Tag: Writing Popular Fiction

  • Writing Mysteries:
    Round-Robin Storytelling

    In 1995, crime writers Edna Buchanan, Vicki Hendricks, Elmore Leonard, Paul Levine, and Les Standiford and eight of their writing colleagues penned the round-robin mystery novel Naked Came the Manatee. Conceives as a parody of the thriller genre and a response to an earlier multi-author novel titled Naked Came the Stranger (which has 24 writers!),…

  • Werepigs, Beatniks, & Panels @ Context 27

    The Context SF Convention in Worthington, Ohio, continues to impress me as one of the best regional cons in the country. With a strong writing track and lively panel discussions. I go whenever I can, and this weekend I’ll be on hand for a number of events. First up will be the panel “What is…


  • Instigation Showcase
    Day 3 of the Veins Blog Tour

    Michael A. Arnzen’s website Gorelets.com is always brimming with terrific writing advice. That’s not surprise, given that Mike is both a founder of Seton Hill University’s graduate program in Writing Popular Fiction and the author of the book Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side. Instigation is a treasury of over 500 tips, scenarios and sparks…

  • Randall Silvis:
    One of the Writers on Writing @ Riley’s

    The first in a series of profiles on some of the writers being featured at this month’s Writers on Writing @ Riley’s. Hailed as “a masterful storyteller” by the New York Times Book Review, Randall Silvis is the author of fourteen critically acclaimed books of fiction and nonfiction in various genres. A former contributing writer…

  • The Portal Closes: Looking Back @ GenCon

    Imagine 50,000 people packed into a single indoor space. Now add a 20-foot tall Cthulhu (made entirely of balloons), a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (in a top hat, no less), armies of warriors and monsters, and a roster of top sf and fantasy writers. Yes, it got crowded. But that’s GenCon. Never mind that the…

  • Time Management for Writers

    Writing is all about anticipation. A writer spends months writing a book that might see publication in a year, might garner good reviews sometime after that, and eventually – over the course of a decade – might contribute to a body of work that will define a career. It is, as fantasy author Jim C.…