H. Claire Taylor's Blog

One year since we said goodbye to our dog Senga. It feels like a year, and it doesn’t feel like a year. In bed at night, I can easily close my eyes and imagine she’s spread out at our feet, making it impossible for me to straighten my legs. The grind of our ice maker […]

I essentially have my dream career. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, and here I am. I also get to make my own hours and work however much I want. I am in total control. So why the fuck was I working 50+ hours a week not so long ago? […]

Today I learned that one of my author friends was injured while out selling her books at a street fair. Someone did a drive-by, and a bullet and shattered glass ricocheted into her eye. From what it sounds like, she’s not going to have vision in that eye, and seeing as how she’s already on […]

My 40th book releases on August 1st. That seems like too many books for one person. I know some folks have written more than that, but… maybe they shouldn’t have? Maybe it’s too many. I haven’t calculated the total number of words in all those books, but I passed the 1 million mark years ago. […]

Back in 2019, when I was still in the planning stages for Alice Luck, I rationalized a lot of “research.” The great thing about being a writer is that when something seems really fun and interesting, you can dive deep into it, buying books, paying for classes, watching movies about it, and it’s all tax […]

On January 6th, 2005, something very unlike another January 6th years later happened: I started writing my first book. It was/is called The Fraud (not available to buy because it’s a first book and not great), and I wrote it chapter by chapter on my LiveJournal. I loved LiveJournal, but it went out of style, […]

Photo by Hassan Pasha on Unsplash

Writing books is hard. Authors often get stuck on a scene or just feel like something’s off or could be so much stronger, and that’s where I come in with my story consulting services.

One of the most common blocks that pushes authors to come see me is this: The protagonist (aka, the character the story is about) feels flat. “I just don’t know enough about her yet,” or “I’m not sure he’s likable” or “She feels a little two-dimensional.” Or sometimes, they ...

Photo by Grant Durr on Unsplash

It feels like there’s a common thread to the roiling trouble we’re seeing in this country and the world at large in 2020. Or maybe there are a lot of threads and they all knot together in one place, and if only we can untie it…

So forgive me if the threads of this post don’t immediately intersect, but I’ll try my best to tie them all together in the end.

A Viral Pandemic

The US, a country that values the individual, has never been asked to come toget...

I did it again. I read 100 books in a year. And some of them were even good!

Reflecting on my year, I leaned way heavy into non-fiction, despite being a fiction writer by trade. I used to hate non-fiction and would actively avoid it, but in the last couple of years, something’s shifted (snapped?) inside me, and all I want to do is read about weird topics like psychedelics and cosmology and economics and psychology. Turns out, knowing more about the mysteries of the world makes for better...

January- June

Since we’re almost at the halfway point, I figured I’d let loose some of my favorite books I’ve read so far this year as part of my 100-book reading goal. I’m happy to announce that I’m about on pace for the midway mark (9 days left in June as I write this, and 45 books down).

I’ve found myself really enjoying nonfiction this year. Fiction just hasn’t held my interest like it usually does. I’m having a real learning moment, I guess.

For that reason, the fiction recommendations...