Thrillerfest V!

The FEAR Anthology with R.L. Stine Review

2010-10-29T21:13:00.002-04:00

Looking for a fun read for your teens? Fan of mysteries and spooky stories? I recommend Fear… 13 stories of suspense and horror presented by R. L. Stine. Fear offers 13 original stories by 13 authors such as Meg Cabot, Heather Brewer and more!

My two teens loved the stories and found it hard to put the book down. I have to admit, it was hard for me to put down as well! Fear is an easy and fun read and will even appeal to the most reluctant reader.

This book is a real page turner and great for young adults who love stories that keep them on the edge of their seat. Filled with suspense, mystery, and some cliffhangers that leave the ending to the imagination, Fear is like The Twilight Zone for kids. So watch out for the monster under the bed or shadows in the dark! There is something slightly creepy around every corner! Myself and my teens agree that Fear is a must have book for this Halloween Season!

ITW Interview: The DeValera Deception - Michael and Patrick McMenamin

2010-09-01T15:28:00.000-04:00

Every month ITW features authors and books. You can read more articles like this one when you visit www.thrillerwriters.org and/or subscribe to the newsletter easily by going to the homepage!
Here's a great example of just one of the many featured authors we're talking about at ITW this month!

Recently, I sat down with the father and son writing team of Michael and Patrick McMenamin to talk about their debut novel, The Valera Deception.

How did you come up with the idea of The De Valera Deception?

MICHAEL: I'm a Winston Churchill biographer and scholar, and I've always had an interest in Irish history as well. Patrick is a Phi Beta Kappa history major who specialized in 19th and 20th century European history, so we both have an interest in the period where our thrillers occur. For years, I had talked about writing a thriller series set in Churchill's "Wilderness Years" from 1929 to 1939. I wanted the first book, set in 1929, to revolve around two historical facts: Churchill's three-month holiday that summer in North America while at the same time the Graf Zeppelin was making its historical round the world airship flight sponsored by the Hearst media empire.

PATRICK: The rest we sort of pieced together over family dinners whenever we visited each other. (I think it's fair to say we became a bit of a nuisance at the dinner table for the rest of the family.) We were both familiar with Weimar Germany's secret military alliance with the USSR during the 1920s which enabled Germany to evade the Versailles Treaty's limits on arms. This is years before Hitler assumed power. Germany developed in Russia the most modern weapons systems in Europe--planes, tanks, artillery, poison gas--and the Allies were none the wiser. The goal of the alliance was to invade Poland and divide it between them. That's all historical fact.

MICHAEL: And that's how we were able to work in the Irish angle, which forms the core of our story. We created a conspiracy of arms makers and financiers backing this real-life military alliance. If there was an invasion of Poland, they would want to distract Britain from getting involved in a general European conflict. So, they determined to finance an IRA coup d'état in the new Irish Free State which would inevitably lead to war with Northern Ireland and Britain. De Valera, for his own reasons, was happy to help.

How does Churchill fit in?

PATRICK: When MI-6 hears rumors of the IRA arms deal brewing in America as a necessary prelude to the coup d'état, the new British Prime Minister asks the newly out-of-office Churchill to accompany a team of MI-6 agents to America and use the information they assemble to persuade President Hoover to stop the arms deal. Churchill agrees but he mistrusts MI-6 and assembles his own team which includes Bourke Cockran, Jr., a former US Army counterintelligence officer (and the fictional son of Churchill's real-life Irish-American political mentor) and Mattie McGary, a Hearst photojournalist (and Churchill's fictional god-daughter). While Churchill travels by private rail car across Canada, Cockran and Mattie travel across America--at first apart and then together--to gather at considerable peril the information Churchill needs to persuade President Hoover to intervene and stop the arms from reaching the IRA. And as they do that, the Graf Zeppelin, on its round the world flight, is drawing ever closer to California carrying gold bearer bonds to complete the IRA's arms purchase...

I myself have dozens of books by and about Churchill on my shelves at home. How do you get a new take on such a well-documented life?

MICHAEL: Well, the short answer is that we get a "new take" because we make it all up. The long answer is more complicated.

PATRICK: I'll take the short answer. My Dad enjoys the long ones. We try and do what Ken Follett did in The Man From St. Petersburg, where Churchill served as the catalyst who enlists the protagonists to foil an anarchist plot in 1914 to assassinate a Russian diplomat and disrupt a budding English-Russian alliance. We use Churchill the same way - launching the protagonists on their adventure and pulling strings along the way both behind the scenes and sometimes in them.

MICHAEL: The long answer is that while Churchill probably has the most-documented life of any historical figure, most people don't know much about him beyond his saving the world in 1940 when England stood alone against the Nazis.

Churchill is in many ways a perfect historical character around which to craft period thrillers. He had a remarkably adventure-filled life. He was a fencing champion in prep school, a championship polo player in the Army and a seaplane pilot in the early, peril-filled days of flight in 1910. In between, he was a much decorated war hero in bloody battles on the Afghan-Indian border and in the Sudan. In the Boer war in South Africa, he was nominated by his commanding officer for the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military honor. He also escaped from a Boer prisoner of war camp and made his way to freedom over hundreds of miles of enemy territory. During the Great War, while other politicians safely abed sent millions of young men to their death, Winston was with his troops in the trenches in the bloody Ypres salient daily risking death himself.

So how we get a new take on Churchill is to create a plot based on something that might have happened in the 30s; toss him into the middle of it; and ask "What would Winston do?" Which, as Patrick noted, is just what Follett did in The Man From St. Petersburg.

Tolstoy, of course, seems to have done okay in blending historical and fictional characters. What are the challenges you found?

MICHAEL: Wow, Tolstoy? Keep in mind these are historical thrillers, not historical novels, so we try to keep the background accurate for our stories which otherwise never happened. One key way is to make sure your historical characters stay within themselves. To do this, I read biographies of all those with major speaking roles, e.g., Churchill, Hearst, Hitler, Hoover, De Valera, John Devoy etc. because we don't want the historical character to say or do something in a purely fictional scene that would be out of character. At the same time, we want to make sure he fills the role we have for him in the plot. Herbert Hoover, for example, would never swear, even in private, so he doesn't in our book. Similarly, the Irish revolutionary John Devoy damn well would have and his "colorful" descriptions of his arch foe De Valera are not out of character.

How do you handle Churchill's "black dog" in your book?

MICHAEL: We don't because it's a myth. Churchill did refer to periods when he was down in the dumps as a "black dog" but that was a common term in the late 19th century, one he probably first heard from his nanny. My wife (and Patrick's artist mother), Carol Breckenridge, a psychotherapist and an adjunct professor of Art Therapy, is glad you asked because she believes writers who do not understand mental illness have taken "black dog" to mean clinical depression, i.e., bi-polar disorder, which is simply not true of Churchill.

As Churchill's daughter Mary Soames once told Carol, she thinks a number of Churchill biographers "have made too big a meal" of Churchill's "black dog". When he was down, as all of us are from time to time, there was always something external as a cause, she said, and she suggest a person would have had to be almost inhuman not to have been down at these times.

In fact, Carol was so taken by my fascination with Churchill...

PATRICK: Mom would call it an obsession ...

MICHAEL: Which reminds me that Churchill hated having a monologue interrupted.... Anyway, Carol once prepared and delivered a peer-reviewed paper to the American Art Therapy Association on "The Use of Art as Therapy: How Churchill Coped" in which she demonstrates that Churchill was not bi-polar and diagnosed him in his youth as having ADD, attention-deficit disorder, which afflicts many bright young people (raise your hand, Patrick). If Churchill carried ADD into adulthood, Carol suggests that his painting (he was an undeniably gifted impressionist producing over 500 oil paintings after the age of 40) was one of his methods of coping with ADD.

Churchill's mother was born in Rochester, New York. Much of the action in The De Valera Deception takes place in the United States. Just how American was Churchill?

PATRICK: Very. To begin with, Churchill's only political and oratorical mentor was an American, Bourke Cockran, and my Dad has written a great book, Becoming Winston Churchill, about their relationship. Most of Churchill's detractors, of whom there was no shortage especially among Conservatives, referred to his American origins disparagingly, e.g., calling him a "half-breed adventurer." And Winston was a very pushy, self-promoting young man in an upper-class British culture that did not value and looked down on such traits. From WWII on, Churchill has been more revered in the US than in the UK. He still is.

Two terrific series have been written by "Charles Todd," who is in fact a mother and son writing together. What's it like for you two, father and son, to collaborate? Come on now, a straight, no-holds-barred answer.

MICHAEL: We also like the two "Charles Todd" series and I met the mother half of the team at the last ThrillerFest. More importantly, we're both big fans of the Indiana Jones films and Young Indiana Jones (a much under-rated TV series) so it's fun to write novels together in that era where Nazis are always the villains (but we have any number of good guy Germans too ) . We're having a great time. Really.

PATRICK: It's true. Honestly, we only write the books because it's fun to write them together.

MICHAEL: No-holds-barred, though. We come up with a book concept jointly...

PATRICK: Well, hang on. You said "no holds barred" and my dad is being uncharacteristically modest. I'd credit him with most of the initial inspiration for each book. I really like thrillers, but I don't read nearly as many as Dad. (Too many Sci-Fi/Fantasy books on my plate.) He really has a nose for this stuff. Once he has an idea, it gives me about five other ideas for plot lines and then we really start talking.

MICHAEL: And I try so hard not to be modest. But Patrick is correct in that I usually come up with what he calls "the initial inspiration" but I don't think we have an actual "concept" until after we bat it around. Anyway, I then do a first draft of a chapter by chapter outline, 100-130 pages. We pass it back and forth until we're satisfied. Then Patrick takes one of the major characters and drafts the chapters within that character's story arc while I do the other chapters.

PATRICK: Then we edit each other's chapters so many times, that when you read the book, you aren't able to tell which chapters were initially drafted by whom unless we tell you.

MICHAEL: Which we won't.

PATRICK: Also, we're both libertarians. Dad is a contributing editor at Reason and I'm a producer for John Stossel at Fox, so we have similar views on politics, economics and history which helps keep us on the same page. Of course, we do have disagreements. And from my perspective, Dad's training as a lawyer can make some arguments especially tedious! But the fact we have a long history together and love each other helps smooth things out.

MICHAEL: Well, I was a media defense lawyer in my previous life and dealing with journalists is no walk in the park either. But, defending them was a decent living so I have no complaints. So that and living in different cities where Patrick and I can't see our facial expressions when we talk helps. When we can't persuade each other, we typically compromise along the lines of the one who did the initial draft of a chapter usually gets the last word.

Do readers have to remember who De Valera was for the title to make sense?

MICHAEL: As opposed to the book? No, not at all. You learn all you need to know about the underlying Irish politics--the Treaty negotiated by Churchill and Michael Collins which created the Irish Free State in 1922, the Irish Civil War in 1922-23, the IRA and De Valera later in the 20s--from characters' dialogue and internal monologue.

PATRICK: But I don't think it affects the title, no more than a Steve Berry title or most other thrillers. Once you get into the book, the title will make sense. Dad is a big fan of Robert Ludlum titles and alliteration so our first three books in the Churchill series reflect that. Ludlum fans will recognize "Deception", "Parsifal" and "Gemini" as part of Ludlum titles. Sort of an homage.

MICHAEL: It is an homage and all thriller writers owe him a huge debt. Patrick is tolerant of my Ludlum title affectation and uses this to extract what he considers to be more important concessions when we disagree.

Enigma Books is publishing The De Valera Deception. How did you find them and what's it like working with them?

MICHAEL: Actually, Enigma found us when they bought the trade paperback rights from Greenwood, then a division of Harcourt, for my 2007 Becoming Winston Churchill, The Untold Story of Young Winston and His American Mentor ("BWC") which they published in July, 2009. As I like to say, it was critically acclaimed but, alas, not best selling. As we mentioned above, Bourke Cockran was Churchill's mentor (and his mother Jennie's lover) and his fictional son is our male protagonist in the Churchill Thriller series, Archie Goodwin to Winston's Nero Wolfe.

More to the point, Enigma is a small NYC publisher which specializes in 20th century history and biography and has published nearly 50 titles since its founding in 2000. In 2008, they started an Enigma Thriller line of historical novels with three out by the time they took on BWC. I became friends with Enigma's publisher, Robert Miller, after I came to NYC quite a few times to talk about the book for events that Enigma arranged. Publishers like that in a writer.

PATRICK: So when Robert learned we had written not one but three Winston Churchill thrillers (the first two of which our agents got read--and rejected--by many well-known publishers), he offered to publish all three in hard cover over an 18 month time frame, a trilogy which takes Winston through 1932 with Hitler on the cusp of power! Clearly, Robert is a very wise man. Talk about an offer you can't refuse...

Working with Enigma has been good so far. We have a great cover design team with Josh Beatman at Brainchild Studios in NYC. We just love the De Valera cover, with the zeppelin soaring over the 1930s NYC skyline and a 50-something Churchill hovering above. Brilliant!

MICHAEL: We're the lead book on Enigma's website and it's nice to be a big fish in a small pond. Plus we've got a brand beyond our unknown names (www.winstonchurchillthrillers.com) and if our books are good enough, we hope word-of-mouth will carry us.

What's next for the future prime minister and his friend Bourke Cockran, Jr.?

PATRICK: Don't forget Hearst's favorite photojournalist and Winston's fictional god-daughter Mattie McGary. She features prominently in the series as our female protagonist.

MICHAEL: Yes, don't forget her. Patrick hates it when I do this but I channel Maureen O'Hara, Katherine Hepburn, and Karen Allen when I write Mattie's chapters and you don't want to be on wrong side of women like that. Mattie's the main character in the next book in the series, The Parsifal Pursuit (Spring, 2011). It's a blatant cribbing of the plot in Wagner's opera Parsifal where Mattie takes the traditional male role of Parsifal. She's assigned to cover an expedition to recover the "Spear of Destiny" hidden in the Austrian Alps while minions of both the Kaiser and Hitler vie to find it first. (Yes, there really is a spear of destiny which Hitler finally seized in 1938 along with the rest of Austria. It's now safely back in Vienna where I saw it last year.) At the same time, Cockran tangles with an SS protection racket in Munich whose story line eventually converges with Mattie's.

PATRICK: The next Mattie-Bourke adventure after that is The Gemini Agenda (Fall,2011) where Cockran and Mattie expose the true horror of a Eugenics movement that saw 26 US states forcibly sterilize nearly 50,000 women to advance the cause of racial purity before a pre-Hitler Germany had yet to sterilize one. And the movement was substantially financed by American capitalists, e.g., the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Institute. In fact, when Hitler came to power, he had Germany enact a eugenics law identical to the model US law. In Gemini, Mattie and Bourke uncover a conspiracy by Nazi scientists to kidnap and conduct lethal experiments upon American twins aided by elements in the Military Intelligence Division (the CIA of its day) of the US Army and funded by US industrialists.

MICHAEL: The fourth book--working title The Berghof Betrayal--is set in February, 1933 and concerns the attempted assassinations of FDR ( it really happened) and Hitler where a fake assassination attempt (rumors of one were circulating then in Berlin) staged by the SS is hijacked and turned into a real one by Hitler's enemies, some of them inside the Nazi party (yes, he had them). It's the first book in a new trilogy. Where our first trilogy is set against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to power from 1929-1932, our second trilogy will take our heroes through the summer of 1934 and the "Night of the Long Knives" when Hitler rid himself of his enemies within the Nazi party and consolidated his power.

Keith Raffel has held a top secret clearance to watch over CIA activities and has founded an award-winning Internet software company. Steve Berry called Keith's latest book, Smasher: A Silicon Valley Thriller, "taut, tight, and suspenseful" and said it "skillfully carries the reader triumphantly from one climax to the next."

ITW Social Media Committee welcomes volunteer, Stacey McShane!

2010-08-19T18:13:00.001-04:00

Stacey will be working on the ITW Myspace and Debut Author's MySpace sites this year.

Stacey was asked to introduce herself so you can get to know her better, so here is a letter from Stacey! - S. English, Chair of ITW Social Media

Hello Fellow ITW members!

I am thrilled to be a part of ITW and look forward to the networking opportunities that bring us together as writers.

I've recently volunteered for the Social Media Committee and Sheila asked me to introduce myself, so I will tell you a little about me.

I live in Washington State and supervise a large 911 emergency dispatch center near Seattle. When I am not working ridiculous hours, I am working on a thriller novel set in the Seattle area. I am a voracious reader, which sometimes impinges on my writing since I have a really hard time putting down a good book. I am married to a police officer and have two retired racing greyhounds to keep me company while I write. For those of you needing to add some realism to the law enforcement or emergency response side of your writing, I am happy to answer questions and provide critique. I have hundreds of law enforcement and firefighter contacts and if I can't answer your question, chances are I know someone, or can find someone who can.

I am excited to be working on ITW's MySpace pages and I invite you to contact me if you have anything you would like to post specifically to MySpace or MySpace Debut Authors. I can be reached via email at SLMcShane19(at)gmail.com.

Happy writing!
Stacey McShane

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going

2010-07-28T18:26:00.000-04:00

A ThrillerFest Blog by Jillian Abbott

If a successful thriller author were a character in a book, what words would you use to describe him or her? Is there a common thread in thriller authors’ journey to success? Is good writing enough?

Name the thriller/mystery/espionage/crime conference – Bouchercon, Malice Domestic, Crime Bake – and one thing is sure: I haven’t been to any of them. However, with one novel accepted for publication, but never published; a second falling though the gap when I changed agents; and another closing in on completion, now seemed like the time to answers those pressing questions, and ThrillerFest, with its all-star lineup, presented a likely source.

At the opening reception ThrillerFest revealed its character: young, dynamic, open to new faces and ideas, and rising. But I hadn’t come to analyze the conference, so I pressed on with my quest, stopping to chat to new and old friends, famous and not, readers, writers, and publishers.

On the way out I stumbled on Ken Follett, an entourage at his side, and a microphone in his face. He was hanging out with us, laughing, chatting and apparently delighted to make the acquaintance, and the day, of gushing fans like me. Charming. Generous.

The next day, trailblazing espionage writer and friend, Gayle Lynds, confirmed my suspicions about Follet, citing “sugar lips” as a key ingredient to success. For years Lynds published thrillers under male synonyms, work under her own name put on hold because, as the female president of a major publishing house put, “No woman could have written this book.” But Lynds persisted; Masquerade came out and quickly hit the best-seller list. Her tenacity paid off, and since then the awards and accolades have only grown. This piece is too short to list all Lynd’s acts of kindness and generosity, to me and other aspiring writers.

But back in 2005, Lynds had a run of luck that was all bad. Her step daughter fell into a coma following a serious accident and her husband died suddenly. Just one of these events might stop an ordinary mortal in their tracks, but Lynds keep up her stride, finishing The Book of Spies a month after Dennis’s death. Was that tenacity? Necessity? It was both, and it was more: larger-than-life heroism. The kind of quiet heroism that’s humbling.

Like looking up Allen Wyler, who I’d be working for on the ITW awards, and finding out about his staggering achievements. Orphaned as he approached college age, Wyler supported himself and went on to become an internationally renowned neurosurgeon, a best-selling thriller author and now he’s giving up his spare time to help foster other writers’ careers though the ITW awards. Tenacity, overcoming adversity, generosity, and larger-than-life heroism.

On the subway after day one my mind transformed the Hyatt into Mount Olympus and the authors, publishers, and agents stalking its halls, and meeting rooms became its Gods and Goddesses. ThrillerFest was a gathering of players, authors who were the best in the world at what has to be one of the toughest professions on the planet.

David Morrell won’t have heard of my hometown, Bendigo, situated a hundred miles inland from Melbourne, Australia, itself one of the most isolated western cities in the world. Although I read in the local paper that a boy who grew up 150 miles still further inland become a make-up artist for the movies and got to live in New York for a year, no one from Bendigo is famous.

But the people of Bendigo know David Morrell. Growing up, I can remember discussing what Rambo meant to America and to masculinity with my brother, a T.V./radio journalist and news anchor. The very idea that I would one day meet Morrell in person was about as likely to my teenage mind as abduction by aliens. And yet here I was, in the audience, having already met him, listening to his life story.

Describing himself as a mild mannered professor on the surface, a seething gangster underneath, Morrell’s journey to Mount Olympus was mind-boggling. As a child he had to sleep under his bed, his pillow over him to protect him from his step-father’s violence. Heart wrenching. To still be standing after such a childhood takes larger-than-life heroism.

And then there was Ken Follet. He wrote his first novel because his car broke down and he couldn’t afford to fix it. He needed 200 pounds, and his friend had just earned 200 pounds from writing a thriller. Full of generous, practical advice (If you have to tell your reader something that takes away from the drama and action keep it to a paragraph. If the story requires a conference between several characters, to keep your reader on board, you must make sure each character present has already been introduced in their own chapter.) And self depreciating, I had to constantly refer to the line of books arranged on the stage to remind myself that this quiet man was one of a handful. He attributed most of his success to luck, timing and necessity, although another glance at his works and I added hard work, persistence and genius.

When encapsulating these authors one phase came back time and again: larger-than-life heroism. Hearing these authors’ stories convinced me they’re able to create such larger-than-life heroes because they are themselves larger-than-life heroes. They pick themselves up from adversity, and through some mysterious combination of tenacity, hard work, generosity, persistence, sugar-lipped charm, necessity, luck, timing and genius they go on succeeding on a scale ordinary people can only dream of. It’s because of what they are that their leading men and women never give failure a second thought.

And so, dizzy from breathing the rarefied air on Mount Olympus, I headed home with a deeper understanding of what separated them up there from us down here, and hoped beyond hope that proximity to these Gods meant some, even if just a little bit of magic would rub off on me.

Jillian Abbott is a former Vice President of MWA/ New York chapter. She is the 2010 Hammett Award Reading Committee Chair and a Thriller Awards judge. She is working on an historical novel set in the 1850s gold rush in Bendigo, Australia.

The 2010 Thriller Awards

2010-07-10T07:00:00.005-04:00

During a gala banquet and celebration held on Saturday, July 10 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, the International Thriller Writers announced the winners of the 2010 Thriller Awards.

They are:

Best Hard Cover Novel:
THE NEIGHBOR, Lisa Gardner

Best Paperback Original Novel:
THE COLDEST MILE, Tom Piccirilli

Best First Novel:
RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, Jamie Freveletti

Best Short Story:
A STAB IN THE HEART, Twist Phelan

Also receiving special recognition during the ThrillerFest V Awards Banquet:

Ken Follett, ThrillerMaster
in recognition of his legendary career and outstanding contributions to the thriller genre

Mark Bowden, True Thriller Award

Linda Fairstein, Silver Bullet Award

US Airways, Silver Bullet Award (Corporate)

The board of directors and members of the International Thriller Writers wish to congratulates all the winners and nominees of the 2010 Thriller Awards.

Thrillerfest Saturday July 10th Schedule!!

