I stumbled upon the Edward Stratemeyer Syndicate the other day. This was a book packaging company that put out thousands of children’s and young adult books from around 1910 to 1980. Books our parents, siblings, and children grew up with: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, etc. The books were published under a variety of pen names that Edward Stratemeyer owned. The authors, however, were ghostwriters who developed the stories based on specific formulas and series outlines provided by Stratemeyer who maintained final say-so on all manuscripts, book covers, and illustrations before publication.
 
Does this game plan sound familiar? James Patterson, Danielle Steele, Tom Clancy and R.L. Stine all admit to using ghostwriters, some credited and others not. An extremely profitable practice for established writers and their publishing partners. Ghostwriters also whip out their pens behind most political figures, popular sports players, and famous celebrities. It is acceptable and deceptive at the same time as few are willing to admit to using ghostwriters.
 
What I found most interesting about the Stratemeyer Syndicate is that public libraries banned their books for several decades. It was felt that the fast-paced, formulaic series were “junk-food” for children’s minds hampering intellectual development. The book series were mass-produced for profit from what was viewed as literary sweatshops (underpaid ghostwriters). Incredibly popular books but viewed as antithetical to true literature, they were removed from shelves.
 
While Nancy Drew has transcended to video games, library bookshelves are now littered with AI-generated volumes. Talk about junk-food for the mind and being antithetical to true literature! Librarians are scrambling to remove “AI-slop” from their shelves as it often includes untrue facts, non-existent sources, and sometimes disturbing illustrations.
 
Transparency is essential. It builds trust and enhances accountability in all human relationships, including the bond between writers and readers. Let’s draw back the curtain and advocate for laws requiring publications to provide authoring credit for ghostwriters and mandatory disclosure of AI use for editing or prose-generating. Then let readers decide if their want to open that book.
 

Ironically, the very thing I applauded in my last blog (1/13/2026 – Hats Off to the Editors) became the very thing I deplore in this month’s blog. All that marvelous, razor-sharp advice offered by professional editors on YouTube sent me down a path of doubt. Overwhelmed with every writing nuance they believe I need to address in my manuscripts, I became frozen with doubt and lost my confidence as a writer.
 
Creative writing was chucked out the window to address line-by-line edits. Yes, their advice is helpful. Yes, it polishes dialogue and sharpens scenes. It also crushed my passion and squelched my emerging voice as I fret over each line I compose. I no longer enjoy writing. I’m just running through the editors’ checklists searching for my mistakes.
 
I need to step away from it all – both their spiraling spreadsheet of advice and my own draft manuscripts. Go for a long walk. Lose myself in nature. Take several deep breaths and find a healthy balance between my creative passion and their definition of acceptable prose. I need to find a way to let them guide my work without dictating the final product.
 
It’s a balancing act, and I’m the sad juggler who has dropped the pins.
 

I’m back after taking time off from writing (and my website) for the Christmas/New Year’s holidays. I found myself scrolling through YouTube during that down time and encountered posts by book editors offering their opinions and insight on good writing. I already follow posts by a handful of literary agents who keep tabs on shifts in publishing as well as market trends in reading. But these book editors had my rabid attention.
 
Editors posting on YouTube are, of course, hoping to boost their client base. No problem with that. Everyone on YouTube hopes for new followers. However, they are also offering free advice from professionals who have worked successfully in the literary field for years. Their knowledge was incisive and overwhelming. I ended up creating a spreadsheet with their suggestions broken down into categories like quick fixes, building powerful sentences, characters/backstory, plot pacing, dialog beats, and chapter reviews. Spreadsheet in hand (well, actually on my laptop screen), I ran through The Stars Prevail polishing that still-a-bit-rough stone into a glittering diamond. The difference was impressive.
 
My loud applause and profound appreciation goes out to book editors who are giving us all a leg up as we attempt to craft intriguing stories populated with interesting characters. Thank you for adding so much zest to our novels!

I wrapped up my rewrite of The Nighthawk’s Nemesis yesterday and went to bed knowing that the manuscript is so much better as a result of that work. Pouring a cup of coffee this morning, I suddenly realized I’ve nothing to write about as all four manuscripts in the Remy Lane Mystery series are done. I face a day with no writing. A week with no writing. Months with no writing. Oh, sure, I can pen query letters to literary agents in an effort to get trad-published or dive into the online marketing game of self-publishing, but no new story? No fresh characters? No unsolved mystery? Impossible.
 
Writing is my passion. My creative imagination has me jumping out of bed in the morning, popping open my laptop, and penning a fresh narrative. Characters and their various encounters swirl in my brain all day. Snappy dialogues find their way to Post-it notes and fresh scenarios have me pondering possibilities when I lie in bed later that night. Writing fills me with purpose as surely as breathing fills my lungs with air. Can’t live without either of them.
 
