Celebrate Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Melinda Leigh is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author with numerous awards. She is several series available; including Morgan Dane, Scarlet Falls, She Can Series and Midnight series. For a full book review of Midnight Obession click here to view it on The Writing Train.
Morgan Dane | Scarlet Falls | She Can | Midnight
Continue reading “Interview with Melinda Leigh by Benjamin Thomas”
Welcome Rebecca!
Rebecca Cantrell’s Hannah Vogel mystery/thriller novels have won the Bruce Alexander and Macavity awards and been nominated for the Barry and RT Reviewers Choice awards; her critically-acclaimed cell phone novel, iDrakula, was nominated for the APPY award and listed on Booklist’s Top 10 Horror Fiction for Youth. She and her husband and son just left Hawaii’s sunny shores for adventures in Berlin. Find Rebecca Cantrell on Facebook, Twitter, and at www.rebeccacantrell.com.
Continue reading “Interview with Rebecca Cantrell & The Joe Tesla Thrillers”
Continue reading “Talking Mystery & History with Author Ritter Ames”
When a basketball player pivots, he keeps one foot in place while spinning to the side to change direction.
That’s what a plot twist does.
The story’s new direction doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s rooted in the overall context of the story, but it takes everyone by surprise.
Also, the momentum that appeared to be moving the story in one direction actually propels it into a new, even more meaningful one.
Look for ways to make every scene pivot away from expectation toward satisfaction.
Continue reading “Pulling the Rug Out: The Keys to Creating Great Twists by Steven James”
Interview questions – Benjamin Thomas to Bill Thompson – January 12, 2017
Where did your passion for writing start?
I have always enjoyed the English language and I have a degree in journalism. I worked for a metropolitan newspaper while I was in college and I found writing the easiest and most satisfying part of the job. I used my writing skills peripherally in the corporate world, but now I’m doing it full-time and enjoying it very much.
That’s great!
When did you start writing?
See question 1. My career as an author began when I started – but never finished – my first book thirty years ago. I became a caretaker for my terminally ill wife who urged me to finish it. In 2009 that book, The Bethlehem Scroll, became my first published novel.
I would love to read this. The story premise looks great.
If you could start over would you begin with a writing career?
No. I wouldn’t trade my years in the corporate arena for anything. I was fortunate to be able to travel extensively and enjoy the finer things in life. Many of my experiences are included in my books, especially in the life of Brian Sadler, the primary character in five books so far.
Wonderful! It’s refreshing to hear this.
What sparked your love for archaeology?
Since I was a kid it’s been an interest of mine. I loved reading about paleontology and many of the books I checked out of the library were about dinosaurs. I also was fascinated with Egypt and how people in ancient times could have created the massive pyramids, Sphinx and temples.
My boys both love dinosaurs. Egyptian culture is extremely fascinating.
Tell us about your archaeological thrillers.
Most of my books are set in Mesoamerica and involve places to which I’ve traveled. Even though I found the ancient Egyptians fascinating, I think there’s even more mystery and intrigue in the Mayan world. How an agrarian culture with no knowledge of things such as the wheel and pulley systems could create temples in the jungles is beyond me. I have seen a hundred-ton stone sitting atop a thirteen-story temple in Guatemala. How did it get there? Some of my books address those types of questions in unconventional (but not that far-fetched) ways.
Oh wow, that is a mystery. I can’t wait to read more of your books!
Who is Brian Sadler?
Brian Sadler is an ambitious man who started as a stockbroker for a mainstream brokerage firm in Dallas. He watched friends make millions with a high-flying broker who played fast and loose. He joined that company and things went fine until the Feds arrived. In a bizarre turn of events, Brian became owner of a Fifth Avenue antiquities gallery with an international reputation. He has taken that firm – Bijan Rarities – and made it and himself into household names by creating shows for Discovery and History channels.
Brian and his lawyer-turned-fiancé Nicole Farber face one adventure after another as the series progresses. From the jungles of Mesoamerica to the corporate jungles of London and New York, Brian finds something new around every corner.
I’ve only ready Order of Succession. Now I have to go back and read all the others. Love a good adventure.
How did you develop the plot for Order of Succession?
I enjoyed writing Order of Succession most of all my books. It all began with a “what if” moment. What if the Republican president and vice president disappeared in separate and seemingly unrelated plane crashes, within minutes of each other? What if a boorish Democratic career politician with a hidden agenda suddenly was thrust into the presidency? What if his friends were on a mission to take over the largest oil company in the world?
The plot developed from there, with twists and turns along the way. Brian Sadler is a big part of this book, but his role is not as important here as in the earlier novels. Regardless, I think it’s a believable plot that will make readers ask – what if?
I love what if’s!! There’s so many possibilities!
