Links of Interest

ANNUAL INCOME OF A MIDLIST FANTASY WRITER:  Jim Hines shares his income from last year.

http://www.jimchines.com/2011/01/2010-writing-income/

PRIVACY RIGHTS AND SUPERHEROES:  This sounds silly, but it's a good examination of how real world laws protect and don't protect real people.

http://lawandthemultiverse.com/2010/12/20/superhero-privacy-rights-part-one/

DISCOVERING  YOUR CHARACTERS:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2011/01/who-is-that-guy-discovering-your.html

PROMOTION:  Using Skype for interviews.

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2011/01/skype-interviews-for-writers.html

CONTRADICTORY FICTION:  An article by agent and writing teacher Donald Maass.

http://writerunboxed.com/2011/01/05/the-contradictory-nature-of-great-fiction/

FORENSICS:  The body farm.  Not for the easily grossed out.

http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/guest-blogger-crime-writers-inspired-by-body-farms/

OUTLINING THE FIRST DRAFT:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2011/01/find-your-plot-fridays-outlining-first.html

HYPE AND SELF-PUBLISHING:  Overview of some of the nonsense being written about the ebook self-publishing market.

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2011/01/importance-of-context-part-1.html?

SHOULD YOU FINISH THAT BAD FIRST NOVEL?

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2011/01/should-we-finish-writing-bad-book-if.html

THE CIRCUMSTANCES OR THE PROTAGONIST:  Which comes first?

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2011/01/me-first-start-with-protag-or.html

CREATING VITAL SECONDARY CHARACTERS:

http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com/2011/01/vital-secondary-characters.html

THE BETA READER:

http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2011/01/beta-readers.html

CRAFT:  Are you using "there" too much?

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2011/01/most-common-mistakes-series-are-you.html

LIST OF LINKS TO BEST ARTICLES IN THE LAST WEEKS:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2011/01/09/BestTweetsForWritersWeekEnding1711.aspx

FORENSICS: Using the skeleton to determine identity. Read the comments section for more info.

http://clarissadraper.blogspot.com/2011/01/mystery-writers-guide-to-forensic_11.html

DEALING WITH CRITIQUE FEEDBACK:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2011/01/re-write-wednesday-is-it-me-putting.html

STARTING A WRITING BLOG:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-starting-out-your-writing-blog.html

TWITTER AS PART OF A WRITER'S PLATFORM:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2011/01/11/TheEvolutionOfHowIUseTwitter.aspx

~*~

Marilynn's Workshop Schedule and Information Links

http://marilynnbyerly.com/workshopschedule.html

Writing in the Moment, April 11-May 8, 2011 

How to get your voice, viewpoint, and craft so perfect that you disappear and your story comes alive.  Lots of worksheets. 

~*~

The Blurb: Mother of All Promotions July 25-August 7, 2011 

A blurb is the pithy description of your novel in a query letter, the short "elevator pitch" used at a writer's conference, the log line for online promotion, and the all important back cover copy for a published novel.  Without a great blurb, a novel won't be noticed by agents and editors.  

 Marilynn Byerly--creator of a blurb system used by university publishing courses, publishers, and many authors-- will show you how to create that perfect blurb for your novel.  The course will include a number of worksheets and in-class blurb analysis.

Mystery and the Paranormal

MYSTERY AND THE PARANORMAL  

A mystery is the driving plot in the contemporary urban fantasy.  By driving plot I mean the plot the main character follows to achieve his/her goal. The fantasy elements are the building blocks of the world and the characters.

In recent years, mysteries have started borrowing paranormal elements, as well.

Mysteries by themselves have many varieties including the cozy and the detective novel, the police procedural, the spy novel, and the thriller.  

Each type of mystery has urban fantasy and paranormal mystery equivalents.   Here are some examples.

COZY:  An amateur detective solves a murder with minimal blood and violence involved.  (Think Miss Marple or MURDER SHE WROTE)

Carolyn Hart's "Ghost at Work" series about a ghost acting as a murder-solving angel.

