Ode to the “Info Dump”, by Nancy Bilyeau

“Remember, Nancy, just because you find something interesting, that doesn’t mean you should go on and on about it in your book.”

That was a directive, delivered with her usual sense of calm authority, from Rosemarie Santini, the novelist running the West Village fiction-writing workshop I joined seven years ago. I’d wandered into this room of writers with the declaration that I’d like to write a novel--preferably a mystery—set in 16^th century England, a time period I was obsessed with.

Rosemarie said that was all fine, as long as I made sure to keep the story moving. “Don’t stop just to share your research,” she instructed. “That’s a mistake some historical novelists make.”

I nodded rapidly. I would, of course, obey.

Fast-forward to this week. The novel I started writing in Rosemarie’s group, The Crown, is now on sale in North America, the United Kingdom, and six other foreign markets. I’d decided to make it not only a mystery but also a thriller, with a Dominican-novice protagonist on a dangerous quest, searching for an object of mystical importance.

Next up: revising my second book in the series, The Chalice. My British editor emailed me notes on the manuscript and after a half-hour blanch, I realized the notes were brilliant and I got to work. One of her suggestions was to trim down here and there: “The wealth of research and authentic detail in the novel is fantastic, but there are some occasions where I think it would pay dividends to be strict about how much research or factual detail to include. “ Later, in the chapter notes, she said things like: “A couple of tiny cuts suggested here, so info dumps don’t hold up the narrative.”

For writing teachers, inserting lumps of “indigestible” information into a book is, well, a crime against God and man. “The info dump is one of the worst sins you can make as a writer,” warned the website Fiction Writers’ Mentor.

Flushed with shame, I dissolvedeach of the marked indigestibles in The Chalice.To relay too much information was terrible indeed. How could I have done this?

And yet…

“I Like the Information”

I will now sidestep here and talk about my colorist and friend, Sam. He’s the sort of great person you run across when you live in New York City. Sam is a Bukharin Jew who fled Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, when he was a teenager and now lives in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, not far from the beach boardwalk that stretches to Coney Island. He’s got a wife and two children, and six days a week he commutes to Mark Garrison Hair Salon on East 60^th Street, a half block from Bloomingdale’s.

I’ve been going to Sam for single-process and highlights for some ten years, and each time I see him we talk about books. He’s a voracious reader, though he admits he wasn’t always that way. “I hated to read, I wouldn’t do it in school for years,” he told me in his gravelly, Russian-accented voice. “Then one day I realized that books could contain facts or stories I find interesting.” Sam is very much an early adopter. He told me about George R.R. Martin ages ago. Nine years ago he was the first to talk to me about a book called The Da Vinci Code. “I like the information,” he said, eyes gleaming.

That’s a core reality I think some of us may forget from time to time. Readers want to be entertained by their thrillers, of course. They hope to tear through a novel that will get them through the flight from Chicago, the daily train commute, that bout of insomnia. I enjoy a juicy thriller’s excited “Now what?” feeling myself, though I crave characters along with the careening pace. I love a fully dimensional protagonist, like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher or Barry Eisler’s John Rain.

And what I really love is a story that reveals fresh and fascinating slices of history. I think the reason that Dan Brown, Katherine Neville and Steve Berry were such game changers is that they found ways to weave history or religious theory or mysticism into a fast-moving narrative. These authors deliverthe goods of compelling information—and throngs of readers love them for it. (It’s not just historical thrillers that win those rabid fans. Medical, techno and military thrillers canhook readers through shrewd use of fascinating facts.)

Now admittedly, I take this adoration of intricate thrillers about as far as it can go. One book I think is absolutely fantastic is Elizabeth Kostova’s bestseller The Historian, a new twist on Dracula. I skimmed the amazon.com users’ comments after finishing it and was stunned that a few of them struggled with the 720-page novel. “Too much of a travelogue,” one reviewer sniffed. “I almost stopped reading when it got to Bulgaria in the 1950s.” I wished at that moment I could grab this curmudgeon and shake him, demanding, “How in the name of God could you not like the Bulgaria chapter?!”

Being aware of my own predilections, I tried very hard not to info-dump my way through The Crown. I’d spent five years researching things like daily life in a Tudor-era priory, the prison conditions in the Tower of London and the legends behind the relics of Saxon King Athelstan. But I did my best to make sure the facts that I found personally interesting did not overwhelm the plot or characters.

