High concept
Recently I spent four days leading a workshop at the NY Write to Pitch Conference. As the members of my[…]
Read more
Category: Fiction
The Art of the Plot Twist
From the early childhood game of Peek-a-Boo to an unexpected bouquet of roses after a hard day at work, the pay-off, neuroscientists tell us, is a rush of dopamine, intensifying our emotions by as much as four hundred percent. How do we use this human affinity for surprise in our mystery fiction? No mystery there. Overturning the expectations of readers, surprising them, is called a “plot twist,” that moment when everything the reader has been led to believe turns out to be wrong.
Read more
Fiction vs. Nonfiction: 5 Differences in an Author’s Eye
As an author of fiction and nonfiction, I’m often asked which I prefer to write. It’s not that easy a[…]
Read more
Buried Treasure: Easter Eggs and Red Herrings
Easter eggs and red herrings are the buried treasure of crime fiction. One enlightens and the other obscures. Both reward the sharp-eyed reader.
Read more
Fashion in Fiction
Let’s talk about fictional characters and real fashion. I love this description from Orlando Whitfield’s, All That Glitters: A Story[…]
Read more
Great Expectations and Bad Breakups
Great Expectations and Bad Breakups: How writers craft endings that justify the means and means that justify the ends. See also: Miss Scarlet, in the Conservatory, with a Knife.
Read more
Flash Fiction for Novelists
I’ve been intrigued by flash fiction since reading an interview with Shelby van Pelt, author of the lovely novel Remarkably[…]
Read more
Hemingway’s Tips for Writers
Happy 2025! As many of us start new writing projects, I came across these seven tips for writers from Ernest[…]
Read more
Writing the Culinary Mystery: Recipes for Death and Detection
With or without the addition of poisonous compounds, fabulous meals and delicious desserts have a long history in crime fiction.[…]
Read more
Author Lynda Allen stops by to answer our Proust Questionaire – and also to let you know what a Jersey Cozy is.
Vanity Fair, which I love, has a “Proust Questionnaire” at the end of each issue. Today we’re asking Lynda Allen, author[…]
Read more