Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 66

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...

Writers We All Should Be Studying, Or Does Genre Matter? by Josh Stallings

Q: Besides manuals, which books do you think make good masterclass material for crime writers?

A: I’m not a big fan of genre and sub-genre. As a reader they limit my exposure, “Oh you like hardboiled, you’ll love book X.” But wait I also love books from other sections, or I might if you ever showed me them. Does bitching about the algorithm sound hopelessly 2019? 

As a writer I find genre and sub-genre very useful. We write books that live in a linage of other books. I want to know what came befor...

Seven Pillars of Writing Wisdom, by Catriona

Besides manuals, which books do you think make good masterclasses for crime-writers?

I write this simmering with annoyance, after hearing a guest on a radio book programme say he was grateful to have been given an excuse to read a mystery thriller. Which turned out to be so much more than a mystery thriller. Because it was good.

The reason I'm simmering with annoyance rather than boiling with rage is that his snobbish dismissal of our beloved genre was accomplanied by that admission that he's the ...

Happy St David's Day! by Cathy Ace

HAPPY ST DAVID’S DAY, Patron Saint of Wales...

…and please forgive me if I take this opportunity to celebrate the release, on 20th February of my latest novel, THE CASE OF THE CURSED COTTAGE, which is set in…yes, you guessed it...WALES! 

The 7thbook in the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries series was just published, and I want to thank everyone who pre-ordered the book, has downloaded it since its publication, has ordered it at their local book shop, or has asked their library to get it for them: T...

I gotta be Me, and You gotta be You by Gabriel Valjan

Besides manuals, which books do you think make good masterclass material for crime writers?

 

When it comes to gifts, parents fear the words: SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED. I feel the same way about HOW TO advice vis-à-vis the books that made me the writer before you because it would be disingenuous on my part.

            Remember the Pritchard Scale in the movie Dead Poet’s Society? If you do X and Y as a Writer, there is this desired effect in the Reader. Robin Williams as Professor ...

Writing and life Advice

 

Terry Shames here, not in my usual spot, but filling in for fellow 7 Criminal Minds author Susan Shea. Susan’s newest book, Murder Visits a French Village, launches next week on my usual day to post. I’ve surrendered that day to Susan so she can tell you about her book. 
This week’s topic: Besides manuals, which books do you think make good masterclass material for crime writers? There are many good books on writing. I don’t n think they have to be focused on crime writing to be useful to c...

The One Where I Get Angry

 

by Abir 

 

Does a background in any other kind of business give you a head start as a professional writer? If you were designing a course of study for a budding writer, what would the modules be?

 

Morning. Friday again, and the weather seems to be warming up a bit – at least that’s what I tell my wife when I refuse to turn on the heating. With the longer days and first flowers in the garden, you’d expect me to be full of the joys of spring, but I’m not, and so don’t expect any uplifting thoughts f...

What Happened to Jack and Jill on That Hill? Twenty Writing Prompts from James W. Ziskin

Does a background in any other kind of business give you a head start as a professional writer? If you were designing a course of study for a budding writer, what would the modules be?

A budding writer in 2012, Lago di Como

Any and all business backgrounds can give you a head start as a writer. Lawyers have proven that. And doctors, academics, cops, jockeys, soldiers, journalists, and homemakers. We’ve all read great books and stories written by people who’ve escaped/juggled first or even second c...

A guest post by Ken MacQueen

This week, I’ve invited fellow author Ken MacQueen to sit in. For those who don’t know Ken yet, he’s an award-winning magazine and newspaper journalist turned thriller writer. He’s traveled the globe, met with royalty, covered nine Olympic Games, reported on all manner of political events, crimes, trials, terror attacks and oil spills. Now, turning his talents from fact to fiction, he’s written his debut thriller, Hero Haters, released in October by Wild Rose Press of New York. A book that’s hig...

More Than Simply Writing the Book

 

Terry here. This week we are talking about the business side of writing. The question is whether a background in any other kind of business give you a head start as a professional writer? If you were designing a course of study for a budding writer, what would the modules be? 
 I don’t know if a background in another business gives you a head start, but it does help to know the business of publishing if you plan to be a professional writer. To be successful in pretty much any other business y...