Friday, August 31, 2018

All About Awards

›
My latest book in the Lottie Albright series, Fractured Families , was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. A friend asked me how book...
4 comments:
Thursday, August 30, 2018

The benefits of writing the screenplay

›
Over the past year, I’ve had the good fortune of having a Hollywood group (a producer, a writer, a director, and an executive producer who b...
Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Would Sherlock Be Sherlock?

›
There’s a movement afoot in my part of the world to rename things. It started with the city of El Segundo renaming its portion of Sepulveda ...
1 comment:
Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Creating characters: that sinking feeling

›
by Rick Blechta What is the most important part of the creative process in writing a novel? Some might say the plot; some might say th...
Monday, August 27, 2018

Stress

›
Henry James said that plot is characters under stress. When I began working on my second Geneva Chase novel, Darkness Lane , I sent the f...
1 comment:
Saturday, August 25, 2018

A Vampire in Cowboy Boots

›
My newest novel is just out, book 7 in my Felix Gomez vampire-detective series, Steampunk Banditos: Sex Slaves of Shark Island from WordFir...
Friday, August 24, 2018

There Goes Summer

›
I am in that transitional time of year, when summer "ends" because school is about to begin. I don't regret the passing of ...
Thursday, August 23, 2018

She Needs a Dog

›
My work in progress is beginning to take shape. This is a relief, because the WIP is the first book in what may become a new series for...
7 comments:
Wednesday, August 22, 2018

The trouble with quirks and flaws

›
Can you take one more post about characters with flaws? It's a fascinating topic, but one that risks becoming a cliche. How many review...
2 comments:
Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Old Friends

›
by Rick Blechta First off, I’m referring to books as old friends in this post, and readers, all of us have these I’m sure. You know the so...
2 comments:
Monday, August 20, 2018

Developing Character

›
I was interested in John's post last week, talking about character-driven versus concept-based writing. The books I enjoy most have alwa...
Thursday, August 16, 2018

Pitch Perfect or Perfect Pitch

›
This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how TV shows are pitched, and, subsequently, thinking of the differences between TV content and th...
1 comment:
Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Investigation Discovery Channel

›
When I’m on vacation, time seems to stand still. Then I get back and reality sets in and I realize I have a blog post to write with no idea ...
3 comments:
Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Walking the fine line between “flawed” and “annoying”

›
By Rick Blechta If you haven’t read Tom’s excellent post from yesterday, you might want to drop down below this post to check it out. It b...
4 comments:
Monday, August 13, 2018

What's Wrong with You?

›
The lead character in both Random Road and Darkness Lane , Geneva Chase, has been described as: Dysfunctional, yet remarkably endearing...
3 comments:
Saturday, August 11, 2018

Women Killing It! A Crime Writing Festival

›
By Vicki Delany A couple of years ago, Janet Kellough (author of the Thaddeus Lewis historical mysteries and the speculative ficti...
Friday, August 10, 2018

Free Associating

›
I'm in Philadelphia tonight -- a quick trip and home tomorrow. I realized earlier today that it's my Friday to post. I have nothing ...
4 comments:
Thursday, August 09, 2018

My Ideal Day, Redux

›
Back in 2013, I wrote an entry for this blog called "My Ideal Day", in which I described said ideal day. It went like this: ...
1 comment:
Wednesday, August 08, 2018

In pursuit of the perfect title

›
Barbara here. It's the August long weekend, and it's hot, sunny, and gloriously lazy. I am sitting on my dock by the lake, far from...
6 comments:
Tuesday, August 07, 2018

These days, can a thriller plot actually be too outrageous?

›
by Rick Blechta Many years ago now, I remember hearing of a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a group of terrorists who hijack a plan and c...
2 comments: