Author: Roberta (Page 44 of 46)

Untangling The Genre Labels: #Mystery #Thriller #Suspense

08/24/2016 / Roberta / 0 Comments

A few weeks ago I shared the premise of my “mystery” work in progress with a published mystery author and she said it wouldn’t work. She gave me the following reasons: There has to be a dead body in the first few pages, the female main character needs to be an expert from the beginning (my character learns her trade and grows throughout the story), a female main character couldn’t learn from an older male character who is her mentor (which would make her look weak, plus is sexist), and to never, never, never have characters who get or are married (which my characters are likely to do at some point). She suggested I shelve the project.

I was devastated. I put aside my manuscript and started working on another book. The stoppage lasted for about a week, until I started to question what she told me. What about Precious Ramotswe, the main character in Alexander McCall Smith’s hugely popular No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, who rarely encounters a dead body, learns as she goes, and gets married to Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni? Or how about the protagonist in Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax series? She doesn’t fit the mystery detective stereotype. Then it struck me. What if the problem wasn’t the product, but the label?

MysteryThrillerSuspense

The Labels: Mystery, Suspense and Thriller

The dividing lines between mystery, suspense, and thriller genres can be blurry because:

The terms have been used interchangeably in the past.
They have been defined differently by various agents and publishers.
The definitions are made more confusing by popular novels that cross the boundaries into two or more genres.

Regardless, having a clear genre in mind will help you write and sell your work.

Mystery
Usually the protagonist stumbles on a murder or other serious crime early in the book and struggles to find out the truth about it. The level of danger/action is moderate. The identity of the culprit is the main secret.

Suspense
The crime or murder hasn’t taken place in the beginning of the story and the reader may know more about it than the protagonist. Tension arises from wondering whether the characters will be able to stop bad things from happening. In suspense, the identity of the culprit is usually known. It is not a secret or surprise.

Thriller
Danger and tension are the key words in a thriller. Packed with action, the protagonist and other characters are usually under threat from the beginning and the levels escalate. Some people consider thrillers to be a branch of suspense, or basically suspense on steroids.

Based on these definitions, the best label for my work in progress is suspense. Looking deeper, it turns out there are many sub-genres of suspense.

Some Sub-genres of Suspense

Romantic Suspense
Vastly different novels have been labelled as “romantic suspense,” from the Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels to Shelley Coriell’s dark, twisty The Apostles series, to Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. The common thread is that relationships pop up between characters and prove to be an essential part of the plot.

Domestic or Relationship Suspense
Domestic suspense novels feature crimes revolving around family members. Although examples have been around for awhile, it has recently been gaining in popularity as more readers discover it. Depending on the level of action/danger, this sub-genre may be called a family thriller. Also related is the malice domestic mystery, which involves solving a crime against a family member.

Personal Jeopardy
In this sub-genre an ordinary person goes up against a powerful enemy. Will they be able to prevail? Sometimes if the persons in jeopardy are family members, this may overlap with domestic suspense.

Paranormal/Supernatural Suspense
This is a suspense novel with supernatural or paranormal elements.

Bickering Team or Cohort
Two friends, acquaintances, or a married couple work together to prevent bad things from happening. The less-than-smooth relationship between the two adds to the interest/tension in the story.

Of course, there are more sub-genres of suspense and even more thriller sub-genres. Hopefully, knowing that the different types exist will free you to explore the story you want to tell.

What are your thoughts about these categories? Do you think they are helpful or lead to formulaic fiction?

####

If you’d like to learn more about mysteries, thrillers, and suspense, try Carolyn Wheat’s How to Write Killer Fiction

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

Save

Awesome Advice from Mesa Writer in Residence @ShonnaSlayton #amwriting

07/26/2016 / Roberta / 0 Comments

Arizona writers are incredibly lucky this year because our libraries are offering Writer in Residence programs with local published authors. Author Shonna Slayton is the current Writer in Residence at the Mesa Public Library and she gave me some excellent advice this week. I’d like to share the highlights.

Writing Advice 1. Set a Deadline.

When you participate in NaNoWriMo or have a book publisher hounding you for a book, deadlines are obvious. When you just finished your first draft and are slogged down in revisions, you can find reasons to put them off forever. Setting a deadline, no matter how arbitrary, means you will keep making progress toward your goal.

Deadline: I hope to finish the revisions on my current work in progress by the end of October so I can start NaNoWriMo in November with a fresh new project.

Writing Advice 2. Analyze bestselling books in your genre for plotting, etc.

