Here's a tip that I learned from the late great Ed Hoch, master of the short mystery story. 

Although we both lived in Rochester, the first time we met was at the Edgar Awards ceremony. I was up for best-first (It's an honor just to have been nominated) and Ed was receiving a well-earned, much-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. We were talking over cocktails (me asking lots of questions, him giving brilliant advice to every one) when he said that he never had a problem getting started every day because of how he left off the night before: 'Never write to the end of a chapter, the end of a paragraph, the end of a sentence or even to the end of the word.'

Brilliant.

Returning readers of this blog may recall that I have to pick a theme song before I start a new book. I've got one in mind, so it's time to start finding the right voice. That's where things get tricky.

So the other night I went to see Reel Big Fish  and Pilfers at Water Street Music Hall. It was a great show, as expected, but one thing I didn't expect was to be so impressed with the first act on the bill, Dan Potthast of Dan P. and The Bricks. All alone on the stage, he delivered a rousing set that set the tone for the whole night. (Here's a clip of him doing an impromptu song when he was in Denver.) I chatted with him after the show and bought 3 of his CDs including one MP3 CD that has--no kidding--99 songs on it. Most are under 3 minutes and a few are under 50 seconds (though there is one that's 13 minutes long), but they're real songs with a full band, many including horns.

You’re a writer.¹ You know what you want to say, how you want to say it and why it needs to be said at all. You can write your book just the way you want to write it and have it published as an e-book or through a print-on-demand house without any editorial assistance. You don’t need an editor.

But you need an editor.

Last week I spent a day at Hornell High School in Hornell, New York. Great students, cool teachers, a wonderful librarian - good times. It was while I was there that I was asked one of the best questions anyone has ever asked me about my YA books.

Strike that - about any of my books.

During lunch with the AP Psychology class, one of the students asked if I thought my books would have the same impact if I had somehow worked in a traditional happy ending. That may not be the word-for-word question, but you get the drift. And this isn't the word-for-word answer I gave, but I'll try to get it in the ballpark.