Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 176

Write like a Monkey on Steroids

Very few writers are great at absolutely everything from the outset. How did you respond to the opening hand you were dealt? Do you play to your strengths and avoid the rest. If you try to improve, how?
Typed by JimI don’t know how others play to their strengths in their writing. I only know there’s always room for improvement.

Truman Capote supposedly remarked that Jack Kerouac’s On the Road was “typing,” not “writing.” No matter where you fall on the merits of Kerouac’s work, it’s a...

When words come easy

Very few writers are great at absolutely everything from the outset. How did you respond to the opening hand you were dealt? Do you play to your strengths and avoid the rest. If you try to improve, how?
by Dietrich
I wasn’t sure which way to go, so I began writing short stories when I started out, trying different genres, developing my style and voice. I didn’t know anything about strengths or weaknesses, I just knew I wanted to write. 
Writing short stories taught me about pacing, the econ...

The Best Laid Plans

By R.J. Harlick
I had every intention of writing a blog this week. Though it was Thanksgiving weekend, my husband and I had planned on having a very quiet one. I thought I would have plenty of time to work on my blog.
Not so.
Unbeknownst to me, while I was off enjoying the sun and food of southern France, my sister was plotting. 
What a delightful family celebration we ended up having. So much so, that all thoughts of blog writing vanished until now, when I realized I only had time enough to...

The Learning Curve - by Brenda Chapman

Very few writers are great at absolutely everything from the outset. How did you respond to the opening hand you were dealt? Do you play to your strengths and avoid the rest. If you try to improve, how?
Quite early on in my life’s journey, I realized that I would never make my living in the sciences or as an auto mechanic. My passion had to do with the poetry of language, not the precision of numbers or the abstractions of physics. From the get go, reading and writing were strengths that I nat...

The Big Squeeze

Overheard at Bouchercon in Florida last month: “I don't write series *or* standalone; I write books.” Do you love/hate/mind/notice/use/ignore the publishers' and booksellers' classifications of your work?

by Paul D. Marks

It’s not a question of loving/hating/minding/noticing/using or ignoring the classifications. I do all of those, well maybe except for the first. But it’s something we have to live with. What annoys me is when the Powers That Be want to stuff us or our work into a small bag or...

The Name of the Prose

Business - Overheard at Bouchercon in Florida last month: "I don't write series *or* standalones; I write books." Do you love/hate/mind/notice/use/ignore the publishers' and booksellers' classifications of your work?
by Catriona
When I first met my good friend Eileen Rendahl (aka Lillian Bell, Kristi Abbott, and Eileen Carr) eight years ago, we were mutually intimidated. She hated me before she even clapped eyes on me because I was European and she thought I'd be toffee-nosed (she might not hav...

In for the long haul? by Cathy Ace

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Your Type of Book

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Fish or Fowl?

Q: Overheard at Bouchercon in Florida last month: "I don't write series *or* standalone; I write books." Do you love/ hate/ mind/ notice/use/ignore the publishers' and booksellers' classifications of your work?
- from Susan
To answer that question on a personal level, I risk annoying my publishers, offending my agents past and present, hurting the feelings of some authors I like personally and admire professionally, and turning off readers. 
I think the marketing professionals at publishing...

Fresh as a Daisy

Everything’s been done. And “they” say Shakespeare wrote every plot. How do you keep your stories new and original? What do you bring to them that makes them fresh?

I’m going to cheat a bit here today. I recently wrote a guest blog on this very topic for Kathy Boone Reel’s excellent site. Here’s the link to that piece. http://www.readingroom-readmore.com/2018/06/author-guest-post-james-ziskin.html

Today I’m going to steal my thoughts from that post.

I write the Ellie Stone mysteries, a seri...