Make them sense they’re really there.
This past week in Colorado Springs, we expected an inch of snow. We got six.
So I enjoyed a trip to Florida’s Gulf Coast. Mild temperatures, gentle breezes, tropical scents, and great fishing. Even better, I didn’t had to leave my house. I traveled through the pages of a well-crafted novel.
His setting, in effect, becomes a key character.
What do endorsements for your genre say?
At the bottom of the novel’s back cover, four short words offered excellent advice for any author writing in that genre.
This weekend at a thrift store, I’d scored a British edition of Graham Brown’s international thriller The Mayan Conspiracy (subtitled “A deadly secret that could change the world”).
Bestselling thriller writer Steve Berry’s words on the back cover … Continue reading
Will your readers enjoy the journey?
The other weekend, I started reading two novels. I’d not meant to begin the second so soon, but after several attempts to engage with the first, I gave up.
They were both mass paperback international thrillers. Despite my interest in plot of the first, its prose reminded me of a bad gravel road.
I’d recently encountered such a washboard … Continue reading