Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 65

Five Pieces of Advice and One Anecdote, by Josh Stallings

Q: What is the best advice you received from an agent, editor, publisher, writer, or florist? For bonus credit what was the worst?

Me trying to come up with an answer.

A: “Be furious in your quest for the truth.” As a young writer I gave myself that advice. This quest has led me to understand that truth is personal. Truth depends on one’s perspective. No I’m not saying I believe in “alternate facts”. There are historical and empirical facts, but human truths like the answer to “am I a good person?...

Guest Post, by Liz Milliron

Catriona writes: It's lovely to welcome back a good friend of the blog, Liz Milliron, who is celebrating the launch of her fourth Homefornt mystery - THE TRUTH WE TELL. I'm a huge fan of this beguiling series about blue-collar hero Betty Ahern in 1940s Buffalo. By day Betty does her bit for the war effort in an aircraft engineering works, by night she sleuths; hence the "Sam Spade meets Rosie the Riveter" log line! 

Just like Betty, Liz is pitching right in today, answering the question of the we...

It's about the writing...and the gnarly bits by Cathy Ace

Business - What is the best advice you received from an agent, editor, publisher, writer, or florist? For bonus credit what was the worst? 

 

Personally, I prefer to focus on the positive, so here goes:

 

Best advice from a writer: Thanks to Ann CleevesBest advice from a writer

Context:I’d been dumped by a publisher, who wouldn’t sell me back all my rights (they eventually allowed me to buy them all, except the print rights, which puzzled me, but there you have it). My other publisher had been bou...

It was the best Advice, the worst Advice by Gabriel Valjan

 

What is the best advice you received from an agent, editor, publisher, writer, or florist? For bonus credit what was the worst?

 

Prescriptive advice is like One-Size-Fits-All clothing. It’s generic and safe. I’m not a fan of How-To books because I prefer to teach myself the What and Why I like someone’s writing and analyze How it works for me. I’ve also not had any luck with agents, so the advice that I’ve received has been haphazard and varied.

I’m a literary delinquent. I...

It's All About the Work

 Q: What is the best advice you received from an agent, editor, publisher, writer, or florist? For bonus credit what was the worst? 

-from Susan

 

I’ve gotten some gems – good advice that has influenced my fiction writing career since it began in earnest in 2008. But the very best might sound simplistic: Never submit a manuscript to an agent or an editor unless it is the absolute best you can produce. 

 

It sounds easy or “duh,” but it’s not. Before you have an agent, you have a lot to prove, and it’...

On the Shoulders of Giants

 Are there books you love so much that you find their tone creeping up in your work? Where is the line between homage and plagiarism?

 

By Abir

 

There’s an old adage that to be a writer you need to first be a reader. Most writers, I think, are voracious readers. It goes with the territory after all. Reading not only widens our horizons, but for a writer, it also helps us better understand the craft and the possibilities of language, setting, plot and character. A lot of writers were first inspired ...

Badfinger and the Beatles from James W. Ziskin

Are there books you love so much that you find their tone creeping up in your work? Where is the line between homage and plagiarism?

No, I do not imitate my favorite writers. 

At least I don’t believe I do. Could be wrong, of course, but I doubt it. The reason why is because, when it comes to writing, I follow my own linguistic idiosyncrasies—semantic and syntactic—with utmost zeal and devotion. I love language, from the teensiest morphemes and phonemes to the long-windiest monuments of rhetorical...

Finding true north

Are there books you love so much that you find their tone creeping up in your work? Where is the line between homage and plagiarism?

by Dietrich

The first question had me considering a list of favorite authors and the fiction that I grew up with, books I’ve cherished over the years. And that’s likely where every writer starts out — by reading when they were kids. I think that’s what a great novel does — it entertains and stays with us, even years later. For writers, it also inspires us to find our...

Ta Da - Book Launch Day!

 My thanks to Terry for letting me take her Tuesday spot. Today’s the official launch date for MURDER VISITS A FRENCH VILLAGE and I wanted to celebrate with my fellow Minds and readers. It’s a new series, but with benefits. Thanks to my new publisher, characters from the last two French village mysteries have been allowed to slip into the new series. The new protagonist is Ariel Shepard and here’s how her new life begins: 

The sound of a key turning in the lock made her turn. With a quick glance ...

Emulating Favourites

Are there books you love so much that you find their tone creeping up in your work? Where is the line between homage and plagiarism?

Brenda 
I've read widely since I was a kid and have had different favourite books along the way. I particularly loved Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird -- the characters, the plot, the message -- and reread it several times. Hemingway's sparse style also appealed to me, painting pictures with few words and dialogue. While I studied English lit at university, I conti...