June Shaw's Blog, page 9
August 26, 2015
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger Rocks!
by Jackie King
Long before I decided to write, I was a reader. I still am. I love everything about all books. Especially mysteries.
Books made of paper rock: their smell, their feel, their bright covers. Most of all, I love losing myself in a new world created by a gifted writer.
Virtual books rock: the ability to read the story immediately; the capability to make print larger for my aging eyes; the convenience of being able to read in dark places. Most of all, I love disappearing into a new dom...
Long before I decided to write, I was a reader. I still am. I love everything about all books. Especially mysteries.
Books made of paper rock: their smell, their feel, their bright covers. Most of all, I love losing myself in a new world created by a gifted writer.
Virtual books rock: the ability to read the story immediately; the capability to make print larger for my aging eyes; the convenience of being able to read in dark places. Most of all, I love disappearing into a new dom...
August 24, 2015
Kim Jong-un and Me by Bill Kirton
At last, the breakthrough! After all these years of writing all sorts of things, fame and riches are within reach. All I have to do is play my cards right and undertake an admittedly tricky piece of international diplomacy.Let’s get the facts straight first. Kim Jong-un is a very nice man, a very nice man indeed. Yes, yes, we all know he’s First Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, Supreme Leader, blah, blah, blah but I’m betting he’s basica...
August 20, 2015
The Need to Write Every Day
When I sat down to write, I thought of a long ago interview with bestselling romance novelist Parris Afton Bonds for my book, Maverick Writers. Bonds emphasized the need for writers to write every day. The mother of five lively sons, she wrote between diaper changes as well as on the job, which cost her several secretarial positions before she decided to write full time.
“I write when I’m sick,” she said, “and even as I shove that turkey into the oven on Thanksgiving and Christmas. T...
“I write when I’m sick,” she said, “and even as I shove that turkey into the oven on Thanksgiving and Christmas. T...
August 18, 2015
Allingham, Simenon, and...Me?
by Carola
I've been keeping distinguished company lately. The Daily Mail, one of England's national newspapers, had a column of suggestions for summer reading, under the heading Classic Crime.
First came Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke. Allingham's name is familiar to anyone who enjoys the mystery fiction of the so-called Golden Age. Her protagonist, Albert Campion, is similar to Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey in that he has an upper-class background and hides his keen brain behi...
I've been keeping distinguished company lately. The Daily Mail, one of England's national newspapers, had a column of suggestions for summer reading, under the heading Classic Crime.
First came Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke. Allingham's name is familiar to anyone who enjoys the mystery fiction of the so-called Golden Age. Her protagonist, Albert Campion, is similar to Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey in that he has an upper-class background and hides his keen brain behi...
August 12, 2015
The Importance of First Sentences
by Jackie King
Are first sentences really that important? This topic is often discussed in a group called Smart Women Writers. One very successful author suggested that writers shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about the first line, since all lines were important. Good point. But I still sweat over those first few words.
One writer posed this question to members: “What’s the all-time favorite first line that you’ve written?”
That writer’s name is Susan Shay, author of BLIND SIGHT, MAKE ME H...
Are first sentences really that important? This topic is often discussed in a group called Smart Women Writers. One very successful author suggested that writers shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about the first line, since all lines were important. Good point. But I still sweat over those first few words.
One writer posed this question to members: “What’s the all-time favorite first line that you’ve written?”
That writer’s name is Susan Shay, author of BLIND SIGHT, MAKE ME H...
August 10, 2015
CSI in the 18th century by Bill Kirton
Leith HallSome months ago, I thought that James Abernethy of Mayen had done me a great favour on December 21st 1763. That was the day he, John Leith, the Laird of Leith Hall in Aberdeenshire, and several others were in a pub carousing (I think that was what they called it at the time), and it degenerated into a brawl. They went outside, Abernethy shot Leith in the head and he died on Christmas Day. It seems that, on several occasions since then, John has appeared as one of the many ghosts whi...
August 6, 2015
The History of Mystery
by Jean Henry Mead
Edgar Allen Poe started it all with his first detective story, but as Carolyn Wheat asks in her book, How to Write Killer Fiction, "What’s happened to the mystery genre since [Sherlock] Holmes hung up his deerstalker hat and started keeping bees?”
Wheat states that mysteries have been split into three distinct strands: the classic whodunit, the American hard-boiled detective story and the procedural. She divides up the whodunit category into the regional myste...
August 5, 2015
Badly formatted Kindle
by Carola
I found out via Amazon reviews (which I don't usually check) that the UK Kindle edition of Superfluous Women is really badly formatted. My apologies to everyone who's bought it. I've notified the publisher and hope they'll soon rectify it, and that you'll be able to download an update free. I was going to say in the meantime please complain to Little, Brown, who took over my UK publisher, Constable--but I've just looked and their site is down.
Happily, most people have given it...
I found out via Amazon reviews (which I don't usually check) that the UK Kindle edition of Superfluous Women is really badly formatted. My apologies to everyone who's bought it. I've notified the publisher and hope they'll soon rectify it, and that you'll be able to download an update free. I was going to say in the meantime please complain to Little, Brown, who took over my UK publisher, Constable--but I've just looked and their site is down.
Happily, most people have given it...
July 27, 2015
Guest Interview. Michael J Malone
My good friend, Michael J Malone, has so far only got two books out in his Glasgow-set series featuring his detective, D.I. Ray McBain. The first is Blood Tears and it has everything you’d want of a crime novel set in Scotland – a plot full of twists, issues triggered by human relationships, plenty of darkness, and plenty of laughs, too. Everyone says the second novel’s harder to write than the first so when I chatted with Michael, that was what prompted my questions.OK Michael. Tell us about...
July 22, 2015
The Shame of Forgetting to Take Your Own Advice
by Jackie King
There are two writing challenges I’m facing just now. The first is creating a protagonist (heroine, in this case) for a new series I’m trying to concoct. The second is working with old characters in order to get my current work to the publisher.
Creating new characters is pure fun. Playing with those who have been around for a few years can sometimes be a bit tedious. These fictitious folk have had time to develop an attitude. To add insult to injury, I fear they learned thi...
There are two writing challenges I’m facing just now. The first is creating a protagonist (heroine, in this case) for a new series I’m trying to concoct. The second is working with old characters in order to get my current work to the publisher.
Creating new characters is pure fun. Playing with those who have been around for a few years can sometimes be a bit tedious. These fictitious folk have had time to develop an attitude. To add insult to injury, I fear they learned thi...
