Newsletter July 2025 - Gettin' Heisty
As a child, my father read those books to us in lieu of normal children's books. It's probably why I am the way I am.
Hey everyone,
To start out, thank you for signing up for my newsletter and (hopefully) reading it each month. I appreciate it! I would love to reach more people, so if you know anyone who would be interested, please share it with them.
July was an exciting month for me! We took a family vacation to New Zealand, and now I understand why all my friends who visited either moved there or thought about moving there. It is a lovely country with great people and beautiful scenery. And, of course, it's where they filmed the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies. As a child, my father read those books to us in lieu of normal children's books. It's probably why I am the way I am. They hold a special place in my heart, so it was a chance of a lifetime to see the locations from the film, and especially to stroll through the Hobbiton site. We got to visit Bag End and have a mug of Southfarthing ale. It was like stepping into the novels.
They created the entire site with an incredible attention to detail, and that really brought it alive, even though the only small people running around were tourists. As a writer, I try to bring that same attention to detail in my scenes. When I compose, I see the scenes playing out in my mind, and then I just write down what I'm seeing. I want readers to have a vivid picture in their minds, so I try to add lots of little details to fill out the set. Perhaps I'm still influenced by hearing those stories at an early age.
Speaking of writing, I planned Under the Diamond Moon as a heist story. I'm currently editing the team's first heist (woo hoo!), and it was a fun scene to write. I had detailed images of the scene as I wrote it, and I can still see it as I'm rereading and revising. If the pacing can handle the extra words, I might add even more detail. It's a trade off though, since extra descriptions slow things down. There's always a give and take when writing, so the art is all about the choices I make.
Starting this month, I'm going to introduce you to my fellow writers from my writing group. We're all at different stages of our writing careers, but we've got a great bunch of folks, and interacting with them energizes me.
This month, please meet Stacy Frazer!
Stacy Frazer is a formerly repressed creative soul turned fiction writer, Author Accelerator–certified book coach, and host of The Write It Scared Podcast, where she shares real talk about writing craft, mindset, and the messy, courageous act of making novels. I enjoy her podcast, and always find nuggets of wisdom. In the writing group, we've had great conversations about plotting, and we've both helped each other work through plot challenges. I can't wait for her to finish her current thriller so I can read it! You can find her on Instagram @WriteitScared.
That's it for this month!
Todd
