Phillip T. Stephens's Blog: Wind Eggs, page 19
February 21, 2017
Passion, Poison and Puppy Dogs
Elizabeth Ashby, Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffans
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Three authors team up to deliver the tale of a dog-watcher and amateur sleuth tackling the murder of her best friend’s husband in Passion, Poison and Puppy Dogs. Sound familiar? Sure, it’s been done dozens of times. But don’t forget, this book features puppy dogs.
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An amateur sleuth tackles the murder of her best friend’s husband. Sound familiar? Sure, but this sleuth loves dogs.
Whenever I see a book written by committee, I think twice. Some teams have produced riveting novels, even series (I’m thinking of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child), but those partnerships are rare and I’ve never seen it work with three. The same goes for movies by committee. The results tend to produce common formulas and familiar tropes. Why? Because you now have three distinct styles and artistic tastes competing for attention. The need to compromise inevitably compromises the results.
Smith and Steffens always write as partners, and Ashby always writes with someone else (although she claims ownership of the Danger Cove series, of which this is book nine).
Art isn’t democracy, and I couldn’t avoid that feeling as I slogged through the pages of Puppy Dogs. I never disliked it, but I can’t help but feel I’d have put it aside were I not reviewing it. The book is solid, the writing competent, but sometimes solid doesn’t satisfy. You want special, and I felt nothing special about the book.
Art isn’t democracy, and I couldn’t avoid that feeling as I slogged through Puppy Dogs’ pages. I never disliked it, but I can’t help but feel I’d have put it aside were I not reviewing it.
Lizzie Jones sits pets, offers rules to fit any occasion and hopes her pet sitting job will one day earn enough money to send her to college. Her ambition, veterinary science. In the meantime, she pitches in with her grandfather Jimmy John and his girlfriend Fran, who runs an animal shelter. Her best friend Caroline, Fran’s niece, won the lottery. She married championship weight lifter Brodie McDougal, lives in a mansion, drives a Mercedes and lives the high life. Unfortunately, McDougal wants to divorce Caroline because he’s got the hots for someone else. So Caroline wants to go on a week-long shopping spree and bankrupt her husband, and that shopping spree includes an all-expenses paid live-in, house and pet sitting gig for Lizzie, where she happens to bump into Tino, the subdivision security guard, whom she hated in high school, but, boy, did he grow up sexy.
Wait, you ask, where’s the murder? Oh, that’s right. After the authors introduce readers to the joys comfy, cozy Danger Cove (the series’ location), the authors remember to kill McDougal, a murder Lizzie discovers (after lusting over Tino) only because the dogs alert her to the fact something’s wrong. The book returns to Danger Cove life almost immediately, and the pace continues. One part mystery, three parts life in Danger Cover.
When the authors hit the formula right, the book has its moments. The Viking funeral is one of the funniest scenes I’ve read, but once McDougal’s ashes come to rest the author’s returned to the same plodding plotting. The thrills don’t pick up again until Chapter 23, when .
I’d like to write this off as genre formula. Puppy Dogs is chick lit. Female readers tend to prefer more engagement with the characters and setting. Beware, however, Puppy Dogs is far more chick lit than mystery. The mystery serves more as a plot device to drive the characters. Unfortunately, the supporting characters such as the bank manager Abigail Harris, and the Dooley Brothers, town undertakers, deliver more entertainment than Lizzie and her entourage.
This is the only Danger Cove book I’ve read so I can’t say how well it matches up to others in the series. I suspect Danger Cove fans will still enjoy it. Readers of character-based mysteries will most likely be happy with it. Readers who love tight plotting, vivid characters and dialogue that drives the novel not stalls it should look for something else. Readers who want fast-paced action probably would click to another title as soon as they see the cute cover, and they’d be right.
Fans of Danger Cove may love this book, but if you are looking to make your entry into the series, I wouldn’t start with this one. Puppy Dogs proves that ancient adage—two collaborate; three muddy the waters.
Rating system:
2 Ts
Delicious dialogue, crisp prose, clever characters & compelling plot. (5 stars)
Fist
Great read, won’t want to stop. Some reviewers rate this 5 stars. (4 stars)
Okay
Worth buying, but…. (3 stars)
Meh…
I’ll tell you what audience will like this, but other readers might want to look elsewhere. (2 stars)
Shoot
If I review a book this bad, I felt seriously compelled to warn you. (1 star)
Phillip T. Stephens is the author of Cigerets, Guns & Beer, Raising Hell and the new release Seeing Jesus. You can follow him @stephens_pt.
