Category Archives: Writing

To Err Is Human. Unless
You’re Writing A Mystery.

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By PJ Parrish

Okay, I’d like you to read this short scene from a book I grabbed off my shelf. See if you can figure out what’s wrong here.

Jesse handed him the Jack Daniels. Louis took a drink and handed it back. Jesse took a swig.

“Whiskey will kill you,” Louis mumbled.

“Better than that cough syrup you drink,” Jesse said. nodding toward the empty Christian Brothers on the floor.

Louis pulled the afghan up his chin and shivered. From outside came the call of a loon.

“I hate the sound of those f–ing birds,” Jesse murmured.

“Lonely,” Louis said.

“What?”

“They sound lonely,” Louis said.

This is from my second book Dead of Winter. Now, I spent the first 23 years of my life in Michigan. I know what winter is like. I know what loons are. I know they don’t stay in Michigan in the winter.

Speed ahead twenty-five years. I gave Dead of Winter to a friend at pickelball who wanted to read my stuff. The first thing she said when I saw her again was, “It was a good book but the loons migrate, you know.”

I know! I know! What I don’t know is why I brain-farted on this when writing that scene. And of course, my editors didn’t catch it. The good news is when we got the rights back, we re-published it and edited out the error. Too bad all life’s mistakes can’t be so easily righted.

I’m kicking up my old dust because I am angry about a TV series I am watching now — Patience. It is a British series about a brilliant autistic woman who toils in the basement records department of a York police station. She forms an alliance with the chief inspector and helps her crack murder cases. The first four episodes were stellar, tight writing, great character arcs, juicy puzzles.

Then, in episode 7, things got weird. A photographer is found dead in a tower with a stake through his heart and bite marks on his neck. His body has been completely drained of blood. Kewl. But…

As Patience tackles the case, the forensic and investigation details fall apart, The body was apparently moved to the tower after death, and it is implied that the blood draining took place in the TOWER, yet there is no blood trace. The bite marks are never explained.And Patience’s personal life overwhelms the plot to the point that it’s cloying. And annoying. The next two episodes were nearly as sloppy in the police work. I checked the writer credits. And yes, two new writers had replaced the original ones.

Is it because I am a mystery writer that I am so put off? I don’t think so. Readers and viewers are very savvy today about forensics and police procedure. They don’t like dumb errors and they won’t abide sloppiness.

But hey, we’re all human, right?

Yeah, but we shouldn’t be stupid. It’s pretty easy to research and get stuff right. My old buddy Dr. Doug Lyle writes mysteries but is best known for his how-to (and how not to)  forensics books. He writes: “[Mistakes are] part of the [writing] process. Sitting alone, bouncing clever ideas off your computer screen offers little feedback. But readers notice such breaches. They shake their heads, close the book, snuff out the light, and go to sleep. Not the ringing endorsement you wished for.”

Doug wrote an excellent article for Killer Nashville about the most common forensic mistakes beginners commit. A summary:

  • The Quick Death: Death rarely arrives instantly. Sure, it can occur with heart attacks, strokes, and extremely abnormal heart rhythms, but trauma, such as gunshot wounds and blows to the head, the staples of crime fiction, rarely cause sudden death.
  • The Pretty Death: I call this the “Hollywood Death.” Calm, peaceful, and not a hair out of place. Blood? Almost never.
  • The Bleeding Corpse: Your detective arrives at the scene a half hour after the murder. Blood oozes from the corpse’s mouth, from the stab wound in his chest, or from the vampire fang marks on his neck. Houston, we have a problem. You see, dead folks don’t bleed.
  • The Accurate Time of Death: Determining the time of death is neither easy nor very accurate. It’s always a best guess and is always stated as a range rather than an exact time. Yet, how many times have you seen the medical examiner confidently announce that the victim died at “8:30 last night”?
  • The One-punch Knockout: You’ve seen this a million times. One character socks another character in the jaw. He goes down like a sack of potatoes and is apparently written out of the story since we never hear from him again. Really?
  • The Instant Athlete: Your PI drinks too much, smokes two packs a day, and eats fast food. After all, stake outs are boring. His belly flaps over his belt and he gets short of breath climbing a single flight of stairs. He will not be able to chase the villain for ten blocks. Two on a good day.
  • The Untraceable Poison: Of all the questions I receive from writers this is number one. Seems that all crime writers want an untraceable poison. Sorry, no such thing.
  • The Instant Lab Result: The world is not like CSI. Not even close. Those CSI folks get results in a New York minute. Sometimes faster. In the real world such testing typically takes days, even weeks.

Click here to read Doug’s entire article. You can thank me (and him) later.

In the meantime, if you want to feel better, here are some mistakes from the big guns:

Patricia Cornwell’s bonehead mistake is now infamous. She wrote that Kay Scarpetta was working on a grizzly murder. It was unbearable…

Agatha Christie messed up her math in Elephants Can Remember,  writing that the central tragedy took place 12 years prior but later in the book, characters say it happened 15 to 20 years ago. The years do fly by, my dear…

In Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the shipwreck survivor Crusoe is on the island watching his ship sink. He takes off his clothes and swims back out to the ship to salvage supplies, which he brings back to shore…in the pockets he no longer has.

When Sherlock Holmes’s stalwart sidekick meets the great detective in A Study in Scarlet, he tells Holmes he was shot in the shoulder in Afghanistan. In a later novel, The Sign of Four, the wound travels down to his leg.

Thomas Perry has a fun essay about his own errors. He writes:

During all of those years, I was making unassisted mistakes at the usual rate and catching them at a lower rate. I referred to a car model made by Nissan as a Toyota. I revised a chapter, changed a revolver into a semi-auto pistol but forgot to change later references to it as a revolver. I sent heroes and their enemies alike off with faulty driving directions. I can’t remember all of my mistakes, but the ways they used to elude me are familiar….

