Jeff O'Handley

The Doubting Writer Finds His Voice

Too Many Twists?

I just finished a well-regarded thriller/horror book. I cracked it open a few days ago with great anticipation. When I joined Twitter and started engaging in that world, this author started popping up everywhere, and I’ve been meaning to get to one of their books, and I finally did. The book itself was…okay. It was […]

Finished, and Not-so-finished

Happy 2023. When I started thinking in earnest of this post to wrap up 2022 and set up 2023, I was going to start by saying the year ended a lot like it began, with me working on revisions of a project created long ago, but a quick search of the “archives” revealed that this […]

Giving Thanks

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of doing something I haven’t done at least since a run of glorious Indian Summer (apologies for the phrase, I just don’t know what to call it now) days in October: I woke up in a warm house. For most people checking out a writer’s blog, this is no […]

Missing in Action

I’m writing very off-the-cuff today. Normally, when I write these blog posts I draft them in a Word document and edit them heavily, often over several hours or days. However, life has been such that even when I have an idea for a post, I rarely get to sit down and work on it. So, […]

Of Dogs and Tricks

When our departed and much-beloved German shepherd, Cassie was well into her middle age, she did something “old dogs” are reputedly unable to do: she learned a new trick. We discovered this trick on a Thanksgiving Day. After the meal, we all staggered away from the table to comfortable parts of the house to collapse […]

Launched!

I do not know why it has been so hard to write this post. Really, it should be the easiest one ever: When I woke up on Wednesday, August 24, Powerless was no longer on pre-order. Friends reported having downloaded it on their e-readers, making me an officially published novelist, woohoo! It has been wonderful, […]

Culmination point

In a few days, I will officially join the ranks of the published. I will go from being a writer to being an author. For all intents and purposes, I already am. I have held Powerless the novel in my hands. I have seen occasional spikes on its sales charts on Amazon, indicating that someone […]

The Story of Powerless, Part II

First off, let me say that Powerless releases in three weeks–holy crap! If you want to preorder, check the main page to links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Last time I wrote on this subject I talked about the two moments of inspiration that ultimately led to Powerless. Today I’m going to talk more […]

Ordinary People

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks, whew. If you missed me, I spent the last week co-leading a five-day, four-night watershed education workshop for a group of teachers. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work, and I ended the week thoroughly exhausted. I also came out with yet further affirmation […]

The Next Thing

When I left off the original iteration of this blog four years ago, I had just completed and readied for query a manuscript that I loved (and still do). I sent a dozen or so queries off into the world and got mostly silence. Bruised, battered and a little burned out, I shelved the whole […]