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Rowan Layne, lover of aliens and crusader for otherworldly rights who uses her mighty pen and passionate voice—and sometimes a pointy-toed shoe—faces a few bumbling misogynist aliens in Being Alien, fourth novel of the Other Worldly series coming soon to online bookstores. Rowan’s initial reaction is utter disgust and disappointment that bigotry and stupidity are […]

We all want and need to be liked, and readers want to fall in love with a beloved character. This is not to say that all literary characters must be loveable, or that all loveable characters must be perfect. Counterintuitively, it is often quixotic quirks that make a character come alive, and become beloved. One

One of the Nevada businesses hit hard by the COVID pandemic were brothels and the women who work in them. As in legalized prostitution. Brothels were forced to cease operations in 2020 per government edict, though there’ve been many attempts to shut them down—by morality fanatics far too obsessed with consensual sexual activity of others.

Recently I read an article in a writer’s magazine about using “moral dilemmas” to make literary characters better. It said that “a character without an attitude, without a spine, without convictions, is one who will be hard for readers to cheer for and easy for them to forget.” I wholeheartedly agree, except where my position

It’s back-to-school time for kids, and for adult authors it might be time to actively participate in writing seminars, groups, and other learning opportunities on the craft of writing. Do we hop onto that school bus full speed ahead, or proceed with caution at the risk of curbed creative license? An instructor or fellow author’s

“I don’t think staying ignorant is a good idea.” With those words, there might be hope for UFO vindication on the horizon. I recently read an NBC news interview with the man who sent that message, Ari Loeb. One of our nation’s best known astronomers and the longest-serving chair of Harvard’s astronomy department. Loeb revealed

In legal speak, if something appeals to prurient interests, it’s deemed obscene and violative of the First Amendment. But those seemingly addlepated ancient Supreme Court justices back in the day clearly had no clue, because anything sexual in nature appeals to prurient interests. People are interested in sex, and people have sex. Otherwise we wouldn’t

Tackling the first chapter of the next book in a series is always a challenge. I recently received excellent feedback for book five of my Other Worldly series, Alien Sensation, of which I’m currently three chapters deep into drafting. The trick is not slowing the pace of an opening scene with too much back story.

I recently braved commercial air travel along with too many others, including families with kids flying during summer vacation after more than a year of COVID pandemic isolation. I was finally visiting immediate family members, especially my elderly parents, for a trip that was cancelled three times in 2020. I can now unequivocally state there’s

International Endangered Species Day was May 21, and I missed writing about it then because I was drafting the final chapters of Being Alien, fourth book in my Other Worldly series coming this fall, in which I address the plight of the honeybee in both the US and the UK. Endangered species are plants and