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The Craft of Writing — March 2023

 

I’m excited to continue this year on the CRAFT OF WRITING blog by focusing on authors who write series. This month is special because we welcome Reavis Wortham, an award-winning author of Westerns!

Reavis’s books in The Red River Series and The Sonny Hawke Series have received many accolades, including starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and The Library Journal. Kirkus also listed his first novel, The Rock Hole as one of the “Top 12 Mysteries of 2011.”

To celebrate our first Western series on the Craft of Writing blog, we’re going to do something fun: The name of each person who enters a comment today will be put into a drawing to win an ebook copy of The Rock Hole, the first book in Wortham’s Red River Series. I will post the name of the winner after 9 o’clock pm CDT tonight. Be sure to check back tonight to see if you won, and please make sure I have your email address for the drawing.

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Award-winning western author Reavis Wortham on the Craft of Writing blog Click To Tweet

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Welcome, Reavis Wortham, to the Craft of Writing blog and thank you for joining us!

  

What was your first published book, and why did you decide to write it?

My first novel was The Rock Hole, which released in 2011. It was listed as a Starred Review and one of the Top Twelve Mystery Novels of that year by Kirkus Reviews.

Like most authors, I’ve always wanted to write, and while talking with my wife, Shana, I mentioned that a lot of history was fading away as the old folks passed on. I wanted to preserve and record a way of life that was fast disappearing in the early 1960s, and the changing world that came at the end of the decade.

The Rock Hole is based on my grandfather who was both a farmer and constable in a tiny rural community located up on the Red River in Northeast Texas. I grew up hearing stories of his work in law enforcement, and wanted to relate a tale I’d heard.

I had no idea my publisher, Poisoned Pen Press (now Sourcebooks), would like that standalone novel so much. They offered me a series, requiring me to rewrite the ending because I’d killed everyone off. That cast of characters has continued through nine books, ending with the most recent that released in January of 2022, The Texas Job, which is a prequel and takes place back in 1932.

 

Can you tell us a little about each of the series you’ve written?

As I said, the Red River series is set in the 1960s. These historical mysteries began with 1964, with The Rock Hole, and follows the Parker family. We see life in that decade through the eyes of ten-year-old Top Parker and his near-twin female cousin, Pepper. Cody Parker and his girlfriend (then wife) Norma Fay provide a second view, representing a couple in their twenties and younger residents. Constable Ned Parker and his full-blood Choctaw wife are the elders of the clan who survived the Great Depression and WWII. They see the world from experience. Finally, Deputy John Washington serves the African-American residents of Chisum, Texas, and brings in a different viewpoint of life in that time period.

My second contemporary series featuring Texas Ranger Sonny Hawke is published by Kensington. Set in the Big Bend region of Texas, these high octane thrillers also utilize family as a foundation upon which everything rests. It features Ranger Hawke, who is the officer we all want to know, but he’s impetuous and not the greatest shot in the world. He often walks in that gray area between absolute right and wrong, but always acts in the best interest of the law and those innocent people around him.

Backed up by civilians and ex-military vets Yolanda Rodriguez and Perry Hale, he always finds himself drawn into situations we see each night on the news. Beginning with Hawke’s Prey in which the tiny West Texas town of Ballard is taken over by terrorists, it continues through a total of four books, two of which won Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America Association, Hawke’s War and Hawke’s Target.

 

How do you keep a series fresh after readers become familiar with the stories?

Each day of life is fresh, and often dictated by events out of our hands. I put my characters into play dealing with whatever is thrown at them, much like real life, and we watch their reactions to these situations.

Readers like to watch characters evolve, and those in my books grow with each novel. Unlike some authors who write similar human characteristics from one title to another, those people I’ve created have the same fallibilities as real people, including fears, concerns, ailments and faults. They face these, as well as the plot that drives them forward.

For example, in the Red River series, Top and Pepper grow older with each book, and experience all the trials and tribulations that adolescence and puberty throws at them. They move through each grade level in school, and endure all the same things we recall that happened to us, or those in school.

In the Sonny Hawke novels, he’s a tough-as-nails Ranger who can deal with all the horrors of the job, but at one point his emotions swell and he has a brief collapse when he runs over a cat in his truck. He’s as human as I can make him, and his relationship with his wife, kids, and community drives the story, keeping it all crisp and exciting.

 

How do you handle the situation where a reader jumps into the middle of a series without reading the first book or two?

Each of my novels are standalone, though the ensemble cast of characters remain essentially the same, except for the bad guys. I quickly bring readers up to speed with only a few references from earlier books. It’s my hope that when they finish a title, they are driven by the need to know the characters even more, and as my late father-in-law said, “I look forward to each book, because they’ve become family and I want to know what’s happening them.”

Then they, hopefully, go back and read the earlier books, but it’s not necessary.

 

Do you have plans for future books in either of your series?

I do!

My contract for the Red River series is ongoing, so I work on them all the time. I’ve started the tenth in the series, but have no title as of yet.

The Sonny Hawke books ended with the fourth novel, Hawke’s Fury. At this time there are no further books in the works, but that could change.

A new series from Kensington begins in May of 2024, with the first Cap Whitlatch novel, The Journey South. I’ve always wanted to write pure westerns, and this one fills the bill. It begins in the Oklahoma territories when Whitlatch sells a herd of horses to a crooked Missouri lawyer. On the way back to Texas, he arrives in a small town and finds his boyhood friend facing a lynch mob. To save Gil, Cap agrees to take the prisoner back to Texas for trial. Renegade Comanches, a trio of murderous Cherokee brothers bent on revenge, and two outlaws intent on robbing Whitlatch of the gold in his saddlebags bring a sense of the old west to these pages.

This story about honor, right, and wrong is in the can, and I’m working on the second novel that as yet doesn’t have a title.

 

What advice would you give an author who’s considering writing a series?

Create a multidimensional cast of characters that readers value and can relate to.

Look at each novel as a standalone and don’t get overwhelmed by the thought of what’s to come. When they were growing up, I told my daughters to approach such tasks the same way you would eat an elephant. You do it by taking one bite at a time, and not looking at the massive beast itself.

They still roll their eyes at that one.

 

In addition to your successful series, you have a new book, Hard Country. Can you tell us a little about that one?

And that brings us to still another new series from Sourcebooks. Hard Country is the first novel in the Tucker Snow series, featuring a contemporary cattle inspector. These guys and gals are an offshoot of the Texas Rangers and have the power to enforce rural law in both Oklahoma and Texas. They investigate rural crimes for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), and go after cattle rustlers, thieves, and any online crime that has to do with farming and ranching.

Tucker Snow is as tough as they come, hardened by decades working as an undercover narcotics agent for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Through special dispensation from the governor, he and his brother Harley cut a wide swath through the criminal element of Northeast Texas. But tragedy comes calling after taking a dream job as a special ranger with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, when Tucker’s wife and toddler are killed in a horrific traffic accident caused by a drug addled felon. Close to breaking, Tucker sets his badge aside to move his surviving teenage daughter outside of Ganther Bluff, a quiet town with enough room for them to mourn their unexpected loss.

But peace doesn’t last long for a man like Snow. Instead of settling into small-town life to heal from such an unimaginable loss, a fresh kind of hell hits them with full force.

