Category Archives: Writing

The Declaration of Independence: A Master Class in Writing

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The Declaration of Independence.

Happy 250th Birthday, America!

Today we celebrate a country that was born from one of the most brilliantly crafted pieces of writing in human history. Thomas Jefferson wrote a document that changed the world. Just like screenwriters and novelists, he did it with structure, pacing, and an unforgettable ending.

Jefferson Built a Case

The Declaration does not open with the conclusion. Jefferson does not lead with “We’re breaking up with Britain.” He builds to it.

He opens with a statement of universal principles. All men are created equal. People have rights. Governments exist to protect those rights. When they don’t, the people can change them.

Then he presents the evidence. Twenty-seven specific grievances against King George. A relentless accumulation of wrongs. Taxation without representation. Soldiers quartered in private homes. Courts rigged against colonists. Each charge adds weight to the next.

Jefferson never tells you King George is evil. By the time Jefferson is finished, George III is not just a bad king; he is a tyrant without mercy.

The 27 Grievances: How to Build a Villain Through Accumulation

The structure of the grievances section is a masterclass in escalation, tension, and pacing.

Jefferson does not open with the worst charges. He starts with the administrative, the political, the procedural. The King has refused to sign laws. The King has dissolved legislatures. The King has obstructed justice. These are serious, but they are the acts of a bad bureaucrat, not necessarily a monster.

Then the charges begin to darken.

The King has sent swarms of officers to harass the people. He has kept standing armies among them in peacetime without consent. He has made the military superior to civilian authority. We are moving from political obstruction into something that feels more like occupation.

Then it gets worse.

He has waged war against his own people. He has plundered their seas and burned their towns. By the time you reach the final grievances, the King is not a distant bureaucrat making bad decisions. He is a warlord burning down the homes of his own subjects.

The Declaration is a 1,320-word novel where the villain is King George and the twist ending is America.

Powerful, Unforgettable Ending

The Declaration builds to a clear, decisive conclusion. The colonies are free and independent states. The political bands are dissolved. And the signers pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

The Declaration ends with one of the most extraordinary sentences in history.

“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

By signing this document, the men of the Continental Congresst were committing treason against the most powerful empire on earth. The penalty was death.

It is one of the most powerful endings in the history of the written word.

Remember

Two hundred and fifty years ago a writer sat down and crafted a document that changed history. The Founding Fathers understood that the right words, in the right order, with the right structure, could move people to action. Stories matter. Words are powerful!

Happy Independence Day. Now go write something that changes someone’s world.

 

Patriotic Fun

School House Rock on The Declaration of Independence

National Treasure (2004, Disney+) – a rag tag trio of history treasure hunters race an evil organization to find the treasure to follow the secret map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.

1776 (1972, Tubi or for rent on Prime Video) – a witty musical about the Founding Fathers.

Revolutionary Dramas

Movies:

A Great Awakening (2026, Prime Video) An unlikely friendship between fiery preacher George Whitefield and skeptic Benjamin Franklin sparks a spiritual revival that awakens the ideals of liberty and ignites the American Revolution.

The Patriot (2000) A family’s experience during the Revolutionary War when a father and the oldest son join the fight.

TV Series:

The American Revolution (2025, PBS) Ken Burns documentary about the American Revolution.

John Adams (2008, HBO+)  Paul Giamatti as John Adams with Laura Linney as Abigail. It covers the lead up to independence, the war, and its aftermath.

Turn: Washington’s Spies (2014-2017, AMC+), a gripping spy thriller following the Culpeper ring, George Washington’s spy network.

The Crossing (2000) Prime Video – The Story of the Washington leading the troops across the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton.

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Reader Friday-You Might Be A Redneck If…

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Happy American Redneck Day! (And you thought this might be a Fourth of July post. Well, maybe tomorrow…)

Oh, you didn’t know today is Redneck Day? Click on the link above to learn all about it.

Here’s an excerpt:

How to Celebrate American Redneck Day

This is the day when rednecks and the redneck culture is acknowledged and celebrated. Get on down and participate in American Redneck Day with some of these ideas. It’s time to “git ‘er done”!

And my favorite paragraph on the website:

Learn Some Redneck or Southern Phrases

One of the funniest bits that many comedians who poke fun at rednecks do is to consider their unique, evolved vocabulary. In honor and celebration of American Redneck Day, it might be fun to learn a few interesting words.

  • “I’m happier than a tornado in a trailer park!”
  • “He’s nuttier than a squirrel turd”
  • “I was as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine”
  • “You took off runnin’ faster than a hot knife through butter”

Room for one or two more?

 

 

Feel free to jump right in and share how you will celebrate today.

Me? That Redneck Sauna looks good!

 

 

 

And, last but not least…happy to be back, and thank you to the Killzone Team for filling in for me while I’m getting acquainted with my new knee.  🙂

 

 

Brave or TSTL?

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Is Your Character Brave or TSTL (Too Stupid to Live)?

We’ve all seen it on TV or in a mystery/suspense novel. We may have even done it. You know — cue the dark music with a serial killer on the loose…the heroine hears a noise in the basement, opens the door, and the dark stairwell lures her down the steps… all the while you’re yelling, “Don’t go down the stairs!”

The thing is, authors want to show that their character is brave. I get that. I really do. But that’s not the way to do it, trust me—I know. Before I was published, I entered my first book in a prestigious writing contest that offered feedback. My heroine knew she had a stalker, had even just received a threatening note from him, but she still parked her car and walked a quarter mile in the dark to her mailbox where she was attacked before she made it back to the house. One of the judges wrote in the margin: TSTL—she knew there was a probability her stalker was out there and she stupidly put herself in danger. It was a painful lesson, but it drove home the point.

Granted, there are times when the author needs that heroine to go down those basement steps when everyone is yelling for her to slam the door and run. The thing is, you have to give your character a VERY good reason to go against all that is sane. She could be a police officer responding to a call, but even police officers wait for backup. Most of the time.

It’s all in the way you set it up.

If you want your character do something that seems insane, give him a reason the reader will understand and even urge him to hurry and do—like saving a baby or adult or even a pet. People run into burning buildings all the time to save someone, so just make sure the reason they act against their own best interest is compelling and maybe the only option open.

