All Blog Posts Tagged 'crime' (194)

I’ve had this question posed to me recently and I actually had to stop and really think about it. 

How many characters are too many to kill off in a thriller novel? 

Is there a minimum number of murders to a thriller novel?

My first answer was… I’m not really sure.  I don’t think there is a special number of appropriate deaths for thriller or suspense…

I love to conduct research.  This can be a thorn in a writer’s side, but I really enjoy this part of the creative process.  Just think about it… you learn something new every time you research.  You can actually learn a new fact today you didn’t know yesterday. 

It’s quite amazing when you begin to outline the story you want to write, you realize all the little details that you need to research to give your story that added dimension. 

Even though I’ve studied…

When I began developing my characters for my Emily Stone Series, I found it quite helpful to outline the main characters from various perspectives.  Sometimes with recurring characters, a scene might become flat and you’re not…

I would like to introduce my new collection of short stories now available at

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056NU8YY

The short story went into decline when so many of the magazines that supported them died. That is not to say there are not short story magazines around from the prestigious New Yorker and possibly Harper’s to the leading newcomer Amazon for online stories. But in the main the rest of them now cater for science fiction and horror which narrows the horizons for most aspiring short story writers. That said there are a number of online publishers of short stories but few of them pay and for…

Many of my early childhood memories involve all of the great books that I had the opportunity to read.  I was a typical kid who loved to be outdoors whenever I could, but I loved my weekly visits to the local library.  I would grab books, stack them high, and take them up to the librarian.  They would be books about animals, adventures, mysteries, and anything else that grabbed my…

I love writing blog posts for other blogs!  There are so many great blogs out there, it's amazing. 

Today I stopped by Blogging Authors.  Here's my post:

I become thoroughly exhausted, both physically and mentally, after finishing a novel project.  In some instances, I felt like I WAS fighting serial killers, solving crimes, and executing daring escapes. 

It’s more important than ever to keep your body and spirit in balance no matter what your daily work or…

As a writer, author, and criminologist, I find that I wear a variety of hats throughout my working day.  Writing, editing, promotion, researcher, and expert are just to name a few.  One of my favorite hats is when I’m beginning a new book – that particular hat is outliner and researcher merged together.  I get really excited all over again, just like it’s my first novel.

The BIG question I hear more than most, “How long does it take to write a novel?”  I can confidently say on average…

Have you ever wanted to adapt your novel into a screenplay?  Or, just wanted to write a script?

I’ve loved movies for as long as I can remember – all genres, drama, action, thriller, and comedies.  The cinema has been a writing inspiration and a fun escape for me. 

I have wanted to write screenplays for as long as I can remember.  Writing quick, snappy dialogue to bring characters to life, cutting away to high impact, action sequences, and making sure that the…

This is a good question.  It’s a solid, straight to the point question about writing.   It’s a question I’ve been asked quite a bit lately. 

How long does it take to write a novel? 

I’ve heard answers from it takes a lifetime to however long it takes you to read a book times a five hundred.  These responses make me laugh and are honest, but…

I’m a person who makes lists and crosses things off when I’ve completed them.  It makes me feel positive about what I’ve accomplished when I can see each item marked off that long list.  In fact, I make a lot of lists.  It comes from working in the corporate world, specifically in the accounting area, that I found out quickly that lists and outlines were the best way…

I have been told my books are scary and that there is a horror quality to them because of the serial killers.  I never really thought about how thriller and horror genres sometimes blend their boundaries.  Traditionally, when I think of horror, I think of a crazed ax murderer, vampire, or zombie.  Serial killers stalking their victims are pretty scary too!

The…

The Edge of the Sea by Laurell K. Hamilton

Laurell K. Hamilton is a good writer and I’m convinced of that. Even now she is good. She’s just in a rut of writing stuff that’s X- rated, rather than actually writing a story. Edge of The Sea is a short story she recently wrote that hits much closer to home for any one who read her earlier stuff. It can be found in the Strange Candy Collection.

The story starts with Adria, who find that her room mate Rachel is missing in middle of…

We’ve all been there.  I’ve never really experienced writer’s block, but procrastination isn’t far away for me on some of my writing days.  At times, it’s difficult to stay focused on my story because my mind wanders to other things or I’m distracted because it’s beautiful outside.  Then I seem to be preoccupied on what I’m NOT doing instead of what I want to…

Criminal homicide is divided by statute: murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, and manslaughter.  The corpus delicti  (the objective proof that a crime has been committed) of homicide must include these three elements:  an evidentiary showing the death of a human being, showing of a criminal agency (perpetrator), and that the criminal agency was the…

Writing is tough work, but at the same time it’s a bug that I can’t seem to shake.  I can’t imagine my life without it even with all of its challenges.  I budget my time for writing projects, promotion, clients, and studying crime trends.  Sometimes it’s a…

I’ve been ecstatic about the “thumbs up” I’ve been receiving from dog handlers and K9 officers about Silent Partner.  Thank you!  It means a lot to me because I wanted to do the K9 units justice by portraying them in a one of my stories. 

 Here are some comments by readers…

John Walker…

Alexander Steele and the Deadly Ring

by Larry J.

A Texas millionaire rancher discovered his wife and bookkeeper had stolen thousands of dollars from him. After he demanded the money back, he started getting sick. While in the hospital, doctors were mystified as to how an otherwise healthy, energetic man could become so deathly ill. The dying man told everyone within earshot that his wife and bookkeeper were killing…

Instead of doing a full-fledged blog tour, I coordinated something a little bit different for my books -  a Book Review Block Party. I contacted numerous book bloggers about publishing their reviews during a certain time-frame, and the end result was 21 book reviews being published across the Internet in one week for my mystery novels Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and Sink or Swim. You can read snippets of

the reviews and more about the…