Brilliant

Big Screen/Your Scene

Big Screen/Your Scene

Craft Tips and Techniques from Today’s Blockbusters

A Review of Jumper

I admit it; I went to see the movie Jumper because I have four teenagers, three of whom are boys. Because the special effects captured every boy’s wildest dream of being able to transport himself wherever his whims carried him and the hero was Hayden Christopher (that was for the teen daughter), I thought we’d have a winner.

Author By Night

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Are Alive and Well

When I was a kid growing up during the 1960s, I didn’t have a TV. The one television we did have, left this world with a bang and a hiss as the last episode of Gunsmoke I would see for the next seven years vanished from the screen in a thin blue line.

That was 1966. It would be 1971 before I’d see Gunsmoke again. During the ensuing years, my brother and I groped in cultural darkness as we struggled to participate in discussing the latest episode of Batman, The Green Hornet, Laugh-In, or any of the other television classics of that era...

Making A Scene

Story Resolution-Part I

Sometimes it’s tough resolving things.

Especially if you have (1) dozens of details to cover, and (2) insist on covering them in a believable, natural manner, and (3)want to cover them in as few pages as possible.

This is the issue I face at the end of my books. In my earlier women’s fiction stories, I didn’t have half the problem I do with my suspense novels. As a part of my “Seatbelt Suspense” mentality, I like to push the high action of the crisis/climax as close to the end of the book as possible. Collide, collide, bam-bam-bam, action to the last line of that penultimate chapter.

For Writers

Purpose Driven Fiction

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you’ve heard the exhortation “Do as unto the Lord.” Does that refer to the manner in which we work, or does it have more to do with the final product? What should be the ultimate objective for the Christian author who writes fiction or nonfiction, regardless if the market is religious or secular? I suggest that no matter what genre, style, or audience, the goal is the same.

Write Real

Making Heros And Villians Come To Life

When I wrote my first novel, Crushing Stone (not yet published), I naïvely thought that I must have a villain to make the book sing. This story is loosely based on the life of my great-grandmother whose husband died in a tragic rock quarry accident, leaving her to care for seven children during the Great Depression.

In my story, I created an evil villain who orchestrated the “accident.” Instinctively, I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t place my finger on it ...

Short Stories

Molly Dugan clutched a key and a scrap of paper in her hand. Stunned, she watched her brother’s casket being lowered into the ground. Snake bite, they’d told her.

Patrick’s gasping last words echoed through her head. “Go . . . bank . . . before . . . Collins. Signed . . . only copy. Property. Build . . .”

So, I have this best friend. His name is Nate, and he's a super weird guy with a slew of issues. Want to hear more? Thought so.

Sure, just like his dad he had the same tell-tale mole underneath the bottom lashes of his left eye. And those same expressive chocolate brown eyes with the ever-so-subtle flecks of green...