Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 178

The Creative Gene

By R.J. Harlick
Are you creative in other ways besides writing – i.e. photography, painting, music, widget making, any other creative pursuits that you might have? Tell us about them and why you pursued writing as a career instead of one of them.
Hmmm…. widget making sounds like fun or maybe gizmos… I can always use a gizmo or a thingamajig.
But joking aside, I suspect most of us fiction writers have a creative gene in our make-up. 
As far back as I can remember, and believe me that is a lon...

The Act of Creation - by Brenda Chapman

Sept. 10: LIFE: Are you creative in other ways besides writing – i.e. photography, painting, music, widget making, any other creative pursuits that you might have? Tell us about them and why you pursued writing as a career instead of one of them.
I believe each one of us has the creativity gene although some develop its potential more than others. Of course, this doesn’t mean we are all creative in the same way ….

I cannot carry a tune. In fact, nobody in my immediate family can carry a tune so...

Favorite Lesser-known Writers

What’s your favorite lesser-known novel? Who are your favorite lesser known writers? In your genre and outside of it? Why? And have they influenced your work? How?

by Paul D. Marks

Well, that depends on what/who you mean by lesser-known? One person’s lesser-known author is another’s major influence. But that aside, I’ve been influenced by a lot of people and books at one time or another. The standards, like Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald and James Ellroy—my favorites. I’ve also been influence...

A Walk Along Lonely Street (but with a good book, which makes all the difference)

"READING: What’s your favorite lesser-known novel? Who are your favorite lesser known writers? In your genre and outside of it? Why? And have they influenced your work? How?"

Catriona writes: I'm at Bouchercon, in St Petersburg. But by lucky chance one of my favourite people on this little blue-green planet is on a blog tour to celebrate her new novel. Lillian Bell is a staunch friend, a terrific writer, and one of the very few who could make a funeral home adorable. 

Lillian, over to you!...

Going rogue...COVER REVEAL! by Cathy Ace

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Who Are You?

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Thanks for the memories...and the inspirations

Q: What’s your favorite lesser-known novel? Who are your favorite lesser known writers? In your genre and outside of it? Why? And have they influenced your work? How?
- from Susan
Today, Anthony Trollope is a lot lesser known than he should be, less well known than he was in the mid 19thcentury when he published one of my favorite Trollope novels Barchester Towers. It’s a wonderful story of ecclesiastical politics set in the cathedral city of Barchester, England as a new bishop i...

Subtitles

If you weren’t a writer, would you still be in the book business? (bookseller, agent, editor, publisher) or would you do something completely different?

From Jim

If I weren’t a writer, I’d probably be in the subtitling business. It’s what I did for sixteen years before embarking on a full-time career as a mystery writer. Subtitling is one of those invisible professions that few people think about unless they’re directly involved in it. But it’s important work.


At its most elemental, here are the...

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

If you weren’t a writer, would you still be in the book business? (bookseller, agent, editor, publisher) or would you do something completely different?
by Dietrich Kalteis
What I love about writing is that it’s a solo creative expression. If I wasn’t doing that, I’d likely be looking for something else artistic that I could do on my own. 
I’ve always had a passion for photography, and that could work. I was involved in a lot of photo sessions in my former livelihood, and I have a good unde...

I’m in the writing business

By R.J. Harlick
If you weren’t a writer, would you still be in the book business? (bookseller, agent, editor, publisher) or would you do something completely different?
I’m a writer. It’s that simple. Though I came late in life to fiction writing, most of the jobs I have enjoyed invariably had a writing aspect to it. 
In university, while I hated studying, I loved writing essays.  Give me a topic and no matter how little I knew about the subject, I could make it sound as if I knew...