Book Reviews
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February 17, 2017
Writer’s Craft: Managing Tension With Peaks and Troughs by Rayne Hall
Pacing is essential to great fiction, and Rayne Hall coins a great term “peaks and troughs” (valleys to Americans) to explain one technique to manage pacing in thrillers.
Her novel Storm Dancer a great example of pacing, and a great model for indie writers learning their craft. (Her writers’ craft series is excellent too.)
To learn more about peaks and troughs make sure to read her post for #MysteryThrillersWeek.
Tension is good. It makes the reader turn the pages. However, constant high tension soon gets dull. The readers can’t sustain continuous scared excitement, and after a while, instead of roused, they become bored.
It’s like the waves on a stormy sea: the peaks are only high because of the troughs between them. If there were only continuous peaks without any troughs, the sea would be flat.
Your job as writer is to create not just the peaks, but the troughs which make the peaks look high.
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Book Review: Cigerets, Guns & Beer by MTW Author Phillip T. Stephens
I don’t hustle my books, perhaps I should, but I wanted to share this review from Sherrie Marshall for #MysteryThrillerWeek #MTW. You should drop by to join the fun. https://mysterythrillerweek.com
Then, buy my book, and enjoy it as much as Sherrie.
I had the pleasure of turning page after page of Phillip T. Stephens’ Cigerets, Guns & Beer well into the wee hours of the morning just to discover what happened next to the quirky main character in this delightful Mystery.
Stephens’ protagonist named by his father as simply Dodd, no middle name and no discernible last name, is a lovable, if unlikely, hero who has recently been released from prison for committing a petty crime. He arrives in the opening scene with an intriguing background as a self-taught prison lawyer
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Murder in G Major
Alexia Gordon
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Alexia Gordon juggles Noel Coward and serial murder with Murder in G Major, the first installment in a series that combines ghosts, romance and murder. Readers may find the plot devices more strained than seamless, but for the most part the novel delivers everything readers expect: a solid plot, witty characters and plenty of twists.
I rarely find a genre book that sparkles like G Major. Gethsemane Brown will never challenge Philip Marlowe, but Gordon knows how to hook her readers.
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Murder in G Major combines ghosts, romance and murder with a solid plot, witty characters and plenty of twists.
Gethsemane Brown, a concert violinist reduced to teaching prep school orchestra, drops her luggage inside the front door to her new cottage. She drops her drink when world famous composer Eamon McCarthy introduces himself. The surprise? McCarthy murdered his wife Orla and committed suicide thirty years earlier.
Brown discovers that rivalries and grudges run deep in the sleepy Irish village of Dunmullach and that residents can’t wait to drag her in. Even an enterprise as noble as winning the All-County School Orchestra competition is motivated by the schoolmaster’s need to one-up and old rival. The school’s wealthy donor expects her to make his son the soloist, the principal wants her to attract funding for a new concert hall, and Eamon’s ghost wants her to prove he didn’t kill Orla.
Gordon spins plenty of intrigue to weave the story together. Disinterested cops, crooked ex-cops, abusers, adulterers and the discovery that Orla’s killer treats murders like Lay’s potato chips. S/he can’t stop at one.
Gordon spins plenty of intrigue: Disinterested cops, crooked ex-cops, abusers, adulterers and the discovery that Orla’s killer treats murders like Lay’s potato chips.
Gethsemane breaks into houses, explores crumbling ruins and ferrets through records in an abandoned hospital, all the while trying to avoid the wrath of Inspector O’Reilly, who demands evidence instead of conjecture. She juggles the responsibility of a thorough investigation with the responsibility of preparing an neophyte orchestra and it’s unreliable soloist for a competition her principal expects her to win.
In spite of the many subplots, Gordon never fumbles the main story, Eamon’s request that Gethsemane prove his innocence. Gordon dreams up plenty of ghostly tricks that allow Eamon to interact with Gethsemane, unfortunately they lack the impact of watching the same effects on-screen with 3D cgi.
Gordon impresses as a writer and delivers a complex and entertaining story. Sadly, Murder in G Major remains little more than eye candy. She never deviates from the formula and the pieces fall into place exactly like they’re supposed to.
Gordon impresses as a writer and delivers a complex and entertaining story. Even so, Murder in G Major offers little more than eye candy.
