Dialogue can make or break a story. Would you agree?
There are so many rules to writing good dialogue. Characters have to sound different enough from each other that readers would know who’s speaking without reading the dialogue tags. Continue reading Talk to Me
When I first sat down to pen my debut mystery novella series, I had a head full of tangled plot threads and characters who wouldn’t stop talking to me. Like many writers, I was driven by an almost compulsive need to get these stories out of my mind and onto the page. But as I reflect on my journey as a mystery author over the years, I’ve come to recognize how much my purpose—my “why”—has evolved. Continue reading Guest Chick: Barbara Howard
I grew up in New York. Our house was walking distance from a library. Walking distance. Growing up, walking distance was considered as far as you could walk before your legs cramped up. Segue: The first time I invited my husband to visit my family in New York – we were dating at the time – we walked from my house to the subway to … Continue reading The Superpower of Books
My Crossword Puzzle mystery series has a lot of moving parts. It has the crossword puzzles, for one thing. I got my love of crosswords from my dad—and made him so proud when I began doing them in ink. I learned how to construct them before I wrote these books which was as fun as it was maddening. I won’t go into all the rules … Continue reading Behind the Books: Becky’s Crossword Puzzle Mysteries and a Giveaway
NOTE: I’ll be at Left Coast Crime when this publishes, so my response to comments will be slow today. Bear with me! When I finished the draft for The Witless Protection Program, I wrote to my agent, “This is a screenplay masquerading as a book.” I’m a very visual person. I don’t know if it’s because of my years writing theatre and TV but I … Continue reading Behind the Book: The Witless Protection Program
Welcome to “Behind the Book,” our fun new Chicks on the Case feature! Join us as we Chicks share the real stories behind our stories: Inspiration, motivation, frustration, jubilation– research, rewrites, tidbits– you’ll find them all right here… I visited a fortune cookie factory for book research. With a new series called Magical Fortune Cookie novels, I had to. Yeah, it’s a tough job, but someone’s … Continue reading Behind the Book: Ill-Fated Fortune
Welcome to “Behind the Book,” our fun new Chicks on the Case feature! Join us as we Chicks share the real stories behind our stories: Inspiration, motivation, frustration, jubilation– research, rewrites, tidbits– you’ll find them all right here… Hiya! It’s Kathy, and I’m delighted to offer a peek into my first book, Protocol. A large portion of its plot revolves around odd messages my protagonist receives … Continue reading Behind the book: Protocol
Welcome to “Behind the Book,” our fun new Chicks on the Case feature! Join us as we Chicks share the real stories behind our stories: Inspiration, motivation, frustration, jubilation– research, rewrites, tidbits– you’ll find them all right here… Hi, Vickie here. Authors often get asked how much research we have to do for each book. So, I thought I’d share a peek into a tiny bit … Continue reading Behind the book: My Fair Latte
Remember last week when I posted about my new obsession with online jigsaw puzzles? We were having a GIGANTIC thunderstorm so I went downstairs where the noise from the hail wasn’t quite so deafening and tried to distract myself with a jigsaw puzzle. One of the other “weighty mental paths” I traveled while I worked on it ended up being something I keep thinking about. … Continue reading … But It Makes Perfect Sense
Chicks on the Case 