Takeaways from Killer Nashville Max López One of the most uplifting and simultaneously disheartening phenomena you may experience at a writer’s conference is being surrounded by hundreds of people doing the exact same thing that you are. Although it can be intimidating to see so many authors all working tirelessly to get their next book […]
Dramatic Infrastructure: Using Everyday Events to Deliver Emotional Impact by Roger Johns Success as a storyteller depends on understanding not only the mechanics of the story you’re telling, but also how to properly shape a reader’s responses to the events in the narrative. Readers quickly lose interest in writing that’s emotionally flat, but provoking, sustaining, […]
SPOILER ALERT By Ellen Whitfield Could spoilers be a good thing? Mysteries and thrillers have always been my go-to reads, and when I started working as publicist for authors, I was excited to get to work with so many talented writers who craft books in my favorite genre. What I didn’t want to reveal to […]
R.I.P MALIBU BARBIE By Jennifer Dornbush The daughter of a death investigator shares how a toy from her unconventional childhood feeds into her career as a Hollywood screenwriter and novelist. When I told some friends about a very unusual Barbie doll accessory my sisters and I used to play, they wanted proof. Not being able […]
A MYSTERY THAT STARTS WITH A SECRET by Emily Bleeker Five months ago I stood in a courtroom filled with people. I handed the bailiff a piece of blue paper. She gave it to the judge. He looked down at me over a pair of bifocals, and that is when the truth spilled out, “I’m […]
Writing for Young Audiences by Kathryn Berla In my mind, the most difficult thing to write is a young adult because the writer must always keep her focus on the adolescent voice while conveying emotions that many adolescents aren’t fully equipped to put into words. And yet, these emotions will likely be the most intensely […]
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN A SERIES by Karen Randau Whether you’re writing a standalone book or a series, you need believable characters who cause the reader to feel something. The characters must change—from weak to strong, devastated to overcoming, or lonely to thriving in a satisfying relationship. In each book of a series, the change […]
NO FEAR, ISH by Robert Mangeot In fall here, the yellow garden spiders come out. If you live anywhere in North America, you may know the beasties I mean: monster ladies in monster webs, their bodies over an inch long and their leg span a couple inches more. When summer breaks, for a few weeks […]
Writing short fiction demands a different kind of mental training. While novels can luxuriate with expansive plots and subplots, short fiction requires jabs and punches. In this week’s Killer Nashville Guest Blog, author Robert Mangeot cleverly tells us how he went from short story unpublished to well-published. And how you can do the same. You […]
Love is Murder by Sandra Brown From International Thriller Writers, a short story anthology from authors such as Lee Child, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Heather Graham, Allison Brennan, and more. These will pull at your heart: bodyguards, vigilantes, stalkers, serial killers, men and women both in jeopardy, cops, thieves, P.I.s, and killers all in the midst of romance, […]