2010-07-10T06:30:00.000-04:00

THRILLERFEST SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2010 Registration 7:30 am - 11:00 am Awards Banquet Ticket Sales 5 pm - 6:45 pm, Ballroom Foyer Barnes & Noble Bookstore, open 9 am- 6 pm, Booth-Plymouth Room

ROOM : URIS/JILLIARD

8:00 am - 9:20 am BREAKFAST WITH 2009 SILVER BULLET AWARD WINNER BRAD MELTZER, THE DEBUT AUTHOR CLASS OF 2010: Introductions by Andrew Gross (Ballroom III),Graham Brown, Ryan Brown, Carla Buckley, Teresa Burrell, Pamela Callow, JJ Cooper, Reece Hirsch, Jeannie Holmes, Brett King, Sophie Littlefield, Boyd Morrison, Alan Orloff, Brad Parks, Sharon Potts, James Rubart, Stephen Jaw Schwartz, Norb Vonnegut

9:30 am - 10:20 am WILL YOU SIGN BRA?: Funny stories from the road - Doug M. Cummings, Panel Master, Linwood Barclay, Robert Dugoni, Heather Graham, Alan Jacobson, Jon Land, William Lashner

10:30 am- 11:50 am THRILLERMASTER PRESENTATION (Ballroom I)
2010 Thrillermaster Ken Follett, Interviewed by STeve Berry
2009 Thrillermaster David Morrell, Interviewed by Douglas Preston

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm ThrillerMasters Ken Follett, David Morrell, Sandra Brown, Clive Cussler; Debut Authors, and morning panelists will sign in the bookstore

12:45 pm - 2:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted by KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. (Ballroom I Foyer)

12:15 pm - 1:00 pm BONUS SESSION 2 True Thriller Award Recipient Mark Bowden interviews by Peter James

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm Spotlight Guest Lisa Scottoline interviews by Jon Land (Ballroom I)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm IS SCIENCE THRILLING?: Where thrillers and the scientific frontier meet - Hans Watford, Panel Master, Steve Alten, Lori Andrews, Karen Dionne, Michael Palmer, William B. Scott

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm HOW DO YOU CROSS CONTINENTS?: Thrillers in the International Market - David Hewson, Panel Master, R.J. Ellory, Sebastian Fitzek, Maria Gustafsson, Peter James, Camilla Lackberg

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm DO YOU ENJOY WRITING YOUR VILLAIN A LITTLE TOO MUCH? Steve James, Panel Master, Jay Brandon, Meg Gardiner, Gar Haywood, C.E. Lawrence, F. Paul Wilson

5:00 pm- 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon breakout session will sign inside bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PRE-BANQUET COCKTAIL PARTY Hosted by OCEANVIEW PUBLISHING (Ballroom III & IV Foyer)

7:00 pm ITW 5th ANNUAL THRILLER AWARDS BANQUET (Ballroom III & IV)
2010 THRILLERMASTER KEN FOLLETT, Award Presented by 2009 ThrillerMaster DAVID MORRELL
2010 SILVER BULLET AWARD RECIPIENT LINDA FAIRSTEIN, Award presented by 2009 Silver Bullet Recipient Brad Meltzer
2010 True Thriller Award Recipient MARK BOWDEN
Presentation of THE THRILLER AWARDS
Table Win Serviced hosted by Tor/Forge

THRILLERMASTER AFTERPARTY Hosted by VANGUARD PRESS - Manhattan Ballroom

ROOM : BROADWAY

8:00 am - 9:20 am BREAKFAST WITH 2009 SILVER BULLET AWARD WINNER BRAD MELTZER, THE DEBUT AUTHOR CLASS OF 2010: Introductions by Andrew Gross (Ballroom III),Graham Brown, Ryan Brown, Carla Buckley, Teresa Burrell, Pamela Callow, JJ Cooper, Reece Hirsch, Jeannie Holmes, Brett King, Sophie Littlefield, Boyd Morrison, Alan Orloff, Brad Parks, Sharon Potts, James Rubart, Stephen Jaw Schwartz, Norb Vonnegut

9:30 am - 10:20 am IS YOUR HEROINE A BITCH? IS YOUR HERO A WIMP?: Where's the line between strong women and sensitive men? - Christine Kling, Panel Master, C.J. Carver, Stephen Coonts, Brandt Dodson, J.T. Ellison, Paul Kemprecos, Terry Watkins

10:30 am- 11:50 am THRILLERMASTER PRESENTATION (Ballroom I)
2010 Thrillermaster Ken Follett, Interviewed by STeve Berry
2009 Thrillermaster David Morrell, Interviewed by Douglas Preston

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm ThrillerMasters Ken Follett, David Morrell, Sandra Brown, Clive Cussler; Debut Authors, and morning panelists will sign in the bookstore

12:45 pm - 2:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted by KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. (Ballroom I Foyer)

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm Spotlight Guest Lisa Scottoline interviews by Jon Land (Ballroom I)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm WHERE ARE THE SECRETS OF THE LOST ART? Steve Berry, Panel Master, Glenn Cooper, Brian D'Amato, David Hewson, David Hosp, Raymond Khoury, M.J. Rose

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU DOING? Religion in thrillers - Katherine Neville, Panel Master, Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear, Tom Grace, Tosca Lee, Joe Moore

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm WHO'S MORE THRILLING? Cop or Con? - Harry Hunsicker, Panel Master, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Steve Forman, Mark Greany, Matt Hilton, Paul Lindsay

5:00 pm- 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon breakout session will sign inside bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PRE-BANQUET COCKTAIL PARTY Hosted by OCEANVIEW PUBLISHING (Ballroom III & IV Foyer)

7:00 pm ITW 5th ANNUAL THRILLER AWARDS BANQUET (Ballroom III & IV)
2010 THRILLERMASTER KEN FOLLETT, Award Presented by 2009 ThrillerMaster DAVID MORRELL
2010 SILVER BULLET AWARD RECIPIENT LINDA FAIRSTEIN, Award presented by 2009 Silver Bullet Recipient Brad Meltzer
2010 True Thriller Award Recipient MARK BOWDEN
Presentation of THE THRILLER AWARDS
Table Win Serviced hosted by Tor/Forge

THRILLERMASTER AFTERPARTY Hosted by VANGUARD PRESS - Manhattan Ballroom

ROOM : CARNEGIE/ALVIN

8:00 am - 9:20 am BREAKFAST WITH 2009 SILVER BULLET AWARD WINNER BRAD MELTZER, THE DEBUT AUTHOR CLASS OF 2010: Introductions by Andrew Gross (Ballroom III),Graham Brown, Ryan Brown, Carla Buckley, Teresa Burrell, Pamela Callow, JJ Cooper, Reece Hirsch, Jeannie Holmes, Brett King, Sophie Littlefield, Boyd Morrison, Alan Orloff, Brad Parks, Sharon Potts, James Rubart, Stephen Jaw Schwartz, Norb Vonnegut

9:30 am - 10:20 am DO JOURNALISTS THRILL? Mereditch Anthony, Panel Master, Clem Chambers, Lawrence Light, Rick Mofina, Milt Toby, Paula Tutman

10:30 am- 11:50 am THRILLERMASTER PRESENTATION (Ballroom I)
2010 Thrillermaster Ken Follett, Interviewed by STeve Berry
2009 Thrillermaster David Morrell, Interviewed by Douglas Preston

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm ThrillerMasters Ken Follett, David Morrell, Sandra Brown, Clive Cussler; Debut Authors, and morning panelists will sign in the bookstore

12:45 pm - 2:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted by KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. (Ballroom I Foyer)

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm Spotlight Guest Lisa Scottoline interviews by Jon Land (Ballroom I)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm WOULD YOU VOTE FOR THIS BOOK? Politics and thrillers - David Ellis, Panel Master, Karna Small Bodman, Don Helin, Casey Moreton, Keith Raffel, Rick Robinson

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm WAS SHAKESPEARE RIGHT? Should we kill all the lawyers? - Jamie Freveletty, Panel Master, Barry Broad, John Dobbyn, H. Terrell Griffin, Barbar Levenson, Steve Martini

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm IS HISTORY HISTORY? How vital is Subgenre? - Rebecca Cantrell, Panel Master, William Dietrich, David Liss, Laura Joh Rowland, Kelli Stanley, Charles Todd

5:00 pm- 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon breakout session will sign inside bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PRE-BANQUET COCKTAIL PARTY Hosted by OCEANVIEW PUBLISHING (Ballroom III & IV Foyer)

7:00 pm ITW 5th ANNUAL THRILLER AWARDS BANQUET (Ballroom III & IV)
2010 THRILLERMASTER KEN FOLLETT, Award Presented by 2009 ThrillerMaster DAVID MORRELL
2010 SILVER BULLET AWARD RECIPIENT LINDA FAIRSTEIN, Award presented by 2009 Silver Bullet Recipient Brad Meltzer
2010 True Thriller Award Recipient MARK BOWDEN
Presentation of THE THRILLER AWARDS
Table Win Serviced hosted by Tor/Forge

THRILLERMASTER AFTERPARTY Hosted by VANGUARD PRESS - Manhattan Ballroom

ROOM : BALLROOM I

8:00 am - 9:20 am BREAKFAST WITH 2009 SILVER BULLET AWARD WINNER BRAD MELTZER, THE DEBUT AUTHOR CLASS OF 2010: Introductions by Andrew Gross (Ballroom III),Graham Brown, Ryan Brown, Carla Buckley, Teresa Burrell, Pamela Callow, JJ Cooper, Reece Hirsch, Jeannie Holmes, Brett King, Sophie Littlefield, Boyd Morrison, Alan Orloff, Brad Parks, Sharon Potts, James Rubart, Stephen Jaw Schwartz, Norb Vonnegut

9:30 am - 10:20 am WHAT ARE THE 100 MUST-READ THRILLERS? David Morrel Panel Master, Raymond Benson, Tess Gerritsen, Bob Gussin, John Lescroart, Michael Palmer, Hank Wagner

10:30 am- 11:50 am THRILLERMASTER PRESENTATION (Ballroom I)
2010 Thrillermaster Ken Follett, Interviewed by STeve Berry
2009 Thrillermaster David Morrell, Interviewed by Douglas Preston

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm ThrillerMasters Ken Follett, David Morrell, Sandra Brown, Clive Cussler; Debut Authors, and morning panelists will sign in the bookstore

12:45 pm - 2:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted by KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. (Ballroom I Foyer)

12:15 pm - 1:00 pm BONUS SESSION 1 INSIDE THE THRILLERMASTERS MIND: A Q&A with Sandra Brown and Clive Cussler - hosted by Shane Gericke

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm Spotlight Guest Lisa Scottoline interviews by Jon Land (Ballroom I)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm WHATS LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Andrew Gross, Panel Master, Anna DeStefano, Shane Gericke, Dianna Love, Jennifer St. Giles, Erica Spindler, Rebecca York

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR CAREER A THRILLER? Jeff Ayers, Panel Master, Laura Caldwell, Stephen Coonts, Linda Fairstein, Joseph Finder, John Gilstrap, Chris Kuzneski

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm IS NON-FICTION MORE THRILLING? Douglas Preston, Panel Master, Sean Michael Brailey, Emily Benedek, William Bernhardt, Mark Bowden, W. Craig Reed, Kathleen Sharp

5:00 pm- 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon breakout session will sign inside bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm PRE-BANQUET COCKTAIL PARTY Hosted by OCEANVIEW PUBLISHING (Ballroom III & IV Foyer)

7:00 pm ITW 5th ANNUAL THRILLER AWARDS BANQUET (Ballroom III & IV)
2010 THRILLERMASTER KEN FOLLETT, Award Presented by 2009 ThrillerMaster DAVID MORRELL
2010 SILVER BULLET AWARD RECIPIENT LINDA FAIRSTEIN, Award presented by 2009 Silver Bullet Recipient Brad Meltzer
2010 True Thriller Award Recipient MARK BOWDEN
Presentation of THE THRILLER AWARDS
Table Win Serviced hosted by Tor/Forge

Sample the Thrill : Carnal Sin, by Allison Brennan

2010-07-09T17:31:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

I love research.

I think this love of research stems from my tendency to procrastinate. In school, I was really good at cramming at the last minute--back then, it was hitting the library the day before a major paper was due, reading everything I could on the subject, then writing all night. The last-minute projects inevitably garnered me a B+ or A- (which, had I spent more time researching, editing, and revising would have been an A--but we work we our natural talents, right?)

Last week I finished writing one book; this week I started the next. I realized real quick that my knowledge of modern private investigators was slim, and the books on my shelf were woefully outdated. The book I have on Missing Persons was printed in 1993--before Facebook, before MySpace, and before Google. Needless to say, useless.

I emailed a P.I. friend of mine asking for two books she'd recommend on modern P.I. techniques, and wondered if there was a P.I. ride-along program . . .

We are truly blessed writers to have so many resources at our fingertips. In the past twelve months, I've participated in two SWAT training exercises, toured the FBI Academy at Quantico, visited FBI Headquarters in D.C., toured Folsom State Prison (with fellow ITW author James Rollins), and took a second trip to the Sacramento County Morgue to learn how they preserve evidence. If you really twist my arm, I'll admit being a non-ambulatory victim during SWAT training was probably the most fun I've had in a long, long time . . . which shows you what a boring life I lead!

ITW members are also invaluable resources. I have all of Dr. D.P. Lyle's books--medical books for writers; author C.J. Lyons has answered my most arcane medical questions--even questions related to my supernatural thriller series; and former cop and forensic artist Robin Burcell is always available to answer questions about being a cop. One of my favorite research books on the paranormal is THE CRYPTOPEDIA, written by ITW member Jonathan Mayberry (and David Kramer).

Some people may think that research for a paranormal book is strange, but I believe that the only way to sell a reader on the world you're creating is to base it in a world you (and they) understand. My Seven Deadly Sins series is a supernatural thriller (or urban fantasy or paranormal romance--whatever marketing wants to call it is fine with me,) based in our modern world. I have demons released from Hell by an evil occult bent on finding the key to eternal youth. This is nothing new--for thousands of years, the hope of eternal youth (or eternal life) has been a part of most, if not all, religions. It was important to me to understand the basic foundations of this quest and then the darkest aspects of what it means. And it's hard to write a book about demons without understanding exorcisms, the old Catholic church, Judaism, and witchcraft, including black magic.

While the series itself is built on a paranormal premise, I wanted it to have enough "real world" facts to make it even scarier.

I think this is why monsters don't really scare me (psychotic clowns living in the sewer excluded), but serial killers terrify me. Real people who look normal, even attractive (Ted Bundy anyone?) but are down to their core evil.

What I loved about writing the Seven Deadly Sins books, most recently CARNAL SIN (Ballantine, July 2010), is merging my forensic and crime fiction research with my paranormal research.

For example, in my series the Seven Deadly Sins are released from Hell as incarnate demons. If they touch you, your conscience is stripped away and you act on your deadliest sin. I have a sheriff in the series who, while she has seen the paranormal at work, believes that there is a scientific--and logical--explanation as to why some people are infected by this demonic virus. She, with the medical examiner, are looking at the autopsies to give them answers, and discover (thanks to C.J. Lyons!) an enlarged amygdala, a primitive part of the brain with a role in processing memory and emotional responses.

I've learned (the hard way!) that less is more when writing about something I know very little about. So I took the basic scientific information about the amygdala and brainstem, then made up the idea that the demonic virus changed this, that this is in fact a physical "conscience" that when damaged changes the behavior of the victim--and they act out their worst sin, to deadly results.

Why? Because I needed something I could buy into. I had to believe it could happen, otherwise I'd never be able to convince my readers to suspend disbelief and believe in the story.

After writing two books in my supernatural thriller series, I'm writing two romantic thrillers--no demons in sight (except for the very human evil that my protagonists face.)

Looking at my bookshelves, I realized I have nearly as many paranormal research books as I do forensic and crime research books. But nothing compares to on-hands research: shooting at the gun range with the FBI firearms instructor; "bleeding" during SWAT training that seemed so real my heart raced when the men in black came in with guns; being cuffed during a scenario, down on the ground, and immobile while the tactical team cleared a building.

Real people do this all the time with real bullets, real blood, and real bad guys. I don't. I just write about them. But the research trips have helped me, a boring mom of five who quit her equally boring job in the California State Legislature to write, tell stories with more confidence and truth.

I just hope I don't have to face a real demon--or a real bad guy--to write about them convincingly.

Allison Brennan is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of fourteen books and four short stories, including Killing Fear, Sudden Death, Original Sin, and her latest release, the supernatural thriller Carnal Sin. She's also a contributor to "100 Must Read Thrillers" with her essay on Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca." Married with five children, she lives in northern California and is currently writing--and researching--book two in her Lucy Kincaid romantic thriller series which launches in January of 2011 with "Love Me to Death." Visit her at allisonbrennan.com or check out her Seven Deadly Sins series at sevendeadlysinsbooks.com.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Thrillerfest: Off to a Great Start!

2010-07-09T10:00:00.004-04:00

It's been an amazing start to the convention and I have to admit to being a little star-struck. Lisa Scottoline, Steve Berry, Heather Graham, R.L. Stine the list just goes on and on of great authors I've seen so far.

I sent out tweets on Twitter for those who want to follow that. You can find us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thrillerwriters and if you're on Twitter and want to see what others are tweeting about use #ThrillerFest2010 to find news on Twitter about the convention.

A lot of pictures are going up on the ITW Facebook. You can find the main ITW page at www.facebook.com/thrillerwriters but you can also look up the group site as well and join (aka "like") us there! I hope to have some video tomorrow.

I attended Lisa Scottoline's session where she gave out great advise and the contact information of her agent with instructions to attendees as to how to send their manuscript along with Lisa's referral. What a generous gift! You could actually hear gasps in the audience when she did it! It was a great moment! The offer is only open to those who attended the session as far as I'm aware. This session was amazing and I highly recommend getting the CD for the session when it becomes available. I'll let you know when that happens.

I also attended Buzz Your Book with Douglas Clegg and M.J. Rose. That isn't a session that gets recorded since they do the session as part of their teaching course. But you can find out more about it on Amazon since the book "Buzz Your Book" will be out in a new edition this year. Definately something I recommend picking up.

I got just the end of R.L. Stine's session, but what impressed me was that he stayed after the session and gave his time to every person that wanted it. He gave advice, shared information and just chattd with fans and aspiring authors. He was so gracious with his time and I thought to myself, "Now THAT is why ITW is special." So many people here are willing to share their ideas, knowledge, experince and time.

I can't wait for tomorrows session!

- Sheila

Thrillerfest Schedule, Friday July 9th!

2010-07-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

THRILLERFEST FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2010 Registration 7:30 am - 11 am, 3 pm - 4:30 pm
Barnes & Noble Bookstore, open 9 am- 6 pm, Booth-Plymouth Room

ROOM : URISI/JULLIARD

8:30 am - 11:00 am MORNING COFFEE Hosted by HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

9:00 am-9:50 am HOW TO MAKE YOUR PULSE RACE? Cliche's and How to Avoid Them - Raffi Yessayan, Panel Master, John Altman, Ted Dekker, Karen Harper, David Liss, Leslie Silbert

10:00 am-10:50 am Spotlight Guest Gayle Lynds interviewed by Lisa Gardner (BALLROOM I)

11:00 am- 11:50 am HOW TO BE NOVEL WITH YOUR NOVEL?: E-books, audio books, Vooks, etc. - And Industry Panel - Douglas Clegg, Panel Master, Richard Doetsch, Steve Feldberg, Tammy Nam, Jeremy Robinson, Liz Scheier, Matt Schwartz

11:45 am - 1:00pm SNACK SERVICE - Hosted by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (Ballroom I Foyer)

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm Authors from all morning sessions will be signing in the bookstore.

12:15 pm - 1:00 pm Bonus Session - INTERROGATING THE FBI - FBI Profiler Mark Safarik interviewed by Alan Jacobson (BALLROOM I)

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm ITW General Membership Meeting (BALLROOM I)

1:45 pm - 3:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted By HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm ARE YOU YOUR MAIN CHARACTER? Allen Wyler, Panel Master, Julie Kramer, Deborah LeBlanc, A. Scott Pearson, Rick Reed, Wendy Corsi Staub

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm Spotlight Guest Harlan Coben interviewed by Kathleen Antrim (BALLROOM I)

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm IS SOCIAL NETWORKING A WASTE OF TIME? : An Industry Panel - Allison Brennan, Panel Master, Emi Battaglia, Tess Gerritsen, Meryl Moss, Jason Pinter, Amy D. Shojai CABC, Pam Spengler-Jaffee

5:00 pm - 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon sessions will sign inside the bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm ITW PUBLICATIONS COCKTAIL PARTY - Featuring the authors of: Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads, Watchlist: The Chopin Manuscript & The Copper Bracelet, First Thrills, and Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror (BALLROOM I)

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm Daktona Banks - SNAP CRITIQUES

ROOM : BROADWAY

8:30 am - 11:00 am MORNING COFFEE Hosted by HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

9:00 am-9:50 am WHICH RULES CAN YOU BREAK? Andrew Gulli, Panel Master, William Bernhardt, Brandilyn Collins, W.G. Griffiths, Katia Lief, Erica Spindler, Mark T. Sullivan

10:00 am-10:50 am Spotlight Guest Gayle Lynds interviewed by Lisa Gardner (BALLROOM I)

11:00 am- 11:50 am WHAT'S THE WORST ADVICE YOU EVER GOT? THE BEST? Matt Richtel, Panel Master, Richard Aaron, Alex Dryden, Lisa Gardner, Alex Kava, Daniel Palmer

11:45 am - 1:00pm SNACK SERVICE - Hosted by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (Ballroom I Foyer)

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm Authors from all morning sessions will be signing in the bookstore.

12:15 pm - 1:00 pm Bonus Session - INTERROGATING THE FBI - FBI Profiler Mark Safarik interviewed by Alan Jacobson (BALLROOM I)

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm ITW General Membership Meeting (BALLROOM I)

1:45 pm - 3:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted By HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm WHY BE NORMAL WHEN YOU CAN BE PARANORMAL? Dakota Banks, Panel Master, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Christopher Golden, Jonathan Mabery, Dave Sakmyster

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm Spotlight Guest Harlan Coben interviewed by Kathleen Antrim (BALLROOM I)

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm DO YOU SPY? Anthony Tata, Panel Master, Mike Angly, Andy Hayp, Ward Larsen, Andrew Peterson, David Salkin

5:00 pm - 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon sessions will sign inside the bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm ITW PUBLICATIONS COCKTAIL PARTY - Featuring the authors of: Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads, Watchlist: The Chopin Manuscript & The Copper Bracelet, First Thrills, and Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror (BALLROOM I)

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm SHEILA CLOVER ENGLISH - SOCIAL MEDIA FOR THE THRILLER GENRE

ROOM : CARNEGIE/ALVIN

8:30 am - 11:00 am MORNING COFFEE Hosted by HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

9:00 am-9:50 am ARE FORENSIC TRILLERS DEADLY? D.P. Lyle, M.D., Panel Master, Lisa Black, Robin Burcell, Kathryn Fox, Jonathan Hayes, Cheryl Paradis

10:00 am-10:50 am Spotlight Guest Gayle Lynds interviewed by Lisa Gardner (BALLROOM I)

11:00 am- 11:50 am HOW DO YOU PACK FOR A THRILLER? : Research & Settings - Jess Buick, Panel Master, Hilary Davidson, Maria Hudgins, Katherine Neville, Peter Steiner, Taylor Stevens

11:45 am - 1:00pm SNACK SERVICE - Hosted by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (Ballroom I Foyer)

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm Authors from all morning sessions will be signing in the bookstore.

12:15 pm - 1:00 pm Bonus Session - INTERROGATING THE FBI - FBI Profiler Mark Safarik interviewed by Alan Jacobson (BALLROOM I)

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm ITW General Membership Meeting (BALLROOM I)

1:45 pm - 3:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted By HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm SHOULD YOU LIVE TO WRITE, OR WRITE TO LIVE? Pat Gussin, Panel Master, Sandi Ault, Joshua Corin, CJ Lyons, Carla Neggers, Tom Sawyer

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm Spotlight Guest Harlan Coben interviewed by Kathleen Antrim (BALLROOM I)

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm WHO'S YOUR HERO? In fiction and real life - Julie Compton, Panel Master, Linwood Barclay, Ted Dekker, David Hagberg, James Hayman, Nate Kenyon

5:00 pm - 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon sessions will sign inside the bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm ITW PUBLICATIONS COCKTAIL PARTY - Featuring the authors of: Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads, Watchlist: The Chopin Manuscript & The Copper Bracelet, First Thrills, and Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror (BALLROOM I)

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm ROBERT DUGONI - GETTING STARTED AND STAYING HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

ROOM : BALLROOM I

8:30 am - 11:00 am MORNING COFFEE Hosted by HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

9:00 am-9:50 am HOW DO YOU EXCITE YOUR EDITOR AND GET MORE OUT OF YOUR PUBLISHER?: And Industry Panel : John Lescroart, Panel Master, Dan Conaway, Eric Van Lustbader, Steve Martini, Neil Nyren, Eric Raab, Kate White

10:00 am-10:50 am Spotlight Guest Gayle Lynds interviewed by Lisa Gardner (BALLROOM I)

11:00 am- 11:50 am ARE YA NOVELS FOR GROWNUPS TOO? F. Paul Wilson, Panel Master, Jennifer Allison, A.J. Hartley, Andrew Harwell, Robert Liparulo, Ridley Pearson, R.L. Stine

11:45 am - 1:00pm SNACK SERVICE - Hosted by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (Ballroom I Foyer)

11:50 pm - 12:20 pm Authors from all morning sessions will be signing in the bookstore.

12:15 pm - 1:00 pm Bonus Session - INTERROGATING THE FBI - FBI Profiler Mark Safarik interviewed by Alan Jacobson (BALLROOM I)

1:00 pm - 1:50 pm ITW General Membership Meeting (BALLROOM I)

1:45 pm - 3:15 pm AFTERNOON SOFT DRINKS Hosted By HARPERCOLLINS (BALLROOM I FOYER)

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm HOW CAN WE INNOVATE MORE?: An Industry Panel - M.J. Rose, Panel Master, Rom Doherty, Joseph Finder, Libby McGuire, Mark Nichols, Barbara Peters, Daniel Slater

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm Spotlight Guest Harlan Coben interviewed by Kathleen Antrim (BALLROOM I)

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm WHY DO THRILLERS KICK ASS? Wendy Corsi Staub, Panel Master, Steve Berry, Grant Blackwood, Eric Van Lustbader, John Lutz, Carla Neggers, Ridley Pearson

5:00 pm - 5:30 pm All authors from afternoon sessions will sign inside the bookstore

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm ITW PUBLICATIONS COCKTAIL PARTY - Featuring the authors of: Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads, Watchlist: The Chopin Manuscript & The Copper Bracelet, First Thrills, and Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror (BALLROOM I)

Craftfest Schedule for July 8th!