Here are a few scenarios I’ve seen:

  • The heroine gets angry with the hero and runs out of his presences into the dark even though she’s just learned she’s being stalked.
  • After being afraid of heights through the whole book, the hero can suddenly climb a fire escape and jump from building to building.
  • The heroine goes to a bad part of the city to find her brother even though she knows there’s a gang war going on.
  • In a historical, the heroine needs water to finish a meal and in spite of being warned not to go to the creek alone, thinks this one time won’t hurt.

So how to fix it:

In each of the cases, a slight variation could make what the character did reasonable.

  • What if instead of getting angry with the hero, he’s hurt, and she has to go for help or he’ll die?
  • Instead of having the hero be afraid of heights the whole book, have him slowly overcome his fear so that when he has to climb the fire escape and jump from building to building, he still has to overcome his fear, but because he’s been making headway with it, he bravely tries.
  • Instead of the heroine going into the city alone, the hero can accompany her, but they get separated, and she has to face the gang members alone, but at least she didn’t go into it alone.
  • Instead of needing water to finish a meal, set the story up so that a medical need requires the water—like a baby being born or someone has been wounded and the water is needed to cleanse the wound—that will make going to the creek understandable and the character a hero.

Readers will suspend disbelief or temporarily allow themselves to believe something is true even though it seems impossible as long as the author lays the foundation for the impossibility. It’s up to the author to set up the action in the story so that when your character does something brave, the reader doesn’t wonder if he’s too stupid to live.

Ok, TKZers, what would make you run into a burning building that’s only smoking so far.

Squirrels, Rabbit Holes, and Other Writing Obstacles

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Squirrels, Rabbit Holes, and Other Writing Obstacles
Terry Odell

squirrel on a bare pine branch against a blue skybrown rabbit in green grassThere are always interruptions to the writing process, even when you’re diligently writing.

In my never-ending challenge of naming characters, unless “Mr.” is an acceptable first name, I’ve managed to go over 55K without mentioning my protagonist’s boss’s first name. Now, the story demands he have one. In perusing my character naming spreadsheet, I look for initials that haven’t been used, or have been used only for secondary or tertiary characters. “G” seems to be a reasonable choice. Glenn, perhaps.

Does it matter that in another book, a character has this name? The current wip is a stand alone (so far), so it’s unlikely there would be confusion. In fact, the character who already has this name goes by a nickname almost all the time.

I could use an alternate spelling on the rare chance someone who’s read the other book even remembers that character’s first name. Or spend more time looking for other “G” names.

Normally, rather than spend time going down rabbit holes or chasing squirrels, I’ll simple use my standby placeholder, [name].

Okay, that’s tabled for later. Back to the “real” writing.

Something I learned at a RWA chapter workshop came from an author who was talking about kinds of scenes. They should carry over to any genre, not only romance.

  • Prologue – not required. In fact, unless there’s a huge time gap between this and the opening, it should probably be Chapter One. There’s also a difference of opinion as to whether agents want to see prologues when you’re submitting.
  • Opening – should draw the reader in.
  • Set-up — foreshadows something to come
  • Validation – shows the character at work
  • Conflict
  • Push – moves characters apart
  • Pull – moves characters closer together
  • Reaction – also referred to as “sequel” (or shower scene, where the character would reflect on what just happened). These can slow the pace, so they’re falling out of favor. If you need one, make sure it’s important, and don’t linger too long.
  • Flashback – use sparingly – they’re often found in reaction scenes
  • Flash forward—rarely used in romance; author intrusion. Tends to be omniscient POV, which can intrude as well.
  • Reversal/Black moment – everything goes wrong
  • Climax – characters must make choices
  • Conclusions – wrap up those dangling threads

I’ve been dealing with “validation” scenes. If your characters have a profession, eventually you’re going to have to show them at work. My female protagonist—Evvie—is a photographer. I’m far from a professional, but I can fake my way through scenes of her at work, and if I have questions, my son is a professional photographer, and (since I’m the Mom), he feels obligated to answer me. Most of this is handled via email or phone calls, so I don’t have to deal with the eye rolls.

Evvie’s male counterpart—Colton—is an insurance claims adjuster. Don’t ask me where I came up with that one, other than it seemed to have potential for conflict, but at this point, I’m stuck with it. I can’t fake my way through his validation scenes, so it’s research time.

I’ve found that using an AI helper can speed up the research process by summarizing things that would require going to numerous websites and separating the wheat from the chaff. Of course, you can’t take everything your helper says for granted, so there’s some checking to make sure it hasn’t made stuff up. I had a vague idea of what conflict I could throw Colton’s way, but had to validate what would happen.

You need details to bring characters to life. They didn’t spring into being on page one. Then, because Only Trouble is Interesting, snips of tension have to show up. Evvie calls Colton “Colt” and she knows he doesn’t like it, so using the nickname says something about their relationship at that point in the story, which is in Chapter 2.

In Chapter 17, Evvie asks Colton about his past. He says he grew up in on a ranch in Wyoming where they raise cattle but also have horses, and now it clicks that he doesn’t like being called Colt because it reminds him of his childhood. Did I know that in Chapter 2? Nope. But it made sense in Chapter 17.

Then, in Chapter 31, circumstances have him returning to the ranch, and he invites Evvie to come with him. I’d already set the book in Colorado, an area I’m familiar with. I’ve never been to Wyoming. A placeholder saying [research ranching in Wyoming] wasn’t going to cut it. This was more—a lot more—than waiting to decide on a character’s name.

First research tip: Whenever possible, narrow the search. Instead of asking about cattle ranching in Wyoming, I asked what would be happening during the timeframe of the story. I’d arbitrarily set the time of year to mid-April when the book started, but when I asked what was happening on a Wyoming cattle ranch in April, I was “informed” it would be the tail end of calving season. I also learned that calving season was a very busy and high-pressure time in the ranching business. Perfect for adding trouble. Coming in at the tail end would make things too easy—so after checking to how many April references I’d included in the book—only one—I shifted the date to March. Easy-peasy. But the weather’s different, so I need to watch what my characters have been wearing.

