game, so technically it’s not a time-waster. (Or so says I…) 😊

Here’s a link. https://quordle.game/

So, TKZers, out with it…tell us how you prefer to waste time.