A Slash of Scarlet (Devon MacDonald Mysteries Book 2)

A Slash of Scarlet

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This is an important, well-written novel that deserves to be read by anyone with an open mind.

Jacobs paints a wonderful picture of righteousness twisted by greed. With a savvy heroine, unremitting action and a final twist of the plot, Jacobs adroitly constructs her mystery around a smoldering topic. The Devon MacDonald mysteries are now available used and in libraries. Quick Links E-mail Nancy!

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Order online from Amazon. Check for usage of abbreviations and conventions. Make sure all the names are spelled corrected for people, places and things. Fact check people, places and times. Read the work aloud. This is something I do on a regular basis with scenes. I find that I catch repetitions, clunky wording and pacing issues I find that I can tell when something is moving too fast or way too slowly. Get a good hook. Make those critical beginning words count.

Sometimes even buoyancy and hope, those being, in my experience, the rarest. Something had to make me want to sit back in my chair and read. It was the worst of times. So, I decided to take a look through a couple of bookshelves and see what had really nailed me from the get go. So I went to the ones whose covers were falling off, which were held together with rubber bands, whose pages were wrinkled from reading in the shower yes, I admit it, hell on books but great for moments of boredom accompanied only by soap and water.

One belonging to the last category was a David Wiltse book, Close to the Bone.

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I had high expectations. And was not disappointed. Silence of the Lambs creepy. Home Again , this time:. I gobbled up Wiltse a couple of decades ago before he seemed to disappear into the maw of playwriting. Of course, the hottest ticket for my money on first lines is Dick Francis. Get this one from Proof:. Still, I liked this one from They Came to Baghdad:. Niven started his book with that in But finding these long-lost sentences has become addictive. Now, for something entirely different, here are the beginning lines from my own novels. The first, from Message in Panama:.

With bougainvillea high-stepping in a hot, salty breeze and the effervescent noises of mankind surrounding me, dying was the last thing on my mind. Each year I wonder if the fare will be a repeat of the previous year, and each year I am pleasantly surprised. The selection of workshops at Crime Bake usually reflects the rapid changes in the writing industry, and the list of successful authors sharing their knowledge varies with each conference.

Classes this past weekend included: T he Attack of the E-Book: Writing the Young Adult Mystery. One of my personal favorites was The Plot Conjurers. This workshop which included Robin Cook, Hallie Ephron, William Martin and Julia Spencer-Fleming, had the authors using their expertise with a little help from the audience to conjure a plot.

The audience-suggested names along with those from the panel had everyone laughing. It was inspiring to watch the authors weave in plot, background, possible motives and red herrings. Where was the murder? Who found the body? What were the motives? Why was he murdered? Who were the suspects and why would they want to murder the victim?

The other area of the conference that I love is the Flashwords competition. Imagine, standing before two hundred and fifty of your peers and reading your winning story. All through the conference, authors, agents, and editors took the time to speak to anyone who needed help, and I found my fellow writers to be not only generous with their experience and knowledge, but also full of encouragement.

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Schmoozing was lots of fun and it helped me discover new tricks of the trade. I spend so much time alone in front of the computer that I sometimes g et discouraged.

Attending a writing conference like Crime Bake as a member of Sisters in Crime brings home what I have a tendency to forget. Leftover energy pulses through my body. Positive vibes ground me, giving me new insights and expectations. When I began writing novels, a friend who works in publishing gave me this advice: My office shelves are filled with writing resources, but three in particular have proven priceless. I remember reading about this book in a blog post. Weighing in at pages, it could be used also for weightlifting.

It also lists slang, sometimes from other languages. But her book delves even more deeply into dialogue, tags, POV, and settings. They are well-organized, easy to follow, and have clear examples. By the way, none of these books were thrown across the room or injured in either the writing of this post or my books. That time when no words flow. We know the words are still there. And we all have our tricks to keep that from happening. Those are all great. I use them but sometimes I just go blank. I use a Gothic Art book I found at a discount book store. The pages are loaded with fun graphic images.

Some are gruesome and gory — but they are all interesting and make me think. Or at least shift my thought process into a different place. I wonder if her emotions are tied to different eyes or if they are all seeing different things and reacting differently. Neither has been used yet — but I can imagine all kinds of story possibilities. I find that I can always write a short story or scene using something in this book of artwork. Afterwards, I am ready to write on the piece where I was stuck. But as Decker soon discovers, this is no ordinary case.

False Prophet is a solid, well-written tale with red herrings, weird characters and unusual plotting.

Inside the mostly sane world of mystery writing

Even at pages, the book never drags. Decker and his family keep kosher and their religious beliefs add a good subtext. As a bonus, Kellerman gives us a recipe that alone is worth the price of the book. Faye Kellerman is married to author Jonathan Kellerman, whose series on Alex Delaware, child psychologist and amateur sleuth, continues to be popular.

False Prophet is one of her best. Finding a con man who bilks lonely women out of their money is an assignment Devon MacDonald can't resist. The Minneapolis teacher turned private investigator knows that loneliness can make reasonable women - and men - careless with their affections and pocketbooks.

After accepting the case from three clients, Devon tracks down the middle-aged gigolo, Brentwood J. Peters, to California, where he lives in extreme comfort with his sister.

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