Crimes and secrets strangle this rural community, and when a new form of meth with the street name of gravel gets too close to home, it’s enough for Tucker to put his badge back on and call Harley for help. The town will ultimately be better off with him as a resident lawman, but this unforgiving landscape will threaten everything Tucker holds dear.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Please visit my website at www.reaviszwortham.com.

Lots of folks follow my Reavis Wortham Facebook page where I post nearly every day about life, family, fun, entertainment, history, books, and never politics.

 

Thank you, Reavis, for being with us today.

Award-winning western author Reavis Wortham on the Craft of Writing blog Click To Tweet

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Spur Award winner Reavis Z. Wortham retired in 2011 and now works harder than before as the author of the critically acclaimed Red River historical mystery series. Kirkus Reviews listed his first novel, The Rock Hole, as one of their Top 12 Mysteries of 2011. True West Magazine included Dark Places as one of 2015’s Top 12 Modern Westerns. The Providence Journal writes, “This year’s Unraveled is a hidden gem of a book that reads like Craig Johnson’s Longmire on steroids.” Wortham’s new high octane contemporary western series from Kensington Publishing featuring Texas Ranger Sonny Hawke kicked off in 2017 with the publication of Hawke’s Prey. The fourth Sonny Hawke thriller, Hawke’s Fury, was published in June 2020. In 2019, the Western Writers Association presented Hawke’s War with the Spur Award in the WWA Best Mass Market Paperback category

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — FEBRUARY 2023

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — FEBRUARY 2023

Kristy Montee (P.J. Parrish) on writing a series

 

I’m excited to continue this year on the CRAFT OF WRITING blog by focusing on authors who write series. This month, we welcome P.J. Parrish, the award-winning author of the Louis Kincaid thriller series.

For those of you who don’t know, P.J. Parrish is the pseudonym of the writing team of sisters Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. Kristy is a fellow contributor to the Kill Zone Blog, and she is my guest today. (You can read more about these exceptional sisters in the author bio below.)

Writing the series with P.J. Parrish Click To Tweet

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Welcome, Kristy, to the Craft of Writing blog and thank you for joining us!

 

First things first: Why did you and your sister decide to co-write books? Do you have a process for writing (e.g., alternating chapters) so you don’t get in each other’s way?

We decided to join up mainly because my career in romance was dead and my agent suggested I had a good sense of mystery and that I should try that. Ha! What hubris I had. My first effort was abysmal and my agent told me to go home and read some Connelly and PD James. (I hadn’t read a mystery since Nancy Drew.) Unbeknownst to me, my sister Kelly was trying to write her own first novel and was struggling (raw talent but no grounding in craft). My husband suggested we team up and it worked from the start.

Our process is to brainstorm together (we’re pantsers) and work out basic plot about 3 chapters forward. (the famous E.L. Doctorow method: You’re driving down a dark road with only your headlights to guide you, but you can get to the end that way). Then we “take assignments” based on who might have a better feel for the chapter’s needs (i.e., Kelly loves doing the action scenes; my forte tends toward character development and description. Though over the years we’ve both gotten stronger vice versa, although Kelly still considers doing description to eating broccoli. I force her to do it! We write our chapters, exchange them, edit them, discuss and rewrite if needed then move on down the dark road.

 

Why did you choose P.J. Parrish as your pseudonym?

Ha! Try to make a long story short. Our editor at Kensington suggested we come up with one because two names on a cover take up a lot of space and readers tend to be suspicious of books written by committee. We tried Kris Kelly. Editor said it sounded too Irish. (Ah, aren’t they great storytellers?). And because we write a male biracial protag, they wanted us to use a gender-neutral name. Remember, this was back in the dark ages of 1999 – women writing crime fiction, let alone with a male hero, well, it wasn’t as accepted as it is now. We were under contract with a pub deadline looming when Kelly and I went off to England. We were tooling around the Cotswolds, getting frantic calls from our agent. We bent a few elbows at a pub one rainy night and came up with the name PJ Paris (because we were flying there the next day). We ran out to one of those red phone booths and called our agent. She loved the name. When we got the contract it said “PJ PARRISH.” I guess I slurred my words during that phone call. True story, I swear.

 

This year we’re concentrating on writing series, and your Louis Kincaid series has been very popular. Why did you decide to write it?

Louis is Kelly’s creation. The book she was trying to write was a very rough version of our first published book “Dark of the Moon.” Louis was born of her own experience living in a small town — Philadelphia, Mississippi  — and having biracial grandchildren. I think of Louis as my adopted son.

 

There are eleven books in the Kincaid series. How do you keep the series fresh, book after book?

It is difficult, as any series writer knows. Doubly so since we age Louis with each book and we pay strict attention to his character arc over the course of each book and the entire series. I think that is what keeps readers coming back – that they have been witness to Louis’s life journey.

 

How do you handle the situation where a reader jumps into the middle of a series without reading the first book or two?

Good question. It’s a tightrope walk. You have to give a new reader just enough backstory so they don’t feel lost, yet not bore loyal readers who’ve been with you for the whole ride. This would make a good post for The Kill Zone.

 

Do you have plans for future Louis Kincaid books?

Well, this is as good a place to announce this as any. Right now, we have no plans for another Louis book. There are many reasons behind this decision, but foremost is that the changes in the industry in the last five years or so have not been kind to any author who is not a bestseller, especially for series. Publishers are very reluctant to pick up a series in midstream because they can’t access your backlist. Which is partly why we did our stand alone thriller “She’s Not There” with Thomas & Mercer. And you know, going back to the keeping a series fresh question: We feel that with our most recent Louis book “The Damage Done” that we left him in a very good place as far as his arc goes. As TKZ readers know, I’m not a fan of prologues. Bad epilogues are even worse.

 

What other books are you working on?

Working on a sequel of sorts to “She’s Not There” involving the secondary protagonist. He wasn’t supposed to be such a dominant force, but, well, sometimes characters surprise the hell out of you. Our editor (and readers) have asked us to tell his story. Problem is, he’s rather recalcitrant. And I’m getting old and am easily distracted by things like gardens, my dogs and pickleball.

 

What advice would you give an author who’s considering writing a series?

  1. Give your protagonist a lot of thought before you write one word. Figure out if you’re going to advance him or her in age with each book. Work out details of age, background, family, etc. and give yourself enough latitude for growth over the course of a series. It’s a marathon.
  2. Keep a record of every trait you give your protagonist. Every detail you commit to paper, record it somewhere: height, weight, siblings, where he was born, shirt size, how he takes his coffee. Record all the dates and years. BELIEVE ME, you will need this record. You will go insane trying to go back and find these details in your books. And your readers will be quick to call you out for errors. (“Hey, you said his middle name was Alvin in book 3, so why’d you call him Ervin in book 5?”)
  3. Keep similar records for all characters in each book. Because you will probably find they show up in future books. You don’t want to waste time getting to know them all over again.
  4. Give great thought to the character arc of your protagonist that you would like to cover over the course of the series. I know this isn’t always possible from the start, but the sooner you begin weaving this into your plot process, the more compelling your hero will be.
  5. Find a great co-author. Just kidding.

 

Tell us more about you. What interests do you have outside of writing?

