New Podcast Up: Tom Cruise and Suspense Writing

In this episode we break down “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”. Sure, there’s been a lot of these MI films and some of them have been better than others, but what can writers learn from this latest Tom Cruise vehicle? We felt that it was actually good and used some very practical writing techniques to achieve

The U.S. of After Chapter 10

Amy My clothes were full of the smoke from my house. When the sun began its oppressive march from its home behind the horizon, we wandered out onto the highway, and I couldn’t believe all the smoke rising up across the hills.  Many of the trees were on fire and the smoke was thick, covering

Weekly Tales: The Grey Grocer (Part 3)

And now, the third and final installment of “The Grey Grocer”.  Hang on to your hat.   Mr. Greg’s eyes rolled around in their wet sockets and eventually locked in on Phil.  Phil sucked in a deep breath and managed to stand up just as Mr. Greg’s mouth formed the word “Dogs!” “Dogs in the

Weekly Tales: The Grey Grocer (Part 2)

As promised, here is part 2 of “The Gray Grocer”.  You may find part one here.  Tune in next week for the conclusion of this story. Phil stood still for just a moment, thinking about the person that leg and boot might belong to.  He shrugged, his mind whirling, and turned to go get the

Weekly Tales: The Grey Grocer (Part 1)

Every Thursday I have decided to get the writing juices flowing by writing an installment of a serialized story. It is kind of like flash fiction, but I do not know how long the story will be or how many installments I will write.  I will generally write installments until the story reaches a point

First Person and Suspense

Probably one of the biggest hurdles I have had to jump writing my latest novel is point of view. I thought of writing it in first person but then if I were to put my hero in peril (and I will several times) the reader has the happy place of knowing that the hero is