2010-07-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

CRAFTFEST THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010 Registration - CraftFest only 8 am - 11 am
REGISTRATION FOR THRILLERFEST 3:30 pm - 6:30 pm Barnes & Noble Bookstore, open 9 am- 6 pm, Booth-Plymouth Room

ROOM : URIS/JULLIARD

8:30am - 11:00am MORNING COFFEE Hosted by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

9:00am - 9:30am Alex Kava, JT Ellison, Erica Spindler - CREATING AUTHENTIC, TOUGH, SMART FEMALE PROTAGONISTS (Lipstick optional)

10:00 am - 10:50 am R.L. Stine - THE WORLD OF YA PUBLISHING : The Top 10 & The Flop 10

11:00 am - 11:50 am Lisa Scottoline - HOW TO WRITE A THRILLER

11:50 am - 1:50pm All authors from CraftFest classes will sign inside bookstore - CRAFTFEST LUNCH An Interactive Q&A with Gina Centrello President and Publisher, The Random House Publishing Group (Ballroom ll)

2:00 pm - 5:30 pm AGENTFEST - Uris/Alvin

5:30 pm - 6:20 pm BUZZ YOUR BOOK: And the New Reality (Open to all attendees) - M.J. ROSE AND DOUG CLEGG (Edison/Winter Garden)

6:30pm - 8:00pm - THRILLERFEST OPENING RECEPTION Co-Hosted by THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP and WRITERS HOUSE Featuring Random House and Writers House Authors (Ballroom II)

ROOM : BROADWAY

8:30am - 11:00am MORNING COFFEE Hosted by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

9:00 am - 9:50 am Douglas Preston - USING NON-FICTION TECHNIQUES TO WRITE THAT BREAK-OUT THRILLER

10:00 am -10:50 am Michael Palmder - FROM SOUP TO NUTS : Crafting a Thriller from First Notion to Completion

11am - 11:50am Donald Maass - WHAT MAKES A HERO?

11:50 am - 1:50pm All authors from CraftFest classes will sign inside bookstore - CRAFTFEST LUNCH An Interactive Q&A with Gina Centrello President and Publisher, The Random House Publishing Group (Ballroom ll)

2:00 pm - 5:30 pm AGENTFEST - Uris/Alvin

5:30 pm - 6:20 pm BUZZ YOUR BOOK: And the New Reality (Open to all attendees) - M.J. ROSE AND DOUG CLEGG (Edison/Winter Garden)

6:30pm - 8:00pm - THRILLERFEST OPENING RECEPTION Co-Hosted by THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP and WRITERS HOUSE Featuring Random House and Writers House Authors (Ballroom II)

ROOM : CARNEGIE/ALVIN

8:30am - 11:00am MORNING COFFEE Hosted by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

9:00 am - 9:50 am David Hagberg - LOVE THINE ENEMY

10:00 am -10:50 am John Gilstrap - BROKEN BONES, BALLISTICS AND BACKDRAFTS : Technical Stuff That Writers Should Get Right

11am - 11:50am Robert Dugoni - POWER EDITING

11:50 am - 1:50pm All authors from CraftFest classes will sign inside bookstore - CRAFTFEST LUNCH An Interactive Q&A with Gina Centrello President and Publisher, The Random House Publishing Group (Ballroom ll)

2:00 pm - 5:30 pm AGENTFEST - Uris/Alvin

5:30 pm - 6:20 pm BUZZ YOUR BOOK: And the New Reality (Open to all attendees) - M.J. ROSE AND DOUG CLEGG (Edison/Winter Garden)

6:30pm - 8:00pm - THRILLERFEST OPENING RECEPTION Co-Hosted by THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP and WRITERS HOUSE Featuring Random House and Writers House Authors (Ballroom II)

Craftfest Schedule for Wednesday, July 7th!

2010-07-07T08:00:00.004-04:00

CRAFTFEST WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 CraftFest Registration,
8:30 am -1 pm, 3 pm - 4:30 pm Barnes & Noble Bookstore, open Noon - 6 pm : Booth-Plymouth Room

CRAFTFEST BONUS POWER SESSIONS Presented by WRITER'S DIGEST

ROOM : URIS/JULLIARD

10:00 am - 10:50 am Kathleen Antrim and Jon Land WHAT IF? SO WHAT? Learn To Pitch To An Agent or Editor

11:00 am - 11:50 am William Bernhardt - EIGHT STEPS TO WRITING - AND FINISHING - YOUR NOVEL

CRAFTFEST CLASSES

12:30 pm - 1:50 pm Steve Berry - WHO'S TELLING THE STORY AND WHAT ARE THEY SAYING. Point-of-view and Dialogue

2:00 pm - 2:50 pm David Morrell - THE PROS AND CONS OF THE FIRST PERSON VIEWPOINT

3:00 pm - 3:50 pm Gayle Lynds - NINE SECRETS TO WRITING BESTSELLING THRILLERS

4:00 pm - 4:50 pm Al Zuckerman - CRAFTING BIG SCENES FOR THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL

5pm - 5:30 pm Authors from all CraftFest classes will sign inside Bookstore

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm CRAFTFEST COCKTAIL PARTY Hosted by GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING Manhattan Ballroom

ROOM : BROADWAY

9:00 am - 9:50 am Lorenzo Carcaterra - FOR THE THRILL OF IT : From Book to Screen

10:00 am -10:50 am Sophie Littlefield, Carla Buckley & Barbara Poelle - SETTING WORKSHOP - Creating a Sense of Place

CRAFTFEST CLASSES

11:00am- 11:50am Eric Van Lustbader - THE RED ZONE

11:50 am - 12:20 pm Andrew Gross - AND THE WINNER FOR THE BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IS...

12:30 pm - 1:50p am David Hewson - KEEPING A BOOK DIARY - Simple Secrets That Can Keep Your Book On Track

2:00 pm - 5:30 pm Lisa Gardner - SUCCESSFUL REWRITING : Pairing Down and Fleshing Out

5:30 pm - 6:20 pm Authors from all Craftfest classes will sign inside Bookstore

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm CRAFTFEST COCKTAIL PARTY Hosted by GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING Manhattan Ballroom

ROOM : CARNEGIE/ALVIN

9:00 am - 9:50 am Allison Brennan - NO PLOTTERS ALLOWED

10:00 am -10:50 am D.P. Lyle, MD - VOICE. WHOSE STORY IS IT?

CRAFTFEST CLASSES

11:00am- 11:50am D.P. Lyle, MD - THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHARACTER MOTIVATION

11:50 am - 12:20 pm Grant Blackwood - THE ELEMENTS OF BIG THRILLERS

12:30 pm - 1:50p am William Bernhardt - THE CHARACTER-DRIVEN THRILLER: Giving Readers a Reason to Care

2:00 pm - 5:30 pm Steven James - SIX SECRETS TO NOVEL WRITING THAT NO ONE EVER TOLD YOU ABOUT

5:30 pm - 6:20 pm Authors from all Craftfest classes will sign inside Bookstore

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm CRAFTFEST COCKTAIL PARTY Hosted by GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING Manhattan Ballroom

Steve Berry and Jon Land talk about Thrillerfest

2010-07-06T14:32:00.000-04:00

ThrillerFest is days away!

I caught up with Steve Berry and Jon Land at BEA and asked them what they're looking forward to most.
Steve gets to interview Ken Follett and Jon gives us some humor and insight!

Steve Berry

Jon Land

You can find out more about Steve Berry at www.steveberry.org and you can find Jon Land at http://www.jonland.net.

Celebrate Craft : Validate My Parking

2010-07-06T12:09:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Newbie's Guide to Publishing blog

Writers crave validation.

It's built into our psyches. We believe our words are good enough to put down on paper, and then we have the narcissism to think that others will not only enjoy our words, but pay for the privilege to read them.

Because of that, we tend to get attached to what we write. These words are our babies, and criticism is hard to bear. We take it personally.

This is silly. Everyone has an opinion, and all opinions are valid. Yes, if your writing failed a reader, it's your fault. But your job isn't to enthrall every reader. Your job is simply to enthrall more than you fail.

The fact is, you'll fail some readers. Lots of them.

You'll get bad reviews. You'll get angry emails. You'll get snotty comments. Some will be aimed at your writing. Some will be aimed at you personally.

This is a good thing.

Not because these comments are correct---though if enough people say the same thing, you should really start to listen. But because getting feedback, good or bad, means you're reaching people.

The bigger you get, the more negative feedback you can expect.

So how do you deal with people who don't like you?

If you want to be a grown-up, you should ignore them. I've never seen anything good come out of engaging a critic. Once you begin to defend yourself--or even worse, attack--you've pretty much lost some face.

What Peter says about Paul shows more about Peter than about Paul.

As for how you should feel, well, you should act like a grown up there as well. Sticks and stones. Unless someone is burning a cross outside on your front lawn, you really can't take negative people seriously.

You shouldn't take positive people seriously, either. But you can say "thanks" to those who offer kind words. If you're really grounded, you can thank the naysayers too.

But JA, isn't validation the reason we become writers in the first place? Didn't you read your opening sentence?

Yes. But get your ego boost from your royalty check, not from reviewers, critics, fans, blogs, awards, peers, and message boards.

Then who are the people you should listen to?

That's easy. Turn on your cell phone. Look at your contact list. Those are the important people in your life. Take praise and criticism from them. Everyone else is window dressing.

Some people won't like you. Get used to it. If you can't, don't be a writer.

You're a pompous, egotistical, self-important know-it-all.

Thanks for your comment, and thanks for reading. :)

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft: Do you fall into the Muddle-in-the-Middle Trap?

2010-06-28T22:27:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Write by You blog

When attempting to write a novel—that is, fiction that's book-length, say 80,000 words or so—some novice writers never get past the first few chapters. All of the excitement and enthusiasm they felt when inspiration grabbed them by the throat and shouted, "You must write this story!" suddenly leaves them high and dry. Sure, you have a good idea where the story needs to end. That's part of the reason you're writing--to share that fantastic scene you envision near the end of your tale that blows away your readers. But how to get from Point A to Point Z?

Although most writers recognize the danger of running out of steam in the middle of a book, those who are experienced realize that a lot of work is done in those central chapters. In fact, if you do all you should as a novelist, there's so much material for you to play with, you need to choose carefully to avoid stuffing too much into one story. Here are six tips you can use to keep your novel on track, moving forward, and holding your readers' attention without wandering, repeating information, or padding with unnecessary scenes.

1. Further develop the main character(s). Instead of dumping details about your characters' personalities, childhood, education, jobs, or friends and family at the beginning of your novel, save these for the middle. By now you've hooked your reader with strong writing, active scenes and conflict that readers will want to see resolved. Now, you can use conversations, flash-back scenes, or a character's thoughts to reveal more about what makes this character tick. You'll enrich your paper people and create an even stronger bond between reader and character.

2. Move the plot forward by increments that feel natural. Instead of leaping from conflict revealed in the beginning to conflict resolved (resulting in a far-too-short book), give the characters time to work things out for themselves (with a little help from you). This creates a much more realistic feeling story and will help avoid the dreaded deus ex machina conclusion. (In a children's book God takes the form of Mom or Uncle Joe, who supplies the solution to the child's problem.) Readers generally want their favorite characters to resolve their own problems.

3. Steadily increase the level of conflict and tension by making things worse, then even worse again for the central character. When the same problem occurs over and over throughout the story, the reader becomes immune to the danger, threat, or issue at hand. Using the middle of the story to "up the stakes" will guarantee your readers will stick around to see how their favorite character handles the ever-more-complex crisis.

4. Details make the story, but writers often forget to continue filtering them throughout the book. You may have described Main Street or the family homestead in Chapter 1, but by the middle of the book several days may have passed for the reader. Work, family demands, interruptions of all sorts may have wiped away the vision of the story's setting that you worked so hard to create in early chapters. Now you need to refresh the reader's mind. And my returning to a particular setting in your story, you strengthen the reader's belief that it might actually exist. However, never stop the forward motion of the plot to spend a few pages of solid description. Some readers simply skim passages that seem to have nothing happening in them, that are simply picture windows into the setting. Better to weave details through active scenes and keep the plot moving forward.

5. If you get lost in the middle of your story and don't know what should happen next, or you have written yourself into a corner, return to your plot outline. If you didn't write one, now is an excellent time to take a short break and brainstorm possible scenes, complications and solutions for your mid-story. Relax, pour yourself your favorite beverage, sit down in a comfy chair and write down everything that comes to mind without censoring yourself. In fifteen or twenty minutes you may come up with a dozen or more possibilities. The next day, look over your list of ideas. Some will be off the wall, not at all useful, and you can eliminate them. But there will be a few gems. Recharging your muse in this way will usually break you out of your block and give you new fuel for those middle chapters.

6. Reach out for support. Sometimes we need to know what's working and what isn't. We lose confidence and need someone to tell us we're on track and need to keep going, or there really is something wrong that needs fixing. Finding a writer's organization, critique group, professional writing mentor, or another author willing to partner up with you can be just the help you need to urge you on toward completion of your novel. Many published authors today rely on a personal support system they've developed for those times when they become too close to the book to make effective decisions about one or more elements.

Remember, writing to completion is important. To sell a novel you need more than a great idea. You have to get it down on paper—all of it—before you can hope to interest an editor or literary agent. Fight your way through that nasty middle by using the skills above, and you'll soon arrive that that exciting climax scene you've been dying to write! Happy writing, all--Kathryn

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Sample the Thrill - Terror's Reach by Tom Bale

2010-06-26T14:17:00.001-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

A burning summer's day explodes into violence. A murderous gang targets the exclusive south coast island of Terror's Reach, home to rival business tycoons Robert Felton and Valentin Nasenko. The residents are facing annihilation, and only one man stands a chance of saving them. Four years ago, after an undercover police operation went disastrously wrong, CID officer Joe Clayton lost his career and his family. Forced to adopt a new identity, he drifted from place to place and ended up on the Reach, working as a bodyguard to Nasenko's wife, Cassie, and her children. Now he must draw upon all his experience and reserves of strength to keep them alive. But nothing is as it seems on Terror's Reach, and a long night of betrayal and murder leaves Joe fighting for his own survival...

Praise for SKIN AND BONES: "This is a mystery and a thriller that is satisfying on every level. This book gave me chills." -- JON JORDAN, CRIMESPREE

"What truly sells SKIN AND BONES is Bale's almost cinematic storytelling style, along the lines of what Lee Child does with his Jack Reacher series." -- JIM WINTER, JANUARY MAGAZINE

Tom Bale is the author of SKIN AND BONES. He lives with his family in Brighton, England.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

ROLLERCOASTER THRILLS

2010-06-23T15:19:00.000-04:00

By Avery Aames (the alter ego for Daryl Wood Gerber)

Do you like riding on a rollercoaster?

I love it! I love the thrill of not knowing what comes next. I crave spinning upside
down, twisting to the right, the left, going through a dark tunnel, a plummeting drop, a loop-the-loop. Crave it. But I also like knowing that the rollercoaster creator spent hours—hopefully years—designing that ride and personally tested it out hundreds of times. I want to know that the designer rode, feet dangling, nose facing the ground, seeing that pavement below. I want the designer to be darned sure that the rollercoaster won’t collapse right at that very second. That took planning. Lots and lots of planning.

Why am I writing about a rollercoaster? Because designing a rollercoaster is like
designing a book. If the designer (i.e. author) doesn’t have a clue where the story is going, then the book can have sags and false starts and even plummet before its time.

Yes, I love writing with an outline. I know that puts me in about one-half the population of writers. Many enjoy writing by the seat of their pants, but I like an outline. I prefer to know where the story starts and ends. I enjoy plotting out the turns, the act points, the highs and lows. I need to know how all the clues play out. I have to know all the red herrings ahead of time so I can plant them well. In the case of my current book, The Long Quiche Goodbye, the first in A Cheese Shop Mystery series, I also planned where I was going to include thrilling cheeses and intriguing points of interest in Ohio and the quaint town of Providence. The fine-tuning is in the details. It’s like creating a recipe for success.

However, let’s return to the rollercoaster analogy ride for a second. I must admit that I like NOT knowing, too. You know what I mean. I don’t want my readers to guess every story turn I write. I want them thrilled, surprised. That’s why an author needs to be flexible and allow the outline to change. You read me right. An outline can change. Because when a surprise happens, and you know it’s the RIGHT surprise, then an author has to grasp it and believe it’s the right change to make. For me, an outline is like having a road map that shows the route to one destination, but along the way, I might decide to take the scenic route. Stop off at that little town to the east, have lunch, buy a trinket-- have a brawl with a villain or find a body--and get back on the road.

The value of an outline is the comfort I get when I know where the end of the road is. I know who did it and why and what justice will be served.
But what happens if who did it changes along the way, you ask? [Ahem.] Yes, that’s happened to me, too. I started out KNOWING that one character killed another, until surprise!, I discovered it was not one but a gang. Not a woman, but a man. Not the husband, but the ex-boyfriend. Does that shred my outline? Not necessarily. That’s when I go back and re-outline. I create a graph that makes sure I didn’t leave IN a red herring that now doesn’t belong. I make sure that the twist I took to get the original story to point A is now a twist to take me to point B.
I outline because I don’t like to feel lost. I’m not James Bond. Heck, I’m not even Laura Croft, Tomb raider. I don’t feel comfortable if I’m in the dark without a flashlight…or a weapon…and I hear a crackle, a footstep, and then feel heavy breathing down my neck. {By the way, a deadline can often breathe heavily down one’s neck. Ever felt that?}

But I do like a rollercoaster--the faster and steeper, the better.
Do you like writing with an outline? Why? Or better yet, why not? What’s the advantage for you? Have you ever tried it the other way?

Celebrate the Craft!: Writing; The Temporary Career

2010-06-14T16:01:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Newbie's Guide to Publishing blog

I'm not going to name names in this post. Partly because it would be mean. Partly because I'm only speculating on the reasons why, and have no real proof.

But I still wanted to talk about something that's rampant in the word of publishing. It's also rampant in other media like radio, TV, movies, and music.

It's Where Are They Now Syndrome.

The scariest thing about WATNS is how quickly it seems to occur. When my first novel, Whiskey Sour, was published in 2004, I did as much self-promotion as I could. Going to writing conventions, signing at bookstores and libraries, I met dozens of writers who also had new books out. Some were debut authors, like me. Some were veterans who seemed like they'd be around forever.

But here it is, a scant four and a half years later, and I can name more than thirty of these authors who didn't publish anything in the past year, and in some cases the past two years.

This boggles my mind.

While everyone is aware of the transitory nature of fame (it's particularly noticeable in Hollywood where A list actors fade into B list actors, and B list actors sometimes have a huge hit that makes them A list) I actually never thought it applied to writers as well.

Well, it does. With one major difference. When you're considered a B list author, you can't even give your work away. There's no straight-to-DVD or movie-of-the-week option like there is for actors who used to be Somebody. There are some smaller presses, yes. And while a lot of them are terrific, their lack of major distribution dollars means even smaller numbers for writers who once were published by the major houses, which means the major houses will be even less likely to give these writers another shot.

In thinking about this phenomenon, I was tempted to rationalize why so-and-so hasn't had a book deal in a while. Yes, numbers follow authors. But maybe there are other reasons too.

Perhaps some authors decided they just didn't want to write anymore. Perhaps some veered off into different territory and couldn't find a home for it. Perhaps some wanted to write, but were out of ideas. Perhaps there were extenuating circumstances like sickness, or some personal or family tragedy. Perhaps some simply take a very long time to write a book. Perhaps work or some other aspect of real life got in the way.

Perhaps.

And yet, knowing what a struggle it is to find an agent and get published, it seems odd that so many writers--writers I did signings with only four years ago--would let anything prevent them from writing. This profession requires dedication and sticktoitivness, and the lessons learned early on in the career when rejections are plentiful tend to make a person battle-hardened. Writers, as a species, don't tend to give up easily.

Which makes WATNS all the more troubling.

There are writers who had the brass ring, and want to have it again, but for whatever reason can't seem to grasp it.

Battle-hardened does not equal bullet-proof.

It's tempting to blame the industry, which is flawed for many reasons. A book's success is often a self-fulfilling prophecy; big promotional dollars leads to more orders leads to more sales. Do bestsellers really sell so well because of name recognition, or because when you're at an airport or drugstore and want to buy a book you only have the choice of a dozen titles? If a lessor name writer was given wider distribution, naturally they would sell more books. Yet few are given this push.

But I also personally know a few authors who did get that big push. In some cases, six and seven figure advances and corresponding marketing dollars. And here it is, a few years later, and those books are already out of print.

It's tempting to blame the writer, for producing lackluster work, or failing to self-promote, or being difficult to work with. And yet I've read many out-of-print novels that I believe are just as good or even better than books in their thirtieth printing by name authors who do very little self-promotion. I also know a few successful authors who are real jerks, and that hasn't seemed to hurt their careers.

There's a mentality that once you land a deal with a major house, you're set. But the fact is (and get ready for the kick in the groin) the majority of people who get a major deal wind up as WATHS statistics.

I can look at my extensive personal library, and 90% of those books are out of print, and 60% of those authors haven't published anything in years.

Landing a major deal, in most cases, doesn't signal the start of a longtime career. For many, it's the beginning of the end.

I can guess what many regular readers of my blog are thinking. Okay Joe, now that you've presented the problem, tell us what we can do to fix it like you always do.

Well, frightening as it is, this is one problem I can't fix.

I'd love to be able to point a finger and conclusively say, "This is why she's still being published, and this is why he isn't." But I can't. There are no traits or commonalities that can accurately predict success or failure.

After a certain level of competency is reached, who gets published and who doesn't is pretty much based on luck. This is true for newbies, and remains true for writers who have been in the biz for years.

All we can do is persevere, and keep writing and self-promoting and doing our damnedest to survive. Because, depressingly enough, this career is more about survival than success.

But, as I've been saying for years, the harder you try, the luckier you seem to get.

So if anyone with WATNS is reading this, remember that giving up isn't an option. Yes, you've gotten some bad breaks. Yes, this business is woefully unfair. Yes, it doesn't make any sense at all. But the same dedication that got you published that first time must be used to get you published again.

I know we all believe that once you "make it" there is no longer any struggle, the fears go away, and the opportunities are boundless.

But the truth is the struggle never ends, the fears are always there, and every opportunity that comes along should be appreciated as the gift it actually is.

So the rules, for newbie and pro alike, are the same.

1. Write the best book you can.

2. Try your best to get it into the hands of as many people as possible.

3. Repeat.

That's all we can do. Beyond that, it's all luck.

Just don't forget rule 3. The longer I'm in this business, the more I think it's the one that separates the haves from the have nots.

Now quit your whining and get to work.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Sample the Thrill: Blood Song by Cat Adams

2010-06-11T18:28:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

C.E. Lawrence recently chatted with Cathy Clamp, one half of the writing team of Cat Adams about their new thriller BLOOD SONG.

Your website says you write "as a team." How did you meet and when did you realize you'd work well together?

Cie Adams and I met while we both worked at a law office in Denver, Colorado. Cie was the writer. I wasn't. Actually, I had no inclination to write when we met, but we would walk for exercise at lunch and talk about her book plots. It turned out I was pretty good at spotting logic gaps or suggesting subplots. She suggested I try my hand at writing and it seemed like something fun. I started with an X-Files tie-in (I call it a tie-in rather than fanfic because at the time they really were publishing X-Files novels.) Once I discovered no agent alive would take on a tie-in as a debut novel, I tried an original novel---an historical novel about an event in Colorado history. She told me it was accurate, but . . . well, sort of dry and lifeless. She suggested a feel-good, emotional subplot that was a lot of fun. When it got accepted for publication by a niche Colorado press, I felt sort of guilty. The editor had specifically mentioned the subplot she helped me with. What do you do about that? Say "Thanks"? Buy her dinner? Give her money? We decided that we were offering so many suggestions on each other's books we might as well co-author and share the money and the work. And "a team" was born!

What are some of the pros and cons of collaboration?

The pros are you can do twice as much work in half as much time. And you get to earn money when you haven't actually done any work. Yay! The cons are you have to share your world and accept input even when you like what you wrote, and have to share money when you've done ALL the work. But it evens out, and once you accept that the co-author is equally talented and wants to create a BETTER book, it's all good.

Why do you think vampires are so hot right now?

I think the biggest reason vampires are hot is that they're NOT real. There's so much pain and fear and sadness in much of the world that readers can revel in a world where the stakes are higher, the baddies are evil and the good guys have an edge. But the best part is when the book is over, you can close the cover and it doesn't affect your real life. Nothing changes, nobody is undead and the world goes on. How much better can fiction get?

Who do you see as the target audience for your books?

