The Thrill Begins

By Julie Kramer

I’ve spent my career as a television news producer, doing investigative stories, field work, live shots and newscasts. Often I’d complain how much easier my work would be if I didn’t have to stick with the facts. So when I tried writing fiction, what a surprise to hear me complain how much easier my work would be if only I had some facts.

My point is, fiction is harder than it looks. For those of us geared in reality, making stuff up can feel like cheating. Once I worked through that issue, I found my news skills to be an excellent foundation for fiction.

First, deadlines didn’t scare me. Read the rest of this entry »

By JT Ellison

May 9th, 2006.

It was a lovely spring afternoon, and my parents were visiting as they drove across country on their bi-annual trip between houses. We were watching A History of Violence, and I remember squirming with the slightest bit of embarrassment because we were at the cheerleader scene. Definitely the movie to watch with your parents, I’m telling you. So when the phone rang, I was relieved, it meant we could hit pause. I looked at the television screen right before the caller ID, Viggo’s head had juuuuuuust disappeared, and I was mentally cursing my ability to hit the pause button at precisely the worst moment when I glanced at the caller ID screen and saw the 212 area code.

Cue heart pounding.

Cue exceptionally bad word, starting with F and ending in me. “F*&# me, it’s Scott,” I said, with the utmost delicacy. Hey, I am a crime fiction writer, after all.

By Laura Benedict

So, you wrote and sold your first book. Congratulations! How did you do it? If you were like me, this is what you did:

1) In mid-March, you visited your long-suffering agent of eight years who tells you to stop writing stuff no one will read and to get on the stick and write a “thriller or something.”

2) Mortified, started said thriller on the airplane home.

3) Realized, “Hey, it’s what I most enjoy reading, anyway! Why didn’t I do this years ago?” Read the rest of this entry »

By Andy Harp

The beauty of the military thriller is that most live it! Fiction is only one short step away from fact.

I remember my first true-life brush with the spy game. I was a lowly intern working for a Congressman in the final days of Richard Millhouse Nixon’s presidency. Our LA, or legislative assistant, as those who frequent the hallways of Rayburn and Cannon know, asked me if I would like to go with her to a couple of Embassy parties. I quickly said yes.

(As some background, many embassies celebrate their countries’ national holidays with a party, but schedule it a few days from the actual holiday to keep away party crashers. It takes years to get on an Embassy invite list, and perennial staffers on the Hill, like my boss, were often on them.)

The first affair I attended was at Greece’s embassy and, as I soon found out, the Embassy party fits well on the pages of James Bond. Tuxedoed waiters work through the crowd with silver trays of crystal. The ouzo flowed and the dessert table was covered with baklava. The upper echelons of attendees wore tuxes and the worker bees were attired in coats and ties. Among the women, glittering diamonds abounded. Read the rest of this entry »