by mike | Feb 14, 2013 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Writing |
In Part One of this series I wrote about how important—how necessary—it is for writers to engage their readers immediately with an element of the story called the narrative hook. Both literary agents and, ultimately, readers want to get into your story quickly, or you...
by mike | Feb 10, 2013 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
A novel is made up of quite a few elements, among them characterization, dialogue, point of view, setting, and so on. But in my mind, the most important element—without question—is the story’s opening, what we call the HOOK, or more specifically, the narrative hook....
by mike | Feb 4, 2013 | Books, Editing, Psychological Thrillers, Publishing, Research, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
August McLaughlin is “one of my writers”. More important, she is also a great friend. We met at a writers’ conference some years back—perhaps fortuitously, or even inevitably, as she had come to the conference on a quest to find a writing coach and mentor. Seems she...
by mike | Jan 29, 2013 | Baseball, Life, Native Americans |
The term “bucket list” is defined as a list of things that one must do before he or she…well, kicks the bucket. The Bucket List is also a bittersweet comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, about two terminally ill men who skip the cancer ward and head out...
by mike | Jan 23, 2013 | Guilty Pleasures, Horror, Horror Movies, Movies, Nightmares, Paranormal |
AN EYE FOR AN EYE. YOUR LIFE FOR A TOOTH. That’s one of the taglines for the 2003 horror flick, Darkness Falls—a double entendre title if ever there was one. In this case, Darkness Falls is the name of a small New England town. Here, the storied and seemingly innocent...