Dark Obsessions: Finding Inspiration in My Favorite (Unwatched) Horror Films   Sometimes the idea for book is born out of a newspaper article I skim in an airport. Sometimes it comes from witnessing a friend’s nasty divorce. And sometimes it lurches to life when I ask a friend too many questions about an article in […]

The Five Don’ts of Writing   Most of us have mulled over the myriad articles on ways to improve our writing, searching for that nugget of advice that will elevate our craft from mundane to marvelous.  How many times have you clicked on that kind of article or stopped at the magazine page to see […]

Do you know your fiction writing ABCs? Fiction Writing from A to Z   Reminders about our craft make our imaginations burst into creative mode. From A to Z, we find sources of inspiration to keep us writing. I’ve chosen the first word that entered my mind for each letter as a means to keep […]

If You Can’t Dream Up an Original Idea…Steal One   Like most published writers, I’ve moderated quite a few workshops in the art and craft of writing thrillers and mysteries.  In virtually every one of these sessions, one of the attendees will invariably raise his or her hand and tell me that they’ve been trying […]

Rules for an Aspiring Techno-Thriller Writer: I’ve been asked several times for advice to a new techno-thriller writer. I started making a list, and it’s gotten a lot longer than I expected. These are all things I’ve learned since I got into the business. Some were as Tom Clancy’s co-author (apprentice); others were after I struck […]

The Necessity of an Antagonistic Setting A trait of a bestselling writer is the ability to raise the stakes for the protagonist. A writer often turns to obvious means of adding stress, tension, and conflict through characterization, dialogue, plot twists, and emotive conflict. Those are powerful tools, but an antagonistic setting means shaky ground for […]

Writing Tip #1: Talk to Real People As someone who has been writing police procedurals on the page and on the screen for more than thirty years, I take research for my books and TV shows very seriously. The absolute best way to draw your characters is to talk to real people about their stories. […]

Unraveling the Mystery of Crime Readers Crime readers don’t like crime at all. What they like is justice… Item: A well-dressed woman sips tea—one fashionable leg crossed over the other, a heeled shoe bouncing on her toe—as she casually reads about the coroner extracting seaweed from the rotting flesh of a bloated corpse too long […]