There is an ongoing debate about the reality of writer’s block. One author, Mercedes Lackey, wrote: “There is no such…
An old standby that I think works pretty well, if not overdone, is to use the weather to reflect the…
I’m a great believer in foreshadowing. Done well, at an appropriate time and with subtlety, it positions the reader to…
I had been characterizing myself as a mystery writer, because that’s what I thought I was writing. Development, my first…
Does a good mystery require a murder or other equally serious crime? The genre of mystery writing is replete with…
For weeks now, if not longer, I have been trying to wedge my Empty Luck characters into pre-planned actions that…
One of the first injunctions writers receive is to avoid the use of adverbs. Eliminate them all, if possible, we’re…
Any novel needs dramatic tension, but mysteries and thrillers need it even more than most. Tension, something unresolved and threatening…
I have been wrestling with this dilemma. I have a particularly powerful antagonist in Empty Luck. He is fully capable…
Recently, I was watching an episode of “Breaking Bad,” the Netflix series about a high school chemistry teacher who becomes…