How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries: The Art & Adventure of Sleuthing Through the Past
A practical guide that focuses on craft, structure, and the habits that help a writer shape a stronger book.
Work Information
practical guide that focuses on craft, structure, and the habits that help a writer shape a stronger book.
A practical guide that focuses on craft, structure, and the habits that help a writer shape a stronger book.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Perseverance Pr
- Published
- 2008-04-01
- Pages
- 220 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781880284926
- ISBN-10
- 1880284928
- Price
- 9117 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Education & Reference/Writing, Research & Publishing Guides/Writing/Mystery
Emerson, author of the Lady Appleton and Diana Spaulding mystery series, turns her hand to how it’s done in this useful guide to writing historical crime fiction. Drawing on her own works and those of her fellow historical-mystery writers (Kerry Greenwood, Alan Gordon, Carola Dunn, and others), she lays out, in commonsense sequence, the stages of planning and writing a historical mystery. Chapters on choosing setting and character, research, crafting a plot, and selling your book offer much of the same information as similar chapters in other how-to books for mystery writers, but the information is nicely tailored for this particular genre. The core of the book is Emerson’s personal take on writing and selling historical mysteries, but it also includes contributions from over forty other historical mystery writers —practical advice, anecdotes, and suggestions for research—and input from assorted editors, booksellers, and reviewers. For both historical mystery writers and readers.
Reviews
-
Excellent and excellent delivery
-
Emerson's prose is engaging and her advise is right on target. I have read many historical mysteries -- excellent and trite, and the advice Emerson offers to novice writers aligns with the good to excellent books I have read. While I haven't read any of her books, I had read some of the books she refers to. This one is a keeper -- and I got several new historical mystery authors to check out. Bulls eye!
-
Over many years of reading books on writing I've reached the conclusion that the Americans are hard to beat in this respect, and this book has only confirmed my opinion. The writing is very accessible, the advice extremely sensible. You can't ever get round the need to respect the old adage of 'seat of pants to seat of chair' but this book will certainly increase your chances for a successful outcome from your endeavours.
-
This is a practical, yet inspiring, explanation of ways to organize, research and prepare for the creative and inspired process of actually writing. Though there are as many ways to proceed as there are authors, this includes the important things one needs to take care to make a cohesive, credible story and characters. Historical mysteries have their own character that needs to be carefully constructed. Highly recommended.
-
A great reference guide for the beginner as they begin to think about writing any historical novel.
Related Literary Awards
- Agatha Awards Edition 21 (2008) ・Winner