**Spoiler Alert:** Readers who demand that romance blossom should find another book. Gordon teases readers with three possible suitors for Gethsemane, including our ghost, but no one shows any serious interest in hanky pinky beyond, possibly, murder. This shouldn’t keep romance readers away, but it probably won’t reassure make readers who suspect, correctly, Murder in G Major is primarily chick lit. (Tough it up, boys. It’s worth it.)
I find it difficult to rate Murder in G Major. It will never become a classic of noir or even of light mystery literature (such as The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie). Yet, it stands out from so many other genre books I rate four stars that I hate to associate them. Gordon’s first book is slick and professional, in many ways more so than writers like Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwall.
If you find you’re not ready to pick up Z is for Zapped, you’ll find Murder in G Minor a refreshing break.
I posted this review as a contribution to the premiere of #MysteryThrillerWeek. Join the fun.
Rating system:
2 Ts
Delicious dialogue, crisp prose, clever characters & compelling plot. (5 stars)
Fist
Great read, won’t want to stop. Some reviewers rate this 5 stars. (4 stars)
Okay
Worth buying, but…. (3 stars)
Meh…
I’ll tell you what audience will like this, but other readers might want to look elsewhere. (2 stars)
Shoot
If I review a book this bad, I felt seriously compelled to warn you. (1 star)
Phillip T. Stephens is the author of Cigerets, Guns & Beer, Raising Hell and the new release Seeing Jesus. You can follow him @stephens_pt.
Book Reviews
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check out my books at Amazon.com
February 15, 2017
Writing flash fiction – a challenge or a chore? – Guest post by Geoff Le Pard…
Flash fiction hones your writing skills. You’d be surprised how much of your other work you discover you can cut once you master the skill.
Capsulizing your thoughts into 50 or a hundred words forces you to reduce your story to its essence. You discover the same skill will teach you to hone your pitches. (In fact, when I taught writing, I required my students to reduce every article they researched to a single sentence and include their summaries with every assignment.)
One tip: Every story has a setup and climax. Write each in a sentence. You’re on your way.
Geoff Le Pard shares his thoughts on the art of flash fiction.
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
Licence for use obtained – Copyright: amasterpics123 123RF Stock Photo
When I started blogging in 2014 one thing I discovered pretty much immediately was flash fiction. I came to blogging to enhance my writing. Up to then my focus had been predominantly novels and, to a lesser extent, poetry. I tried a few short stories, about 5000 words but, if I had heard of flash fiction I certainly hadn’t given it any thought.
To begin with I thought it gimmicky. How can you write a story in so few words? I knew of Hemmingway’s famous (though maybe apocryphal) 6 word story: ‘For sale, baby shoes, never worn’. Which was very clever and all that, but surely there couldn’t be a meaningful structure that could constitute the super short story?
Still, I mused, if so many were trying it, where was the harm? After all, one of my personal challenges is…
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On Themes: How To Incorporate Time In Your Novels
My only rule when it comes to time in novels: It doesn’t exist. (Some physicists claim time doesn’t exist in reality.)
You decide how the reader perceives time in fiction. Manage the illusion well and your reader is trapped in the flow of your words. Manage it poorly and your reader may look for other reasons not to like it.
Rachel Poli shares her tips on time.
Time is weird. It flies by when we’re having fun, yet the weeks drag on. Something can happen in the blink of an eye, yet certain situations seem to last forever. We wish we had more time in the things we do, but we always waste the time we have.
When it comes to talking about time in our novels, it’s not exactly as easy as you would think.
Time, in my opinion, is probably a theme in every novel you’ve written or read. It may not always be noticeable, but think about it: everything that happens, happens in time.
Time can either be used for or against the protagonist. Time can just be present because… well, time isalways present no matter what. Time can be subtle, time can be noticed. There are a lot of different ways you can use time in your novels whether you’re advancing the…
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Children of the Future
Jane Suen
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Think of Children of the Future as X-Files Lite. Author Jane Suen presents readers with a mystery—the children and teachers in Rocky Flats’ rural school disappear without a trace. Her hero, Telly, frantically tracks them down with the help of Billy, the school’s lone survivor.
Throw in footprints that stop suddenly in a clearing, a remote warehouse filled with black SUVs, citizens convinced the students were abducted by aliens and readers begin to wonder if ET will appear before the book ends. (No spoiler alert here, Suen’s wants you to wonder.)
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Jane Suen’s inaugural novel features a frantic bus driver and a school whose students disappear.
Telly, the school’s bus driver, grows more and more frantic as each lead crumbles to dust. While police organize search parties and grids, he drives farther and farther from Rocky Flats looking for answers. When everyone believes they’ve solved the mystery, someone abducts Telly.
