Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 109

Existential angst? by Cathy Ace

Q: Publishers and agents usually ask you to compare your book to somebody else’s and want to know that you are up to date on what is popular at the moment. How much importance do you place in writing for the market?

Okay – three questions here, really – who am I “like”, and what’s popular – two very different questions, with a third, overarching query…

What other author’s works are my books “similar to”? I admit it, I’m HOPELESS at this game! Yes, yes, I know every author believes their work is ...

This Little Idiot Went to Market, This One Stayed Home

Publishers and agents usually ask you to compare your book to somebody else’s and want to know that you are up to date on what is popular at the moment. How much importance do you place in writing for the market?

From Frank

In case anyone feels offended by the title - I'm the idiot in both instances.

This going to be a short one this week, for a couple reasons. Here they are:

I don't have a publisher (except myself) or an agent, so right out of the chute, the first sentence doesn't apply to me, and;...

Who Doesn't Want to be Popular?

 Q: Publishers and agents usually ask you to compare your book to somebody else’s and want to know that you are up to date on what is popular at the moment. How much importance do you place in writing for the market?

 

-from Susan

 

Some agents are more tightly tied to today’s snapshot of what they think will sell to the acquiring editors they are closest to. But if your book is sold to a house, it will take 18 months to get to market anyway, during which the current trend may have changed to someth...

Guest Post: Imran Mahmood

 

This Friday, I'm delighted to introduce you to my good friend Imran Mahmood. Imran is a practicing barrister with almost 30 years' experience fighting cases in courtrooms across the country. He hails from Liverpool but now lives in London with his wife and daughters. His debut novel You Don't Know Me was longlisted for Theakston crime novel of the year and for the CWA Gold Dagger, and has been adapted for screen for the BBC in association with Netflix. 

When not in court or writing novels or scr...

Writing What I’ve Learned from Experience by James W. Ziskin

Have any experiences from your youth worked their way into your stories? How about other life experiences? Do you consciously select these in your writing or do they suddenly appear on the page?

This week’s question is easy. The answer is YES. Of course my experiences from youth and later on seep into my writing. It’s inevitable. And not just for me. I assume all writers mine their past for story ideas, one-liners, characters, and pithy observances.

In my Ellie Stone series, I placed my heroine in...

Giving it punch

Image by decrand from Pixabay

Have any experiences from your youth worked their way into your stories? How about other life experiences? Do you consciously select these in your writing or do they suddenly appear on the page?

by Dietrich

When I write about a time when I wasn’t alive, I still draw from personal experience, then I color it from a vivid imagination — whatever it takes to make the story believable. It may only be an aspect from actual experience — childhood, a job, some event, travels —...

Let Me Tell You a Story

 

Terry Shames here, answering our question of whether our personal experiences of worked their way into our stories, and if it is done consciously or does it happen “by magic.” 
When I was a kid I loved to visit my grandparents. The town I lived in, Lake Jackson, Texas, seemed fussy and constricted. It was a relatively new town, founded in the 1940s, to house the people who would work at the chemical plant in the next town. Except for the hoity-toity houses out at the lake, the houses in town wer...

When Life Becomes Fiction

Have any experiences from your youth worked their way into your stories? How about other life experiences? Do you consciously select these in your writing or do they suddenly appear on the page?

Brenda Chapman here.

My first series of books are the Jennifer Bannon mysteries for middle grade. Jennifer and her little sister Leslie are based on my own two daughters who were the same approximate ages when I wrote the stories. I also borrowed heavily from my own memories of childhood, particularly in t...

The Human Mambo by Josh Stallings

 Q: Would you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert? What strengths and/or weaknesses come with this personality type in regards to book publicity and marketing, and how do you mine your strengths?

A: Writing is by its nature an introverted job, long hours spent lost in my thoughts. Some days I only speak to the creatures in my head. People who know me find it odd when I say I used to be shy, comfortable in small groups of friends but crowds freaked me out. The idea of reading in front o...

Her name was Sally Canal . . .

 Introvert? I wish! 

If we take the dictionary definition of "introvert" - a shy, reticent person - then they are the lucky ones. Would a shy, reticent person spend the small hours after a book event tossing and turning wondering if they talked too much, shared too much, blabbed stuff they should have kept quiet about . . . ?

Do not draw attention to yourself

They would not. I do. Every time. "Oh my God! Why did I tell that joke?" "Oh my God! Why did I start that story?" "Oh my God, why didn't I ju...