While I wasn’t going to stick with my character round the clock, I still needed to know what the ranchers would be doing during calving so I could include that validation scene, showing my character at work. More squirrels and rabbit holes.

One question led to another, and I ended up with pages of information. I had the perfect opportunity to get this information on the page because Colton had been away from the ranch for a number of years, and things would have changed. But should it be there? If so, how much?

Iceberg showing how much is above and below the waterThat’s always a problem with research. You pick up fascinating tidbits like the Sandhills Calving System and include it in a family discussion. But will it move the story forward enough to justify those 135 words? Nope. It’s in my “snips” file in case it turns out to be needed, but research should follow the iceberg rule. Most of it’s under water, and shouldn’t show on the page.

These are some of the topics I’ve researched so far for this book.

  • Broken ribs
  • Punctured lungs
  • ICU
  • Website Contact Form tracing
  • Email tracking
  • Deep fakes
  • Insurance procedures
  • Insurance fraud
  • Ranching (with lots of rabbit holes to get lost in)
  • Slow detonation for explosives
  • Children testifying in court

Somewhere along the line, I have to crawl out of the rabbit warren and get back to writing. Our dog brought me a squirrel the other day, something she hasn’t bothered with in years, so maybe she thinks she’s being helpful.

So, TKZers. What’s your approach to research? How do you avoid spending too much time with those squirrels and rabbit holes?

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.”

Turn the Tables on AI Scams

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by Debbie Burke

 

Last post, we talked about scam emails generated by AI chatbots. Just for fun, here’s a great bingo game from R.L. Maizes the Elder on Electric Lit.

My bingo card would be a total blackout except for the squares “Piss me off and I’ll tank your Amazon ratings” and “reply with bank acct #s and PIN codes.” But the day is young. Those emails could arrive in my inbox any moment now.

I have to admit grudging admiration for the evolving progress of scam emails over the past few months. They may be crooked, but they aren’t stupid. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and their cousins continue to improve and refine their approach. In fact, some scammers have gotten so good, they may have inadvertently outsmarted themselves.

After plowing through the sycophantic flattery, several recent solicitations offered surprisingly good analyses of my book sales pages. They not only pointed out flaws, they offered valid critiques. Some outlined detailed promotional strategies targeted specifically for my books.

Hey, I thought, why don’t I take their plans and put them into action myself? Turn the tables on the scammer.

Test-driving their advice costs nothing except my time.


That’s probably not what they had in mind but, if they offer free advice, who am I to turn it down?

I started keeping a file called “Good AI scam ideas,” saving the best as references.

Here are several examples that gave valid critiques. I highlighted portions in red that especially struck a chord:

From: JaneBennett250@gmail.com

“Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, Book 9, currently sits inside Psychological Thriller on Amazon, a subgenre with very specific reader expectations, unreliable narrators, dark domestic tension, interior psychological weight.

The Tawny Lindholm series is something different: investigative, legally grounded, relationship-driven, anchored in Montana’s landscape and community.”  

Bot Jane is right. The category I chose is wrong. I need to act on that.

Another good point:

“Your Kill Zone presence is consistent and professional but that audience is other writers, not readers looking for their next thriller series.”

True.

From Joseph Booth, with a gmail address:

I’ll be honest I almost didn’t write this email because I wasn’t sure how to open it without sounding like every other marketing pitch you’ve probably deleted without reading.”

See how smart this bot is. It already knows I automatically trash the type of message it’s sending. Because of that hook, I kept reading.

“But then I met The Villain’s Journey.

A craft-of-writing guide that flips the Hero’s Journey on its head and takes writers straight into the darkest depths of the human soul. Who shows exactly how to create villains readers love to hate from comic troublemakers and charming sociopaths to terrifying psychopaths, fatal females, avenging angels, and every shade in between. Who arms writers with Build-a-Villain worksheets, deep psychological insights, and practical techniques to make antagonists multi-dimensional, unforgettable, and story-driving.

That’s not just another writing book. That’s a game-changer for storytellers. And writers who find it don’t let go.”

Okay, I confess I don’t mind a little flattery even though it’s vacuumed directly from my book sale page.

“Here’s what stops me cold: 23 ratings. A 4.8 average with writers calling it “much needed,” “a master class,” “essential,” and “the resource we’ve been waiting for.” One reviewer said it filled a gaping hole in the industry. Another called it a terrific guide that will push heroes to the limit and keep readers up at night.

What’s missing is reach and that’s exactly what I build.”

Now Bot Joseph is getting down to business. At this point, I almost quit reading but then noticed the plan of action he proposed:

“I help writing craft and fiction authors like you create real, sustainable momentum not through noise or gimmicks, but through targeted, story-honoring strategy that puts The Villain’s Journey: How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate in front of the writers who will absolutely lose their minds over the practical tools. Here’s exactly what that looks like for your book:

Goodreads Review Building: With only 23 ratings, The Villain’s Journey is still below the visibility threshold that Goodreads and Amazon’s algorithms need to start recommending it organically. I work with authors to build genuine Goodreads credibility 400 to 500 real readers, no bots, no manufactured accounts, who leave honest, genre-aligned reviews.”

Despite Joseph’s assurances, I suspect the 400-500 reviews would be written by its/his bot pals. However, the recommended categories make sense.

Goodreads Listopia Domination: We get The Villain’s Journey placed and voted up on the high-traffic lists where your exact reader is already browsing: “Best Writing Craft Books,” “Best Books on Character Development,” “How to Write Villains,” “Books for Mystery & Thriller Writers,” “Creative Writing Reference,” and other targeted lists where serious writers hunt for their next must-read craft book.”

Okay, Listopia might be helpful. Then Joseph started droning about Amazon ads, Facebook, and Insta. I was getting bored and ready to hit “trash” until it/he tossed out this gem:

“Sales Funnel Optimization: A complete reader journey built around The Villain’s Journey and the craft of creating unforgettable antagonists:

Top-of-funnel free magnet a downloadable “Build-a-Villain Quick-Start Worksheet” delivered via BookFunnel to grow your list with writers who want better bad guys.

