Dialogue---It's More Than Just Talk

 by Thomas Kies

I recently started reading a traditionally published mystery novel. About fifty pages into it, I had to stop.  The dialogue was killing me. It was painfully bad. It was stiff, wooden, and much too formal.  Everyone was making a speech. 

If you’re a writer, listen to people talk with each other.  Really listen. 

Real people don’t speak in polished sentences and paragraphs. They interrupt each other. They circle back. They change subjects when something gets too close to the truth. Good fictional dialogue mimics that rhythm—but with purpose. It's controlled chaos. 

On the page, dialogue should do three jobs at once: reveal character, move the story, and keep the reader leaning forward. Miss one, and the whole scene starts to feel like two androids talking.
Technically correct, maybe even stylish—but lifeless.

In mystery writing, dialogue carries even more weight. Isn’t it evidence? Every word is a fingerprint, every pause a hesitation worth noting, a clue. People lie. They deflect. They say too much when they’re nervous and too little when they’re afraid. Let the reader hear all of that without announcing it. 

Don’t over-explain. Show, don’t tell. If a character says, “I’m angry with you,” you’ve already lost the scene. Anger doesn’t introduce itself like that. It leaks out in weird ways.

“Funny how you remembered to call now.”

That’s anger. Or maybe resentment. Or sarcasm, or maybe something deeper. The point is, the reader gets to participate. They lean in, interpret, and engage. That’s where the magic happens.

Subtext is a cunning accomplice. It’s the thing riding beneath the words, steering the conversation somewhere the characters may not even realize they’re going. In a good interrogation scene, for example, the detective and suspect may not be talking about the same thing. One is asking questions. The other is answering a different set entirely.

And then there’s voice.

Every character should sound like they own their words. A seasoned reporter will speak differently than a nervous witness. A career criminal won’t frame a sentence the same way a suburban accountant does—unless he’s trying to, and then that becomes interesting in its own right.

Read your dialogue out loud. It’s the fastest way to spot what doesn’t belong. If you stumble, your reader will too. If it sounds like a speech instead of a conversation, cut it. Tighten it. Let silence do some of the work.

Because silence is part of dialogue.

The pause before an answer. The question that doesn’t get answered at all. The moment when a character chooses to walk away instead of speaking. Those are lines just as surely as anything in quotation marks.

And for heaven’s sake, stay away from adverbs.  He said angrily.  She cried sadly.  They shouted excitedly.  Show action instead.  Show what your character is doing. 

In the end, good dialogue is about tension. Not necessarily loud, explosive tension—but the quiet kind that sits between two people who both know more than they’re saying. That’s where stories live. That’s where readers stay up too late, turning pages, trying to catch what’s hiding in plain sight.

I know that if I can write that—if I can make the reader hear what isn’t being said—I’m not just writing dialogue. I’m telling a story.

Scams, Scams, and More Scams

 by Thomas Kies

I recently received these unsolicited emails. 

Hello Thomas,

I’m reaching out on behalf of The Great Books Society of Denver, a lively community of 680 readers who meet monthly in Englewood, Colorado.

Your work, Random Road, came up in one of our recent discussions, and in true book-lover fashion, we thought: why not go straight to the source? The gritty realism, layered mystery, and complex humanity in your novel resonated deeply with our members. We would love to feature your book as our monthly pick, giving it exposure to an engaged, thoughtful audience who are genuinely excited to read and discuss new works.

Featuring your book with us provides direct engagement with a dedicated community of readers who love to discuss and recommend books, increased visibility among literary enthusiasts who value discovery and thoughtful conversation, and the opportunity for your work to become a memorable part of a month-long reading experience.

If this sounds like your cup of tea (or glass of wine, we don’t judge), please let us know, and we’ll share the next steps to make it happen.

Warm regards,

Organizer | The Great Books Society of Denver

So many compliments. By the way, in a follow-up email, they listed a tiered list of prices for their services. This wouldn’t be a scam, would it?

Hello Thomas Kies

Your book Darkness Lane was recently highlighted by one of our club members. Would you let us know if it’s available for our 7 Day Read Along and upcoming Club Literary Prize?

Organizer, Vienna English Club

Author scams are rampant.  It was a topic of multiple discussions in San Francisco a few weeks ago while I was there attending Left Coast Crime. 

Dan Berry recently wrote a column for the New York Times Book Review talking about scams.  He said that one scammer had reached out to him claiming to be Margeret Atwood (full disclosure, I got one of those too).  Berry contacted Atwood’s agent who wrote back saying, “Oh, this is so terrible and mean. Preying upon people’s hunger for success and/or their hope to improve their writing.”

What are some of the most common author scams these days?

• Fake Literary Agents/Publishers: Scammers pose as legit agents, offering publishing contracts in exchange for upfront "reading" or "editing" fees. 

• Marketing and PR Scams: Companies promise Hollywood film adaptations, Netflix pitching, or massive marketing campaigns, often targeting indie authors. 

• Vanity Presses: These houses demand high fees to publish, promising success but providing little to no real editing or distribution. 

• Paid Review Scams: Offers to purchase "guaranteed" reviews on sites like Amazon or Goodreads, according to The Darling Axe.

• Impersonation Scams: Scammers use AI and LinkedIn/social media to impersonate well-known publishing professionals, often using using well-known, bestselling authors. 

• Award/Contest Scams: Fraudulent literary awards that charge hefty entry fees

Why are these SOBs targeting writers?  Dan Berry summed it up by saying, “…the victim’s vulnerability. A lonely heart yearns for love and companionship: an author yearns for sales and validation. 

Yes, I know this is the second time I’ve published a blog about scams.  I apologize.  It’s just that I know there are people being cheated and it really cheeses me off.   www.thomaskiesauthor.com 

Inside the Criminal Mind

 by Thomas Kies

 On Friday, February 27th, I’ll be joining a panel at Left Coast Crime with Harriet Cannon, Craig Clevenger, and David Putnam, moderated by Laurie Stevens. Our topic-- “Getting Inside the Criminal Mind”--sounds like fun. If you’re going to write crime fiction, you’ve got to have that motive. So, in preparation for the discussion, I began listing the forces that might drive a person to break the law.

The most obvious motivations are greed, jealousy, rage, hubris, and desperation. There are more, like revenge and compulsion, but for this blog, I’m just going to talk about the five I listed. 

Greed and jealousy are siblings. Both come from desire--specifically, the desire for what someone else possesses. It might be money, a car, status, fame, professional recognition, or a romantic partner. Greed whines, “I want more.” Jealousy growls, “I want what you have.” In either case, the criminal act becomes a shortcut, a way to acquire something unattainable--or perceived as unattainable--through legitimate means. Many white-collar crimes, embezzlements, and even murders for inheritance are a result of greed.  Many “crimes of passion” are rooted in jealousy.

Rage, on the other hand, often erupts without careful planning. It simmers beneath the surface until one provocation too many causes it to boil over. A barroom insult, a heated argument, a moment of humiliation, or even being cut off on the highway can ignite it. Crimes of rage are frequently impulsive. They are not the product of elaborate schemes but of emotional explosions. In such cases, the perpetrator may not have intended to commit a crime when the day began. The act is born in a flash of anger—and the consequences last far longer.