Shonna Slayton suggested StoryFix 2.0 by Larry Brooks as a good place to get started. Once you reach the website, scroll down to the categories section in the left sidebar. There you will find what he calls “deconstructions” of best-selling novels and movies. Take a look to learn how to do it yourself.

Note: although these deconstructions are more for plotters (those who outline) than pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants), they can be helpful for pantsers who need to make revisions, too.

Personal advice:

She also gave me some helpful personal advice. First, she suggested I shutter some of my many, many blogs. She said we only have a limited amount of time to complete our projects and if we want to accomplish the big ones, sometimes we have to let some of the distractions/little things go. Following her advice, today I shut down my children’s book review blog, Wrapped in Foil. One distraction gone.

Secondly, she helped me sort out a problem I was having about when to start the narrative of my book. I had started at the point where my main character met her mentor, but it wasn’t clear who the main character was because the story is told from both points of view. I had considered starting later in the story when the main character is stronger, leaving their meeting as backstory. What I had not considered, and what she suggested, was starting earlier at the point where the main character had a crisis that sent her on the path to meet the mentor. Success! I’m now writing passionately again after two weeks of painful limbo.

Hopefully some of Shonna Slayton’s advice will help you move forward with your writing project.

And, be sure to check out Shonna Slayton’s YA books for an enjoyable mix of fantasy and historical fiction.

Cinderella’s Dress

Cinderella’s Shoes

And coming soon, Spindle

Save

@ShelleyCoriell’s The Apostles Series: The Blind

06/27/2016 / Roberta / 0 Comments

After a brief hiatus, today we’re going to discuss the third book in The Apostles series, The Blind by Shelley Coriell.

(Affiliate link to Amazon)

In what has been described as the best of the series, The Blind features a strong female protagonist, FBI bomb specialist Evie Jimenez. Evie is thrown in with art expert Jack Elliott to solve a bizarre series of bombings where the killer poses people in real life replications of famous art works and then blows them up. Will Elliott be a major help or a major distraction? Will they catch the killer before Evie becomes his next victim?

How on earth does Coriell come up with these twisted serial killers? Her villains are certainly unique and complex, pulling off bizarre, one-of-a-kind crimes. You certainly won’t recognize these bad guys (and gals) from last week’s news.

Once again, Coriell gives us a wonderful behind the scenes look at the writing of this book on GoodReads. The story behind the book is as compelling as the book itself. For example, she revealed the title of the book was almost The Burned, but she thought that was too close to The Buried.

On a personal note, I was sad to finish the last page of The Blind because Shelley Coriell has indicated she has no plans for further books in The Apostles series at this time. They were so good, I suspect I will be rereading the series again soon. Plus, hopefully the Lottie King short stories will help stave off withdrawal symptoms.

If you are a fan of well-written romantic suspense that leans heavily toward suspense, then pick up Shelley Coriell’s The Blind today.

Book 1, The Broken Review

Book 2, The Buried Review

Series: The Apostles (Book 3)
Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Forever (July 28, 2015)
ISBN-10: 1455528471
ISBN-13: 978-1455528479

(Public Domain Photo via VisualHunt.com)

Disclosure: This book was my personal copy. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

Save

Craig Johnson (Longmire Series) @poisonedpen Bookstore

06/25/2016 / Roberta / 2 Comments

Have you ever met Craig Allen Johnson, who is the author of the famed Longmire Mystery series?

Johnson was in Arizona recently to discuss the release of his newest novella, The Highwayman.

(Amazon Affiliate Link)

We are lucky in Arizona because The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale regularly brings in top-notch authors to give talks. Even better, they record many of the events and post the videos on Livestream. Being able to watch on your own schedule is so helpful for those of us who are constantly overbooked.

If you have a few minutes, check out how living on a Wyoming ranch adds balance to Craig Johnson’s life and creates the setting for his books.

It is such a treat to get the inside scoop on what the author’s typical writing day is like. In this case, Johnson talks to his horses and ends his work day looking up at the stars in the clear Wyoming skies.

The discussion about the novella length is also fascinating. There’s the impression a novella is a short story, but really it is a 200 page novel. Johnson convinces us that sometimes the story shouldn’t be padded with extra words just to meet the novel-length page requirements.

John is a staunch plotter, writing from an outline he sets up ahead of time. He says it helps prevent the potential from writer’s block because he always knows what is coming next.

I think watching interviews like these help inspire and inform one’s own work. What do you think?

Are you a fan of the book series? What about the TV series based on the books?

If you watch the video, what parts resonated with you?