Well, most of our prior books are paranormal romance which are most definitely for adults. But our upcoming June release, BLOOD SONG, the first book of the Blood Singer series, is very different. Not only are we moving to the Science Fiction and Fantasy shelves (from romance) but the book will appeal to Young Adult readers. That's not to say it's shelved in YA, or the protagonist is--but the books are YA-friendly. The heroine is just out of college but still attending classes, there's romance IN the book, but nothing overtly sexual and the characters are real and deal with many of the same emotions and situations that other YA books out there are. Early readers are comparing the new series to the House of Night and Morganville Vampires series, and we agree that those same readers will enjoy this new series.

I see you belong to a number of organizations, including ITW and RWA, among others. What do you see as the main attraction of membership for a writer in these groups?

The main attraction of organizations like ITW, RWA and SFWA is comraderie and industry knowledge. Yes, there are plenty of "writer websites" out there. I'm a member of several. But it's nice to have a place where you can ask stupid questions about the next level of publishing from people who have been there and meet people who enjoy writing the same things as you. While I was at the RT BOOKlovers convention, I ran into another thriller writer (RT isn't just for romances anymore! There were plenty of thriller writers there) and we got to talking about morgues. I mean, how often do you run into someone who works at a morgue? It's not something that comes up in casual conversation anywhere else. Very fun!

What's the most surprising or unusual thing that >ever happened to you while writing (these books or any of >your previously published work)?

Probably the most surprising thing was when I first started writing and was foolish enough to make the mistake of submitting the manuscript for the historical fiction when I had only three chapters written. I had it in my mind that NO publisher ever responded before six months went by, and by then I'd have the book completed. WRONG! Oh so wrong. I got a letter the next week, saying he loved the samples and had a slot just open up in his spring line because another author pulled a book. If I could get it to him by the end of the month, it would hit the shelf in a mere six months. Except . . . um, I wasn't done. LOL! I had eighteen days to get the manuscript into his hands. And yes, I did it. But it was an UGLY eighteen days--just ask my husband.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers in your field or genre?

Don't repeat my mistake. Finish the book, edit the book, polish the book and THEN submit. You don't want to be in a position to disappoint an editor if you just happen to get a lucky break.

C.E. Lawrence's debut thriller, Silent Screams, recounts NYPD criminal profiler Lee' Campbell's dark journey into the mind of a serial killer. (Kensington Press). She has just completed the sequel, Scorned, to be released in 2010.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Tweeting at ThrillerFest 2010

2010-06-10T16:46:00.002-04:00

The schedule has been posted and speakers assigned! There are some awesome keynotes, guests and topics! And if you Tweet we encourage you to use #ThrillerFest 2010 so we can find you!
I will be Tweeting daily to let you know what's on the schedule and who! Be sure to follow us on Twitter @thrillerwriters

CraftFest starts on Wednesday and runs through Thursday with ThrillerFest starting on Friday and running through Saturday and ending with the evening banquet and Thrillernaster Ken Follett and the awards ceremony. Hope to see you there!

Celebrate Craft! : The Killer

2010-06-07T11:10:00.001-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Thriller Guy blog

Back when Thriller Guy was writing movie scripts he read an interesting piece of advice on how to craft a good action/adventure film. Scripts are short (each page equals one minute of screen time, hence around 100 to 120 pages) and they are traditionally divided up into three acts. To understand this soon-to-be-revealed piece of advice, you should know the screenwriting definition of the word “whammie.” A whammie is anything exciting, usually an explosion, car chase, gunfight, anything that gets the viewer's blood pumping. Here's the advice on how to structure your script:

Act One: Whammies.

Act Two: More Whammies.

Act Three: All Whammies.

With his recently published The Killers, Tom Hinshelwood has written a thriller that is all whammies.

The primary elements are not all that unusual – a CIA traitor, hired killer, beautiful agency operative, Russian spies, and an espionage coup of invaluable proportion, betrayals and double crosses – but what he does with them is a steely, joy to read: a thriller that kicks butt from beginning to end without any sag in the middle, no fussy romantic entanglements, no cliched backstory that attempts to explain the psychological origins behind the ongoing mayhem. This book slams into gear from the first pages and roars along till it smashes into the end. Terrific.

Victor is a hired killer who is coldly efficient. He's doing a hit on a Latvian national, killing the man and retrieving a small flash drive. When Victor heads back to his hotel he has to fight his way through a gang that suddenly attacks him. From then on legions of other hit men try to take his life, eventually culminating in an assassins duel between Victor and another hired killer, Reed, who may or may not be his equal.

There's a scene soon after Reed is introduced where he is attacked, randomly, by a gang of street punks. Thriller Guy loves these scenes which are often found in thrillers. The street gang shows up, hones in on the professional, and you just know what is going to happen. Here, the leader of the punks demands that Reed hand over his wallet, phone and watch:

Reed's expression remained blank. “Why?”

“Say what?”

In that moment when confusion combined with anxiety, Reed grabbed the outstretched arm before him, wrapping his left hand around the wrist and pulling the kid forward sharply, directing the gun away to the side. He took hold of the kid's triceps with his free hand and twisted the wrist in his grip, locking the arm. He wrenched it downward, hard – against the joint – snapping the arm at the elbow and into an inverted V.

The gun clattered on the asphalt and the awful wail momentarily stunned the others. Reed released the wrist and the kid collapsed. Among the screams he managed to find his voice.

“F***ING KILL HIM.”

Reed sprang forward toward the other drawn gun, knocked the weapon aside as it was raised to fire, using his forward impetus to multiply the force of the elbow he sent into the kid's face. His head snapped backward, blood splashing from his mouth and the kid went down heavy, out cold, jaw broken.

The other youth armed with a gun backed off, palms showing, eyes wide, head shaking. Reed ignored him, heard the click of a switchblade opening, turned, sidestepped as his attacker lunged and overextended himself into empty air, stumbling, completely off balance, arms flailing.

The next one came from behind, his feet scraping on the ground. Reed whipped round, threw the edge of his hand into the guy's throat. He fell down convulsing.

Two more attacked at the same time, one wielding a hunting knife with a four-inch blade, the other a crowbar. The crowbar came at him first, from the left, swinging for his head. Reed caught it and the attacker's hand together, redirected it downward, using the kid's momentum against him to twist the bar from his fingers and into Reed's own.

He smashed an elbow into the youth's side, knocking him backward, as the youth gasped, ribs cracked. Reed followed through with the crowbar, backhanding it into the side of his attacker's skull. Blood splashed on faces in the crowd.

The hunting knife passed within inches of Reed's face, a wild swing, clumsy. Reed dodged backward, waiting for the next attack, used his forearm as a shield to turn the blade aside and the crowbar to sweep his attacker's feet out from under him and drove it down into the kid's face, exploding his nose across his cheeks.

The small youth with the switchblade recovered and yelled as he attacked again, a frenzied stab. Reed dodged, invited another attack, and brought the crowbar down hard on the youth's exposed arm, shattering bones. He screamed and dropped the knife, wrist and hand hanging limply from mid-forearm. Reed reversed his grip on the crowbar, swung it upward, cracking the youth under the jaw, the force lifting him off his feet and dropping him back to the ground in a silent heap.

It was all over in less than seven seconds.

This is pretty much just a throwaway scene, tossed in for the sheer, exuberant love of havoc. Hinshelwood cranks this stuff out by the ream, making it look easy when TG can assure all you writers, published and unpublished, out there, it isn't. It's da** hard to do a few times, much less over and over the course of the entire book. And without repeating himself, without, dare I say it, becoming gratuitous. Whenever a butt kicking comes, it is always well deserved and functions to move the plot forward. The point of the above scene: don't screw around with Reed. If you do he will kill you.

TG will contact Hinshelwood and see if he'll donate a signed book to the first one of TG's readers who requests a copy. Maybe TG will do a small interview and find out where the man learned to write and to kick butt. So let TG know if you want a copy. And remember, all you Thriller Writers:

Whammies.

In the end, it's all about the whammies.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft: Top Ebook Questions

2010-06-01T14:39:00.001-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Newbie's Guide to Publishing blog

I'm getting creamed with email lately, mostly from writers asking questions about ebooks. I wish I had time to individually answer all of them, but I'm on deadline and can't. So here are the most common questions I'm getting, and my responses.

Q: Should I publish on Kindle?

A: That depends on your goals. Kindle and ebooks are no more a guaranteed success than any other type of publishing. If you want to be widely read, and have the potential for earning a lot of money, find an agent. If your agent can't sell your book, or if you have out of print books, I highly recommend self-pubbing on Kindle and Smashwords.

Q: I've tried to get an agent. They keep rejecting me.

A: Perhaps your writing isn't strong enough yet. Are you sure you want to release a book that may not be ready?

Q: How do I format for Kindle?

A: Contact Rob Siders at www.52novels.com. He's fast, reasonable, and very good.

Q: Who does your covers?

A: My artist is a friend of mine named Carl Graves. He's at cgdouble2(at)sbcglobal.net. Tell him I sent you. Expect to pay around $300 for a cover, though the price fluctuates depending on your needs.

Q: What do I do to promote my Kindle ebooks?

A: I post at www.kindleboards.com whenever I have a new release. That's pretty much all the promo I do. But I'm lucky to have a popular blog, and lots of folks who talk about me on the net. I also have a print backlist.

Q: Do you need to have a popular blog and a backlist to be successful on Kindle?

A: No. Many others have sold well without the platform I have. But you shouldn't ever compare yourself with other authors, or their sales. Your mileage will vary.

Q: What are the most important things to keep in mind when uploading a book to Kindle?

A: 1. A professional cover and professional formatting. 2. A good product description. 3. A price between 99 cents and $2.99. 4. A good book.

Q: Are ebooks going to take over traditional publishing?

A: Eventually. But print will be around for a while.

Q: I was offered a print deal. But you say I should keep my erights, but my publisher won't let me keep them. What should I do?

A: Right now, I'm selling about 230 ebooks a day. In July (when the royalty rate changes to 70%), I'll be making about $470 a day on Kindle. I won't give up my erights unless a publisher can pay me more than that. But these are my numbers. Your numbers may be different. So you have to set your own goals and follow your own path. But be very wary about signing away erights.

Q: What about iPad, Sony, Kobo, and Nook?

A: Use www.smashwords.com. They'll upload to all of those, including Amazon, and take a small percentage. I have no idea how well I'm doing on these platforms yet, because Smashwords reports quarterly and I haven't gotten my numbers yet. I don't expect them to be anywhere near my Kindle numbers, but it's really early in the game. Who knows what the future holds?

Q: How did you get movie deals on your Kindle books?

A: The folks who bought the rights came to me. Then my agent made the deals. My agent is also currently working on selling foreign rights to my self-pubbed ebooks. Bottom line: get a good agent.

Q: Don't you think the ebook bubble is eventually going to burst?

A: If I maintain my current rate of sales, I'll earn $170,000 a year on ebook sales. That's just on the Kindle, and ebooks currently account for less than 6% of all book sales. What happens when ebooks account for 10%? Or 30%? What about platforms other than Kindle?

Eventually, there will be tens of millions of ereading devices out there, and I'm going to keep publishing new ebooks--many of them per year. I can envision a time in the future where I'm selling 500 or 1000 ebooks per day. If we predict that 40 million people will have ereaders in the year 2015, and I sold 1000 ebooks per day, it would take me over a hundred years to completely saturate that market. I'm not in any danger of maxing out my potential fanbase anytime soon.

Q: You seem to really be down on print publishers lately.

A: I love print publishers. But the traditional publishing industry is flawed, and I don't see any signs it will be fixed anytime soon. It used to be the only game in town. If you wanted to make a living as an author, you had to accept small royalties, no control, and a system dependent on others who may not have your best interests in mind. Not a healthy environment for an artist. While I've been extremely lucky in my career, I've also felt that I was at the mercy of a broken industry.

With ebooks, the majority of the money, and all the control, goes to the writer. That's incredibly liberating. I set my prices. I pick my titles. I choose the cover. I edit according to my taste. I'm not dependent on pre-sales or buy-ins. I'm not at the mercy of coop. I don't worry about returns. I don't have to tour, or advertise, or do all the crazy self-promotion I've done in the past. Distribution is no longer important. Going out of print is no longer a worry. I don't have to wait 12 to 18 months for the book I wrote to get into the hands of readers. I don't have to suffer because of someone else's mistakes. I don't have to try to fit a certain model. Past numbers don't matter. I'm not tied in to any contract. I get paid once a month, not twice a year. And I don't have to answer to anybody.

Ebooks truly are the greatest thing to happen to writers since Gutenberg.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Sample the Thrill: Death on the Aegean Queen by Maria Hudgins

2010-05-28T19:32:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Can't get away for vacation this year? Sit down in your favorite chair with one of Maria Hudgins' novels from her Dotsy Lamb travel mysteries series, and you'll soon be transported to a new place with an exotic setting, intriguing characters, and a murder or two that needs solving. Her latest, Death on the Aegean Queen, finds protagonist Dotsy Lamb on a cruise ship in the Greek Islands searching for the killer of a tourist from Indiana and the ship's photographer. Dotsy's creator, Maria Hudgins, took some time to chat with The Big Thrill.

This is your third Dotsy Lamb mystery. The first two, Death of an Obnoxious Tourist and Death of a Lovable Geek, are set in Italy and Scotland, respectively. Your current novel, Death on the Aegean Queen, takes place on a cruise ship in the Greek Islands. How did you come to write what you call "travel" mysteries, and how did you develop the idea for this third book?

I love to go places. I'll hop on a plane and then ask, "Where are we going?" I don't visit a country with the purpose of writing a mystery about it. Sometimes, nothing strikes me, but when it does, I use the setting as part of the story. I did take a cruise around the Greek Islands a few years ago, but the idea for Death on the Aegean Queen came to me following TV coverage of a newlywed man who disappeared from a cruise ship on his honeymoon. The novel itself bears no further resemblance to that news story.

It was surprise to learn you were once a high school science teacher. How and why did you make the leap from science to literature?

I don't know why, but there's a strong connection between science and mystery, isn't there? In both, you're looking for answers to things you don't understand.

I love the quotes on the left side of each page of your website, www.mariahudgins.com! What's your all time favorite quote, and why?

I try to follow J. D. Salinger's advice to think of the book you'd most like to read, then "You just sit down and shamelessly write the thing yourself . . ."

You also mention on your website that you and Dotsy share a trait: Neither of you tolerates injustice very well. Does this drive your writing? How does it play a part?

It's the whole point, isn't it? I can't stand to think of someone getting away with murder. The only thing worse is someone being convicted of a murder they didn't do. That gives me the willies.

What has been most surprising to you about being a published author?

How much you have to hype yourself. It makes me uncomfortable, but as my mother used to say, "He that tooteth not his own horn the same shall not be tooted." I used to think that was really in the Bible.

Which writers do you believe have influenced your writing the most? Why?

Truman Capote, Agatha Christie, Graham Greene. These are the ones I'm most aware of influencing me. The thing they have in common is that they all write so smoothly you can forget you're reading and loose yourself in the story.

What's next for Maria Hudgins and Dotsy Lamb?

I'm working on a mystery set in the Swiss Alps. Dotsy's son is getting married there and he wants his whole family together. This puts Dotsy, her ex-husband, and his new wife in the same isolated Alpine chalet.

Julie Compton is the author of the critically acclaimed legal thriller, TELL NO LIES, and the recently released RESCUING OLIVIA, which Kirkus called "a pleasing hybrid of modern-day fairy tale and contemporary thriller." She lives and writes near Orlando. To learn more, go to www.julie-compton.com.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft: Perspective in Fiction; A Gift, Not a Curse

2010-05-24T19:23:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Write By You blog

One of the most challenging (maddening?) techniques for new writers to master is perspective, also known as Point of View. Although POV is a very basic tool in fiction, few new writers (and even some veterans) have a clear sense of how to create it, control it, or use it to the advantage of their stories. As a result many authors throw up their hands at even bothering to think of whose perspective will work best for any particular scene, which character deserves to be in control, and how POV shifts can be most smoothly carried out.

The result of ignoring these questions is often a story that is difficult to follow and feels out of control to the reader, the agent, an editor. When the author has no idea through whose eyes we are viewing a scene, the reader will sense an unnerving detachment in the writing. And this leads to a loss of interest in the characters as well as in the drama being played out before us.

So, how do we establish perspective then keep it consistent throughout a short story or novel?

First, we need a game plan. Will your story best be served by developing it through the experiences of just one character, or do you need more than one character to show the scenes you envision? If one character will do, then all you need to decide upon is will you use first person ("I"), or third person (he/she), as the voice of the storyteller. If you need several characters to adequately tell your story, then you will choose which characters are the best ones for viewing the drama as it unfolds.

An important point to remember is that the more POV's you select, and the more jumping around between heads, the weaker the reader's connection will be with any one character. Therefore, it's to your advantage as the author to keep the number of perspectives limited, which will allow your reader to bond with one central character, to really care about this paper person and want to follow him/her to the end of the story.

Finally, once you've chosen your POV character(s) decide on a plan for timing the shifts in perspective. Although some authors have mastered the omniscient (all knowing) perspective in which we as readers can see everything going on in the story and hear the thoughts and reactions of virtually any character, this can be very tricky for the author…and if omniscient is done badly, the plot will be nearly impossible for the reader to follow.

So for a strong and effective story plan, limit your POV characters, then decide where your POV shifts will fall. If you change perspectives at a scene break, or at a chapter break, your reader will have a much easier time understanding in whose head he's supposed to be.

Does this mean that you should think through your POV for a story before you start writing? Well…uh, yeah. It does. Planning your perspective, just as you outline the basic plot and choose your characters carefully, can mean the difference between a story that feels sharp, reads like the work of a pro, and is easy to follow—and one that unravels at the seams as the reader struggles through chapter after confusing chapter. But the good news is, even if you've already written your story without consciously analyzing your perspective, you can still dive back into revisions and find ways to focus the POV through one or another of your main characters in each scene.

You'll love what fine tuning that POV focus does for your fiction! Happy writing, Kathryn

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Sample The Thrill: Dead in the Water by Meredith Cole

2010-05-21T22:09:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Fans of well-written, cleverly plotted amateur detective novels are in for a treat; Meredith Cole, author of Posed For Murder, has written a second novel in her series featuring art photographer Lydia McKenzie. Dead In The Water will be released May 11.

Posed For Murder won the St. Martin's Minotaur/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition, and was an Agatha Nominee for Best First Novel. In Cole's first book, her protagonist is holding an exhibition of film noir style pictures which depict a series of cold cases involved murdered women. When one of her models is found murdered and posed in the same style as Mckenzie's photograph, McKenzie - who works as a Girl Friday for a detective agency during the day - becomes embroiled in the murder investigation.

In Dead In The Water, Cole says, "Lydia is now taking portraits of prostitutes on the waterfront, and one of them ends up a floater in the East River."

In addition to writing her mystery series, Cole has written and directed several films, teaches writing and is a wife and mother. To find out more about Meredith Cole, visit http://www.culturecurrent.com/cole/author.html

I see that you went to Smith College where you majored in Women's Studies and minored in film. Did you take any writing courses, either in high school or college, or was that a self-taught skill?

Before I could actually write, I dictated songs and stories to my mother to write down for me. I can't really remember a time when I didn't write. Over the years, I've taken classes, participated in critique groups, and read many books on writing. They've all been helpful to varying degrees, and now I teach writing (at a writing center and at UVA in the fall). But one of the best ways to become a good writer is to spend hours, days and years doing it. Classes can't replace that time or give you a shortcut to finding your own voice.

Who were your favorite authors as a child?

I have so many favorite authors -- it's hard to pick. I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Kate Seredy, Beverly Cleary, E.B. White, and Madeleine L'Engle. We had a library in the small town near where I grew up, and the librarian, Louise Holt, let us take out as many books as we wanted. I dedicated Dead in the Water to Louise and to all the librarians out there who are forced to do more with less funding these days. They are my heroes.

What are you working on now? What's coming up next?

I'm working on book number three right now, tentatively called An Artful Death. It's a Real Estate mystery. Lydia is working for a landlord who is trying to get rid of illegal tenants, and one of the tenants is murdered. She suspects that the landlord did it, so she starts investigating.

I'd love to know about your daily writing process - do you set a certain amount of time aside every day to write? Do you have a certain number of words that you assign yourself? How do you find uninterrupted time to write as the mother of a young child?

I'm much better at writing in the morning, and I used to never write at night. Since becoming published, I've had to adjust my routine to get everything done (revisions, drafts, marketing). I get up at 5:30 AM everyday to write before everyone in my house gets up, and I'll often write again at night when my son is in bed. I also work as a copywriter, so I can't devote my entire day to my fiction quite yet. When I'm rushing to finish a book, I give myself goals and deadlines, but I try to just be pleased that I'm making progress.

Do you write an outline of your book before you start, or just go with the flow? ("Plotter" or "Pantser"?)

I'm definitely a plotter. Before I start a book, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out the story. My outline very rough, and it's certainly not final (there's always room for changes and surprises), but I need to know where I'm going before I start. Also, my writing schedule requires that I pick up and put down my first draft quite a lot. If I already have a note about what's coming up in my next scene, then I'm able to pick up where I left off much more easily.

How long did it take you to write your first book? Your second book?

My first book took about two years to write. I think my second book took about a year and half, but it's hard to measure exactly. I keep hoping I'm going to get faster!

In your first book, Posed For Murder, you thank members of the New York Police Department for helping you out with information about police procedure. How did you go making that first contact with them? Did you sit down and interview the officers in person? Did you have a list of specific questions that you wrote up before meeting with them?

After 9/11, it became very difficult to get access to the police department in New York. I tried reaching out to some detectives in my Brooklyn precinct. They were willing to talk, but said I had to get permission from headquarters. When I called the NYPD, they told me I could only talk to a retired police detective but never gave me the name of one. Lucky for me, I met a retired police officer in my MWA chapter who was willing to answer a list of questions I had prepared and emailed to him. Eventually I met a couple of current detectives through friends (and who asked to remain anonymous) who were willing to answer questions as they came up.

What drew you to the mystery genre in particular?

When I was thirteen, I went on a trip to Europe with my mother. The only books I could find in English that I liked to read were by Agatha Christie. My father is English, and I was fascinated with English culture and society. I loved the sense of order in the books, and enjoyed trying to figure out the puzzle. I read everything she wrote, and then moved on to other mystery authors.

When I got pregnant with my son, I didn't think I was going to be returning to a film set anytime soon with a small baby. I decided to do something a little more flexible, and started my first novel. It seemed natural to write a mystery since that's a genre I've always enjoyed reading.

Who are some of your favorite authors in that genre?

I read everything by Ruth Rendell, Laura Lippman, Laurie King, Ed McBain, Katherine Hall Paige, Dick Francis, Robert Parker, and so many more. It's been amazing to meet so many authors since I started going to mystery conventions, and I know my list of favorites will continue to grow.

How did you go about seeking an agent? How did that process go? (Did you send a query letter and then the agent request to see your full manuscript, etc.?)

I sent out queries and partials for about a year, and got rejected by quite a few agents. A few told me that they didn't see a market for my kind of book, meaning they really didn't know who would buy it. The traditional mystery market has really shrunk a lot over the past few years. After I won the SMP/Malice Domestic Best Traditional Mystery Competition and had a publishing deal, a friend asked if I would be interested in talking to her agent. Her agent contacted me to ask for a copy of my manuscript. I sent it to her, and two days later she called me to say she'd like to work with me.

How did you decide on a career for your heroine, Lydia McKenzie?

I loved the idea of a photographer solving crimes. Photographers are so observant, and they often see things that others miss. I made her an art photographer because I wanted her involved in the Williamsburg art scene.

One problem with amateur sleuth novels is that you have to give your heroine a reason to be investigating. Every artist needs a day job, so I gave Lydia one as an administrative assistant to two private eyes. I figured that job would give her a few skills, and give her a reason to be investigating.

Dana Granger is an award-winning former newspaper reporter who lives in Florida with her family. She is currently working as a freelancer writer, writing a YA thriller, and pursuing a career in emergency medicine.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate the Craft: The Glories, and Perils, of Research

2010-05-17T21:33:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Thriller Guy blog

What Is Thriller Guy Reading?

Out last month from Tor, Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice teaming up again with Red Dragon Rising: Shadows of War. This is military adventure at its finest. There's little time wasted on complex characterization or scene setting, instead the authors cut straight to the action. It's 2014, gas in the US costs $14.39 a gallon and the recession continues unabated. China decides to invade Vietnam then take over the rest of Asia; the US has to step in to save the world. In no time at all the missiles, bombs and bullets are flying. If you're interested in the genre, these guys are among the best.

AJ Update.

As a reminder or for first-time viewers, TG is shepherding a first-time novelist, AJ, as he begins a thriller. Here's a sliver of his comment on the blog below: “Part of what does slow me down is the tons of research I find myself diving into on every little aspect of the story. There are some procedural things that I needed to find out, which makes other questions come up, which leads to new ideas, etc.”

