essem
essem
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I actually don't introduce my villain ... with this Mystery, the whole point is you have to work out who it is !! Risky? Probably. Which is why the main character interrupts the book a short way in & invites you to play Spot The Mole : |Okay. Time out. I know you’re beginning to fret that you …
Anyone else submitting a novel to Pitch Wars this year? Grateful for your feedback on the following query letter ... thanks Why can’t she be one of the gentleman spies? Dear Pitch Wars mentor extraordinaire, Industry feedback has helped me tighten by twenty thousand words LONDON WATCH HOUSE, …
Your Comments especially appreciated, thank you .................... 
Genre: Mystery Head undercover and see if you can work out Who’s Watching Who. It’s 1990, so get ready for riots & acid house raves. Margo is clearly no gentleman spy, but what’s the biggest secret she’s keeping from her masters? London Watch House is dedicated to all our Health/Care workers, …
I do a lot of british slang websites. Actually I really need to get to making a compilation of words and phrases for easy access because I'm really bad and thinking up ripe insults Oh I have heaps, if ever you're short ! Actually there's no surer way of sussing a British person's roots and upbri…
You're claiming there are as many readers of novels as there are for comics on Tapas??
I've only been on Tapas for three minutes. Here are my two observations: The forums here are a breath of fresh air compared with the spittoon of social media more generally (incl. those places populated mostly by wannabe writers) Tapas needs either to promote itself purely as a forum for comics,…
I started and abandoned my own historic mystery/thriller because I couldn't see the audience for it ..... Unlike the book-world, on-line world doesn't like mysteries much as a genre
No, but is content to recast fantasy as 'history' in the interminable war for readers ... allegedly 
P.S. sorry t…
Thanks to ALL you moderators 
And for that matter to anyone else supporting a site such as this. Folk are hopefully appreciating more fully now the valued contribution made by volunteers - and that they come in all shapes, sizes & guises
I'd be amazed if someone hasn't already done a PhD addressing that, wouldn't you? Actually, as touched on earlier, I'd propose the nexus is less Mystery readers and more a person's tolerance for ambiguity - hypothesis along the lines that factors like phone technology & populist politics are accele…
No, all good 
your post was just a reminder how hard it is today for even the majority of decent artists to receive reasonable payment, the more people treat their efforts as regular consumption - eg. treating as a disposable commodity work that often has taken 100s of hours to create; expecting stu…
Oi !! What's all this fantasy doing in a Historical fiction thread?!! 
No, I'm down with that - all work needs to be able to breathe.
However for some REAL history set in 1989/90, as the Russian Bear limped from the Cold War :
My challenge for any history-lovers out there is to try and spo…
Thanks all. It's truly interesting to hear people's differing interpretations as to what a Mystery might / not incorporate - a good reminder that it's simply not possible to please all the people all of the time, in particular in such a discerning era. I knew writing London Watch House would be a …
gets the reader actually thinking and try to solve the mystery themselves
Nail on head - if you're demanding reveals without even trying to work something out first, you really aren't a mystery lover 
That said we can all be self-defeating at times with our self-talk. I've lost count of the tim…
I'll have to check out your work!
You'd be very welcome ... as long as you really do love mysteries 
If there was only one big reveal at the end, I would be awfully bored by the end Totally relate to that. Whether or not I've succeeded, I did at least set out to make readers think they would be getting the familiar tropes, only to hit them with other layers as they progress ... but then London W…
You're way better read than me - you're possibly flagging how some of the tropes of classic mysteries have become tired clichés?
If it's a decent story it will answer those questions, just watch it omg 
You made me laugh hard with that
That's definitely where sub-genres - cosy, murder etc. - come in handy
It's rather unfair to say that readers are simply just impatient
Fortunately that isn't what I said
Agree that any good story needs to engage first though. Anything good for that matter. It's just what actually engages folk is often somewhat different to what they say, or what they think enga…
It's been fascinating while writing my debut book to engage with just how different reader tastes are. But what's hit me between the eyes are the number of people saying 'I love a good mystery' ... but then having low or no patience in waiting for a reveal, tolerance for ambiguity etc. So my que…
like I do real books: I collect a bunch of them that seem interesting to me and then read just a few of them or parts of them
Not meaning to criticise either you or your reading habits but, man, this post depressed me 
Snack consumerism & shorter attention spans - a vicious cycle accelerating ever…
Tangential to what you're asking - I am extremely over the basket case that is the USA currently. But it wouldn't stop me reading something set there, or anywhere else for that matter, as long as the rest appealed
'Let me make it up to you, beautiful Margo of mine.’ And with that Eileen pulled her downwards and tried to kiss her. ‘Gerroff me, you daft nesh. You’re totally scrambled.’
'Want me to get stuck in amongst all that as well?’ ‘Christ no’ she almost said out loud, experiencing instant flashback to shopping trolleys and the Brixton riot.
Later on the whistles will be out and hands will start reaching into the air. Rippling the atmosphere in the meantime is the heavily-funked intro to ‘Fools Gold’.
It's a bit of a worry given how randomly, in practice, various readers probably run searches for what they think they want ...
Genre labels have a role to play, but I'm wondering whether tagging not working as promised is also part of the problem?
It can be helpful I think to divide the paid world into three – the professions, entrepreneurs & everyone else. The professions are closest to what people consider a traditional career – greater salaries & job security, if not always satisfaction, due to their ability to maintain a closed shop. I…
Profound (tho not as much as 20 characters it seems!)