Please welcome Madeline Mrozek professional audiobook narrator and voice over artist!
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Author Interview with Lyrical Pens
MTW author meets up with cj petterson and shares his new release and main character Mac McClellan.
LYRICAL PENS Spotlights author E. Michael Helms Today!
cj Sez: Lyrical Pens’ guest today is Mystery Thriller Week author E. Michael Helms, who writes the popular Mac McClellan mystery series. The latest in the series from Coffeetown/Camel Press is the brand-new deadly spirits, which launched on Jan 15, 2017. (Congratulations, Michael.)
This busy author graciously stopped by for a few minutes and answered some questions for us. Let’s get right to it…
Lyrical Pens: Where did you get the inspiration for your Mac McClellan series?
E. Michael Helms: My previous books had all dealt with war, mostly drawn from my own experiences. It was draining and I knew I needed a change. I grew up reading and loving the Hardy Boys books, and had recently renewed my interest in mysteries. One day I thought: Why not try my hand at writing a mystery? It took off from there.
LP: What…
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Mystery Mondays: Damon L. Wakes on Planning Your Novel
It’s Monday again, and we’re here with Damon L. Wakes author of Ten Little Astronauts.
Planning Your Novel by Damon L. Wakes.
Personally, I don’t like to plan my books in too much detail. Knowing (at least in your head) how you get from beginning to end is essential, but for me summarising individual scenes seems excessive: I feel as though I might as well just write the scenes themselves.
What I find does help is to take a pack of record cards and note down all the major plot points, one per card. This makes for a really quick way to put together an outline of the story, and you’re free to add or remove cards as necessary, even while you’re working. There are other advantages to this sort of plan too, but I think those are best left for another post.
I first tried this approach when…
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How to write a mystery thriller in the style of Alfred Hitchcock by Tony Lee Moral
As the author of three books on Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, including a ‘how to’ write a thriller, called Alfred Hitchcock’s Movie Making Masterclass, I was naturally inspired by his stories when writing my mystery thriller, Ghost Maven, about a teenage girl who falls in love with a ghost in Monterey Bay, California.
My GRL – By John W. Howell
MTW author relaunched My Girl.
Guest post: lesson 1 by David Kummer
Welcome to this lesson of David Kummer’s writing course. That’s me, by the way. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, success stories, or just something fun to say, email me at davidkummer7@gmail.com. I’d love to talk about anything and everything, especially if that everything has to do with books, basketball, or Chinese food. I am a teenager, after all. So that’s that! Head on down and read what might be the best writing course of your life, but also might be the worst 😉 You won’t know until you try!
Award and After Party for Mystery Thriller Week
Last night I was up with so many of the authors, bloggers, fans, readers, experts and organizers of the Mystery Thriller Week. After 4 months of planning, 11 days of reviews, guest posts, interview posting, and hosting live events, the week came to a close.
Did we learn a lot during this colossal event? Yes! We did!
- If you built it, they will come, bringing books, reviews, interviews, and laughter.
- You can never laugh at your own mistakes enough.
- Authors and bloggers love a good party together.
- Guests look better in Armani, Oscar De La Renta, and other designers clothing.
- Champagne flows like champagne.
- You can never have enough trailers in a screening room.
- No one wants to the party to end.
The party began at 10:00 pm and the red carpet started filling up at about 9:30. There was crush at the auditorium door but everyone made it in safely…
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SWAPPING GENRES by Andrew Richardson
I approached writing ‘The Door into War’ with some trepidation. On one hand, it
was a story I wanted to write with a plot I was pleased with. On the other hand, my
previous novels have all been firmly squarely horror or historical fantasy genres. Writing
a time travel thriller was a complete change for me, especially as my reading knowledge
of time travel and thrillers is limited, and as a writer is zero.
Putting together ‘The Door into War’ led me to wondering, what are the benefits
to a writer of switching genres? And what are the drawbacks?
In my case, having written a lot of horror where tension is key I have at least
some experience of maintaining suspense. I’ve also got a background in archaeology so I
made my main character an archaeologist, and made archaeology an important part of the
story which gave me something familiar to work around. I write occasional erotic shorts,
which I found a help with the need to show characters’ emotions and reactions to each
other.
It was also a refreshing challenge to try something completely different, and I
hope this enjoyment comes over in the novel.
Because I didn’t know the thriller genre I suppose there’s a possibility that in my
naivety I might have brought something new to it – but that’s probably wishful thinking!
But, genre-swapping isn’t all plain sailing. I’m pretty sure I’ll have made some
genre-specific mistakes, and I probably missed some things that thriller readers will
expect, or misjudged the pacing and similar.
When writing historical fantasy or horror I usually have an idea of whether or not
what I’m doing is any good – or at least whether it’s good above the line enough to be
picked up by a publisher. I didn’t have that same feel for ‘The Door into War.’ In fact, as
Write Hook Contest Winners
Entrants into the Write Hook writing contest submitted a 300-word hook which showcased their writing skills. A “Hook” is what grabs the reader and snares him into reading the rest of a book. While there are many hooks throughout a book, this contest focused on the first page of a novel. The winners’ prizes and their Hook submissions are listed below. Continue reading “Write Hook Contest Winners”
Exclusive Interview with Executive Director of the APA
GOT AUDIOBOOKS?
Please Welcome Michele Cobb Executive Director of the The Audio Publishers Association (APA).
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Mystery Thriller Week 