I’ve come to believe that never making mistakes is impossible, catching them all is a dream, and the only way to prevent them is to leave the paper blank. Since I’m not willing to do that, I’m looking forward to more years of hunting and correcting. I tell myself it’s a lively pursuit, with almost the suspense of a silent, nearly motionless sport.

Maybe Raymond Chandler had the right attitude about literary brain farts. In The Big Sleep, a chauffeur is murdered in his car. In the course of the twisty-turny plot, the mystery goes unsolved, in fact totally ignored. When the book was turned into a film, the producers rang Chandler to ask who was responsible.

“Damned if I know!” he said.

 

True Crime Thursday – Farming Failure Fraud

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by Debbie Burke

For farmers, weather makes the difference between payday and bankruptcy.

They are at the mercy of Mother Nature who can wipe out all their hard work in an instant. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers insurance that gives some protection. But unscrupulous, greedy people find ways to take advantage of it.

According to a June 2026 article by Chris Bennett in agweb.com:

“Federal Rainfall Index Annual Forage Insurance Plan…is based on rain amounts—not crop performance. Producers pick a two-month period (they can obtain multiple two-month slots), pay for insurance, and receive payments if precipitation falls below normal historic levels.”

Two Colorado farmers hatched a scheme to cash in on that insurance to the tune of $6.5 million. Ed Dean Jagers and Patrick Esch owned farms in southeast Colorado and southwest Kansas that appeared to never receive rainfall.

Rain gauge plugged with silicon

The reason: in 2016 and 2017, they and two accomplices tampered with weather stations that track data reported to government agencies. The men plugged rain collection funnels with silicon, cut wires, punched holes in gauges, and placed metal disks and cake pans over collection surfaces.

No rain equals payday. They filed multiple fraudulent claims with the government, collecting millions of dollars.

One accomplice, farmhand Mark Fox, was a career criminal and a frequent resident in local jails. Fox decided he wanted a bigger cut of the proceeds. He threatened to blow the whistle on the scheme if Esch didn’t bail him out. Then he demanded hush money. Each time he went to jail (on unrelated charges), the extortion escalated.

Esch gave into the blackmail. On several occasions, he wrote false affidavits saying Fox hadn’t been involved in damaging weather stations and paid cash to Fox’s two girlfriends who facilitated the transactions.

Ed Dean Jagers, Mark Fox, Trey Jagers. Esch not pictured
Public domain photo

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service (NWS) noticed strange anomalies in weather reports from 16 stations in Colorado and Kansas, located on property owned by Jagers and Esch. Additionally, they recorded tremendous increases in vandalism of their measuring equipment, costing thousands of dollars to repair or replace.

NWS investigators zeroed in on Jagers and Esch as the likely perpetrators. Jagers’s son Trey had assisted in the damage. Officials convinced him to wear a wire, hoping to trap the fraudsters, but apparently Trey couldn’t bring himself to be an informant.

Mark Fox was back in jail again. This time he changed his strategy, claiming to Esch that he had immunity from prosecution and could “fix” the problems facing Esch and Jagers…for a price.

 

In a bizarre twist, Fox broke out of jail and went on the lam, prompting a federal manhunt.

By now, Esch and Jagers knew their scheme was up. They were facing both civil penalties for defrauding the government as well as criminal charges. They negotiated plea deals with short jail sentences and promised to pay back more than $6 million they had received for false claims.

Per Bennett’s article:

“Trey signed a plea agreement in 2022 and served no jail time; Esch and Jagers signed plea agreements in 2023. Esch served two months in prison; Jagers served six months in prison. The pair was ordered to pay a combined $3.1 million in criminal restitution, and settled civil charges for $3.5 million. Total: $6.6 million.”

Fox remained missing.

Then in August, 2023, his badly decomposed body was discovered in a barn but cause of death couldn’t be determined.

This story has a final weird twist.  Because of his death, charges against Fox for extortion, assault, and vandalism were dropped.

However, his role as a whistleblower meant his estate received $500,000 from the federal settlement.

Hmmm. Apparently under certain circumstances, crime does pay.

 

