Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 27

Honey Badger Here by Gabriel Valjan

 

Your thoughts on authors asked to writeContent/Trigger Warnings for their novels?

 

I was asked to write a Content Warning for THE GOOD MAN. ATrigger Warning, for those who don’t know it, is the literary equivalent of theMotion Picture Association film-rating system.

 

I reread the cover text. My synopsis contained severalkeywords that I thought set expectations. If the words Nazi and camp survivordon’t make you think World War 2 and Holocaust, then I believe that yo...

Reader Beware: The Meaning of Trigger Warnings

 Q: Your thoughts on authors asked to write Content/Trigger Warnings for their novels?

from Susan

I don’t know what to say about this. I write – and read – crime fiction. I expect there to be crimes, murders, scary moments, bad behavior, evil people. To that end, I try to read enough about the story to know if I will definitely avoid it or not. I try to skip books where a child is murdered, but recently read a really good story where that happens because I know the author and her work, and I was c...

Conferences, fact and fiction - from Harini Nagendra

Bouchercon and Killer Nashville 2024 have ended recently. Your thoughts on your conference experience. Do you get post conference blues, or does it energize you? 

Before I begin, let me confess - I haven't been to a single writer's conference in the US so far! Sadly, the expense of taking two long flights to attend one short conference creates barriers. I felt this most keenly in 2022, when my debut fiction book, The Bangalore Detectives Club, was nominated for a Lefty, Agatha and Anthony best de...

A Tree Falling in the Forest from James W. Ziskin

Bouchercon and Killer Nashville 2024 have ended recently. Your thoughts on your conference experience. Do you get post conference blues, or does it energize you?

I missed Bouchercon and Killer Nashville this year. Since 2013, I’ve attended many conferences in the past. Bouchercon, Left Coast, Malice Domestic, ThrillerFest, California Crime Writers, New England Crime Bake, and Maine Crime Wave. In addition to offering opportunities to meet and revisit friends and learn everything there is to know ...

Guest post by Dana King

I've asked my friend Dana King to drop by and tackle this week's question: Your thoughts on your conference experience. Do you get post conference blues, or does it energize you? Dana's the author of the amazing Penns River and Nick Forte series, and he's a frequent attendee at major conferences. If you haven't read both of his series, do yourself a favor and get over to his website and check them out. Meantime, here's Dana.

Let me begin by thanking Dietrich Kalteis for inviting me to write this ...

Terry here: Our question this week is about conferences. ...

Terry here: Our question this week is about conferences. We’re writing our thoughts on conference experience. And also, if we get post conference blues, or does it energize us? 

I’m a conference junky. That’s where my people are. That’s where my brain gets refreshed, where I get sparked with new ideas, find out the state of the publishing industry, see old friends and new authors, find out the latest gossip. It’s life blood. It’s hard to believe my first Bouchercon was the year of the first m...

The Book Conference Experience

Bouchercon and Killer Nashville 2024 have ended recently. Your thoughts on your conference experience. Do you get post conference blues, or does it energize you?

Brenda starting off the week.

I used to go to book conferences quite often but have not been to any since the pandemic. I attended every Bloody Words in Canada since I was first published, although these conferences have since ended. They took place mainly in Toronto but once in Victoria and twice in my home city, Ottawa. I was on the pla...

Lost Comrade by Josh Stallings

 Q: What’s your position on ending a sentence with a preposition, grammar others might be afraid of? What non-grammatical writing styles do you firmly support?

A: To prove myself a serious writer I started to google “preposition” but I stopped myself, I guess I’d rather be seen as under educated than be a liar. When I was coming up several writers and a few reviewers asked me how I learned to break grammatical rules so cleanly. It made me embarrassed so I’d go flippant, “breaking grammatical rul...

The very pineapple of politeness, by Catriona

What’s your position on ending asentence with a preposition, grammar others might be afraid of? Whatnon-grammatical writing styles do you firmly support?

These people would never!
And so I don't when I write them

Picture the scene: an overtired child hears her mummy (US "mommy"  - this isn't a scene from a horror film) coming upstairs. The child is hoping Mummy has brought the storybook she wants and not that other one the child can't stand. (Granny has terrible taste in books.) Mummy comes into ...

SVO and Tinsel

 

SVO and Tinsel

What’s your position on ending asentence with a preposition, grammar others might be afraid of? Whatnon-grammatical writing styles do you firmly support?

We’re talking about one of the “Rules” today and, likeGroucho Marx as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff in Horse Feathers, ‘Whatever it is, I’m against it.’

 

In my mind, Rules imply obedience, and conformity, and ‘I’magainst it.’

 

When I think of rules applied to language, I think ofgrammar. When I ...