Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 164

Where Am I?

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

Dreaming the Next Thing

Q: 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 Susan
Good question. I do it fairly often, usually because I’ve just submitted a manuscript and I’m in a bit of a fallow stage, or because I realize I need to go in a new direction to keep editors interested, or because I realize that time is passing and there’s more I want to say through my writing. 
Compa...

Still Paddling in the Shallow End

By Abir
"Has your approach to writing changed during the time you’ve been published? What was the change in response to? Or, if not, have you considered other approaches and rejected them? What were they, and why?"
I was asking myself a related question about a week ago. Not so much, has my writing changed, but rather should it change?
What prompted it? Possibly that I’ve just put the finishing touches to the fourth novel in the Wyndham and Banerjee series and am about to commence on the fi...

Confessions of a laid-back control-freak

"Has your approach to writing changed during the time you’ve been published? What was the change in response to? Or, if not, have you considered other approaches and rejected them? What were they, and why?"
By Catriona. 
Not Jim. 
Because I'm blogging my buns off for publication week:
available now at Indiebound, B&N, Amazon or Avid Reader
(where I can sign it for you at the party on Friday night)Scot and Soda is my twenty-fourth published novel (twenty-five to twenty-seven...

On a Roll

Has your approach to writing changed during the time you’ve been published? What was the change in response to? Or, if not, have you considered other approaches and rejected them? What were they, and why?
by Dietrich
There are times I think it’s best to stick to what works, and then there are times I want to try something new. 
Since I started writing the process has become easier. Confidence came along, and I generally know when I’ve got it right. I’ve also learned to recognize when it’s t...

Still a pantser.

By R.J. Harlick
Has your approach to writing changed during the time you’ve been published? What was the change in response to? Or, if not, have you considered other approaches and rejected them? What were they, and why?
The first book took a year to write. I suppose I should really say the first draft of the first book. It still takes me about a year to write a first draft, including time off to recharge the creative juices. 
But with the first book, I did several major rewrites, four in a...

Zeroing In by Brenda Chapman

Question: Has your approach to writing changed during the time you’ve been published? What was the change in response to? Or, if not, have you considered other approaches and rejected them? What were they, and why?
The major change in my approach to writing since I've been published has been to  focus on a specific market. I began writing books to satisfy my desire to create and this hasn't changed. I also wanted to experiment and to push myself artistically and I continue to do both...

Separating the Art from the Artist

Regarding AJ Finn (Dan Mallory) and his blatant lies, how important is an author’s personal ethics in your regard for his or her work? Knowing about Mallory’s public lies, would you still read his book?

by Paul D. Marks

Well, the point in this particular instance is moot since I read the book well before the controversy broke. So I can’t say 100% for sure if I would have read it had I known about all of Mallory’s shenanigans. I might still have wanted to read it, though maybe I wouldn’t have wa...

Can We Ever Forgive Them?

"Regarding AJ Finn (Dan Mallory) and his blatant lies, how important is an author’s personal ethics in your regard for his or her work? Knowing about Mallory’s lies, would you still read his book?"

By Catriona

Short answer: I had AJ Finn's novel on my TBR file when the story broke. It's in the SPCA thrift store now, unread.

Longer answer: I had no problem going to see Can You Ever Forgive Me? and then buying the book, knowing that Lee Israel's heir(s), whoever they are, will be benefitting from...

Left Coast Crime 2019 by Cathy Ace (Toastmaster!)

I think Terry’s response yesterday to this week's question is pretty much along the lines I’d have adopted…but…since I have just returned home from Left Coast Crime, Vancouver 2019: Whale of a Crime, where I was honoured to be Toastmaster, please forgive me for going off-script this week.

Four years ago I (somehow) managed to convince Linda McNab and Colleen Glynn to put in a bid to allow Left Coast Crime to come to Vancouver. Their bid was accepted (no thanks to me – I did nothing but ca...<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>