Mid-funnel nurture with extra villain examples, Q&A with Debbie Burke, and teases from her Tawny Lindholm thriller series.

Bottom-funnel pushes through timed discount campaigns, writing conference outreach, and sequences that turn first-time readers into loyal buyers of your future craft books and fiction.

That sales funnel program sounded imaginative and effective. I’ll follow the specific, step-by-step instructions and give it a try. Thanks, Bot Joseph!

Another example from: authoreditorsusanwels@gmail.com:

Where Your Book Stands Today, and the Extraordinary Potential Just Ahead

Your guide sits within a highly engaged and continually growing space:

  • Fiction writers seeking craft improvement
  • Crime, thriller, and mystery authors
  • Screenwriters and storytellers across media
  • Writing students and workshops
  • Readers of craft books who actively apply what they learn

At present, however, your book is not yet being consistently surfaced across all of these communities.”

Again, valid critique plus suggestions whom to target. Bot Susan goes on with her strategy:

The Blueprint for Your Book’s Reach and Reader Engagement

The Foundation: Discoverability and Metadata Optimization
Your book will be positioned within writing craft, character development, and storytelling psychology categories to ensure visibility across platforms where writers search for guidance.

The Heartbeat: Writing Community Engagement
I will connect your work with writing groups, workshops, and online communities where craft discussions are already happening.

The Accelerant: Targeted Promotion
Campaigns will highlight the unique angle of your book—its focus on villains as central drivers of story capturing the attention of writers looking for fresh approaches.

The Amplifier: Educational and Content Integration
Your material is well-suited for excerpts, guest articles, and teaching opportunities, positioning your book as both a resource and a reference.

Thanks, Bot Susan, for these ideas.

An email from Jessicadoyle430@gmail included colorful graphics of a magnifying glass, a book, and a gift-wrapped package. It/she also suggested Listopia categories:

Right now, the discoverability infrastructure around The Villain’s Journey does not yet reflect the full scope of that waiting audience. That gap is entirely fixable and here is exactly how I would fix it:
The Villain’s Journey belongs prominently on at least fifteen to twenty of the highest-traffic Goodreads Listopia lists. Lists like Best Books on the Craft of Writing, Best Books for Writers of Mysteries and Thrillers, Best Books for Crime Writers, Best Writing Craft Books for Character Development, Best Books About Villains and Antagonists, Best Resources for Writers, Plotting and Structure, Best Books for NaNoWriMo Prep, and Best Writing Reference Books.  I would run a targeted, fully organic voting campaign to place The Villain’s Journey in top positions across every relevant list, generating compounding, perpetual discovery at zero ongoing cost.

“Zero ongoing cost”? Notice Bot Jessica’s careful wording. Misleading assurances like this snare many writers. If I responded (which of course I won’t!), in the next round of emails, Jessica would likely ask for money. 

REVIEW OUTREACH & ARC PLACEMENT
The most powerful lever for this book right now is building a strong review base among the writers’ community most likely to evangelize it. I would curate a targeted list of fifty to seventy-five reviewers specifically matched to this book craft-of-writing bloggers and influencers, crime and thriller fiction writing communities, NaNoWriMo participants and facilitators, mystery writer guild members, and serious indie authors actively building their craft libraries.

Goodreads Giveaway for The Villain’s Journey timed around NaNoWriMo or major crime writing conference seasons would simultaneously drive a significant surge of “Want to Read” shelf additions; place the book in the hands of actively writing readers highly likely to post substantive, practical reviews; and generate organic buzz across writers’ communities that would amplify every other element of this campaign. 

Author Profile Optimization: your Amazon Author Central page and Goodreads profile should be telling the full, compelling story of who you are and what makes you the definitive voice on villain craft. I would rebuild both profiles with compelling, keyword-rich copy separating and optimizing both your fiction and nonfiction presence.

Although Bot Jessica’s assurances are empty promises, it/she nevertheless outlined good sources for me to contact as well as ways to reframe my author profile.

Elenablake546@gmail.com nailed a specific weakness in my blurb. 

Your blurb opens with the Hero’s Journey comparison and moves efficiently through a bulleted list of what readers will learn. The list is comprehensive, but it reads more like a table of contents than an emotional pitch. Writers browsing craft books make purchase decisions on one question: will this solve my specific problem right now? The problem this book solves, cardboard villains who don’t challenge the hero enough to make the story matter, deserves to be named explicitly in the first two sentences before the feature list appears.

Revise the blurb opening to lead with the problem before the solution. Something like: “Your hero is only as powerful as the villain who opposes them. A flat antagonist makes for a forgettable story. The Villain’s Journey gives you the tools to create criminals, manipulators, and monsters that haunt your readers long after the final page.” Then move into the taxonomy and worksheets. This mirrors how the top-performing craft books in your also-bought carousel open their descriptions, and it signals immediately to every fiction writer regardless of genre that this book solves the problem they’re struggling with right now.

Bot Elena, I appreciate the excellent critique and rewrite suggestion.

From aliceclarkwinn@gmail.com:

Your Vogler and Bell endorsements are the most valuable assets any craft book author could have, and they’re functioning as static text on a product page.

James Scott Bell has over 30 craft books and a devoted readership of writers who trust his recommendations implicitly. When Bell says your book “filled a critical gap,” that sentence should be reaching every writer in his audience. But right now, both endorsements sit on your Amazon page, seen only by people who already found your book through other means. The endorsement from Vogler is not being used as a discovery tool. It’s being used as a closing argument for people who’ve already arrived. That’s like having a celebrity recommend your restaurant and only telling the people who are already seated inside.

Dual positioning: you don’t just teach villain writing, you demonstrate it in your own fiction. But are your thriller readers being guided to The Villain’s Journey? When a reader finishes a Tawny Lindholm book and thinks “how does she make these villains so compelling,” is there a clear path from that thought to your craft book? Conversely, when a writer reads The Villain’s Journey and wants to see your villain theory in action, are they immediately guided to your thrillers? This cross-pollination between your fiction and nonfiction should be one of your strongest competitive advantages over every other craft book author who only teaches but doesn’t demonstrate. But without deliberate cross-promotion infrastructure (back matter links, email sequences, bundled promotions, coordinated Amazon advertising), your two audiences remain separate pools that never merge. 

