Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 207
July 26, 2017
July 25, 2017
Kodachrome
Writing isn't all we do. What is your second favourite activity?
... I love to take a photograph...
I too love gardening, but I've had to let go of that dream. I've figured out that weeds are smarter than me, resistance is futile, and the last tomato I grew, final tally, cost me $18. I still love my garden and get pleasure out of working at it, and still think it's beautiful -- IMHO -- but in an arid, windblown way that I'm sure my neighbours frown at.
With gardening out of the question, film-ma...
... I love to take a photograph...
I too love gardening, but I've had to let go of that dream. I've figured out that weeds are smarter than me, resistance is futile, and the last tomato I grew, final tally, cost me $18. I still love my garden and get pleasure out of working at it, and still think it's beautiful -- IMHO -- but in an arid, windblown way that I'm sure my neighbours frown at.
With gardening out of the question, film-ma...
Published on July 25, 2017 00:39
July 24, 2017
Writers are readers too, right?
Q: Writing isn’t all that we do, is it? What’s your second favorite activity?
- from Susan Shea
A: I’d love to bluff by saying running half marathons, or baking my own bread, but the truth is much more mundane. I love to work in my unruly, uncooperative garden, talking to the tomatoes (“ripen, for heaven’s sake”), reveling in the scents of herbs, roses, and pineapple sage, and dreaming about the perfect garden that my imagination and the gardening magazines tell me I should have.
I find that gar...
- from Susan Shea
A: I’d love to bluff by saying running half marathons, or baking my own bread, but the truth is much more mundane. I love to work in my unruly, uncooperative garden, talking to the tomatoes (“ripen, for heaven’s sake”), reveling in the scents of herbs, roses, and pineapple sage, and dreaming about the perfect garden that my imagination and the gardening magazines tell me I should have.
I find that gar...
Published on July 24, 2017 01:00
July 20, 2017
July 19, 2017
All over the Map
by Dietrich Kalteis
You probably have favorite sub-genres in crime fiction, but do you venture beyond them in your personal reading, like, for example, from urban noir to village cozy?
The first thing that draws me into any book is the writer’s voice. And I could read just about anything in any genre if it was written by one of the greats like Bukowski, Burroughs, Hemingway, Kesey, Orwell, Salinger, Steinbeck, Thompson, Twain and more. I’m not even sure how many times I’ve read To Kill a Mockin...
You probably have favorite sub-genres in crime fiction, but do you venture beyond them in your personal reading, like, for example, from urban noir to village cozy?

Published on July 19, 2017 00:00
July 18, 2017
As long as it's a series
By R.J. Harlick
You probably have favorite sub-genres in crime fiction, but do you venture beyond them in your personal reading, like, for example, from urban noir to village cozy
I’m afraid I can’t keep up with the myriad of sub-genres and sub-sub-genres that pigeonhole crime fiction into ever smaller categories. I’ve never understood this need to classify mysteries beyond the broad categories of traditional mystery, thriller, cozy, police procedural and amateur sleuth. I once saw a list someo...

I’m afraid I can’t keep up with the myriad of sub-genres and sub-sub-genres that pigeonhole crime fiction into ever smaller categories. I’ve never understood this need to classify mysteries beyond the broad categories of traditional mystery, thriller, cozy, police procedural and amateur sleuth. I once saw a list someo...
Published on July 18, 2017 00:30
July 17, 2017
Anything Goes
Terry Shames here: This week’s question is whether we read sub-genres other than our favorite crime novels. The question would be easier for me to answer if it was, “What don’t you read?”
Here’s what I don’t read a lot of: amateur detective stories—unless, and that’s a big unless, the author makes a really good case for the amateur to step in. I just don’t enjoy the “Oooo, the local baker got killed. Please tell me you aren’t going to investigate.” (Words spoken by a friend, a boyfriend,...
Here’s what I don’t read a lot of: amateur detective stories—unless, and that’s a big unless, the author makes a really good case for the amateur to step in. I just don’t enjoy the “Oooo, the local baker got killed. Please tell me you aren’t going to investigate.” (Words spoken by a friend, a boyfriend,...
Published on July 17, 2017 09:37
July 14, 2017
My Kingdom for an Advance
Do the costs to promote a book sometimes equal the advance you got for it, and does that make you question A) writing it or B) doing all that expensive promotion?
by Paul D. Marks
The question isn’t, or shouldn’t be, if the costs to promote the book = the advance, but if the money you spend pays off in terms of more sales, new readers and a higher profile in the long run. Of course, not everyone can have a perfect profile like these fellows.
W.C. Fields and John Barrymore -- AKA "The Great...
by Paul D. Marks
The question isn’t, or shouldn’t be, if the costs to promote the book = the advance, but if the money you spend pays off in terms of more sales, new readers and a higher profile in the long run. Of course, not everyone can have a perfect profile like these fellows.

Published on July 14, 2017 00:01
July 13, 2017
Out, damned book!
By Catriona
I'm supposed to be talking about cost-effective promotional efforts today. But, you know what? My 20th book comes out today (in the UK) - Dandy's Shakespearean adventure; set around a production of Macbeth in a Scottish castle in 1934 - and I'm going rogue.

Apart from anything else, totting up the cost of the airfare to Edinburgh every year for the launch party (plus the hire-car (with its ruinous insurance)) would make me weep.
But of course, I'm never just in Scotland for pro...
Published on July 13, 2017 02:00
July 12, 2017
And the best value for promotional investment is....by Cathy Ace
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Published on July 12, 2017 00:05
7 Criminal Minds
A collection of 10 writers who post every other week. A new topic is offered every week.
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