Author: Master Mystery Productions

At a critique group meeting several years ago, one member expressed a concern common to all creative people.  He wanted his work to be “original.”  What did that mean?  What followed was one of the most interesting conversations I had on the idea of originality and what it takes to be a true original with… Continue reading A True Original

If there’s one piece of advice I could give to any aspiring writer, it’s finish something. As creative people, our heads will be constantly filled with unfinished projects, scraps of inspiration, little raggedy bits of ideas we glean from life. That’s how we create in the first place. But, and I hate to play the… Continue reading Follow Through

Most of us don’t go through life expecting a disaster. But sometimes, life takes a turn none of us were expecting. A frightening turn. A life-changing turn. For Ridgecrest and Trona, that turn came in the form of the July 2019 earthquakes. During the July meeting of my writers’ club, members expressed how hard it… Continue reading Sail On

I want to tell a story. At the curtain call for a sold-out performance of Ode to Agatha, a show I wrote and directed in 2017, I presented awards created by my company to individuals involved with the production. One of these is the Diamond Mask Award for Excellence in Performance. It’s awarded by audiences… Continue reading I Believe in You

Writing is an art. In many of my posts, I discuss the business side of writing--the work behind the works. I’ve talked about marketing, handling rejection, perseverance, practice, and validating the actual nuts and bolts labor of writing as genuine work. There are a lot of mechanics in being a writer. But there’s a great… Continue reading Food for Thought