Guess what? People who reviewed The Crown --whether it was a trade like “Kirkus,” a newsstand magazine like “O: The Oprah Magazine” or a blogger like Devourer of Books – liked the research. A lot. Practically no one complained that the historical research slowed him or her down. I kept hearing that what people enjoyed about The Crown was it took them somewhere new: a Dominican priory in the midst of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. So I kept my promise to Rosemarie after all—the plot moved—but I shared interesting info too.

It feels good to have my own theory proven correct. People want to discovernew things and explore new worlds along with experiencing a thrill ride. Am I saying take off the safeties and info-dump away? Of course not! I recoil when I come across a badly integrated bit of information just like anyone else. But I also get restless if a story lacks dimensions and details, no matter how fast the plot hurtles. Don’t let the fear of committing a writer’s “crime” prevent you from digging up those interesting facts and then finding ways to weave them into the narrative.

The Sams out there will thank you.

---

Nancy Bilyeau has worked on the staffs of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Good Housekeeping. Most recently, she served as deputy editor at InStyle magazine. Her screenplays have placed in several prominent industry competitions. Two scripts reached the semi-finalist round of the Nicholl Fellowships of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Her screenplay "Loving Marys" reached the finalist stage with Page International Screenwriting Awards and Scriptapalooza. A native of the Midwest, she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan. The Crown is her first novel.

Those Critical First Five Pages

by Jodie Renner

Congratulations! You’ve finished the first draft of your novel! Now it’s time to go back and polish up your first few pages. Then later you can do a third—or tenth—rewrite of that all-important first few paragraphs to create the most enticing hook possible. For today, we’ll talk about the essential ingredients of the first five pages, as most agents and acquiring editors—and readers—will stop reading by the fifth page, or sooner, if the story and characters don’t grab them by then.

In February 2011, I attended a workshop by literary agent Kristin Nelson at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference, in which she had attendees anonymously submit the first two pages of their novel. She started reading the submissions and stopped at the spot where she lost interest. In many instances it was after the first or second paragraph! Sometimes she made it almost to the end of the first page, and in one case, even halfway through the second page. Then she told us why that manuscript, as written, would be rejected. (Not a single one of those made it.)

In a follow-up article in Writer’s Digest (Oct. 2011), Kristen gives four examples of submissions and where and why she stopped reading three of them (all on the first page): “too much dialogue,” “overuse of description,” and “lack of tension.” In her workshop, “lack of clear protagonist,” “unsympathetic protagonist,” “boring” and “confusing” were other reasons given.

After Ms. Nelson's workshop, I heard a lot of “If she’d only read a little further, she would have seen that…” or “That wasn’t fair. She didn’t give me a chance. How can she judge a manuscript by only reading one page?” Unfortunately, agents get tens of thousands of submissions a year, and if you don’t grab them within the first page or two, the sad reality is that your book will probably be rejected. And of course, as readers, most of us will read the back cover and maybe the first page, then decide based on that whether to buy the book or not. And even when I’ve paid money for a book, if it doesn’t grab me by about page ten, I’ll discard it.

One of the main reasons agents, acquiring editors and readers will reject a book after reading the first few pages is that they’re confused. They need to get a picture right away about whose story it is, why we should care about that person, and roughly where and when the story is taking place. Once readers have a handle on the main character and the setting, they can relax and settle into the story world. Of course, you also have to spark their interest with a problem early on—put your protagonist in some hot water with an inciting incident, so the reader can sympathize with them and start rooting for them.

Whose story is it?

It’s important to start out the novel in the viewpoint of your protagonist, as the first person the readers read about is the person they start identifying with, and they’ll feel cheated if suddenly, after they’ve invested some time and effort into getting to know this person and bonding a bit with him, he suddenly turns out to be not someone they should be rooting for at all, but in fact the antagonist, whom they’re supposed to be hating, or worse yet, a minor character or someone who gets killed off a little while later.

As Steve Berry, bestselling author and sought-after writing workshop leader, told a packed room of eager aspiring writers at Craftfest, part of Thrillerfest 2011 in New York, “Always start your book in the point of view of your protagonist.” I think this is excellent advice, as the readers—not to mention agents and acquiring editors—want to know right away whose story it is, who to start bonding with and cheering for.

Here are the first questions your readers will be asking:

Why should I care about this character, anyway?

