Colleen Collins's Blog, page 5

DOUBLE INDEMNITY: Making an Audience Love a Killer

Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson and Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity (Image is in public domain)

Noir at Its Darkest and Finest

Some view Double Indemnity (1944), the dark, suspenseful adaptation of the James M. Cain story, as one of the best, if not perfect, noir film.A June 1944 film review in Time magazine called it the "nattiest, nastiest, most satisfying melodrama."

Chandler and Wilder: A Tumultuous Writing Team

Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler wrote the screenpla...

2015 Aspen Gold Readers Choice Award Winner: THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD

This past weekend,The Ungrateful Dead: Prequel to The Zen Man (A Humorous Colorado Mystery Book #1) won the 2015 Aspen Gold Readers Choice Award in the short story category!This story was truly fun to write, making its win all the sweeter.

I loved The Zen Man and really had fun catching up with Rick and Laura’s first case in the prequel, The Ungrateful Dead. These novels have everything I love in a mystery: smart dialogue, a flawed hero, a little romance and a great plot. Murder at a corone...

#WritingTips: Five Ways to Track a Story Villain

The family wanted to know the identity of a mysterious female visitor (Image licensed by Colleen Collins)

Many writers craft bad guys, or gals, in stories. In a romantic suspense story, it’s the villain. In a mainstream, maybe there’s a loathsome character that adds sinister story twists. Even in a sweet romance, there might be a vile person who darkens a few plot points.

What if your sleuth-character must track this villain but there’s only one clue, such as the color of hair? Besides being...

Surveillance 101, Part 5: Keeping Logs, Going Country and Fighting Tedium

(Image licensed by Colleen Collins)

Welcome back to Surveillance 101, a series of classes my husband and I taught in 2011 to a mystery writers' group. I've updated course information for this blog, and added new material as well.

COPYRIGHTS

All content is copyrighted, so please do not copy, distribute, and so forth. Within the captions of photos, I note if it is copyrighted, licensed or within the public domain. The only photos you are free to copy/use are those marked as public domain.

LINKS T...

Cover Reveal: HOW DO PRIVATE EYES DO THAT? by Colleen Collins, Second Edition

Coming Soon: Second Edition of How Do Private Eyes Do That? Featuring additional resources, links, tips and case studies!

Do Ghost Hunters Really Find Ghosts?

(image licensed by Colleen Collins)

Hard to believe, but Halloween is just around the corner. Here in Colorado the historic Stanley Hotel,where Stephen King began drafting The Shining, is already taking reservations for its "Three Nights of Fright" to celebrate Halloween with events that include ghost hunting expeditions. I've taken its ghost tour several times, and heard tales of ghosts who haunt certain rooms.The Brown Palace hotel in Denver also claims guests and staff have witnessed spir...

The Best Philip Marlowe? Elliott Gould in THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)

Today, August 29, is Elliott Gould's birthday, so I watched the opening credits to director Robert Altman's The Long Good-Bye starring Gould as Philip Marlowe (click on YouTube video, above). In the scene, Marlowe is trying to feed his cat, which becomes a complicated, bumbling affair. As noted by Marlowe fans, he never had a cat, but apparently Raymond Chandler loved cats, so Altman put one in.

Raymond Chandler began playing with the Marlowe character in short stories in such pulp magazines a...

Surveillance 101, Part 4: Tips and Tricks About Mobile Surveillances

(image licensed by Colleen Collins)

Welcome back to Surveillance 101, a series of classes my husband and I taught in 2011 to a mystery writers' group. I've updated information for this blog, as well as added new material.

Copyrights

All content is copyrighted, so please do not copy, distribute, and so forth. Within the captions of photos, I note if it is copyrighted, licensed or within the public domain. The only photos you are free to copy/use are those marked as public domain.

Links to Classe...

Surveillance 101, Part 3: Picking a Spot, Difference Between Mobile vs. Stationary

(image licensed by Colleen Collins)

Welcome back to the thirdarticlein the Surveillance 101 series. Thiscontent is basedon a set of courseswe taught in 2011 to a mystery writers' organization -- I have updated and added materialfor these posts.

Links to previous classes

To read the first two articles, click on a link:

Surveillance 101: Staying Legal, Dressing the Part, Prepping the Vehicle

Surveillance 101, Part 2: The Importance of Pre-Surveillance and Knowing if a Subject Has a Lawyer

A few not...

Surveillance 101, Part 2: The Importance of Pre-Surveillance and Knowing if a Subject Has a Lawyer

(Image licensed by Colleen Collins)

Welcome back! This is part 2 of Surveillance 101, a course we taught to a professional writers' organization in 2011. I have updated the content for this blog. Link to part 1:Surveillance 101: Staying Legal, Dressing the Part, Prepping the Vehicle.

Please keep in mind that this class content is copyrighted -- if you want to copy, quote from, distribute, etc., please send an email to shaunkaufmanlaw--AT--gmail-dot-com. Also, I have noted if an image is copyr...