The best thing about writing crime fiction (mysteries and thrillers) is the endless font of ideas. Thieves are at work (the Louvre!), scams are abundant, surveillance is creepy, shenanigans run ram…

Oliver Harmon, a secondary character in my new Italy-based thriller She Knew Too Much, was particularly fun to write. A well-meaning Anglican priest, he’s vitally important in the first chapter whe…

Oliver Harmon, a secondary character in my new Italy-based thriller She Knew Too Much, was particularly fun to write. A well-meaning Anglican priest, he’s vitally important in the first chapter whe…

While some terrific espionage thrillers have been written in the last couple of years (see list below), spying in the 21st c. is not what it once was. First of all, it’s less Agents Running in the …

I’ve missed a few posts lately because I’ve been creating an index for my family history. How detailed? What’s most helpful? These are questions I don’t have the answers to. Having studied family h…

I’ve missed a few posts lately because I’ve been creating an index for my family history. How detailed? What’s most helpful? These are questions I don’t have the answers to. Having studied family h…

In one of those crime stories that you hope isn’t based on real-life events, but expect it could be, A Molotkov’s new novel explores what might happen when a person whose mental faculties are teete…

An Old-Fashioned Family Murder, which premiered last Friday night at George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, N.J., is first-rate old-fashioned fun! This new comedy-mystery, written by Joe DiPietro …

To have a lasting impact on readers, your writing has to have some style. Style comes from your characters and their actions, the descriptions and dialog, that make them uniquely “yours.” It comes …

Domenic Stansberry’s new noir mystery takes it slow, unraveling in beautiful prose the confounding situation its protagonist, political ghostwriter SE Reynolds. Stansberry—who hasn’t published a no…

“Adverbs are the tool of the lazy writer.”                                                                        Mark Twain “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” Stephen King             The l…

Even if this movie weren’t considered darn good, and it is, it’s almost worth it to see a filmmaker—in this case Paul Thomas Anderson—try to shoehorn a Thomas Pynchon novel into a couple of hours. …

Author Matt Goldman is part of that tribe of television writers who have made a successful jump into print. These authors have in common their ability to establish steadily rising action with no lu…

In September, we took one of our Midwest driving trips, visited many (23) friends and family along the way, and made several new tourist stops. These included two sites established to commemorate U…

A famous story about James Joyce recounts how, after a day’s work, he told a friend he’d produced two sentences. The friend asked, “You’ve been seeking the right words?”“No,” replied Joyce, “I have…

Second in this talented team’s genre mashup, The Railway Conspiracy builds on the characters introduced in last year’s The Murder of Mr. Ma. Set in London in 1924, the series’ main characters are J…

Back sometime before the Dark Ages, when I was in journalism school, we thought of the news business and the entertainment business as separate entities—the difference between Walter Cronkite and S…

In the last post of this series, the emphasis was on modifiers, adjectives specifically. It talked about three keys to choosing a adjectives that will help your readers create the story picture you…

Down and Out in the River City, the third crime thriller by Wm Stage, is a refreshing change of pace in both setting and characters, with a strong feel of gritty reality. Contemporary society’s sch…

By the time authors finish writing a story, they (should) have a pretty good grasp of its essence. But that intimate knowledge doesn’t necessarily lead to a good title for the work. Sometimes too m…

Whether you’re describing a person, a location, or a bit of action, details help readers envision it. Adjectives and adverbs provide many of these details. They help readers draw a mental picture o…

Virginia Feito’s new gothic thriller, Victorian Psycho, has attracted the attention of readers and commentators for its originality, as well as for its in-your-face macabre violence. It’s graphic. …

An article by John Koblin in yesterday’s New York Times says the days of separate subscriptions to multiple tv streaming service are waning. It’s just too complicated, too many passwords, too much …

So many thought-provoking insights were in the George Saunders interview I wrote about last week, I saved a few for today. One issue he talks about is how politics and themes enter his writing. Not…

Verbs (Still) Do the Heavy LiftingHere’s more on how choosing strong verbs can bring your story alive. Does your character merely walk into a room? How does he walk in? You can make his style of en…

No doubt many crime fiction readers eagerly anticipated Presumed Guilty, Scott Turow’s new legal thriller. I know I did, having been a fan ever since his debut with Presumed Innocent almost 40 year…

For a long time, I’ve had the glimmer of an idea for a story about a jeweler for British royalty. You’ll remember how Elizabeth II always wore a lovely pin on her jacket when she was out in public.…

George Saunders, Having a Marie Kondo moment, I’ve been clearing out old magazines, giving one last nostalgic look-through. We’re talking copies of Gourmet that go back over 50 years (before food p…

Verbs Do the Heavy Lifting Some languages get their power from colorful imagery (Arabic, for example). Others—like Chinese and English—offer strong verbs. Are the verbs in your stories doing all th…

Third in former CIA analyst David McCloskey’s riveting series of espionage thrillers, The Seventh Floor will grab your attention and hang onto it until the last page. Not only is the story a hair-r…

Last month at the annual conference of the Public Safety Writers Association, which comprises police, fire, federal law enforcement, emergency services and other professionals—mostly retired, becau…

Now here’s a trip to a museum that didn’t turn out as expected! “A Visit to the Lucentini Museum of Curiosities” was published in the latest issue of the antholozine Soul Scream: Fear and Loathing,…

To get the most out of this series of posts on ways for writers to “find the best words,” you may want to give a read to Eric Bogle’s bush ballad, “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.” The first four…

Last week, I gave a presentation at a writhing workshop sponsored by the Public Safety Writers Association—an organization for public safety professionals (police, fire, EMT, military, etc.) who wr…

Plums, Paprika, and Ghosts, a wonderful book by my friend and fellow crime-writer A.J. Sidransky, is a success on many levels. This nonfiction book is part travelog, part family history, part culin…

An interest in family history has led me down many intriguing paths and arcane byways. Naturally, my interest was piqued by a recent story in Natural History magazine by Samuel M. Wilson, “How Surn…

Érica Rivas in Wild Tales Malcolm Gladwell—always thought-provoking—recently reviewed the new book Unforgiving Places in The New Yorker (9 June), which examines strategies to prevent violent crime.…

Last week, I gave a presentation at a writhing workshop sponsored by the Public Safety Writers Association—an organization for public safety professionals (police, fire, EMT, military, etc.) who wr…

So your friends are off to the Jersey Shore or Thailand or the Maritime Provinces. You can have your own exciting vacation right from the ol’ lounge chair. Here are five recent crime stories that w…