Hubris is another powerful motivator. This is the belief that one is smarter than everyone else, immune to consequences, or entitled to bend the rules. Some criminals are driven less by need than by arrogance. They believe they can outwit the system, manipulate the evidence, or charm their way out of suspicion. For others, the appeal lies in the thrill itself—the adrenaline rush of taking risks and defying authority. Hubris whispers, “You won’t get caught.” For some, that challenge is irresistible.

Desperation sets the stage for a more complicated moral landscape. When options begin to disappear and survival feels at stake, people may justify actions they would otherwise condemn. If your family is starving and you have no money, would you steal food to keep them alive? Many crimes arise not from ambition or arrogance but from fear and scarcity. Desperation narrows perspective. It transforms illegal acts into perceived necessities.

Of course, human motivation is rarely singular. Greed can mingle with hubris. Rage can be fueled by jealousy. Desperation can coexist with resentment. Real-life crimes—and the most compelling fictional ones—often stem from a volatile mixture of emotions and circumstances.

Mix in a few additives like drug use or revenge and you can have a deadly cocktail of motives. 

And then there is the uncomfortable reality that some individuals act without empathy or remorse. While I am not a psychologist, it’s clear that certain offenders display traits associated with sociopathy or an absence of moral restraint. Whether we label that “evil” or understand it through clinical terms, it reminds us that not every crime fits neatly into a rational framework.

Getting inside the criminal mind means recognizing that, at its core, crime begins with motive. And motive, however dark, is almost always human. And interestingly, often, when a criminal acts, they don’t necessarily see it as a bad thing but more as an imperative.  Something that needs to be done. 

Good News-Bad News

 by Thomas Kies

The good news first. It was officially announced this week that I am now working with a new publisher.  I’m thrilled to be working with Level Best Books who has agreed to publish two of my novels, Exit Signs and Murder Point, and a third book that I’m currently working on. 

Exit Signs was written as crime noir and takes place in a cold and snowy winter in upstate New York, in particular Buffalo, the Finger Lakes, and the Adirondack Mountains.  Neophyte detective Jamie Barefoot is assigned to investigate a two-million-dollar life insurance claim.  The problem for the insurance company?  There’s no corpse.  But Jamie does find government fraud, corporate intrigue, hit men, and seduction along the way. 

Murder Point is a Geneva Chase mystery that takes place primarily on the coast of North Carolina on a barrier island. She’s on the trail of artwork stolen from the Isabel Gardner Museum, a heist from over thirty years ago where none of the paintings have ever surfaced.  While investigating, she’s caught in a hurricane and one by one, people are being murdered. 

According to their website: Founded in 2003, Level Best Books is the publisher of crime fiction novels and short story anthologies. Well-regarded by readers and reviewers, stories published by Level Best have won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Derringer, and Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story presented at the Edgar® banquet. Level Best short stories have also been recognized as Best and Distinguished Mystery Stories by the editors of the Best American Mystery Stories series.

Level Best Books is a traditional, royalty-paying publisher with world-wide distribution and in-house marketing support. Headquartered outside of Washington, DC in the historic city of Frederick, Maryland, Level Best also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts and London, England.

I am so proud to now be known as a "Bestie". 

So, that’s the good news.  There have been some stories this week that haven’t been so good for the written word. The New York Times reported this week that the mass market paperbacks that I grew up with are the latest dinosaur to go extinct.  

At one time, they were ubiquitous.  You could find them everywhere, drug stores, supermarkets, airports, train stations. But you would rarely find them in libraries because they were cheaply made with thin paper and bindings that were glued, meaning that, under the right circumstances, the books would simply fall or pull apart. 

But because they were inexpensive and small that made them successful.  I recall getting my reading fix by plunking down sixty cents for a copy of the latest James Bond novel, or a mystery by John D. McDonald, or Stephen King. And the covers of those paperbacks were usually illustrated by a woman in distress or taking off some article of clothing. 

They were small enough to easily fit into your backpack or the pocket of your jacket.  So you could sneak a copy of Valley of the Dolls into your Junior High School without being detected.

Why are they going the way of the passenger pigeon?  Consumers aren’t buying them as often.  They’re buying e-books or the trade paperbacks.  “We follow the consumer,” said Dennis Abboud, the chief executive of ReaderLink. “In the case of mass markets, the consumer spoke. They were just done with it.”

And then there was the story about the Washington Post laying off 300 journalists, which includes trashing their sports section and their book reviews.  Not to sound snarky, but the owner, Jeff Bezos, managed to find the money to bankroll the “documentary” called Melania.  Including production and marketing, he spent nearly $70 million with $28 million going directly to Melania.  

According to some reports, he spent between $45 million and $55 million on his wedding in Venice last year. I guess my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail. 

Is it possible he's pivoting his attention to his Blue Origin space company, working on those NASA lunar contracts? Currying favor with government decision makers, perhaps?

All in all, I'm putting that behind me this afternoon and I’m going to raise my glass to Level Best Books.  I’m looking forward to working with them.  But I’ll also grieve for the mass market paperbacks and, once again, mourn the slow death of newspapers. 

What's in a Name?

 by Thomas Kies

How important is it to get the right name for your characters?

Think about some memorable literary characters: Ebenezer Scrooge, Huckleberry Finn, Voldemort, Forrest Gump, Long John Silver, Atticus Finch, Hannibal Lecter, Nurse Ratched, Boo Radley, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde.  

All of them are unforgettable characters.  Is it simply because the writer blessed them with the perfect moniker?  No, the writer also made them fascinating and interesting to read.

But let’s face it.  The names fit. 

The protagonist of my series of mysteries is named Geneva Chase.  She’s tall, somewhere around forty, an investigative reporter, a struggling alcoholic, and she makes bad life decisions.  But she’s whip smart, fearless, and an intransigent smartass.  When I was looking for a name for her, I immediately chose her first name, Geneva.  I’m from the Finger Lakes region of New York State and Geneva is a lovely town on the north tip of Seneca Lake. 

Her last name was more difficult.  I wanted something short and preferred something that denoted action.  Geneva Run, Geneva Dash, Geneva Leap, Geneva Jump….nope, nope, nope. 

Some character names take on their own life.  When Ian Fleming wanted a name for his protagonist, an English spy, he searched for the most boring name he could come up with.  Spies aren’t supposed to be memorable.  Fleming was an avid birdwatcher and one of books on his shelf was written by an ornithologist by the name of James Bond.  Fleming thought that was perfect.  He wanted his character to be masculine, but more of a blunt instrument.  He wanted the action around him to stand out.

Fat chance.  The name James Bond is synonymous with action, excitement, romance, and exotic locations. 

Speaking of names, Bond’s nemesis is Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Say it out loud.  It feels and sounds evil. Fleming was excellent at naming villains as well. Dr. No, Auric Goldfinger, Emilio Largo, Rosa Klebb. 

And let’s not forget Fleming’s flair for naming female characters.  Honeychile Ryder, Tiffany Case, Vesper Lynd, Miss Moneypenny, and of course, Pussy Galore, 

Charles Dickens was especially adept at character names.  Oliver Twist, Uriah Heep, Madam Defarge, Miss Havisham, Tiny Tim, Fagin. 

In mysteries and thrillers, names do even more heavy lifting. Names that a easy to recall--Harry Bosch, Alex Cross, Lisbeth Salander, Sherlock Holmes. Jack Reacher, Joe Pickett, Kinsey Millhone, Kay Scarpetta, Sam Spade. Nero Wolfe.  