What are your favorite mysteries of the past?
I like novels in my genre, such as those by Clive Cussler, but I also enjoy the books of Preston and Child, James Rollins and Joel Rosenberg (his are absolutely incredible, since he was a bit of a prophet on his first two books!)
I also enjoy books that explore possibilities beyond the traditional realm of thinking. I read alternative theories about Egypt and other major sites in the Middle East, possible involvement in our early societies by people from other worlds, and the idea that there may have been technology on Earth millennia ago that has been lost and may someday be discovered. I don’t read things that are too much in left field – like aliens walking among us today – because I’m more interested in the ancient past. And could these things have happened? Why not?
It does sound pretty intriguing.
Name three favorite travel destinations and what you enjoy about them.
My favorite places to travel are cities. I love London and New York and have traveled there for decades both for business and pleasure. Rome has become a more recent favorite city too. All three are teeming with history from vastly different ages. In my book The Relic of the King (the first of a trilogy) I mention the things excavators find every time they begin to build a new building in the City of London. You can’t walk more than a few blocks in that tiny part of London without seeing something from the Roman occupation.
Same thing with New York, but fast-forwarded hundreds of years. Downtown Manhattan was New Amsterdam and archaeologists find historical memorabilia all the time under its streets. I think that’s fascinating.
And rewind thousands of years to the majesty of Rome. What a glorious city. Walking its streets, seeing the temples and fountains and contemplating life in this ancient place always whets my appetite to write a novel about it. (And I did. In The Bones in the Pit, Brian Sadler takes on a powerful Cardinal in the Vatican who isn’t what he seems to be.)
I’ve been to London and New York and can’t wait to go back.
Name three of the most intriguing travel destinations.
Egypt, Israel and Turkey. Two I’ve visited, one I haven’t. Turkey’s on my list for the future. I want to see its archaeology, especially Gobekli Tepe, a fascinating archaeological site that may be the oldest one found on Earth so far. What people erected enormous monuments there nearly 12,000 years ago? Let your imagination run wild!
YES!
Can you share any pictures?
(“Pakalsarcophagus”) – This is King Pakal, who is buried in the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque, Mexico. Doesn’t he look like an astronaut, lying back and preparing to be launched with his hands and feet on the controls? Many people think so!
(Image 204) – Temple IV at Tikal, Guatemala. How did primitive farmers get those massive stones up there a hundred feet above the ground? Was it levitation? That’s as logical to me as saying ten thousand men spent ten years dragging it up.
(Image 416) – The Zapatista rebels set up roadblocks along the roads in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. They want to secede and their interference with the government makes life interesting for locals and tourists alike. See my book The Crypt of the Ancients for an idea of what might happen if the rebels turned into kidnappers.
How does writing compare to the success you’ve had in the business world?
That depends on what one’s definition of success is. Financially my life in the corporate world buying and selling companies and making deals was vastly more successful. I think I’m just getting started in recognition as an author. It’s going well so far and I hope it’ll continue to provide more and more financial rewards.
The real measure of success for me is the satisfaction I receive in what I’m doing now. I absolutely love creating stories that other people will read and enjoy. It’s immensely gratifying when readers let me know they’re ready for the next book and loved the last one. The pleasure I receive from that makes it all incredibly rewarding.
Great definition of success. Love it.
What are you currently writing?
I recently finished The Outcasts, my tenth novel and the first I’ve written in the genre of apocalyptic disaster. This one is totally different for me and it’s a stand-alone book (at least so far – some readers are already asking for a sequel!) This book begins with a current theme – the election of 2016 when two candidates ran for president and most Americans weren’t that happy with either one of them. Two years later the House and Senate switch to the other party. In 2020 the Social Democrats are swept into power and they retain control of our government until the very last election ever in the United States – the presidential election of 2040. Things get really interesting after that!
The book I’m working on now is tentatively called The Black Cross. It’s another Brian Sadler mystery. Unlike Order of Succession, he plays a very prominent role in this one. It’s a story about voodoo, Christopher Columbus and an ancient relic; it’s set in New Orleans, Cuba and Guatemala. It will be released in late March 2017.
Wow. I love the premise of all your books. Can’t wait to read more.
Connect with Bill Thompson!
I was at a book signing the other day, and a person asked me a question that caused me to have to think a little before blurting out an answer. The question was, “What should every new writer know?” My answer at the time seemed to satisfy the person asking but after giving it a little more thought I decided that my reply was at best adequate and at worst incomplete. Now thanks to the Mystery Thriller Week I have been given another opportunity to adequately express what I have no come to call My Advice for New Writers that Every New Writer Should Know Before Deciding to Become a Writer. I think you can tell from my title that the thought process has grown from my initial response at the book signing. Also, if you have decided to become a writer no matter what anyone tells you, I would read this anyway. At best, you may avert some pain. At worst, you might even enjoy it. So, with that introduction let’s get into it.
