Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 102

A Darling Teenager Stole My Heart

 Q: Show us your darlings. Give us five or ten lines of your own work that you think shine.

-from Susan

 

Ask something hard, why don’t you? Set us up to shoot us down. Expose our fragile egos, thank you. In addition to that kind of uncomfortable question, there’s something else lurking for me. Which series? Which book? Which character? “Tell me, Ms. Shea, which of your children is your favorite?”

 

Okay, then. Maybe this shines for me because this character in LOVE & DEATH IN BURGUNDY won my heart a...

We Are Not A-muse-d

 by Abir

Do you have a muse? Or a happy place that gives you inspiration? An ideal reader, perhaps. What gets you inspired to write?

Interesting question this week.

 

I’ve always thought of muses as something that poets, playwrights and painters have. A beautiful, vivacious creature who breathes life into the soul of the flinty, shrivelled up husk of an artiste. Crime fiction writers – now we’re cut from a different stone; granite or maybe obsidian. We’re tough, no-nonsense types. We like our drinks...

Sing, O Muse from James W. Ziskin

Do you have a muse? Or a happy place that gives you inspiration? An ideal reader, perhaps. What gets you inspired to write?

It’s so easy to put off writing. I often find myself tempted to watch a TV show or read a book. Or take in a football game. Writing’s hard work, after all. Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? 

Deadlines, that’s why.

1. Deadlines are one of my most powerful muses. When you don’t have the luxury to procrastinate, you get it done. This is why I don’t believe in write...

Between the Pages

Image by Yuri B Do you have a muse? Or a happy place that gives you inspiration? An ideal reader, perhaps. What gets you inspired to write?

by Dietrich

Getting up in the morning, I fix a coffee and show up in my writing space. The muse rolls in around the time I sit at my desk and dial up the creative. I put on music that works with the rhythm of whatever I’m going to be writing.

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what the...

Writing in Chaos

Terry here: This week's question is about muses and happy places to write, and writing inspirations. I’m not sure I’ve ever drawn such a blank when facing a blog subject. Probably because my writing life is in a shambles. An explanation is in order: August 1, we moved from Berkeley to Los Angeles (yeah, I know, everybody we tell that to is dumbfounded). 
But we didn’t move into a permanent house; we moved into a temporary rental until we can find a house to buy. For various reasons it was a T...

Finding Inspiration

Do you have a muse? Or a happy place that gives you inspiration? An ideal reader, perhaps. What gets you inspired to write?

Brenda Chapman at the keyboard today.

Where do I get my inspiration to write? I believe my friends and family (particularly my husband) would also like to know where I get the inspiration to write about crime, but that's a different question altogether :-) 

I've had this love for reading and stories ever since I can remember. I could spend hours straight immersed in a book, or...

Will We Be Making Lanyards? By Josh Stallings

 Q: You’re organizing a writers retreat with some fellow authors. Friends, perhaps? Describe the plan, the setting, the food, the drinks, and the results. And, of course, who gets murdered…

One of my favorite writing experiences was in the creation of All The Wild Children, a Noir Memoir. It was a writing process for me like none I’d had before or since. 

It started in a two hour long summer camp class I taught on killing the inner critic and freeing the creative self. It involved a technique call...

Calm and Colesterol - Catriona's dream retreat

Q:  You’re organizing a writers retreat with some fellow authors. Friends, perhaps? Describe the plan, the setting, the food, the drinks, and the results. And, of course, who gets murdered…

I've never been on a writers' retreat. This is because my actual life is more like a retreat than any retreat I've seen: I live in the country, in a house empty all day*, with a quiet study to work in, multiple comfortable reading nooks, and a usually-willing cook who arrives in the evening.

*pre-COVID. Now m...

Clue - Do by Cathy Ace

You’re organizing a writers retreat with some fellow authors. Friends, perhaps? Describe the plan, the setting, the food, the drinks, and the results. And, of course, who gets murdered…

Oh, what fun...I think. 

I'll admit I've never been on a writers' retreat...I'm not really a "retreat" sort of person, because, frankly, anything that takes me away from the company of my husband is something I consider very carefully, and I'm not convinced that trying to write anywhere but my known, home environme...

A Collaboration Retreat

Q: You’re organizing a writers retreat with some fellow authors. Friends, perhaps? Describe the plan, the setting, the food, the drinks, and the results. And, of course, who gets murdered…

From Frank

Now, this is interesting. Who to invite? There are so many possibilities...

But what if I only invited authors who I've collaborated with? Now, I've gotten along famously with all of them but would they get along with each other? And did we actually get along or do they harbor secret grudges against me...