TG loves doing research for a novel. The subject is always a place, time or concept that he's interested in, so what can beat whiling away hours on the Internet, in bookstores and libraries? Nothing. Certainly not writing, the painful act of putting words on paper. TG's suggestion is to do a small amount of research while you're getting your concept together, making sure things will work, then doing your outline to get the story down, go back and do any specific research you need for your first several chapters and then START WRITING. Everyone's schedule is different, but if you've got all day to write, a solid four hours in the morning, followed by a couple of hours rewriting what you did the day before followed by another couple of hours of research is a good day's work. A ratio of 4:2:2. If you're squeezing the writing in around a day job, try to stick with the ratio, even though your time will be shorter; splitting the various aspects up over several days if need be.

Research will suggest new lines of attack, new plot twists, new characters and sometimes entirely new directions. It is (usually) wise to follow these leads; beware of thinking that because it means going back and rewriting what has already been written to make the new material fit, that it will be too much work and not be worth it. This is a mistake. Plots, characters and concepts grow because they are fed new material, either from your own brain where you make it up or from outside sources. Research, in other words. You will be amazed how your book will grow from what you will come to see as the paltry, spindly little thing it was when it was first conceived, to the big, strong bruiser it will become when it is finished.

Another Useful Book.

At the other end of the spectrum from Zuckerman's, How to Write the Blockbuster Novel is the newly published, Talking About Detective Fiction, By P.D. James. TG has not had the time to read this, but it's obviously going to have some good stuff in it. Everything that P.D. James writes has good stuff in it. Perhaps some kind soul out there might find a copy of this and review it for us on these pages? For a look at the first chapter, go here.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft!: The Art of the Soft Sell

2010-05-10T18:14:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the A Newbie's Guide to Publishing blog

Writers suck at selling.

It's understandable. Most writers are better at expressing themselves on paper than in person. They tend to be shy, or introverted, or lacking confidence, or even lacking basic social skills.

Put a writer in a situation where he is forced to sell the books he spent so many hours creating, and many conflicting emotions boil to the surface.

I've seen writers at booksignings, and conventions, and fairs, sitting behind stacks of their novels, and I can read their thoughts:

I don't want to be here.
Why won't anyone buy anything?
This is humiliating.
This isn't why I became a writer.
Doesn't anyone know I'm here?
The organizers really screwed this event up.
Don't I have fans?
It's the publisher's job to sell books, not mine.
I'm bored.
I stink at this.
Why do people keep saying no?
I hate pimping myself.
It's the booksellers job to sell books, not mine.
I can't sell a book to save my life.
I'm petrified.
No one likes me.
I'm exhausted.
I'm not a salesman, I'm an artist.
I hate being pushy.
Why is everyone ignoring me?
If I get asked where the bathroom is one more time, I'm leaving.

So these writers avoid doing events where they're forced to sell books. They believe they aren't good at it, and it's much easier to give up than to learn a new skill set which will help them succeed.
The fact is, pretty much anyone can handsell books. Booksignings don't have to be traumatic failures. I've blogged extensively about this before HERE, so I'm not going to repeat myself. Instead, I'm going to offer some suggestions based on things that I've learned about human nature.
Selling is Flirting

Going up to a stranger in a bar and saying, "Wanna f***?" isn't the best strategy for success. It might work occasionally, but you'll annoy more people than you entice.
The secret to getting anyone interested in you, whether it is as a date or as a purchase, is pretty straightforward.

1. Make eye contact and smile.
The way you look and act will give people a silent signal that you're friendly and approachable. If you're well groomed and dressed, and your body language shows you're relaxed, non-threatening, and interested, then you're already halfway there.

2. Ask questions to develop a common ground.
If someone is in a bookstore, or at a writing conference, chances are they're there because they like books. There are a hundred questions you could ask, from "Enjoying the conference?" to "Do you like thrillers?" Keep asking questions until you get more than monosyllabic answers. The secret to drawing a person out is finding what they truly want to talk about. And everyone has something they want to talk about.

3. Sugarcoat your pitch.
The secret to selling is to make it seem like you aren't selling. No one likes being sold. Luckily, you aren't there to sell books. You're there to meet people who are actively looking for the types of books that you write. The key is to find out what they like, and make them aware your books fit the bill.

4. Make physical contact.
The easiest way to do this is to hand them a copy of the book, or hand them a flyer or bookmark. A handshake is usually welcome too. The impact of physical touch is powerful, and connects us as human beings more than anything else does.

5. Make it personal for them, but not for you.
During those seconds or minutes you're with a potential buyer, they should feel like they're the center of your universe. But because more people say no than yes, you can't actually let them be the center of your universe, because the constant rejection will tear you apart. If someone has no interest in you or your book, you can't take it personally. You also can't take it personally if someone really gets a huge thrill out of talking to you. This is a vicarious relationship, no emotional investment required or desired.

6. Learn to recognize interest.
Some (most) people don't want to be bothered with you, or your book. This doesn't mean they're horrible people, and it doesn't mean you suck. Almost every person has developed defenses to ward off annoying sales pitches. Avoiding eye contact, ignoring you, offering clipped or rude replies, sneering---these are all consumer equivalents to a rattlesnake shaking his tail. Let them pass and seek out someone more receptive. You're not there to waste time, yours or theirs. You're there to meet people who will love your writing. After you've shaken off the fear and tried this for a few hours, you can get pretty good at sizing up who is will give your books a shot.
How does this work in real life? Here are some pastiches drawn from the thousands of times I've done this. Each of these is 100% true.

Example #1 - The Browser
Our hero (me) is standing next to a huge pile of his books, by the front entrance of the bookstore. A man walks in, ignores me (most people do), and walks straight to the New Releases where he picks up James Patterson's latest. I walk up to him, arms at my sides, holding my newest novel.
ME: Patterson fan?
MAN: Hmm? Oh, yeah.
ME: I love the Alex Cross series. Do you have a favorite?
MAN: No, I pretty much read everything he writes.
ME: Do you like other thriller writers?
MAN: I like Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Lee Child.
ME: (smiling) I love Lee Child. He blurbed my second book.
MAN: You're a writer?
ME: (holding up my book) Yep. This is me. My books are a lot like Patterson's, with the action of Child. They're about a Chicago cop named Jack Daniels. Fast reads, a lot of dialog, a lot of suspense. (hands the book to the man)
MAN: Which one is the best?
ME: The latest one is the best. But it's a series, and a lot of people like to start at the beginning. It goes Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini. You're sensing the theme.
MAN: I used to drink Rusty Nails in college.
ME: Where'd you go to school?
MAN: U of I.
ME: I used to party down at that campus, in the 90's.
MAN: (walks over tot he table, picks up Whiskey Sour) This is your first?
ME: That's it. If you're interested, I'd love to sign a copy for you.
MAN: Let's do it. (hands me the book.)
ME: Can I make it out to you?
MAN: Me. My name is Ryan.
ME: Hi, Ryan. I'm JA. (shake his hand, then sign his book "Ryan, Don't Read and Drive, JA") Thanks, Ryan. You'll like it. I promise. And since I have a character named Jack Daniels (I sign a coaster and hand it to him) it's a law that I have to give out drink coasters.
MAN: Thanks. (goes to register to buy my book, the new James Patterson forgotten)

Example #2 - The Interested Party
Our hero (me again) is at a multi-author event where we're all lined up at a table, waiting for people to approach us. Some folks do, but the majority of the customers are at the bookseller tables, or wandering the room.
I get up and walk around, introducing myself and passing out signed coasters. Then I head for the bookseller table and see a woman staring at one of my novels.
ME: I've heard that guy sucks.

WOMAN: (looks at me, then my nametag, then smiles) You're the author.
ME: (holding out hand) JA Konrath, nice to meet you. (shakes) What's your name?
WOMAN: Mary.
ME: Do you like thrillers, Mary?

WOMAN: I read a little bit of everything.

ME: Then you'll love me. My books are funny, like Janet Evanovich or Carl Hiaasen, but they also have some scary parts, like James Patterson when he wrote his own books. Who do you read?
WOMAN: I love Evanovich. My whole family loves her.
ME: Me too. I haven't read Thirteen yet, but I read the other twelve. Is it worth picking up?
WOMAN: I liked it. I laughed a lot.

ME: Does she finally choose between Ranger and Morelli?
WOMAN: No. That drives me nuts.

ME: I agree. But would you recommend it?

WOMAN: It's not as funny as some of her earlier books, but it's worth reading.

ME: My books are funnier than Janet's.

WOMAN: Really?

ME: (handing her a book) It's about a female cop named Jack Daniels. Her personal life's a train wreck, but she's really good at her job. Lot's of humor. If this book doesn't make you laugh, you can mail it back to me and I'll send you a check for seventeen thousand dollars.

WOMAN: (laughing) You sold me.

ME: Great! Can I sign a copy to Mary, or is this for someone in your family?

Example #3 - The Reluctant Fan
Our hero (moi) has just finished speaking at some event, and it went well. People laughed in the right places, and several people approach me afterward.

FAN: I love your books.

ME: Thanks!

FAN: I get them at the library.
ME: I love libraries.

FAN: I do too. But sometimes there's a waiting list. I hate waiting. When is the new one coming out in paperback?

ME: In about eleven months.

FAN: I'm a huge fan. Can you just give me a copy?

ME: I wish I could. But these books don't belong to me. Does anyone in your family like to read?

FAN: Everyone does. My mom loves your books.

ME: You could always buy the copy for her, then you can read it beforehand. Does she have a birthday coming up?

FAN: Yes. Next month.
ME: (hands over a hardcover) A personalized book makes a great gift. And you can always tell her you spent six hours in line to see me, and got the last one.

FAN: (smiling) Okay, you sold me. Her name is Andrea.

ME: With an "A"?

Example #4 - The Gawker
Our hero is in the middle of pitch, and a few folks have stopped to watch what's going on. First, I step back, inviting them into the circle. I hand each person a coaster, making eye contact without pausing in the spiel. The spiel is something along the lines of:
"I'm an author, and I write thrillers about a cop named Jack Daniels."

If the gawkers are mostly women, I mention that Jack is short for Jacqueline. If they're mostly men, I leave that part out.
"The books are laugh outloud funny. If you're drinking something while reading, it will come out your nose. But they're also scary--they'll make you lock your doors and windows. Similar to James Patterson, but with more jokes than Janet Evanovich."
I pick up some of my titles and hold them up.

"They're all named after drinks. There are four in the series so far, and a fifth is coming out next year. I'd love to sign some copies for you. They make great gifts, and great investments. After you get a signature it will sell for triple on eBay."
I hand out some books so people can take a look. A few of them ask me to sign them immediately.

Now let's see if I can anticipate the backlash to this article by placing myself in the shoes of skeptics using a whiny Q & A format.

Q: I'd never do this. I'm a writer, not a huckster like you.
A: I believe that people will enjoy my books. In order for them to do so, they first have to read them. I'm the most qualified person to make people aware of this. I also have the most vested interest in this happening.

Q: I hate sales. Salesmen are pushy, slick liars who want to take your money by preying on your insecurities and weaknesses.
A: Don't think of it as sales. Think of it as finding new fans. Which you'll do. You'll also impress the booksellers, and maybe even your publisher. And, for the record, try not to let your publisher hear your views on selling. Personally, I think sales people are the coolest folks on the planet, and I fully appreciate my reps.

Q: I couldn't do what you do.
A: Yes you could. You simply don't want to, and have made up excuses for yourself instead of trying.
Q: I've tried, and I'm no good at it.
A: Try harder. Being lazy, afraid, or embarassed isn't a good reason to quit. Failure is a learning experience. Figure out what went wrong, then try to do better next time.

Q: Maybe you should write better books, and then they'd sell without you having to do this.
A: The best written book in the world will always sell more copies if the author promotes it.

Q: How often does this work?
A: It's possible to sell dozens of books to strangers during your visit, depending on foot-traffic and length of stay. I average one book sold for every eight people I approach.

Q: That doesn't seem worth my time.
A: Since 2004, I've handsold several thousand books. Every single time you sell a book to someone who wouldn't have otherwise discovered it, it's worth your time.

Q: Selling isn't my job. Writing is my job.
A: Being self-employed is like being the CEO of your own company. It's a really lousy CEO who focuses on production with total disgrard for who is buying the product. A better approach is to study every aspect of what your company does, and implement ways to improve things wherever possible.

Q: I know a lot of authors who sell a lot more books than you do, and they don't do any of this crap.
A: People win the lottery every day. That doesn't mean it's wise to invest your retirement savings in scratch-off tickets.

Q: How am I supposed to handsell books when I have a fulltime job/family/sick cat/hang nail/grandiose sense of entitlement/fear of public speaking/sweating disorder?
A: I don't know of any goal worth pursuing that doesn't involve hard work, sacrifice, and commitment. Becoming a writer isn't easy. Staying a writer is even harder. How hard you work at it tells a lot about how important it is to you.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads

2010-05-05T14:48:00.000-04:00

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads
Edited by: David Morrell & Hank Wagner

Who better to judge the best thrillers of all time,
then thriller writers? This compilation explores the masters of word and language. Ancient epics like Beowulf are examined in the microcosm of modern thrillers and how these early wordsmiths are stilling teaching writers.

Littered with wonderful anecdotes from classics like Shelley’s Frankstein, Stoker’s Dracula, and Shakespeare’s Macbeth today’s best writers give insight into the genres sometimes dark, macabre past. Many early writers, and a few modern ones had their own demon’s that tortured their souls and those demons manifested themselves in the tomes they created.

A thoughtful voyage into the characters we’ve come to love and hate. Thrillers have given us bigger-then-life heroes, that faced insurmountable odds with tough resilience, brains, and determination, and so many of these fictional heroes have become icons. From spies, assassins, and cold war operatives to odd-ball screw-up’s with a penchant for always being in the wrong place at the wrong time thriller readers, and writers will find familiar favorites and new discoveries.

Today’s masters of the thriller genre give their insights, praise their mentors, and share their inspirations.

These are the books that scared us, convinced us humanity was saved or condemned, gave us insight into the dark places of the human mind, cast light on the human condition, and redeemed us, these are thrillers.

Learn More

Sample the Thrill : Fortuna by Michael Stevens

2010-05-01T13:08:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

In Michael Stevens's Fortuna, Stanford computer science major Jason Lind, longing for escape from his mundane existence, signs up to play Fortuna, an online role-playing game set in Renaissance Florence.

From the first, fateful mouse click, Jason tumbles into the vibrant, lush, and anonymous world of Fortuna. Swept up in this highly complex, highly addictive game of fame, fortune, and power, Jason quickly transitions from casual gamer to compulsive player.

What started as a great escape may be anything but, because in the world of Fortuna, it's not how you play the game; it's if you survive.

"Wild and addicting! I couldn't tear my eyes from Michael Stevens's masterpiece, a blend of high-tech computer games, gangsters, and medieval Florence that rivals a Steve Berry thriller for chill-inducing fun."
--Shane Gericke, national best-selling author of Cut to the Bone

"Welcome to the game. Is it a game? Or is it RL (real life)? Is there a clear distinction, or does one bleed into the other? Jason Lind must call on all of his incredible intellectual gifts to determine which intrigues and threats are 'in game' and which are RL. His life depends on it. Fortuna is a breakneck thriller unlike any you've ever read."
--D.P. Lyle, Edgar Award nominee and Macavity Award-winning author of Stress Fracture

Michael Stevens began his writing career in high school as a music columnist for the Vallejo Times Herald, his hometown newspaper.

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley as an English major, Michael served two years in the U.S. Army's Berlin Brigade, then began a career in high-tech marketing, first as a writer and later as a creative director and Silicon Valley ad agency executive. Concurrently, he managed the technical development and marketing of two successful software products. At present, Michael is a contributing editor for several high-profile web sites in the technology arena.

In addition to writing, Michael Stevens is a serious amateur musician who has produced four CDs. He lives in Berkeley, California, and at an undisclosed location in Second Life.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Sample the Thrill: The God of the Hive

2010-04-23T20:18:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

In The God of the Hive, award-winning author Laurie R. King has created another fascinating and engaging Mary Russell novel. For those not familiar with this series, I strongly recommend you cease your current activity and immediately introduce yourself to Mary Russell and her whirlwind life as Sherlock Holmes's young wife.

Russell and Holmes have worked together to solve the most perplexing of cases. Now, The God of the Hive picks up where The Language of Bees left off: with the duo and those they are protecting scattered to the winds, Scotland Yard after them from one side and a shadowy faction of the government from the other--in rickety airplanes above Scotland and on boats in the North Sea; in hidden rooms above London shops and rustic woodland cabins.

Chased by those who want them dead, chasing answers to deadly mysteries, the consequences of what they find will circle the globe, and involve a man with a curious identity and a dangerous past. With the God of London's hive watching them, it will take more than deduction if they ever want to see each other alive again.

Laurie R. King writes as if painting a spectacular wall mural. The reader is immediately drawn into the 1920's where the era and landscape are vivid and soaked with sound and scents. Laurie's rich and diverse background that encompasses degrees in theology, extensive world travel and the ability to wear a carpenter's belt and actually know what to do with the tools attached, brings a level of creativity and world building to her novels that immediately captures the reader and promises an afternoon of pure escapism.

Booklist (starred): Using short chapters and wielding her virtual pen like a burnished sword, King allows readers to race through this gloriously complex second half of last year's Language of Bees....How Mary, Holmes, and Mycroft solve [their] conundrum--usually while separated from one another--is delineated in resplendent prose. The nascent and rocky development of air travel and international telephone lines; the effect of a winsome and intelligent child on perhaps overintellectual adults; descriptions of locales and places via scent, texture, and color--all of it makes for utterly absorbing reading.

I had the pleasure of conversing with Laurie and asked her what surprises lay in store for Mary Russell in The God of the Hive and where might we next meet up with the unflappable wife of Sherlock Holmes.

"Poor Mary, she always hopes to be permitted to spend some quiet time with her books, when -bam- another case drops down on them. Usually involving someplace cold. The 2011 novel (which will make three Russell's in a row, unusual for me) finds her headed for Lisbon with a mad troupe of actors making a silent film about The Pirates of Penzance, with real pirates. Never a dull moment..."

Take a quick moment to visit Laurie's website. You won't be disappointed. Not only is there an enticing excerpt from The God of the Hive but also a picture of Laurie with the Dali Lama.

Julie Korzenko is a senior paralegal at a boutique domestic law firm in Atlanta. Her first book DEVIL'S GOLD hit the shelves in March of 2009. Publisher's Weekly stated that "Fans of Alex Kava, Shannon, McKenna, and Suzanne Brockmann will hope to see more of Cassidy and Jake." She is currently wrapping up its sequel ANGEL FALLS.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft: Influence and Authority Book Marketing

2010-04-19T18:51:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Future Perfect Publishing blog

There are many ways to do marketing and promotions but I want to focus on two: influence and authority

Influence marketing happens when you promote yourself indirectly. You influence someone with your style, your behavior and how much they like you. It is “personality” promotion. You are so well liked or respected that people want to be like you or associated with you in some way. That means buying what you recommend because they believe in and/or like you.

Authority marketing happens more directly. There are people out there looking for what you are selling but they can’t buy it if they don’t know it exists. Or they may not know they need it unless you can convince them they need it. So you advertise to let people know about your book, and give them all the information they need to make a purchase. Or at least link to that information within your ad.

Here are examples of each type of marketing used to promote the same book.

Influence Marketing

This could be a blog or Facebook note.

“When I wrote this book I was going through a very difficult time. I researched for months both in resources and in my heart before I ever touched pen to paper. My sister died of breast cancer and I wanted anyone reading my book that is going through the same thing to know they are not alone. Someone is here who understands.”

Notice that at no time was there a direct sale of the book. Nothing in the blog says “Buy my book”. What it does though is create a personality and an environment around the book’s theme. You feel connected to this person because they are willing to share something of themselves. This invites comments. It invites us to care and to want to be involved with the author of the blog.

Authority Marketing

My Sister is Dying and the World Keeps Turning takes the reader inside the final stages of death for living sister, the one who will be left behind.

A true story of love, faith and acceptance with a forward by renown psychologist Dr. Emen Touchstone, author of Final Stages, Final Goodbyes: Hospice For Survivors.

Note the differences in the two styles of marketing. With the second blog we get more of a commercial feel. We know exactly what the name of the book is. We see that a doctor with a well-known background in the field is involved with the book. This doesn’t invite questions as openly or as intimately as the first blog. There isn’t a question that a book is being promoted in the second blog.

Which is the best way to promote a book?

There is a time and a place for everything. If you have a blog, website or profile on MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, etc. and you use that to promote yourself or your work, then you are an authority there and can use Authority Marketing in that space.

If you are in an online community which you use primarily as a social platform, you should use Influence Marketing as your promotional strategy.

How do I know which to use?

Here are the questions you should ask yourself to determine which strategy is best fo you:

What is the expectation of the readership of this profile/blog?
Why are they there?
Why do they think YOU are there?

You need to be honest in whatever it is you are doing. If you are there to pitch your work that’s fine. Just be sure people know that. If you are there to make friends and be social, you can let people know you will be releasing information about your work occasionally. Then you have established why you are there and what you are doing. Everyone knows what to expect.

But, if you act like you are there to socialize and make friends and all you do is promote yourself you are setting yourself up for trouble. Think of it like a spam e-mail: your subject line says “I’m here to make friends!” but your content is all about making a sale.

If visitors know you are going to sell something and they still come to your site then they are interested in what you have to sell. It is acceptable to use an authoritative marketing tool to communicate with them. The expectation is set. There is no trickery or subterfuge. They can still trust you because you are doing what you said you would be doing.

A great book on this subject is Trust Agents by Chris Brogran and Julien Smith (http://www.trustagent.com/) that can help you better understand the need for building trust online and strategies for doing that. If you are marketing online I highly recommend this book.

Which is better to help sell my books?

With all the hype about online marketing and social media technology, it is easy to overlook the most important element of marketing: what does my audience want?

Know your readers. Take the time to research your audience. Ask yourself these questions:

How will they benefit from your book?
What would inspire word-of-mouth about your book?
How do they like to be communicated to?

From those answers you should be able to identify whether to use Influence Marketing or Authority Marketing. Or a combination of the two – e.g. use Authority Marketing on your website and Influence Marketing on your social profile. Just remember to let people know what to expect wherever they “meet” you online.

We are an accumulation of our words and deeds. How do your readers see you?

Sheila Clover English, the CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, is a pioneer in book video production, marketing and distribution for authors and publishers.

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

2010-04-13T18:34:00.005-04:00

Chevy Stevens is the debut author of Still Missing (St. Martin’s Press, July 2010). Rights have been sold to Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, and Australia. Brilliance Audio bought audio rights for Still Missing and Chevy’s next two novels, and St. Martin’s has sold book club rights.

Carla: Chevy, your story is about a realtor, Annie O’Sullivan, who is abducted and held for a year, as told in narration to her therapist once she’s freed. It’s a fascinating concept. How did you dream it up?

Chevy: When I was a Realtor, I spent hours at open houses reading books or scaring myself with horrible thoughts of what could happen to me. One of the most terrifying scenarios began with being abducted. That led to other thoughts like who would abduct me and what it would be like to try to fit back in your life after such a brutal experience. Was it even possible? The idea hovered in the back of my mind for a while, then one day I heard my main character’s voice telling her story to a “shrink.” I walked up to my office and just started writing. The basic structure and story line has never changed from that very first draft.

Carla: How long was it from that point until you felt it was ready for submission?

Chevy: Almost four years.

Carla: What made you stick with this particular story? Did you always want to be a writer?

Chevy: When I was a child growing up on a ranch I dreamed of being a writer and carried books around with me everywhere, usually with a cat under the other arm and a dog following behind. There were a few attempts at early novels, one featuring a detective mouse and another where a wife poisons her abusive husband—obviously I had an early tendency toward thrillers! I took writing in school, but I planned to be an artist. Then I started working in business and got sidetracked.

Shortly before the idea of Still Missing came to me, I’d stayed on a remote gulf island and started writing a memoir. I didn’t stick with that piece, but I fell in love with writing. Then I started dreaming in prose. I would see sentences landing on a blank page. Not long after the idea for Still Missing came to me. When I started writing, I became consumed with Annie’s story and connected with it deeply on a personal level. Although the exact events that happened to Annie did not happen to me, her story is the extreme version of my life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father. Annie’s emotional growth after her abduction is very similar to what I went through during the process of writing this book.

As to why I stuck with it for so long--that’s a hard one to explain. Despite the slim odds of being published and the fear of failure--especially when I left Real Estate in the middle of a hot market!--it was something I had to do. It wasn’t a choice, it was a compulsion.

Carla: What do you hope your reader will get out of Still Missing?

Chevy: I hope they see that it’s okay to talk about your pain, that there’s no shame in feeling emotions and being vulnerable. I hope this book gives people permission to tell their stories and the courage to reach for happiness.

Carla: What was the most challenging aspect of writing this story?

