Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 98

Advice to Take, or Not

 Q: Have you ever tossed out 20,000 words from a work in progress? Why, and was it, in hindsight, the right move?

- from Susan

 

Yes, and it’s a story with a happy ending. You always hear that you have to write your own book, that is, not bend to trends, other people’s notions of what your story should be, the demands of the market or, specifically, your agent. That’s good advice, but sometimes you don’t see it happening until you’re, metaphorically, lost in the weeds.

 

I was inspired to write a lig...

Present, Tense

by Abir 

You’re writing a novel set in the current time. Do you include covid, politics, climate change among the background or foreground parts of the environment? If so, why? If not, why?

 

Good question.

 

I think part of the answer to this question comes down to the motivations behind why an author writes what they write. Some authors write mainly to entertain – to offer readers escapism from tough and difficult times. If so, it’s easy to understand why an author wouldn’t want to deal with the ‘b...

The World and All Its Warts from James W. Ziskin

 You’re writing a novel set in the current time. Do you include covid, politics, climate change among the background or foreground parts of the environment? If so, why? If not, why?

Yes, I would include Covid, politics, and all the rest in any book set in current times. If I were writing about the early 1940s, would I not feel obligated to mention the little contretemps known as World War II? Did Dickens not expound on the social and labor issues of his time? Street urchins, orphans, and workhous...

A guest post by Lisa de Nikolits

Lisa de Nikolits has been hailed as “the Queen of Canadian speculative fiction” and is the international award-winning author of ten novels. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in various international anthologies and journals. Originally from South Africa, Lisa lives and writes in Toronto, and I’m very pleased to have her here as my guest, answering this week’s question. 

You’re writing a novel set in the current time. Do you include covid, politics, climate change among the backgro...

Do You or Don't You?

Terry Shames here, answering our weekly question: Do you include covid, politics, climate change among the background or foreground parts of the environment? If so, why? If not, why? 
I’ve read two recent books that include Covid, but only glancingly. One was Michael Connelly’s The Fifth Witness, and the other was Beautiful World, Where Are You , by Sally Rooney. In the first, the virus is mentioned toward the end in a casual way. The reader knows what’s coming, but Haller doesn’t. In Rooney’s, th...

Current Affairs in Crime Fiction

You’re writing a novel set in the current time. Do you include covid, politics, climate change among the background or foreground parts of the environment? If so, why? If not, why?

Brenda Chapman starting off the week.

Most of my novels are written in a vaguely current time frame. While I haven't shied away from topical issues, I haven't specifically tackled the climate change issue except in passing. As for politics, I don't get into this much either. The pandemic is something I blog about on my ...

Thomas Pluck plots the perfect dinner party.

Josh Stallings here, I’m proud to have Thomas Pluck filling in today. Not only is he a hell of a guy, he’s also a stunningly talented and versatile writer. Prolific too, with over fifty published short stories, two short story collections, and three novels, Blade of Dishonor, Bad Boy Boogie and it’s just released Sequel, The Boy from County Hell. The Boy from County Hell is lyrical and brutal, hard and heart breaking. It reminds me of James Lee Burke, in it’s beauty, but it beats with a heart th...

Will and Jane and Dot and James, by Catriona

READING: Borrowing from the NYT Q&A with authors: You’re having a dinner party. Which four authors living or dead do you invite?

It is so tempting to cheat on this question by pretending I misread it, and go for fourteen and a table extension. (I've got one in the garage that my dad made.) Or even forty, although that would have to be a buffet.

But if I'm really going to hold it down to four, it's pretty easy.

1. Shakespeare. Who else? How could you get the chance to meet any dead writer and choose...

My liver will never cope... by Cathy Ace

READING: Borrowing from the NYT Q&A with authors: You’re having a dinner party. Which four authors living or dead do you invite?

I have to say, off the bat, that all my picks will be dead ones…because there are too many living authors I love and miss to include them all, and I can’t bear the idea of having to pick just four! So let’s assume there’s a GIANT knees-up planned for all my author-chums still this side of the grass, to be held at the venue pictured below (one of my favourite places to ...

Meet John A. Hoda!

Our panelist group gets three posts this month, so I'm surrendering one of them to John Hoda, who I think my fellow panelists and the blog readers will find interesting...
Frank ----------------------------------------------------------
My name is John A. Hoda. I am a former cop; long-time fraud investigator and I still carry a PI license in the state of Connecticut. I’ve been a storyteller all my adult life. At parties or get-togethers, I always had a story or two or three for those gathered. My w...