Well, I’m blessed to have retired to two homes: Tallahassee FL (Nov.-May) and Traverse City MI (May to Nov.). In Florida, I am obsessed with tending my garden and watching my birds. In Michigan, I switch to active mode and do a lot of hiking in the woods, biking, kayaking, and pickleball every morning. We’re traveling a lot now – just back from France and gearing up for Italy and we go for about a month at a time. So, I’m also into languages big time, getting pretty proficient in French but now just learning how to order a coffee in Italian. Io sono di Florida! (Learned that today.) Am also trying to find more time to read just for pleasure.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

PJ Parrish.com but be kind. We’re awful about updating it.

 

Thank you, Kristy, for being with us today.

 

Writing the series with P.J. Parrish Click To Tweet

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P.J. Parrish is actually two sisters, Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. Their books have appeared on both the New York Times and USA Today best seller lists. The series has garnered 11 major crime-fiction awards, and an Edgar® nomination. Parrish has won two Shamus awards, one Anthony and one International Thriller competition. Her books have been published throughout Europe and Asia. Parrish’s short stories have also appeared in many anthologies, including two published by Mystery Writers of America, edited by Harlan Coben and the late Stuart Kaminsky. Their stories have also appeared in Akashic Books acclaimed Detroit Noir, and in Ellery Queen Magazine. Most recently, they contributed an essay to a special edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s works edited by Michael Connelly.

The Craft of Writing — November 2022

I am thrilled to welcome Anthony and Agatha Award-winning mystery author Elaine Viets to the Craft of Writing blog today as we continue our year-long interviews of mystery, suspense, thriller, and fantasy authors. Elaine is the author of several series from cozies to dark mystery, so it will be fun to get her perspective on the different sub-genres. And she’s a fellow contributor to the Kill Zone Blog.

Elaine’s latest novel, Late for his Own Funeral, was released in 2022, and her short story We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About won a silver at the Florida Writers Association. It appeared in the anthology The Great Filling Station Holdup.

 

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Meet Elaine Viets

Elaine Viets has written 34 mysteries in four series: the bestselling Dead-End Job series with South Florida PI Helen Hawthorne, the cozy Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper mysteries, and the dark Francesca Vierling mysteries. With the Angela Richman Death Investigator series, Elaine returns to her hardboiled roots and uses her experience as a stroke survivor and her studies at the Medicolegal Death Investigators Training Course. Elaine was a director at large for the Mystery Writers of America. She’s a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris and Lawrence Block. Elaine won the Anthony, Agatha and Lefty Awards.

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Welcome Elaine Viets, and thank you for joining us!

Please give us some background – have you always wanted to be a writer?

At first, I wanted to be an artist, until I realized I didn’t have any artistic talent. In high school, my teachers steered me toward a career in writing and encouraged me to go to Journalism School at the University of Missouri. I worked my way through college proofreading medical books, Missouri Supreme Court briefs and phone books. That last job was incredibly boring. I was hired by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after graduation, as a fashion writer. Later, I became a feature writer and finally a humor columnist. I was syndicated by United Features in New York. Working for a newspaper was good training to be a novelist. I learned the importance of deadlines and also how to write realistic dialogue. You never want someone to quote you absolutely accurately, with every um, uh, and hesitation.

 

Why did you decide to write mystery novels?

I love reading mysteries. I had my mother’s set of Nancy Drews, the red-backed ones. Nancy drove a roadster. I had no idea what that was, but figured it was sort of like a Miata, which was definitely cool. I graduated to Agatha Christie and by then I was hooked. I had a three-book a week mystery habit. When the newspaper business began to fall apart in the mid-1990s, I quit to write mysteries.

 

Tell us about the first novel you wrote and how you came up with the story.

My first mystery was called “Backstab.” It was a newspaper series featuring a six-feet-tall columnist named Francesca Vierling. Since I am six-feet tall and had been a columnist, it wasn’t much of a creative stretch. I enjoyed satirizing the newspaper life of the time and killed off a number of editors. (Especially the ones who butchered my copy.) I wrote about the quirky side of my hometown of St. Louis, and some of my favorite people and places, including a bar and restaurant called Dieckmeyers, which served the city specialty, brain sandwiches. Brains – usually cow brains – were breaded and deep-fat fried.  In “Backstab,” two of Francesca’s good friends die suddenly. She’s convinced they were murdered, though the police are not. She investigates their deaths.

 

You’ve written four different series.  Can you tell us a little about each one of those and how they differ from each other?

The first series, the Francesca Vierling series, is a newspaper mystery, set in the mid-1990s. It stopped after four novels, when Dell ended its paperback mystery division.

The Dead-End Job mysteries came second. Helen Hawthorne, a St. Louis woman on the run from her greedy ex-husband, winds up in South Florida, working low-paying jobs for cash under the table. I’ve written twelve books in this series, and Helen had a different dead-end job for each mystery, from hotel maid to cat groomer. I worked many of those jobs. The worst was telemarketer.

My publisher asked me to start the Josie Marcus, mystery shopper series featuring Josie, a single mom and mystery shopper. My own mother was a mystery shopper, so I knew a little about that profession. I wrote 10 Josie books before I ended that very cozy series.

My current series is the Angela Richman, Death Investigator mysteries. I’ve just turned in book seven in that series, “The Dead of Night,” based on a legend from Transylvania University. (And yes, that’s a real university in Kentucky.) All these series are available as e-books.

 

What’s your writing process? Do you start with plot or characters or some combination? Are you a plotter or pantser?

Some combination. I always know the killer and the victims when I start a mystery, and I have a good idea of the story. I used to be a dedicated plotter, and worked out every scene in advance. My outlines were often 80 pages. But now that I’ve written more than thirty mysteries, I’m turning into a pantser. I’m letting the story develop. It feels freer that way.

 

What are your plans for future novels? Do you have another series in mind?

I have one more Angela Richman mystery on my contract with Severn House, and then I’ll have to decide my next move.

 

When you’re not writing, what do you do for fun?

I live in Hollywood, Florida, right on the ocean, and I love to go for long walks along the water. These walks are not only peaceful, they’re a good way to work out plots. Plus, I see so many quirky people, like the man who rides a bike with his cockatoo on the handlebars. I enjoy going out with my husband Don and our friends. I also enjoy reading. My condo has a 24-hour library, so if I need a mystery in the middle of the night, I can get it.

 

What advice would you give an aspiring mystery author?

Read. Whether you are traditionally published or indie, know who the leaders are in your subgenre. Read the masters and the emerging writers. Check out the Latina and Latino writers, writers of color and LGBTQ+ writers.

Study your craft. Know the basic rules of grammar, and the “rules” of mystery writing. You may want to break every one of them, but know them first. If you have problems with grammar, hire an editor or ask a friend for help.

Join. Writers understand other writers. Join the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime. There’s also the Short Mystery Fiction Society if you write short stories. Join local writers groups, too. I belong to the Florida Writers Association.

Attend the conferences. The  Bouchercon World Mystery convention, ThrillerFest, SleuthFest and Malice Domestic are just a few. These conferences are good places to find editors and agents, discuss the issues currently affecting writers, or find a writing partner.

And last but not least.

Write. Every day if you can, even if it’s only for ten minutes. Writers write. As much fun as it is to hang out in the bar at writers’ conferences, you still have to sit alone at the computer and write.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Check out my Website at elaineviets.com. Here’s also a TV interview about my new mystery, LATE FOR HIS FUNERAL. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_m9mPIOpRpY.

 

Thank you, Elaine, for being with us today.

And thanks, Kay, for interviewing me.

