Tag Archives: crime fiction authors
The Toxic Trap
Toxic You find a dark place with warning signs or a rusted barrel with a bio-hazard label, you know what to do. Run, in the opposite direction, because that is some nasty crap that will cause you irreversible harm. Simple, right? The very image ignites a fight or flight reflex in your lizard brain and […]
I Want To Be A DVR When I Grow Up
I want a pause button. When life takes an unexpected turn, from a rejected manuscript or some other personal miscalculation, I want a pause button. I should be able to unbutton my shirtsleeve, roll up the cuff and press my personal pause button. Think about the times you’ve done or said something absolutely stupid. We’ve […]
Resolution – Smesholution
Less than a week into the new year and I’m already lagging on the resolutions that were supposed to make me a lean, mean writing machine. Not lean, not mean (maybe a bit pissy) and the writing machinery is missing a few cogs and gears. But I have excuses, honest I do. My writing room […]
Conspiracy Theory
Pssst… Come here… There is a conspiracy out there, I tell ya. A cabal of ruthless, black-minded villains put in overtime this week to keep me from writing. They’re cagey, these evil-doers. At every turn, they construct a barrier, obstacle, or canyon, so deep and wide that I have no choice, but to retreat and […]
Don’t Let the Y.A. Label Fool You
I had the chance to read a Y.A. paranormal novel, The Emerald Talisman by Brenda Pandos. I’ve known Brenda for years and much to my embarrassment, I hadn’t read her work. We write two different types of fiction. I write crime and thriller novels like Little River and she creates paranormal beings living in with […]
You Are What You Read
When did choosing a literary genre become so difficult? In the “olden days” of books, there were vast collections of works contained within a single place. The Library. In this mystical building, there existed a structure, a set of expectations to guide those who sought out new tales and adventures. All books were created along […]
The Stuff That Binds
You need something to bind your story together. No I’m not talking about adding more fiber to your literary diet. What I’m talking about is the thing that makes your story stand out in a field of similar work. There are a finite number of story lines and when you filter down to stories within […]
What Writing Your Novel and Dog Training Have in Common
When I’m not writing, a good chunk of time is spent training our dogs, two Pembroke Welsh Corgis. They are (most of the time) good little pups, who compete in American Kennel Club sanctioned Obedience and Rally trials. Writing and dog training are more connected than I first thought and there are five principles that […]
Print Tales – Six Lessons Learned on E-Book to Print Conversion
Uploading two PDF files to IngramSpark didn’t sound too daunting. I took on the challenge, converting my e-book version of Little River to print, because I encountered a significant number of readers who asked for a physical book. SALT Media Productions, my publisher, and I worked out an amended contract to speed up the print […]
Human Trafficking – Progress or Pitfall
Human Trafficking Rampant in the Caribbean The small geographic region in the tropics boasts some of the most beautiful beaches, sunsets and resilient people on Earth. It’s also home to six nations on the U.S. State Department’s Tier 2 Watch List of nations failing to make significant efforts to curb human trafficking (Barbados, Guyana, Haiti, […]
James L'Etoile 