Readers aren’t going to invest time reading a story about a character they don’t like or can’t identify with, so make sure your protagonist is likeable and sympathetic, to draw the readers in to identify with him or her. And make them well-rounded and complex, with hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses, and inner conflict. And of course have them confronted with a problem—an inciting incident—within the first few pages, as conflict is what drives fiction forward. A perfect character with an ideal life is both annoying and boring—not a formula for compelling fiction!

Where and when is the action taking place?

Without drowning us in long descriptive passages right at the beginning, give the readers a few hints very early on—definitely on the first page—of the setting of your story: Contemporary? Past? Future? Country/Culture? Urban/rural/wilderness? Which city or town? And so on. Don’t confuse and frustrate your readers by making them wonder where on earth all this is happening, and whether it’s in the present or some other time.

Why should I read this story?

Show your stuff in your first five pages or so. Draw the reader (or agent or editor) in with a great first scene, well-written, with interesting, complex characters, some intriguing action, and compelling, natural-sounding dialogue. Include your inciting incident and initial conflict, and hint at greater problems to come. Introduce or hint at a worthy adversary—a cunning villain or attractive but maddening/annoying possible love interest. And write your first pages in the same tone, style and voice you’ll be using for your novel, so the readers will have a good idea of what they’ll be getting into. And of course, continue in this same tone (suspenseful, humorous, serious, romantic, etc.) for the rest of the novel, so the reader won’t feel cheated or misled.

But don’t get bogged down trying to perfect your opening pages in the early stages – wait until you’ve got all or most of your first draft written. By then, you’ll be “in the groove” and you’ll know your character and his/her problems a lot better, as well as the resolution, so this part will flow so much more easily.

© Jodie Renner August 2011, revised February 2012

Jodie is a freelance editor specializing in thrillers, romantic suspense, mysteries and other crime fiction. For more info on Jodie’s editorial services, please visit her website at www.JodieRennerEditing.com.

March 2012 ITW Debut Authors

Happy March and Happy Thrilling Thursday. The first of every month we will feature members of our Debut Authors Program. We are excited to announce that two members have books being released in March 2012.

Lissa Price STARTERS (Delacorte)

STARTERS: In the future, teens rent their bodies to seniors who want to be young again. One girl discovers her renter plans to do more than party--her body will commit murder, if her mind can't stop it. Sixteen-year-old Callie lost her parents when the genocide spore wiped out everyone except those who were vaccinated first--the very young and very old. With no grandparents to claim Callie and her little brother, they go on the run, living as squatters, and fighting off unclaimed renegades who would kill for a cookie. Hope comes via Prime Destinations, run by a mysterious figure known only as The Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to seniors, known as enders, who get to be young again. Callie's neurochip malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her rich renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, even dating Blake, the grandson of a senator. It's a fairy-tale new life . . . until she uncovers the Body Bank's horrible plan. . .

Owen Laukkanen THE PROFESSIONALS (Putnam)

Four friends, recent college graduates, caught in a terrible job market, joke about turning to kidnapping to survive. And then, suddenly, it's no joke. For two years, the strategy they devise-quick, efficient, low risk-works like a charm. Until they kidnap the wrong man.

Now two groups they've very much wanted to avoid are after them-the law, in the form of veteran state investigator Kirk Stevens and hotshot young FBI agent Carla Windermere, and an organized-crime outfit looking for payback. As they all crisscross the country in deadly pursuit and a series of increasingly explosive confrontations, each of them is ultimately forced to recognize the truth: The true professionals, cop or criminal, are those who are willing to sacrifice . . . everything.

A finger-burning page-turner, filled with twists, surprises, and memorably complex characters, The Professionals marks the arrival of a remarkable new writer.

My Own Private Rulebook

by Chris F. Holm

One thing I've discovered in my writing life is I'm no good at predicting whether or not an opportunity is gonna prove worthwhile. But I've also learned I don't have to be. Over time, I've developed a few simple rules to guide me. They've helped me immensely; mayhap they'll do the same for you.

On Online Networking
The best networking advice I've ever read came courtesy of novelist Sandra Ruttan, who said, "The first rule of networking is STOP TRYING TO NETWORK!" Fact is, publishing is full of interesting folks who love the stuff you love. So stop trying so hard. Just make friends. Congratulate folks on their successes. Champion work you love. Believe me, you'll get it back in spades, and wind up with relationships you'll cherish, not just a glorified mailing list.

