4 Things Every Writer Needs

Every writer has his or her own needs. It could be a quiet place to write or music to inspire the words. It could be a pen and paper or a computer, or even a tape recorder. It could be a jar of M & M’s or a jug of …

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Point of View is Not Always a Good Compass For the Truth

Guest Blogger: Anne Greenwood Brown I love writing in the first person point of view. Somehow, telling the story how one character perceives it helps me channel that character’s emotions and capture a unique voice. I think first person works particularly well with YA fiction, where the reader wants to …

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Food Trucks and Hoarding

Guest Blogger: Lisa McMann I admit it. I love reality TV. I love the thrill of SURVIVOR, all the cooking shows, especially THE GREAT FOOD TRUCK RACE, and I am strangely fascinated by shows about people’s obsessions, addictions, and dark secrets. I’ve even been on a reality show called SEARCHING FOR …

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Five Key Ways I Built My Indigo World

Guest Blogger: Jordan Dane The inspiration behind Indigo Awakening (book #1 in the Hunted Series, Harlequin Teen) came from researching Indigo children. Query “Indigo Child” on the Internet and you’ll get over 8 million hits. Real life and headlines often inspire my books and this time is no exception. Conspiracy …

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How Characters Change With Real Life

Guest Blogger: Eric Van Lustbader When I created the character of Jack McClure for FIRST DAUGHTER, I made him very much like me. He was a dyslexic. My dyslexia is far less severe than Jack’s is, but nonetheless it created both challenges and advantages for me. I kept exchanging letters …

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What is smart?

Guest Blogger: Kathleen George Sometimes a panel—even one you’re on—makes you think about it a whole year later.  That was the case for me long ago, after the 2011 Thrillerfest. Joseph Finder took a lot of abuse for coming up with our panel title, “Can a Thriller Be Both Exciting and …

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Remembering Memorial Day

Guest Blogger: Harry Shannon My name is Harry and I’m a book addict. I grew up devouring horror and crime fiction, snatching up thrillers by Donald Hamilton, Richard Prather, Ed McBain and John D. MacDonald. Like a lot of us, I’d always meant to try my hand at a novel. …

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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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The “Reality” of Fiction

Guest Blogger: John Lescroart “This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.” This disclaimer occurs behind the title …

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Five Simple Rules for Thriller Writers

Guest Blogger: Kyle Mills After fifteen years making my living as a novelist, I recently had a couple of new and strange experiences. I was happily plugging away at my manuscript for THE IMMORTALISTS when I got a call from the Robert Ludlum estate asking if I’d be interested in …

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