Thank you, Chris Bennett, for permission to quote from your article.

~~~

TKZers, agricultural fraud crimes were new to me until I read Bennett’s article. Were you aware of them? Please share what you know.

So, I Did A Thing … Because Waiting Sucks

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So, I Did A Thing
Because waiting sucks
Terry Odell

Face of a light brown dog in a blue bed

Waiting Sucks

With Beyond the Frame off to the editor, aside from a few front and back matter details, there wasn’t much more I could do other than wait to see what she said. I haven’t used this editor since she edited Heather’s Chase about six years ago, so the usual “she’s going to hate it” jitters were back tenfold.

My cover designer was on vacation in Ireland, so I don’t have a pretty picture to show off yet.

What next?

Write another book, but I’m not ready for that. We’ve got a major vacation trip in the works this fall, and I’m not dedicated enough to want to work while I’m away, and having a wip come to a halt when I get the edits back for Beyond the Frame to deal with those edits, and having to put a new book on hold as well—let’s just say I’m glad I’m an indie author and can set my own schedule.

Do something totally unrelated to writing?

Brain isn’t going that way.

And then, the brain says “Hey! What about all those vignettes you’ve already written?”

Good thinking, brain.

I took those vignettes—former reader magnets, blog posts, guest posts for others—and assembled them into a single file. Arranged and rearranged in an order that seemed at least a little logical. Each one needed a brief introduction, so I took a little time to add those. Then, I reread them, made minor revisions, and asked one of my critique partners if she’d be willing to proofread, but not edit. (That’s a challenge unto itself.) She did. Thanks Karla!

A book, even a short one, needs a cover. Since this project is designed more to keep me doing ‘writerly’ things than as a major money-maker, I opted to let Canva help me design one. Besides, my cover designer is still busy playing catch up after her vacation.

Here it is.

Cover of Chance Encounters and Other Stories by Terry Odell

With a cover done, it was time to publish. Publishing an eighty-page collection of vignettes is as much work as publishing a 350 page novel. Same steps no matter how long the file.

But it’s done and ready for the public.

Here’s the description:

Where do characters come from? This author advertises for hers.

Wouldn’t it be great to eavesdrop on their interviews?

Chance Encounters is a peek behind the curtain, a tongue-in-cheek collection of twenty vignettes chronicling the author’s job interviews with characters aiming for a spot in her next book. They’ve all got their own lives, and their own reasons for wanting—or needing—the job.

In fiction, “Only Trouble is Interesting,” and some characters aren’t thrilled with the trouble they’ll be walking into. They offer their own opinions. Make suggestions. Does the author listen?

Spanning the Pine Hills Police, Blackthorne, Inc., Triple-D Ranch and Mapleton Mystery series, these light-hearted peeks behind the scenes let you look at where characters really come from.

The biggest challenge, I found, was finding the most appropriate categories in Amazon’s lists. They’ve made their decisions as to what cubbyholes books are supposed to fit, and—in keeping with my not coloring inside the lines personality—nothing about this collection fit well into their boxes. Will people find it? I don’t know. But whether they do or not, I had fun writing these vignettes over the years, and if there’s a new home for them now, so much the better.

What are they like? Here’s the opening page of the first vignette, When I Met Sarah

“Thanks,” I say, my face aching from the polite smiles I’ve been forcing all day. “I’ll be in touch.” I pick up the last yellow file folder from my desk and scan the first page of her resume. Sarah Tucker. Thirty-one. A little old for what I have in mind. I wonder how long ago her picture was taken. I lean across my desk and push the intercom button. “All right, Jess. Send in the next applicant.”

The door opens, and a perfect girl-next-door stands there. Wearing a navy-blue suit with a blouse buttoned above her collarbone. A refreshing change from all the silicone enhancements I’ve been staring at all day. She even has freckles across her nose and cheeks. No problem casting her in her twenties.

“Come in,” I say, my smile a little less forced. “Have a seat.”

She steps into the room. Pumps. She’s wearing pumps. A little worn in the heels, but polished. It’s as if she’s read my synopsis—which is impossible because I haven’t written it yet.

She sits in the seat across from my desk, clutching her purse—which matches her shoes, for God’s sake—on her lap. “Thanks. I’m Sarah Tucker. I’m here for the job interview. For the romance novel heroine.”

“Yes, I have your resume. Tell me why you want a job in a romance novel.” I brace myself, waiting for the canned, I want to bring happiness into the lives of poor, bored housewives speech. But she doesn’t say anything for a minute. She fusses with the hem of her skirt. (Mental note: good nervous gesture.)

“I have to be honest. My business—I have a small gift shop—hasn’t been doing well, and I need a little extra cash. My neighbor—Maggie, she’s the mother hen type—well, she saw your ad and talked me into coming in for an interview.”

“Any experience?”

“Experience with what? I’ve never been in a novel before, if that’s what you mean. But I’ve read a few.” …

If you’re interested, you can find it here.

 

What about you, TKZers? Have you found new homes for older works?

Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Deadly Ambitions
Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now, Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most.
Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Never Too Late – Interview with Mystery Author Rick Bleiweiss

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by Debbie Burke

Back in 2022, I interviewed an energetic, dynamic 77-year-old Blackstone Publishing executive and author named Rick Bleiweiss. Rick’s debut mystery Pignon Scorbion and the Barbershop Detectives was due to release in February of that year.

Author Rick Bleiweiss
(all photos courtesy of Rick)

Four years later, an August article in People.com announced Rick’s upcoming mystery will be the first novel published under Blackstone’s new imprint, WhoopInk, led by Whoopi Goldberg. I emailed Rick to congratulate him, and he wrote back. Seemed like a good time for a catch-up interview about Rick’s exciting new adventure, embarked on in his 80s!

Here’s an introduction to Rick:

Rick Bleiweiss has been a touring/recording musician, music industry executive working with many superstar music acts & major film soundtracks, GRAMMY-nominated record producer, educator, entrepreneur, newspaper and magazine columnist, and publishing executive. As an author, his first novel Pignon Scorbion & The Barbershop Detectives won multiple international book awards and was #1 on Amazon in five categories. The second book in the series, Murder in Haxford, also won multiple awards, as did his political satire Ronald The Grump (written under a pseudonym) which was named Best Short Fiction Self-Published Book of the Year by two literary organizations. Rick was nominated as Author of the Year, was given the Career Changers Award for Authors, and hosts a popular YouTube series, Rick Bleiweiss’ Chapter & Verse, in which he interviews major musicians, actors, authors and other entertainment figurers. In 2025, at the age of 81, he wrote, sang and played all the instruments on a rock & roll record One Night Man by Captain Rick’s Retrorockit, which went to #4 on the World Indie Music Charts.

Debbie Burke: Welcome back to The Zone, Rick! Glad to reconnect.

In your professional life, you have always looked forward, pioneering new concepts in music, audio, publishing, and entertainment media. Yet as a novelist, you chose to travel back in time to 1910 with your Pignon Scorbion series that’s set in the quaint English village of Haxford. What prompted you to explore that era and setting?

Pignon Scorbion

Rick Bleiweiss: I have always been a fan of mysteries set in that era and in England, especially Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot (and the Murdoch Mysteries set in Canada though), and I wanted to write books featuring a new detective who would be a contemporary of theirs and solve cases in a similar manner – yet be a unique character of his own. Scorbion is just that, being a man of color (Haitian and Egyptian heritage), somewhat of a dapper fellow, and working on his cases by interviewing and questioning suspects and witnesses in a barbershop assisted by a colorful group of deputies including three barbers, a shoeshine man, a newspaper reporter, and a brilliant female bookshop owner.

DB: Blackstone Publishing published your first two Pignon books in 2022 and 2023. The third book, The Cupid Killer and Other Murderers, is also part of the series but will come out under the WhoopInk imprint of Blackstone. Is the process different working within an imprint? In what ways?

RB: I was surprised, thrilled and literally astounded when Whoopi Goldberg told me she loved the first two books in the series, and asked if I was writing another, When I told her I was, she asked if it could be on her new imprint, and of course, I said yes! What an honor it is, not only to be on Whoopi’s imprint, but to be the first novel released on it. Wow. Being on WhoopInk I still get all the power of Blackstone Publishing behind the book, but get Whoopi as well, and that is priceless. The difference in the process from the first two books, was keeping Whoopi aware of and involved in what I was doing, and having her be behind the book. And as a side note, Blackstone has moved the first two books onto the imprint as well.

DB: Is there a fourth Pignon mystery in the works?

RB: I have just started writing it. While each book can stand on their own, each follows the chronology of the summer and fall of 1910, and the next book will be no different. I plan for it to start with the kidnapping that was referenced at the end of The Cupid Killer and Other Murderers having Julius Caesar the beagle be a central figure in that crime. I am also planning to have Scorbion travel to London to assist Scotland Yard solve a case, and of course, Pignon’s and Thelma’s relationship will deepen. Could there be nuptials in the book?

I’m also putting the finishing touches on  two books – one an adventure story about past life regression and the need to find something in one of those past lives, and the other, a comedy involving seniors living in a foster home who are harassed by a young gang of toughs who learn how to fight back, that’s sort of what it would be like if Home Alone met The Best Marigold Hotel. I’ve even written a screenplay for the last one – my first one. I find trying new things to be quite enjoyable.

DB: In our email exchange, I jokingly asked you what kind of vitamins you take. Do you have an exercise routine, diet, or other activities to stay healthy, active, and energetic in your 80s?

RB: Indeed, I do. I work out with a personal trainer twice a week, walk and use a stationary bike an average of 50 miles a week (walking my 16 year old Havanese, Gracie, is a huge part of that), I take many supplements and vitamins, and I avoid most grains, gluten, dairy and fried foods, and limit my intake of sugar and red meats which aren’t grass fed and finished, and my loving and caring wife Deborah makes sure I eat a lot of healthy vegetables. I am blessed to have both energy and good health in my 80’s and I’d like to keep it that way well into my hundreds.

Another thing I do is find time to relax and enjoy a myriad of different things. Among other things I enjoy playing word and number video games, playing Mahjong, being on committees in the community in which I live, spending time with friends and my family, and making music. In fact, I wrote, performed and played every instrument on a rock and roll record I recorded in my apartment last year which went to #4 on the Global World Indie Music Charts! It was called One Night Man by Captain Rick’s RetroRockit. At 81, Take that Mick Jagger!

DB: [Laughing] Rick, I’d rather see you in concert than Mick!

When we last visited, you reiterated it’s never too late to try something new or to follow your dreams. You certainly embody that philosophy. Did a particular person or event Influence you to adopt the attitude and way of life?

RB: Yes, I do regularly tell people of my generation (or of any age) that if you maintain your health and have energy and passion for something you are never too old to have a dream and follow it. While there was no specific person or event that influenced that attitude it was created by a combination of mostly unrelated factors. Both of my parents were brilliant and entrepreneurs who were involved in many different ventures and activities while I was growing up and later in their lives, which gave me the confidence and examples to try something whether it worked out or not. I also have read a lot and things various celebrities and writers have said and written impacted me and often confirmed my thinking. Quotes by Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Betty Friedan and many others were very confirming that the worst thing a person can do is not try something. Many of my friends are retired and enjoying their lives. I tried retirement and got bored out of my mind. I guess it confirmed a biofeedback session I had many decades ago which indicated that I was more at ease when I was problem solving than when I was trying to relax.

DB: Are there any dreams on the horizon you haven’t yet followed?

RB: A few years ago, I created and put out a rudimentary Pignon Scorbion “Find the Hidden Object” video game, which in retrospect was a valiant attempt that was not very good. Today the woman who owns the company that is assisting me market and publicize this newest Scorbion book is creating a truly outstanding video game featuring Scorbion as the host. Combining that with a new trailer and a unique film in which I’ll be interviewing a CGI version of Scorbion which Blackstone is doing, I believe the words fun and exciting lie ahead for me.

I’ve been involved in meditation and manifesting for many years, and the two things I’ve manifested which haven’t come to pass yet are having a book on the New York Times bestseller list and being a guest on a major network national TV show. I’m hoping both of those can happen now with this new book.

I must add that I get extreme pleasure in my role as a publisher in helping deserving authors have their books brought to the reading public, and I’ve been fortunate to have acquired at least 4 books that have been New York Times bestsellers in the past few years. And having more of those is certainly something I relish for the future.

DB: Any final thoughts you’d like to share with TKZ readers?

RB: Don’t be afraid to try new things. Know that most new things fail, so if what you try does fail, don’t be discouraged – try something else. Whatever you do, and no matter the outcome, enjoy the journey. Keep reading, singing, playing and doing whatever it is that gives you enjoyment in your life.