A targeted visibility campaign across writing craft podcasts (where a segment on “the villain’s journey as the mirror of the hero’s journey” positions you as the natural evolution of Vogler’s framework), writing conference communities, NaNoWriMo forums and social channels (where villain-craft content performs exceptionally well during planning season), AuthorTube and WritingTok creator outreach, and craft-focused newsletters like Jane Friedman’s Hot Sheet, Writer Unboxed, and DIY MFA. Vogler’s endorsement gives you a hook that no other villain-craft book can claim: “The man who defined the Hero’s Journey says this is the book that defines the Villain’s Journey.” That positioning sentence alone can anchor an entire media campaign. 

Bot Alice delivered an excellent list of places to pitch as well as the framework to connect my fiction and nonfiction.

This email from “author amplifier” Barbara Warren (gmail, of course) outlined similar strategies mentioned above but added a fresh twist which shows how quickly bots adapt and improvise. This one anticipated objections it expected writers to raise: 

Your Next Step
Reply to this email with two words:

“Send plan.”

That is it. No phone call. No discovery call. No PDF full of pricing tiers. No scheduling a “quick chat” that turns into a sales pitch.

I will reply with a simple, actionable roadmap. 

If you like the plan, you keep it. Use it. Share it. If you want my help executing it, we talk then. If not, you have a free strategic document from someone who genuinely believes The Villain’s Journey should be required reading for any writer who wants to create villains readers love to hate.

Sorry, Barbara, your offer is tempting but I don’t want to wind up on the Chatbot Sucker List that sells my email to every scammer in the universe.

Marketing has always been my weakness. These bots identified problems and offered specific actions to solve them. This is where AI shines. 

Normally I immediately trash spam but now I give it a second look. If the advice sounds plausible and doable, I save it to the “Good AI scam idea” folder.

Writers still need to be wary. “Out of the blue” solicitations are 99.99999+% scams. Best practice is to not respond to them. 

However, some of their suggestions are valid and useful. We can take advantage of good free advice, as long as we don’t allow scammers to take advantage of us.

TKZers, how about you?

Have you received spam/scam emails with advice that’s actually helpful? Have you put the ideas into practice? Were they successful?

~~~

Following Bot Alice’s advice, I’m cross-promoting fiction and nonfiction.

Meet the dastardly villains in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller three-book gift set. Then discover how I built those characters in The Villain’s Journey-How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate.

Click on covers for sales links. 

Love and Death

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Last Saturday I was a panelist at Symposium, a very small writing-focused science fiction event held in my neck of the proverbial woods.

The guest of honor was a local writer, Steve Perry, who has had seventy plus novels published in science fiction, fantasy, thriller, including a NYT best selling Star Wars novel, Shadows of Empire, and ten books in Tom Clancy’s Net Force series.

He and I were part of the first panel of the day, “Love and Death—the only two things worth writing about.” We five panelists agreed that love and death were indeed fundamental to fiction, as they are in life. As Steve noted, everyone hopes for the former and will, eventually, face the latter.

The rest of that session tackled the questions posed in the panel’s description, such as what makes for a good plot, and what are the elements you are looking for, etc.

But the panel got me thinking further about the role of love and death in fiction, and how both are central to story telling.

Death.

Whether the world is at stake, or just one life, the risk of death can both shape and propel a story forward.

During the panel I brought up character death, citing our own James Scott Bell’s three kinds of death stakes:

“As I’ve written many times, the best fiction is about a battle with death, which comes in three forms: physical, professional/vocational, or psychological/spiritual.”

I added a fourth, societal. The risks of dying in any of these ways creates huge stakes for the character, and can drive the plot. Physical death is obvious. Psychological death is a loss of identity, sanity

Speaking of the plot, there’s the plot’s own “death stakes,” which could be one and the same with your hero’s death stakes, or could be death on a bigger scale, and which could also be potential psychological death of a community, or even the death of an ideal, such as justice or freedom, etc.

Love.

We tend to think of love as romantic love, but of course that’s only one kind. There’s love for family, as well as your community and your country.

Brotherly/sisterly platonic love can be powerful grist for the story mill. A little while back I joined my wife’s CraftLit group for an online watch of one of my all time-favorite movies, The Great Escape, which is filled with death stakes, both for characters and as part of the plot.

The Great Escape also depicts brotherly love, based on friendship and a bond brought about by the shared circumstances of war and imprisonment. We see several examples in the movie. There is the scrounger, Hedley, played to perfection by James Garner, and the forger, Blythe, equally well portrayed by Donald Pleasence who become friends while working together. Then there’s the two tunnel kings, Danny, played by Charles Bronson, and his friend Willie (John Leyton).

Hedley insists on taking a now sight-impaired Blythe out with him during the escape, increasing his own risk of physical death.

Willie stays with Danny to guide him when Danny is overcome by claustrophobia. The two stick together and find a way to freedom.

Being willing to lay your life down for another, is a sacrifice for love. Being willing to move heaven and earth to save someone, say a kidnapped lover, can be the stuff of thrillers and failure could result in not only physical death for the lover, but also psychological death for the hero.

Another classic movie example of love and death:

Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest sees Cary Grant’s advertising executive thrust into a world of deadly espionage, thanks to being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being mistaken for someone else.

He faces death multiple times in the course of the movie, including memorably at a crossroads when a crop dusting plane turns out to be an assassin’s weapon. He meets and falls for a beautiful young woman, played by Eva Marie Saint, who is not what she seems. In the end, he survives and gets the girl. Love and death drive a suspenseful, relentlessly paced film.

Modern mysteries often have death stakes for the sleuth, who can face not only the prospect of a a physical death, but also psychological and professional, and, especially in a cozy, can deal with societal death.

Moreover, they focus on solving a murder, and these death stakes can be in play for the victim as well as the killer’s motives. The victim may have caused what the villain perceives as death, perhaps the psychological death from the killer’s romantic relationship having been ruptured by jealousy or even betrayal, or professional (vocational) death, again by something the killer perceives as being done to them by the victim. And the killer certainly could be correct.

Modern mysteries can also have a love interest or interests for the sleuth, as in the cases of Stephanie Plum bounty hunter and Hannah Swensen baker and amateur detective. Both deal with long running romantic triangles. Both also regularly deal with potential death stakes for themselves.

So, love and death. Are they indeed the only things worth writing about?

For my part, I’d say they may not be the only things, but they are certainly two of the most important things to write about.

What do you think?

True Crime Thursday – Kidlit Author Convicted of Husband’s Murder

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by Debbie Burke

In March 2022, Eric Richins died suddenly, two months before his 40th birthday, leaving his three young sons grieving. His obituary described him as a devoted family man married to the “love of his life,” Kouri. His funeral was held at the Henefer (Utah) LDS Church.

After his death, Kouri wrote and self-published a children’s book entitled Are You With Me? She claimed her motive for writing the book was to help her children through their grief but also to help other families dealing with loss of a loved one.

She promoted the book on a Utah radio station. According to the interview, “The book is based on questions that her children asked in the months after their dad died.”

Kouri planned to publish another grief-themed children’s book: Mom, How Far Away is Heaven?

But her literary career was cut short when she was charged with murdering her husband. She was accused of spiking his Moscow Mule with Fentanyl that, according to the autopsy, was five times the lethal dose.

Her motive for that act wasn’t as altruistic as writing a grief support book.

Kouri reportedly believed she would inherit the successful businessman’s estate. She had also taken out multiple life insurance policies on him while having an affair.

But Eric had discovered the love of his life had run up more than a million dollars in debts and he had cut her out of his will years before.

Kouri was charged with insurance fraud, forgery, and aggravated murder for pecuniary gain, as well as attempted murder for a previous unsuccessful attempt to kill Eric on Valentine’s Day, 2022.

The evidence against Kouri included her phones and other devices that showed damning online searches:

“what is a lethal.does.of.fetanayl,” “can cops.uncover deleted.messages iphone,” “women utah prison,” “if someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as,” “death certificate says pending, will life insurance still pay?” and “luxury prisons for the rich in america.”

When they married in 2013, the couple had a prenup agreement that kept Eric’s prior assets separate, including the home the family lived in. Kouri’s financial deceptions included: taking out a quarter-million-dollar home equity line of credit on that residence without Eric’s knowledge; running up charges on his credit accounts; and diverting money that was earmarked to pay taxes. She also changed beneficiaries on a life insurance policy from Eric’s business partner to herself. The insurance company became suspicious and alerted Eric who removed her as beneficiary.  

The Richins’s housekeeper, who received immunity for her testimony, stated that in the months prior to Eric’s death, Kouri asked her repeated times to buy illicit drugs, including Fentanyl. The housekeeper obtained drugs through acquaintances and delivered them to Kouri.

On Valentine’s Day, Kouri left Eric a sandwich in his truck with a “love note.” Soon after he ate it, he broke out in hives, and had trouble breathing. He used an EpiPen to treat himself and reportedly told a friend he believed his wife had tried to kill him.

During the three-week trial, more than 40 witnesses testified for the prosecution. Defense attorney Wendy Lewis claimed the prosecution’s investigation was “sloppy” and “driven by bias.”

“Everything about this investigation was led by [Eric Richins’] family. They started on day one, and they continued until trial,” the defense attorney said. “They are the ones who initially hired and paid for experts. Their private investigator gave information to the police.”

The jury of two women and eight men only took three hours to find Kouri guilty on all counts.

On May 13, 2026, Eric’s 44th birthday, Kouri was sentenced to life without parole.

This video includes the victim impact statements from her sons that their therapists read for the court.

 

Letters she wrote to her sons from prison have reportedly been returned unopened.

The book Are You With Me? has been removed from sale by Amazon. Goodreads still includes reviews of it. The majority are one star.

A big thank you to Lindsey Hughes for alerting me to this true crime story.

~~~

TKZers: Crime writers often joke about worrying their online searches look suspicious to law enforcement. Do you have suggestions for authors doing research that could appear incriminating?

 

 

 

 

 

Tell Don’t Show

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By PJ Parrish

We’re gonna talk a little heresy today. I am here to try to convince you NOT to show but to tell.

I know, I know. We preach here constantly that the ideal method is always to show your character being active, doing something, saying something significant, In our First Page Critiques, we are always harping on this — don’t tell us what is happening. Show us!

To quote Chekov: Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Here’s a bad example of telling:

It was their first date and they had great conversatons at the restaurant. She had barely touched her food, fascinated by his stories about his days working as a chef.

Good rewrite of showing:

“You’ve barely touched your steak tartare,” he said. “I know it’s not –”

“No, no,” she said quickly. “I really like it.” She paused. “It’s just…”

“Go on,” he said. “You won’t hurt my feelings.”

She smiled. “I just hate first dates. They alway feel so weird.”

“I know,” he said, refilling her wine glass. “That’s why I picked Julien’s for ours. I’ve known him for years, so I feel like it’s home here. Julien gave me my first job…as a waiter in a small bistrot in Aix. I was broke, a kid hitching through Provence.”

“I’ve never been to France. I’ve never been out of Michigan.”

“You’d love it there.” He paused. “I’d love to show it to you.”

She laughed. “I trusted you to order me raw steak. I guess I could trust you on that.”

They’re not moving. But dialogue is action. It’s a lot longer. But dialogue is showing. And character is revealed.

But…

Sometimes, it’s better to just tell things. It’s commonly called using narrative. You need to tell (narrate) for various reasons: To bridge scenes more efficiently, summarize irrelevant transitions, speed up time, or to deliver some backstory. And it is an effective tool for pacing beause an entire story written only in dialogue and action scenes doesn’t give your reader a chance to catch their breath.

I realized this recently while doing a rewrite on one of our old unpublished manuscripts. I told you about this a couple weeks ago, that my sister Kelly and I unearthed one of our attempts to get out of our hardboiled lane and try our hand at romantic suspense. We weren’t able to sell that story back then. We thought it still had good bones. But we had made some rookie mistakes. One of them, oddly enough, was not knowing when to TELL instead of wasting precious pages SHOWING. Here’s an actual example from our old manuscript. The first-person protag is an amateur PI, trying to find an abusive husband-suspect of a murdered showgirl named Scarlett. Bear with me, it’s a little wordy. I won’t be offended if you skim-read.

I stopped at the Circle K on Highway 95 and parked beside a pickup truck with a cracked windshield. Inside, the air-conditioning hit me in the face. I walked past a display of beef jerky and potato chips, opened the cooler door, and grabbed a Diet Pepsi.
Back in the car, I twisted the cap off the bottle and took a drink. Then I dug my cell phone out of my purse and called 411.
“Information. What city please?”
“Bullhead City.”
“What listing?”
“Jason Anderson.”
The operator gave me an address on Palm Breeze Drive. I wrote it on the back of an old gas receipt with a pen I found in the glove box.I pulled out of the parking lot and turned left at the first intersection. Two blocks later I realized I’d missed a street and had to double back. I found Palm Breeze Circle first. I drove the entire length of it before realizing none of the addresses matched. I checked the receipt again.
Palm Breeze Drive. Not Circle. Drive.
I made a U-turn and headed back toward the entrance. Five minutes later I found Palm Breeze Lane.
Wrong again.
I drove slowly past mailboxes, reading house numbers. Three hundred. Three hundred twelve. Three hundred twenty-six. None of them were right.
Eventually I found Palm Breeze Court. Not Drive. Court. I smacked the steering wheel.
After another wrong turn and two more loops through the neighborhood, I finally found a faded street sign that read PALM BREEZE DR.
I followed it around a bend and started checking addresses. 431. 432. 433. 459. I pulled to the curb and put the car in park. The trailer was a double-wide with beige aluminum siding. One section of chain-link fence leaned outward as if somebody had backed into it. Plastic toys lay scattered across the dirt yard. A faded tricycle rested on its side near the front steps. A window air-conditioning unit rattled loudly from one wall. I sat there for a moment looking at the place. Then I turned off the engine and got out. Gravel crunched beneath my shoes as I walked up the short path to the front door.
The door was white once, though it had long ago turned gray. Children’s handprints covered the lower half. I raised my hand and knocked. Nothing happened.
I knocked again. A television played somewhere inside. A few seconds later footsteps approached.
The door opened. A woman stood there wearing denim shorts and a Harrah’s Hotel & Casino T-shirt. Her blond hair looked damaged by a bad perm. One side of her face was swollen and purple with bruises.
“Are you Mrs. Anderson?”
She nodded warily.

That’s a heck of a lot of showing. Yeah, it all action. She’s doing something. But it’s long and boring and too descriptive on irrelevant details. Here is how we rewrote it:

I stopped at a Circle K and got a Diet Pepsi. Sitting in the parking lot, I called 411 on my cell, got an address for Jason Anderson on Palm Breeze Drive, and headed out. The blacktop streets circled and twisted and never went anywhere you thought they would. There was a Palm Breeze Circle, a Palm Breeze Lane and a Palm Breeze Court. No palms or breezes though. I cursed myself for being too cheap to have GPS or Internet on my cell. It took me almost thirty minutes to locate the right street in the maze of mobile homes.
I came to a stop at 459 Palm Breeze Drive. It was a dumpy double-wide with a sagging chain-link fence and a dirt yard full of toys. A window unit AC clung to side of the trailer.
I didn’t want to go up there. It looked pretty scary to me, not to mention unhealthy. But I needed to know if Jason Anderson was Scarlett’s Mr. Anderson and there was only one way to find out.
I knocked on a door smeared with children’s hand prints. A woman answered. She wore denim shorts and a T-shirt that said Harrah’s Hotel & Casino. Her hair was blonde, fizzed from a bad perm. She had friendly blue eyes. The entire right side of her thin face was swollen with ugly purple bruises.
I knew I had found the right house.

Better, huh? By condensing her drive, cutting out needless description, and TELLING you what’s happening, it reads more smoothly. Plus her final thought is a great kicker.

So, when should you settle for telling instead of showing? Here’s a few guidelines. Consider using telling to deal with:

1. Passage of Time. Use narrative summary to bypass uneventful gaps, such as a character taking a long trip (like my character), getting over an illness, doing routine stuff, not making progress. TELL us your cop spent three fruitless days on an investigation. Don’t waste time showing us. TELL us a week passed before the suspect was finally nabbed.

2. Change of location. Often you have to move your character around physically. Unless it advances your plot or illuminates character, just tell us it happened. Don’t waste time showing us your girl getting excited, packing hersuitcase, Ubering to the airport, getting on the plane.

Chapter Five

She flew to Paris. He was there, waiting for her in the arrival hall, wearing a funny cap and holding a hand-written sign with her name on it, like he was a taxi driver picking up a fare.

Then return to showing mode, concentrating on the heart of what needs to happen on camera.  Maybe they go to a nice bistrot, share a steak tartare and fall into bed.

You know who’s really grand at telling? Toni Morrison. Check out this condensing of time paragraph from Beloved.

Men and women were moved around like checkers. Anybody Baby Suggs knew, let alone loved, who hadn’t run off or been hanged got rented out, loaned out, bought up, brought back, stored up, mortgaged, won, stolen, or seized. So Baby’s eight children had six fathers. What she called the nastiness of life was the stock she received upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because the pieces included her children.

3. Delivering backstory. Now, you all know you don’t want too much backstory too early. But it is useful to judiciously drop it in the narrative. Here’s the opening of one of my favorite novels, Middlesex. Jeffrey Eugenides uses telling masterfully thoroughout the entire book.

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenaged boy, in an emergency room near Petosky, Michigan in August of 1974. 

4. Dealing with minor characters. As I often advise in critiques, never give the spotlight to spear carriers. These are the poor souls in operas who stand in the back while the diva belts out the aria. Never waste time or paragraphs describing these folks. Don’t even give them names, unless they will somehow later figure into your plot.

Don’t do this:

The waiter sauntered up to the table. He was reed thin, his black vest hanging on his sunken chest, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled just far enough to reveal a koi fish tattoo.

“Vous avez choisi?” he said flatly.

“We’ll have the steak tartare, please.”

