Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 29

My Little Light

 Q: What single moment of being a published writer has been the most memorable?

 

-from Susan

 

Never having made the New York Times bestseller list or won awards like a lot of my brilliant writer friends, my angle of vision and my sparkling memories are less dramatic. But they’re thrilling to me and still make me happy all these years later. While it’s hard to pin down a single event, I think everything surrounding the launch of my first mystery, Murder in the Abstract, is still the best. A book! A...

Critique Groups and Advice - by Harini Nagendra

Have youever been in a critique group and, if so, what was most/least useful to you?

Okaayy - this is going to be the shortest column ever. 

No. 

No, I haven't ever been in a critique group. I haven't had the chance to, really - because I live in Bangalore, which is a city of 12 million, sure - but also a bit far (just a tiny bit!) from where most of the mystery writers whom I would love to have in a dream critique group live. Like my fellow Criminal Minds, for instance. Given how expensive it is ...

It’s a Dangling Modifier, You Idiot! from James W. Ziskin

Have you ever been in a critique group and, if so, what was most/least useful to you. Put together your dream critique group?
I’ve never been in a writer’s critique group, and I confess I wouldn’t like to be. I imagine the participants hate/disdain/ridicule their fellow writers’ work, openly or—perhaps—secretly. There’s surely lots of scoffing, pooh-poohing, and downright gagging going on. Unless the critics are too polite to say anything negative at all. Then they just smile a mirthless smile an...

Write Up

Have you ever been in a critique group and, if so, what was most/least useful to you. Put together your dream critique group?

by Dietrich

Some years ago, I joined Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope, an online community for writers, filmmakers and artists. I workshopped a few screenplays in hopes of improving my writing, and I did receive valuable feedback from the many writers there, reading and commenting on each others’ work. Eventually one of the screenplays I workshopped was optioned for an a...

Advice, Please--and Keep it Nice

 

Terry here with our question of the week: Have you ever been in a critique group and, if so, what was most/least useful to you?
I’ve been in several critique groups—oh, the stories I could tell!—and I generally feel they have been useful. In fact, I’m now in two critique groups with very different processes. The first is a long-running critique group that I’ve been in for 30 years. The group consists of a TV screen-writer and editor, a non-fiction writer, a short story writer, a mainstream novel...

Introducing Guest Author Don Butler

Have you ever been in a critique group and, if so, what was most/least useful to you?

Brenda here.

It's my great pleasure to introduce guest blogger Don Butler, who will tell you about his writing and will touch on this week's question. Don is past executive editor of the Ottawa Citizen and an award-winning journalist. He has penned two excellent novels: A Life of Bliss and Norman's Conquest. Take it away, Don!

Thanks Brenda. I'm a walking, breathing advertisement for the notion that it's never too...

Damn Pinko Wants Morality in Books, by Josh Stallings

 Q: Do you often/sometimes weave a moral message into your writing, or do you think that's awful, and something that should never be attempted? Can you recommend good examples of books that do one or the other? 

 

A: Social commentary is one of the grand traditions of crime fiction going all the way back to Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. When the first people sat around the fire telling tales I’m sure they had a moral component. It is near impossible to write without a personal point-of-view...

As Oscar said . . ., by Catriona

Do you often/sometimes weave a moral message into yourwriting, or do you think that’s awful, and something that should never beattempted? Can you recommend good examples of books that do one or the other?

Picture the scene: interior, night, somewhere in California (which is a lot like Scotland once the front door's shut)

Catriona: Argh, I forgot I've got to write a blog post.

Neil: What about?

C: Moral messages in books.

N: You mean like whether you put moral messages in your books?

C:Yeah, exactly....

Moral whether you want it or not by Eric Beetner

 Do you often/sometimes weave a moral message into your writing, or do you think that's awful, and something that should never be attempted? Can you recommend good examples of books that do one or the other?

I absolutely weave a moral message in my books. I don’t think you can write crime fiction and not do it. The basis of the genre is morals – often the breaking of them, often different interpretations of them. I try not to be overt about it, but you can’t deny that if an author is depicting cr...

The Court Jester Holds Court, by Gabriel Valjan

 

The Court Jester Holds Court

 

Do you often/sometimes weave a moral message into yourwriting, or do you think that’s awful, and something that should never beattempted? Can you recommend good examples of books that do one or the other?

 

I’ve said in interviews that all my books focus onfriendships. I prefer the word theme to message. I wish to convey that we needeach other. I write about people who must trust each other. Society issomething we agree to, a contract, ...