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Writing & Reading

Thoughts, observations and opinions about writing, the publishing industry, books I’m reading and related topics.

Where did the Idea for ‘Here To Stay’ Come From

Whether you’re an avid romance reader or writer I thought you’d enjoy discovering how the idea of “Here to Stay” came to me. This is the popular billionaire trope, but this also has the subject of amnesia. Some time ago, I boarded my Morgan mare, Belle, a forty-five minute drive north of Toronto. In winter, black ice sometimes formed on the highway. If you live in balmy areas where temperatures seldom drop below freezing, you may not know about black ice. This treacherous feature of northern climes forms when moisture… 

More Things that Don’t Make Sense to Me… Or Are Just Plain Wrong, Part 2

On our new house front and side entrances, we have those new-fangled doorbells that have cameras. They also have “repeaters,” gizmos that make sure the ringing doorbell can be heard on every floor. We can, on our smart phones (and on my smart watch, too) see who’s at the door and even, if we aren’t fumbling too much to find the app, talk to them. The bell is audible inside the house, and also outside, playing Westminster Chimes. So, why do some people feel the need to follow up making… 

Things That Don’t Make Sense to Me… Or Are Just Plain Wrong

Call me persnickety, but there are some things I’ve seen—a lot—in books that, as the title says, don’t make sense to me, or are just plain wrong. One of the most glaring things that doesn’t make sense is where people land when they do a pratt fall, or where they drop things or where they put things: the ground. Now, if these clumsy characters are in the garden, it’s okay to fall onto the ground. But seriously, unless a character lives in what the pioneers called a “soddy,” a house… 

Mystery Musings (Pt2)

When we add romance to the mix, we have to increase the emotional components. (That’s why those hardboiled “dicks” never have real relationships: too icky for their manly readers who really want their cowboy myth updated.) In a romantic detective story, the romance has to be intricately involved with the detection in some way: perhaps the love interest knew the victim or knows one or more of the suspects; perhaps the love interest is an intended target; perhaps the love interest causes the detective to question the value of putting… 

Mystery Musings (Pt1)

Lately, some friends and I have been discussing the mystery genre from the perspective of writers and storytellers. Since I wrote my M. A. thesis on classical British detective stories of the 1920s and 1930s, I like to think I know a bit about the mystery genre. A mystery is a story about someone solving a murder, and it’s always a murder in a “real” mystery because that’s the gravest (pun intended) injury one can do to society. One of the distinguishing features of mystery/detection fiction, as opposed to suspense/thriller…