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Hey lovers of words and stories.
Welcome to The Novel Experience®, the podcast dedicated to the craft and art of fiction writing. Listen, enjoy and improve your chances of getting published!
The Novel Experience Podcast
Episode 3: Date with a Sheesha Part 2
Just launched the third episode where I continue my conversation with the award-winning crime writer Anthony Bidulka, the pride of the Canadian prairies. (Duration: roughly 15 minutes)
Listen (above or below) to Part 2 to discover Anthony’s Five ‘Cs’ of author promotion and help your own book marketing…oh, all right. I’ll give you a hint. The first three are: Confidence, Communication and Capitalization.
Of course, to learn the last two and to hear Anthony’s terrific insight on Capitalization, which he describes as capitalizing on your strengths and dealing with your weaknesses, you gotta listen.
If you haven’t heard Part 1 or would like to hear my other interviews, click The Novel Experience Podcast.
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun College on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating up these writing skills, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit! How to Write Mysteries and offers my tips, techniques and information suitable for crafting of all types of genre writing. So, even if you write romance, sci-fi, fantasy or horror, please keep reading and learn with us crime writers.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (Part 8a)
The last group of posts have concentrated on the story structure of a mystery novel. Been there; done that. Now we’re onto developing characters or as I like to think of it: Ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
Just take a couple of seconds and think about which characters you consider outstanding. Who instantly comes to mind? For me, there’s Tulkinghorn in Bleak House, Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Olive Martin in The Sculptress, just to name a few.
Why are they so outstanding? They’re all unique, memorable, fascinating and believable. The gold standard of character development; something we all aim for.
Ready for my close up!
SO WHO’S TELLING YOUR STORY, ANYWAY?
A critical decision: who is your storyteller? It is from his or her point of view (POV) that your murderous tale will unfold. This is especially important in a mystery as you have to follow the fair-play rule and make sure that all the necessary information is available to the reader. (more…)
If you haven’t heard of the Novel Journey blog then you’re in for a treat.
It’s been twice named as one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 most valuable websites for writers.
And it is excellent: all sorts of book news, reviews and author interviews…which leads me to my point. 
I’m fortunate enough to be their latest interviewee.
So, if you’d like to discover my pet peeve of the writing biz, among other bits of Furlong flotsam and jetsam, check out the Novel Journey and let me know what you think @ epubbing (at) shaw (dot) ca.
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun College on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit! How to Write Mysteries and offers my tips, techniques and information suitable for crafting of all types of genre writing.
STORY STRUCTURE (PART 7 (b))
This is it. You’ve driven your story and your readers headlong towards the final solution (as described in earlier posts.) The occasion when all is revealed. The moment your audience has been waiting for…so make sure that your story’s Ending:
And finally, once all is exposed, everything else is a reader’s let down. So, quickly tidy up any loose ends and beat a hasty exit. Leave your audience wanting MORE not less.
If you found this post of interest, you may wish to see the previous posts starting here.
…MORE how-to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next Friday post as we begin exploring character development! Ready for my close up, Mr. Demille.
Find out further information or how to purchase this e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).
Delighted to report that my Novel Experience podcast, dedicated to the craft and art of fiction writing, is now available via Podcast Pickle.
The Novel Experience Podcast
If you’re interested in words, writers and storytelling or if you’re a writer seeking sound advice from published authors to help you get published, please give it a spin at PodcastPickle.com. My latest guest is the Saskatchewan crime writer, Anthony Bidulka.
Click here for more info or if you want to listen via this blog or other podcasting services, such as iTunes and Podcast Alley.
Love to know what you think. Email me @ epubbing (at) shaw (dot) ca. Cheers!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Hey lovers of words and stories.
Welcome to The Novel Experience®, the podcast dedicated to the craft and art of fiction writing. Listen, learn and improve your chances of getting published!
The Novel Experience Podcast
Episode 2: Date with a Sheesha
Just launched the second episode where my erudite and entertaining guest is the pride of the Canadian prairies, award winning crime writer Anthony Bidulka.
Listen to Part 1 below to discover Anthony’s excellent tip for character development and to find out why Anthony ‘plays God’ now and then.
Come back soon for Part 2 to learn Anthony’s five ‘Cs’ of author promotion and help your own book marketing. (Duration: roughly 14 minutes)
Am very excited to receive an excellent new review of my fiction mystery e-book (and print paperback), A Hemorrhaging of Souls.
A Hemorrhaging of Souls cover
Clare Swindlehurst, of the excellent review site bluearchipelagoreviews, has just given my dark psychological suspense mystery a five-starred review.
(BTW, Clare defines this rating as…these books were gripping and thoroughly enjoyable. If I award a book 5 Stars it gets to stay on my bookshelf so that one day I can read it again. )
Her review:
This is a story of skeletons in closets and betrayal, with so many twists and turns you’d be forgiven for getting dizzy!
I was drawn into this book from the very first page, and Nicola does a wonderful job of weaving a tale with so many twists and turns, that I didn’t know whodunnit until the last page. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what happened in this book as it is so wonderfully complex, yet simple to follow along as you read it.
The characters are quirky and believable, and it’s always good to throw in a little romantic tension in a “will they won’t they” fashion!
If you have a few hours to spare and you want to escape from the world then download this book to your Kindle and get reading.
You may read this review and many others at bluearchipelagoreviews.com.
For more about A Hemorrhaging of Souls, including an excerpt, other reviews and links to buy here.
Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun college on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit! How to Write Mysteries.
STORY STRUCTURE (PART 7 (a)
This is it. You’ve driven your story and your readers headlong towards the final solution (as described in earlier posts). The occasion when all is revealed. The moment your audience has been waiting for…so make sure that your story’s Ending:
To be continued…
If you found this of interest, you may wish to see the previous posts starting here.
…MORE how-to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next Friday post!
Find out more information or how to purchase this e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).
This is very cool. Just discovered that Charmaine Clancy, a children’s and YA author, has chosen Epubbing and my ongoing series of posts on writing mysteries as one of her top links for mystery writers.
She lists a dozen other excellent sites and blogs at Wagging Tales.
Thanks, Charmaine, and cheers!
If you’d like to read the series of mystery writing posts from my primer, Youdunit Whodunit!, start here.
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