On Short Stories

Write. Submit. Repeat. Shorts are the best possible advertisement for your work. Market-wise, don't be afraid to aim too high; my first acceptance came from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, a long shot that paid off. But don't discount the little guys, either; I got a Spinetingler Award and a Derringer nomination for stories published in online 'zines, and when a buddy asked if I'd contribute a story to a new magazine he was starting up called Needle, I had no idea that story would wind up in THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2011. Oh, and agents read short stories. Just ask internationally acclaimed author Stuart Neville, whose agent contacted him out of the blue after reading a story of his in Thuglit.

On the Value of Free

Don't be afraid to give your work away. Use your best judgment, of course, and always aim for paying markets, but plenty of reputable short fiction markets don't pay. That one I wrote for Needle, I did for nothing. Funny thing is, the check for BEST AMERICAN was for more than I'd been paid for all my other shorts combined.

On Stepping Outside One's Comfort Zone
Most writers are uncomfortable in the limelight. It's an occupational hazard. But don't let that hold you back. If ever someone asks you to participate in something – be it an interview, a panel, or, say, a blog post on writing advice to be read by loads of thriller writers– and your only objection to saying yes is it's outside your comfort zone, SAY YES ANYWAYS. In my case, doing so put me on a panel at Bouchercon alongside pulp badass Christa Faust; a terrifying experience, sure, but one of the most thrilling and memorable moments of my life. And if I said one not-stupid thing, I might've even sold a book or two.

On Writing Advice
Writing advice (this writing advice included) is only as good as the work it does for you. There are a thousand ways to do this job, and none of them is the One True Path. So when it comes to advice, keep what works and toss what doesn't, regardless of the source.

*****

Chris F. Holm was born in Syracuse, New York, the grandson of a cop who passed along his passion for crime fiction. He wrote his first story at the age of six. It got him sent to the principal’s office. Since then, his work has fared better, appearing in such publications as Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2011. He’s been an Anthony Award nominee, a Derringer Award finalist, and a Spinetingler Award winner. DEAD HARVEST is his first novel.

To learn more about Chris and DEAD HARVEST, please visit his website.

Publishing and Private Equity have a lot in common

by Martin Bodenham

I am the CEO of a London-based private equity business. With a full-time day job, writing my debut novel took many months of working late into the night. Finally, last year, I managed to finish the first draft. Then, after months of polishing the manuscript, I began the search for a publisher willing to take on my shiny new financial thriller. I bought a copy of The Writer’s Handbook and researched the market.

What happened? Well, I approached one UK publisher and one in the US. I figured it was better to start small and build from there; sort of learn from the early rejections. However, within twenty four hours of receiving my email submission, I received a request for the full manuscript from the US publisher. Two days later, they issued a contract for the book! When I shared this experience with some of my writing friends, they wanted to know what my secret was. Of course, I didn’t know what the norm was until they told me they had spent months/years sending out submission after submission, and in many cases hearing nothing back.

In private equity, a firm will receive hundreds of investment inquiries a year. Typically, only one or two in a hundred will be financed. The rest of the business plans gather dust until they are sent for shredding. I gather the published hit rate for first time novels is even lower than this. As a reader of investment submissions, I would say three things make the difference and motivate me to take the investment deal further: money, market and management. With the benefit of hindsight, I now realize, automatically, I went about my search for a publisher with these same three factors in mind. Here’s what I did:

Money
I spelled out in my submission why I thought there was a gap in the market and why I believed there would be a receptive and growing audience for my financial thrillers. I kept it short and related my message to the current financial crisis, giving my book a contemporary impression. This meant the publisher could judge whether or not there was money to be made by taking on my book.

Market
I stressed how I was reasonably well known in the private equity community and how this community was likely to include many buyers of my book. The publisher could see immediately how I would be able to market my book to an existing platform of warm, relevant contacts. Then, I described how the legal thriller genre was crowded compared to books set in the world of finance, and yet money and financial distress are frequent subjects today in news reports and TV documentaries. I was confident there was a market for my novel after many beta readers said it made the world of finance appear exciting and dangerous.

Management
In my submission pack, I included a short bio, concentrating on my background in the financial markets. This enabled the publisher quickly to understand that I knew my subject matter well and that the financial background to the book had credibility.
It wasn’t rocket science. Actually, all I had done was to approach the submission process from the recipient’s perspective and not my own.