Sipping the last of my coffee, I’ve decided to be like Janus, Roman god of beginnings, endings, and transitions – a divine character I learned about when writing The Tide Turns. I’ll rifle through my “ideas” file and begin churning fresh plots for the next story in the series while also looking back over my completed manuscripts to embed stronger emotions into characters. (Readers love vibrant characters.) That new growth and evolution will keep me writing throughout the winter months. I can’t wait to start on them.

I am wrapping up an edit of my fourth manuscript, The Nighthawk’s Nemesis. Editing and rewriting are lengthy processes which every writer undertakes as part of their craft. Glancing over past blogs, I found a reference to The Nighthawk’s Nemesis in April of 2021 when I was “knee deep in research as I begin a new novel.” This particular mystery hovers around birds and their watchers, better known as twitchers in the UK. Four years later, I’ve returned to the manuscript for a final rewrite. Apparently time does fly, just like the birds.
 
I learned a great deal about birds when writing this story and found myself carrying binoculars as I walked through the woods and along the shoreline. I even picked up a birder’s life list where I tracked which birds I spotted over time. Then I discovered an app for my cell phone called Merlin (offered through Cornell University) which amped up my bird watching skills and knowledge, making the hobby even more enjoyable.
 
Birds are beautiful, their songs uplifting. For me, the most entertaining aspect of birds are the whimsical collective names attached to each flock: a gaggle of geese, a brood of hens, a parliament of owls, a cast of falcons, a bellowing of bullfinches, a descent of woodpeckers, a drumming of grouse, a murmuration of starlings, an asylum of cuckoos, a prayer of godwits, a watch of nightingales, a convocation of eagles, a flamboyance of flamingos, a mischief of magpies, an unkindness of ravens, and a murder of crows.
 
Okay, I’ll admit it: The last one is my favorite.

Today is my eldest sister’s birthday. I wish we could share a slice of cake and laughter, but she passed away. I’m the youngest in a large family, and I’m slowly but surely being left behind.
 
It is bittersweet. I’m happy family members and dear friends are no longer suffering but sad they are no longer with me. We lose part of ourselves with the passing of others. Memories fade and eventually there is no one else who can remind us of past shared moments. No one who stood there waving us off on our first date. Who held us during our first heartbreak.  Who encouraged us when we doubted ourselves. Who celebrated our first job, danced at our wedding, and held our newborn babies.
 
This is why stories are so very important. It’s a chance to pass on our unspoken hopes and quiet turmoil. To expose our inner beauty and express our desire for the common threads cherished by humanity: overcoming our weaknesses, finding redemption, acceptance, and happily ever after. Our written thoughts still murmur after we are gone with each chapter whispering of our lives.
 
I just baked my sister’s favorite cookies, a tribute to her memory. I’ll take some out to the garden and enjoy the passing breeze, admire the birds, laugh at the chipmunks, and read my newest chapter aloud to her. I think she’d like that. Happy birthday, Sis.

I’ve long admired writers who are “plotters.” These brilliant minds outline every major aspect of their manuscript before writing the first paragraph. They flesh out characters in advance, know where to plant the twists and the turns, predetermine where their protagonist will fly and where she will fail, and even establish pacing based upon the number of pages in their yet-to-be-written manuscript. Impressive.
 
And then we have the “pantsers” who scurry forward, roughly jotting down scenes, clues, and characters based upon a vague idea without any clear notion of where it will all end. It just sort of happens.
 
I’m a pantser. I allow my imagination to take me down endless paths, whipping up characters and scenes as I move along, chasing after villains that I have yet to clearly define, and dropping clues all over the place, only to go back and retrieve those that really don’t matter. I love the freedom of writing as a pantser, but it invariably leads me to dead ends with no obvious way out. I admit that painting myself into a corner can be damned frustrating.
 
I carry a HUGE eraser, a bucketful of self-forgiveness, and incredible tenacity. When I find myself unable to move the plot forward, I take some time off, ruminate, and allow fresh solutions to blossom. Then I dive back in with more useful supportive cast members, fewer clues, a unique twist, and tighter pacing. I often surprise myself when the ending is far beyond what I imagined it might be and a much, much better read.
 
It takes a good deal of self-reflection and an awful lot of rewriting for me to finally pen an intriguing mystery, but I enjoy the learning process. I’m adapting, stretching my imagination, developing storytelling skills, adding intriguing layers to characters, and ultimately discovering better solutions. There is a profound sense of self-fulfillment found in the process of honing my craft, in developing my own creativity, and ultimately becoming a better writer.
 
I have to admit that for me, it’s all about the journey.