The Murderer and the Fortune Teller by Allan Pinkerton One sultry day in the summer of 185-, I arrived in Chicago, from a tour I had been making through the Southern States. I had attended to a portion of the accumulated business which I found awaiting me, when a gentleman entered the outer office and […]
Category Archives: Blog Article
Tips for Creating the Perfect Villain
How many times have you read a book where the villain reminds you of the old black-caped character twirling his handlebar mustache and laughing maniacally? Readers may have settled for that characterization a hundred years ago or even twenty-five years ago, but now they are looking for more complex characters. Just like your hero needs […]
Six Bone Crushingly Great Films
Six Bone Crushingly Great Films Like most, I used to think that the expression “break a leg” was just a weird way that actors said good luck before a performance. But that was only before I realized how many great movies have people with broken legs in them. My wife and I discovered this strange […]
Welcome to the neighborhood . . . not! 5 Books that meld good settings with bad people.
Imagine, just for a moment, being a real estate agent in Monterey California, and your client telling you she wants to live where the “good characters” lived in Big Little Lies and not where the “bad characters lived.” Sigh. Perhaps nothing did more and less for a beautiful location than the film adaptation of […]
Pairing Books and Food
Pairing Books and Food I love curling up with a good book and knowing I have an uninterrupted stretch of time ahead of me to enjoy it. That doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d like (because I have my own books to write, too!), but when it does, I always like to find the […]
Building Suspense with Memory and Emotion: Hank Phillippi Ryan’s Approach to Writing
Every author approaches writing a little differently. Some plot while others are pantsers. Some writers conduct research up front, whereas others may dig up what they need to know as they go along. It’s the unique methods and singular style thriller and mystery authors apply to their work that makes books stand out and differentiates […]
Turning a Family Memory into a Thriller: Samantha Downing Discusses He Started It
It’s safe to say most people’s childhood memories include at least one road trip, complete with a canon of “Are we there yet?” and “He started it!” In fact, family memories like this can have a big impact on us as adults – particularly if we happen to be thriller writers. Such was the case […]
Unlocking the Secrets of Behind the Red Door: How Megan Collins Uses Memory in her Thrillers
The Bourne Identity. The Girl on the Train. Before I Go To Sleep. Though vastly different, these thrillers have something in common: all incorporate memory loss into their plots. Memory, as we know, can be a tenuous thing. At the same time, it’s vital to survival. Without our memories, we’d be unable to perform basic […]
When Real Life Inspires Fiction: Wendy Walker on the Role of Memories in her Writing
What sparks the idea for a novel? Ask five authors, and you’re likely to get five different answers. For some, it’s the desire to shed light on a particular community or event. For others, it’s the need to communicate an experience. When it comes to thriller writers, it isn’t uncommon to turn an intriguing but […]
Sibling Rivalries throughout the Ages
Sibling rivalries have existed throughout recorded history, beginning with Cain and Abel in the bible. I haven’t been exempt myself, and if you have a sibling, you probably haven’t either. Siblings can be the best of friends, and also, the worst of enemies. When I was a teenager, one of my three sisters threw […]
The Extraordinary Mind of Philip K. Dick
To say that Philip K. Dick was obsessed with death would be to understate the case. He dreamed about his death wrote constantly about death. Dick wondered what being alive really felt like and whether unbeing would kill that state of consciousness; sometimes he believed that death was merely a transition between states and other […]
Locations in Thrillers
Why is location so important in psychological thrillers? Who can forget the wild, windy moors in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, or the rugged Cornish cliffs and rough seas in Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca? For me, as a reader and a writer, location is just as important as the plot and the characters in […]