~~~

Rick, this line especially resonated with me: “…if what you try does fail, don’t be discouraged – try something else.” Great advice for writers!

Thank you for coming back to The Zone to share your wisdom. Hope you achieve that dream of a New York Times bestseller!

~~~

TKZers: What plans and dreams are ahead for you as a writer? Did any of Rick’s suggestions jump out at you?

~~~

 

The Cupid Killer and Other Murderers is available for preorder at:

Amazon hardcover

Amazon audiobook

Amazon ebook

Barnes and Noble hardcover

When Back Copy Goes Bad

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By PJ Parrish

The easy part is done. The book is finished. The rewrites are complete. We’ve even got the cover designed. Now comes the hard part…

Writing the back copy.

I’ve been working at this publishing thing since the early 2000s. First with three different traditional publishing houses — Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster and Thomas and Mercer. Most of my career, I’ve had great copy writers who created the back copy. Often, my editors ran the finished copy by me for approval or suggestions. Thomas and Mercer even let us write a first draft for our book She’s Not There. This is how the finished back copy read.

 A past she can’t remember. 

A killer she can’t recognize.

And they’re both catching up with her.

They say it’s better to battle the devil you know. But what if you don’t recognize him until it’s too late?

She knows her name is Ameilia, but after waking up in a hospital battered and bruised with just the clothes on her back, it’s all she knows. Unable to piece together her shattered memory, she’s haunted by a vision: menacing faces and voices implying her nightmare is far from over,

Relying only on her wits and her will to live, Amelia becomes a fugitive frm a mysterious man, and a life she can’t even remember. But the past she’s fleeing has no intention of letting her go.

But it wasn’t until I branched out into self-publishing (original works and back-list repubbing) and was all alone with no back-up that I learned how darn hard it is to write really good back copy.

Ha! You try it. Take your 350 word manuscript and crystalize it down to maybe 300 words that will capture the attention of a would-be reader.  Have you ever watched folks browsing in a bookstore? Let’s pretend they didn’t come in for the latest Connelly or whatever is topping the current charts. They’re hunting and gathering, searching for someone new to fall in love with. They pick a book off a shelf, maybe enticed by a good cover and lively title. Then usually, the turn the book over and read the back copy. And if your copy is crisp, they might open to read the first page. And you are lucky, they take a chance on you.

Yes, this holds true on Amazon listings as well, You have to supply back copy if you want to sell your books there. And like a good cover that can capture a reader’s eye in a thumbnail, a snappy distillation of your story is what is going to help snag new readers.

The cover is your first impression across the crowded room. But the back copy is your introductory conservation. All good back copy does key things:

Takes readers on an emotional journey—a sort of miniature version of your story. You’re creating a series of emotional beats that guide readers from:

Curiosity > Interest > Action

If this progression is missing, your blurb will feel flat and directionless. Your blurb should move through three stages:

  • Who is your protagonist?
  • What is going on with the plot?
  • Why should I turn the page?

I’m quoting Morgan Lee Clasper there. He’s a copywriter, book sales strategist, and author of The Blurb Puzzle. (publishers call back copy “blurbs” — not be be confused by the quotes you elicit from fellow writers). Clasper has worked with New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling authors, writing 4,000 blurbs. More from him a moment, because he’s worth listening to.

Back to my dilemma. I’m pretty good at writing back copy. But it’s a real effort, and always entailed several rewrites as I try to boil down my story’s heart and soul. My first drafts are always bad, because I try to get everything pinned down and then I go at it with a razor to pare it down to its essence.

Here’s the raw first draft of the back copy of our WIP, Lucky Lady. Bear with me…

Bailey Cassell has had a difficult life. After spending eighteen months in jail for the murder of her abusive husband, she is acquitted and heads to Las Vegas, where she hopes to start over and reconnect with her estranged father, the owner of an aging casino called Paul’s Palace.

But Bailey’s plans for a fresh start take an unexpected turn when a showgirl falls seventy-two stories from The Monolith, a huge casino next door, and lands near Bailey’s office. When Bailey learns that Scarlett may have had connections to her father’s past, she begins asking questions.

Her search for answers leads her to Bullhead City, a dangerous suspect, a wealthy Florida gambler, and JB Mitchell, the powerful owner of The Monolith. Along the way, Bailey crosses paths with handsome homicide detective Morgan Finn. Bailey finds herself fantasizing about Morgan but he rebuffs her advances, leaving Bailey to wonder if she’ll ever break through his professional exterior—or if their relationship will remain strictly business.

But Bailey has more important things to worry about. As she gets closer to discovering the truth about Scarlett’s death, she realizes that Las Vegas is a city filled with secrets, and some people will do anything to keep those secrets buried.

Can Bailey uncover the truth before she becomes the killer’s next victim? And will she finally get the handsome detective who keeps turning her down?

Gag, gag, gag…It’s okay, I know it’s awful. It’s too long, too wordy, and boring as hell. But it’s a starting basis. Now all I have to do is make it sparkle. I’m still working on it but here’s where I am so far:

Las Vegas is where you go to reinvent yourself. And that’s exactly what Iowa-born Bailey Cassell needs to do after getting acquitted for murdering her abusive husband. She tries to reconnect with the father who abandoned her when he gives her a job at his fading casino. But when a showgirl falls to her death from the Monolith casino next door, Bailey finds herself captivated by Scarlett Nightengale’s past — especially when she learns she woman was once involve with her dad.

Bailey crosses paths with the handsome homicide detective assigned to the case distracts her. But Bailey is deternined to find out who killed Scarlett, despite her father’s shady past, the threats of the Monolith’s shady owner, and her attraction to the detective.   