The Craft of Writing — September 2022

As we continue our year-long interviews of mystery, suspense, thriller, and fantasy authors, I’m excited to welcome Sue Coletta, a colleague from the Kill Zone Blog. Sue is an author of psychological thrillers and true crime, and she has a large backlist of titles.

Her latest novel is HALOED. Click the image to go to the Amazon detail page for the book.


 

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Meet Sue Coletta

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org awarded her Murder Blog with “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net” (Murder Blog sits at #5 — 2018-2022). She also blogs at the Kill Zone, Writer’s Digest “101 Best Websites for Writers” (2013-2022), and Writers Helping Writers.

Sue teaches a virtual course about serial killers for EdAdvance in CT and a condensed version for her fellow Sisters in Crime. She’s appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion. In the fall she’s slated to appear on another true crime show for CineFlix. Learn more about Sue and her books at www.suecoletta.com.

 

Thriller Author Sue Coletta shares her writing journey on the Craft of Writing Blog. Click To Tweet

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Welcome Sue Coletta, and thank you for joining us!

Happy to be here, Kay!

 

Please give us some background – have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes and no. I worked as a paralegal and owned/operated a hair salon for years. In my 20s I wrote children’s books, believe it or not, but not for publication. Only for friends’ kids to enjoy. But I quickly learned the power of the written word. Through these children stories I could hide a point that I’d tried to get across verbally to no avail. When my boyfriend (at the time) read each story, he understood what I’d been trying to tell him.

 

Why did you decide to write crime novels?

For several years I longed to write psychological thrillers with underlying mysteries, but I never believed I could do it. Then my husband and I put an offer on a house two hours north in a small, rural town. From the very first moment we strode through the door the house became my muse. While waiting to pass papers, I envisioned myself writing. Sounds bizarre, I know, but it’s true. Something told me I was meant to fulfill my destiny in this house. Later, after we moved in, we’d cruise the backroads, admiring the tranquil beauty while finding our way around, getting familiar with our new area, and I couldn’t help but notice all the perfect spots to dump a body. And that finally lit the spark for my first novel.

 

You’ve written several different series.  Can you tell us a little about each one of those?

Sure. My Grafton County Series focuses on a crime writer, Sage, who barely escaped a serial killer’s clutches in Boston. After the attack, Sage and her husband Niko left Boston and headed north to New Hampshire, where Niko accepted the position of Grafton County Sheriff. They both carried scars from that fateful night in Boston.

The Grafton County Series includes detailed investigations that run alongside Sage’s sleuthing, and often the two overlap and cause conflict. There’s an underlying mystery in each novel, a whodunnit. Fast paced and emotional, with alternating POVs from Sage, Niko, and his snarky deputy, Frankie.

The main themes for the series are…

  • Family first. Breaking this rule makes you vulnerable to predators.
  • Love conquers all.
  • You can’t outrun the past.

The Mayhem Series novels are textbook psychological thrillers, where the reader knows who the bad guy is right away. They’re cat-and-mouse, with a mind-numbingly fast pace. The main character is Shawnee Daniels, who runs the Cybercrimes Division for the police by day, cat burglar by night. She straddles the line of legality, but her heart’s in the right place. By targeting white collar criminals, she steals to repay the people who the criminals ripped off. Shawnee has a knack for breaking into the wrong home at the wrong time, making her the target of some brutal killers over the years.

Without destroying the reader’s journey, all I can say is the Mayhem Series has transformed from Book 1 to Book 5 into a spiritual awakening for Shawnee, with deep roots in Native American culture, tradition, and folklore. She’s still snarky and badass with a knack for getting into trouble. But now, she uses her cat burglar and hacking skills for a different reason. Can’t say more than that without spoilers.

What’s your latest book?

My latest book is HALOED, the final Grafton County novel. Though it’s book five, HALOED can easily be read as a standalone without feeling lost.

Description:

She may be paranoid, but is she right?

A string of gruesome murders rocks the small town of Alexandria, New Hampshire, with all the victims staged to resemble dead angels, and strange pink and red balloons appearing out of nowhere.

All the clues point to the Romeo Killer’s return. Except one: He died eight years ago.

Paranoid and on edge, Sage’s theory makes no sense. Dead serial killers don’t rise from the grave. Yet she swears he’s here, hungering for the only angel to slip through his grasp—Sage.

With only hours left to live, how can Sage convince her Sheriff husband before the sand in her hourglass runs out?

 

What’s your writing process? Do you start with plot or characters or some combination?

Since my characters are already well-established, I start with plot and one burning question—how can I outdo the previous book?

 

What are your plans for future novels? Do you have another series in mind?

Right now, I’m concentrating on the Mayhem Series. For a while I batted around an idea for a different series, but the characters in my Mayhem Series fit the plot. Hence why the series keeps twisting and turning. Just when readers get comfortable in the story world, everything flips on its head. 😉

 

What advice would you give an aspiring author of thrillers?

My advice would be to master the fine art of misdirection. You have to play fair. In hindsight, all the clues must be visible. Psychological thrillers require mind games, lots of twists, lots of turns. Becoming one with your characters is vitally important. You need to know them as well as yourself. Even your villains. Nailing characterization, emotion, and a deep point of view are key areas in making psychological thrillers work. If the reader’s mind wanders, you’re toast. Grab them by the throat in the first chapter and don’t let go till the end, then leave them wanting more.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

The best place is my website: https://suecoletta.com

Murder Blog (where you can join my newsletter): https://suecoletta.com/murder-blog/

 

Thank you, Sue, for being with us today.

Thanks, Kay. J

Thriller author Sue Coletta shares her writing journey on the Craft of Writing blog. Click To Tweet

The Craft of Writing — August 2022

The Craft of Writing — August 2022

with Patricia Bradley

I am thrilled to welcome romantic suspense author Patricia Bradley to the Craft of Writing blog today as we continue our year-long interviews of mystery, suspense, thriller, and fantasy authors. Patricia is the author of several series. Her latest novel, Deception is book #4 in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series.

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Meet Patricia Bradley

 

Patricia Bradley is a Romantic Suspense Selah winner, Carol and Daphne du Maurier finalist and the winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award. Three anthologies that included her stories debuted on the USA Today Best Seller List.

She and her two cats call Northeast Mississippi home–the South is also where she sets most of her books. Her romantic suspense novels include the Logan Point series, the Memphis Cold Case Novels, and the Natchez Trace Park Rangers. She now hard at work on the second book in her new Pearl River series set in the Cumberland Plateau area above Chattanooga.

Writing workshops include American Christian Fiction Writers, the Mid-South Christian Writer’s Conference, the KenTen and Scrivener retreats where she was the keynote, Memphis American Christian Fiction Writer group, and the Bartlett Christian Writers group. When she has time, she likes to throw mud on a wheel and see what happens.

 

Romantic Suspense author Patricia Bradley is my interview guest on The Craft of Writing blog. Click To Tweet

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Welcome Patricia Bradley, and thank you for joining us!

Thank you for having me on your blog, Kay.

 

Please give us some background – have you always wanted to be a writer?

Until I turned thirty-five I was a reader. Writing a novel had not crossed my mind. Then one night when I couldn’t sleep, a man appeared in my vision. He stood staring out a window with smokestacks billowing in the background. Then he turned toward me and said, “This isn’t the way my life was supposed to turn out.”