Photo via Visualhunt

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. If you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

Save

@ShelleyCoriell’s The Apostles Series: The Buried

06/07/2016 / Roberta / 0 Comments

Today we are continuing with Shelley Coriell’s romantic suspense series The Apostles. The second book, The Buried, FBI Agent Theodore “Hatch” Hatcher and his state prosecutor ex-wife, Grace Courtemanche race to find a serial killer who buries victims alive.

(Affiliate link to Amazon)

As a member of The Apostles, Hatch Hatcher specializes in crisis negotiations. His office is a sailboat where he retreats between jobs, ready to respond to a call on his satellite phone at a moments notice. When the call comes to tell him he has a son he didn’t know about, things start to tumble out of control. Running into his ex-wife who is chasing a serial killer further complicates matters. Can the two of them put their personal feelings aside long enough to catch the killer?

Because each book in The Apostles series features a different set of characters, they could be read as stand alone titles or in any order. In The Buried the romance side is less steamy and more of a slow burn than in book one. Once again, the suspense side is dark, complicated, and the author throws in a whopper of a plot twist at the end.

As with The Broken, the setting helps add to the atmosphere of the book. The Buried is set in Cypress Grove, a town in the Florida panhandle. The background oozes swamps and alligators, adding to the suspense.

At the workshop I attended, Shelley disclosed that she actually put off working on this novel for two years. It wasn’t until she added a teenage character did she find the right mix to move the plot forward. I would say the teenager was a brilliant touch because he adds backstory and conflict in a way that ignites Hatch as a character. She also revealed it was difficult to write about the killer, who has a complicated and painful/sad backstory. She talks more about writing the book on GoodReads.

This title won’t remain “buried” in your TBR pile. The Buried is a compelling story that will keep you hooked to the very end.

Series: The Apostles (Book 2)
Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Forever (October 28, 2014)
ISBN-10: 145552851X
ISBN-13: 978-1455528516

(Public domain photo via Visual hunt)

This review is based on my personal copy of the book.

@ShelleyCoriell’s The Apostles Series: The Broken

06/06/2016 / Roberta / 0 Comments

Having spent an inspiring day at the Arizona MysteryCon yesterday, I’m ready to review some of the mystery and romantic suspense novels I discovered.

Let’s start with Shelley Coriell’s romantic suspense series featuring members of a special FBI unit known as The Apostles. In book 1, The Broken, FBI Profiler Hayden Reed is trying to catch a serial killer who brutally stabs broadcasters. Hayden’s best lead might be a former broadcaster who went into hiding after she was attacked. Will he be able to find her?

(Affiliate Link to Amazon)

Romantic suspense can be a difficult genre to pin down. In this case, the suspense part is a dark, complicated mystery that will leave the reader guessing until the end. Without revealing too much, on the romantic side a relationship between Hayden Reed and victim Kate soon heats up.

The author introduces several characters who the reader will want to see again. Besides Hayden Reed, we meet other members of The Apostles, some of whom will be the main characters of later books in the series, as well as a feisty Sergeant named Lottie King. Once you encounter bighearted Lottie King and her outrageous shoes, you will see why she needed to be the protagonist of her own series of short stories (reviews coming).

The setting for the story roams throughout the West, with scenes in Colorado, Nevada and Tucson, Arizona. The wide open expanses add to the feeling of isolation in some of the scenes.

During her presentation, Shelley gave a heartrending account of how this novel was born from a tragic event in her life. Her father had a stroke and then an accident that nearly cost him his life. During his difficult recovery, Shelley began telling the story as a way to distract him from his health problems. Soon they were working out the details together. She told us her father is the model for one of the characters and helped her decide what he would do in a certain scene. More about how the book came to be is included in the back matter in a section called “The Dish: Where Authors Give You the Inside Scoop.”

The Broken is an entertaining read with a complex and twisty plot, plus characters you will want to root for. Find out why Shelley Coriell is an award-winning author and pick up a copy today.

Book 2: The Buried Review

Book 3: The Blind Review

Series: The Apostles (Book 1)
Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Forever (April 29, 2014)
ISBN-10: 1455528498
ISBN-13: 978-1455528493

(This book is my personal copy)

Save

#Amwriting #Mystery: 5 Tips For Making Revisions Less Painful

05/30/2016 / Roberta / 2 Comments

You’ve blasted out the first draft draft of your novel and have patted yourself on the back for a job well done. But is it done? Looming large is the abyss known as revisions.

Here are five tips for getting the most out of revisions as painlessly as possible.

Get fresh eyes on your project.