So, when you’re naming a character in your novel, what should you think about?  It’s going to be that first impression you’re giving to your reader, so it’s actually pretty important. 

Genre: Names signal the kind of story you’re telling. A hard-boiled crime novel feels different with a protagonist named Jack Reacher than one named Bridgerton. Also, if you’re writing a fantasy, names like Tyrion and Daenerys sound better than a character called Bernie.

How does it sound when you read it? Say it out loud. Does it flow in dialogue? Does it have punch, softness, or menace where needed? Short, sharp names often suit fast-paced fiction; longer or lyrical names can slow things down in a deliberate way.  They might work better in a romance novel than a thriller. 

A name should make sense for a character’s background, age, and setting. A 70-year-old man from coastal North Carolina probably isn’t named Chad Love, and a medieval nun isn’t named Tiffany. Even the smallest inconsistency can pull readers out of the story.

Avoid names that look or sound too similar, especially for major characters (no Matt, Mark, and Mike in the same chapter). Readers shouldn’t have to stop and decode who’s who. Clear differentiation keeps the story moving.

So, a name isn’t the only thing that makes a character memorable for a reader, but it certainly goes a long way. 

New Beginnings and First Sentences.

 by Thomas Kies

Since we’re about say farewell to 2025 and usher in a new year, I’ve been thinking about new beginnings.  I’m optimistic on the publishing front because I’d like to announce that I’ve signed with a new publishing house- Level Best Books.  I can’t be any happier to be part of their team!

New beginnings.

Anytime you start something new, it’s a time of excitement colored with a shade of apprehension.  It’s a little like reading, or writing, the first page of a new novel.  It’s an adventure and you really don’t know where it will take you. 

Legend has it that Aristotle said, “Well begun is half done.”

In the creative writing class that I teach, I often talk about how important your very first sentence should be if you’re trying to capture a reader’s attention or that of an elusive literary agent. My own agent has told me that she gets a hundred queries a day.  That first sentence has to grab her.

The sentence that captured my agent’s attention in Random Road my first novel was—"Last night Hieronymus Bosch met the rich and famous." 

Then I followed that sentence up with this:

"That was the lead sentence of the story I filed later that night with the Sheffield Post.  My editor spiked it, saying, “nobody who reads this newspaper knows who Heteronymous Bosch is.”

"Instead, the story began: “Six people were found brutally murdered, their nude bodies mutilated, in the exclusive gated Sheffield community of Connor’s Landing.” 

Here are a few famous first sentences from some truly great mysteries:

•  “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”— The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman

•  “They threw me off the hay truck about noon.”— The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain

•  “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.”— The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith

•  “Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.”— The Trial, Franz Kafka

•  “Mrs. Bentley was not surprised when the sheriff arrived.”— A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny

•  “In my end is my beginning.”— The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey

•  “The first time I saw Terry Lennox, he was lying on the floor of my living room with a blood-soaked towel pressed against his face.”— The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

•  “I was seventeen years old, and I was pretty sure that no one would ever want me.”— Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

•  “I am convinced that at heart every writer is a murderer.”— The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster

•  “I’d seen little of Holmes lately.”— The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle

•  “I was sitting in my office when the door opened and a woman walked in.”— Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler

•  “It was seven minutes past midnight.”—
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon

So, in closing, have a wonderful New Year and I hope this is the beginning of a fabulous 2026,  Oh, and the picture at the top of this blog?  It has nothing to do with what you just read.  But I thought it was funny as hell and we all need to smile at the New Year. 

Breaking Writing Rules and a Climate Apocalypse

 By Thomas Kies

I teach creative writing and mentor a writing critique group.  At the beginning of the first class, I tell the attendees that I’ll outline what the rules of writing are.  And then I’ll let them know, there really aren’t any rules.

For example, Cormac McCarthy and his strange use, or nonuse, of punctuation. He didn’t use quotation marks, used commas sparingly, and rarely included apostrophes.  His dialogue and narration flow forced the reader to pay close attention to his writing. His sentence structure was often unusual with strange cadences.  He was difficult to read but my God, what a writer. 

I’m currently reading a book by Stephen Markley called The Deluge that also breaks a lot of rules.  For example, a few months ago, I wrote a blog about head hopping.  That is writing in the third person and then abruptly shifting gears and writing in the first person point of view. 

Changing a POV in the same paragraph is still verboten.  I don’t like it if a writer shifts POV within the same chapter. And I’m iffy when it comes to using it at all within the same book. 

But Stephen Markley changes his POV from chapter to chapter depending on the multitude of characters he’s written.  First person, third person….even writing about a character who is an opioid addict in the second person.  

And it works.  

I picked up this book because it takes a damning view of what happens to the world when we allow climate change to continue unabated.  Which we’re doing.  If you’ve read my fourth book, Shadow Hill, you’ll know that I’m deeply concerned about what we’re doing to our planet.  I have four grandchildren, and I’m worried that they’re going to inherit an apocalypse that we helped create.

Next rule broken.  There is a wide range of characters to follow.  

Are there too many characters in this book?  In a story written for the LA Review of Books, Markley said, “The climate crisis is such an enormous problem [that] you can’t, to me, tell it through the one-character point of view—the I, I, I would be a little navel-gazey or overwhelming in a way,” he said. “I knew it needed to be a range of characters, and obviously they had to be different and come at the issue from different angles and different parts of society, from different races, classes, genders, etc. It always had to be like this to me, and it was a matter of finding what voices fit into this world.”

I’m about a third of the way through the book.  It’s nearly 900 pages long.

He breaks another rule I wrote about last month.  How long should a novel be? 

Let me go back to Cormac McCarthy who said, “The indulgent, 800-page books that were written a hundred years ago are just not going to be written anymore and people need to get used to that. If you think you’re going to write something like The Brothers Karamazov or Moby Dick, go ahead. Nobody will read it. I don’t care how good it is, or how smart the readers are. Their intentions, their brains are different.” 

Is the book too long? It’s a big topic and he’s covering a lot of ground. The novel begins in 2013 and ends in 2039.  Right now, I’m reading what happens, politically, in 2027, and if we continue on the trajectory we’re on now, I think the author is going to be dead on. 

Yes, Mr. Markley broke a bunch of rules when he wrote the Deluge, but as I say at the beginning of my class, rules are meant to be broken 

Scams Targeting Writers

 by Thomas Kies

I was introduced to a new scam the other day. One that I came very near to falling for.  An email came to me out of the blue claiming to be from the organizer of a large book club (nearly 700 members).  He said they wanted to “feature” my book Random Road and he gave it, and me, effusive compliments. The entire club would be reading and discussing my novel.  

“Featuring your book with us provides direct engagement with a dedicated community of readers who love to discuss and recommend books, increased visibility among literary enthusiasts who value discovery and thoughtful conversation, and the opportunity for your work to become a memorable part of a month-long reading experience. Our meetings are always relaxed, thoughtful, and filled with conversations that remind us why we love books in the first place.”

I was so enthused I offered to fly out to meet with his book club.  He said that was not necessary.

I did some due diligence and looked the book club up online.  Yup, there it is.  Seems legit.

But then, the organizer sent me a tiered price list of how they wanted to feature my book.  That was a red flag.  I’ve spoken and interacted with dozens of book clubs.  Not one of them has asked me for money. 

I dug a little further online and found some complaints from writers who had also been approached and had fallen for it. Scam!  This email came from someone who had nothing to do with the actual book club.

Writers are dreamers.  If you’re an aspiring author, you’re hoping for that big break in a business that’s notoriously difficult to navigate.  If you’re a published author, your creativity is on the bookshelf and you’re looking for a way to break through a very competitive marketplace. Scammers know this. We’re red meat for predators. What are some other scams?

-Vanity presses who pass themselves off as traditional publishers. They flatter you, offer you a contract and then you get the fees…editing, marketing packages, printing costs, distribution fees, fees for reviews.  Traditional publishers don’t charge you. They pay you. 

The red flags here are they accept your manuscript suspiciously fast, they ask for an upfront payment, and their website makes vague promises without giving real titles they’ve produced. 

-Fake literary agents.  Real agents are selective….very, very selective. They don’t chase unpublished authors.  Fraudulent agents charge “reading fees” or “editing services” or promise access to publishers they really don’t have a relationship with. A legitimate agent never charges reading or submission fees. 

- Fraudulent contests or awards.  Writing contests can be a wonderful chance to showcase your work, but they can also be an opportunity for scammers to cheat you out of money. Some contests exist solely to collect entry fees and email addresses. Others give out hundreds of meaningless “awards,” then push overpriced trophies, certificates, or anthologies. Do your research.  Look up past winners and check out the organization’s past and reputation.  

- “Your book will make a great movie” scam. It usually starts with a flattering email claiming your book is “being considered by major film producers.” That will get your heart pumping. Who doesn't want to see their book turned into a movie?  Or a Netflix series? What the scammers really mean is: buy our expensive marketing package and we’ll pretend to pitch your book in Hollywood. Real film scouts do not cold-email indie authors. 

- Overpriced, overpromising marketing services. I see this one a lot! Marketing is an important part of being an author, but it’s easy to fall for false promises. Some companies sell “press releases,” “book trailers,” “social media placement,” “reviews “or “Amazon optimization” that do little or nothing.

In short, research the companies who claim they want to work with you. Talk with other writers. Trust your instincts. Unsolicited offers are a red flag. If it sounds too good to be true, it is! 

How Long Should Your Novel Be?

 by Thomas Kies

I’ve been reading the effusive reviews for a novel called Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski. The critics are ecstatic. The book was just released this month and clocks in at 1,232 pages. 

Let me repeat that.  1, 234 pages.  This isn’t official, but my rough estimate for the word count for Tom’s Crossing is 360,000.  

That’s unusual. 

When I talk with book clubs or when I teach a creative writing class, I’m often asked how long a novel should be?  The correct answer to that is a novel is as long as it needs to be to tell the story.

However, publishing is a business, and most publishers would balk at a book that stretches out over 1200 pages.  So, are there any guidelines that a writer should consider?

In traditional publishing, length is measured by word count, not page count. While pages vary depending on formatting and font, word count provides a universal yardstick.

Here’s a general breakdown for mysteries and thrillers:

• Mystery novels: 70,000–90,000 words

• Thrillers: 80,000–100,000 words

• Cozy mysteries: 65,000–80,000 words

• Police procedurals: 90,000–110,000 words

From everything I’ve read, if you’re writing your first novel, staying in the 75,000–90,000 range seems to be the sweet spot. That’s long enough to develop characters and plot twists, but short enough to keep the tension going.

The true “optimal length” of a mystery or thriller depends less on the number of words and more on the control of pacing.

A mystery builds tension like a slow burn. You want to reveal just enough information to keep readers guessing. Each chapter should add a new clue, deepen character motivation, or raise the stakes. If a scene doesn’t do one of those things, it doesn’t belong—no matter how well-written it is.

Thrillers, however, should feel like a rollercoaster ride, with moments of intense action followed by short pauses that allow readers to catch their breath. The pace dictates how long the novel feels, even more than the actual word count. A 100,000-word thriller can feel taut and fast-paced if it’s tightly constructed, while a 75,000-word story can drag if it meanders.

Readers of mysteries and thrillers have certain expectations. They know the conventions of the genre: somebody's murdered,  the sleuth digs in, the danger grows, and the climax delivers the twist or reveal. Every scene should serve a purpose—reveal character, plant a clue, or move the story forward.

I think publishers recognize this. An overly long manuscript can raise a red flag that the pacing is off or the plot needs trimming. For debut authors, staying within industry norms can make your work more marketable. Once you’re established, you earn the freedom to stretch those boundaries. Like Mark Z Danielewski.

Now, if you’re self-publishing or writing digitally, you have more leeway. Readers of e-books are often open to shorter works—novellas (30,000–50,000 words) or serialized thrillers that come out in installments. These can build a loyal audience hungry for the next episode. Still, even in the indie world, readers expect professional pacing and structure.

So, what’s the right length of a mystery or thriller?

My advice is shoot for 75,000 to 95,000 words. Ultimately, the best measure of your story’s length is whether it feels right. Does every chapter move the reader forward? Does every twist earn its place? Does the ending deliver a payoff worthy of the buildup?

If the answer is yes, then your mystery or thriller is exactly as long as it needs to be.

By the way, the longest novel ever published, according to Google, who wouldn't lie to me, is In Search of Lost Time written by Marcel Proust and printed in seven volumes clocking in at 1.3 million words. 

Falling Into Plot Holes.

 by Thomas Kies

I not only love reading good books, but I love watching movies.  I love the art of storytelling.  

But I hate plot holes.  A few nights ago, I tuned into a new movie on one of the streaming channels (there are so many of them now) that had gotten some “buzz” and featured some well-known actors.  I loved the way it started.  It was fast, the dialogue crisp, the storyline was dark, and I thought I would be enjoying film noir at its best. Something reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs.

I was sorely disappointed.  It was filled with action, much of it improbable, but even worse, it was chock full of plot holes.  It was as if the writers, producers, and director just didn’t care.  They wanted to throw in escalating violence and action without any thought to plot.  

It was an awful mess.  

And don’t get me started on all the unlikable characters.

Back to plot holes.  What are they…exactly? According to Wikipedia it’s: an inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot. Plot holes are usually created unintentionally, often as a result of editing or the writers simply forgetting that a new event would contradict previous events.

Or it’s being lazy.  For example, if a historical novel takes place in the mid-1880s and a character reached out to a switch to turn on the lights. That’s a pretty big plot hole. 

Or, for the sake of argument, there’s a space battle, like in Star Wars, and a ship gets blown up in space and there’s a deafening explosion.  Well, there’s no air in space, so there’s no sound. But flames and explosions are cool on film, so…

Or there’s one that really drives me crazy.  When someone hits someone else on the head and knocks them out.  Then a few minutes later, they get up, shake it off, and get back into the action. 

I’m pretty sure there would be a resultant concussion. 

I recall catching a plot hole in my first book, RANDOM ROAD, where my protagonist gets a ride with her boyfriend to someone’s house.  Intense dialogue takes place, then my heroine jumps in her car and drives off.  

After rereading the manuscript for the fifteenth time, I realized her car wasn’t there.  I had to rewrite the chapter.  

In the dinner theater I wrote, and the theater troupe is performing next week, the whole thing takes place in 1953 during the Cold War. Even though it's a comedy, I tried to get it as close to historical accuracy as possible.  Except for one line.  And I put it in to see if anyone catches it.  It's a throwaway bit of dialogue but wouldn't be accurate for another ten years.  