That blew me away, and I began to tell myself stories about what had happened in his life to make him say that. Soon other people came to live in my head and they weren’t content with me telling their story in my mind. They wanted printed matter. I bought a subscription to Writers Digest Magazine and began my writing journey on an old Hermes portable typewriter. If computers hadn’t come along I’m not sure I would have ever tried to write a novel.

 

Why did you decide to write romantic suspense novels?

That’s all I’ve ever read. Originally, Mary Higgins Clarke was my favorite author along with Patricia Highsmith, Lawrence Block, and Agatha Christie, of course. Oh! And the one that started me on that path—Walter Farley with his Black Stallion series.

 

Tell us about the first novel you wrote and how you came up with the story.

The very first novel I wrote will never, ever see the light of day—it was shredded years ago. However, I did take several of the characters over to my first published novel—Shadows of the Past. The idea came after I had put aside writing fiction for six years to work in the abstinence program. RISE to Your Dreams, the abstinence curriculum I’d cowritten was finished, and I’d cut my hours back.

One morning in my quiet time a woman appeared in my thoughts. She told me her name was Taylor and someone was trying to kill her. I was jumping-up-and-down happy. God had given me my suspense stories back—for six years I hadn’t had one single romantic suspense thought. But now that the curriculum and a workbook were finished, I was free to go back to my mysteries!

 

You’ve written several different series.  Can you tell us a little about each one of those?

The Logan Point Series is set in a fictional town just outside of Memphis. I actually took the area where I live now—Corinth, MS and the Tennessee River around Pickwick and moved them down to Memphis. I even asked my editor if I should note that in a foreword and she said, “No, it’s fiction.”

 

What’s your latest book?

Deception, Natchez Trace Park Rangers, Book 4 released August 2nd.  Here’s the back cover copy:

After being forced to kill an FBI agent gone rogue in self-defense while working in the violent crimes unit for the Investigative Services Branch, ranger Madison Thorn is comfortable with her move to the fraud and cyber division. At least numbers don’t lie. So she’s less than thrilled when a white-collar crime investigation in Natchez, Mississippi, turns violent. She could also do without being forced to work with former-childhood-enemy-turned-infuriatingly-handsome park ranger Clayton Bradshaw.

When a woman who looks just like Madison is attacked on the same night Madison’s grandfather is shot, it becomes clear that there is something much bigger going on here and that Madison herself is in danger. Madison and Clayton will have to work together–and suppress their growing feelings for one another–if they are to discover the truth before it’s too late.)

 

What’s your writing process? Do you start with plot or characters or some combination?

I usually start out with an image of a character in my mind, involved with a crime. Then I have to know why the crime happens now. Why not last year, or six months from now. And it goes from there.

 

What are your plans for future novels? Do you have another series in mind?

I’m working on a series set in the Cumberland Plateau up around Chattanooga—the Pearl River Series. But I’m not one of those authors who has a bag full of ideas. Usually while I’m working on a current series, ideas will pop into my head for another series. For my fifth series, I’m thinking about a skip tracer—that’s someone who finds people who are living off the grid.

 

What advice would you give an aspiring author of romantic suspense / mystery?

I would give them the same advice I give any new or aspiring writer—learn the craft—things like show, don’t tell, learn how to write dialogue, how to ask what if. And don’t publish the first thing you write. Let it rest, then go back and work on it again. Writing is rewriting.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

I love to connect with my readers on my blog. Every Tuesday I post a Mystery Question—four scenarios, usually crimes. Three are true and I make one up and ask my readers if they can figure out which one I made up. We have a lot of fun with that one. Then on Friday I post a review of a book I’ve read along with the first line and invite my readers to share the first line of the book they’re reading.

You can also find me on social media:

Blog: www.patriciabradleyauthor.com/blog
Twitter: @ptbradley1
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/patriciabradleyauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptbradley1/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ptbradley/

Thank you, Patricia, for being with us today.

Romantic Suspense author Patricia Bradley is my guest today on The Craft of Writing blog. Click To Tweet

The Craft of Writing — June 2022

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — JUNE 2022

with FRANK DIBIANCA

As we continue our year-long dive into mystery, suspense, thriller, and fantasy novels, I’m especially excited and proud to introduce today’s interviewee, Frank DiBianca. Frank’s debut novel, Laser Trap, releases today! Click the image to go to the Amazon page.

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Meet Frank DiBianca

Frank DiBianca is a former medical physics and biomedical engineering teaching and research professor. He has written numerous novels and short stories in the suspense, romance and sci-fi genres. His first traditionally published novel is LASER TRAP: A SUSPENSE NOVEL, Iron Stream Fiction (2022) a romance-laden suspense. Frank and his award-winning wife, Kay, are both full-time writers who assist each other in their manuscript development.

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Debut author Frank DiBianca shares his long and happy journey to publication. Click To Tweet

 

Welcome Frank DiBianca, and thank you for joining us!

Kay, it’s wonderful to be on your blog! Thank you.

 

Please give us some background – have you always wanted to be a writer?

Well, my first “official” publication was in fourth grade when the publisher of the class newspaper asked me for a story. I wrote him “The Unknown Element” a sci-fi story about a new atomic element that had devastating properties. When all the teachers said they didn’t understand it, I knew I was off to a career in elementary particle physics! So. I suppose the answer to your question is “yes,” as a career in retirement.

 

What got you interested in writing novels?

I promised the Lord that I would use my later years to create and publish stories that magnify Him in a gentle, non-evangelizing manner, using compelling ideas and language.

 

How did you come to write Laser Trap, your first novel, which is being released today?

In 2013, I wrote a 9,000-word romantic short-story called The Love Coach (TLC). Then, I went through a long period of literary development and attendance at numerous writing conferences, which both helped me and discouraged me at times (because I had so much to learn). My main writing focus moved from TLC to a 120,000-word sci-fi novel called Centaur, and then back to TLC, by now a full-length novel with considerable suspense added. It was contracted in 2021 by Iron Stream Media and, by 2022, it had been further edited, rewritten, and rebalanced into a 78,000-word suspense romance novel by my publisher, Iron Stream Fiction, an imprint of Iron Stream Media.

 

What were the main obstacles and successes that allowed you to go from a writer with good ideas but shaky writing techniques to one with a debut novel that the book’s endorsers and reviewers are excited about?

Let’s hope this continues, but the short answer is a lot of prayer, seven outstanding editors (eight, including the editor who passed my manuscript on to the person who would become my Managing Editor at ISM), and a multi-published, award-winning novelist wife who was always there for me. A longer, and much more complete, answer can be found in my recent ACFW blog, The Long but Happy Path of a Debut Suspense Novelist.

 

Do you have plans for future books?

Yes. I’m writing a book that uses very simple math and geometry to magnify the Lord. I’m also working on a sequel to Laser Trap.

 

What advice would you give aspiring authors?

I could have cut my start-up time by more than half (several years!) by doing three things much earlier:

  • Get a developmental editor or writing coach long before you finish the first draft of a novel. If she will allow it, send her your synopsis or plot summary and as soon as you write them, sections of your novel. There are many stages of editing you will need later to be successful.
  • Even if you have a degree in English Composition, you still have to learn the structure, style, and much more of modern fiction, and this depends on the genre you want to write in. How-to-write-fiction books, YouTube videos, writing conferences, and so on, are very helpful.
  • Read, read, read in your genre. Choose highly-rated, well-recommended novels. Record and store in binders your impressions as you read (How you do this depends on the format: paperback, e-book . . . !). You should give serious consideration to writing a short review and (a) filing it, as well as (b) publishing it (on Goodreads, Amazon, etc.) This will be very helpful to you, the author, and potential readers of the book!

