In this post, Ian Haydn Smith shares what inspired Cult Writers: 50 Noncomformist Novelists You Need to Know, surprises in the research process, challenges in the writing process, his best piece of advice for other writers, and more.

While researching another book, Robert L. Richardson came across a story worth sharing from a pilot who will turn 100 later this year that became his latest title, Spying From the Sky: At the Controls of U.S. Cold War Aerial Intelligence from Casemate Publishers.

The most important thing that you as a biographer can do is to write from the heart. You can take a number of approaches to writing from the heart. For example ...