I don't know.  Maybe sometimes a plot hole is on purpose to see if the reader or the audience is paying attention?

Plot holes can be jarring.  They disrupt the reader of a book or the person watching the movie. When you're lost in a good story, you've suspended your disbelief.  A plot hole just brings you out of it and makes you say, "What the heck?"

  They happen.  But when they’re glaring, it tells me that the writer or movie maker didn’t really care.  

What plot holes have driven you crazy?

Seeing Characters Come to Life

 by Thomas Kies

On October 14 and 15, actors from the Carteret Community Theatre will be performing MURDER ON THE MENU at the Culinary School at Carteret Community College.  Along with a stellar performance, there will be a brilliant three course dinner, a singer, and a multimedia mystery.  

The time, 1953.  The place, Paris, France.  The precise venue, Chez Beaujolais-the first American owned restaurant in Paris post-World War II. 

The Korean War has just ended but the Cold War rages on.  The guests for opening night at Chez Beaujolais:  Sally Willis, the first female US Ambassador to France.  Senator Winston Palmetto from the great state of North Carolina.  Captain Vladimer Smirnov, Soviet Ambassador to France and nephew of Nikita Khruschev

.

The two special guests are Dr. Cassandra Hawking, eminent US physicist, instrumental in the design of the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus.  Sitting next to her is her love-stricken suitor, Elliot Chesson-Fitzpatrick, of the Boston Chesson-Fitzpatrick’s.

Okay, not only did I write this, but they were an actor short and now I’m playing the Russian ambassador.  My accent is driving my wife crazy. 

This is the third murder mystery dinner I’ve written for our local theater and the culinary school.  I have a blast because I love the theater…and food…and having my characters take on a life of their own.

Unless you get a movie or television deal, how often do you get to see your story unfold before your very eyes?  Hear your characters say your dialogue?  

And more importantly, I get to watch the audience.  I love it when they laugh at the jokes and work to try to solve the crime at the end of the evening.  How many people at those tables got it right? 

Sure, I can put playwright on my resume now, but I’m still learning the craft.  The very first year, at the end of the first act, I had to contend with a dead body in the middle of the dining room.  It’s just not fun trying to serve dinner around a corpse.

Kind of a distraction.  And not easy for the poor actor portraying the stiff. 

This year, I’m trying something a little different.  Sure, there’s a murder, but it happens long distance.  There’s no body to worry about.  But what is truly different, we have a main character that’s been poisoned, and we must find who the culprit is and get the antidote in thirty minutes, or the character will die.

There will be a ticking clock on the wall. The audience will be able to see how much time is left while watching the plot unfold before them.  

So, it’s a fundraiser for the culinary school at the college and for the community theater.  I may sell a few books at the event, but more importantly, I have an absolute blast. 

You Can't Go Home Again

by Thomas Kies

Thomas Wolfe wrote the novel You Can’t Go Home Again. 

I saw just how true that is when, a few weeks ago, I went back to where I spent most of my formative years.  I’ve been aching to go back to see the places where I grew up, places where many of my fondest memories originated, places that made me smile. 

Well, I did that. First of all, it’s not easy to get from here to there.

I booked a flight from where we live now to where I used to live. Our closest airport is an hour away and the flight was wheels up at five in the morning.  Want to guess how early I had to wake up to get there on time?

Then a three-hour layover in Charlotte.  Time enough for breakfast and a snooze at the gate.

Upon arriving in Rochester, New York, I rented a car and drove two hours to get to Corning, New York, where I was born.  By the way, that hospital where I drew my first breath is long gone. I think there are condos or apartments there now.  

That night, I had dinner with two of my cousins and their spouses.  I hadn’t seen them since we were all children, so it was delightful to catch up.  The only downside was Sorges, the restaurant where I really wanted to dine, had closed a few years earlier.  It was where I had my first real Italian meal, spaghetti and meatballs, and it was sheer perfection. 

Then the next day it was rainy so my brother, who lives up there, and I went driving.  We went to look for our grandparents’ old house, a cottage on the shore of a tiny lake in the Finger Lakes region.  We found it, kind of.  It had been torn down and a new house was in its place.  

This was where, as a child, I could let my imagination run wild.  During the winter, there were hardly any other people living on that lake so I could hike and explore.  I could be a pirate, a pioneer, a spy. It was where I tried to write my first mystery using my grandfather’s old Remington rand typewriter.

But this was now a lake of tourists and second-home owners. The house where I’d grown up was gone.

The nearest town to that lake is Tyrone. It’s a place so small, there isn’t a stop light or a stop sign. There was one tiny store there, Ray Dann’s.  It was where we could get gasoline for the boat.  It was where I could get an ice-cold bottle of Coke and a popsicle. It was a place where you could buy bologna and bait, fishing lures and Wonder bread, tires and milk.  

It was closed.  The windows were broken, and the place was gutted.

On my final day, I drove past the house where my first wife and I lived. It’s on a quiet rural road. We were there when all three of our children were born.  It was so tiny.  But it was warm in the winter and let the sun in during the summer. It was where I would write my first published short story.

But as I drove by, the windows were covered in dark fabric, and No Trespassing signs were all over the place.  “Meth lab,” I muttered to myself as I stopped and stared.  Then I drove up to the corner to turn around and head back to my hotel.

Driving back past our old home, someone got into a black truck parked in the house next door.  They followed me until I got to the parking lot of a fire house where I stopped and recalibrated the GPS on my phone (all the roads were updated and changed).  The truck pulled up next to me, the window slid down, and a rough character wearing a doo-rag growled, “You lost?”

I explained that I lived there forty years earlier and was just looking around, gathering memories.

“Where you headed?”

“Back downtown.”

“Want directions?”

Dear God, no.  I held up my phone.  “Got them, thank you.”

Nope, you really can’t go home again.

So, I had a chance to catch up with two wonderful high school friends I haven’t seen in 50 years, had dinner with my cousins, and caught up my brother and his family.  I took a boat ride on Seneca Lake, walked down Watkins Glen, and tried counting all the wineries that have thrived in that region since I left, so many years ago. So, many wineries. 

It’s all changed.  As it should.  

The setting of my new book is in that region of New York, and it was good to see the places I’d written.  I’d gotten those right. 

And my old hometown, Dundee?  It quite literally looks the same. The school, the bowling alley, and the library, none of them were much different than when I left fifty years ago. Almost like something from a Twilight Zone episode.

Then I flew home, where I live now.  This is home. 

Point of Sale

 by Thomas Kies

Most of us have been there.  You go to a planned book signing at a library or a bookstore where nobody has heard of you and you- and maybe your spouse- are the only ones there.  Where it’s so quiet you can literally hear the clock ticking in the next room.  Where everyone avoids making eye contact with the author. 

Or at a book event or authors’ fest where there may be a dozen other writers, but once again, the audience is sparse, and you’ve just spent six hours of your life staring into space.

Those are humbling experiences.

So, I get a lot of requests for attendance, but I’ve become much more selective.  Let’s face it, time is a precious commodity.   

One of the events I do attend is something called the Olde Beaufort Farmer’s Market.  Now, admittedly, this sounds like it could be lame.  Can you really sell books in the same location that feature fruits, vegetables, and crochet animals?