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Because of multiple rewrites of Laser Trap, I have had scant time to update my author’s website frankdibianca.com, but after today’s June 7 book release, I will list all the unpublished prose and poetry I’ve written, as well as the new novel, now being published by Iron Stream Fiction.

 

Thank you, Frank, for being with us today.

It’s been a pleasure being with you, Kay, and in the shadows of some impressive predecessors.

 

Debut author Frank DiBianca shares his long and happy journey to publication. Click To Tweet

The Craft of Writing — March 2022

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — MARCH 2022

The Tawny Lindholm Series with Debbie Burke

 

I’m excited to continue this year’s CRAFT OF WRITING blog where we’re focusing entirely on mystery, suspense, thriller, and fantasy novels. Today’s guest is my friend and fellow Partner in Crime, Debbie Burke, author of the Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion series. You can find the series at: Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion and each of the ebooks is on sale today for 99¢!

 

 

 

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Debbie Burke is a suspense novelist, award-winning journalist, and blogger at The Kill Zone website. Her thriller series plunges crime-solver Tawny Lindholm into fast-paced twisty plots with quirky characters and snappy dialogue, set against the rugged scenery of Montana.

 

Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion - today on the Craft of Writing Blog Click To Tweet

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Welcome Debbie Burke, and thank you for joining us!

Thank you, Kay, for hosting me. As a special howdy to your readers, all books in the Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion series are $.99 for today only (March 7). Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, and major online booksellers.

 

Why did you decide to write thrillers?

I grew up reading Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett (loved The Thin Man movies), Ian Fleming, etc. Crime fiction was always my preference.

The first ten books I wrote were mysteries. None was published. I wasn’t very good at keeping the murderer’s identity hidden.

Mysteries are who done it?

In suspense/thriller, the bad guys aren’t necessarily hidden from the reader. Instead, the questions are: Will they get away with it? How can they pull it off?

With my first thriller, Instrument of the Devil, I discovered it was great fun to get inside the head of the villain and write from his/her point of view. They have reasons they believe their criminal actions are justified. In their own minds, they’re doing the right thing. It’s been said, the villain is the hero of his own story.

Instrument of the Devil won a couple of contests and was picked up by a publisher. I’ve stayed in thrillers ever since.

 

You call your series Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion. Did you always intend to write a series?

When I wrote Instrument of the Devil, I didn’t envision a series. After decades of rejections, I was just thrilled to finally get a novel published, even though it didn’t happen until after I was on Medicare!

But readers responded positively and it became a bestseller in women’s adventure fiction. People asked what was next. As a reader, series have always been my preference so it was easy to slide the same characters into new adventures.

 

Can you share a little about your main characters Tawny and Tillman?

Tawny is a shy recent widow in her fifties who has more grit than she gives herself credit for. In Instrument of the Devil, she trusts the wrong man who entangles her in a terrorist plot to bring down the electrical grid.

In the last quarter of that book, a brilliant, cynical, arrogant attorney named Tillman Rosenbaum defends Tawny and saves her from prison. Then he offers her a job. Although she’s grateful to him, she can’t stand him, knows nothing about the law, and can’t spell because of dyslexia. But she desperately needs the money.

Tillman is an intimidating 6’7” with a James Earl Jones voice, whose grandmother was Ethiopian Beta Israel. He hires Tawny as an investigator because he says, “You get clients to tell you secrets they’re too afraid to tell me.”

Despite their extreme differences, they make a great team professionally. Spoiler alert: By the end of the second book, Stalking Midas, the relationship turns personal. Gee, who woulda guessed?

 

You live in the beautiful state of Montana, and most of your books are set there. Can you give us an idea of what it’s like to live there and how it affects your stories?

It is beautiful but also rugged. You can drive miles on desolate roads and never see another rig. If you break down, you’re on your own because many areas outside of towns still don’t have cell service. Black ice is treacherous. Four-wheel-drive is a necessity. Bears and mountain lions keep you on your toes if you’re hiking or picking huckleberries. Avalanches in winter and drownings in summer kill a number of people every year.

While most Montanans are very nice people, we have our share of crazies, grifters, and desperadoes.

The 550-foot high Hungry Horse Dam is a dandy place to throw someone off, as are the Rimrocks (cliffs) in Billings. I haven’t even started on ghost towns, abandoned mines, or underground cities, so I don’t foresee running out of Montana locations anytime soon.

 

Do you have plans for future Tawny Lindholm books?

The seventh book, Until Proven Guilty, is being edited now with spring publication planned. Here’s the cover, designed by the talented Brian Hoffman (another member of The Kill Zone’s community).

I know you’re interested in honing your craft. What resources do you use to become a better writer?

I joke that I earned my MFA from TKZ (The Kill Zone). I followed the blog for many years and learned from masters like James Scott Bell, Jordan Dane, P.J. Parrish, Joe Moore, and many others. When they invited me to join as a contributor, I was gobsmacked and honored.

Jane Friedman, Randy Ingermanson, Anne R. Allen and Ruth Harris all have terrific blogs I never miss.

Critique groups are a huge help, as are writing conferences. Anytime you can interact with other serious writers, it’s valuable. There are many excellent craft books I’ve studied and recommend to others.

 

What advice would you give an aspiring author of thrillers?

Pacing is huge. You have to grab readers by the throat and not let them go. Keep the tension high. They have to be constantly wondering what’s going to happen next. Twists and surprises are important.

Create interesting antagonists. Make them three-dimensional characters, not cartoonish. They’ll scratch their cat under the chin even as they’re ready to launch a bio-weapon to kill millions.

Many thrillers are set on a global stage with the fate of humankind at stake. Mine are set in rural small towns, which aren’t usually associated with perilous danger. But greed, envy, jealousy, treachery, lust for power, and other dangerous forces are present anyplace there are people.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Thanks for asking!

My website: https://debbieburkewriter.com has sneak previews of each book and sales links.

Especially for Kay’s readers, all ebooks are on sale for $.99.

Amazon: Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion

 

Thank you, Debbie, for being with us today.

Thank you for hosting me, Kay! One great benefit of blogging at The Kill Zone is meeting lovely new friends like you!

Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion - Today on the Craft of Writing blog Click To Tweet

 

The Craft of Writing — February 2022

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — FEBRUARY 2022

The Mad River Magic Series with Dr. Steve Hooley

 

I’m excited to continue this year’s CRAFT OF WRITING blog where we’re focusing entirely on mystery, suspense, thriller, and fantasy novels. 

My guest today is Dr. Steve Hooley. Steve is a retired physician who has written the Mad River Magic YA Fantasy Series and has agreed to share his journey with us. So grab your magic wands, hop in your barrel cart, and get ready for a wild ride into fantasy land!

You can find the series at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KS3DVVY?

      

 

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Steve Hooley is a physician/writer. He has published seven short stories in four anthologies, his father’s memoirs, and is currently working on a middle-grade fantasy series, Mad River Magic.

Steve lives with his wife, Cindy, in rural western Ohio. They have five children and seven grandchildren. When not writing or practicing medicine, he likes to do woodturning and care for his enchanted forest.