EJ Copperman's A NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED.  Mystery series with woman who can see dead people.

Casey Daniel's  Pepper Martin Mysteries.  Heroine sees dead people and tries to solve their murder or whatever.

Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse/TRUE BLOOD novels.

PROFESSIONAL AMATEUR DETECTIVE:  A professional in a specific setting uses his insider information to solve a crime.  The Dick Francis novels about horse racing are a good example. 

 Marjorie M. Liu's   "Hunter Kiss" series. The heroine's job is to kill demons, and she must solve mysteries involving them.  

Charlaine Harris' GRAVE  series. The heroine is able to find dead bodies and experience the last moments of the person's death. She often works with police departments and grieving relatives to help solve murders. 

Mary Stanton's ANGEL'S series. A defense lawyer inherits her uncle's law firm then finds out that many of his cases were before God's Celestial Court of last chances for a reprieve of the dead person's eternal punishment. She solves the murder of the person she is advocating for which helps her plead his case before the angelic court.

POLICE PROCEDURAL: Think LAW AND ORDER or any serious cop show. 

Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson series

Kay Hooper's Bishop/Special Crimes unit novels.  Paranormal suspense.  CRIMINAL MINDS with psychics as the FBI agents and the criminals.  

Anton Strout's DEAD series.,  Paranormal NYC government agency which takes care of paranormal threats and covers them up. Hero Simon is an ex-thief who uses psychometry to read objects.

CE Murphy series. Shaman cop Joanne Walker.

SUSPENSE:  The main character doesn't solve the crime, he tries to stay alive after the crime and may stop the criminal during the process.

George D. Shuman series. "Psychic suspense." The blind heroine sees flashes of a dead person's life and moment of death when she holds a corpse's hand. 

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE:  A man and woman fall in love while staying alive and solving a mystery.  

UNHALLOWED GROUND, Heather Graham.    Heroine owns plantation home in St. Augustine where lots of skeletons are found in the house.  A Civil War serial killer/voodoo witch appears to have returned.  Heroine has ability to see some ghosts.  Hero, a PI with psychic abilities, comes to town looking for one of the victims and finds heroine, ghosts, and killers. 

HISTORICAL: Crime-solving people in the past.  

Georgia Evans series.  WWII in rural England with local pixies, dragons, etc. in people form who fight vampire Nazis.  BEDNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS for adults.

Sarah Jane Stratford's THE MIDNIGHT GUARDIAN. An historical spy novel with vampires. English vampires discover that Hitler's "final solution" includes vampires so they go into Germany to stop the Nazis. 

PN Elrod series.  Vampire PI in 1930s Chicago.

PRIVATE EYE:  

Many of Kelley Armstrong's "The Otherworld Series."   

Kat Richardson's Greywalker novels.

Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files."

THE FORENSICS MYSTERY:  CSI, the novel.  

Laura Anne Gilman's HARD MAGIC.    Magic (the current/electricity) is seen as a science with spells.  A group of young Talents is brought together to create the first forensic magic investigative team. 

THE SPY NOVEL:

Simon R. Green's Eddie Drood novels.  

~*~

Marilynn's Workshop Schedule and Information Links

http://marilynnbyerly.com/workshopschedule.html

Writing in the Moment, April 11-May 8, 2011 

How to get your voice, viewpoint, and craft so perfect that you disappear and your story comes alive.  Lots of worksheets. 

~*~

The Blurb: Mother of All Promotions July 25-August 7, 2011 

A blurb is the pithy description of your novel in a query letter, the short "elevator pitch" used at a writer's conference, the log line for online promotion, and the all important back cover copy for a published novel.  Without a great blurb, a novel won't be noticed by agents and editors.  

 Marilynn Byerly--creator of a blurb system used by university publishing courses, publishers, and many authors-- will show you how to create that perfect blurb for your novel.  The course will include a number of worksheets and in-class blurb analysis.