Chevy: This is a very emotional story so I had to dig deep into my own fears and pain. I often struggled to avoid going “there,” but when I did it was always enormously cathartic. From a technical perspective, it was difficult to tell this story authentically and share the nightmare that Annie endured--that women endure every day--in a way that wasn’t too horrific for people to read. It’s a fine line and I tried my best to be sensitive to the subject matter I was working with. It was as hard for me to write, as I’m sure it will be for many to read. But I feel the book’s message is important, these are things that need to be talked about.

The book’s structure--told in sessions with Annie’s therapist--allowed me to dive into Annie’s psyche, but it was confining at times and very challenging to show her growth as she progressed through her therapy. I spent several months working just on the session intros, trying to get Annie’s voice to reflect her emotional state at each stage of her healing.

Carla: What was the easiest?

Chevy: I probably had the most fun with Annie’s sarcasm. I have a very dry sense of humor and it was fun writing some of her lines!

Carla: It’s unusual for a debut novel to garner so much international interest. What do you feel is its particular appeal?

Chevy: Although Annie went through a horrendous experience--every woman’s worst nightmare--she survived. Her spirit is shattered, but she doesn’t want her pain to win. Somehow, through it all, she’s trying to rebuild her life and find happiness again. That’s a human desire people can understand all over the world. There are many victims of violence and abuse who are struggling to heal. I believe Still Missing says that it is possible. You can overcome. You may never be the same person again, but you can end up a stronger person.

Carla: Could you describe an average writing day?

Chevy: I’m up by 6:30am and have my first cup of tea while I return e-mails and read blogs--all that good Internet junkie stuff! Then it’s out for a walk with my dog, Annie. When the second cup of tea is in hand, I start writing. I can’t retain focus for long periods of time so there are usually several tea, e-mail, and puppy cuddle/playtime breaks. And once in a while I make it to the gym! But that’s mainly just damage control.

Carla: If you could pick one author to meet, who would it be?

Chevy: If I were to pick one author, it would have to be Bryce Courtenay. The Power of One resonated with me in a way that no other book ever has, and I identified with his main character Peekay completely. He also has an incredible body of work and is just brilliant at capturing intricate family dynamics, usually playing out their stories in an incredible setting. His stories have strong themes of survival, which I really connect with.

Carla: Can you share anything about your next novel?

Chevy: I’d love to! Sara has a much different energy than Annie and it was interesting to see how that shaped the novel. Here’s a little teaser. Hope you like it!

"Sara discovers her biological father is an infamous killer who’s been hunting women every summer for over thirty years. She tries to come to terms with her horrifying parentage--and her fears that she’s inherited more than his looks--with her therapist, Nadine, who we first met in Still Missing. But Sara soon realizes the only thing worse than finding out your father is a killer is him finding out about you."

Carla Buckley is the debut author of The Things That Keep Us Here (Delacorte Press, 2010.)

Celebrate Craft: Hurtin' Heroes

2010-04-12T15:25:00.001-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the The Thriller Guy blog

All right, quick quiz: who's the prolific, (180 books) manly, adventurer/author pictured above? If you guessed Thriller Guy you're forgiven, it's an understandable mistake, but you're wrong. That's Lester Dent, author of the Doc Savage series, books that were also made into a radio show, movies and comic books. And which are still available today.

TG recently finished reading and reviewing an excellent thriller (sorry, contractually I cannot name this book for several months), where the hero had by page 67 been badly beaten up three times, stabbed and generally mistreated by friend and foe alike. After finishing the book, TG realized that these days most heroes are getting off pretty light when it comes to being on the receiving end of physical mayhem. Sure, there are exceptions like Ray Banks' characters and a few others, but most big-name authors are letting their guys off easy. They might pick up a flesh wound toward the end of a book, but generally they win all their fist fights and escape relatively unscathed after other attempts are made on their lives. It was not always thus.

When the young folk gather at TG's knee and ask for help with their cute little novels, TG always counsels: “Make the best possible characters and then do the worst possible things to them.” Actually, TG thinks he stole that line from John Irving, but John will never notice this little blog and he wouldn't care anyway. Actually, many years ago, John slept with one of TG's old girlfriends, but that's another story and TG never carries a grudge. (Big shout-out to John -- Still living in New Hampshire and writing about bears?)

Anyway, until recently heroes had to work hard and take a lot of punishment to come out on top of the villains. Lester Dent knew that, and Doc Savage, while fabulously tough and smart, took his lumps and more with every adventure. Note the torn shirt, which was de rigeur on all of this series' pulp covers. Doc wasn't a superhero, but, well, let's let Wikipedia do the explaining...

“Doc Savage's real name was Clark Savage, Jr.. He was a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and, as revealed in The Polar Treasure, a musician. A team of scientists assembled by his father deliberately trained his mind and body to near-superhuman abilities almost from birth, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, a mastery of the martial arts, and vast knowledge of the sciences. Doc is also a master of disguise and an excellent imitator of voices. "He rights wrongs and punishes evildoers." Dent described the hero as a mix of Sherlock Holmes' deductive abilities, Tarzan's outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy's scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln's goodness. Dent described Doc Savage as manifesting "Christliness." Doc's character and world-view is displayed in his oath, which goes as follows:

“Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.”

At this point, you may be saying to yourself, That's a very fine credo, but what the hell is the point here, TG? Sorry. The point is that Lester Dent wrote an instructive short essay on how to plot a 6000 word short story. It's a useful instruction for not just short story writers, but novelists as well. Perspective authors and professional authors alike would do well to read the essay and apply its lessons to their own writing, particularly Dent's repeated instructions on how to treat your hero: “Introduce the hero and swat him with a fistful of trouble.” “Shovel more grief onto the hero.” “A surprising plot twist in which the hero preferably gets it in the neck bad.” and again: “Shovel the difficulties more thickly upon the hero.”

So let's get with it, thriller writers; time to start beating the crap out of your heroes.

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

Sample the Thrill - Orange County Noir

2010-04-09T21:34:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Orange County, California, brings to mind the endless summer of sand and surf, McMansion housing tracts, a conservative stronghold, tony shopping centers where pilates classes are run like boot camp and real-estate values are discussed at your weekly colonic, and ice-cream parlors on Main Street, U.S.A., exist side-by-side with pho shops and taquerias. Orange County Noir takes you for a hardboiled tour behind the Orange Curtain where a reclusive rock star has lived way too long in his own head, a crooked judge uses the court for illicit means, a cab driver prowls the streets with more than the ticking meter on his mind, where cultures clash, housewives want more than the perfect grout cleaner, and nobody is who they seem to be.'

Back in 2004 Akashic published an anthology with stories set in a distinct neighbourhood or location within the city of the book. This first anthology was called Brooklyn Noir. As you can see from their website, the anthology garnered loads of awards and a series of anthologies were born; each one unique to the titular city and loaded with dark stories steeped in local knowledge. Since then there have been 36 other anthologies set as far afield as Paris, Dublin and more American cities than I can shake a stick at. And there are more planned with locations as diverse as India and Moscow to whet our appetites.

The latest in the series, and the reason for this article, is Orange County Noir edited by Gary Phillips. Gary is already well known to readers of this series as his stories appear in many of the Akashic anthologies. He has also co-edited other Noir anthologies but this is his first stint as editor of this particular series. Contributors to the anthology include Susan Straight, Robert S. Levinson, Rob Roberge, Nathan Walpow, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Dan Duling, Mary Castillo, Lawrence Maddox, Dick Lochte, Robert Ward, Gordon McAlpine, Martin J. Smith, and Patricia McFall.

Gary also contributes a story himself as an added bonus.

Gary keeps himself busy writing his Martha Chainey and Ivan Monk series as well as other stand alone novels. Monk is an African American Private Eye working in the Tinder Box that is LA. and Martha Chainey is a former showgirl who is now a courier for the corporate mob that runs modern Vegas.

His latest novel is Freedom's Fight set in WW2. This book is a riveting mystery set around three characters who find their lives in danger as they fight for a country that has not been kind to them. Gary also writes Angel Town for Vertigo where he brings his gritty expertise to the Graphic Novel format. All in all Gary is a busy man and, despite that, he set some time aside to talk to me about his latest anthology.

What can we expect from 'Orange County Noir'? Will it reflect your previous hopeful outlook among the ruins of the city or will it be darker?

Derek, that's a loaded question if ever there was one...especially from a horror writer. Ha. Okay, while I do explore the dark side of human frailties in my novels like The Jook and an upcoming novella, The Underbelly (about a semi-homeless Vietnam vet's search for a disabled buddy who's disappeared from Los Angeles' Skid Row), even my short story "The Performer" in Orange County Noir takes you on a walk on the wild side, I like to think I'm actually an upbeat guy. Though it must mean I have a gallows sense of humor.

I believe readers of Orange County Noir will enjoy the range of stories in the book from crooked judges to a lonely cab driver prowling the night to an older teacher who's run away with her now grown former students. Hmm, that does sound awfully bent doesn't it? Rest assured while the tales in the collection are gripping and gritty, they are laced with wry observations and sardonic asides to keep matters from being dour. As a writer who occasionally does editing of others' stories, I'm very pleased with the results in the anthology.

This is part of the Akashic Noir series that you have contributed to many times before, including one set in my own Dublin. The independent publishers have really shown the way to publishers highlighting niches that would otherwise be ignored. Do you feel there is still more they can do?

As the readers of The Big Thrill know, traditional publishing is undergoing many changes what with e-publishing, Kindle, podcasting and so on. It was also the case that there used to be a ratio of money a big house would spend on promoting a given writer commiserate with their advance. More and more, this is not the case these days, and this was before the Big Meltdown. Now I can't speak for other writers, but it's been my feeling for awhile that in-store book signings are going the way of the mastodon - sucked down in the mud of extinction. Fact I was talking with a writer friend the other day and she's paid a online promotion entity to "book" her on various blogs - a blog tour. She also works book club lists and what have you to promote her books.

Having said that, let me add Akashic works their asses off to promote their titles. They sent out ARCs of OC Noir to various online, print and electronic venues and have done follow-up with these outlets. In addition to some in-store signings, me and various mixes of the contributors are doping panels at book events, radio and looking to line up local TV too. But as we've discussed, online presence is so dominant and demanding now, it does seem a small hardworking press like Akashic as well as the larger publishers will be doing even more in terms of social media be it twittering, facebooking and so forth.

I want to add that even though I think in-store book signings are fading away, it is in the writer's interest to get to know your independent bookseller. Nothing beats the hand selling they can do. Plus, they're just good folks.

'Noir' has become such a generic term in recent times, do you feel we have lost the original feel or are we updating an old concept?

It seems both things are happening. Frankly speaking, noir to me means the characters are doomed in some way in their pursuit of, usually, some illicit goal. 'Noir' as a term has become something of a catch-all for a tough-minded story; hardboiled is not necessarily noir. But it's also the case I've noticed more "civilians" using the term and are curious to read books with the noir hook so on that level, that's a good thing. I suppose the lesson is for writers not to lose sight of what the term means, at least to themselves, and what kind of story that is to write.

I realise you have editing credits to your name but is this the first time you are both editor and contributor? How was the experience?

The reason to edit these anthologies is so you can include your own work. Heh. I've co-edited the Cocaine Chronicles for Akashic with Jervey Tervalon, the Darker Mask, an assortment of edgy prose super-hero stories with Chris Chambers, solo edited Politics Noir, and now this book. In each of those I contributed a story. Being the editor can seem to be advantageous because you can see what others have written but honestly, editor and writer are two different parts of my brain. I try as editor to offer suggestions to make a writer's story stronger but want to be careful about not imposing my style. As the writer, I bore down on what I want to tell in my story, not worrying about how othe4rs have done theirs. I either get feedback from my co-editor or from the in-house editors if they think something doesn't work in what I've written.

And then like every other writer I ignore the suggestions...just kidding.

Themed anthologies can be difficult to maintain both the theme and quality. What tricks have you learned and will you do it again?

Fortunately writers are a creative bunch so what trick is to hopefully coming up with a theme that a group of them find interesting and get excited enough to come up with an idea and crank out a story. But as editor sometimes it happens certain writers you court turn in a story that's not their best effort or off the mark. Sometimes you're able to communicate what's off or missing and an understanding is reached so the story gets improved and sometimes, well, you have to agree to disagree and they withdraw their short story.

What's next? Can we expect to see more novels like Freedom's Flight or a return to 'noir'?

Freedom's Fight was my historical novel about black soldiers in World War II. Really, it was about being inspired by my dad, Dikes, who saw action at Guadalcanal; his brother Norman who was part of the mop up action at D-Day; and my mom's brother, Oscar, who died in air combat over Memmingen, Germany as a Tuskegee airman. I'm a fan of Band of Brothers, hell the old Combat! TV show, and will no doubt watch the upcoming Pacific mini-series, but where are the filmic efforts about the all-black units that fought at the Battle of the Bulge? The 781st, all-black tankers, the Black Panthers. Or a mini-series about Sgt. Eddie Carter who spoke Chinese, fought in Chiang Kai-shek's army and with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade against the fascists in Spain and this was before being in WWII (chronicled in the non-fiction book, Honoring Sergeant Carter: A Family's Journey to Uncover the Truth About an American Hero by Allene G. Carter and Robert L. Allen)?

Tell us a little about your other novels and your graphic novel 'Cowboys'.

Okay, enough of the soap box rant. I've got a crime graphic novel upcoming from DC/Vertigo Comics I'm quite pleased with called Cowboys. The plot centers on an undercover cop starting at one end of an investigation unknowingly on a collision course with an undercover FBI agent on the other end of the case. The artist on the book was Brian Hurtt who is underrated, but a wonderful draftsman and storyteller. I'd like folks to also check out Bicycle Cop Dave, my ongoing webcomic that's subtitled, patrolling the dark side of gentrification. (http://fourstory.org/fiction/installment/all-right-sylvia/). Lastly, there's a novel about a gang lord's revenge called Kings of Vice I co-wrote with actor-rapper Ice-T due out this fall from Forge.

Where do you find the time to produce so much?

I'm just happy that, knock wood, at least for now I can find outlets for the stories I want to tell. Of course that means I get a lot of 'nos' to the occasional 'yes.' Sill, here's to the well not drying up for any of us.

As you will see from the above, Gary has a lot of material coming our way in the next few months. Cowboys will be out next year from DC's Vertigo line and, from what I've seen; it looks like it's going to be fantastic. For those of you interested in checking out Gary's other works you can find out everything you need to know at his website here, http://www.gdphillips.com/ or run out to your local bookstore and pick up his novels.

Orange County Noir is available through Akashic's web site or the usual retailers. It's also available in Kindle Format which makes it ideal for dipping into. Do yourself a favor and try it out and then be ready to pick up the back catalogue.

Derek Gunn lives in Dublin, Ireland with his wife and three children and is the author of four novels. His post-apocalyptic thriller series, Vampire Apocalypse, has been widely praised on both sides of the Atlantic in the genre media and it is published by Black Death Books. The three books in the series are; "A World Torn Asunder" (2006), "Descent into Chaos" (2008) and "Fallout" (2009). Derek also released "The Estuary", published by Permuted Press in 2009 which is available in Borders and Waldenbooks stores throughout the USA as well as from online booksellers.

Derek's first book is under option for film and an adaptation is currently in active development as a major movie. Also, the Graphic novel rights to Derek's VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE series have been picked up by a US indie publisher - the first graphic novel is due out in 2011. Visit his website at www.derekgunn.com

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft! - Plotting: May I please borrow a cup of plot, Mr. Shakespeare?

2010-04-05T19:47:00.001-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Write By You blog

It's been said that there are no new plots, that fiction writers can only tread the same ground that's been tread by others. On the other hand, editors frequently state at writers' conferences that they want to see fresh ideas. So what are writers to do? We know that plagiarism is a no-no. Yet, every few years someone is desperate enough (or stupid enough) to copy a published author's work, in whole or part, and put their own name on it, hoping no one will notice.

Well, of course, someone notices! And then the copier isn't only in legal hot water, they've branded themselves as a cheat, as a writer who isn't clever enough to come up with his/her own words. Where then do we draw the line? When is it okay to borrow and when does borrowing become plagiarism and a career destroyer?

First, copyright law is meant to protect the original writer's words—his art. But some elements of art are not copyrightable. Titles can't be owned. Neither can a plot (boy meets girl), an idea (Earth is visited by aliens), or a character type (the bimbo cheerleader) be protected from use by another author. It's the actual words, the writing itself that shouldn't be stolen, borrowed, or used without the author's permission. And, of course, no author is going to say that you can take their book and put your name on it. No, wait! I take that back. Some writers do just that. They are called ghostwriters. And they are paid well for delivering a book then keeping quiet about having written it for another person to claim, or for sharing the billing with a celebrity.

But we're not talking about ghostwriting. We're talking about your original novel or short story, and what may or may not be permitted legally and ethically. What if you love a title you've come up with and someone says, "Hey, you can't call your story Gone with the Wind, that's been used already." Well, legally you can call your book that. Titles are duplicated all the time, either intentionally or by accident. Your book may be a story about a modern-day balloonist who is lost on his round-the-world race. It's perfect! Plus you get the added kick from people recognizing the famous title, used in this different way. But if you want your Civil War saga to be taken seriously, you probably shouldn't reuse that particular book's title.

What about characters? Can I create a story about a clever amateur detective who uses clues that no one else even notices to solve puzzling crimes? Sure. Hundreds of writers have done so, each adding an original twist and interesting traits to their sleuth. Can I make my detective a sleuth who lives on Baker Street in London in an earlier century? Why not? Maybe I could create a new competitor for Sherlock Holmes. How many vampires roam the night-time pages of novels today? How many soldiers, cowboys, mountain climbers, or deep sea divers risk their lives for their comrades? But common sense says that borrowing the exact character as portrayed by an author who is alive and writing today isn't a nice thing to do. That author might reasonably object to your using his paper people to populate your story, that is if you actually use the same names, descriptions, and so forth. If you want to write a story using the classic Star Wars characters, for instance, and you're hoping to get it published, then you need the permission of the copyright holder to do so.

However, most of us who write find that we can come up with a title that we're reasonably happy with, and characters who will work well in our stories. What I hear most often as a complaint from new writers who come to me as students or mentoring clients is that they have trouble plotting. "I'm not smart enough to think up interesting plots." "My mind just doesn't work that way." "I want to write something really exciting that's never been done before, but I can't come up with anything really fresh!"

Well, here's a secret. Of all the writers who are publishing fiction today, most are not coming up with their own plots. Seriously. You say you can't come up with a good idea for a story? Fine. Look up one of your favorite authors, recent or deep in the past, and pick a story you particularly liked. Break it down. What happened to keep you turning pages? What was the central conflict? List the hurdles the hero/heroine had to overcome to resolve that conflict. Where was the story set? How did the setting—time, place, weather, other characters—make the protagonist's job easier or harder? What you're doing is creating a map of a plot that you can then use for your story.

Shakespeare and virtually every playwright in his time stole plots. They looked to the Bible, to Greek mythology, to historical accounts and folktales, to the works of other poets and playwrights, and modeled stories that were different in slant, setting, style…but virtually lifted from other sources. If you are convinced you can't plot, borrow a cup of plot from another author as you might a cup of sugar from a neighbor when baking a cake. Write a Romeo and Juliet story set in the 31st century. Or a version of Shane, the classic Western, but make it a contemporary story aimed at teenage readers. Develop a story based on a folktale handed down through your Polish ancestors then set it in modern-day Manhattan. Use your cup of plot borrowed from a bestselling author of today to inspire an original tale that you construct and set during the time of the cave dwellers. The possibilities are without limit.

Is this playing fair? Absolutely. And it's not just because the precedent has been set by famous writers for centuries. The fact is, when you borrow a plot then develop your own characters and setting, applying your voice, wording, and interpretation to the story—it becomes something new and fresh. As you write, you begin to imagine new directions in which to take the novel, additional scenes, sources of conflict, and characters who never appeared in the earlier story. You naturally make the tale your own.

So don't let being clueless plot-wise stop you from writing a great short story or novel. Borrow a tried-and-true concept to get you started and show you the way. Once you have established the basic structure, your natural creative instincts will take over and help you make the story your own.

Happy writing! Kathryn

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

Sample The Thrill: Interview with Jim Daher

2010-04-02T23:53:00.000-04:00

Many authors come to writing via other careers. For Jim Daher, the travel required for his career in health care management provided the perfect opportunity to read mysteries and thrillers by authors such as John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, Robert B. Parker, Stuart Woods, Lisa Scottoline, Michael Connelly, Daniel Silva, Lee Child, David Baldacci, and Greg Iles. He became fascinated with how these authors "created characters, devised plots and most importantly 'entertained' their readers" and vowed to write a novel when he had time. That time came eventually, and Daher wrote his first novel, Righteous Kill. His latest book Blood Money is the sequel.

Contributing Editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Jim Daher about Blood Money and his writing process.

Tell us about Blood Money and why it's so compelling?

The characters, the plot and the unknown of what's next makes Blood Money a must-read. Scott Justice, Sarah James' groom, is shot in the middle of his wedding vows and Sarah is devastated. After she is certain he will survive, Sarah becomes frustrated with the FBI's botched attempts to protect Scott and their lack of progress in identifying the shooter. As a result, she decides to "handle it" herself and deal with him "her way." The FBI forbids her to get involved in the case, but that's impossible for Sarah James. She wants, no needs, revenge.

What makes FBI agent Sara James such a formidable character?

Kidnapped and brutally abused when she was a teenager, Sarah changed her name to escape the stigma of the ordeal. Determined to find the man who had beaten the legal system, walked away a free man and gone on with his life, she changed the course of hers with a single purpose, vengeance. Sarah James goes on to become a top field agent with the FBI. But unlike her fellow agents, Sarah believes the end justifies the means where crooks and murderers are concerned and will go "rogue" to see that justice is done. She had given up on love until she met fellow agent Scott Justice. Then the unthinkable happens, an assassin makes an attempt on Scott's life in the midst of his and Sarah's wedding. With revenge as her motivation, Sarah goes rogue.

As a male writing a female protagonist, what obstacles have you encountered in getting inside your character's head, and how have you overcome them?

Thinking like a woman: To solve the problem I spend countless hours talking to women in their twenties and thirties, questioning their reactions to various scenarios. Their views on life, love, and crime. I've also discussed the same issues with a couple of psychiatrists I knew during my health care career.

Blood Money, like many thrillers, occurs in multiple locations where the characters encounter a plethora of nasty characters hell-bent on destroying them. In Blood Money, Sara James must deal with ex-cons and the mob, among others. Tell us about your research process for this book and how you made these situations real for the reader.

During my years in the psychiatric field, I attended numerous group therapy sessions, as an observer, and learned about the "mind set" of those in treatment for addictions, criminal activities and various acts against society. I also observed the other side of coin, the "victims". The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) is located in Brunswick, Ga. ATF, Border Patrol, Custom Agents, and other Law Enforcement agencies train at FLTEC. I eat lunch at Willie's Weiner Wagon, a popular lunch spot for those in training, and meet many of them. Most will openly discuss different aspects of their jobs, agencies, training and routines. A key facet I always work into the conversation is the nature of the criminals they seek and capture. This has helped in making situations and scenes in my novels real. That and trying to put myself into the characters mind and living the situation.

Writing sequels can be difficult because the writer must address storyline and character backgrounds that were established in the first book. What other factors did you have to consider in this process, and how did you address them.

The hardest element for me is back-story; how to tell the reader about Sarah's and other reoccurring key characters' past. To do this I read and reread some of my favorite author's books to see the techniques they use to "fill in" the reader on a character.

What advice would you give to aspiring thriller writers?

Fully develop and understand every character in your books. You must know by instinct how your character(s) will react to a given situation. Don't ever ask yourself, "How do I want my character to act in this situation . . . know how your character will react to the situation!

How has your background informed your writing?

My background is instrumental in my writing. I was on my own at an early age and quickly learned that to survive/succeed, I had to understand people and know when to act or react in any given situation. During my health care career I worked in both medical/surgical and psychiatric hospitals, dealing with medical staffs, county commissioners, community organizations, employees at all levels, "Wall Street" executives for IPO's and LBO's. To succeed, I learned to communicate with others by observing people/human nature: the best and the worst, evil and good, egotism, those with deity complexes . . . all forms of human behavior. My psychiatric experience was particularly helpful in gaining insight into the negative side of human behavior and how people use the truth or lack thereof to gain their way.

What's next for Jim Daher?

I'm working on a new novel that involves corporate crime and arson, using characters introduced in Blood Money. I want to create a second series and alternate it with Sarah James.

Janice Gable Bashman is co-author (with Jonathan Maberry) of WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil (Citadel Press 2010). She wrote sidebars for THEY BITE: Endless Cravings of Supernatural Predators (Citadel Press 2009) by Jonathan Maberry and David F. Kramer. She also writes for leading publications, including the NOVEL & SHORT STORY WRITER'S MARKET, THE WRITER, WILD RIVER REVIEW, INDUSTRY TODAY, and FOOD & DRINK QUARTERLY. And, her writing won multiple awards at the 2007 Philadelphia Writer's Conference.

