Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 215

Trouble

WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO BECOME A CRIME WRITER?

 I thought I knew the answer until I sat down to think about it.

I thought I would say it's because I grew up reading crime fiction. Now I'm not so sure that's really it. I think even if I hadn't read crime I would still want to write crime. It's just a nice roiling backdrop for what's most interesting to explore on the page for me: people in trouble. People doing stuff they shouldn't do, and other people trying to stop them, then those people wh...

I Wanna Be a Writer, Okay?

Q: What prompted you to become a writer of crime fiction?

-from Susan

1.     I’ve gobbled up crime fiction since childhood. Yes, that means dopey Nancy Drew, but early exposure to Agatha Christie’s best puzzles, and other books that had some crime as the fulcrum around which the plot revolved.2.     Rex Stout’s atmospheric series of Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin stories set in my hometown of Manhattan looked so easy to write because they were stylish, unspool...

The Hero's Journey, From The South Side

"Ask me how I'm doing this. Or where I purchase my sunglasses.
The answer to both is Overstock.com"I know I bemoan discussions of process and influences and derivation. I'll cop a plea to the charge of emotional avoidance. Thing is, folks wanna know, and I'd look like a jerk if I asked people to support my writing then expect that support to arrive from a safe distance. So I toss out the surface facts: I plot on long walks. I write dialogue in the shower. I cook a lot when I'm editing to ease...

Where Don’t I?

by Alan

What sources do you draw on for ideas for your stories? (Also known as the “Where do you get your ideas? question)

A rerun of a previous post that sums it up:

Ode to Ideas

I get them when I run,
I get them having fun.

I get them when I walk,
I get them when I talk.

I get them when I showers,
I get them planting flowers.

I get ideas every which way,
All the time, every day.

I get them when I dream,
I get them when I scream.

I get them when I shave,
I get them when I wave.

I get them in the c...

So what if?

by Dietrich Kalteis

What sources do you draw on for ideas for your stories?

Ideas can spring from just about anywhere: memories, headlines, newscasts, personal experience, what happened to the neighbor, dreams, song lyrics. They can be imagined or borrowed, and when I find something interesting I often find myself thinking, “so what if?” And it starts me writing a single scene. And from that, it leads to the next scene. 

The idea for my first novel Ride the Lightning came from a bit of dial...

Whatever works

By R.J. Harlick
What sources do you draw on for ideas for your stories?
I tell you, it’s a tough life. I’m basking by a pool in the land of sun and fun, listening to palm trees clatter in the breeze, while at home winter doesn’t want to leave after burying the streets in another record-breaking snowfall. I feel for my fellow Ottawans.
Feeling very mellow and relaxed in this new-found sun, I find myself having to write a blog. I’d planned on doing it before I left the snow, but…you know, one thi...

Sources of Inspiration

Revealing my sources, by Terry Shames
Last week someone asked me why I wrote Samuel Craddock as an art collector. It’s a convoluted answer, but it boils down to this: People, places, and plots in my books are based on real life. I love modern art, but the more compelling reason had to do with a bit of family history that I used in a creative way.
I just read an author I had never read before and thoroughly enjoyed his crazy plot that revolved around nonstop mayhem, complete with characters who...

Movies Inspired Me to Read the Book

by Paul D. Marks

Reading—What authors particularly inspire you? Do you read them when you are working on a book?

To the second question, I’d say I have and can read some of the following while working on something, but I don’t necessarily do so on purpose. Sometimes that’s just what I happen to be reading at the time.

Now to the first question: I’m inspired by a lot of authors and a lot of individual books where maybe the writer’s oeuvre doesn’t hit me but they have that one book that’s a knocko...

The Day I Dodged

It should be my day today (Catriona), but I'm handing over the blog to my friend and fellow writer, Lori Rader Day, as she celebrates the publication of her third novel THE DAY I DIED, the follow-up to the Mary Higgins Clark winning LITTLE PRETTY THINGS. I was lucky enough to read TDID early on, and it's absolutely fandabbydozy. 
So, without further ado, over to Lori.


What authors inspire you? Do you read them when you are working on a book?
Which writers inspire me? This is not sucking up....

Simon Says vs Chatty Cathy...by Cathy Ace

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