Cathy Perkins's Blog, page 7

Spoiler Alert!

By Shari Randall

Spoiler alert. Those warnings are ubiquitous nowadays. We just wrapped up the Olympics, where the difference in time zones made watching television or reading the news a minefield for anyone who wanted to be surprised by the outcome of an athletic event.

 

I even heard “spoiler alert” at a recent book club meeting. Half the group had finished the book —a bestselling literary novel— and the other half hadn’t. The group voted to not talk about the ending in order to avoid spoiling it...

The Difference Between Cranes and Egrets by Lynn Chandler Willis

I pride myself in writing setting well. In each of my books, there's been at least one review where the reviewer praised me for making them feel the heat of Wink, Texas or bask in the autumn colors of the North Carolina mountains. To me, setting is a secondary character. It should be treated to the same amount of development as the rest of the supporting characters. 

I don't spend a lot of time, though, on stuff like motivation and family history and childhood traumas. Not when I'm talking settin...

The Year of the Tiger

 by Barbara J. Eikmeier

2022 is the year of the tiger. As images of Lunar New Year celebrations scrolled across social media, I remembered that my son was born in the year of the tiger. Immediately I knew, with a little shock, that he will be 36 this year.  It’s not that I always know the current ages of my adult children off the top of my head. It’s because of the tiger. 

While living In South Korea, a culture where respect to elders is expressed with a more formal form of language, I noticed ...

Welcome to the World by Saralyn Richard There’s a reaso...

 

Welcome to the World

by Saralyn Richard

There’s a reason launching a book is often compared to delivering a baby. Books are conceived in passion—whether love, hate, anger, or shame—they begin from a deep-seated surge of emotion. The iimpetus for the book grows and develops into something tangible, something very personal and worthy. After a long period, possibly nine months or way longer, the manuscript is written, critiqued, edited, revised, dressed up, laid-out, and published, ready to intro...

Interview with Stiletto Gang Member Lois Winston

 When Stiletto Gang Blog members suggested interviewing fellow blog members, it only made sense for me to partner with author Lois Winston. After all, as critique partners, we know where 

Author Lois Winstonthe bodies are buried (so to speak).  I feel fortunate to have Lois as a critique partner. She has an outstanding brain, is well read, and knows the publishing industry. Do I take everything she suggests? Absolutely not, and vice versa. But the fact that we brainstorm, mull over plots, word ch...

Reflections on Today – My Birthday by Debra H. Goldstein ...

Reflections on Today – My Birthday by Debra H. Goldstein

Today is my birthday. It isn’t a special birthday, but it is another notch in my belt of life. Another year around the sun. And a reminder that the years seem to each be moving faster than the one before.

 

When I was a child, I devoured books. If it was hot outside, I preferred to be indoors, where it was cooler, reading. My mother felt that I needed to get out of the house and play for at least an hour on those hot days. I specifically r...

Author Goals

 by Bethany Maines

Each writer has their own reason for putting cursor to word doc, but in general it's because we have a story to tell. And as we develop the story, writers have to live outside the moment and wrap their heads around the entire plot. This goes double when it comes to writing a series.  An author has to keep all the little threads in mind as they write through the books. I've developed spreadsheets to track my characters and keep chapter by chapter synopsis' of each book for easy ...

Gay Yellen: Spotlight on Kathryn Lane

Today, I interview our own Stiletto Gang-sister, Kathryn Lane, award-winning author of the Nikki Garcia Mysteries. Missing in Miami, her fourth book in the series, has just been released.

Kathryn is a woman of many parts: artist, writer, and former international corporate executive, all of which provides rich background for her stories. What is it like to be a world traveler who solves crimes? Read on...

Gay: Kathryn, when your series begins, Nikki Garcia is a crackerjack forensic accountant, a ra...

Writer and Paper Organization

by Debra Sennefelder

 

We’re three months into the new year, and I’m reviewing the yearly goals I set in 2021. One has a check mark next to it – all done! And what a relief it is because it's the manuscript due to my editor in May. The other goals are either in progress or haven’t been started yet. So today, I thought I’d share one of my in-progress goals with you. Who’s up for a chat about paper organization?

I know. I hear the groaning. But it’s an important chat.

Back in the day, when I work...

Whose Story Is It?

 by Sparkle Abbey

At our most recent Sisters in Crime meeting the discussion topic was "Point of View." An easy technique for some writers, a more difficult one for others. 

Whether using first-person point of view as we do in our books, or third person which is very common in fiction writing, the choice of point of view is an important choice that a writer makes when beginning to tell a story. It will impact every other choice you make along the way. 

First person point of view is narrated by a ch...