Favorite writers inspire creativity
Writers should study an author whose work sparks them creatively. Mine is Raymond Chandler Whenever I start writing a new book, I re-read some Raymond …
Thriller titles: Too vague to tell a tale
Why thriller titles aren’t…thrilling Thriller titles often seem designed to confuse prospective readers. Pick up a book by a well-known …
Write historical fiction: Finding daily details
How to use historical objects in fiction without making them into fetishes In writing historical fiction, there are two main traps to avoid. One is …
Write a thriller: Do you plot or not?
Should crime fiction writers figure out the details of their plot before they write? Harlan Coben doesn’t. John Grisham does. Robert Ludlum did, …
Why you should break Elmore Leonard’s writing rules…sometimes
Elmore Leonard, who died yesterday at 87, has 10 rules for writing. They don’t cover most of the important points of writing. They could really be …
10 Historical Thrillers You Have to Read
The unmissable best historical thrillers, including at least a few you haven’t heard of Naturally I’m assuming you’ve already read …
Writing with Paint: Learning Oils for My Caravaggio Novel ‘A Name in Blood’
To research A Name in Blood, my novel about the mystery of Caravaggio’s death, I traveled to all the places where the great artist lived and worked. I …
Rescuing Caravaggio from a Bad Rap
He was a raging psycho, an uncontrollably lustful homosexual, and a bit of a bitch. Somehow he also managed to produce some of the most sensitive and …
Researching my Caravaggio novel: Learning to Kill
In the chapel of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, I stood before the great painting now known as Seven Works of Mercy (Caravaggio called it Our Lady …
Krimis, polars, gialli: What crime novels are called around the world
Sometimes people talk about crime novels as though they were all the same. The sheer number of different names for variants of the crime novel proves …