I love revisions, and couldn’t wait to write about the revision process – how many drafts I write, and how my novels change from start to finish. But when I looked at it seriously, I realized that topic called for a lot of explanation, and Emperor Maximus Angryfish disapproves of lengthy blog posts: Back to the drawing board. I thought I’d write about how I revise – first drafts on…
I’m sensing a pattern at the Ball this week and, as it turns out, I won’t be the one to break it. I, too, obtained my agent without a query – though I have several years (and four trunk manuscripts) worth of queries in my past, so I can speak to the topic from experience. Like Deb Kelly, I found the query an excellent vehicle for distilling my novel’s essence….
When I sat down to write a ninja detective mystery, I knew I had a couple of fairly substantial hurdles to clear. High on the list: unrepentant assassins don’t rank very high on the “winsome protagonist scale.”If I wanted to write a mystery series starring a highly trained killer, I needed to round off some of his edges a bit. Fortunately, there’s an app a writing trick for that. Most…
For a mystery author, the conflict usually starts before the novel and expresses itself – unpleasantly – as soon as the book begins. My family calls this “jogger or corpse.” When you read a mystery novel or watch a detective show on TV, the opening scenes often show a person engaged in mundane activity. She’s running through a wooded park. He’s brushing his teeth while watching the morning news. This…
When the topic turns to humor, I must confess a deep and all-consuming love for the pun. One of my all-time favorite games involves punning back and forth with someone else until one of us loses the ability to add a new pun to the chain or bursts out laughing. Fortunately, I’m lucky enough to have several close friends and family members who not only appreciate but enjoy this particular…
