Originally created to pitch to Guideposts, for whom I have written six novels in the Church Choir Mysteries series, the series focuses on family, fun, friendship and forgiveness.

Sisterhood of Shepherds

These “cold cases of the heart” are at the centre of the SISTERHOOD OF SHEPHERDS, a cozy feel-good inspirational series starring three adult sisters, Faith, Hope and Charly Shepherd, who hesitantly answer a personal calling to assist others in atoning for past wrongs.

Their ongoing journey, told in third person from Charly’s POV, is one of discovery, heartache, humor and redemption.

I’ve finished the first volume, HEARTSONG, and have submitted it to two interested agents. Now we wait for a response…probably for two to three months.

That’s a lot of chocolate fudge eating time…in the interim, why not read the first few chaps?

One recent reader commented: I like what I read so far of “Heartsong” …The excerpt merely whets the appetite for more.

Love to hear what you think!

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.

The Novel Experience Podcast Ep. 3 – Anthony Bidulka

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.

Traditionally, there are two common Points of View: First Person and Third Person.

First Person:

Simply, this is the story told from one person’s point of view and uses the pronoun “I”, as in “He jabbed a pistol into my throat,” I said.

It results in a strong voice and is an excellent choice for first time writers as it’s the easiest POV to create. The narrator may be a full participant, perhaps an amateur detective (like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone) or just an observer along for the ride (think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Watson).

First Person POV provides a great sense of immediacy as the reader feels every emotion, hears all sounds, and is carried along with the main character.

Traditionally, First Person POV is very popular for private eye stories as the reader enjoys gunning along those mean streets with the tough, works-alone Protagonist.

Now, ponder the above and your outstanding character picks until we delve deeper…next time.

If you found this post of interest, you may wish to see the previous How to Write a Mystery posts starting here.

…Of course, there’ll be MORE how-to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next Friday post as we continue exploring character development in Ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille, Part 8b).

Find out further information or how to purchase my mystery-writing primer e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).

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.

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:

• Winds up all the sub-plots first and achieves the bits and pieces necessary in order to attain the main goal
• Gives everyone what they deserve, good or bad
• Arises logically through the action and detection of the lead character isn’t obvious but is believable, bestowing that much-sought after “Ah ha!” moment for your audience
• Ends at the very end; sounds ridiculously obvious yet it’s not always pulled off, and

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!).

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!

Mugs Disappointed

I’ve been trying to figure out how to claim my podcast feed for my Novel Experience Podcast® on Podcast Alley for several weeks.

The adding and claiming podcast process seems simple enough.

Go to Podcast Alley, click on Add a Podcast. You’ll be asked for the RSS URL of your podcast and then to validate the feed. That’s the easy part. Then you’re asked to add some coding into a post or feed so that PCA may find it and confirm that you are the ‘owner’ of your claimed podcast.

Though I added this HTML coding to a post and published it, when I returned to click the ‘claim this feed’ button, I kept getting told that my ‘claim hash’ has not been seen and to try again. I reviewed the PCA forum with no luck but learned many are having similar problems but getting no help.

So I kept trying but received the same results until………today when I caught an idea off the web and added the HTML claim coding into a post that HAS A PODCAST IN IT!.

And that, as the poet Robert Frost would say, has made all the difference! My claim was immediately ‘seen’ by the PCA bots and has been accepted.

Mugs Satisfied

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)

The Novel Experience 2

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:

• Occurs at the height of suspense, conflict, life or death situation for the Protagonist or someone she loves

• Is driven by action, often a chase scene

• Involves high emotional drama among the players

• Answers all the main questions (usually), especially those involving the solution to the crime. If you want to leave some of the soft stuff — relationships, life details, whatever — unfinished for the next in the series, go for it.

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!).

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.