Links of Interest

GETTING THAT FIRST LINE RIGHT:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2010/12/golden-oldies-first-and-lor-more-than.html

PACING:

http://scotteagan.blogspot.com/2010/12/pacing-keeping-it-consistent.html

BUSINESS OF PUBLISHING:  The midlist writer today.

http://kriswrites.com/2010/12/29/the-business-rusch-midlist-writers-changing-times-part-11/

PLOTTING FROM THE BAD GUY'S VIEWPOINT:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2010/12/find-your-plot-fridays-golden-oldie.html

QUERY HINTS:

http://behlerblog.com/2011/01/02/ringin-in-the-new-year-helpful-query-hints/

BACKING UP THAT DATA:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2011/01/wait-back-up-protecting-your-writing.html

PUSHING THE GENRE ENVELOPE: 

http://scotteagan.blogspot.com/2011/01/push-edge-but-dont-cross-line.html

CREATING SUSPENSE:

http://www.sfwa.org/2011/01/key-conditions-for-reader-suspense-part-3-its-gotta-be-difficult/

TEN RULES OF WRITING:  (More about the writing life than craft)

http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2011/01/02/ten-rules-for-writing/

RESEARCHING YOUR SETTING:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2011/01/lets-get-ready-to-write-researching.html

SWITCHING POINTS OF VIEW:

http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com/2011/01/point-of-view-triangulating-pronouns.html

A TOP TEN LIST OF BOOKS ON CRAFT:

http://www.sfwa.org/2011/01/guest-post-10-books-for-writers-focusing-on-craft/

HOW TO SURVIVE EDITORIAL REVISION:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2011/01/re-write-wednesday-revisionist-attitude.html

PLOT POINTS:

http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2011/01/plot-points.html

~*~

Marilynn's Workshop Schedule and Information Links

http://marilynnbyerly.com/workshopschedule.html

Writing in the Moment, April 11-May 8, 2011 

How to get your voice, viewpoint, and craft so perfect that you disappear and your story comes alive.  Lots of worksheets. 

~*~

The Blurb: Mother of All Promotions July 25-August 7, 2011 

A blurb is the pithy description of your novel in a query letter, the short "elevator pitch" used at a writer's conference, the log line for online promotion, and the all important back cover copy for a published novel.  Without a great blurb, a novel won't be noticed by agents and editors.  

 Marilynn Byerly--creator of a blurb system used by university publishing courses, publishers, and many authors-- will show you how to create that perfect blurb for your novel.  The course will include a number of worksheets and in-class blurb analysis.

A Brief History of Urban Fantasy

In the late 1980s, a number of fantasy authors began to write about the various creatures and tropes of fantasy like elves, other supernatural beings, and magic in contemporary times in big cities rather than the past or in mythic places.  

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy defined these urban fantasy novels as “texts where fantasy and the mundane world interact, intersect, and interweave throughout a tale which is significantly about a real city.”

Authors like Charles de Lint created stories where the real urban world and Fairy met.  Other writers during this period include Emma Bull and Mercedes Lackey.

The heart of these stories are folkloric in tone with a sense of a fairy tale being retold in modern terms.  The language of the novels is lyrical and poetic, and events from the main characters' point of view have a sense that something may or may not be happening.

This type of urban fantasy is now called traditional urban fantasy, and a current writer is Neil Gaiman.

In the late 1990s and beyond, a different type of urban fantasy began to appear.  These novels had their basis, not from fairy tales, but from the horror and mystery genres.  Other media influences included the TV show, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.  

These contemporary urban fantasies were popularized by Laurell K. Hamilton with her Anita Blake novels.  They have a strong protagonist who has some form of supernatural power.  

The narrative is in first person, and the world has a strong sense of good and evil.  

The real world is the gritty reality of the big city where the natural and the supernatural mix, often to disastrous results.  The main character often has a probable sexual and crime-solving partner who is supernatural and a forbidden sexual partner either by society or by her/his own standards.  