I like lists, so I have listed below those key factors which I believe must be included in a publisher submission:

• Point out how the publisher will make money. You may be wrong, but at least it shows you recognize they are in business to sell books.
• Highlight a gap/niche in the market which is addressed by your book.
• Relate that gap to current news/trends to give your writing an up-to-the-minute feel.
• Stress in your bio only those factors that are relevant to the subject matter of your novel.
• Finally, don’t give them a reason to say no. Avoid giving them superfluous information, keep it business-like, don’t send them a photo, follow their stated submission format, and don’t pester them for a quick answer.

Good luck with your future submissions!
Martin Bodenham is the author of THE GENEVA CONNECTION. Details can be found on: www.martinbodenham.com.

Phone a Friend

By: Daniel Palmer

So, you’re ready to write your book. You’ve got a killer idea, a “what if” question that will make any agent take notice. You know the story you’re going to tell. You’ve got a great sense for the pacing. You know your protagonist, and, of course, your villain. You’re all set to start writing when—BANG, BAM, BOOM—you hit a wall. What happened? Why can’t you write? What is this wall? Let’s call it the wall of information and the bricks comprising this structure are your missing facts and the rich details needed to teleport your readers into another world.

This exact scenario happened to me with the writing of HELPLESS. HELPLESS tells the story of a former Navy SEAL turned high school soccer coach who becomes the victim of a ruthless online reputation attack. I wrote what I knew in that the novel focuses on the hidden perils of everyday technology. But I also wrote a Navy SEAL protagonist and I’m not a Navy SEAL (not even close).

Why? I needed my hero to do something more than just dribble a soccer ball around the bad guys for 400 pages.


I also decided that my protagonist would be embroiled in a sexting scandal and pursued by an attractive FBI agent tasked with bringing him to justice. Only I didn’t know the first thing about the FBI. Who investigates crimes involving images? What do they do? How do they do it?

Naturally, I turned to Google.

Now, the Internet is great. Honestly, I don’t know how authors conducted their research before its invention (thank you Mr. Gore). But I needed to get inside the head of a Navy SEAL warrior and a doggedly determined FBI agent. So what did I do? Well, I picked up the phone. I talked to people. I asked people I knew if they knew people. I networked like I was hunting for a job.

And the results?

I was put in contact with a woman from the FBI’s Innocent Image National Initiative, who not only read my book cover to cover, but also fixed all my procedural inaccuracies. I was later introduced to Commander William C. (Bud) Taylor II, a former Navy SEAL trainer, who met with me in a coffee shop to talk about all things Navy SEAL. I would give Bud a scenario and he would tell me what a SEAL do. I discovered that people enjoy talking about their work and they’ll tell you all sorts of things that no Google search ever could.

So what’s my advice? Don’t be afraid to write about people and topics you know nothing about, as long as you don’t mind picking up the phone.

Question for ITW Debut Authors: How do you obtain your research?


Daniel Palmer is the author of HELPLESS(Kensingston Books, Jan 2012) and DELIRIOUS (Kensington Books, Jan 2011). He is also an occasional short story writer, with The Dead Club in the ITW anthology, First Thrills, and Disfigured, found in Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up At Night.  (Trivia Note: Daniels father is New York Times best-selling novelist Michael Palmer.) Learn more about Daniel at http://www.danielpalmerbooks.com

February 2012 Debut Authors

Happy February and Happy Thrilling Thursday. The first of every month we will feature members of our Debut Authors Program. We are excited to announce that three members have books being released in February 2012.



Chris F. Holm DEAD HARVEST (Angry Robot Books, February 2012) I had the great opportunity to interview Chris for “THE BIG THRILL.” Check it our here.

DEAD HARVEST is the story of Sam Thornton, a young man who collects souls. The souls of the damned, to be precise. Once taken himself, he’s now doomed to ferry souls to hell for all eternity, in service of a debt he can never repay. But when he’s dispatched to retrieve the soul of a girl he believes is innocent of the horrific crime for which she’s been damned, Sam does something no Collector has ever done before: he refuses.


James Renner THE MAN FROM PRIMROSE LANE (FSG Macmillan, February 2012)

In West Akron, there lived a reclusive elderly man who always wore mittens, even in July. He had no friends and no family; all over town, he was known only as the Man from Primrose Lane. And on a summer day in 2008, someone murdered him.

