TV OR NOT TV?
by Ellen Byron Before I was a television writer-producer (and an author), I was a playwright. I can tell you the exact moment I decided to transition from writing for…
Fiction Writing
Creating Cozy Worlds: Karen MacInerney and Gray Whale Press
Hi! I’m Karen MacInerney, and I’m the author of several mystery series, including the Agatha-nominated Gray Whale Inn mysteries and the Dewberry Farm mysteries. I’ve been writing for many years.…
The Writing Life
by Rick Helms A great writer named Jerry Healy, who sadly left us a couple of years back, once said something that resonated strongly with me. It’s probably a quote…
Truth in Fiction—How One Author Keeps It Real
by Patricia Fry Every hopeful author and freelance writer has heard this important credo: write about what you know. For years, I wrote nonfiction. Still do. But five years ago,…
Retired Professor Turns to Crime (writing)
by Alessandra Comini “You absolutely cannot enter. Important government papers are stored inside.” These were the words an Austrian government bureaucrat used to bar me from entering the provincial Neulengbach…
Writing What I Don’t Know
by Kaye George Sure, I write what I know. Sometimes. For the Fat Cat series, which I write as Janet Cantrell, I model the tubby tabby after one of my…
Writing What You Know—the Hard Way
by Barb Goffman We’ve all heard this advice: write what you know. I’ve had editing clients take this advice the wrong way, thinking that if they haven’t experienced something themselves,…
FAREWELL, MY COASTLINE, or How to Write an Environmental Crime Novel without Sending Your Reader into the Big Sleep
by Robert Lopresti Some people become novelists because they have Something to Say. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, unless they decide to Say it. Most of us, when nibbling…
How to Write a Great Thriller
by Mike Bond All great works of art are thrillers If a thriller is defined as a book you keep reading to find out what happens next, then all good…
Co-Writing: Plotting Murder without Killing Each Other
by Sparkle Abbey The thing most people notice first when they meet Sparkle Abbey at conferences or book signings is that there are two of us. The question that almost…