The closer Bailey gets to discovering the truth about Scarlett’s death, the more she realizes that Las Vegas is a city filled with secrets, and some people will do anything to keep those secrets buried. Including kill her.

Better. But not quite there. Just not enough zing. And still too long. I’ll report back.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about what makes good back copy. I’ve written extensively about this in the past here, but I’ve read enough poorly written cop that I think we need to revisit this. What are the main sins? The main one is most writers feel compelled to include WAY too much biography about their protags. Go back to the copy for She’s Not There. It tells you almost nothing about Amelia’s background. But it focuses dead-center on her fear, her dilemma and the emotional core of the story.

I’ll let a pro talk to you now. Back to Morgan Lee Clasper. Here’s his advice in a nutshell:

Lead with emotion, not biography
Your protagonist is usually the central point around which everything else in your blurb revolves. That’s why it’s important to make readers care about them without wasting words by over-explaining.

Sounds like an impossible situation, right? How can you make readers care about someone if you’re not able to paint a complete picture of them? Your protagonist is a multifaceted character with a personality, backstory, desires, flaws, hopes, and dreams… but most of that can’t fit into the blurb.

But there’s one secret to instantly making readers like your protagonist. That secret is leading with emotion….[not] a colleciton facts.

Not every detail belongs
You may still be struggling to figure out what information to include. Here are some handy questions to ask yourself when you’re stuck deciding what deserves to make the cut:

  • Is it essential to the premise?
  • Is it necessary for understanding the stakes?
  • Does it make readers more emotionally invested in the story?
    A cool world-building detail might add depth and flavor to your story, but it doesn’t belong in the blurb unless it can’t be removed without making the plot difficult to understand.

Include both internal and external conflict
Just as a good book has external and internal obstacles for the protagonist to overcome, a good blurb uses both of these elements for maximum effect. While the plot answers the question of what’s happening (defeating an enemy, solving a mystery, or achieving a goal), the protagonist’s internal conflict explains why this is difficult (fear, trauma, or personal flaws). The best blurbs combine both elements.

Establish narrative momentum
Maybe you’ve written a blurb with some of these things in mind before, but it still feels flat. The missing ingredient in many otherwise effective blurbs is a sufficient sense of momentum. The trick is to make sure that each sentence builds on the one that came before it. Every line should add pressure, throw a wrench into the protagonist’s plan, heighten the stakes, or build toward a crescendo. For example:

  • Sentence 1: Who is this person?
  • Sentence 2: What changed about their situation?
  • Sentence 3: What danger or trouble are they facing?
  • Sentence 4: What happens if they fail

A simple trick that can help you do this is to use transition words like: but, when, after, and.

Remember that last sentence. Those simple transition words are the keys to unlock a catchy and snappy back copy for your book. Click here to go to Morgan’s full post. It appeared in Jane Friedman’s must-read blog

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some pruning to do.

 

Drinking Literary Poison

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By Elaine Viets

Summer comes with many temptations, from scanty clothes to rampant hormones. Moralists believe young women should be protected from them all.  But one summer temptation really riled preachers.

I’m talking about . . . beach books.

They especially upset a sourpuss named Rev. Thomas De Witt Talmage.  The Rev. T fulminated against beach books in 1876, cautioning his congregation, “Do not let the frogs and the lice of a corrupt printing press jump and crawl into your Saratoga trunk or White Mountain valise.” Beach books, the rev said, were “literary poison.”

“I really believe there is more pestiferous trash read among the intelligent classes in July and August than in all the other ten months of the year,” he said.

It would take ten months to plow through Talmage’s own tomes. Want to stretch out by the pool and read The Abomination of Modern Society? How about 500 Select Sermons?

Personally, I think Talmage was a tad jealous of beach books’ popularity.

      The young women of the 19th century sensibly ignored Talmage’s rants, and stuffed their vacation valises with summer reads. They sighed over Marion Harlan’s With the Best Intentions: A Midsummer Episode, set among the Gilded Age’s beautiful people.  And devoured  Laura Jean Libbey’s fiction about poor girls who worked to survive.

       Laura’s titles were real grabbers. A Dangerous Flirtation Or, Did Ida May Sin? And Miss Middleton’s Lover; Or Parted On Their Bridal Tour makes me want to slap on some sunscreen and start reading.

          These novels and other light summer reading are the descendants of today’s beach reads, though the term “beach reads” didn’t show up until the 1990s. Most of this information comes from Smithsonian Magazine.

          Beach reads were easy to pack and  hold. They were also a marketing scheme. July and August are traditionally the time when book sales drop. So clever publishers came up with books specially designed for vacations. The books were often set at resorts, and gave young middle class women tips on fashion and manners, in case they met a handsome young millionaire. In the beach books, these encounters usually ended in marriage.

          Exactly what is a beach book?

Blogger Victoria Wood has a good definition. She quotes the Macmillan Dictionary, which says a beach read is “a book you can take on holiday, which is good enough to keep you engaged but not so serious it will spoil your holiday.”

“I think that’s a good starting point,” she said, “but I’d add this: the best beach reads are immersive, entertaining, and just plain fun—whether or not you ever set foot on sand.”

Traces of the prune-faced Rev. T prevail. Many beach books are written –  and read – by women. Some are romances, others are thrillers or mysteries, and they can be scorned as frivolous. “Beach book” is sometimes used as an insult.

But beach books are a rite of summer. About Memorial Day, publications from the  New York Times to Booklist magazine trot out their beach reads, many with bright covers and snappy dialogue.

 Emily Henry boldly calls her beach romance Beach Read. It’s about a romance writer who no longer believes in love, and a literary writer stuck in a rut.

Kristin Hannah, who wrote The Women, about nurses who served in Vietnam, has the much lighter Summer Island.

