Jacqueline Vick on Inside the Writer’s Mind

Jacqueline Vick is the author of the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic mystery series and the Harlow Brothers mystery series. You can find out more about her on her website, www.jacquelinevick.com, or by clicking here. See her last post here, and buy her books here. Writers. Readers. Moms and Dads. Singletons. We’re all in the same boat when it comes to sorting priorities, meeting the needs of loved ones and bosses (even if that boss is a toddler or a terrier), and finding time to regenerate bodies and brain cells. Fiction authors have additional hurdles. My daily duties include writing, naturally.…

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Jacqueline Vick on Clean Dialogue

Jacqueline Vick is the author of the Harlow Brothers series and the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic series of cozy mysteries. You can find out more about her on her website, www.jacquelinevick.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here. When I first came to Los Angeles, I was privileged to take a screenwriting course with Danny Simon, the older brother of Neil Simon. Danny spent his writing career in television and had wisdom galore on how to keep your scripts clean. One of his rules was to “cut the orange juice” from the dialogue.…

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Jacqueline Vick Asks How Soon Do You Want Your Murder Served?

Jacqueline Vick is the author of the Harlow Brothers mysteries and the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic mysteries. You can find out more about her at her website, www.jacquelinevick.com, or by clicking here, see her last post here, and buy her books here. Mystery writers are told to get that murder on the page as soon as possible. Readers won’t wait. The multiple sources I checked agreed death should occur within the first chapter or two. I had that in mind as I finished rereading a favorite Robert Barnard mystery. In Death of a Literary Widow, forty percent of the book…

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Jacqueline Vick on Author Overload

Jacqueline Vick is the author of the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic series and the Harlow Brothers series. You can find out more about her here, visit her website here, see her last post here, and see her books here. There is a vast, dark void that terrifies writers of every ilk. Writer’s Block. The place where elusive ideas taunt the creative mind, deftly avoiding capture. But have you heard of its evil twin, Author Overload? The mental space where new concepts for books and series pelt the author until her idea board looks like it’s been hit by a graffiti…

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Jacqueline Vick asks Why Does Everyone Hate my Character?

Jacqueline Vick is the author of the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic and the Harlow Brothers mystery series. You can find out more about her here and see her books here. This is her first post on the Blackbirds site. The first time I disliked a character in a mystery novel, it wasn’t the character’s fault. Halfway through the story, the author made it known the detective was a figment of the real protagonist’s imagination, who would now take over the story. That far into a book, I didn’t have the energy to invest in a new protagonist, and we parted…

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