Laurence Shames Updates

Like many and probably most people who’ve muddled through to careers as novelists, I dipped a toe into fiction writing by way of the short story. In my twenties I … Read More

Call me a sap—I like happy endings. I don’t mean the sort of lazy, sloppy, unearned happy endings that one often sees in bad films and romance novels, as for … Read More

Writing novels gets to be a habit. Back in the 1990s, when I was living in Key West, I was writing one a year. The rhythm just felt right, brisk … Read More

The first book I was ever paid for writing–back in 1976 or ‘77—was a ludicrously bad historical romance written pseudonymously for a third-rate paperback publisher. Everything about the project, from … Read More

Some authors set down detailed and scrupulous outlines of their novels before they write a single word. The case can be made that this is a good idea but I … Read More

Some years ago, at a mystery convention called Bouchercon, I was asked to comment on what I liked best about writing novels. I didn’t really think about my answer; it … Read More

It had always been my dream to be a published novelist; so when I graduated college in 1972, I set out, with great determination and complete naivete, to become one, … Read More

It has long been a point of pride with me that the Wall Street Journal hated this book. Their commentator attacked it with gusto; but the attack had nothing to … Read More

Hairstyles change. Gizmos come and go. But what about the essential things—things like human nature?  I’m not so sure the basics really change at all. I thought about this the … Read More

Back in 1983, when I was the Ethics columnist at Esquire, I got a call one day from an editor at the estimable publishing house then known as Harper & … Read More