Let’s Talk: A Few Thoughts About Dialogue by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
I first met Andrew Welsh-Huggins when he spoke years ago to our local Sisters in Crime chapter. At the time[…]
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Author: Connie Berry
Going Indie: An Interview with Dale T. Phillips
If you’ve ever attended a writers’ conference, chances are you’ve run into Dale T. Phillips, who makes friends like most people make mistakes–easily and frequently. Years ago, Dale made the decision to go indie, that is to publish his own books. Recently I caught up with him and asked him to share his secrets for sustaining a long career and making money while doing it. Even those of us who are traditionally published can learn a thing or two.
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I Have a Hangover (No, Not That Kind)
I just turned in the manuscript for A Collection of Lies, Book 5 in the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, and I’m in mourning. The book actually took eleven months to write, but the final three months were intense. I spent almost a year with those people in Devon, England. How can I blithely say, “Goodbye—nice knowing you?”
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Three Things That Happen When You Type THE END
A few weeks ago, I typed The End on the manuscript for A COLLECTION OF LIES, the fifth book in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series. It was very exciting. I have an official title. I have a spectacular cover. Now I actually have a book. Since then, though, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to finish the draft of a novel. What happens next? Here are three things that happen when you type The End.
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Crafting Better Sentences: My Top Five Tips
Words are the building blocks of language and the means by which humans express their thoughts and feelings. Expressing thoughts and feelings is what writers do. We search for the perfect word in every situation, and we try to be precise. Words all by themselves conjure up images and emotions. But to move a book along, those words must be strung together into sentences that mean something. Does it matter how we string those words together? Yes, it does.
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Help! I’m Think I’m Becoming A Pantser
Most of us in the reading and writing community know the terms plotters, writers who plot everything out in an outline (some quite detailed) before they begin writing; and pantsers, writers who begin and usually finish a draft without any outline at all. They “fly by the seat of their pants.” To understand the difference, think of someone planning a car trip between Boston and San Diego.
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The Coronation: Three Things You Didn’t Know
Yes, I’m an Anglophile, so of course I got up early to watch the coronation of King Charles III. For most people, it was a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. And spectacle it was with all the pomp and circumstance one could wish for. But what did it all mean?
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Do You Need A Sensitivity Reader?
I’ve done a lot of research in my writing career. That has meant finding reliable sources in the UK. Now for the first time, I’m engaging a sensitivity reader. Should you?
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ENGLAND 2023: The Best-Laid Plans…
On March ninth, almost a month ago, I posted about my upcoming book research trip to England and everything I hoped to see and do while there (March 9, Being There). I’m writing this in a comfortable British Airways Airbus 380, jetting home to the States. Soon we’ll be home and back in our routines. That means it’s time to reflect on the reality of the trip vs. my admittedly rose-colored dreams. What didn’t turn out as I hoped? What exceeded my expectations? Most importantly, what will make it into my manuscript?
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Being There
In exactly two weeks I’ll be back in England. After landing at Heathrow and picking up our rental car, my husband and I will be heading to Devon and our self-catering cottage, Moorland View, in Dartmoor National Park.
My purpose in going (other than the pure joy of spending time in England) will be targeted research for Book 5 in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series, now tentatively entitled A Collection of Lies.
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