A Blog for Readers and Writers of Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Fiction
Of all the tools available to fiction writers, the most maligned may be the prologue. With the possible exception of the adverb and the semi-colon, no other literary device engenders such visceral hatred. Prologues have been called “superfluous,” “tedious info-dumps,” and “a bait-and-switch technique.” Agents and editors, we’re told, hate them. But are they always bad?
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It is to my chagrin what whenever I post a photo of my two admittedly adorable Australian Doodles, Seamus and[…]
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…doesn’t have to stay at Malice. My panel was “International and Off the Beaten Path Settings. Here’s the low down[…]
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I’ll start with the gift: I’ll read and critique the first 5 query letters any writer who is looking to[…]
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Writers are known to be introspective, often overthinking, mulling existential issues ad nauseum. But periodically, there is value to posing[…]
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Last night I was teaching an Intro to Fiction class on Zoom. It was 9:30 p.m., class winding down, when[…]
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I’m talking about writers’ conferences, not relationships! Returning last week from Left Coast Crime in Bellevue, Washington, I found a flurry of comments in my inbox, addressing the question: was it worth it? It’s a good question to ask.
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I was recently at the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival in Suffolk, Virginia, a yearly event I enjoy attending because it[…]
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Almost a year ago my post offered links to music from YouTube, Get Your Free Music Sample Here. Then in[…]
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Signs and portents, my dear readers, signs and portents. Last week, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake was felt all along the[…]
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