 Mystery: November 19, 2008 Issue [#2723] |
  Mystery
This week: Edited by: Leger~  
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4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
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As a guest editor, I have a few resources to share with the Mystery Newsletter readers. I hope you find some of them helpful.
This week's guest Mystery Editor
Leger~
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| ASIN: B004PICKDS |
Product Type: Toys & Games
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Amazon's Price: Price N/A
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While rambling around the great internet matrix, I found an intriguing FAQ that Michael Connelly has on his website. While some of the questions and answers are standard for successful writers, I thought some of the replies were an intriguing look into a mystery writer's psyche. His reply to the question "Are you inspired by current events when creating your plots? was a testament to "write what you know". His reply, "Yes, all the time. In most of my books there is what I call a grain of truth at center. What I mean is that I use a real crime or incident that I have heard about or maybe wrote about as a reporter. Or in the case of Blood Work, the story was inspired by a friend of mine who had a heart transplant. I essentially took his medical and emotional journey and dropped it into a thriller story — with his permission, of course." Visiting the websites of your personal favorite mystery writers can give you insight into your own writing.
Taking that advice about the "grain of truth at the center" is helpful. If I come up with a good plot idea, there is always research to be done to make my story and characters believable. In a mystery plot, most often a violent crime is committed, preferably murder. While you assemble your cast of characters, you also have to align all your clues and "red-herring" non-clues. This is where your research comes in play to make your story unique.
Research on the internet is like searching for a needle in a well, pile of needles. In the great digital haystack, not everything you read is correct. But what I do find are nuggets and factoids that help me along with my story. Such as, what happens in an autopsy? While I'm not really anxious to go and peer over a medical examiner's shoulder, I can get a good idea from articles. http://web2.iadfw.net/uthman/Autop.html Or here's a good one, right from the movie Silence of the Lambs, http://www.forensic-entomology.com/
http://www.crimeandclues.com/ has some cool links for crime investigation and evidence. Places like these help you give your culprit authenticity to your reader. I hope this newsletter gives you a few ideas and some new outlets for creativity in your work.
Thanks for letting me visit in the Mystery newsletter, write on!
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#979429 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: He saw a dark blue bottle with a cork stopper, half buried in the sand. Inside it, he could see a piece of rolled up paper. He pulled out the cork, turned the bottle upside down and shook it hard trying to get the paper out. He gave the bottle a couple more shakes. The paper would not come out.
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#1407109 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: My first encounter with death stole my innocence at the ripe age of seven. It came like a disturbing night creature whose purpose to astound and mortify entrapped innocence, while sucking its victims inside a dark abyss from which escape eluded the unforgiving heart.
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#1446581 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The Realtor, Mrs. Posey, wasted no time letting her know she got the house for a steal. These nineteenth century homes were hard to come by, especially located on the river.
Excerpt: The darkening sky added to the pressure on Lora Sims. As she stood beside the casket holding her husband, she glanced up to the storm clouds rolling above. Even the sky will cry, she thought. Even the sky will cry because Roger is gone.
Excerpt: Nicky stopped short as his eyes saw something on the terrace over the side porch of the dark house. A shadow as dark as the house but fluid, snowflakes marking a billowing hooded cape or robe framing dark fingers or claws curled around a fat wand. It looked a lot like one of the ghosts in the Scrooge story he’d just seen on T.V., maybe the spooky future one.
|  | Foster Boy (18+)
A yakuza boss, a police captain, and a judge have an unususal relationship.
#1441253 by Kotaro  |
Excerpt: The blue haze of gunpowder and cigarette smoke curled lazily above the pools of blood. Okubo took a deep breath, for he loved the smell of gun smoke ever since he’d been a kid and used a stone to blast those pimples on red strips. As for his love of the smell of blood, sweat, and tears? That had come later.
Excerpt: Lieutenant Jerome Hawkins looked up from his desk and frowned deeply. His six foot, four inch frame sighed from exhaustion and infinite paperwork. It was late and he desperately wanted to go home.
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#1407192 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: ‘This is foolish.’ My grandfather’s voice carried clearly as we edged our way down the steep driveway, careful not to slip and slide on the loose gravel underfoot. ‘The children will catch their death.’
Excerpt: "Oh Aggie, I need time off. I'm sick of crime and busting my brains over each clue. I hope they don't call me back from the station," Buddy said, as we parked the RV in front of the entrance at Happy Hearts RV Resort.
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#798020 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Settling back at the kitchen table, he opened the paper, and his face went somber. Shaking his head back and forth, he read the headlines. "There's an article in here about the Bridge Slayer, honey. There's another woman missing. It says the police aren't any closer to solving the case." Rex lowered the newspaper, his wide eyes peeked over the top of the paper as he looked at his wife. "Lynne, you need to be extra careful out there. Always be on the look-out for something out of the ordinary."
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Since I'm only a guest editor to the Mystery newsletter, I have no feedback to publish. Instead, I'll link a few fun contests.
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#1409861 by Not Available. |
A weekly flash fiction contest.
A weekly flash fiction contest for fans and writers of the macabre.
A serious challenge. Write a story with a 100 words, but don't repeat any word....
Daily prompt and 1500 GP prize - enter your story of 300 words or fewer!
Excerpt: Write the best story/poem in 24 hours and win 1000 GPs!
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| ASIN: B07YJZZGW4 |
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