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, spanned the summer season in 2022, with the hardcover released in April and the paperback in August.

And, if there’s room for me on this golden beach, I have two beach books: Sex and Death on the Beach (2025) and Beach Blonde Betrayal (2026).

 Both were released in July.

And my readers are extremely intelligent. Take that, Reverend Talmage.

What are your favorite beach reads, TKZers?

********************************************************************

My books are available at  most booksellers, including Amazon, Thriftbooks.com, and Left Bank Books in my hometown of St. Louis. Beach Blonde Betrayal (Florida Beach Mystery #2) | Left Bank Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between Projects

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Between Projects
Terry Odell

Now What?

Last time, I talked about performing surgery on my manuscript. What now?

stylized person standing scratching its head beside a yellow question mark

The manuscript is as good as I’m going to get it, so it’s ready for my editor. My changes aren’t making it better, only different. What do I do while it’s in her hands?

There are many, an earlier version of myself included, who would be jumping in to the next book. But this one isn’t really “done.”

There’s a lot more than finishing the manuscript.

  • There’s adding its page to my website.
  • There’s waiting for my cover designer who had the nerve to go to Ireland for a family wedding.
  • There’s Front and Back matter. Don’t want to leave anyone out of the acknowledgments.
  • Do I want to line up a narrator?
  • Is this going to be a stand alone, or will there be sequels, or connected books.
  • Am I going to put it up for preorder? I want to release it in early October so it doesn’t hit the holiday themed books. Is it worth it for a short time?
  • Line up my early readers who get ARCs for reviews.

I’ve started one task: The book description that’ll go on the sales channels’ book pages. That might do double-duty as the back cover copy, once it’s ready to be formatted for print. Here it is.

When the camera lies, who do you trust?

Evvie Gale and Colton Hughes are dog park friends—nothing more. Until deep fake photographs threaten to end both their careers.

Evvie changed her name after a childhood trauma. She’s spent years perfecting the art of not being seen, working behind the lens instead of being in front of it.

Evvie built a quiet life behind the camera, exactly where she wants to be—out of the frame, out of sight. So when the gallery owner who’s carried her work for years drops her without explanation, she doesn’t just lose income. She loses the one identity she’s allowed herself to keep. Determined to find out what happened, she starts digging—and uncovers humiliating deep fake photographs.

Colton left the Wyoming cattle ranch he grew up on and never looked back—done with the hard labor, the long hours, and the debt that came with every bad season. In Colorado Springs, he found riding a desk beat riding a saddle.

A claim crosses his desk with supporting photos that feel “off.” His boss wants the claim approved and closed. Colton brings the photos to the one person he trusts to see what he can’t— his dog park friend, Evvie. She agrees to take a closer look.

When a family emergency calls Colton back to the ranch, he convinces Evvie to come with him. What he finds is that Evvie has brought more than her camera, a secret from her past that could bring danger to the Hughes family.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

And then some non-book-related things.

  • Take more time to read.
  • Work on Substack posts.
  • See what’s on the tube. Wonder why we still call it that. Or is that only me?
  • Get outside more—if it cools down. Don’t forget the camera.
  • Work on the details for my upcoming trip, including convincing the Hubster he needs some more appropriate clothing.
  • Watch the bears catching salmon at explore.org
  • Have a little fun. Does anyone remember Sniglets? Words that aren’t words but should be?

Examples:

  • Aquadextrous: Turning the bathtub faucet on or off with your toes.
  • Bovilexia: The strong urge to yell “moo!” when you drive past a cow.
  • Cinemuck: The sticky mix of dropped soda, melted chocolate, and popcorn on a theater floor.
  • Lerplexed: Trying to look up a word in the dictionary, but failing because you do not know how to spell it.
  • Mustgo: Leftover food hidden in the back of the fridge until it turns into a science project.
  • Pupkus: The wet smudge a dog leaves on a window when it presses its nose against the glass.
  • Snackmosphere: The large pocket of empty air inside a bag of potato chips.

What do you do “between” projects? Jump into the next or take a little “me” time?

And, on a final note: Another reason I’m glad I sell wide. That world’s largest river has decided to drop the price on my three Blackthorne, Inc. box sets. Three novels each. No warning, no way of knowing how long it’ll go on. So, they’re cutting my out of a chunk of my royalties on those sales. (No, they do NOT pay royalties on the price I set. Yes, I checked.) The other sales channels are selling the sets at the price I set.

If you’d like to take advantage of these price reductions, you can find the sets here:
I have no idea how long this price will be in effect.

Volume 1  Volume 2   Volume 3

Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Deadly Ambitions
Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now, Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most.
Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Four Lessons Learned When My Pants Fell Down

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by Debbie Burke

 

After college, I swore off writing outlines. No more nonsense with Roman numeral I, capital A, Arabic numeral 2, lower-case b, etc.

For years, I’ve been a proud, unapologetic pantser. My system is flawed and not terribly efficient, but it’s worked for nine books.

Well, I must confess, on my novel in process, my pants fell down.

Proof of Life (working title) is the 10th book in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series. I know the characters well but not so well that they can’t still surprise me when they get into trouble.

The leads are investigator Tawny Lindholm and defense attorney Tillman Rosenbaum, a recently married couple in their 50s who work together in Montana. Both have adult children from previous marriages.

The inciting incident: Arielle, Tillman’s 22-year-old daughter, has been living in Israel for two years researching family history. She unexpectedly arrives back home in Montana, bedraggled and exhausted with a newborn baby girl. She’s clearly been on the run but refuses to answer questions. Even Tawny, whose superpower is to convince anyone to spill their secrets, can’t persuade Arielle to open up.

