Dan Alatorre

In the book (Savvy Stories) you see some very real, very personal moments. The first week of Savvy__ life was the longest week of ours. We spent five days in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) worrying that our newborn daughter might die. It was touch and go for a while, and it was extremely difficult to write about. Chapter two gets a lot of people crying. But because we put that honesty out there, readers said __kay, I can trust this guy._ Then they were better able to laugh with us, too.

Writers need to be open to trying new things. My first bestseller was a cookbook, and from that experience I learned things about marketing a book that benefitted me greatly.

I think if a writer is being honest they__ admit to a file full of a dozen or more stories that are all started to varying degrees. They__e like the kid who wants to be a firefighter and a police officer and an astronaut.

Not knowing stuff - like how your story ends before you start writing - is the seed of a lot of writer__ block.

I get up at 4am or 5am and write for a few hours before the rest of the world wakes up. And I don__ drink caffeine. That combination is basically a deal breaker for every other author I know. I don__ usual check email, Facebook or Twitter until at least 6:30am, either, another killer for most authors.

It__ amazing how my mind opens up right when I have to run on the treadmill. I__e finished three chapters rather than run a mile.

I come up with an idea and I__l start throwing little suggestions for possible scenes into a folder, but before I seriously sit down to write Word One, they whole outline is finished. Sue me. It works.

I write in complete silence using only two fingers so I can__ type faster than I edit at the same time, saving me from having to go back. Although it does create a lot of capitalization issues. And punctuation problems. I didn__ say it was a good routine.

The more time you can put between you and your manuscript, the more fresh your eyes become and the more mistakes you__l catch. Let a chapter rest for a day, you__l see ways to improve it. Let your completed book rest a month or more and you__l see stuff that__ long or that you want to skip. Read it out loud to get rid of awkward phrases and listen to your critique partners if they are good.

Don't be afraid to get off the internet, the answers aren't all there. You may have to ask a cop about the kickback from a shotgun, or how sweaty they get in summer wearing body armor. Or what color blood is in the moonlight, or the vibrations through a serrated knife__ handle you feel in your fingers when you are hacking through somebody__ neck and hit cartilage.

I wasn__ a class clown, because nuns have no sense of humor. They have rulers.

Who do I think would appreciate my book?I__ surprised anybody does. Oops, did I say that out loud?

The best part of being a writer is you get to tell people you__e a writer. That__ still considered cool.

Open your soul and put it out there and dare the world to read it, ready to have them stomp on you and laugh, but ready to do it again the next day.

I wasn__ a class clown, because my parents were very strict and because nuns in general have no sense of humor. I mean zero, zip, nada. I wasted some of my best stuff on those old hags! Look at these knuckles - those are ruler marks, and they__e still visible all these years later. But I could usually get out of trouble at home if I could get my mom laughing. That__ a huge ace up your sleeve as a kid.

Kids are flat-out freaking hilarious if you are paying attention. Not just my kid, but every kid.