Suen creates a tight storyline, with plenty of tension in the beat points. When the abductors finally appear, however, her tightly constructed narrative deflates—at least for readers who demand a sharper edge. Those who prefer sugar-coated endings won’t notice.
Readers may also find themselves puzzled by the novel’s last chapter, more so perhaps the last paragraph. Suen tosses in a closing so abrupt, so out of character for her writing, readers may wonder (as I do) if the eBook file didn’t drop a few pages.
That single last paragraph, however, might also turn the book around like a Twilight Zone twist ending, and make readers rethink her narrative. If this were her intention, her novice writing skills undermined the outcome.
Children of the Future showcases Suen’s inexperience in almost every respect. Her prose is dull, dull, dull. Very little dialogue, full page paragraphs, and (when she uses it) stumbling dialogue. She forces readers to plod through wearisome salutations in every scene (“Hello,Telly,” Hello, Sally”), unnecessary information and segues (“Bye. I’m leaving now.”) and constant replays of earlier scenes as the characters ceaselessly update each other on the past few pages.
We might be able to forgive Suen—it’s her first book—but too many other first novels deliver compelling prose and vivid characterizations. Reading Children of the Future made me appreciate the complaints of reviewers who want overly restrictive gatekeepers to screen indie writers.
Suen can craft a good outline, but she needs a good editor or time with experienced writers who won’t simply pat her on the back for her efforts so far. Suen can craft a good outline, but she needs a good editor or time with experienced writers who won’t simply pat her on the back for her efforts so far. I hope she does. Where her talent breaks through, it shines. With a good mentor, I think she’ll produce four-star indie thrillers.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t read Children of the Future; I’m saying if you read books for scintillating prose as well as the story, you’ll probably close this one after the second or third chapter.
Download the sample. If you can tolerate her narrative style, you’ll like the book. If her writing annoys you as much as it did me, it won’t be worth the effort to finish the book.
I posted this review as a contribution to the premiere of #MysteryThrillerWeek. Join the fun.
Rating system:
2 Ts
Delicious dialogue, crisp prose, clever characters & compelling plot. (5 stars)
Fist
Great read, won’t want to stop. Some reviewers rate this 5 stars. (4 stars)
Okay
Worth buying, but…. (3 stars)
Meh…
I’ll tell you what audience will like this, but other readers might want to look elsewhere. (2 stars)
Shoot
If I review a book this bad, I felt seriously compelled to warn you. (1 star)
Phillip T. Stephens is the author of Cigerets, Guns & Beer, Raising Hell and the new release Seeing Jesus. You can follow him @stephens_pt.
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February 14, 2017
First Line Fishing Trip: Input Requested
#AmWriting #Writing #WriteChat #Mystery #Thriller
The lead time to hooking readers shrinks monthly. In the sixties, readers would read the first few chapters before bailing on a book. During the sixties, however, the industry published twenty or thirty thousand books each year.
In 2014 the industry produced more than a million traditionally and independently published books. Many of them look the same. Buyers can’t afford to read past the first few pages. If a book doesn’t hit their sweet spot immediately, they move on. Hooking the reader by the end of the first chapter becomes a losing strategy. You need to hook your readers in the first paragraph, better yet the first line.
Buyers can no longer afford to read past the first few pages. If a book doesn’t hit their sweet spot immediately, they move on.
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Which line hooks you? I wrote this five lines as the leading contenders to open a novel about a physician accused of murdering his wife. I’d appreciate it if you mentioned the one that grabs you most in the comments section.
I used to revise the first paragraph as many as six times to get the hook right, but I realized revising kept me focused on variations of the line I’d already written. I’m trying a new strategy, brainstorming multiple opening lines. (When I did design work I would draw as many as 50 thumbnails and encouraged my design students to draw at least 20.)
I’m starting a novel that’s a cross between Body Heat and Presumed Innocent. A celebrity surgeon, whose wife died in a car wreck, discovers someone wants to make it look like he murdered her. I wrote several lines, but settled on these as the best five:
I knew she was gone when the car exploded.
I would have pulled her from the car if Cole’s hand wasn’t wrapped around my ankle.
In the distance I heard sirens. Silly me, for a moment I felt hope.
Blood spread through her blonde hair as she slumped across the wheel. Even so, I thought she stood a chance.
You never expect to see your dead wife staring through her shattered windshield.
