writing craft
Shop Talk: A Year of Writing Advice and Stories from the Trenches
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It’s that time of the year again, and, no, I’m not talking about the holidays. I’m talking about year-end-list time. Just like the holidays, year-end lists can be anxiety inducing, especially for authors. So, as a reprieve from everybody and their Uncle Bob’s “Favorite Books of 2023,” I’d like to offer you something a little…
Shop Talk: Michael Farris Smith on Learning the Habit of Writing
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I cut my teeth on Larry Brown. If you’ve never heard of Larry before, let me introduce you by way of Michael Farris Smith. Both are Mississippi authors who aren’t afraid to stare straight into the hard stuff. Both write prose so clean it sings. Larry was gone by the time I started reading him,…
Shop Talk: Lou Berney Is a Fanatical Believer in Naps
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Lou Berney is one of the reasons I write crime fiction. Coming up, I cut my teeth on Southern writers like Flannery O’Connor, Larry Brown, Harry Crews, and Jesmyn Ward. It wasn’t until I found The Long and Faraway Gone, Lou’s third novel, that I realized the full power of crime fiction. I’m not alone…
Shop Talk: Nina Simon Tells the Incredible Story Behind Her Breakout Debut Novel
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I met Nina Simon shortly after I read her beautiful, heartfelt debut, Mother Daughter Murder Night. If there were ever an author whose persona perfectly captures the verve of her work, it’s Nina. Nina’s all natural, almost crunchy in a Santa Cruz kind of way. She speaks from the gut and doesn’t pull any punches….
How Subplots and Plot Filaments Lend Texture and Depth to Any Novel
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More than any other variant included under the umbrella of “crime fiction,” mystery novels embody a straightforward setup of the conflict-and-resolution components of storytelling. The conflict is murder. The resolution is naming whodunit. Everything in between—the rising and falling action, the crises and complications, the revelations and setbacks—all of that can be summed up as…