Writing About Writers

Robin: I stumbled across the movie Midnight in Paris the other day and it got me thinking about the popularity of books about authors. Stephen King has written a number of stories with writers as protagonists like The Shining, The Dark Half, The Body (which became the movie Stand By Me), and my personal favorite, Misery. Last year’s Oscars included nods to the movie version of author Lee Israel’s true-life crime spree, based on her memoir, Can You Ever Forgive Me. Even our own Cate notched a book about a writer, Lies She Told.

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Influential Women

As Women’s History Month winds down, I’ve been reflecting on the women who have influenced me. My mom, in particular. She showed me what it meant to grab life with both hands and commit to goals with enthusiastic abandon. There would be times when I would hear “no” along the way, but she taught me that “no” isn’t lethal and, heck, sometimes all it means is “not yet.” Try a different approach. Learn from the experience. Most of all, keep going. The only way to truly fail is to give up.

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The Not-So-Lonely Part of Writing

One of the best parts of writing crime fiction is getting to meet my heroes. I’ve mentioned this before but it’s still true – crime fiction authors are the nicest people. At last year’s ThrillerFest, I spent time with Lisa Gardner. Her books scare the crap out of me in all the best ways. It was therefore an absolute pleasure when Lisa asked if I’d be willing to talk to her about the technology pieces of her then-work in progress. I jumped at the chance.

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Writing What You Know

I’m en route to the Left Coast Crime Conference where I’ll be on a panel to talk about law enforcement research. This brings to mind the oft-debated topic of writing what you know. You know the one, whether writers should write based on their own experiences versus stories based on research. You might expect me to favor the “write what you know” camp, given I’m a real-life cyber crime fighter who writes cyber crime fiction. And you’d be right. But not in the way you expect.

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