Four years later, David Neff is a broken man. The bestselling author of a true-crime book about an Ohio serial killer, Neff went into exile after his wife’s inexplicable suicide. That is, until an unexpected visit from an old friend introduces him to the strange mystery of “the man with a thousand mittens.” Soon Neff finds himself drawn back into a world he thought he had left behind forever. But the closer he gets to uncovering the true identity of the Man from Primrose Lane, the more he begins to understand the dangerous power of his own obsessions and how they may be connected to the deaths of both his beloved wife and the old hermit.

Anthony Franze THE LAST JUSTICE (Sterling & Ross, February 2012) Anthony is also featured on THE BIG THRILL this month. Click here to read his interview.

CHAOS ERUPTS at the U.S. Supreme Court when an assassin guns down six justices as they are hearing a case.Solicitor General Jefferson McKenna, the government's top lawyer in the Supreme Court, is appointed to the multiagency commission investigating the murders. As Congress draws battle lines over who will replace the slain justices, the commission follows clue after clue, each one pointing to an unlikely suspect: McKenna himself.In a desperate bid to prove his innocence, McKenna, on the run with his deputy, Kate Porter, must track down a disgraced law clerk with ties to hidden Saudi assets. But their search leads to unexpected alliances, unearthing dark secrets and corruption at the highest levels -- and the people with clues to the riddle keep turning up dead. From the marble halls of the high court to the inner corridors of the West Wing, from the D.C. housing projects to the desolate back roads of a New York Indian reservation, McKenna and Porter are on a collision course with a shadowy enemy who will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.From its explosive first page to its haunting conclusion, THE LAST JUSTICE explores the politics of law, the bounds of friendship and love, and the frightening price of unbridled ambition.


Patrice Lyle Lethally Blonde (Leap Books, February 2012)


Morgan Skully is the world's only blonde demon girl, and she's got a brand new, very unusual afterschool job. Spying for the Devil. She'd much rather use her cloak-and-dagger skills to spy on hottie-licious Derek with her friends, but the Devil won't take no for an answer. Luckily for Morgan, her new boss is kinda hot. Her assignment is simple: find out who at Pitchfork Prep is funneling secrets to the Siberian Werewolf Council. If she succeeds, pedicures and platinum highlights are just the beginning. But if she fails…there's more on the line than killer shoes.


Kira Peikoff LIVING PROOF (Tor, February 2012.) Kira is also a contributing editor to “THE BIG THRILL.”

Trent Rowe, an agent for the New York City bureau of the U.S. Department of Embryo Preservation, investigates a suspiciously popular Manhattan fertility clinic run by a suspected “radical,” Dr. Arianna Drake, the daughter of a known opponent of the DEP. Trent’s superiors hope that a shutdown of the clinic “for ethical transgressions” will shore up the DEP’s imploding political support. Trent, initially a believer in the DEP cause, eventually finds himself caught in an ethical dilemma he could never have envisioned, torn between irreconcilable goals.

Alumnae Class of 2011



Daniel Palmer HELPLESS (Kensington 2012)


Nine years after he left Shilo, New Hampshire, former Navy Seal Tom Hawkins has returned to raise his teenage daughter, Jill, following the murder of his ex-wife, Kelly. Despite Tom's efforts to stay close to Jill by coaching her high school soccer team, Kelly's bitterness fractured their relationship. But life in Shilo is gradually shaping up into something approaching normal. Normal doesn't last long. Shilo's police sergeant makes it clear that Tom is his chief suspect in Kelly's death. Then an anonymous blog post alleges that Coach Hawkins is sleeping with one of his players. Internet rumors escalate, and incriminating evidence surfaces on Tom's own computer and mobile phone. To prove his innocence, Tom must unravel a tangle of lies about his past. For deep amid the secrets he's been keeping - from a troubled tour of duty to the reason for his ex-wife's death - is the truth that someone will gladly kill to protect...

Do I need Social Networking?

by Bonnie Calhoun

The $64,000 question is…do I have to spend time on social media to market my books effectively?
The exact and emphatic answer to that is an unfortunate YES. For those of you who just aren’t technologically savvy, I’d say it’s time to learn. There are a million children out there who would love to show you that they know something that you do not. So grab a neighborhood kid to get you started, if you need to!

