Alan Orloff's Blog, page 30
July 5, 2010
Once Again, With Feeling
Every year around this time, I find myself knee deep in berries. Here's a rerun of a post I wrote last year.
When it comes to my yard, I'm a naturalist.
Not exactly the kind of naturalist who works to preserve the environment (although I think that's important). I'm a naturalist in the sense that I'm lazy--whatever nature wants to do, I'm cool with, as long as I don't have to lift a finger doing yard work. Fertilizer, shmertilizer, I always say.
Calling myself a naturalist somehow makes my...
July 2, 2010
Good Reading
When it comes to being a participant in on-line social media, I'd say I fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. I blog three times a week, not daily. I only tweet occasionally, and I update my Facebook status whenever the heck I feel like it.
I'm in the game in each arena, even though I'm no superstar (Cue the vuvuzelas. On second thought, don't. I hate those annoying things).
I'm also starting to get more involved with Goodreads. For those of you who don't know, it's a social media ...
June 30, 2010
Libraries Rock!
I love libraries.
I love the quietness of them, the hushed voices and carpeted footfalls. Even when you're excited about a book, you have to keep quiet about it. As a kid, I remember practically bursting with silent excitement when I found the books I was looking for.
I love that my first job was in a library. I was a page (I couldn't yet drive), and my parents would have to drop me off and pick me up. The best part? When I was done working, I could come home with an armful of books every ...
June 28, 2010
Ask Not What Your Novel Can Do For You
Please welcome cyberpal and all-around good guy Stephen Parrish to the blog today. His book, THE TAVERNIER STONES, came out May 1. It's a crackling good read (and I'm not just saying that—I read it, and crackled throughout. In case you missed it, I blogged about his book when it was released here) Oh, yeah, he's also giving away a diamond.
Take it away, Steve…
Alan and I agreed to exchange lessons learned while blog touring. We're with the same publisher, we wrote for their mystery...
June 25, 2010
Yes, It Can Happen To You
I've seen all good people—writers, I'm talking about—create their wonderous stories with hopes of getting published. Writing is hard work, but you try to make it easy, and if you're lucky, it can happen. You can get published. While you're going for the one, don't kill the whale. Instead, keep looking into the lens and roll with the changes. Then hold on to your dream, and don't leave it. Success may not come soon, but you can succeed in a more roundabout fashion if you're patient. For some w...
June 23, 2010
Pix from BEA
A few weeks ago, I went to BookExpo America (BEA) in NYC. I had a blast. Here's a pictorial recap:
The Midnight Ink booth
And more booth
Some interesting books
Fellow MWA member Jason Pinter signing at the MWA booth ( where I signed the following day)
ITW pal Pam Callow's awesome light-up display for DAMAGED
Me, trying to smile, talk, and sign at the same time. Harder than it looks!
...
June 21, 2010
Welcome, Margot "The Mystery Professor" Kinberg
Thanks Alan, for hosting me, and for asking me to talk about one of my not-so-secret addictions – crime fiction. I got hooked on crime fiction in my early teens, and I just don't see myself going off the stuff any time soon. I also happen to really enjoy writing, so when I decided to start a blog, I knew it was going to be about crime fiction. It's actually a little odd for me to be bogging here about my blog, since I'm really rather self-conscious about it. There are so many wonderful...
June 18, 2010
Two Things
Some guest blogging news:
1) If you missed it yesterday, I guest blogged on Guide to Literary Agents with 7 Things I've Learned So Far.
2) Monday, it's my pleasure to host Margot "The Mystery Professor" Kinberg, author of Publish or Perish and B-Very Flat. She'll be blogging about how she decides what to write about on her terrific blog, Confessions of a Mystery Novelist.
June 16, 2010
A Really, Really, Really Great Idea
I'm almost finished with the first draft of my WIP (the sequel to KILLER ROUTINE), and I think I'm going to come up a little short. Like about 8000 words short (that's somewhere around ten percent).
Here are some ideas I had for increasing the word count:
Add an adjective (or better yet, an adverb) to each sentence.
Use a dialog tag for every piece of dialog (you can never have too many "he said, she saids.")
More backstory! Especially up-front.
Describe the settings really, really...
June 14, 2010
Another Great One
One book, two covers.
Next month, DIAMONDS FOR THE DEAD comes out in Large Print – Hardcover (Thorndike Press), and it has a different cover:
One book, two terrific covers!
You can pre-order the Large Print version online now, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell's, and other fine booksellers.
It's the same book, just BIGGER!