The main plot is a mystery which the main character must solve to prevent chaos, whether it be preventing bad supernaturals from harming humans or some form of disaster from occurring.  

Usually, the main character is in law enforcement-- a police officer, a private detective, or a bounty hunter.  

After the Anita Blake series became popular, authors from other genres entered the market.  Romance authors, in particular, cross-pollinated the contemporary urban fantasy with the romance. 

Instead of the mystery being the plot driver, the romance is the central plot driver.  In a vast majority of these books, one of the romantic partners is supernatural, and the other is human or part human.

The most successful and influential authors include Christine Feehan and Sherrilyn Kenyon.   

~*~

Marilynn's Workshop Schedule and Information Links

http://marilynnbyerly.com/workshopschedule.html

Writing in the Moment April 11-May 8, 2011 

How to get your voice, viewpoint, and craft so perfect that you disappear and your story comes alive.  Lots of worksheets. 

~*~

The Blurb: Mother of All Promotions July 25-August 7, 2011 

A blurb is the pithy description of your novel in a query letter, the short "elevator pitch" used at a writer's conference, the log line for online promotion, and the all important back cover copy for a published novel.  Without a great blurb, a novel won't be noticed by agents and editors.  

Marilynn Byerly--creator of a blurb system used by university publishing courses, publishers, and many authors-- will show you how to create that perfect blurb for your novel.  The course will include a number of worksheets and in-class blurb analysis.

Links of Interest

WHY SOME PUBLISHERS AREN'T AS "TRADITIONAL" AS THEY'D LIKE YOU  TO BELIEVE:

http://behlerblog.com/2010/12/22/traditional-publishing-lets-just-change-the-definition-shall-we/

IMPROVING DEEP POV:

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2010/12/real-life-diagnostics-deepen-point-of.html

SETTING WRITING GOALS, PART 3:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2010/12/setting-writing-goalsstep-3.html

YET MORE CAREER GOALS:

http://www.genreality.net/focus-on-the-goal-–-start-the-new-year-right

SOME OF THE BEST WRITING ADVICE OF THE YEAR:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2010/12/22/MyBestPostsFrom2010.aspx

THE KEY ELEMENTS TO STRONG FICTION:

http://www.shennandoahdiaz.com/2010/12/20/key-elements-of-strong-fiction/?sf836523=1

VILLAINS:

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2010/12/case-for-villains.html

CHARACTERS: Defense mechanisms. Written by psychologist.

http://fictiongroupie.blogspot.com/2010/12/guest-post-using-defense-mechanisms-for.html

BALANCING YOUR SCENES:

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/structure-part-8-balancing-the-scenes-that-make-up-your-novel/

FACEBOOK APS:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-apps/

GRAMMAR 101:  The most common misused words:  it's/its, their/they're, etc. Look at the December archives for all the grammar posts.  

http://unearththeclues.blogspot.com/

BLOG ADVICE FROM PROMOTION TO DESIGNS:

http://catseyewriter.com/

THE SIX DEGREES OF SHOW AND TELL:

http://victoriamixon.com/2010/12/01/the-6-degrees-of-show-vs-tell-rated-by-quality/

WEATHER IN FICTION:  How it can be used.

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2010/12/7-reasons-weather-is-writers-friend.html

VERBS THAT TELL INSTEAD OF SHOW:

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2010/12/7-reasons-weather-is-writers-friend.html

WHAT KIND OF WRITER ARE YOU?