Yeah, at this one you can.  At one point Beaufort was named the coolest small town in America. It’s got a vibe.  And the Farmers Market isn’t’ just for farmers. It’s also got some very eclectic items on sale, like gourmet coffees, baked goods, fine arts, cool jewelry, funky clothes and, of course, shrimp. We are, after all, on the coast of North Carolina. 

During the summer, this is an event that takes place every week, but once a year, they ask local authors to attend. I love this event.

This past weekend, I went through cases of my novels.  The people who attend this event are both locals and tourists, both of whom come to spend money.

Yeah, you still have to work the crowd.  You have to make eye contact.  If they look interested, you ask them, “Do you like mysteries?”  If they say no or tell you they don’t like to read, send them packing. They’re not going to read your books. 

If they say “yes”, you’ve got them.  Engage them in conversation, tell them about your books, how you came to create your protagonist, the writing process, and what makes your books special. Try to do it with humor and humility. 

Accent on the humor. 

What’s fun is if they’ve heard of you or seen your books somewhere before. 

There was one woman, when she spotted a poster featuring my first book, Random Road, rushed to my booth with her friends and exclaimed, “I just read that book.  Are you really the author?”

I live for those moments.  She kept telling everyone around us how much she enjoyed the novel and then proceeded to buy the rest of the books in the series.  

And then there was the group of young ladies in the early part of a celebration of their friend’s looming nuptials.  Seeing the future bride, I gave her a signed copy of Random Road as a gift and told her, “Here, you can take this on your honeymoon.”

The group broke out in laughter.  She smiled at me and purred, “If nothing else, I’ll read it by the pool.”  Two others in her entourage bought books. 

Obviously, it helps if you’re an extrovert, which I am, and enjoy talking with people. What I also love is that if they buy one book, they’ll order more.  I always see a spike in online sales after this event. 

Make sure you can take credit cards; more and more people don't carry cash anymore.  And more than once, a younger buyer asked if I use Venmo.  I don't, but I might have to take a look at it. 

So, I try to be selective these days when and where I spend time with my books. But I also try to keep an open mind.  You never know where there will be an unexpected success. 

Ten Commandments for Mystery Writers?

 By Thomas Kies

The first thing I write on the blackboard when I start teaching a creative writing class is “There Are No Rules”.

But in reality, there are…more or less.  While waiting to meet someone for a meeting in a coffee shop (he was fifteen minutes late), I was scrolling on my phone like every other patron in that place, and I tripped over the Ten Commandments for writing detective stories.  The rules were created by Ronald Knox in 1929.  He was a British author and theologian, and he was a member of The Detection Club, a group of writers that included Agatha Christie and G.K. Chesterton 

Let’s take a look at his rules and see which ones should be followed and which ones are a little dated.  Some of them have been broken, often enough to have become their own tropes. 

1- The criminal must be someone mentioned early on in the story.

This rule ensures fairness: the reader should have a chance to solve the mystery alongside the detective. No last-minute villains allowed

I agree with this, but I’ve read novels where the story was more character driven and the mystery was deep in the background. The bad guy wasn’t mentioned until the very end and there was no way the reader could have figured ‘whodunit’. 

2. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

Mystery, not fantasy. The solution must be grounded in logic and reason, not ghosts or miracles.

There’s a whole genre of supernatural mysteries being written.  Many of them have become bestsellers. I believe Stephen King has broken this rule once or twice. 

3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

Secret passages were a popular trope in earlier Gothic fiction, but Knox believed overuse was lazy writing. One was permissible—barely.

I’m not crazy about secret rooms or passages.  That being said, I had a secret tunnel in my third book, Graveyard Bay. But it was just the one. I swear.

4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.

This was Knox’s way of banning deus ex machina solutions. The science should be believable and understandable to the reader.

I just broke this rule.  I’ve written a dinner mystery for which our local community theater will soon be rehearsing, and I created a poison that will kill someone in exactly thirty minutes. That’s how much time the audience will have to figure out who in the dinner theater has the antidote.  

5. No Chinaman must figure in the story.

Though offensive today, this rule was aimed at discouraging lazy reliance on xenophobic tropes. “The mysterious Oriental” had become a cliché in early 20th-century fiction, and Knox called it out.

I would hope we’ve all moved past this by now. Keep your ethnic biases to yourself. The early James Bond books and movies have some pretty heavy stereotypes that include both racism and sexism.

6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

Detectives should solve crimes using intellect and deduction, not luck or “a feeling.”

This rule is broken all the time now. 

7. The detective must not himself commit the crime.

This rule was upended by later classics like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, but Knox felt it violated the trust between reader and detective.

The unreliable narrator has become its own trope. 

8. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the reader.

Again, fairness is key. The reader should see all the clues the detective sees, as soon as he sees them.

I’ve seen this rule broken multiple times very recently.  I loved the limited series called Residence on Netflix.  The detective Cordelia Cupp is delightful, but the most damning clues were withheld until the last episode.  The audience had no chance to figure out whodunit before then. 

9. The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

The narrator, often a Watson-like figure, should be an honest but slightly naive companion—not a co-conspirator or red herring.

The sidekick must expose all of their conclusions, because they’re a mirror of ourselves. They ask the questions that we’re asking. This is a pretty good rule.  If anyone out there has an exception to this rule, let me know. 

10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

Another safeguard against surprise cheats. The “evil twin” twist is only fair if readers had a fighting chance to suspect it.

And once again, this has become its own trope.  Didn’t the second “Kives Out” film, “Glass Onion” have a surprise twin in it? True the twin was announced early on in the movie. Plus, this really feels like it’s been ripped out of a soap opera.

Knox wrote these rules to be tongue in cheek, and now they’re broken all the time. As I assure my students at the beginning of our creative writing class, there are no rules.  But a mystery is a little like a written puzzle.  The reader wants the chance to solve the puzzle—to catch the killer.  It’s up to us, as writers, to lay down enough clues in the story where, at the end, the reader says, “Oh yeah…I should have seen that.” 

The one rule I think we all agree on is:  It should be a damned good story.

What rules do you have that you won’t break?

Mystery Writing and Conspiracy Theories

 by Thomas Kies

Why are so many of us enamored with conspiracy theories?

I know that I’m enthralled by one right now.  This business about Jeffrey Epstein.  Unless you live under the proverbial rock, I know you’ve heard about it.  

Boiled down into as few words as possible: Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy financier who ran a vast sex trafficking operation involving underage girls, often recruiting victims through coercion and manipulation. He was convicted in 2008 but received a lenient plea deal (where the current head of the DOJ, Pam Bondi was involved). Arrested again in 2019, he died by suicide in jail, sparking widespread conspiracy theories. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell was later convicted for aiding his crimes. In 2025, a DOJ memo revealed over 1,000 victims but denied the existence of a “client list,” fueling public outrage and speculation about powerful figures allegedly involved.

Is the President of the United States implicated?  Was the video released by the Department of Justice showing that no one entered Epstein’s jail cell the night he died altered? Is the Department of Justice involved in a cover-up?

What a great mystery novel this would be…if only it wasn’t all happening in real time right in front of us. 

Okay, so that’s the conspiracy theory I’m wrapped up in.  You know some of the others:

-The moon landing was fake.

-JFK’s assassination was orchestrated by the government

- Walt Disney has been cryogenically frozen.

- Denver Airport is the headquarters for the Illuminati.  (Actually, until I did some research on this blog, I’d never heard of this one.  I guess I’ll go looking for those tunnels and lizard lairs the next time I fly to Colorado).

