Category: Guest Posts

Plot-Driven Mystery by Arline Chase


Vacation for Two by Arline ChaseQuestion: Someone in a class I’m taking said my mystery needs to be more plot-driven. How can I tell if she’s right and if she is, how do I fix it?

Answer: Well there are two kinds of mystery. Plot-Driven means it’s all about what happens and the investigating character does not change. Most mysteries used to always be this way. Character-driven mystery is about characters that change and grow over the story, or even over the series.

The plot-driven mystery is all about the puzzle. Sherlock Holmes is always his superior, calculating, self. At least he is until he meets “The Woman.” And even afterward any emotion or resulting change in his personality is never part of a Sherlock Holmes story. Yes, it is important to have a good puzzle for the reader to solve. And your reader might be telling you that the puzzle might be a tad transparent. If that seems reasonable to you, lay some more false trails, leave some false clues to lead the reader to a false conclusion or two. Continue reading “Plot-Driven Mystery by Arline Chase“

Book Cover Basics Part II by Shevi Arnold

Author, Journalist & Artist Shevi Arnold
Author, Journalist & Artist Shevi Arnold

Last week, we featured an article which received a lot of attention: Book Cover Basics. This week, author, journalist and artist Shevi Arnold has picked up the baton and is going to smack you with it. Without further ado…Shevi Arnold.

So you’ve written a book, and you’ve decided to indie publish. Great. I’m sure you already know that your book will need a cover.

I was a journalist for 12 years, and for seven of those years I was a newspaper and magazine illustrator and editorial cartoonist. My editors paid me hundreds of dollars to design covers, and I’ve professionally designed close to 100 of them.

What’s that you say? You’d rather do it yourself? Right… Because what would a trained and experienced cover designer know that you don’t? Continue reading “Book Cover Basics Part II by Shevi Arnold”

Blocked but Not Forgotten by Barbara Ann Derksen

Barbara Ann Derksen

Andrea Wilton, the female protagonist in my current mystery series, scurries through the gray matter in my brain with partner Brian Strait. They seek people who, for the moment, are lost but I know that they are only lost for the length of time it takes Andrea and Brian to discover their whereabouts. That’s what keeps me writing. I need to know how the story ends.

I seek to uncover the plot devised by the antagonists but once in a while, as the plot thickens, my characters are stymied. They are at a loss to explain what has happened to the person they seek and the antagonists seem to have the upper hand. This is the point when, if I am watching a movie or reading a book, I want to throw something. I know the answer is just around the corner but I just can’t seem to grasp it. I am blocked. Continue reading “Blocked but Not Forgotten by Barbara Ann Derksen“

Weaving a Tale – by Kristina Jackson

Author Kristina Jackson

The casual observer looking in on me today will see me at my desk, my favourite red and white spotted mug steaming away near my right hand. Open on my desk is my jigsaw board, with a Wasgij in process. This is not the scene normally associated with a writer.

My laptop is resting, open, on a box to the side of me. Its innocent looking screen asleep for now …

What I am doing here is weaving the story. Once I have the fabric made it gets laid down within my latest work. This may seem like a waste of time, no not at all. It might not be everyone’s method, but it works for me, along with knitting. Continue reading “Weaving a Tale – by Kristina Jackson”