Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 163

Late to the Party

....but glad to be invited.

Hello blog readers! I am Frank Zafiro.

I have to admit, I was sorely tempted to write only 'SSIA', and call it a post. A bold move, I know, but in the end, not one that would endear me to most of you right out of the chute. So this is a more traditional introduction to your newest every-other-Tuesday member of Criminal Minds.
The first thing I tell most people is that I am a retired cop, having served on the Spokane Police Department for twenty years. I either did or...

A Personal Tour Guide

Q: When it comes to creating a sense of place in your work, how do you do it? (Research and real places? Invention and fictional ones?) What’s worked for you, and what hasn’t?

-from Susan

The places that resonate most for me are the ones I can create most successfully. They're places I love, have explored, can see, taste, smell, hear. I may fictionalize them but they're not made up and don't rely on Google Earth or tourist brochures to live in my head. 

My characters demand the right w...

Becoming Brand New

By Abir

If you could be really good at one part of the business side of your career, what would it be? (Being a better speaker? Being better at organizing your events? Being a promotion god?)

It’s funny. In all the time you spend before becoming a published author: in writing your manuscripts; contacting agents; fielding rejections; finally getting signed by one; getting rejected by a bunch of publishers; and then, ultimately comes that blessed day when somebody agrees to publish your first nov...

You’re Getting Very Sleepy...

If you could be really good at one part of the business side of your career, what would it be? (Being a better speaker? Being better at organizing your events? Being a promotion god?)

From Jim

It doesn’t seem fair, does it? Writers write, but they also have to excel at promotion. Speaking, signing events, giveaways, etc. If we wanted to do those things we wouldn’t have become writers in the first place.

I suppose every profession requires some element of promotion. Just look at all those ambulan...

Taking care of business

If you could be really good at one part of the business side of your career, what would it be? (Being a better speaker? Being better at organizing your events? Being a promotion god?)
by Dietrich
I try to stay open to ways of improving on the business side of things. When some way new comes along I may want to try it or find out more, but sometimes it just comes down to a question of balancing time for all the other things, like the writing.
It’s good to get out there and participate in reading...

I bid you adieu

By R.J. Harlick
When I headed out on this writing adventure more than twenty years ago, twenty-three to be exact, I had no idea where it would take me. I only knew it was time to see if I could fulfill my lifelong dream of writing a book.  I had reached a significant birthday and decided it was now or never. 
I sat down in the screen porch of my log cabin on a hot summer day and started plunking away on my computer with little more than a rough idea of a main character and an unf...

On the Road to Super Stardom. by Brenda Chapman

Question: If you could be really good at one part of the business side of your career, what would it be? (Being a better speaker? Being better at organizing your events? Being a promotion god?)
Nobody warns you going into this business that once published, you must teach yourself to become a marketing genius, an accomplished guest speaker, the Bill Gates of social media, an event planner the Kardashians would hire, and a rival to used car salesmen across the nation. They don't reveal that you'...

The Road to Writing Riches – HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!

How often do you step back and take stock of where you are in your writing life and where you want to go? Is this a New Year’s only thing, or do you do it more often?

by Paul D. Marks

My wife, Amy, tells me I’m constantly taking stock of things. Probably more in where I want to go than where I am. Where I want to go is to the top of the New York Times best seller list. Of course, I have no idea how to get there. Unless you have a big publisher who puts a big push behind you there really isn’t a...

Taking Stock and Paying Dividends

Click to buy
How often do you step back and take stock of where you are in your writing life and where you want to go? Is this a New Year’s only thing, or do you do it more often? 

From Jim

Filling in for Catriona this week. Returning her favor from last week when she was celebrating the launch of her latest Last Ditch mystery featuring Lexy Campbell, SCOT & SODA. Here I am enjoying Catriona’s magnum opus with my highbrow, bookish face. Actually, I should be laughing in this photo. The...

Reading the runes by Cathy Ace

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