Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 19

Hold me to it! by Eric Beetner

What are your Literary Resolutions for 2025…as a Writer, as a Reader?

I usually vow to read more, but I usually fall short of my goals even though I read quite a bit. I think what I need to do is read more for myself and less for obligation. Beyond the fact that I have spent several years as a judge for major writing awards, I like to keep abreast of what is popular out there and what other are reading, so I try for some books that more often than not, disappoint me. I know this is my issue, and ...

Literary Resolutions in 2025

 

What are your Literary Resolutions for 2025…as aWriter, as a Reader?

 

Ah, January, the month of intentions where we promise tobecome our best version of ourselves. We vow to eat better, exercise more, andbe kinder and gentler to ourselves and to those around us. Writers are wordnerds, so we promise to write more, read more, and be more active in thecommunity. That all said, I’ve been made aware that most resolutions die aquiet death by the second Friday of January. T...

New Year Newish Literary Me? From Angela Crook

 What are your Literary Resolutions for 2025...as a Writer, as a Reader?

Welcome 2025! We made it through 2024. We survived.Maybe, some of you even thrived. Was 2024 the year you had hoped for? Plannedfor? Prayed for? And more importantly, did you cross off resolutions you madesometime in December of 2023? Have you finished with your list of grand plansfor 2025? Or are you, like me, still considering every option to make 2025 themost perfect year of your life so far? Let’s discuss. Tell us, ...

Advice and Dissent from James W. Ziskin

Tell us, the best edit or manuscript advice you received, and the worst?  

I have a tradition of posting my New Year’s resolutions poem every January. You’ll find it below, following my answer (rant) to this week’s question. Happy New Year!

For this week’s question, I’m going to limit myself to my least favorite bit of writing advice and make some enemies in the process. I strongly disagree with the conventional wisdom that it’s “bad” style to use any dialogue tag other than “said.”

Such advice rem...

It Was the Best of Edits, It Was the Worst of Edits.

This week, I’m pleased to welcome fellow Vancouver author Iona Whishaw. She’s the award-winning author of the Globe and Mail bestselling Lane Winslow Mystery series, and she’s here to answer the question: Tell us, the best edit or manuscript advice you received, and the worst?

by Iona Whishaw

So, let me start by saying I’ve adored my editors, every one, across the twelve books. But one of the things I’ve learned is that editors are people too. I’d been apt to think of them as disinterested geni...

Editing: Who Needs It?

 

Terry here, with this week’s question: Tell us, the best edit or manuscript advice you received, and the worst? 
 First let’s talk about editing. People either love it or hate. I happen to like it better than writing first draft. At least you have something to work with. And it always needs work. 
 I know people who edit their own work, and I admire them. But I have to have other people take a look at what I consider my final product. Even though I know it isn’t “final,” it means I’ve done ever...

It was the best of edits, it was the worst of edits. Tell...

It was the best of edits, it was the worst of edits. Tell us, the best edit or manuscript advice you received, and the worst?

Happy New Year! Brenda starting off 2025.

Hope you gave and received lots of books these holidays :-) 

As every writer knows, a book will succeed or fail based on the quality of the editing. I've come to appreciate the editing process more and more with every manuscript that I've written, accepting that you simply can't skimp on the process.

As a helpful side note, I watched ...

Books that inspired me in 2024, by Josh Stallings

 Crime fiction spreads across all genres, here are some of my favorite reads of the last year.

Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake is a brilliant weave of spy novel, anthropology and a character study. Following a freelance spy/investigator as she infiltrates a rural French commune, it delves into a prehistoric cultural divide between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, the deadly danger of mega farming, and the destructive nature of capitalism. 

“The whole internet is like a giant mirror. A swampy refl...

12 Books at Christmas, by Catriona

I'm doing again what I've done before - since no one stopped me last time - and reproducing my year's reading here, then choosing a book of the month for every month. The books of the month are the ones that make me smile again, remembering reading them, or the ones I can't believe I read all those months ago because they're as fresh as ever in my mind, or the ones I wish I hadn't read so I could read them for the first time now. I should just say, though, that the only reason Linda Castillo isn...

2024 favorite reads by Eric Beetner

 My TBR pile is embarrassing. I read quite a bit of vintage novels, so not relevant to an end-of-year list. And, as always I didn't get to as many books as I wanted. But, as I hide from the judgmental stare of my TBR pile, I'll share some of my favorite reads from this year:

Steve Hockensmith has long been a favorite since I first read his Holmes On The Range series. He put out not one but TWO straight-up westerns this year and both are top notch. In Hired Guns and then No Hallowed Ground, Hocken...