Cuckoo’s Calling, the debut novel by Robert Galbraith, failed to sell until someone* leaked that JK Rowling was writing under a pseudonym. The book didn’t need to fail. It’s filled with incredibly deep characters and great writing. So why did it fail? If you break a story down into its three major ingredients: concept, story, […]
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Review – Never Go Back by Lee Child
My favorite author is Lee Child and Zoë Sharp. Right. That’s two. My two favorite authors … I’ve explained this once. In Never Go Back, his 18th Jack Reacher novel, Lee Child has written a type of masterpiece. Type because many people think of Mr. Child’s works as mysteries or thrillers. Some are. This one […]
The Geneva Decision
[maxbutton id=”28″] [maxbutton id=”29″] [maxbutton id=”30″] [maxbutton id=”31″] Pia Sabel plays to win. Until a few weeks ago, she was an international soccer star. But now she’s taken the helm of her billionaire father’s private security company, and she’s playing against a whole new set of opponents – the kind who shoot to kill. On […]
How Adopting a 3-yr-old at 19 Formed the Basis for a Thriller: Making It Real
Main characters have to feel real or you, the reader, will abandon them. I write thrillers and I’m forever striving to write that perfect visceral character. Hemingway’s advice: “From all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new […]
Our Changing Heroine Archetype
Female characters are killing more people than ever before. The Hunger Games was one of the top 10 grossing films last year, a first for a heroine thriller. But there were plenty of thrillers featuring heroines in 2012: Snow White and the Huntsman, Underworld Awakening, Resident Evil: Retribution, and Brave to name a few. Women […]