Author: D.V. Berkom

DV Berkom grew up in the Midwest region of the US, received her BA in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Several years and at least a dozen moves later, she now lives outside of Seattle, Washington with her sweetheart Mark, an ex-chef-turned-contractor, and writes in the male point of view whenever she gets a chance. Indies Unlimited: https://indiesunlimited.com/author/d-v-berkom/ Amazon US author page link: http://www.amazon.com/DV-Berkom/e/B004EVOYH6 Website: www.dvberkom.com

Researching Your Novel…Can You Go Too Far?

“So are you up for a little adventure?” my fellow indie writer asked, blue eyes bright with anticipation.

A little adventure. Sure. I’d recently quit my nine-to-five job and was living the vida loca, writing full-time from home, and figured I could use an adventure. Shake up the old synapses, give me some good material for the further escapades of one of the protagonists in a popular action-adventure series I write. What the heck, I thought. Couldn’t hurt.

I was wrong. Continue reading “Researching Your Novel…Can You Go Too Far?”

Is Your Website Accessible?

Imagine a potential new reader who happens upon your beautifully designed website, whether by way of that blog post you wrote about your fabulous, just-released novel, or because someone they know told them about you.

Become that reader. See your website as though for the first time. Notice the colors, the perfect fonts, the just-right images…Now, close your eyes.

What do you see?

Got it? Now imagine that you can’t use a mouse. Or are colorblind. How does your website look now? Continue reading “Is Your Website Accessible?”

Indies and Charity: A Great Mix

This past summer I was invited to contribute a short story featuring Kate Jones, the main character from a popular thriller series I write, to an indie anthology for Halloween. Since it was for a worthy cause (Doctors without Borders) and because the mastermind behind the anthology was Jen Blood, a mystery writer whom I respect immensely, I jumped at the chance. SERIAL SLEUTHS Vol. 1: Haunted just went live on Amazon.com as an ebook, and 100% of all net proceeds go directly to DWOB. I’m beyond thrilled to be a part of this awesome collection.

Being involved in the anthology was an amazing experience, especially so because it’s a collection of short stories from five professional indie authors. This means five serious writers with varying experience in everything from book cover design to editing, formatting to promotion, to publicity. Everything went smoothly and everyone contributed. It was, in a word, fantastic, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Continue reading “Indies and Charity: A Great Mix”

Inside the Mind of a Killer: Researching your Antagonist

Author DV Berkom

So there I was, minding my own business writing one of those truly twisted novels that grabs hold of you and has to come out when I came to the killer’s debut. I’d never attempted to write a character quite so creepy and wasn’t relishing that first passage. In fact, I continually wrote around him, putting off the scene until I felt I could do justice to him instead of creating a killer cliché. Yes, I could have abandoned the effort and gone on to something else, but a disturbing dream I’d had several months prior provided the inspiration for the story and I felt compelled to follow it through.

How do you write a fresh psychopath? Readers today have been clubbed over the head with serial killers (pardon the pun) to the point that it’s become a joke in many literary agencies and publishing houses. The only way I could think to do it was to go to my default: research. Continue reading “Inside the Mind of a Killer: Researching your Antagonist”