Although writing a novel is perceived as a solo enterprise, realistically you should have a support network of experts and fellow writers to give you feedback and make your novel shine. Look for reading and writing groups through libraries, bookstores, writing societies, and online networks like Meetup. Friends and family may be convenient readers, but ask them for help only if they have the expertise to make your writing better.

If you are the type of writer who slaves over every word, critiques can be difficult at first. Remember that you don’t have to make every change, but if you are open to suggestions, people will be more willing to offer their honest opinions in the future. Provide paper copies, if possible, so less vocal readers can mark your work with comments to be read in private.

Another benefit of participating in a writing group is that you get experience reading your work in front of an audience.

2. Make sure each chapter ends with some tension.

Imagine your reader is comfortable in bed reading your book. Your reader says, “I’ll just read to the end of this chapter and then I’ll turn out the light.” If you ramp up the tension or suspense at the end of the chapter, you will entice your reader to move on to see what happens. Sometimes leaving a question unanswered is enough to get the pages turning.

Now you have your draft finished, turn to the end of each chapter and ask yourself, “Would I turn the page or turn off the light?”

3. Attack your personal writing imperfections with the “Find” function

Once you start having others critique your work, you may find you have quirks or issues that pop up again and again in your writing. For example, in my case I use “I think,” “He decided,” and other thought verbs too often.

What I write: I think I’ll go to the store. She decided to go to the store.

Much stronger: I went to the store. She ran to the store.

If you are like me, the thought verbs are so ingrained I don’t even notice them when I read my work. To get brutal during revisions I used the “find” editing tool and looked for every “think” and “decided.”

Another writing trap is to use the same descriptions again and again. “She shrugged, he nodded, he wrinkled his nose.” Use “find” to get an idea how often you use a given phrase and decide if you need to generate some fresh ones.

Once you locate the offending words, rewrite the sentences to make them stronger. Do this again on the finished draft to make sure your personal quirks haven’t slipped back in.

4. Walk through your characters’ world to strengthen descriptions

I recently had the opportunity to meet with a wonderful writer who shared his techniques for making his scene descriptions specific and clear. Rather than simply visualizing events in his head, he actually stood up and acted them out.

For example, character A meets character B, who is much younger and has her eyes on her cell phone. How does character A get character B’s attention? The written description of the actions became more realistic with a little play acting. Enlist friends and family to play charades with some of your trickier scenes and see how they work.

5. Have your computer read your novel to you.

As a final step, if your software has a speaking or reading function, have your computer read your work to you as you silently read the text, preferably from a paper copy. The computer will have a measured pace, which allows you to find double words, words that were left out, spacing issues and all sorts of other flaws that are easy for you to overlook while reading silently.

The revision process is a necessary step for making your novel the best it can be. Hopefully these tips will help.

Do you have any tips to make revising easier? If your choose, please share them.

Save

Answer to #Mystery Author Whodunit Challenge 4

05/11/2016 / Roberta / 0 Comments

Looking over my blog and Tweets, I realized I was giving away the answers to the mystery author challenges in the titles of the posts. I’ll only reveal the names in the posts from now on.

_______________________________________________

The mystery author from Whodunit Challenge 4 was Donna Leon.

(Photograph by Michiel Hendryckx Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, retrieved from Wikimedia)

Donna Leon’s books, starting from Death at La Fenice, feature Commissario Guido Brunetti who investigates crimes in and around Venice, Italy. The 25th book in the series is coming out this year.

(Affiliate Link to Amazon)

Different mystery authors have different talents, and Leon’s is making the setting come alive. The city of Venice becomes an important character in her books. The buildings, the weather, the people, the food all become tangible with her expert touch.

If you want to learn more about Donna Leon and her work, check out this video. It features scenes from the German television series based on her work, as well as interview.

Are you a fan of Donna Leon’s mysteries? Which one is your favorite?

Be sure to stop back next week for a new Whodunit mystery author challenge. Please leave a comment if you have suggestions for future authors.

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (July 27, 2004)
ISBN-10: 006074068X
ISBN-13: 978-0060740689

Save

Logical #Mystery The Nine Mile Walk: The Nicky Welt Stories of Harry Kemelman

05/07/2016 / Roberta / 0 Comments

Author Harry Kemelman is best known for his mystery series featuring Rabbi David Small, but he also wrote short stories featuring a college professor named Nicky Welt. The Nine Mile Walk: The Nicky Welt Stories of Harry Kemelman is a collection of these short stories.

(Amazon Affiliate link)

In all his stories, Kemelman’s protagonists use logic to solve crimes, but nothing beats the pure logic of “The Nine Mile Walk” (text available online).

Modified slightly, the short story is also available as in a two-part video.

First part: