July 2009 Blog Posts (179)

Industry Salaries

(Also posted in One Bite at a Time.)

I recently discovered the Editorial Ass blog; lots of good stuff there.

This post is a few weeks old, but interesting.

Any thoughts?

Added by Dana King on July 16, 2009 at 6:55am — 7 Comments

Elmore Leonard's 11th Rule of Writing

I’ve always enjoyed Elmore Leonard’s novels and seen him as one of the true stylists of popular fiction. In a review, I even described my pal Christopher G. Moore as the “Elmore Leonard of Bangkok” and I meant it as a compliment. But I have a bone to pick with the great Elmore.

I just read a book of Elmore’s short stories from 2004 titled “When the Women Come Out to Dance.” In many ways it’s superb. The… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 15, 2009 at 10:59pm — 13 Comments

"It Hit Me Like a Circus Train Full of Elephants"

There is nothing new to say. We all need to accept that. Every plot, every character, every phrase we use can be found somewhere else if we know where to look. George Carlin used to play around with concocting sentences no one had ever used before, like "Hand me that piano," and I guess there are exceptions of that type, but they're hardly useful in actually writing a story.

The problem, then, is that sometimes we reach too far in trying to come up with a new way of expressing… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 15, 2009 at 10:35pm — No Comments

Fourth of July

Hi. I spent most of July 3rd drawing and creating in Flash a Fourth of July cartoon featuring my character, Crazy Cal, dancing on top of a fire cracker with fireworks popping behind him. I was working in Flash CS4 for the first time and was having some difficulty adjusting to the new upgrade. So I was up till 3AM on the 4th, posting my cartoon. Tested it out on a MAC and PC and "YIKES" doesn't show in the browsers. At 3AM I wasn't in any mental state to figure out what was wrong. Well, my .swf… Continue

Added by Dawn M. Kravagna on July 15, 2009 at 3:35pm — No Comments

Nasty nargila and biblical heat on video

My favorite little coffee shop in Jerusalem’s Old City is just inside the Muslim Quarter, behind the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected.

Once you’ve sucked on the tobacco in this café, even hanging on a cross with nails through your hands and feet would be a relief. It's like smoking a… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 14, 2009 at 10:23pm — 2 Comments

"Before I Can Offer You a Contract..."

What lovely words! And the rest isn't bad, either. An editor wants me to change two sentences. Two. That's hardly worth pondering. Of course I can change two sentences. In fact, you can write them the way you want and I'll sign off on it.

I'm not the sort of author who thinks my work is immutable. I've learned over my lifetime that what I think I've said is often not what others comprehend, and it isn't anybody's fault. Communication is subjective, and what one person says in jest… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 14, 2009 at 9:46pm — 2 Comments

“What happened to the third little pig, Daddy?”: Bob Burke on pig detectives and his Writing Life

Anyone who’s perused the crime fiction section of their bookstore knows the joy of finding something original among the tired old shelves of loner detectives who play by their own rules on the mean streets of some dingy inner city. The clichés of the genre were uppermost in my mind when I chose to write about Omar… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 14, 2009 at 8:59pm — 2 Comments

Notes from Thrillerfest '09

Just returned from my first Thrillerfest in NYC. It was fantastic! You can read my notes at the Kill Zone http://tinyurl.com/nayvwg

Added by Kathryn Lilley on July 14, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Did you miss CHILD 44? Get a free copy!

If you are lamenting the fact that you never read CHILD 44 now that it is the winner of ITW's Best First Novel award. NEVER FEAR.

This month, Grand Central is running an eBook special (at the Sony eBook store and the… Continue

Added by Miriam Parker on July 14, 2009 at 6:39am — No Comments

IJ Parker

The September 2009 Alfred Hitchcock has a story from one of my favorite mystery short story writers, IJ Parker. Parker's main character is Sugawara (try saying that 3 times, fast) Akitada. The setting is 11 century Japan, Heian-Kyo (modern Kyoto). The stories generally revolve around some aspect of Japanese culture of the period, often they take place during festivals, for instance.

In this case, Akitada is asked to investigate a… Continue

Added by Steven Torres on July 14, 2009 at 3:54am — 1 Comment

The First 39, Interviews and chickens coming home to roost

As the Baltimore Examiner's crime fiction columnist I've started a new series of reviews called The First 39. I review the first 39 pages of a book and determine whether or not the writer has done their job by successfully hooking the reader. If you follow the link, you'll see the first one went up last week, followed by a two-part interview with Robert Gregory… Continue

Added by Sandra Ruttan on July 14, 2009 at 2:15am — No Comments

Writing "How To" Books I Recommend

At my blog (http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/) today I discussed books about writing that have been useful to me in my career and may be useful to other fiction writers. The list is below. To see why I recommended each one, check out my blog!

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James Frey

The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain

Writing the Fiction Synopsis by Pam McCutcheon

10… Continue

Added by Beth Groundwater on July 14, 2009 at 1:49am — 6 Comments

Blogging from la Semana Negra

For those who're curious about la Semana Negra, I'm writing a daily blog with pictures here : http://moissonrouge.blogspot.com/

Added by Judith Vernant on July 14, 2009 at 1:43am — No Comments

Slacking

There's a scene in Anne Tyler's THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST where the protag, who's gone into safe mode after too much emotional pain, starts doing odd things to accomplish daily tasks. My favorite is that he washes his clothes as he bathes, throwing them on the shower floor and sloshing them around with his feet.

Of course there's Kramer on SEINFELD, who prepares salad in the shower as an efficiency task.

I fear that if I were alone very often or very long, I would become like… Continue

Added by Peg Herring on July 14, 2009 at 12:30am — 1 Comment

For Writers Only

Writers! Are book signings a waste of time? Check my main blog for my answer.

Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 13, 2009 at 10:44pm — No Comments

updated crime site

Hi, everyone. Just a bit of self promo. My website has been updated. Please feel free to visit and comment.
Thanks.
sam
www.millarcrime.com

Added by sam millar on July 13, 2009 at 7:45pm — No Comments

Rabbis: No pie for Jesus!

Her methods may be kosher, but in Israel baker Pnina Konforti faces a bigger commercial obstacle: She's a Messianic Jew.

By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

GAN YAVNEH, Israel — I always thought that by following kosher laws religious Jews only missed out on certain flavors and debatable delicacies. Turns out that by turning their back on “treyf”… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 13, 2009 at 4:57pm — No Comments

Canadian crime author Lou Allin will be joining us all this week On Wings of Murder. We will travel with her from Sudbury Ontario, to Sooke Vancouver Island, BC, to Kodiak Island and deep within her…

Canadian crime author Lou Allin will be joining us all this week On Wings of Murder. We will travel with her from Sudbury Ontario, to Sooke Vancouver Island, BC, to Kodiak Island and deep within her soul. Don’t miss a single day.

On Wings of Murder Continue

Added by Linda Suzane on July 13, 2009 at 1:37pm — No Comments

Ms. magazine recommends my book A Different Shade of Blue

I am delighted to announce that the Summer '09 issue of Ms. magazine will be recommending my new book A Different Shade of Blue: How Women Changed the Face of Police Work. The issue will be available in stores August - October.

Added by Adam Eisenberg on July 13, 2009 at 12:54pm — No Comments

Remembering Marjorie

My husband's mother, Marjorie, would have been 76 today. I have been thinking of her all day--about what a nice person she was, how devoted she was to her husband and her children, how she fell head over heels for her grandchildren, and how, as fate would have it, their babyhood was the last blessing of her life.

This picture was taken about eleven years… Continue

Added by Julia Buckley on July 13, 2009 at 7:27am — No Comments