When I asked the question so what is a mystery anyway, I got some interesting responses. Most people agree that the traditional who-done-it’s are mysteries. Whenever there’s a dead body early in the book, you have a mystery to find out who the dead person is and how that person ended up dead. I did […]
Archives for February 2012
So What’s a Mystery Anyway?
What’s a true mystery? Does it have to be a “who-done-it?” Or, can be a story full of mystery and suspense? I’m curious as I work on deciding on the genre for The Clock Strikes Midnight. I’ve read plenty of who done it mysteries, both police procedural and malice domestic versions. I’ve also read plenty […]
Joan’s Must-Read: Room
When a book haunts me the way Room did, I put it on my must-read list and recommend it to all of you. Let me tell you why this book haunted me. First, it is told from the point of view of a 5-year-old child. What that child sees, perceives, witnesses and feels is contrary […]
How ’bout some help with the query
Query letters are the pitches that make or break writers. They are the little paragraphs that enable us to get our foot in an agent’s door. If the query does not “sparkle” (as one agent described it), you lose. In today’s competitive fiction environment, the query is almost as important as the manuscript itself. Knowing […]