 

Flying barrel carts, magic wands, and YA fantasy today on the Craft of Writing blog. Click To Tweet

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Welcome Steve Hooley, and thank you for joining us!

Thank you for the invitation.

A physician’s life doesn’t sound like it would leave a lot of time for writing. Can you tell us why you decided to write?

I became interested in high school, but set aside the humanities for science and math in college, so that I could pursue medicine. When my father was 89 (with severe dementia), and our family was planning a 90th birthday celebration for him, I edited a memoir he had written years before and never published. I gave him a box of his books on his birthday. Even though he didn’t understand, the look on his face gave me the desire to get into writing again. I took a correspondence course, began going to writers’ conferences, and reading everything I could get my hands on. Until retirement about a year ago, I wrote on Wednesdays and weekends. Now, I am excited to be able to writer every day.

 

What inspired you to write a YA fantasy series? Did you know it would be a series from the start?

About four years ago, I became frustrated with the direction children’s literature was going. I had six grandchildren at that point (seven now, and another one on the way) and I wanted them to have some clean and wholesome literature to read when they became middle-grade and teen-young adult. I also wanted to give them something that would last generations. I call it leaving a legacy.

I did plan for a series from the beginning. (See below.)

 

You have some very interesting characters in Mad River Magic. How did you create them?

The main characters are based on the seven cousins (my grandchildren), and it has been fun watching them grow up and see what kind of personalities they are developing. The main character, Bolt, is the “red-headed daredevil on crutches.” I noticed that many of the fantasy series gave the main character a handicap. I gave Bolt Becker Muscular Dystrophy, a form with late onset and possible sparing of the shoulder muscles. This allowed him to function on crutches and provided a need for magic flying barrel carts. Other recurring characters are allies who embody wisdom, knowledge, healing, etc. The really strange characters that are unique to each book are “created” according to the need of the theme and plot – the stranger and more unusual the better.

 

How do you incorporate your knowledge of medicine into your books?

Each book is set in a biological/anatomical system. For example, the first book is set in the conscience (abstract), the second on a giant DNA molecule, the third in the skeleton, the fourth in the cardiovascular system, and the 5th (not yet published) in the skin. The system is picked according to the theme of the book.

 

Do you have plans for future Mad River Magic books?

Yes. #5 is in editing and beta reading. I plan for another five or six. The next one will probably be set in the muscular system, with a theme of the dangers of sedentary (pandemic) lack of activity and exercise.

 

I know you’re interested in honing your craft. What resources do you use to become a better writer?

I read craft of writing books along with fiction. I’ve attended many conferences, and will probably resume going when the pandemic craziness has settled. I am fortunate to be associated with some very talented fellow bloggers at The Kill Zone blog, and learn a lot from them. I follow some writers’ blogs and newsletters. And I’m always on the lookout for new resources.

 

What advice would you give an aspiring author of YA Fantasy?

I would encourage them to read several of the successful series, ex. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc. Look for some of the most popular books on writing specifically for YA, and for Fantasy. Then look for general fiction writing classics. Start with James Scott Bell’s books on craft. And maybe follow a craft blog, like the Kill Zone, where they can interact and ask questions.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

My author page is here 

My website is SteveHooleyWriter.com

And I write a blog at The Kill Zone every other Saturday.

 

Thank you, Steve, for being with us today.

Thank you for the invitation. It was a pleasure!

Flying barrel carts, magic wands, and YA fantasy today on the Craft of Writing blog. Click To Tweet

 

The Craft of Writing — January 2022

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — JANUARY 2022

The Mike Romeo Series with James Scott Bell

 

I’m excited to begin a new year of the CRAFT OF WRITING blog. This year we are focusing entirely on mystery, suspense, thriller, and fantasy novels.

James Scott Bell is not only a best-selling author of books on the craft of writing. (I counted about twenty books, including the #1 Best-selling Plot and Structure). He is also an award-winning fiction author. His legal thriller Final Witness won the first Christy Award for suspense, and Romeo’s Way won the International Thriller Writers Award.

Jim’s Mike Romeo thriller series, is one of my favorites. He has created a memorable character and put him through some very trying times!

You can find the series at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JJ6P6ZK.

 

Thanks to all of you for stopping by the Craft of Writing blog today. You have a great opportunity to learn from and interact with one of the masters of the craft. So fasten your seatbelts. You’re going to meet the creator of Mike Romeo.

James Scott Bell talks about the Mike Romeo Thriller series. Click To Tweet

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Welcome James Scott Bell and thank you for joining us! You’ve written many novels. Can you tell us how you got started writing thrillers?

Well, I had to do something to justify being a lawyer! I started my writing journey when legal thrillers were starting to take off. Scott Turow and John Grisham were leading the way. So I wrote a courtroom thriller and got a five-book contract. That started things. The genre began to get really crowded, so I asked myself how I could do some books that would be a little different. I came up with the idea of a series of historical legal thrillers in a setting not covered much in fiction, early 1900s Los Angeles. I decided to have my protagonist be a woman, as women were just getting started in the profession. That’s how my Kit Shannon legal thrillers were born.

 

What inspired you to write the Mike Romeo Series? Did you know it would be a series from the start?

Yes, I knew I wanted to write a series, but outside the strict legal thriller genre. Of course it had to be a character I would enjoy writing about book after book. Still, I retained the law aspect this way—Mike Romeo’s only friend is a lawyer, and Mike does investigatory work for him.

 

Mike Romeo is one of my favorite characters in fiction. Can you tell us more about Mike Romeo and how you came to create him?

I’ve always been a fan of the “lone wolf” genre of crime writing, whether he’s a Private Eye like Philip Marlowe, an independent like Travis McGee, or a criminal himself, like Parker in the Richard Stark novels. My guy would have to be someone who could handle himself in fight, so I landed on the idea that he was a former MMA cage fighter now living off the grid in Los Angeles. But the key with a series character is having something unique, an aspect that sets him apart. I started to think about opposites. What’s the opposite of what a reader might expect of a tough-as-nails fighter? Two things jumped out. First, he’d be a genius, a real intellectual genius, who was admitted to Yale at age 15, when he was a rather introverted butterball. Then something happens (which I won’t reveal hear) that changes the course of his life and leads him to the cage. His wide-ranging mind gives me the opportunity to include observations from my own interest in philosophy.

The second unique thing is I made him a lover of flowers. Fair warning: do not disturb his petunias.

 

Of all the Romeo books, do you have a favorite?

Romeo’s Way won the International Thriller Writers Award. I’m proud of that one because it took me out of my usual Los Angeles setting and up to San Francisco and Oakland. I went there with my wife for hands-on research, and got unique details that were woven into the book. I’m pleased with how that turned out.

 

Do you have plans for future Romeo books?

I’m always at work on the next one, with idea sketches for the one after that. I’ve tried throughout my career to think like a movie studio, with one project on the front burner, and several more “in development.”

 

What advice would you give an aspiring author of mystery, suspense, or thrillers?

Know the conventions of your genre, but figure out a unique twist you can give them so they’re fresh. Readers don’t need the same old, same old. This is especially important for your series Lead. Create a compelling backstory for the protagonist, keep working on it until you are excited to weave it into the plot. And weave is the key here. You don’t want to dump all that material in one, fell swoop (what is a fell swoop anyway?) Keeping things below the surface creates nice ripples of mystery up top.