- We’re all living in the Matrix.

- The world is flat. 

- Covid was manufactured in a lab and released on purpose. 

- Elvis is still alive

I’ve read that we gravitate to conspiracy theories for a number of reasons.  We’re trying to make sense of a complex, chaotic, often frightening world. We have a deep distrust of authority. They give us some kind of control—we see hidden truths that others don’t see. They can give us a sense of community, letting us belong to a group of people with shared beliefs.

As writers of mysteries, isn’t that what we cater to?  Within 70,000 to 100,000 words, don’t we create our own conspiracy theories, drawing readers into fantastic adventures, suspicions, and anxiety that we create? 

Mystery novels and movies often share key ingredients with conspiracy theories: hidden motives, secret organizations, cryptic clues, and the thrill of uncovering “the truth.” 

Some novels have hatched or contributed to conspiracy theories.  One example is the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.  It fueled the fire with it’s story about the Holy Grail, secret societies, and secrets about Mary Magdelene and Jesus. 

The Oliver Stone film JFK threw gasoline on the flames with its story about government involvement with Kenndy’s assassination. 

In my own novel, Shadow Hill, I talk about how some members of government work with fossil fuel companies to create their own conspiracy theories countering the science behind climate change. Something I came up against, in real life, when I was lobbying against oil drilling off the Atlantic coast of the United States.

In the meantime, Cindy and I binge on old X-File episodes late at night. After all, “The Truth is Out There.” 

What conspiracy theories do YOU subscribe to?

Never Hurt a Dog

 by Thomas Kies

My wife has one rule for when I write.  I can kill as many people as I want in any gruesome way my imagination can conjure up. 

“Yes,” she said, “but you can never, ever hurt a dog.”

“But, sweetheart, it’s a wonderful way to show how despicable a villain can be.  Remember the first episode of House of Cards, when Kevin Spacey’s character, Frank Underwood, cradled a dog that he found in the middle of street after it was hit by a car?  We thought he’d comfort the poor pooch until help arrived.  But then, just when you least expected it, he snapped the dog’s neck with cold resolve, without an ounce of regret.  We knew right then and there, he was truly a bad guy.”

“That was disturbing,” she responded, closing her eyes as if trying to erase the memory.

Then I said, “And how about the John Wick series of movies?”

“What about it?”

“They all started when John Wick, content to retire from his life as an assassin, goes on a murderous rampage of vengeance when the son of a mobster kills his dog.  Without that, the entire franchise would never have gotten its start.”

She put her hands on her hips and sneered, “You know I’ve never seen one of those movies.  Much too violent. And now that you told me about the dog, those movies are dead to me.”

Why is it such an emotional no-no in fiction?  I think it’s because dogs represent unconditional loyalty and love.  Canines are dependent on humans and offer simple, pure, and predictable relationships. We think of them as both protectors and furballs that we need to protect. 

I’ve read that on a human scale; dogs have an intelligence level to toddlers.  They love to play, and they cuddle, and they have those sad eyes when they’re begging for a treat. Only the worst kind of villain can hurt a dog. 

This subject came up in discussion a few years ago at a mystery conference in Scottsdale, Arizona where Ian Rankin was the keynote speaker. He had never hurt a dog in any of his wonderful books, but there was one instance where a cat was murdered. 

He chuckled and said in his soft Scottish burr, “I never heard the end of it. People were genuinely pissed. You know I’ll never do that again.”

If anyone is in doubt as to the emotions that can be dredged up, I recall crying my eyes out when I read Old Yeller and then, like a true masochist, saw the movie.  They both end the same way.  Absolutely heartbreaking. 

So, in my mysteries, I’ve hacked up people with a samurai sword, buried them in a shallow grave in the woods, drowned victims by chaining them to the prongs of a giant forklift and dropping them into icy water, shot them, blew them up in fiery explosions, and suffocated them. 

My wife laughs that my imagination is such that she sleeps with one eye open.  But because I will always abide by that one rule, we will continue to stay married.  Never hurt a dog.  

By the way, the pup in the picture above is our girl, Annie.  She’s a sucker for tummy rubs. 

A.I.--the Digital Poltergeist

 by Thomas Kies

Last week Artificial Intelligence snuck like a digital poltergeist into our writing critique group. 

About eight of us have been meeting every Tuesday for months and I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.  The group helped me finish my last manuscript.

Most of the participants are former students of mine and their writing skills continue to grow.  Many of them are working on novels of their own and every week I look forward to hearing the next chapter of their book. They work hard on their craft and take it seriously.

Recently, we accepted a new member to our group. For the sake of propriety, let’s call her Mary.  She’s retired, pleasant, and she self-published a novel a few years ago.  It is a harrowing tale about a young girl who is abused and shuttled from one foster family to another. Mary was interested in joining our group because she wanted to rewrite her novel.  She felt it needed to be “fleshed out”, details added and include more scene and character descriptions.  

All in all, she wants to make it a better book.  We enthusiastically welcomed her into our group.

Last week, she read a chapter from her book that had been reworked.  We were all impressed with the level of detail and descriptions that she used, and we told her so.

That’s when she dropped the bomb.  She was using something called Claude AI.  I looked it up and it does much the same as the other A.I. platforms, including “write, edit, and create content”.

Many in the group, including me, were incensed.  I inherently despise A.I.  We work hard at our craft.  We feel that letting A.I. do our writing is not writing at all, but cheating. 

We had a few dissenters and an interesting debate ensued. One of our members said, “She’s planning to self-publish again.  She’s enjoying herself. What’s the harm?”

Another argued, “What’s the difference between using A.I. in writing and using CGI in movies? Do you use Spellcheck or the Thesaurus on your computer? Isn’t this just an extension of that?”

Mary worried that we were going to kick her out of the group, which none of wanted to do.

But it leads me to a conundrum.   Knowing that Mary is using A.I., and that platform is essentially “stealing” word combinations and phrases from other published writers, including myself, how is this different from plagiarism?

And how do we offer criticism and support knowing what Mary is reading isn’t completely her own work?  

My contention is if you’re going to let A.I. do your writing, what’s the point of doing it at all?

Since this came up, I’ve read a lot of arguments, both for and against the use of A.I. in creative writing.  Some argue that it is no different than using Autocorrect or Grammerly, or for that matter, a pen or pencil. 

Others argue that it is, indeed, plagiarizing other writers since what A.I. is giving the user isn’t something new and creative, but something that someone else has already written.  

I know that moving forward, I’m afraid that I won’t be much help to Mary. I am concerned that as A.I. moves further into our daily lives, how that will affect the creative process.  I know some argue it makes it better.  

I liken it a little bit to a handheld calculator.  Since their widespread availability, my math skills have gone straight to hell because I don’t use them anymore.  I rely on that tiny machine.  

Will that happen to creativity?  Will we become so lazy and reliant upon computer chips, that the human soul that is inherent in good writing is subsumed by artificial intelligence?

Or am I being a pain in the ass and should let it go, as someone argued, “She’s enjoying herself. What’s the harm?”

Let's Talk Tropes

by Thomas Kies

 I taught a class last week on the campus of NC State University to room of fifty mystery buffs.  The subject of the talk was Mysteries and the Importance of Settings and Tropes.  I loved the ninety-minute time I had with those people because they’re my tribe.  They love mysteries.  We talk the same language.

