Retro Review: Murderati

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Murderati, published by Murderati.com

WEB ADDRESS: http://murderati.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Through the eyes of today's leading mystery and crime writers, MURDERATI examines critical themes, historical archetypes and trends in publishing, marketing and the life of the published author.

MY REVIEW: I enjoyed this blog very much, and recommend it highly. As an aspiring fiction writer, I found this blog extremely interesting, and I think you'll find it so as well. In addition, if you're just a mystery fan, rather than an author, you'll find this of interest just to know how writers think and create.

Some sample paragraphs:

Yesterday, I made the time to attend my local RWA meeting where New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day spoke about heroines. Alyssa is a talented paranormal romance writer who has a reputation for writing alpha heros AND alpha heroines. I asked her permission to talk about her workshop on this blog because I think it would benefit ALL writers, not simply romance or romantic suspense authors.

Alyssa's workshop was hugely inspirational and beneficial to me. A lot of people might think that after 13 published books why would I want to attend a craft workshop? The same reason why I bought Donald Maass' FIRE IN FICTION last summer--I am still learning. While I believe my strength in writing is centered around my heroines, I also believe that all writers, no matter what their level or how many books under their belt, published or unpublished, can learn something simply by listening to others. Sometimes it's not like we learn something particularly new, but we are given a new way of looking at something we know and it broadens our perceptions and our craft.

Yesterday was just such a day for me.

I write strong heroines. My hardest characters are the heroines who are not in a naturally kick-ass professional. For example, Julia Chandler (prosecutor in SEE NO EVIL) or Robin McKenna (night club owner in KILLING FEAR.) Why? Because when your heroine has a role like cop or FBI Agent or P.I. reader expectations are that the character knows how to take care of themselves, that they are independent and strong-willed. Female cops are not wimps, for the most part, and I don't have to convince my readers that Detective Carina Kincaid (SPEAK NO EVIL) knows how to investigate a murder. I can simply put her in the middle of the investigation and give her the label "detective" and readers get it.

RECENT ARTICLES:
-Do-it-yourselfing (general entry on people who DIY) (March 1, 2010)
-What would Princess Leia do? (The Alpha heroine) [Ed, was Princess Leia an ALpha heroine????] (Feb 28, 2010)
-The Fairy Tale structure (fairy tale memes used in modern day mystery fiction) (Feb 27, 2010)
-Ramblin on... (thinking about her new novel) (Feb 26, 2010)
-The reality of reality (notes on location and setting) (Feb 25, 2010)
-It's alive