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-kind-of-writer-are-you.html

MISTAKES WRITERS MAKE: An interesting website that deals with nonfiction but has some things to say about writing.

http://mistakeswritersmake.blogspot.com/

AN OVERVIEW OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN PUBLISHING RIGHT NOW:

http://writerunboxed.com/2010/12/28/qa-how-bad-is-it-really-in-the-publishing-industry/

DEATH BY REVISION:  How to bring that overworked story back to life.

http://storyflip.blogspot.com/2010/12/re-write-wednesday-golden-oldie.html

WALKING AWAY FROM A NOVEL:

http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com/2010/12/when-do-you-walk-away-and-how-do-you.html

ADJECTIVES AREN'T EVIL:

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-bring-adjectives-to-life.html

~*~

Marilynn's Workshop Schedule and Information Links

http://marilynnbyerly.com/workshopschedule.html

Writing the First Chapter, January 3-31, 2011. 

Drawing a reader into the first chapter of your novel is more than an exciting beginning, more than a “cute meet,” more than a sexy hero and a feisty heroine.  Step by step, I'll show you the craft needed to draw the reader into your novel and make her eager to keep reading.  I'll also show you how to set up the goals for the main characters and for the novel.

~*~

Writing in the Moment, April 11-May 8, 2011 

How to get your voice, viewpoint, and craft so perfect that you disappear and your story comes alive.  Lots of worksheets. 

~*~

The Blurb: Mother of All Promotions July 25-August 7, 2011 

A blurb is the pithy description of your novel in a query letter, the short "elevator pitch" used at a writer's conference, the log line for online promotion, and the all important back cover copy for a published novel.  Without a great blurb, a novel won't be noticed by agents and editors.  

 Marilynn Byerly--creator of a blurb system used by university publishing courses, publishers, and many authors-- will show you how to create that perfect blurb for your novel.  The course will include a number of worksheets and in-class blurb analysis.

Why Historical Romances Have Clinch Covers

The historical romance cover -- a beautiful woman with her large breasts falling out of an half-opened gown, a handsome man holding her in his seductive embrace.

Almost everyone claims to hate these clinch covers, non-readers make fun of them, and readers hide them with plain book protectors or read ebooks in public to avoid showing them.

Why, then, has this type of cover persisted for so many years?

Here's the answer.

In the early Eighties when historical romances began to explode into the marketplace, publishers realized that guys ordered the books for their distribution companies and bookstores and guys usually put them on the shelves of bookstores and supermarkets.

How could the publisher make romances more attractive to these men so they'd distribute them and not hide them behind the racy covers of pulp mystery and science fiction? The big-breasted, half-naked babe was their answer, and it proved successful.

The female readers continued to buy these books, despite the cover, for what was inside -- a great read with well-developed characters which proved that love was the most powerful emotion in the world.

The grip of men on the distribution process finally eased, and a period of flowery covers and landscapes began, but readers had a harder time recognizing books as romances with such generic covers so the clinch cover returned in all its annoying glory.

These covers have become so dang iconic of the romance that they won't go away. We are as stuck with them as sf readers are with guys and skimpily clad babes with ray guns and spaceships.

So now you know.

~*~

Marilynn's Workshop Schedule and Information Links

http://marilynnbyerly.com/workshopschedule.html

Writing the First Chapter, January 3-31, 2011.

Drawing a reader into the first chapter of your novel is more than an exciting beginning, more than a “cute meet,” more than a sexy hero and a feisty heroine. Step by step, I'll show you the craft needed to draw the reader into your novel and make her eager to keep reading. I'll also show you how to set up the goals for the main characters and for the novel.

~*~

Writing in the Moment, April 11-May 8, 2011

How to get your voice, viewpoint, and craft so perfect that you disappear and your story comes alive. Lots of worksheets.

~*~

The Blurb: Mother of All Promotions July 25-August 7, 2011

A blurb is the pithy description of your novel in a query letter, the short "elevator pitch" used at a writer's conference, the log line for online promotion, and the all important back cover copy for a published novel. Without a great blurb, a novel won't be noticed by agents and editors.

Marilynn Byerly--creator of a blurb system used by university publishing courses, publishers, and many authors-- will show you how to create that perfect blurb for your novel. The course will include a number of worksheets and in-class blurb analysis.