 

In addition to your successful thrillers, you’ve written a library of books on the craft of writing, and you teach at various writers conferences. Although many conferences have been canceled in the last couple of years because of the pandemic, do you have plans to speak at any writing conferences in 2022?

I will be doing a 5-hour early bird workshop at the ACFW Convention in St. Louis, on Sept. 8. Info can be found here: https://acfw.com/acfw-conference/

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

The main hub is JamesScottBell.com

I can be followed on BookBub: bookbub.com/authors/james-scott-bell

Those who enjoy short fiction can try out mine at patreon.com/jamesscottbell

For writers, I offer a complete course at knockoutfiction.teachable.com/p/novel

And of course people can join you and me and our colleagues each day at our group blog: killzoneblog.com

 

Thank you, Jim, for being with us today.

My pleasure.

 

James Scott Bell talks about the Mike Romeo Thriller series. Click To Tweet

 

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James Scott Bell is a winner of the International Thriller Writers Award and the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & Structure (Writer’s Digest Books). His thrillers include Romeo’s Rules, Romeo’s Way and Romeo’s Hammer (the Mike Romeo thriller series); Try Dying, Try Darkness and Try Fear (the Ty Buchanan legal thriller series); and stand-alones including Your Son Is Alive and Final Witness (which won the first Christy Award for Suspense). He served as the fiction columnist for Writer’s Digest magazine and has written several popular writing books, including Just Write, Conflict & Suspense, and The Art of War for Writers (all from Writer’s Digest Books). He’s also published How to Write Dazzling DialogueWrite Your Novel From the Middle, Super Structureand How to Make a Living as a Writer

The Craft of Writing — December 2021

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — DECEMBER 2021

Social Media

 

SOCIAL MEDIA! Many of us have a love/hate relationship with this enormous influencer in our world. While there are positive aspects to keeping up with our friends and family, there are negatives when it comes to spending hours skimming posts or witnessing heated discussions. There’s even evidence that too much social media is detrimental to one’s mental health.

However, as authors, we can use these platforms to make the world aware of our books. Navigating the waters of which platforms to use, how often to post, and how to best use their resources is the subject of today’s post.

I have long wanted to have Edie Melson as a guest on The Craft of Writing blog. Edie is an acknowledged expert on social media, and her advice can enhance our use of those tools to sell books and change the world. Social Media for Today’s Writer, which Edie co-authored with DiAnn Mills, is my go-to guide for using social media.

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Edie Melson is a woman of faith with ink-stained fingers observing life through the lens of her camera. No matter whether she’s talking to writers, entrepreneurs, or readers, her first advice is always “Find your voice, live your story.” As an author, blogger, and speaker she’s encouraged and challenged audiences across the country and around the world. Her numerous books reflect her passion to help others develop the strength of their God-given gifts and apply them to their lives. Connect with her on her WEBSITE, through FACEBOOKTWITTER and on INSTAGRAM.

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Social Media with Edie Melson on the Craft of Writing Blog. Click To Tweet

 

Welcome, Edie, and thank you for joining us!

 

When did you first get involved with social media?

I fell into social media by accident. I became the managing editor of an online magazine for young Christian men in 2008. It didn’t take me long to realize that to grow the magazine readership—and communicate with my co-workers—I had to learn social media. At the time I didn’t have a blog or any social media accounts and my phone was an old-style flip phone.

I learned how to ask the questions I needed answers for in search engines, took online workshops and read every marketing blog I could. What I learned was how to do social media efficiently and effectively. That training has translated to helping myself as a writer and other writers how to utilize this valuable tool without losing important writing time.

Are there particular platforms you recommend for authors to use?

It’s important for an author to understand where your audience hangs out. I find Facebook and Twitter to be the most valuable for the books I write. But Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all valuable options.

It’s also very important for an author to be active on more than one platform regularly. Things happen on social media, accounts get suspended and even deleted. If you’re only on one platform and something goes wrong, you have to have another place where your audience can find you.

Also keep in mind that if you love Facebook and Instagram—those two only count as ONE platform because Facebook owns Instagram. So if Facebook suspends your FB account, chances are good that they’ll also shut down your Instagram account.

What benefits do you see social media having for authors?

I’m on social media as an extension of my mission as a writer. I use social media to serve my audience. That service—giving without expecting anything in return—is what also grows my audience. Trying to use social media as a place to ONLY advertise books is the quickest way to fail. No one like commercials and if your social media account comes across as only advertising, no one will be interested.

Social media is also a great way to network with other industry professionals. I’ve developed some solid friendships through social media with editors, agents and other writers.

How does an author go about establishing a presence on social media?

The most important thing is to give something valuable. Other writers follow me on social media because I share solid information about being a writer—from how tos, to industry news, to tips. Readers follow me because I share spiritual encouragement—devotions, Bible verses, interesting articles about living out your faith in our world today. I also have a small following of those interested in photography and creativity—I share how to articles for all sorts of crafts, as well as tips for photographers.

I do all of this without expecting anything in return.

This proves to my audience that I’m more interested in helping them than promoting myself. Once I’ve gained their trust, then when I have something I need help with—like launching a new book—they’re happy to help.

So a good rule is to give first and often, long before you begin asking favors.

How often should an author promote his/her own work on social media? What other things should they consider posting about?

I recommend what has come to be called “Edie’s 5 to 1 Rule.” For every 5 social media posts I share, I allow myself 1 post about myself—that promotes something I’m doing—like a blog post I wrote or a new book.

Using this guideline helps our social media feeds NOT look self-serving.

How important is it to build a large following on social media? How do you go about doing that?

An engaged following is much more important than large numbers. Publishers want to know that an author has a connection with the readers they’re trying to reach. So an author with a Facebook group of 1,000 where seventy-five percent of those are actively posting and engaging is much more desirable than a Facebook page with 10,000 followers who never see or comment on what the author posts. Different publishers have different expectations and guidelines for authors.

The most important thing is to have a growing presence—better this month than last month. That takes small CONSISTENT commitment. I recommend spending 30 minutes a day 4 – 5 days a week.

I often hear about new platforms for social communication. What can you tell us about them?

TikTok is continuing to gain popularity, as is MeWe. TikTok is video driven, almost like a video version of Instagram. Of course that’s a generalization, but I think you get the idea. MeWe is similar to Facebook, but with a lot less rules and a lot less people on it. But it also is showing promise. Parler is another one that’s gaining ground.

What topics do you cover in Social Media for Today’s Writer?

This book covers how to engage on the most popular social media platforms. We share recommended practices, and some things that can get authors in trouble. It’s written so that beginners can understand it and more advanced users can pick up new tricks and streamline the process.

What single piece of advice would you give to new authors about the use of social media?

We recommend that writers begin using social media BEFORE they become authors. It takes time to build a solid social media platform and having one in place can make launching a book much easier. You don’t have to spend hours a day to create a good following. It’s more important to be consistent than to spend huge blocks of time.

We also suggest you have an account on all the major networks—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, & TikTok. Having an account means you have your name, bio, and link to your website. Then find two or three networks where you enjoy hanging out and spend your time there. You don’t have to be active on all the platforms, but it is good to reserve your account in case it becomes the next big thing!

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

My blog for writers is www.TheWriteConversation.com and my website is www.EdieMelson.com. I’m also on social media as Edie Melson!

Thank you, Edie, for sharing your expertise with us!

Social Media with Edie Melson on the Craft of Writing Blog Click To Tweet

 

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