Thrillerfest in NYC was excellent again this year. I only attended the two-day Craftfest, but all the workshops were top-notch, and all led by bestselling authors. I attended classes led by Steve Berry, William Bernhardt, Grant Blackwood, Michael Palmer, John Gilstrap, Steven James, and Hallie Ephron. Wish I could have also attended some of the others that took place at the same time! Will get into more details about the seminars and topics soon. Ken Follett was our keynote speaker. He's a relaxed, fascinating speaker, and his talk was really inspiring.
As usual, I am editing three fiction manuscripts at a time (all crime fiction), as that seems to work for me. I edit the books in sections, so when one author is doing revisions on a section, I'm working on another manuscript, and so on. All three books I'm working on now are really well-written and compelling, and the authors are great to work with, so I'm really enjoying my freelance editing these days. As I near the end of one manuscript, I start looking closely at the ones others are sending me.
I haven't had time to post here as, besides editing fiction manuscripts and magazine articles, doing initial critiques of first chapters for others, and judging books for a Writer's Digest competition, I also post regularly on three other blogs: Crime Fiction Collective: http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/,
The Thrill Begins: http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/ , and, less frequently, Blood-Red Pencil: http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/. Check out these blogs for great articles of interest to writers (and readers), especially of crime fiction and thrillers.
Here are some of my craft of fiction articles and tips posted on other blogs:
CRIME FICTION COLLECTIVE, http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/
April 25, 2011: Questions for Your Beta Readers
May 9, 2011: Show, Don’t Tell
May 23: Writing a Killer Thriller, Part I
June 6: Writing a Killer Thriller, Part II
June 20: Writing a Killer Thriller, Part III
July 18: Thrillers vs. Mysteries
PUBLETARIAT.COM: http://www.publetariat.com/
April 26, 2011: Questions for Your Beta Readers
THE THRILL BEGINS, http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/
March 31, 2011: Writing Effective Dialogue
April 28, 2011: Creating Compelling Characters
May 19, 2011: Act First, Explain Later
June 23, 2011: Pros and Cons of First-Person Point of View
July 21, 2011: Style Blunders in Fiction
BLOOD-RED PENCIL, http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/
August 7, 2010 – Act First, Explain Later
Sept. 17, 2010: Creating Compelling Characters
Oct. 2, 2010: Tips for Writing Effective Dialogue
Dec. 15, 2010: Show, Don’t Tell
Jan. 8, 2011: Style Blunders in Fiction
Feb. 11, 2011: Deep Point of View, or How to Avoid Head-Hopping
Feb. 16, 2011: Survive Your Writing or Editing Career
March 21, 2011: The Pros and Cons of First-Person Viewpoint
March 28, 2011: Deep Point of View, Part 2
April 18, 2011 – Deep Point of View- How to Avoid Head-Hopping, Part 3