Let’s face it: attending an in-person writing conference is expensive. That’s why it’s crucial to choose the right conference. After my debut thriller, MULTO, was acquired, ThrillerFest was at the top of my short list of conferences to attend.

Ian McEwan wrote in Atonement that “in a story, you only had to wish, you only had to write it down and could have the world.” The quote has never been truer than in the case of E.P. Tuazon’s story collection. Tuazon turns even the most ordinary scenario into something surreal, if not magical.

Power imbalance between men and women in intimate relationships often manifests when there’s a huge difference in their ages, incomes, or cultural backgrounds. What happens when two people are in love but they are vastly different in all three areas? In the case of General Douglas MacArthur’s little-known affair with a young Filipino actress, it was a calamity.

Bogey and Bacall. JFK and Jackie. McQueen and MacGraw. These famous couples had wide age gaps. Add to that list Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the Filipino actress Isabel Rosario Cooper, whose romantic affair in the 1930s broke all taboos. In this article, I rounded up 10 of the most captivating May-December relationships over the years.

In the book market as in the workplace, women get paid less. A new study shows that books by female authors were priced 45 percent lower than books by male authors. Women’s books were also likely to be published in formats less expensive to produce and distribute.

I met Bret Lott, the best-selling author of Jewel, during my first ever fiction-writing workshop. I chose his class because I loved Jewel. Guess who else loved it? Oprah. Lott is the first best-selling author I’ve interacted with.

There’s an alarming surge in book bans in America, with school libraries in at least seven states removing books at the behest of community members. Twenty-nine states have introduced bills or taken other steps to restrict the teaching or discussion of racism and sexism. What to do? The Authors Guild lists three ways to help counter the trend.

In a recent online conversation with the Authors Guild, Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, likened the publication of every book to launching a startup company, replete with risks and without guarantee of success. Here are some key takeaways from Dohle’s presentation, some of them quite surprising.

There’s nothing quite like the New Year to set our writing goals. Better yet, find a writer friend (in person or online) to exchange goals with. Here are a few things to get you started. You can bet I’ll be working on these goals myself.

An article in the Times-Herald (Vallejo, Calif.) puts the spotlight on Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s little-known love affair in the 1930s with Isabel Rosario Cooper, a young Filipino actress. “Though Cooper’s existence is not a secret, it’s hardly front row center anywhere until ‘My MacArthur,’” according to the story, referring to the historical novel by Filipino-American author Cindy Fazzi.