Tuesday, June 30, 2020

It’s so easy to over-describe

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by Rick Blechta We all have to learn to write. I don’t mean putting words together to form sentences — although many haven’t mastered tha...
Monday, June 29, 2020

Creative Writing 101

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A week ago, I started teaching Creative Writing again at our community college.  We’re all wearing face masks, are seated at least six feet ...
1 comment:
Saturday, June 27, 2020

Back to the 70s

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A few years back, I was at a board meeting of the Mystery Writers of America. After the big dinner (with an open bar), several of us had gon...
1 comment:
Friday, June 26, 2020

How to Begin

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Well, this day has gotten away from me. I remembered as I was heading off to bed that today was my day to post. But between an unexpected se...
4 comments:
Thursday, June 25, 2020

Writing Historical Novels in a Turbulent Time

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I, Donis, write historical novels set in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century. This has always been a little bit pro...
2 comments:
Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Cops in crime fiction

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Last week my daughter told me that TV shows and stories about cops are out. The recent protests about police brutality have cast police in ...
1 comment:
Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Small stories

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by Rick Blechta This week’s post concerns tiny ideas. These can be mere snippets of prose, maybe a little story told by a painting or d...
7 comments:
Monday, June 22, 2020

Devil's Garden

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It should be an exciting time when a new book comes out, and of course it is, but when the bookstores are shut and the launch party has to b...
3 comments:
Friday, June 19, 2020

Good news!

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This week I received the happy news that my historical novel, The Healer's Daughter , is a finalist for the High Plains Book Award. I&#...
5 comments:
Thursday, June 18, 2020

The importance of advance readers’ questions

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How do we know if a story will work? Isn’t that the central question, the one that keeps writers up at night? Will my story hold water? Will...
Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Tips For Writing Suspense

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I belong to the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime. With all of the pandemic restrictions, we haven’t been able to meet in person for q...
3 comments:
Tuesday, June 16, 2020

So where WAS Blechta last Tuesday?

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by Rick Blechta Last Tuesday the entire planet wobbled on its orbit, the population looked up and wondered. Well, actually, I don’t thin...
5 comments:
Monday, June 15, 2020

Food--My Guilty Pleasure

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Shadow Hill , my latest Geneva Chase Mystery, is in the hands of my copy editor at Poisoned Pen Press. No sooner had I hit the Send button...
5 comments:
Friday, June 12, 2020

Character Playlist

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In this moment of fear, anger, and discontent -- in the midst of hope vs. despair -- I am wondering what my characters would say about all t...
Thursday, June 11, 2020

Don't Get Sick - With Anything.

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Donis here.  I intended to do a post on writing about race in a historical novel, but the other current world-wide plague made me change my ...
3 comments:
Wednesday, June 10, 2020

In defence of molecules

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My goodness, Wednesday has crept up on me! Days blur together in this new "date-less" regime, so I was happily perusing the inter...
Monday, June 08, 2020

People Need Books

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The recent traumatic events of one kind and another have impacted on us all in so many different ways.  Grief, sickness, anger, loneliness  ...
2 comments:
Friday, June 05, 2020

Lincoln Weeps

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I'm at a loss for words. As is the case with our blogmaster, Rick Blechta, I've not  posted any political comments on Type M. It...
2 comments:
Thursday, June 04, 2020

So much to digest

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There has been so much to digest this week. The news cycle nearly forgot COVID-19, as the death toll topped 100,000 Americans, and swung to ...
1 comment:
Wednesday, June 03, 2020

The Power of Music

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I like all kinds of music, but I don’t pretend to know anything about it. The one music theory class I took pretty much went over my head. B...
1 comment: