Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 76

Throw it at the wall and see what sticks

The latest wisdom is that trekking to bookstores with your new book isn’t the best use of time in today’s market. So, what do you think works to promote sales and get to the place where you’re receiving royalties?

by Dietrich

Getting to the place where promotional ideas turn to royalties — I wish I had some surefire ideas to share. During the past couple of years I’ve been promoting my books the same ways that many authors have — online. I update my website, write blogs and guest posts, and of cou...

Launch Day!!!

 

Terry Here: Today I’m going rogue! Instead of writing on our weekly topic, I’m going to talk about my book that comes out TODAY: MURDER AT THE JUBILEE RALLY. 
 This book is special. Most books are born in the usual way: conception, growth, and birth. This book took an unusual route: conception, “growth”, and then the birth of Rosemary’s baby. And, eventually, a do-over. That’s right, a do-over. Why? Because the first attempt at the book produced a monster.


Here’s what happened: I wanted to wr...

Wanna Buy a Book, Lady?

The latest wisdom is that trekking to bookstores with your new book isn’t the best use of time in today’s market. So, what do you think works to promote sales and get to the place where you’re receiving royalties?

Brenda at the keyboard.

If I had the answer to this question - the best way to make sales and ergo a bestseller - I'd be on easy street. Rich beyond my wildest dreams. Invited to all the big book conferences. Recognized in swank locales.

Instead, I'm slogging it out to get my books into t...

My Big Break, by Josh Stallings

Criminal or crime writer?

What is the greatest crime a writer can commit? 

Some say plagiarism. Yes, putting your name on another writer’s work is bad. Others might say it is failing to use the Oxford comma. Me, I think the worst crime a writer can commit is, well, murder. I mean that is biblically bad. On the other hand to quote Thomas Pluck, “Some folks just needed killing.” So with that moral caveat, that old testament loophole, some folks need to be turned into a pillar of salt. I am led to th...

Rumble, by Catriona

You claim to be a writer - so write me something. Write a short story - no more than a thousand words - featuring some or all of your Criminal Minds colleagues.

Seems like a good moment to take my first step into noir. Maybe. You tell me.

Rumble

What you got here, see, is you got two weeks. And two days between, like a peace line. So say you got Babyface Brenda on a Monday, then you know you got Tip Toe Terry right behind her, Big Daddy Dietrich keeping it cool, Jay-Z up next, mixing it like a whis...

Saved! A very short story by Cathy Ace

You claim to be a writer - so write me something. Write a short story - no more than a thousand words - featuring some or all of your Criminal Minds colleagues.

Castel Coch, in Wales, via CanvaIt was a dark and stormy night – appropriate, considering it was the annual gathering of the bloggers who called themselves The Criminal Minds.        “I can’t do it.” Cathy’s voice betrayed her terror.

“But you must.” Abir’s usually-jocular demeanor had evaporated. “You have to do as I say.”

Cathy’s chin qu...

The Minds and The Case of Missing Waffles by Gabriel Valjan

 

I was killing commas by the light of my laptop when the police stopped us on the rural road. I counted casualties onscreen while Jim and Susan argued French grammar. If a punctuation mark slowed down anything more than a sentence, our driver didn’t know it. We were the third car in a caravan of Criminal Minds when the whelp of a siren and cherry lights directed us to the shoulder of the highway.

            An officer’s flashlight tapped glass.

            Everyone was asked ...

So, you claim to be a writer by Susan C. Shea

You claim to be a writer - so write me something. Write a short story - no more than a thousand words - featuring some or all of your Criminal Minds colleagues.

From Susan

I know it’s a cop-out but I only got a working computer back a few hours ago and it’s not working right. Lots of lost or hidden folders and docs including those related to my current novel and the one in copy edits. So, yeah, I’m a little too stressed to get creative on the spot. Plus – and who needed this – my bad kitty, the on...

Publish and Be Damned

by Abir

C ancel culture: In these polarized times, and in light of recent events, are there any topics or viewpoints which you would not write about or which you think are off limits?

 

 

Just over a month ago I was in Oxford, attending the annual St. Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend. It was while sitting outside in the sun, having a drink with some other writers that the news came through from New York of the attack on Sir Salman Rushdie.

 

At that point the information was sparse. There’d been an attemp...

De Gustibus Non Disputandum Est from James W. Ziskin

Cancel culture: In these polarized times, and in light of recent events, are there any topics or viewpoints which you would not write about or which you think are off limits?

First, I don’t believe in cancel culture. There are repercussions for actions. That’s all. No one has to love you or buy your stuff if you do something odious.

So, no, I don’t particularly worry about offending people’s sensibilities with my work. But I do have opinions on what I would and would not write.

We all write what we...