Celebrate Craft! - Matching Book Trailer Venues with Audience Expectations

2010-03-30T00:46:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - from the Future Perfect Publishing blog

A couple of weeks ago I attended a film festival where several book trailers were played on a movie theater screen. Sitting in the dark, popcorn in hand, surrounded by others in the audience, I realized that the way I felt about the videos on the movie screen was different than how I responded watching them online. Though the content was identical, my experience of the videos was quite different when delivered on different platforms.

The fact is that different platforms come with different expectations from the audience. Mobile phone platforms feel suited best to short form video of 10, 15 or 30 seconds. Yes, people will accept longer videos, but only if the videos are chosen by the viewer through a venue such as YouTube or some similar site on which the viewer knows longer forms reside.

My daughter downloaded the movie Boltto her iPod and she has watched it several times. But she chose that long form to put on her portable device. iPods and the iPod Touch are platforms where people can play entire movies, so a longer video is acceptable.

We are experimenting with video on portable devices. Circle of Seven Productions (COS) offers video on mobile devices such as smart phones and iPhones and any other mobile phone device that allows for video. In addition we have video on the iPod, iPod Touch, PSP and even the Wii. Again the feel of watching a video on each of those platforms can vary.

Watching the videos play on the large movie theater screen as though they were real movie trailers was thrilling. Even more thrilling was observing the audience around me as they watched them. The videos that appealed most to this audience were those that were acted out. True “book trailers.” Priest of Blood, Lady of Serpents andOne With the Shadowscaused quite a stir among the viewers. This particular crowd was there to watch independent films at a festival. The trailers were part of the festival, so there was a lot of audience chatter after each video played. The quality was incredible and so were the CGI effects. But that was expected on the big screen.

Online video play has evolved and viewers have their own expectations, but again venues matter. YouTube videos can play up to 2 minutes without a general audience complaining about the length; as long as it is entertaining. MySpace is a little more tolerant of long form video as well, but Facebook is faster paced and the preference seems to go to shorter video. Also, venues that are specific to readers want shorter videos unless the book is written by a celebrity author. The bigger the author’s name, the longer their video can be. Christine Feehan’s video for Turbulent Sea, which runs 2 minutes and has tens of thousands of views across the internet is an example of this. According to the analytics provided by YouTube the viewers watched the video all the way to the end.

If the video goes up as an ad it should be created as 10, 15 or 30 second spots according to the platform. For social media that is not specifically a reader site, 90 seconds is ideal. People on social sites want to feel that you are entertaining them, not advertising to them, so you have to be creative and you have to give them a little more for their time and attention.

We have taken a single video and cut it into several lengths for different platforms. One book trailer was cut into a 15 second then a 30 second video for online and television advertising, then a one minute spot for reader sites and a 2 minute spot for social sites. It seems like a lot of extra steps, but being more thoughtful of the delivery of your video and how the receiver/viewer reacts or interacts with the video can mean the difference between a sale or no-sale, entertained or annoyed.

Technology is ever-evolving and the end user continues to evolve in their expectations as well. Video is still hot, but it needs to be delivered to the venue and in the form most appropriate for the intended audience.

Sheila Clover English, the CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, is a pioneer in book video production, marketing and distribution for authors and publishers.

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

Sample the Thrill - A Touch of Evil

2010-03-26T18:19:00.001-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Colleen Thompson and I sat down at a virtual coffee shop to chat about her upcoming book, Touch of Evil. With readers clamoring for her latest, I wanted to find out a little more about Colleen and what drives her. Twice nominated for the Rita for Best Romantic Suspense, Colleen has also been honored with the Texas Gold award, multiple Romantic Times Top Picks and KISS awards, and nominations for RT Reviewers Choice, Daphne du Maurier, and Dorothy Parker Awards of Excellence, along with a starred review from Publisher's Weekly. A former teacher married to a Houston firefighter, Colleen brings emergency responders and her Texas home to life.

So of course, we want to know about the new book, Touch of Evil. What's the book about?

Recently elected to complete her late husband's term of office, Sheriff Justine Wofford is boxed in on all sides, investigating a series of gruesome hangings everyone else considers suicide. Hospitalized by a severe blow to the head, unable to remember the details of the attack, under fire from her own department, she reaches out to the man she's sworn to avoid at any cost.

Is there a theme in your books, a thread that you see coming up in your stories often?

I would say that most of my books feature "regular people" forced by horrendous, unexpected circumstance to find a hidden reservoir of strength that changes them forever.

I'm always interested in what draws a writer to the dark side? Ever since I was a kid, my stories leaned to the dark side of human nature. Do you know why you were drawn to suspense?

I've always been attuned to real-life stories with powerful emotional resonance, particularly tales of survival in the face of seemingly-insurmountable odds. There's something deeply cathartic about watching someone who seems quite ordinary find the courage and resilience to fight her way from hell to heaven. This type of story gives us faith that we, too, can overcome the tough stretches that are a part of every person's journey, and suspense may be its most powerful form.

You wrote seven historical novels under Gwyneth Atlee and Colleen Easton. What made you change direction and focus on romantic suspense?

As a reader, I started devouring suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense novels. I was soon drawn to the challenge of weaving a mystery plot into my stories, along with the driving action and heightened romance that can occur in these kinds of books. The balancing act was the hardest thing I've every attempted, but it was so satisfying, I quickly became hooked. And I was happy to find that the same research skills/enthusiasm that made writing Civil War-set romances such a pleasure came in really handy when it came time to learn the ins and outs of modern emergency services, law enforcement, and judicial matters.

I know writers aren't supposed to love any of their "children" more than the others, but some of our characters just reach out and grab us by the heart. Is there one character who did this to you?

I have to admit, I absolutely adore Sheriff Justine Wofford, the heroine of Touch of Evil. One of the things I love about this character is that she's a single mom - a recent widow -- struggling to raise her autistic son alone while dealing with the challenges of stepping into her late husband's role. Her "everywoman" worries about balancing financial, emotional, and family needs, along with the possibility of new love, collide head-on with a situation that could easily cost her life.

Is there a book you're longing to write that you haven't had the opportunity or time to yet? Something completely different from what you're writing now?

I was so drawn into Justine Wofford's life in Touch of Evil (and in my previous book, Beneath Bone Lake, where she was introduced as a secondary character) that I could easily imagine making her a mainstay in a mystery/suspense series with a long term romantic arc. Which got me to thinking it would be really intriguing to stay with one couple and watch their relationship slowly unfold throughout a longer span of time. It would be the same sort of book, but would allow to layer in more complexities with both the main and secondary characters.

But I have to say, I'm thoroughly hooked on contemporary mystery/suspense with a relationship angle. I love exploring the world in which we live through the lens of my characters.

Do you have any writing rituals before you begin a book or begin working every day?

I often begin by reading research books and materials surrounding the premise I have in mind. Much of my fiction is informed/inspired by real-life events, which I start playing with as I wonder how a person might react and learn to overcome such harrowing circumstances.

What does your writing space look like?

My writing space is most often a very cozy chair in my family room, off of the kitchen. It's usually a bit messy, with assorted books and notes stacked on the lamp table, but it's very comfortable.

What's the best way for reader's to get in touch with you? Do you Tweet/blog/etc.?

I'm always happy for readers to contact me via my website. In addition, I blog about the writing life at www.boxingoctopus.blogspot.com or you can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AuthorColleen.

Thank you, Colleen, for filling me in on your latest book and your life. Can't wait to read it!

Thanks you, Jaime, for taking the time to chat with me!

For more on Colleen and her books, visit her website at: http://www.colleen-thompson.com

Missing the romance, relationship drama, and action of her favorite television shows, X-Files, Roswell, and Highlander, Jaime Rush created her own mix in the Offspring series, from Avon Books. Jaime Rush is a pseudonym for bestselling Tina Wainscott, author of eighteen novels for St. Martin's Press and Harlequin. Contests, sneak peeks and more at www.jaimerush.com.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Sample the Thrill - Frame Up by John F. Dobbyn

2010-03-19T22:39:00.000-04:00

One of many great articles that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Frame Up by John Dobbyn is being framed! Robin Hathaway, author of Sleight of Hand, calls it, "A poignant tale of brotherhood, torn and mended, and a thrilling mix of foreign intrigue and Mafia mayhem," while Alafair Burke, author of 212: A Novel, claims, "Frame Up is the best kind of legal crime fiction."

It was enough to make me want to do some investigating of my own. What I discovered was that Frame Up is a twisted tale of mafia gangsters and international intrigue providing an in-depth view of the criminal justice system.

In Frame Up, Michael Knight's best friend at Harvard Law, John McKedrick, takes the low road--he becomes the sole associate of a notorious mob lawyer. Meanwhile, Michael has teamed up with legendary trial attorney Lex Devlin to form their own firm. When John is murdered in a car bombing bearing the signature of his questionable clientele, Lex Devlin urges Michael to represent the alleged bomber, son of Lex's childhood friend (now the head of the Boston Mafia). In building the defense, Michael is drawn into a high-stakes art fraud that leads him into the world's most dangerous and deadly places.

I then did some digging on the author and learned a few interesting facts:

Dobbyn was born and raised in Boston--a distinct advantage in getting to know all of the streets, restaurants and hangouts frequented by his main character, Michael Knight. Later, Dobbyn attended Harvard Law School, the same place Knight earned his degree and met his best friend (who ends up dead in Frame Up).

An education at Boston Latin School gave Dobbyn the tools for writing and storytelling that he later honed during military service and the years of "central casting" experience gleaned in courtrooms following his graduation with a Masters of Laws degree from Harvard. According to Dobbyn, that's where he "gained a catalogue of characters for future stories by way of both the lawyers and their clients who appeared in the judges' courtrooms.

After several years of practicing law, came the creative writing course and the published short story that set Dobbyn on a new career path. He had taken the bait, and publishing had set the hook. According to Dobbyn, "Once set, the hook holds - even through enough rejection slips for future stories to paper a small ballroom." Eventually he went on to learn the "hidden parts of the trade of storytelling well enough to sell a story to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and followed by about twenty-five short stories in both Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine."

Then, in March of 2007, Dobbyn burst onto the mystery/legal thriller scene with his first novel, Neon Dragon. In that book, he partnered his two favorite characters, Michael Knight and Lex Devlin, weaving an adventure through the streets of Boston's Chinatown. That partnership continues in Frame Up. About which, Jeremiah Healy, author of The Only Good Lawyer, says "If you enjoy gritty legal thrillers, you will love Frame Up. From the chilling first chapter to 'negotiations' with the Mob over the death penalty without benefit of the formal criminal justice system, the characters are drawn with depth and empathy, the action with crisp claps of interpersonal thunder. Settle back in your favorite chair for a polished book that will be compared to Dennis Lehane's Mystic River."

Dobbyn currently teaches at Villanova Law School. He and his wife Lois live in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit his website at: http://www.johndobbyn.com.

Christine Goff is the award-winning author of the bestselling "Birdwatcher's Mystery" series. She began her career writing non-fiction for local, regional and national publication. Chosen Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' 2002 Writer of the Year, two of her novels were named finalists for the prestigious Willa Literary Award for Best Original Paperback Fiction; and her latest novel, DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE, was a named finalist for the Colorado Authors League 2008 Best Genre Fiction Award. Her novels focus on environmental concerns through bird-related issues. Currently, she is working on a new book; a thriller set in Israel.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Villainy! - Celebrate the Craft

2010-03-15T18:56:00.000-04:00

Celebrate the Craft! - From the blog of Joe Konrath

Let's talk about bad guys.

Some of my favorite books have villains that are just as memorable as the hero.

But what makes a good antagonist? Other than being in competition/conflict/opposition to the hero, what are the traits an adversary needs to have?

Here are a few things your villain should be:

Charismatic. The reader should be attracted to the villain in some way, even if it is a car-wreck type of attraction.
Powerful. The villain should be more powerful than the protagonist. Underdog stories are as old as the bible, and show no signs of losing public favor.
Motivated. A villain should have goals, dreams, desires, and reasons for doing what they do.
Cruel. Bad guys do bad things. That's what makes them bad.
Active. Like heroes, villains shouldn't be passive. The need to be doing things, moving the plot along, rather than simply reacting to things.
Realistic. If the reader doesn't believe the villain, the tension is gone.

Many crime novels don't have strong villains. Either the bad guy isn't revealed until the end, or the story dwells more on the protagonist's journey.

This is a missed opportunity to engage and excite the reader. Good vs. Evil is conflict in its purest form, and any sports fan can tell you that competition is a lot of fun.

Take a look at your WIP. Does it have a villain? Does the villain embody the traits listed above? How can your villain be improved?

Who are your favorite villains, and why?

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

Book, Booking, Booked...for ThrillerFest!

2010-03-15T16:34:00.003-04:00

I know it seems ThrillerFest is far away. July seems far off as I look out my window and see gray skies. I still have BEA to prepare for and about 3 other conventions before ThrillerFest gets here, but I know from experience that it is best to think ahead.

I keep looking at the list of authors who will be attending. Some are my clients and I know I want to touch base with them. Some are dear friends and some of them I am a total fan-girl for and plan on getting autographs and sneaking in some pictures I can brag about later of course! lol

I have paid my registration, put together books I want to bring to have signed and am now booking my flight. I don't know if I will fly or take the train. That's what I'm looking into right now. By July I could actually drive to New York, but I don't want to have to drive IN New York if you know what I mean. lol

I'm still putting together a list of workshops I want to take and meetings I hope to make, but I know that if I wait until the last minute I won't be able to enjoy my experience as much. I like to plan ahead and relax while I'm there.

I am going to sign up for the big dinner at the end too. I know it's a little more money, but I went last year and it was so very worth it! It was one of the highlights of my experience. If you can do it, splurge a little. The food is great, the presentation is fun, entertaining and awe-inspiring. You won't regret it!

Be sure to check out the website often to see who is coming and what's going on as we get closer and closer to July!

Sheila

Sample the Thrill - Hell Gate by Linda Fairstein

2010-03-12T20:09:00.000-05:00

Celebrate the Craft! - From the blog of the The Big Thrill

Linda Fairstein is a prolific and bestselling author of legal thrillers starring Alexandra Cooper, a New York City sex crimes prosecutor. For more than a decade, readers have turned to her books for ripped-from-the-headline crimes, cutting-edge investigations, and vindication for victims. In her twelfth novel, Hell Gate, Alex Cooper finds her attention torn between investigating a shipwreck with contraband cargo - human cargo - and the political sex scandal of a promising New York congressman. The bridge between these cases leads our heroine down a darker and deadlier road than she ever imagined. Hell Gate is landing rave reviews, including this dandy from Kirkus: "Thrills, gossip, sex, history, self-righteous indignation and hints of parallels to the contemporary rich and famous, all whipped to a fine frenzy."

You write about a political sex scandal in Hell Gate. Were you inspired by any real life ones?

I like to think I've got a good imagination, but all of the political sex scandals I dreamed up were nothing compared to the real life antics that kept grabbing the headline space - in New York and all over the country. Just when I thought the last one couldn't be topped....along came the next guy. Yes, I was certainly inspired by some of the real-life sexcapades (including a certain governor who was my colleague in the Manhattan DA's Office), and it was kind of hilarious that I had to tone most things down a bit so they'd be more believable.

One of your trademarks is to incorporate New York landmarks and their history in your work. Tell us about Hell Gate and why you decided to make it the crime scene of your latest thriller.

Once I focused on political scandals, I was drawn to some New York landmark locations, which always have such fascinating historical background. I've been a guest at many receptions at Gracie Mansion - the Mayor's home since the 1940's - but my research took me into some very dark aspects of its past. It's quite a glorious spot - set against the treacherous currents of Hell Gate (an actual place in the New York waterways, which has been the scene of hundreds of deaths over the years) - and its history includes the involvement of its owner, Archibald Gracie, in a really interesting homicide two centuries ago. I just find if you dig beneath the surface of some of these fantastic settings, you discover all kinds of mysterious goings-on. And here's this stunning mansion that our mayor has abandoned in favor of his own, so imagine the nefarious things that can happen there at night.

With thirty years experience running Manhattan's Sex Crimes Unit, you're considered one smart author. In fact, Lee Child calls you "the queen of intelligent suspense." Any pressure to stay smart book after book?

As all of us who write know, there is enormous pressure to stay smart, whether you're writing a series or stand-alones. I think we've got terrifically smart fans, who expect solid, nuanced plotting and characters who evolve over time, based on the experiences they encounter. I back off it and relax a bit when I think about how 'smart' I had to stay as a prosecutor for thirty years, when peoples' lives really hung in the balance every day. So this is intelligent (which I love), but it's fiction, and that's a much more comfortable thought for me than dealing with justice every single day. (And how generous of Lee Child to say that, don't you think?)

In your novels, the crimes end up being solved. In real life, I'm sure there were cases you couldn't solve. Can you talk a little about how you balance those two outcomes - resolution being necessary in fiction but not always possible in real life?

One of the great pleasures for me in writing crime fiction is being able to control the outcome of the case - something that was rarely available to me in real life criminal justice! I'm one of the people who actually doesn't mind it when all the threads aren't tied together at the end of a story. As hard as I tried to do that in case after case, it didn't always happen. And sometimes the bad guys beat us. But most of my editors haven't seen it that way. It's great fun when Alex gets to stand up to a mean judge or get a perp who got away from me, and I love having that fictional power.

Neither Alex Cooper or her detective pal Mike Chapman are married. So why haven't they slept together? We know you can write sex scenes because you're always throwing Alex in the arms of other men.

This question really made me smile. I get more mail about Alex and Mike than about anything else in my books. As Alex has revealed to her closest friends, she's sort of tormented about what to do in her relationship with Mike. She loves him, he covers her back better than any guy she has ever known, and she is terrifically attracted to him. But she knows that the minute she gets into bed with him, the professional relationship changes forever. (Now really, readers, do you want that to happen?). So most of my devout followers suspend disbelief and understand that the sexual tension between Alex and Mike is a plot device that keeps the dialogue lively and the action moving. Where it will lead, I'm not quite sure. I'm often reminded of the TV show Moonlighting (Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd). It was a huge hit because of the sexual tension throughout several seasons, and the minute they climbed into bed together, over and out. So bear with me, please, and remember that Alex only ages about three months between capers, so it's not that much time that has evolved.

Can you tell us a little about your writing process?

You just can't imagine how much I love to write. For me, a really good day is when I can get up in the morning, have coffee with my husband, then hole up in my writing room - my bat cave - and just get into the words and the story and the rhythm. The first one hundred pages of a novel are like having root canal - sounding out a strong opening, laying in characters and clues, plotting a careful story that will make sense at the end. It's harder for me to isolate myself in the city, because of so many of the things I stay involved in (I'm still a lawyer and do lots of non-profit work for victims of violence). We spend four months on Martha's Vineyard, where I actually have the luxury of a separate cottage, and I leave 'home' to walk down the hill for a day's work. It's tranquil and magnificent and isolated, and I take lots of breaks to swim and clear my head. Best for me is the last quarter of the story, when I know exactly where I'm headed, and it's like skiing downhill to the finish line. My prosecutorial job was so collegial and reliant on partnerships with detectives and DA's (like Alex) that the isolation of writing was the hardest adjustment for me to make. But at the end of the writing day, there's a glass of Dewar's waiting for me in front of the fireplace.

Hell Gate is book twelve for you and your protagonist. JK Rowling knew how she was going to end Harry Potter. Charlaine Harris claims to know how she is going to end her Sookie tales. And Sue Grafton is shooting for the letter Z. Do you know how your series will end?

So far, no end in sight for Alex Cooper. Hey, I had her job for thirty years, so I expect she is in it for the long haul. I remember exactly where I was when my literary agent (and dear friend) Esther Newberg called to tell me there was a 'bidding war' for my first novel in the series - Final Jeopardy. Of the three houses, it was Scribner (Alex's first great home) which asked - "Does Linda think she can do two books?" My answer to Esther was without hesitation - "I know I can do ten." So here we are at number twelve, and I've got lots of stories to tell. I think that Hell Gate has 'thriller' pacing, and I'm so delighted to be part of this terrific community.

For more information about Linda Fairstein, check http://www.lindafairstein.com/

Contributing editor Julie Kramer's MISSING MARK, landed a rave review from People Magazine. "Smart dialogue and a fleet pace make this second outing in Kramer's fledgling series a crowd-pleaser." Her debut, STALKING SUSAN, was a nominee for the Mary Higgins Clark, Anthony, Barry, and Shamus awards. Her third, SILENCING SAM, is coming this summer.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate the Craft - Veracity, Laura Bynum

2010-03-10T14:18:00.005-05:00

Celebrate the Craft! - From the blog of the The Big Thrill

In Laura Bynum's debut thriller Veracity, Harper Adams was six years old in 2012 when an act of viral terrorism wiped out one-half of the country's population. Out of the ashes rose a new government that maintains order through whatever means necessary, including the restriction of language that might inspire a longing for truth, freedom, and authenticity.

Harper joins the resistance driven by memories of a daughter lost, a daughter whose very name was erased by the Red List. Guided by the fabled Book of Noah, this underground army is determined to shake the people from their apathy and ignorance, and start a war in the name of freedom.

In the tradition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Laura Bynum has written an astonishing debut novel about a chilling, all-too-plausible future in which speech is a weapon and security comes at the highest price of all.

"Ms. Bynum has a beautiful, distinctly poetic style that makes Veracity a lush, eminently readable book...The narrative style, reminiscent of Margaret Atwood as mentioned above, is stunningly effective... There's a sense of intimacy and empathy with Harper as she struggles to save her daughter. In fact, the most touching, believable, human thing about Harper was her emotional devotion to her child; the fact that all of this, the danger she faces each day is for her little girl - a girl whose very name the government took away..." --The Book Smugglers

"Bynum deftly paints the drab, fear-filled existence led by Confederation citizens. Harper is a compelling protagonist...as doubtful as anyone that she has the strength to succeed at her self-appointed task, and this tension propels the narrative....this bleak vision of the future feels real and truly chilling." --Kirkus Review

Laura Bynum was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1968. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Communications at the University of Illinois at Springfield and Eastern Illinois University respectively. In 2006, Laura won the Rupert Hughes Literary Writing Award at the Maui Writer's Conference. As a result, Laura's first novel, Veracity, was published in January of 2010. The day Laura signed the contract with Simon and Schuster, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and has since been successfully treated. She lives in the Piedmont area of Virginia with her husband and three daughters.

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

The Cold Room - Sampling the Thrill

2010-03-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

One of many great interviews with authors that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

It's not easy to get into the heads of killers, to relay their thoughts and feelings and deep, dark secrets in a way that makes them seems so real and so frightening. But J.T. Ellison does it, and she does it well.

Ellison is the best-selling author of the Taylor Jackson series of thrillers (All the Pretty Girls, 14, Judas Kiss, and The Cold Room). She has published numerous short stories in a variety of publications, including the anthologies Killer Year: Stories to Die For, First Thrills, and Surreal South 09.

Recently, I chatted with J.T. Ellison about her latest book, The Cold Room, and her upcoming thrillers"

In your latest thriller The Cold Room, you introduce the reader to the Conductor, a serial killer who keeps his victims in glass coffins until they starve to death. Draw us into the world of the Conductor and your protagonist, homicide detective Taylor Jackson.

The Conductor loves classical music, opera, and art. How much more normal could you get, right? There's just one catch. He's also a burgeoning necrosadist, with online friends he shares his fantasies with. Taylor Jackson, recently busted back to Detective by the Office of Professional Accountability, is trying to save face and solve one of the strangest murders she's seen in years. And to top it all off, her fiancée, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, believes he has seen this scenario before, on an international scale.

What makes Detective Taylor Jackson such a strong woman, and how does this help her catch the Conductor?

Taylor is a woman of convictions, of morality, of a code. She's a hero, flawed but with incalculable focus. She enjoys a challenge, isn't afraid of much, and has a badge and gun to back her up when times get tough. She's also very stubborn and enjoys intrigue, and the Conductor presents a puzzle she's not seen before. The fact that Baldwin has a foot in the Conductor's world already is a help too--she has an excuse to work with him again, something she always enjoys.

Why is the Conductor such a fascinating serial killer?

His MO is relatively rare. He's not interested in hurting women, which is a bit of a departure from what we normally see--usually fictional serial killers are psychopaths who are brilliant dynamos, always a step ahead of the cops. Gavin Adler is a regular Joe, making mistakes, testing the waters. I almost felt sorry for him--he's driven by this compulsion to have sex with dead women, and he's not sure how to satisfy that urge. He's obviously a sociopath, unable to feel emotions properly, but he's got human edges, like the adoration he feels toward his cat, Art, and his love for music and art. A well-rounded killer, our Gavin.

You stated The Cold Room was the "by far the most difficult book [you've] ever written"--both structurally and emotionally? Why?

