Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 38

The odds are stacked against Achilles - by Harini Nagendra

I’m seeing more diversity offered in reading these days and am reading a lot more diverse protagonists and subjects. I feel as if it’s opening up my world. What trends have you noticed in the last year, for better or worse?

The world of fiction publishing is a relatively new one for me. I can speak to two other worlds of writing and reading - academia, specifically publishing research papers in academic peer-reviewed journals; and the world of non-fiction writing, of popular science books. While ...

Sports Got It Right Long Before Publishing from James W. Ziskin

I’m seeing more diversity offered in reading these days and am reading a lot more diverse protagonists and subjects. I feel as if it’s opening up my world. What trends have you noticed in the last year, for better or worse? 
The 1927 World Champion New York Yankees. (I’ve circled all the Black, Latinx, and Asian players in bright red below.)















And here are the 1981 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.













Things had started to look a lot better by the 1980s. The Dodgers, in fact, had thirteen POC players ...

Opening up new worlds

I’m seeing more diversity offered in reading these days and am reading a lot more diverse protagonists and subjects. I feel as if it’s opening up my world. What trends have you noticed in the last year, for better or worse?

by Dietrich

Diverse characters in mysteries and crime fiction are nothing new, but the ones who are complicated and dynamic often feel like fresh air to me when lined against the stereotypical types of the past decades. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe...

Where Have You Been?

 

Hi! Terry here, with our question of the week: 
We're seeing more diversity offered in reading these days and am reading a lot more diverse protagonists and subjects.  What trends have you noticed in the last year, for better or worse? 
 Back in my college years I took a literature course where we read several books by gay authors. You might think that I, a straight, white, middle-class, woman would feel a little timid about taking a peek into a part of life I knew nothing about. But I wasn’t. Ha...

Freedom in Diversity

I’m seeing more diversity offered in reading these days and am reading a lot more  diverse protagonists and subjects. I feel as if it’s opening up my world. What trends have you  noticed in the last year, for better or worse?

Brenda here.

I remember my good friend creating a gay character some twenty years ago and being told by the publisher that this would greatly limit her book's appeal. She was advised to remove the gender diversity. Happily, this narrow-minded lens has opened, and books, televis...

Welcome to Writer’s Jail or Some Rules Need Breaking, by Josh Stallings

 Q: Crime fiction has tried and true conventions, such as a murder/crime in the first chapter (or soon thereafter), an investigation, believable motive, hidden clues etc. Add to this, the conventions for each subgenre, such as cozy or police procedural. Have you ever ignored or deviated from these established conventions? Do you find them restrictive or do you like working within them?

A: As a life long contrarian I have never been a fan of rules of any kind. But if you read a lot of genre fict...

Q: Crime fiction has tried and true conventions, such as...

 Q: Crime fiction has tried and true conventions, such as a murder/crime in the first chapter (or soon thereafter), an investigation, believable motive, hidden clues etc. Add to this, the conventions for each subgenre, such as cozy or police procedural. Have you ever ignored or deviated from these established conventions? Do you find them restrictive or do you like working within them?

A: As a life long contrarian I have never been a fan of rules of any kind. But if you read a lot of genre fict...

The Concept Album and other adventures, by Catriona

Q:    Crime fiction has tried and true conventions, such as a murder/crime in the first chapter (or soon thereafter), an investigation, believable motive, hidden clues etc. Add to this, the conventions for each subgenre, such as cozy or police procedural. Have you ever ignored or deviated from these established conventions? Do you find them restrictive or do you like working within them?

I love them! The rules of crime fiction are like a corset: yes, okay, they hold you in a bit but they also hold ...

A is for Ambiguity and D is for Deviant

 

Crime fiction has tried and trueconventions, such as a murder/crime in the first chapter (or soon thereafter),an investigation, believable motive, hidden clues etc. Add to this, theconventions for each subgenre, such as cozy or police procedural. Have you everignored or deviated from these established conventions? Do you find themrestrictive or do you like working within them?

I see rules as guidelines, as training wheels. I break rules, but they’re notthe usual suspec...

A is for Amiguity and D is for Deviant

 

Crime fiction has tried and trueconventions, such as a murder/crime in the first chapter (or soon thereafter),an investigation, believable motive, hidden clues etc. Add to this, theconventions for each subgenre, such as cozy or police procedural. Have you everignored or deviated from these established conventions? Do you find themrestrictive or do you like working within them?

I see rules as guidelines, as training wheels. I break rules, but they’re notthe usual suspec...