I’ll continue to tweak and tinker. but I’m curious to see which would hook you to read further?
I’d really appreciate your advice in the comments: 1-5 or “none?”
Book Reviews
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February 13, 2017
#amwriting: What Editors Want
An editor’s job is to make your writing better, right? Wrong. At least not the editors who work for publishers. Your job is to deliver writing the publication can’t turn away, and the editor’s job is to screen out writers who miss the mark. If you don’t know what a publisher wants, you won’t make it past the gate.
Connie Jasperson explains….
Yes, they’re called gatekeepers, but they do serve a purpose.
Today we are discussing a particular kind of editor: the submissions editor. When I first began this journey, I didn’t understand how specifically you have to tailor your submissions when it comes to literary magazines, contests, and anthologies. Each publication has a specific market of readers, and their editors look for new works their target market will buy.
In the publishing world, there are several different kinds of editors: line editors, structural editors, submissions editors, and so on. Each does a specific job within the industry. When you look at the annual salaries, you can see that none of these jobs pay well, so it’s clear that, while they like to eat and pay the mortgage as much as any other person, editors in all areas of publishing work in the industry because they love a good story.
I’m just going to lay it out there for you: it’s not worth…
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Ultraxenopia
M.A. Phipps
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Spoiler Alert: Author M.A. Phipps wrote Ultraxenopia as volume one of her Project W.A.R. series. Many series books end with a minor climax to tie up this installment then prepare readers for the next installment. Phipps ends Ultraxenopia with an unresolved cliffhanger. As with Empire Strikes Back, you’ll need to pony up for the next installment to find out if her heroine, Wynter, prevails.
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M.A. Phipps launches her two volume Project War series with Ultraxenopia.
Alas, Phipps is no George Lucas and readers might not find Ultraxenopia as compelling as viewers found Empire. I felt no rush to buy volume two. Phipps delivers a tight, engrossing narrative that pushed me through the book in three sittings. However, the realization, with two chapters remaining, that the storyline would continue elsewhere, knocked the wind out of my sails.
The realization, with two chapters remaining, that the storyline would continue elsewhere, knocked the wind out of my reading sails.
(Don’t let my reaction discourage you. Many readers enjoy reading an entire series and, as far as I can tell, Phipps ends the series with volume two, Type X.)
Phipps blends a number of familiar concepts into Ultraxenopic’s storyline: dystopian society, rebel resistance, super soldier experiments, psychic warfare. From those familiar pieces, she weaves a fresh and compelling narrative.
Wynter Reeves breaks down during her mandatory exams, suffering a psychic episode that leaves her with an apocalyptic vision of the future. Her breakdown triggers a security alert, and her family surrenders her to Dr. Richter and his lab.
Richter suspects Wynter can time-shift— project psychically to the future. Hoping to tap into her visions, he subjects her to months of excruciating experiments during which she develops the power to psychically cripple everyone who threatens her.
Wynter escapes and seeks refuge with a local resistance group, only to experience accelerating time-shifts. Even worse, her powers grow too, and she can’t control them. She suspects Richter planned to turn her into a weapon, a suspicion confirmed when her time shifts indicate she will be the weapon that ushers in the apocalypse.
Phipps wrote Ultraxenopia for paranormal romance readers, and the book delivers everything the genre demands.
Phipps wrote Ultraxenopia for paranormal romance readers, and the book delivers everything the genre demands. She doesn’t sacrifice formula for professionalism, writing with clear, crisp prose. She proves equally adept at developing romantic tension, detailing a dystopian future and writing action scenes to satisfy readers who demand action more than star-eyed romance.
What she fails to deliver is the apocalypse or any assurance that Winter isn’t the monster she believes Richter wanted. For that, you have to buy Book Two.
I posted this review as a contribution to the premiere of #MysteryThrillerWeek. Join the fun.
Rating system:
2 Ts
Delicious dialogue, crisp prose, clever characters & compelling plot. (5 stars)
Fist
Great read, won’t want to stop. On a par with some reviewers’ 5 stars. (4 stars)
Okay
Worth buying, but…. (3 stars)
Meh…
I’ll tell you what audience will like this, but other readers might want to look elsewhere. (2 stars)
Shoot
If I review a book this bad, I felt seriously compelled to warn you. (1 star)
Phillip T. Stephens is the author of Cigerets, Guns & Beer, Raising Hell and the new release Seeing Jesus. You can follow him @stephens_pt.
Book Reviews
| | |
check out my books at Amazon.com
Wind Eggs
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