Seriously though, no one form of marketing is the end-all be all. There are multiple parts to the whole, and the further we move into cyberspace, the more the parts multiply exponentially. If you are looking for a negative response so that you don't have to do any one part of the marketing game...like book signings, speaking, interviews, teaching at conferences, social media, blogging...etc...then just don't do it. It sort of sucks all the fun out of writing if you don’t enjoy what you are doing.

It's your choice. But in this day and information age NOT doing social media is really not an option. We have to do it to stay connected and relevant. Now the question of HOW MUCH to do it depends on you and the balance you are trying to maintain so that you actually have time to create new books.

EVERY marketing survey or study has proven that your name...or product name needs to be seen or heard numerous times to be an effective marketing tool. There are studies that say 3 times are enough for your product to have been seen to be effective; others say 12 to 15 times is necessary for maximum effectiveness.

The magic number depends on the size of your market share, how much other noise there is from competing products, your brand influence, how much money or time you are willing to spend on marketing, and the time frame you are working in.

So in essence…your success depends on how much you want to put into it, to get the maximum out of it. You choose.

Bonnie S. Calhoun is an author with Abingdon Press, with her debut novel Cooking The Books to be released in April 2012. She is also the owner/publisher of Christian Fiction Online Magazine. http://christianfictiononlinemagazine.com/home.html Visit her website at http://bonniescalhoun.com/, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bscalhoun or Twitter at https://twitter.com/BonnieCalhoun

Thrillers vs. Mysteries

by Jodie Renner

Until fairly recently, most readers were more familiar with mysteries than thrillers. Mysteries of all sorts (cozy, hardboiled, suspenseful, etc.) are still going strong, but thrillers make up more and more of the bestsellers these days. How exactly do thrillers differ from mysteries, anyway? Both are fiction stories involving criminal activity, catching the bad guy(s), and at least one murder.

The main difference seems to be in the delivery—how they are told. Mysteries are usually more cerebral, for readers who enjoy solving puzzles, whereas thrillers appeal more to the emotions and a yearning for excitement, a desire to vicariously confront danger and defeat nasty villains. A mystery, especially a “cozy” one, can unfold in a leisurely fashion, but thrillers need to be much more fast-paced and suspenseful.

David Morrell, author of 28 thrillers, explored the difference between mysteries and thrillers several years ago. His detailed description included this: “Traditional mysteries appeal primarily to the mind and emphasize the logical solution to a puzzle. In contrast, thrillers strive for heightened emotions and emphasize the sensations of what might be called an obstacle race and a scavenger hunt.” (David Morrell, www.crimespreemag.com)

James N. Frey, author of HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER  and HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD MYSTERY, among other “damn good” books on writing, says, “In the United States, mysteries are not considered to be thrillers, though they share some common elements.” Frey describes the differences like this:

“In a mystery, the hero has a mission to find a killer.
In a thriller, the hero has a mission to foil evil.”

Frey goes on to elaborate, “a thriller is a story of a hero who has a mission to foil evil. Not just a hero—a clever hero. Not just a mission—an ‘impossible’ mission. An ‘impossible’ mission that will put our hero into terrible trouble.”

According to International Thriller Writers, a thriller is characterized by “the sudden rush of emotions, the excitement, sense of suspense, apprehension, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace.”

ITW defines thrillers as a genre in which “tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world.”
Part of the allure of thrillers, they say, comes from not only what their stories are about, but also how they are told. “High stakes, nonstop action plot twists that both surprise and excite, settings that are both vibrant and exotic, and an intense pace that never lets up until the adrenaline-packed climax.” (Source: James N. Frey, HOW to WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER)

I asked some friends, clients and colleagues what they thought the main differences were between these two genres. According to thriller writer and friend Allan Leverone, “The definition I like best is this: In a mystery, the crime has already been committed, but the hero and the reader must figure out by whom. In a thriller, the crime (at least the biggie) hasn't been committed yet, but the reader knows who the bad guy is; the question is whether he can be stopped.”

Mystery and romance writer Terry Odell says, “The best definition I’ve heard is that in a mystery, you're one step behind the detective, since you don't know anything until he does. In suspense, you're one step ahead, because you know things that the detective [or hero] can't know.” This is especially true when we get into the viewpoint of the villain.

My friend, suspense-mystery and thriller writer, LJ Sellers, tells me she recently read that in a thriller, the villain drives the story, versus mystery, in which the protagonist drives the story. Good one!

