Monthly Archives: December 2016

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MotiveMeansOpportunity

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From all of us here at Motive Means Opportunity, we hope you and yours enjoy the Holiday Season! We’ll be back on January 2, 2017. Hope to see you then!

Before we break for the Holiday Season, a couple of messages!

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Our own SHAMUS Award Finalist, Max Everhart, reports that his newest noir crime thriller, Alphabet Land (280 Steps), is now on sale for $1.99. Don’t pass up this chance to read Max’s brilliant crime novel. It’s an impressive read, I promise you! You can get it here: http://amzn.to/2hM9nBR

Support your friendly authors at MMO–you won’t be sorry!

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Our good friend and supporter, Kristen Twardowski, has just released her first Crime/Thriller novel, When We Go Missing. You can grab a copy here: http://amzn.to/2h7HBOe  Don’t pass this one up, folks–it’s a doozy!

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micki-49-headshotAnother follower and supporter of MMO, Micki Browning, has a featured story in the December issue of “Mystery Weekly…

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I’ll try to be a good half-a-father for you by Bob Van Laerhoven

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MotiveMeansOpportunity

Baudelaire’s Revenge has been selected as an Amazon’s December Kindle 100. Of course, as soon as we heard that at MMO, we begged Bob to come back. And he has, along with a conversation with some of his very special friends. Links to order Baudelaire’s Revenge for $0.99 follow the post. Don’t miss this opportunity. Kait

Hiiiii-hiiii! Bobbbbb! Roberto, my master, my revered keeper, giant under the humans, bob-and-horsewelcome on my humble prairie! Ay ay ayaaaaaaa ayaaazayayaya, Roberto! What do you think about my little Spanish dance, o master? I may be an Arabian purebred, but I know my Spanish dances.

What herbs have you eaten this morning, you four-legged female fawner? A giant under the humans, huh? I’m five feet seven inches. And your Spanish drawl resembles a drunken Mexican, yodeling to the full moon.

Details don’t count, Roberto! Look around you, grumpy! It’s November, and we enjoy…

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Book Release Day: “When We Go Missing”

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Kristen Twardowski

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Today is the day that I can officially say that I published a book. When We GoMissing, my debut novel, is live and available for purchase in print and e-book form on Amazon. (The e-book version is also in Kindle Unlimited, so if you are a member, you can grab it for free!) When We Go Missing is a psychological thriller that explores women who vanish and what society does with those disappearances. If you are traveling in the next few weeks or simply want a fast-paced read, you should check it out.

Thank you all for following along on this journey. I have very much appreciated your support as I have written, edited, and rewritten (and rewritten, and rewritten, and rewritten) this novel.

If any of you end up reading When We Go Missing, feel free to write an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads

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Deciding What to Include in a Mystery Story By Karen McCullough

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I believe writing novels is half craft and half art. The craft part includes mastering using agfm_v2_200the language – grammar, word usage, sentence structure etc.  Plus an author has to understand the basics of effective storytelling, which covers a lot of ground. Knowing what a hook is and how to craft one, an acquaintance with basic plot structure, control of point of view – those are all skills that anyone can learn and an author must master.

The artistry of writing is harder to define and probably impossible to master. Even authors I consider very good, if not excellent, say that they’re always striving to do better with each book. There is no way you can ever say you’ve got it completely figured out and there’s nothing more to learn.

As authors, we work to convince the reader that our story is real, that it’s happening right now in a…

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I’m Living in a Bad Dream*

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Confessions of a Mystery Novelist...

a-body-in-the-houseImagine this scenario. You wake up one morning, or you come home one evening, to find that there’s a body in your home. So, of course, you call the police. But here’s the catch. How are you going to clear your name? After all, it is your home. So, it’s only natural that the police would have a lot of questions for you. And if you happen to have known the victim, things get even more tricky for you, even if you’re completely innocent. And that’s not to mention the horror of actually finding the body. It’s like a bad dream.

This scenario is used in several crime novels, and it’s not hard to see why. It raises the tension right away. And, in the case of whodunits, it can be very effective at diverting suspicion from the real killer.

For example, in Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library

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Thrillers, Suspense, and International Publishing: An Interview with Editorial Director Alison Hennessey

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Kristen Twardowski

As I hinted several weeks ago, I am beginning an interview series with editors, marketing folks, designers, writers, and other people in the books industry. It is with great excitement that I present the inaugural post in this series with the brilliant Alison Hennessey, Editorial Director of Bloomsbury’s Raven Books. She provides some great insight into what it takes to publish thrillers, suspense novels, and international literature and offers some exhilarating upcoming publications to keep an eye on.

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The Romance Dilemma By Frankie Y. Bailey

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Today, at #MotiveMeansOpportunity — The Romance Dilemma,
By Mystery/Crime writer Frankie Y. Bailey

MotiveMeansOpportunity

 This is the story of two sleuths – Professor Lizzie Stuart and Police Detective Hannah McCabe — and the men in their lives. Or, not.

With the good news that my Lizzie Stuart books may soon be available again, I have started wfs-coverwriting the sixth book in the series. Lizzie is a crime historian. She is the director of the Institute for the Study of Southern Crime and Culture. She was last seen in a short story (EQMM, July 2014).

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/eqmm/episodes/2014-06-27T06_59_34-07_00

Lizzie loves her work. She also loves John Quinn. In the sixth book, they will go to Santa Fe to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with his family. This first meeting with her future in-laws occurs in the early chapters of the book. Then Lizzie and Quinn head home to Gallagher, Virginia, where she plunges into trying to solve a disappearance that happened the night before they…

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