Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 106

The Non-Writing Writing Life

 Q: Do you have hobbies outside of your writing life? Tell about them. Do they feed your writing life? Do they get your mind off your current projects and their attendant frustrations? Do they satisfy a different part of you than is satisfied by your writing?

-from Susan

 

Absolutely. There may be writers who live solely for and within their writing, but that doesn’t sound healthy to me. I have grandchildren. I have cats. I have a garden. I also have friends, a love of music and fine art, a sometim...

Spectacular and Stupendous

By Abir 

Do you read books outside your usual interest? For example, do you read award-winning books out of curiosity, even if they aren’t your usual type of book? If you usually read thrillers, would you try a cozy if it was highly recommended? And vice versa?

Morning! It’s Friday again, but this Friday is different to the eighty odd Fridays before it. This Friday is special, because this Friday I am attending – in person - my first crime fiction festival in over a year. And not just any festival...

Grumbling, but succumbing - a guest post by Linda Lovely

Do you read books outside your usual interest? For example, do you read award-winning books out of curiosity, even if they aren’t your usual type of book? If you usually read thrillers, would you try a cozy if it was highly recommended? And vice versa?

Catriona writes: It is my intense pleasure today to welcome back a good friend of Criminal Minds: Linda Lovely. (Yes, that is her real name. If one were a romance writer, it would be the perfect pseudonym, but as a passionate writer and reader of ...

Come Into My Garden... by Cathy Ace

QUESTION: Do you have hobbies outside of your writing life? Tell about them. Do they feed your writing life? Do they get your mind off your current projects and their attendant frustrations? Do they satisfy a different part of you than is satisfied by your writing?

Hello, my name’s Cathy, and I’m a gardener.

Ask anyone who says they’re a gardener if they're ever satisfied with their gardening efforts and their answer will probably be, “No”. There’s always something more to do, something you wan...

Never not Reading

Image by futureprimitive

Do you read books outside your usual interest? For example, do you read award-winning books out of curiosity, even if they aren’t your usual type of book? If you usually read thrillers, would you try a cozy if it was highly recommended? And vice versa?

by Dietrich

A book is more about the quality of the writing than its label or genre. While I read a lot of crime fiction, I won’t say no to something dystopian if its in the caliber of Margaret Atwood or George Orwell. Or his...

Everything Under the Sun

 

Terry Shames answering our question of the week: 
 Do you read books outside your usual interest? For example, do you read award-winning books out of curiosity, even if they aren’t your usual type of book? If you usually read thrillers, would you try a cozy if it was highly recommended? And vice versa? 
 The big answer is: I read everything. At any given time, I may be reading a book of mainstream fiction, a mystery novel, and a book of classic fiction. Like now, when I’m reading The Invisible Li...

Casting a Wide Net

Do you read books outside your usual interest? For example, do you read award-winning books out of curiosity, even if they aren’t your usual type of book? If you usually read thrillers, would you try a cozy if it was highly recommended? And vice versa?

Brenda Chapman here. A fun question this week.

I've been a reader of pretty much everything I can get my hands on since I figured out how to sound out words on paper ... and that came with its own challenges. I remember in grade one getting into tro...

Don’t Write For Free, by Josh Stallings

 

Q: “I recently heard a comment that the big publishers are trying to hold onto an old model of publishing that doesn’t work so well anymore. Is this true? Why doesn’t it work, and how could the model be changed?”

A: I self-published books in the early days of that movement. I have been published by a micro publisher, and (currently by) a stellar independent publisher. I have good friends who have been published in every way possible. With my lack of experience with legacy publishing houses, I’ll...

A Close Call, by Catriona

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: I recently heard a comment that the big publishers are trying to hold onto an old model of publishing that doesn’t work so well anymore. Is this true? Why doesn’t it work, and how could the model be changed?

As so often happens, I am going to refer you back to Cathy's magisterial answer from yesterday for a wealth of infomarion and clarity.

And when you come back . . . here's what I've got to say.

A few days ago, someone on Twitter sent me this: 

"I appreciate your work very mu...

Big Question = Big Girl Panties... by Cathy Ace

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: I recently heard a comment that the big publishers are trying to hold onto an old model of publishing that doesn’t work so well anymore. Is this true? Why doesn’t it work, and how could the model be changed?

Yikes! Pulls up Big Girl Panties to try to give a serious response…

The “old” model of publishing boils down to this: writer – agent – publisher – bookseller/library. The writer puts in the months of sweat and tears to create a manuscript; the agent punts that about amo...