And finally, another good friend and colleague, thriller and horror writer Andrew E. Kaufman says, “Here's a less conservative, completely off-color definition, coming from a less conservative, completely off-color mind: A thriller is like mystery on Viagra. Everything's more amped up, fast-paced, and frenetic. A good thriller should keep your heart racing, your fingers swiping at the pages, and your rear on the edge of its seat. Of course, those lines can be blurred. Many authors straddle the fence between the two. Nothing is in black and white, and gray is a beautiful color.”

I used to read a lot of mysteries, and still do from time to time, but in the last few years I much prefer the pure escapism and “pulse-pounding suspense” of thrillers. Who are your favorite thriller writers? My top three would probably be best-selling authors Lee Child, Sandra Brown and Robert Crais, but I love and read so many more.

How about your favorite thriller characters? For popular series, I especially like Jack Reacher, Joe Pike, Elvis Cole, Myron Bolitar and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum—and the two hunks in her life!
Then there are the fast-paced mysteries that seem to straddle both genres. For suspense-mysteries, I love LJ Sellers' page-turning Detective Jackson series. And maybe I should put Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar stories and Robert Crais’s Joe Pike and Elvis Cole stories into the hybrid category of suspense-mysteries, too. What do you think? Are there any other novels you like that have elements of both?

Copyright © Jodie Renner, January 2012


Jodie Renner is a freelance editor specializing in thrillers, romantic suspense, mysteries, and other crime fiction, as well as YA. Check out her website at www.JodieRennerEditing.com.

Related articles

• Creating a Worthy Antagonist (thethrillbegins.blogspot.com)
• 20 Essential Elements of a Bestselling Thriller, by Jodie Renner (thethrillbegins.blogspot.com)
• Creating Compelling Characters by Jodie Renner (thethrillbegins.blogspot.com)

Reversal Expectations

by D.L. Sparks

As a romantic suspense author and a lover of suspense, one of my favorite writing tools is the reversal of expectation (RoE.) It is a storytelling device whereby the author makes the reader believe one thing about a character, then flips the character into someone the reader does not expect. Stephen King did it in SECRET WINDOW, SECRET GARDEN. In the novella we are introduced to author Mort Rainey, who is accused of plagiarism. We learn at the end, at the reversal, that Mort has split personality disorder and has been accusing himself of not just plagiarism, but unexplained murders. Screenwriter Clark Gregg pulled off the reversal of expectation perfectly in the movie “What Lies Beneath”. Kindhearted, university researcher Norman Spencer is concerned for his wife, Claire. She suffered post traumatic shock after a car accident and was also experiencing empty nest syndrome. However, the RoE was that Norman actually murdered the young co-ed and was now trying to kill his wife. To me this movie was the epitome of reversal of expectation.

However RoE is something that many will try but only few will be able to pull off expertly. Here are two things to consider:

1. Using the reader’s expectations to your advantage

This tool in the craft of writing is definitely something that needs to be worked on and perfected. So many times you will hear someone say how they figured out an ending before they finished a book or movie. Mastering RoE would be one way of thwarting any similar storytelling disappointments. But the good thing is that because most stories are bred from the same formula, you can convince your reader that they are about to travel down a familiar road, then hook a quick left when they least expect it.

2. Timing the Reversal of Expectation for the big Aha!

RoE is best suited for the climax or peak of a novel. It usually adds to the intensity and gets your readers' attention and hooks them in so you can bring your story full circle. One of the things I love to hear as a writer is, "I did NOT see that coming!" But even with the "aha!" moment it still has to make sense to the reader or they will feel unsatisfied and duped. In "Secret Window" it was very believable that a writer could have shut himself off from the real world to the point of becoming a recluse, thus becoming a victim in his own mind. In "What Lies Beneath" Harrison Ford's character had everything to lose, so he had to stay true to his story. Viewers even sympathized with him, thinking his wife was losing her mind, never straying from the original plotline the writer intended. And not realizing they were being set up for the big "Aha!!" moment.

How do you use Reversal of Expectation to wow your readers?

Best selling Author D.L. Sparks’ fast paced suspense novel THE LIES THAT BIND(Urban Books, 2010) landed on the bestsellers list of Black Expressions Book Club magazine, embraced by readers as far away as London and France. Ms Sparks has been voted one of the Top 25 Most Influential Black Fiction Writers on Twitter and is also a contributing writer to Rag ‘N Riches Magazine‘s, where she runs a relationship column. Visit her at http://www.dlsparks.com/