Continue reading “My Advice for New Writers by John W. Howell”
Embers of a long smoldering fire have recently been stoked. The winds of a publishing war are stirring, and opening salvo’s have been unleashed! Have battle lines been drawn between independent and traditional publishers? Is so, who in the end shall emerge the ultimate victor? Time, as they say, will only tell. Truly, the world of the printed word in this 21st century has entered an interesting, if not historic, and truly exciting era.
At least for some, that is.
Continue reading “INDIE VS. TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING: BATTLE LINES DRAWN? by Steven Perkins”
INTERVIEW WITH MAURICE ‘BIG MO’ DOLAN:
PROTAGONIST OF NICK RIPPINGTON’S NEW NOVEL – WORKING TITLE: HEADERS
Hi. I’m Paul Melluish, crime writer with London’s Evening Guardian. Currently I’m putting a book together about the most dangerous criminals of the 70s and 80s and was granted exclusive access to Maurice ‘Big Mo’ Dolan, renowned sub-Post Office robber currently incarcerated in London’s Belmarsh Prison. Here is the transcript of our conversation…
If I were asked to select one case in the history of our justice system that epitomized the essentials and professionalism of a ministry of justice in terms of tempestuous drama, personal anguish, garish confrontation, and, yes, divine intervention, unhesitatingly, I would answer: the Wylie-Hoffert rape murders. Here’s why:
August 28, 1963, was a muggy summer day in New York City when Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert were brutally raped and murdered in their apartment on Manhattan’s fashionable Upper East Side. Months passed as their families grieved the nightmarish unthinkable and a shaken city awaited answers. Finally, eight months later, the Brooklyn Police arrested George Whitmore, Jr., a nineteen-year-old with an I.Q. south of 70. His incarceration would ultimately entail a host of shocking law-enforcement missteps and cover-ups.
At the time of his arrest for the Wylie-Hoffert murders, the Brooklyn Police and the Kings County District Attorney’s Office (Brooklyn) also charged Whitmore with attempted rape and the murder of Minnie Edmonds, both of which occurred in Brooklyn one week apart.
Yet, Mel Glass, a young Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, not even assigned to the Homicide Bureau, was troubled by the investigation. With the blessing from legendary District Attorney, Frank Hogan, Glass tirelessly immersed himself in the case. So began an epic quest for justice, culminating in a courtroom showdown in which the Brooklyn arresting and interrogating cops refused to admit their flagrant missteps, providing a complete defense to the actual career criminal, vicious predator, murderer, Richard Robles.
The outcome would reach far beyond the individuals involved. Not only does the case reveal the extraordinary details of an enormously intense manhunt but it is also a classic and brilliant courtroom prosecution. The unjustly accused was exonerated and the depraved killer convicted. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court memorialized this case’s significance by citing it in the noteworthy Miranda decision, a monumental Fifth Amendment due process, fundamental fairness decision designed to safeguard a suspect’s rights against self-incrimination.
I served in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office during the tenure of District Attorney Frank Hogan, and was mentored by Mel Glass who asked me to write Echoes of My Soul which is a non-fiction account of the Wylie-Hoffert case.
Important to note that District Attorney Hogan was truly a legend long before Wylie-Hoffert occurred. Once convinced that Mel Glass’ gut-instincts and subsequent investigation was legitimate and that George Whitmore, Jr., was wrongfully indicted for the most gruesome and sensationalized double-rape murders in the media’s radar, Mr. Hogan was prepared to admit his mistake, possibly fracture his career’s reputation, and exonerate an impoverished young man with a very low I.Q. And why? Simply and manifestly because it was right, justice demanded it.
Echoes of My Soul reveals as never before the actual functioning of the inner sanctum of a ministry of justice operating on a case by case qualitative analytical apolitical merit-driven fashion. On one level, it speaks volumes about how an individual so committed, Mel Glass, can make a huge impact. It is a triumphant victory for justice delivered by a dedicated young Hogan acolyte whose soul is pure, intact, and righteous.
Yet, Echoes of My Soul is more, much more meaningful. To do justice in our lives, to be civil, tolerant, rational, and forthright is to enhance the dignity not only of ourselves but also of the public office we may occupy, the job we hold, and the culture in which we thrive. Those values are timeless. We need to experience them so that we may always be reminded who we are and from where we come. When faced with cultural coarsening, we seek affirmation of triumph. Echoes of My Soul will satisfy that need.
Continue reading “Special Feature from the Crime Division by Robert K. Tanenbaum”
Mystery Thriller Week 