Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 84

Who Me? Retire?

 

Terry here, answering this week's question: Would you ever consider retiring from writing? Under what circumstances? How does it make you feel to consider retiring? I’ll begin at the end. The idea of retiring stuns me. Makes me feel like a big hole is yawning just ahead of me. Makes me feel lost. I’ve been a story-teller since I could string enough words together to make up a story. Long before I could write, I was thinking in stories. I remember as a little girl seeing myself as if from a di...

Raising the Age of Retirement

Would you ever consider retiring from writing? Under what circumstances? How does it make you feel to consider retiring?

Brenda here.

This is an interesting question and one that I consider now and then. First off, how does it make me feel to think about retiring from writing? 

Sad. Bereft even. 

Writing and imagining have been a part of my life since I was old enough to hold a pen. Even in grade school, I was scratching out stories and poems as I devoured every book I could get my hands on -- becau...

How I Stoped Throwing Things and Learned to Work with Editors, by Josh Stallings

Q: Do you work with a professional editor? Why/why not? What would you look for if you hired a professional editor?

A: When I was a film editor I hated getting changes. It was often a political game of trying to convince others to do what was best for the cut even if it meant making them think it was their idea. As a young lion I’d throw splicers and yell. Time ground that out of me. I realized film editors get the first cut, after that it’s in the hands of others. I was pro enough by then to kno...

There but for the grace of the editor . . . by Catriona

Do you work with a professional editor? Why/why not? What would you look for if you hired a professional editor?

I do but that's because I'm traditionally published and there's no alternative but to submit to the process. Which shouldn't be taken to mean that I would swerve the structural edit, copy edit, line edit OR proofing if it was up to me. Oh my God no. I shudder to think what I might have put out into the world if my books had only ever had my eyes on them.

I'm doing a structural edit righ...

An excellent pairing... by Cathy Ace

In this photo you can see me with my editor, Anna. It was taken back in 2014, it’s the only time we’ve ever met in person, but I’m just about to send her the manuscript of what will be the twelfth book she’ll have edited for me since then. I suspect this might be a bit of an “odd” relationship with an editor…but it is what it is, and it works for us, which I think is fine. 

So, to answer this week's question of  Do you work with a professional editor? Why/why not? What would you look for if you h...

Should I Hire an Independent Editor?

 Q: Do you work with a professional editor? Why/why not? What would you look for if you hired a professional editor?

-from Susan

 

Good timing. For the first time ever, I will be working with a developmental editor this summer. Not for my French series, which is humming along nicely. But during the pandemic’s gloomiest days, sitting at home alone, not yet under contract for the two new French mysteries and feeling the itch to write, I had a light bulb moment.  Why not write a 21st century American ...

A Dish Best Served Dead

 

By Abir

 

 Authors are told never to respond to bad reviews. Have you ever been tempted? How do you deal with negative comments? Pick a few irksome ones (anonymous of course) and let us know how you really feel … no judgment.

 

When it comes to responding to negative comments, one star reviews and hatchet jobs, there are basically two schools of thought. The first, advocated by my esteemed colleagues, which I’ll term ‘the high road’, involves never engaging, or seeking to justify yourself, or even ...

Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged from James W. Ziskin

Authors are told never to respond to bad reviews. Have you ever been tempted? How do you deal with negative comments? Pick a few irksome ones (anonymous of course) and let us know how you really feel … no judgment.

The book in question 👆was a finalist for the Anthony, Barry, and Lefty awards. 

I’m sure I’ll regret this, but here goes!

I confess this topic makes me uneasy. It makes me sad and angry at the same time. But I will answer it honestly, if petulantly, because those who put their egos and f...

Sticks, Stones, and Hatchet Jobs

Authors are told never to respond to bad reviews. Have you ever been tempted? How do you deal with negative comments? Pick a few irksome ones (anonymous of course) and let us know how you really feel … no judgment.

by Dietrich

“ Critics are to authors what dogs are to lamp-posts.” ~ Jeffrey Robinson

I can’t see an upside to dwelling on a bad review or negative comment, and there’s no reason on earth to respond to one. That’s just a surefire way to go from bad to worse. The way to respond is to brush...

How Dare You!

 

Terry, here with this week’s topic: Authors are told never to respond to bad reviews. Have you ever been tempted? How do you deal with negative comments? 
 When my first book came out, I read all the reviews, both professional and reader-driven. They were wonderful, and I was thrilled. But after a while I began to realize that there was nothing about them that helped me learn anything about my process. Occasionally I’d get an email giving me word that I needed to do something better. For example...