My biggest pet peeve these days is a story that doesn’t get going until halfway into the book. I’m reading one of my favorite authors right now, and nothing is happening, at least nothing that inspires me turn the page. This book is turning into a solution to my usually sleepless nights. I feel betrayed. Not only are there external characters I couldn’t care less about, but the two main characters who have kept me riveted over eighteen previous books don’t have an interesting enough story to give them anything to do. My favorite of the two characters is nothing more than an afterthought, and the interaction that made the duo famous is non-existent. Another gripe, and yes, I know it’s a matter of writing style, but when the character has a thought and then dialogue, I find it confusing when they're in two different paragraphs. It seems like padding, and when it happens throughout the book, it is padding. This book is padded. Previous books might have been, but the story kept me ...

Writers have a laundry list of things we pay close attention to, not only when writing our books but when reading others’ works. Putting aside the typos or grammatical errors – we all make those in the first hundred drafts - the two things that I watch are dialogue and info dumps. Dialogue is the force behind a good book. If it’s not done well, it can ruin a good story, no matter how good the story is. Is the dialogue stilted or natural? Would a person say that sentence or would only a writer write it? Would the speaker use that word? Those are questions I ask myself when I’m writing.

I’ve kind of been in the mud the last few months, maybe longer, but reading the latest posts by my brilliant blog-mates told me that I wasn’t alone. It’s been a difficult time for so many. Wars, gun violence, the murder of children, homelessness, and political discord have filled the news and social media. We’d have to have a hard heart not to let it bother us. Most of us would say we are lucky to be in the situations we’re in and be grateful for that, but we grieve for those who aren’t.  For me, the respite has been visiting my grandkids, who are free from all the angst of the world’s problems, as children usually are. It’s a change of pace watching Booba on TV instead of news, though we’re careful not to let our anxieties rub off on the children. Kids growing up in today’s environment of conflict and hate-mongering must absorb some of it no matter how careful the adults try to keep their young minds on youthful projects. I grew up in a different time. Simpler, with a more unit...

What’s going on in the world is not a mere distraction in the writing process, it’s a mind-bending, hard-to-fathom series of catastrophes with roots in a few different causes. Let me explain. Without getting specific and naming names, the genesis of my struggles (and I can only specify this post by how it affects me), started way back in 2015 with ugliness rearing its political head, causing a fissure in this country that goes on to this day. We have had divisions in the United States before, but never have they been more apparent, more deeply felt, with two sides locked into their conflicting beliefs, each charting a course that the other side disparages except maybe those that triggered the Civil War. These beliefs are not just polite disagreements but a vicious clash of ideas and direction, steeped in anger and finger-pointing and buoyed by lies and disinformation, promoted by men and women with their own political and personal agendas. Politics has always been a dirty business, g...

I know the Blood Red Pencil blog is about writing, but TV scripts are written, so give me a little latitude here. Nowadays, some of the best suspense/thriller/mystery writing is coming out of TV scripts. My husband and I never streamed series TV until late last year, but because of the coronavirus, contentious political TV, and movies we’ve seen a dozen times, we decided to settle in for some serious watching. Here are a few of the great shows that hooked us. After I found out Blacklist (Netflix) wasn’t about the 1950s House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), something that always fascinated me, I didn’t particularly want to watch it, but I like James Spader, so I thought it was worth a try. We loved it. Eight seasons, with 22 shows per season later, we can’t wait for season 9. If you like crime fiction and can overlook the stories’ impossibilities and suspend your disbelief, you’ll love this show. The skinny: Raymond (Red) Reddington, Spader, is #1 on the FBI’s wanted lis...