For starters, the research on this book was both fascinating and repulsive. I started having rather horrible nightmares soon after I started the book. The story is huge in scope--spread among four law enforcement agencies and two continents, with new characters in Taylor's life, and many, many plot shifts. I was trying to avoid falling into the trap where people would read it and say, "Oh, come on. No way." So it was a challenge to write, and then at the eleventh hour, the book was pulled. We changed the release date, title, art, all the outside components, and I went back into the manuscript to flesh out some of Taylor's story. I'm so glad we did, because the book ended up being so much stronger than it would have been. Lesson learned: always listen to your editor.

A professor in college told you you'd "never get published." It was years before you started writing again and proved her wrong. What did you learn from this experience, besides the obvious response--that she was wrong?

Never, ever, let someone outside of your world derail your dreams. I respected that particular professor, and though she crushed me, looking back I see she was right. My voice was there, but I lacked that special something that makes writers into authors. But if she'd encouraged me just a little, I might have found that spark sooner. It's the nature of the artist to need some bits of affirmation, but sometimes we can overemphasize that part of our lives. I advise all new authors to listen to their gut, and focus on their dreams.

You stated, "it takes a very specific personality type to make it as a cop, especially a homicide detective. The horror and depravity that they see every day . . . anything I write pales against the realities they live with day to day. There is endless capacity for evil in people. It's such an honor to write their stories, and I strive to make the non-law enforcement world understand the people who keep them safe." Why is this so important to you, and how do you think this comes across in your work?

After you do a few ride-alongs with law enforcement, you will be hard pressed to see them as anything less than heroes. I wanted to tell their stories, as accurately as I could, so the general public would have some idea of just how intense their jobs are. Cops get a bad rap in the press, with accusations of brutality and other illegalities, but 99% of cops are decent, honest, hardworking, long-suffering men and women who are just trying to keep the rest of us safe.

What advice can you give aspiring thriller writers?

Read everything you can get your hands on, and work hard to develop your writing habit.

What's next for J.T. Ellison?

The Immortals, book five in the series, will be out in October 2010. And I'm frantically running into my deadline for book six, The Pretender, which is a sequel to 14. There are a few shorts stories debuting this year as well. All that's on my website, JTEllison.com.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft! - Weep No More, My Hero

2010-02-22T17:52:00.002-05:00

Celebrate the Craft! - From the blog of the Thriller Guy

Please, Thriller writers, no more heroes who shed tears. No more manly weeping.

Thrillers are about tough guys. Often, far too often, I'll be reading along and suddenly I can almost hear the writers' mind-gears begin to grind:

OK, I've had a bunch of action scenes, I've had my guy kill when he has to, he's shown he has the skills and the guts to get the job done. Hmm, what I need now is to prove that he's also got a soft side, that he cares, especially about the love interest, that he has depth. I've got to hook some women readers, everyone says they're the only ones buying books these days. I know! I'll have him cry! Women love it when a man cries!

Sorry. Actually, women hate it when a man cries. In real life and in books.

Men hate it as well.

In a thriller, it's just sooo obvious, such a cheap ploy to try and snag reader sympathy. Instead of figuring out an interesting, novel way for the hero to show emotion, the author takes the low road and sure enough, the hero's eyes begin to “well with tears.”

“He turned his head so she couldn't see the tear that trailed down his cheek.”

“He felt hot tears spring to his eyes.”

Gag.

And I'm not talking about first novels or wannabes, Big Guys (you know who you are) do this over and over. I think it's always a mistake. Even though I may love the rest of the book, it's always tainted for me if the hero cries.

It makes the author look exploitive. It makes the character look foolish, and what is worse, weak.

Which is the kiss of death for a thriller character.

I think Lee Child's series character Reacher is pretty much the epitome of a thriller hero. He's beyond tough, but at the same time readers know he can be emotional, that he has feelings. I haven't read all the books in the series, but has Reacher ever wept? I'm asking the question of those of you who are aficionados of this series. Has he ever shed a tear? I'll bet not. Or let's just ask Lee Child. Are you out there? Has Reacher ever wept?

OK, here's a challenge to writers and to readers. Writers, if you've ever had your hero weep, tell us where and why you think it worked. Readers, if you disagree with me, send me an example of a thriller hero who weeps, cries, sheds a tear or two and who comes off looking the better for it.

I'm the most unreligious of men, but the only one that I can come up with that does work is in The King James Bible, the Gospel of John, Chapter 11, verse 35. In its entirety.

“Jesus wept.”

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

Celebrate the Craft! - Sophie Littlefield

2010-02-16T15:47:00.000-05:00

Sophie Littlefield -

Last year with my first Thrillerfest, and I was thrilled to be going to New York, to have a chance to visit my agent and editors and spend time in the city, but I wasn't sure what to expect from the conference itself. Frankly I wasn't sure if I was badass enough to hang with the thriller crowd, especially once I checked out the roster and saw authors i'd been reading for decades. The kick-off cocktail party was amazing; I did a lot of standing in the corner and breathing deeply, afraid I might pass out from an acute case of fan-girl-ism.

By the second day I got my wits back enough to seek out my usual ne'er-do-well cohorts and start misbehaving in the lobby. But as much as I planned to skip class and sleep until noon, there were too many sessions I couldn't bear to miss. The sessions were a great mix of industry and craft knowledge plus a few that were just plain fun, like the book tour horror stories . I also met some seasoned pros who, all these months later, are still reaching out with offers of help and knowledge. It has shamed me into trying to follow their example, and I hope that this year I will be able to be of assistance of some other newcomer who can benefit from my tiny newbie store of knowledge.

Because of the timing of my first release, I'll actually be an "official" debut this year, so I'll be up on that scary stage at the debut breakfast with all the other '10'ers. Luckily, many of them are already friends, thanks to the ITW Debut and Mentoring programs (Hi, Carla! Hi, Andy!) so it won't be all that terrifying.

Previous Release: A Bad Day for Sorry

Patton Oswalt reads THE EXTRA by Michael Shea Book Trailer

2010-02-13T23:58:00.000-05:00

Patton Oswalt reads THE EXTRA by Michael Shea Book Trailer: "Hollywood actor and comedian Patton Oswalt reads about Hollywoods next box office hit: Live-Death films with expendable extras going up against extremely sophisticated, electronically controlled mechanical killing machinesall in front of a live audience. A lot of people are dying to make it big in Hollywood...The Extra Michael Shea Book Trailer Fi"

Burn by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy - Sample the Thrill

2010-02-12T15:32:00.004-05:00

One of many great interviews with authors that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Ted Dekker has haunted the bestseller lists for some time. An editor of some of his novels, Erin Healy, collaborated with him on Kiss, a story that was published in January 2009. Their new joint thriller, Burn, threatens to heat up the shelves. Erin discussed working on Burn and her life.

How did you both get together?

Ted was referred to me about eight years ago by Traci DePree, who edited Ted's earliest novels, then returned to work with us on Kiss and Burn. Ted and I clicked and have been working together as an author-editor pair ever since the first edition of his novel Blink. When he asked me to consider writing with him, it was a can't-say-no opportunity. New authors have a treacherous uphill battle when entering the marketplace. To be able to partner with someone of his calibre was a gift to me.

What is the writing process like with Ted?

Ted and I spend a lot of time on the phone hashing out ideas. We talk and talk and talk. I've lost at least three phone batteries to Ted alone. Then I write and he reads and we talk some more.

Then I write and rewrite, and he writes and rewrites, and we go back and forth like this until the story is born. It's a real synergistic endeavor.

What sparked the idea for Burn?

Ted and I were working independently on our own ideas for stories about regrets, second chances, and the concept of dying to self. When we realized this had happened, we thought, why not throw both of these into one cooking pot and see what we come up with? It worked great, and it's one of the reasons I think Burn is a stronger story than Kiss. As far as the content goes, we were both equally invested in our passion for it.

What can a reader expect when they pick up Burn?

Burn is very exciting! It's a story about a young gypsy woman who has to make a terrible choice on a night when life as she knows it goes up in flames. Her home is being burned to the ground and her friends' lives are at stake. It's a mind-bending story about the course her life might have taken if she'd made a different choice. The novel asks important questions about the nature of regret. Is there any way to redeem the choices we've made?

What kind of self-sacrifice is required to do what is right?

How do you write an action scene? Is it different or more difficult to do while maintaining a Christian audience?

Speaking with film in mind, you write an action scene one frame at a time. It's tempting to be chaotic in a written action scene, because true visual action is chaotic, and also because the point-of-view character doesn't always understand right away what is happening. But action

scenes more than any other need to be linear and clear, or readers--Christian or not--will get lost and gloss over it. No, I don't think there's any more or less difficulty in writing a good action scene for any audience. The writer makes choices in how to frame the shot, in what to leave on and off stage. But that's a different question.

What's next for you both with Ted and solo?

For now, Burn will be the last novel Ted and I write together. We'll be focusing on exciting developments in our solo careers. Never Let You Go, my first solo, releases in May 2010 (Thomas Nelson, hardcover, $21.99). It's a supernatural thriller about a young single mother, Lexi, who is paid an unwelcome visit by an old friend. He demands she testify on behalf of the killer who murdered Lexi's sister. If she refuses, he'll harm Lexi's daughter.

Within hours, she also learns that her estranged husband, gone seven years, is attempting to reconnect with their little girl. The strangely timed reappearance of the friend, the killer, and the husband terrifies Lexi, but the significance of this event is greater than she can predict. Never Let You Go is a novel about the high price of bitterness and forgiveness, neither of which it seems Lexi can afford to pay.

How do you find time to write?

I'm a full-time freelance editor and a full-time mom, so the hours of my day are pretty fixed. The trickest aspect of finding "time" to write is really about money. I can edit or I can write, but it's too difficult a mental task for me to write while I have editorial projects on the desk. Knowing which editorial jobs to take or turn down, and learning how to balance the financial aspect of that shift to writing more, is a day-by-day evaluation.

"Keep your day job" is the advice given to budding novelists, and it applies to me.

Jeff Ayers is the author of VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION: THE STAR TREK FICTION COMPANION Pocket Books-November 2006. He frequently reviews thrillers for Library Journal and regularly interviews authors for LJ, the Seattle Post-Intellgencer, and Writer Magazine.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Sleep No more by Susan Crandall - Sampling the Thrill

2010-01-29T15:35:00.001-05:00

One of many great interviews with authors that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

In Sleep No More, Susan Crandall has crafted another suspenseful, intriguing romantic suspense epic. Imagine that you are a psychiatrist in a small South Carolina town, just escaped from a marriage to an alcoholic wife with a range of problems beyond your ability to control or cope with. Into your life comes an alluring woman who has innocently stepped into a nest of figurative vipers.

The night was always Abby Whitman's enemy. As a young girl she walked in her sleep, and one night, started a fire that scarred her sister for life and left Abby with unbearable guilt, and a loneliness that echoes within her.

Now Abby has begun blacking out again--with apparently fatal results. A car accident has killed the son of a prominent family. Even though the evidence seems to exonerate her, Abby is plagued by doubts--and soon by mysterious threats. A young psychiatrist, Dr. Jason Coble, is intrigued by Abby and offers to help her explore the dark recesses in her mind. Through this terrifying journey, Jason's interest turns to passion, and he yearns to give her the love she craves. But first, Abby must trust him--and shed light on secrets that will rock this Southern town and reveal a danger that threatens them both.

Sleep No More flows with rhythmic cadence, as the reader becomes immersed in the emotions of the Abby and Jason and the suspense of the fraud threatening to dispose of them before their love can ripen. This is a page-turner that demands your attention. Each of the twists and turns in the story, and the interconnections of the characters, draws you deeper into the story as it plays out on the original manor grounds, including family cemetery and lifeline of the river.

Congratulations Susan on another masterpiece!

I enjoyed reading Sleep No More, and asked Susan a few questions:

What do your find exciting?

I am a pretty calm person. I like excitement to come from vicarious experiences. I like suspense and mystery, which is why I write. In my writing, the suspense is personal to the characters, not police procedure. I am fascinated by what can happen to normal people. As writers, we can find the source materials for stories in the morning paper.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what one book would you like to have with you and why?

Diane Gabaldon's Outlander. I love her characters.

Romantic Times Book Review says Sleep No More is "A good cozy mystery wrapped in a solid romance... both an easy and riveting read."

You can read more about Susan and her books on her website.

Cym Lowell is an aspiring thriller writer. His next novel is in the hands of his agent (Brenden Daneen of Fineprint Literary in New York) and on its way to publishers. Cym is also an international tax lawyer with expertise in cross-border money movement, and a shelf full of professional treatises on these scintillating subjects.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Shattered by Joan Johnston - Sampling the Thrill

2010-01-22T15:33:00.001-05:00

One of many great interviews with authors that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Four Lives--Two Great Loves--Every Expectation Shattered. In Joan Johnston's new novel,

nine years ago Kate Grayhawk Pendleton walked into alleged killer Wyatt Shaw's life-and out of it again the next morning. Now Wyatt's back--and

has the power to shatter Kate's future with the man she loves.

"Johnston's characters struggle against seriously deranged foes and fac seeming

insourmountable obstacles to true love." BOOKLIST

"Johnston rivets the reader." Bookreporter.com

Joan Johnston is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of forty-nine novels and novellas with more than ten million copies of her books in print. Joan has been a director of theatre, drama critic, newspaper editor, college professor and attorney on her way to becoming a full-time writer. She has also raised two fairly normal children. Joan lives in Florida and Colorado

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Watchlist: A Serial Thriller by Jeffery Deaver - Sample the Thrill

2010-01-15T15:00:00.005-05:00

One of many great interviews with authors that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Imagine a literary jam session with 22 of your favorite masters of pulse-pounding fiction and you have WATCHLIST: Two Serial Thrillers in One Killer Book. Jeffrey Deaver conceived of the characters and put the plot into motion and Jim Fusilli leant a sharp editorial eye, finely orchestrating this chorus of suspense that includes such top writers as Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, Gayle Lynds, P.J. Parrish and many others. Dramatic tension ties the novellas together as each thriller titan leads the reader down dark alleys and around blind corners, saving the fireworks for the climactic endings, also crafted by Jeffrey Deaver.

The Chopin Manuscript, the original unique collaboration by 15 of the world's greatest thriller writers launched the project. It introduces former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton, who is unaware that a forgotten work by Chopin in his possession contains a dark secret within its handwritten notes. His race to uncover the secret is obstructed by federal agents, assassins and a mysterious figure from the past known only as Faust.

Following closely on the gumshoe heals of The Chopin Manuscript, Harold Middleton returns in the explosive sequel, The Copper Bracelet. Suspense builds layer by layer as each deft teller of tales shifts the action by adding unexpected twists. Beginning with a day at the beach where all is not what it seems, an international terror plot sends Middleton careening from Nice to Moscow to Kashmir as he seeks to prevent nuclear war between India and Pakistan and the start of World War III.

This two-fisted tome has the chills, breakneck pacing, and diabolical switchbacks that thriller lovers have come to expect. Reading into the wee, small hours is practically guaranteed.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Impact, by Douglas Preston - Sampling the Thrill

2010-01-08T15:00:00.006-05:00

One of many great interviews with authors that you can find each month in The Big Thrill!

Perhaps best known for his collaborations with Lincoln Child, Douglas Preston is also the author of a series of bestselling thrillers that he writes by himself. His latest one, Impact, begins with an amateur astronomer watching a meteorite fall off the coast of Maine and deciding to try and find it on one of the barrier islands. Throw in Preston's recurring character, Wyman Ford, hired by the government to travel to Cambodia in search of some apparently not-from-earth gemstones, and you have all the makings of another fascinating thriller.

Preston pulls his ideas from disparate sources. "I got the idea many years ago when I was listening to an NPR report about the U.S.'s worldwide network of seismic sensors." They were mostly used to test for clandestine nuclear bomb tests; about twenty years ago they picked up the seismic signature of what looked like a nuclear test in the Australian Outback. "The interesting thing about the seismic signature of a nuclear test is it looks a lot like a meteorite impact." They didn't find anything, but what made everyone nervous at the time was that the site of the seismic event took place on an enormous ranch owned by the Aum Shinrikyo cult best known for releasing sarin gas on the Tokyo subway.Preston took that idea and combined it with a story he'd read in Scientific Americanabout "two unusual seismic events in late 2001 or early 2002. It appeared to scientists that it might have been caused by a particle striking the earth, passing through it, and coming out the other side. They thought this particle might be what is called a 'strangelet' or strange matter, or quark matter--a very strange kind of matter."

In addition, Preston had traveled to Cambodia in the 1990s for a story for National Geographic in search of undiscovered temples that had been uncovered by foliage-penetrating radar on the space shuttle. "I went along, but the problem was, the temple was in Khmer Rouge-held territory. Not only was it very difficult to get to--there were no roads or anything like that--but we had to bring an army with us. It was very exciting."

When asked how his writing process is different when writing novels by himself versus his collaborations with Lincoln Child, Preston says, "It's very different. It's a much lonelier process. As a writer you feel kind of isolated, you have no one to bounce ideas off, really; you are unsure whether you're going in the right direction or not. I would say it's stressful and lonely, but at the same time it's rewarding because it's your own work, for better or worse."

But fear not, Preston/Child fans, the next collaboration featuring Special Agent Pendergast, Fever Dream, is scheduled for May 11, 2010. Of their partnership, Preston says, "Of course, Linc and I complain together. We complain about everything and we congratulate ourselves on what fine fellows we are. It's nice to have a partnership like that."

He described their mutual process as basically one person writing something, then the other person saying how bad it is, then the two of them getting into fights until the publisher demands the manuscript. "When he calls me up and says this chapter really sucks, after I cool off and stop telling him what an idiot he is, I think, this is why we have a writing partnership, to speak the truth to each other. He rewrites and makes me furious, and I rewrite him, and that makes him furious. So he rewrites me and we go back and forth like that getting madder and madder at each other until the publisher starts demanding the manuscript. But for some reason that process works. We end up with something that's better than each of us could have written solo."
To which this writer says, "Mmmmm, maybe." Because both writers' solo novels are awfully damned good. And Impact will demonstrate that, no doubt.

Mark Terry is the author of the Derek Stillwater thriller series. His newest thriller, THE SERPENT'S KISS, is available in stores and online.

Find out more about great authors at ThrillerFest 2010!

Celebrate Craft! - It's in the Details

2010-01-05T18:07:00.004-05:00

Celebrate Craft: from the blog of Kathryn Johnson, Write by You

What turns words on a page into a vivid scene? What magic do some authors perform that convinces readers a story is real and characters are people they might actually run into on the street?

Details do the trick!

Does that seem too simple an answer? Common sense or not, it's one element of fiction that is so often overlooked that editors and agents declare it's one of the most frequent reasons they turn down manuscripts. Yet this is such an easy problem for writers to fix, if they are just aware of it.

The trouble begins when the author—you, me, anyone regardless of experience—envisions their story and characters. To us, as creators, the people leap from our imagination with fully developed personalities. Our settings glow in our minds, complete with flora, fauna, and furniture! We "see" each scene as complete even as we polish our final draft, working on dialogue, plot, pacing, character development and consistency.

But what does the reader see? Only what we put on the page. Therefore, it's important to weave in enough physical details for the reader to work with in her own imagination, allowing her to come up with a fictional world that is, if not exactly the same as the one we envision when we wrote the scene, at least similar and as vivid in its own way. Stories that take place in a muddy void aren't convincing. Stories that give us only generic details—flowers instead of iris, roses, and lilacs; buildings instead of chic condos, Georgian mansions, or mud-daub huts—leave the reader unconvinced that this world on the page actually exists.

Some writers shy away from using the most obvious details—locations that are available to anyone who walks through a specific city or town. Is it fair game to set a scene in the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan, to fly on U.S. Air, to allow your characters to stroll down Connecticut Avenue in D.C. or work for the World Bank? Absolutely. In fact, a sense of recognition plays a very strong role in making your story come to life. A good general rule is: as long as you're not saying anything libelous about a business or place, you're safe.

Take the time to play with details in your story, adding just enough to bring your scenes and characters fully to life. Coloring your story brings it from tonal grays to vibrant color…and may make the difference between a near miss and an offer on your next book. Happy Writing! --Kathryn

You can celebrate craft with us at CraftFest in New York in July!

Your ThrillerFest Wishlist for 2010

2009-10-15T13:56:00.002-04:00

Everyone is already looking into their crystal ball for ThrillerFest 2010! The last convention was a great success and you can still order the audio tracks for the workshops! But what I really want to know is how can we out-do ourselves next year?

It's always a challenge to be better each year and the best way to be better is to get feedback and find those authors, events and fun times that YOU are interested in! What would you like to see for the next ThrillerFest?

Dream Killers

2009-09-26T14:05:00.000-04:00

Dream Killers

I’m a bit tired of people stepping on dreams. I have a lot of dreams. Some are pretty attainable, and others are off the charts so rare that even I have to admit the odds are long.

But I still don’t want you to step on them.

My view on dreams is that if I’m not bothering anyone, haven’t compromised my real life existence to attain them, and in other ways am a responsible person, then the best thing to do is leave me go on my merry way.

Which brings me to the moral dilemma I face when giving panels on writing. People ask me, will this be published? What are the odds? What do you thnk?

Here’s what I think: the odds are long, we know that. The time spent on writing may never pay off, either financially or in published format, we know this also. So what? Should you give up? Stop writing? Choose not to start? Only you know if that’s right for you.

Of course, this answer never satisfies. When I say, “if you continue, diligently, for many years, taking courses, staying in the writing world, going to conferences and panels to pick up tips, you will be published.”

The next question I get is: “How many years?”

Answer: Depends.

This answer is not acceptable to many, either, but it’s true. Last week I watched “Biography” present George Clooney. By most standards, he’s a success in his field. The backstory was interesting. He landed in Hollywood in his early twenties. Did bit parts and recurring roles until he hit with “ER.” Time from landing in LA to ER: ten years give or take. Ten years to get a role that really pushed his career to the next level. That’s a long time. If I said ten years to a new writer, they’d likely get angry. “Ten years! But I want this manuscript to sell now, not ten years down the road.”

I imagine Clooney wanted to hit ten years earlier, too, but that wasn’t in the cards for him. From ER he took roles in movies that generated roller coaster reviews and average box office. Then came “The Perfect Storm.” Big hit, great reviews. Time from landing in LA to big hit—eighteen years, give or take.

So should the unpublished writer give it ten years to get published, another eight to hit huge, and be prepared to wait eighteen altogether? I’m not a fan of delusion, but in this case absolute truth is harsh. Even I, the tortoise of the hare and tortoise race, wince at eighteen years.

But I write because I have to. I love it. A few days without writing and I’m definitely headed into a downer mode. Best I just hit the computer for a couple of hours. I always feel better after. The only other option is to quit. Now, that’s a great option if it doesn’t really matter to you, but if you like writing, like creating characters, and like the creativity that goes along with it, then don’t quit.

Just trudge onward. Your turn will come.

Jamie Freveletti
Author
Running from the Devil
www.Jamiefreveletti.com

Advice I received and some I ignored—Unpublished era.

2009-07-22T09:39:00.000-04:00

My manuscript has been sold, the book published and I’m gearing up for round two on a debut book launch and events. Over the past year and a half I’ve been given boatloads of advice. Here’s what ended up working, and not working, for me:

Write every day—Not for me.

This advice comes from those who write like crazy. Many who say this are well published. I write a lot, but not every day. Frankly, there are not many things I do every day except raise children. When I worked as a lawyer and the kids were smaller I wrote every other day on average. Vacations- and beach vacations in particular- ramp up my word count and as a result my children have seen a lot of sand.

Outline—Not for me.

I get an idea for a premise and begin writing. I research along the way, but while I’m still writing. I remember what James Rollins once said at a conference I attended: “when you’re researching you’re working but not writing.” In other words, doing prep work accomplishes something but you are still no closer to finishing the novel.

Take a creative writing class-50/50 on this one.

I began with an evening course at the University of Chicago Gleacher center. I got into the groove of writing there, but by no means do I think it is a necessary step to becoming a writer.

Get a Masters in Fine Arts-Not for me.

I have some degrees and diplomas. Enjoyed them all, but just don’t have it in me to get one more. Thankfully, this bit of advice is only necessary if you want to obtain a position as a professor.

Write what you know-50/50 on this one.

I’ve written about things I can only imagine. I mean, who murders someone just so they can write about murder? In fact, one of my first manuscripts is about a female attorney. I knew the material, but so many have written legal scenarios and lawyer protagonists that I wasn’t sure I had much to add to the genre. Not to mention that I felt as though I was at work 24/7. I ended up putting that manuscript on the shelf and turned to write Running. If you’re unsure about your ability to write a believable scenario in an area you don’t know, then maybe you should write what you know at first. Just be prepared to branch out if necessary.

Those are the big pieces of advice I heard along the way and my approach to the matter. I’ll blog about the advice to a newly published author next!

Jamie Freveletti
Author
Running from the Devil
http://www.jamiefreveletti.com/