“Non, non,” you do not want that,” the waiter said in broken English. “It is not for Americans”

“I’m Canadian. Bring us the tartare. S’il vous plait.”

Just go with:

After ten minutes arguing with the waiter, their steak tartares finally arrived.

5. Letting the reader fill in the details. Now some of you will disagree with me on this one. But I think it is sometimes quite effective to tell some things via narrative and allow room for the reader’s imagination to fill the gaps. Ernest Hemingway was very good at this. His main tenet was to pare the story down to bare essentials. One of his famous telling opening lines:

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

The rest of the story is, essentially, showing the reader what this simple narrative opening means, what the old man’s journey was like.

So, in summary, I guess all I am saying is that we shouldn’t be afraid of telling. We shouldn’t allow the drum-beat of show-not-tell to drown out all other possible techniques. Telling — or some might call it exposition — can be very useful. Put simply, exposition is writing that explains. We use it to quickly fill in background information about characters or circumstances. It’s not exciting. Too much and the reader will tune out. But it can be an effective sketching pencil when used with your flashier showing paint brush.

And that, crime dogs, is all I’m going to tell you today.

 

Character Arc Secrets: The Four Beat Formula

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Character Arc Structure: 1. Act 1 through Act 2a: Living the Lie. Mid-Point Illumination and Commitment. 2. Act 2b: Trial by Fire. Skill, Courage, Consistency. 3. Act 3: Proof Under Maximum Pressure. thepitchmaster.com

If your story’s middle sometimes feels like a long, suspiciously quiet hallway…good news: the midpoint is where the lights flip on and the music changes. This is the hinge that turns a character’s inner journey from their Lie to the Truth, and it fuels the entire back half of your plot.

Characters have three things pushing them through the story:

  • The lie they believe about themselves or the world.
  • What they want. Their want is often a plot goal like money or power.
  • Their true want. What they need to be the best version of themselves or.

All three things make up their character arc.

But the midpoint is where your protagonist moves from operating from his lie to his true want. He thinks and acts differently from that point. This midpoint shift can be confusing because it sounds like the character arc is finished halfway through the story.

The midpoint isn’t the end of the character arc—it’s the turning of the arc. Before midpoint, your protagonist is run by his lie. At the midpoint, something forces a reframe. He glimpses his true want and pivots his intentions and strategy. But knowing his truth and living it under pressure are not the same thing.

Think of the character arc in four beats:

Acts 1 → Act 2A: Living the Lie. They chase goals with lie-based tactics. These work short-term but generate deeper costs.

Midpoint: Illumination & Commitment. A revelation/defeat/victory reframes reality. The hero consciously commits to a new approach that aligns with his true want. This is the cognitive and directional switch: new plan, new tactics, new why.

Act 2B: Trial by Fire (Skill, Courage, Consistency). The world now tests that commitment. The hero practices what he needs but doesn’t stay there. He wins some, backslides some, and pays rising costs. Enemies adapt. Consequences tighten.

Act 3: Proof under Maximum Pressure. After the ​Dark Night of the Soul​, the hero must operate from what he needs when it’s hardest. The climactic choice is the final exam: no help, no safety net, high stakes. Here is the arc complete.

So: midpoint = conversion; climax = consecration. Midpoint says, “I know what I need; I’ll act on it.” Climax says, “I’ll pay the price to become the best version of myself.”

Why Have the Turn at the Midpoint?

Story fuel: A mid-story pivot prevents the saggy middle. The protagonist shifts from reactive to proactive with a new plan, which launches fresh complications.

Meaningful escalation: If the hero didn’t change until the end, the climax would be a speech, not a decision. The midpoint gives time to test, fail, adapt, so the finale feels earned.

How it Plays

Romance: Midpoint: one lover risks honest vulnerability (her need), leading to deeper connection and scarier stakes. Act 2B tests that honesty. ​All is Lost​ beat tempts a retreat to self-protection (lie). Climax: they choose openness even when it could cost the relationship.

Thriller: Midpoint: hero rejects “ends justify the means,” and switches to a lawful strategy. Act 2B: slower, riskier progress; allies doubt; villain presses. Climax: hero refuses the illegal shortcut that would guarantee victory—and still wins because others now trust/help.

Diagnosis Your Midpoint

Make sure the scene delivers these five functions:

1. Revelation: New information reframes the core conflict.

2. Intention flip: The protagonist makes a clear choice to pursue a Truth-aligned plan.

3. Strategy change: Tactics visibly change (different allies, methods, rules).

4. Stakes reset: Costs and consequences increase because the Truth is harder.

5. Point-of-no-return: The new course ends the old one.

And for Act 2B (after the midpoint)

Aim for: practice → pushback → price.

  • Practice: shows competence growing, not perfected.
  • Pushback: antagonistic forces adapt; the world hits harder.
  • Price: the want demands sacrifice (time, status, safety, love).

Common pitfalls

  • Premature perfection: If the hero stops struggling after the midpoint, the arc feels finished. Keep the cost of living the truth rising.
  • Vague pivot: If the new plan isn’t concrete, the audience won’t feel the turn. Put the change onstage.
  • External-only change: Tie each plot beat to belief consequences. Otherwise, the midpoint reads like a plot twist, not an inner turn.

Worksheet

  • Midpoint event: What fact or loss makes the lie untenable?
  • Midpoint vow (one sentence of dialogue or thought): “From now on, I’ll ______.” You don’t have to have the character say their vow, which can sound on the nose. Instead, make sure the shift is obvious in the way your character speaks and acts.
  • New tactics: List 2–3 Truth-aligned actions the hero tries next.
  • Backslide temptations: Name 2 moments that lure them back to the Lie.
  • Climactic proof: What single risk would only make sense if they fully believe the Truth?

Wrap Up

Give your protagonist the mid-book “aha,” then make them earn it—one tested choice at a time. When the climax arrives, their final decision won’t just sound true; it will prove who they’ve become under pressure. That’s how you banish the saggy middle and deliver a finale that lands with heart, heat, and holy-cow satisfaction.

Dive Deeper

​How to Build Better Characters: Start with Their Biggest Lie

​Secrets of Story Structure: ​Third Act Structure​