Spy thrillers are a staple of genre fiction, and a good “Bond” never goes out of style. However, a bad “Bond” can have those in the know throwing your book out the window of an Aston Martin faster than you can shake your martini.
Tag: Piper Bayard
Oct 23 2014
NaNoWriMo: Know Your Weapons!
I’m once again letting Piper hijack my blog to talk about a subject near and dear to me—GUNS. Chances are, many of you are writing thrillers or suspense or knitting books that involve FIREARMS. Piper and I are NOT the people you take to an action film unless you believe—like we do—most of these movies should be classified under “Comedy.”
Jul 15 2013
Ebola, Swine Flu and The Kardashians—Why is a Zombie Apocalypse So Intriguing?
Viruses are a lot like politicians and Kardashians. They are parasitic and they will adapt as much as needed to survive. If they burn through a species, they’ll change to be able to burn through another. If contamination via blood isn’t working? A virus is fully capable of changing tactics, like marrying Kanye West and naming it’s kid something seriously stupid like North West.
Aug 19 2011
Guinea Pig Diaries: Little Darlings Anonymous
Have you ever heard of the Kubler-Ross 5 Stages of Death and Dying? Well, as an editor for many years, I’ve seen a similar phenomenon happen with first-time novelists, especially when I was called upon to stage an intervention. Not pretty. I call this process of extracting a writer from her first bad novel, The 5 stages …
Dec 17 2010
The Guinea Pig Diaries
Hello. Today is Free-for-All Friday and my topic of choice. Many of you are following this blog to learn more about writing or social media. I want you to know that all my methods were rigorously tested on other writers before being offered to the general public. For instance, my colleagues and I would place a …