Researching the Amish

Guest Blogger: Julie Kramer For my latest thriller, I decided to go Amish. At that time, I didn’t realize that Amish fiction was on an upswing. I just needed another Minnesota-based adventure for Riley Spartz, the reporter/heroine in my series set in the desperate world of  TV news. Minnesota has …

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Caitlin Strong: Action Hero!

Guest Blogger: Jon Land Female action hero.  For many thriller fans, that’s an oxymoron.  And you can’t really blame them.  A woman capable of mixing it up with the likes of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher?  Come on, no way, right? Wrong.  Caitlin Strong, who returns this month in STRONG VENGEANCE, …

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For Honor’s Sake

Guest Blogger: Merry Jones Thrillers and mysteries are supposed to entertain.  I write with that in mind.  But sometimes, in the course of writing those entertaining books, I come across information that affects me.  For example, while doing research for BEHIND THE WALLS, I learned about the following: Case 1: …

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I, Judas: Faith & Reason

Guest Blogger:  Bob Mayer What if Judas is still alive and it appears the Second Coming is upon us? That’s the basic premise of my latest release, I, Judas: The Fifth Gospel.  The story takes place in the present and the inciting incident is the sudden appearance of an object …

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The Deep Zone Proves It: Reality Is Fantastic Enough

Guest Blogger: James M. Tabor I know that vampires and werewolves and zombies—oh my!—are all the rage now, but I’ve never felt the need to step over the line from reality to fantasy, or wherever those things live. Reality is plenty fantastic in its own right, as the real events …

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25% of You… Is Patented!

Guest Blogger: Brian Andrews Medical practitioners and medical researchers have always been joined at the hip, but with the advent of modern genetics, they’ve become strange bedfellows. The weirdness started in early 1950’s with an American woman named Henrietta Lacks. Lacks was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer …

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The Book of Lost Fragrances

Guest Blogger: M.J. Rose “He struggled to separate out the notes he recognized from the ones he didn’t, searching for the ingredients that gave the blend its promise of hope, of long nights and voluptuous dreams, of invitation and embrace. Of an everlasting covenant ripe with possibility. Of  lost  souls reunited.”   …

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Writing for the Thrill

Guest Blogger: D. L Wilson A thriller novel must be exciting, a real page turner, a book that readers just can’t put down. A successful thriller must start with a bang, build excitement, create tension, and finish with a bigger bang. After writing a university textbook and a cookbook to …

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Start Here

Guest Blogger: Daniel Palmer When it comes to writing novels, beginnings can be difficult. A blank page at first appears liberating, but it can soon become utterly paralyzing. As writers, we’ve been taught to grab the reader’s attention in the first few pages—the first sentence if possible—and then hold it …

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Dead Fellas

  Steven Savile, Lazarus, and Dave Sakmyster walk into a bar… okay, it sounds like the set up for an elaborate (and bad) joke, but what do these three gents have in common? A Brit living and working in Sweden, a guy so historical he died twice, and the man …

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