And in doing the research for the class, I had a chance to think about settings (which I wrote about in my last blog) and, obviously, tropes. The big question that came to my mind was, can you write a mystery, or for that fact, any novel, without using tropes?

First of all, what are tropes?  

According to Merriam Webster:

: a word or expression used in a figurative sense 

: a common or overused theme or device   

In its most basic sense, it’s something that’s used over and over again.  Let’s talk about a few examples:

-Red Herrings—a false clue meant to mislead the audience or protagonist

-The Detective with the Tragic Past—a protagonist that has a haunting backstory

-The Corrupt Cop—An officer of the law obstructs or manipulates an investigation

-The Journalist Sleuth—Okay, okay…I use that one in my Geneva Chase novels.

-The Twist Ending---Yikes, don’t we all use that one?

-The Overlooked Clue---overlooked, that is, except by our eagle-eyes sleuth

-The Hidden Passage or Tunnel—I don’t know, this one kind of feels like cheating to me.

-The Serial Killer Pattern—How else would we know it was a serial killer?

- The MacGuffin--an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance

MacGuffins are really something we could spend a whole blog talking about.  Some famous MacGuffins are the Maltese Falcon, the briefcase in the movie Pulp Fiction, the Ark of the Covenant in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rosebud in the movie Citizen Kane, A secret letter in the Sherlock Holmes tale The Adventure of the Second Stain.

So, if tropes are used over and over again, are they cliches? They can be, obviously. But the skilled writer will know how to use trope and sometimes subvert them, making the story unique and fresh.

Like Gone Girl. First of all, that trope is the missing housewife, presumed dead and killed by her spouse (don’t we always suspect the husband or wife?) But the story is subverted by using another trope, the unreliable narrator.  In this case…two unreliable narrators. 

Is the Unreliable Narrator a new trope?  Of course not.  Agatha Christie used it in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. 

Are there any stories that don’t have tropes?  I thought that the novel The Maid by Nita Prose came close.  Her protagonist is a hotel maid who is neurodivergent.  Except that really isn’t new after all.  Think about the television series Monk. And possibly the Sherlock Holmes stories.  Was Holmes actually an investigative savant with Aspergers Syndrome?

So, my personal conclusion is that no, you can’t really write a story, any story, without using tropes.  That’s the nature of our beast.  But the true gift in storytelling is making those tropes your own and make them feel new or special with your own words. 

 

More on setting

Thanks to my fellow Type M'er Thomas Kies for his excellent discussion of one of my favourite topics: the use of setting in fiction. Setting is so much more than the location where the action occurs. As Tom says, it draws the reader into the story, engages their imagination, and allows them to live the experience along with the characters. It can capture many moods, from menacing to tranquil to uplifting, helping the reader to experience those moods as well. 

Setting is much more than the physical place; it is the season of the year, the time of day, the historical time period,  the weather, the people and culture of the place. The more vivid and specific these elements are, the more unique and powerful the story is. 

I love writing about Canadian settings not just because I know them best and can draw on all my experiences with them, but also because Canada offers endless possibilities. On the macro level, it has everything from rugged coastlines, rain forests, wide-open prairies, thousands of acres of trees and sparkling lakes, arctic glaciers and tundra. The farms, small towns, and big cities each have their own distinct flavour. The people of the Newfoundland fishing villages are vastly different from Alberta ranchers, British Columbian loggers, and remote northern hunters.

Trail riding in the Alberta badlands for THE ANCIENT DEAD

The four seasons are also very distinct. Setting a story against a backdrop of frigid cold, blinding snow, and long hours of darkness evokes a very different experience than the hot sun, gentle breeze, bird song, and lush green of summer. Autumn is a vivid tapestry of oranges, reds and yellows, the rich golden carpet of prairie wheat, leaves swirling in the air and crunching underfoot. Spring is soggy, muddy, brown and grey, with the excitement of little green shoots poking through the last traces of dirty snow.

The weather is an almost constant surprise, and therefore a pet topic of conversation among Canadians, whether it's the welcome spring sun or the third blizzard of the week. And we're not untouched by climate change either. Tornadoes, forest fires, floods, fierce thunderstorms– all of them can  ramp up the tension and drama in a story, and even play a pivotal character in it.

Kayaking in Georgian Bay for PRISONERS OF HOPE

Creating a vivid sense of setting works best when the writer has a vivid idea of it, and for me, that means  spending time there and experiencing all the things the characters do. Relying on book research, the internet, and other sources doesn't give me the visceral, five-senses impressions I want to capture. When I stood on a clifftop in northern Newfoundland, I could hear the thunder and crash of the waves, feel the fine spray on my cheeks, hear the cries of the birds wheeling overhead, and see the humbling vastness of the land. And I wanted the readers to experience all that too. An added bonus - it made a fantastic trip!

Where the Magic Happens---Setting

 By Thomas Kies

All of my Geneva Chase mysteries take place in Fairfield County, Connecticut.  I like that setting because it allows me to show the broad disparity between the haves and the have nots.  Plus, it’s got a New England flavor and yet it's close to New York City.  The setting for my latest book, EXIT SIGNS, is upstate New York in the dead of winter.  I used to live there, and I know that from September until about April, it’s cold, gray, and spooky as hell. 

In mysteries, familiar tropes like quirky investigators, plot twists and red herrings often steal the show. But behind every great detective, behind every puzzle, there lies something equally important yet often overlooked: the setting. In mystery writing, the setting is not merely a backdrop. It is an active, breathing element that sharpens tension, deepens mood, and influences every layer of the narrative.

In almost any storytelling, setting is far more than a place where the novel takes place. It’s atmosphere. It’s tone. It’s the shadow in the forest, the strange noise in the attic, the musty smell of the basement, and the creaking of the floorboards that makes the reader’s heart pound. Whether it’s the fog-choked streets of Victorian London in the Sherlock Holmes stories or the idyllic yet sinister mountains in C.J. Box’s tales, the setting creates a framework for suspense to thrive.

Setting does more than add ambiance—it can be its own character. Think of the locked-room mystery (which can also be thought of as a familiar trope): a classic device where the confines of a space become the key to the puzzle. In these stories, the setting isn’t just where the crime occurs; it is the problem. 

The setting of a story helps build atmosphere.  Shadows falling across a motel wall, a thunderstorm rumbling in, a town filled with suspicious characters. They are tools to create a visceral reaction. Readers feel unsettled not just by the mystery, but by the texture of the world they’re navigating. In psychological thrillers especially, the setting often reflects the inner turmoil of characters. 

Cultural and historical settings also expand the possibilities of mystery. Stories set in unfamiliar locales or time periods bring with them unique rules, customs, and obstacles. The Edgar winning novel, FIVE DECEMBERS takes place just prior and during World War II, starting in California and ending in Japan. James Kestrel uses the setting to set the tone for a range of emotions, unease and terror. Stephen King set his book JOYLAND in an amusement park on the coast of North Carolina in 1973. There’s nothing spookier than an amusement park after it’s closed. I can vouch for that. I worked in a traveling carnival during the summer of... 1973.

Finally, setting helps readers suspend disbelief. When the world feels real, the stakes feel real. A well-rendered setting immerses the reader so deeply that even the most unlikely plot twist feels plausible. The setting anchors the mystery in a world that makes sense—until, of course, it doesn’t, and that’s where the magic happens.