Because my books are thrillers, I also write scenes from the villain’s point of view. He’s a high-ranking Israeli cop who’s married, but not to Arielle. The baby is his, and he wants her back. His investigative methods are brutal but effective. If he finds Arielle, she’s in dire peril.

When starting a new book, generally I begin with Jim Bell’s minimal signposts then take E.L Doctorow’s route:

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Even before I started writing, I worried that the research needed about international laws was too complicated. But I pushed forward with the story, figuring I could fill in the blanks on rewrite.

Tawny and Tillman suspect Arielle has broken laws. They want to help her but she’s holding back critical information. They don’t yet know about the villain who’s hunting her.

Pretty soon, for the plot to make sense, I had to dig into the Hague Convention treaty regarding international child abduction. Who has jurisdiction? Who takes the lead during an arrest? FBI, State Department, Israeli consulate?

Laws on the books rarely translate into how they’re applied in real life (or realistic fiction). How could I find insights into actual practices? How are suspects treated? Do they go to jail pending hearings? What happens to the abducted child? Who takes care of her until custody is determined?.

For almost 200 pages, I wrote scenes out of chronological order as ideas occurred to me. The draft was full of notes saying, “needs further explanation”, “do more research”, “maybe cut?”, and “move this section?”.

No surprise that I started getting confused.

The excerpts I submitted to my critique group were discrete, self-contained scenes that they generally liked. But over several months, one member kept raising valid questions. I gave excuses  but couldn’t come up with definitive answers.

More confusion.

In the past, I’ve used calendars to keep track of story timelines. That was especially important for Dead Man’s Bluff which was set against the backdrop of an actual hurricane. The calendar matched real day by day events like flooding, when roads were reopened, the staggered restoration of power over five days, etc. since those events impacted the plot.

Using a calendar also charts the cause and effect of each scene in relation to those before and after it. For this current manuscript, I didn’t use a calendar.

Bad choice.

Inside my head, arguments raged.

Wait a second, for the timeline to make sense, that scene can’t happen until much later. Oh no, that revelation is too soon because Tawny doesn’t know about XYZ yet. Oops, that confrontation between Tillman and the officials needs more build up. Should there even be a confrontation?  

When I tried to cobble scenes together, they resembled Franken-novel.

photo credit: Andrew Fare

Pretty soon, I was in deeper trouble than poor Arielle.

For several weeks, I let my normally trusty subconscious work on the problems. But this time, even she was stumped.

So much for pantsing.

I admitted defeat and placed a 9-1-1 call to my brilliant brainstorming buddy Phyllis Quatman. She’s an attorney, author, and fantastic sounding board. Sitting at her dining table, we tore the plot apart.

Finally, Phyllis said, “Deb, you’re making this much too complicated. Why don’t you simply…” and she distilled the story down to its most basic elements. Get rid of this. Move that. Don’t go off on this tangent. Give the villain-cop a secret past that prevents him from using his official channels to find Arielle and the baby. Force him to go to ground and stay under the radar as she had to do.

Turns out my subconscious had already planted a breadcrumb about the villain’s secret past. That past simply needed to grow bigger and more sinister.

Three hours later, with brain buzzing and full of gratitude for Phyllis’s help, I drove home and started writing an outline.

Gasp! Me? The confirmed, unrepentant pantser?

This outline contains no Roman numerals, no capital and lower-case letters. It’s not scene by scene, chapter by chapter. Maybe it’s not even technically an outline.

However, it contains the complicated backstory of the events leading up to Arielle’s surprise arrival in Montana with the baby. Arielle’s secrets. Other characters’ secrets.

Most important are the villain’s secrets—there are humiliations and past crimes he never wants to come to light. Those are his motivations. What is his deep desire? He genuinely loves the baby and wants her back. What must he do to accomplish that goal? Find and kill Arielle.

Backstory isn’t simply backstory. It causes the present story.

One by one, secrets will be revealed. Each changes the course of the plot and builds toward the climax.

I pounded a signpost in the ground for the climactic showdown. Not many details yet but it’s a destination to head toward.

The outline clocked in at 1300 words.

Can any scenes from the original 200 pages be salvaged? Some, yes. Others may undergo severe rewriting.

Others go in the trash. Actually, it’s more like putting them in purgatory. When I cut scenes, I store them at the end of the Word doc as “outtakes” in case there are a few useable sentences or paragraphs. In practice, though, when manuscripts have been finalized, those scenes were not needed.

I’d already successfully pantsed my way through nine previous novels. I thought the same method would work for the tenth. It didn’t.

I had to change, adapt, and rethink the process.

Did I waste months drafting a story that couldn’t work? Would I have been more efficient and productive if I’d planned the plot in advance instead of pantsing it? Probably.

Will my quasi-outline solve the problem? I don’t know yet.

A whole lot of new scenes have to be written. This time around, I’ll write in chronological order with a calendar.

Lessons learned:

  1. Just because a method worked in the past, it may not work now.

  2. Doctorow’s headlights didn’t show the cliff soon enough to avoid this story dropping over it.

  3. Listen to warning bells from my critique group.

  4. Get over my childish prejudice against outlines.

One lesson I learned long ago was to ask for help from a good friend who’s objective, rational, and logical. Phyllis came through in a big way, as she’s done many times in the past. I’m filled with gratitude and appreciation for her.

Will I remain a pantser? Probably, but I’m no longer as confirmed and unrepentant. Maybe now my pants will stay up.

~~~

TKZers: Are you a plotter, pantser, or a combination of both (plantser)? Have you run into trouble with your system? How did you solve the problem? Or are you still working on it?

 

Cover by Brian Hoffman

 

Please check out Dead Man’s Bluff to see how using a calendar helped fiction mesh with real-life events.