Story Structure video

Here is a very informative video on story structure and plot points I found. Even though it concerns screenplays, the concepts are applicable to novels as well.

More can be found at http://www.scriptlab.com/

Short Story to be published in Grievous Angel Webzine…

I’ve just learned that a piece of Flash Fiction of mine has been accepted for publication in GRIEVOUS ANGEL WEBZINE. The name of the piece is The Prize and though it will be a couple months before it surfaces, I thought I’d announce it now.

This one is just for fun…

Here is a little story that I wrote just for fun. Let me know if anyone likes it!

 

It reads:

It wasn’t until I tried to start my car that I really began to think something strange was going on. I had awakened just after dawn. The first thing I noticed was silence where the incessant chatter of the early morning news on my clock radio should be. I raised myself up on my elbow and saw the radio was dark. The power’s gone off, I thought, so I dragged myself out of bed and reached for my cell phone on the bureau to find out what time it was. Oh great, was my next thought, I forgot to recharge it and now it’s dead. I forced myself into the shower. Thank God for propane water heaters.

After I dressed in the semi-darkness of my bedroom, I walked into the living room. It was kind of eerie without the TV, radio or even tunes on my iphone to listen to. The silence was getting to me so I decided to go to the neighborhood Starbucks, hoping their power was still on. That’s when my car wouldn’t start. “What the…” I said to the steering wheel as I sat with my mouth hanging open. I looked up the street and two houses down I saw Russell Lawrence, that insufferable bastard, with his head under the hood of his new BMW.

“What’s wrong, Russ?” I asked as I walked up behind him.

Another short story (or part of one)…

Here is a short story for Christmas; yeah, it’s a little corny, but sweet. I hope you enjoy it.

The Pageant

The snow crunched beneath his feet as the old man walked from his garage to his front door. Winters had always been hard, but they seemed a bit colder and a bit grayer since Evelyn had passed. They’d been married 42 years when she discovered a lump in her breast. By then, it was too late – within six months she was gone.

Their last Christmas together had been incredibly tough. She was in her last stages and though they’d tried everything the doctors could suggest, nothing helped. In fact, it seemed to Paul it may have hastened her death. That’s why near the end he’d refused the latest round of treatments, even when their son tried to convince otherwise. They had a bitter argument, resulting in a split between father and son, a split so deep that they were unable to give one another any solace when Evelyn passed. The last time they saw each other was at the funeral.

A story a week…

I’ve decided to shake the dust off some old stories and pieces of stories I’ve written and give them a fresh airing. What I hope to get out of this are useful comments, whether complimentary or not, that I can use to get better at the craft of writing. Feel free to critique and to criticize what you see here. I’ll begin with something I wrote a couple of years ago and put up on Amazon’s, and Barnes and Noble’s self-publishing platform. So this one is a complete work, though I’ve not touched it in quite some time.

 

THE BANSHEE OF THE RANNOCH MOOR

by Dean P. Turnbloom

 

I believe it was the Bard himself who wrote, “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” and I am here to tell you it’s a fact. The story I’m about to tell is true, I swear it by all that is holy, and all that is unholy for that matter, for this isn’t a tale for the faint of heart. Be warned, for if you hear the cry of the Banshee…but wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

 Here, sit down, let me start from the beginning, so you can judge for yourself. I may not tell it well, but then who’s to say what’s worth the telling, eh? Sit. It’ll only take a little while. There, that’s better.

My Review of “The Elements of Eloquence” by Mark Forsyth

I recently reviewed Mark Forsyth’s wonderful new book at Goodreads. I decided to post it here as well.

The Elements of Eloquence

I read a good deal of books about writing, grammar, syntax, and the like, and was surprised that this book was not only informative, but cleverly put together and a delight to read. I don’t think it can be classified as an authoritative  text, and don’t believe the author meant it to be, but it was extremely informative concerning rhetorical elements of the English language as well as being quite funny. There were rhetorical elements with which we are all familiar, such as alliteration, but there were so many more that I’d never heard of but had a sense of, so much so that as I read I thought, ‘so, that’s what you call that’ particular structure. Mr. Forsyth has done an excellent job of taking a topic that by all rights should be abominably boring and made it not only interesting, but humorous as well. But beyond that, I believe it will become a reference book for my own writing, when I want to lend a certain amount of eloquence to a character.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/7532641-dean-turnbloom

New Novel Giveaway on Goodreads…

This is a DOUBLE GIVEAWAY featuring two great books, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE and its sequel, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BODY SNATCHERS

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers

by Dean P. Turnbloom

Giveaway ends May 01, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

 

Enter to win

Reviewing Agatha Christie’s ‘Hallowe’en Party’…

Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this book shows how to write a mystery. It’s more than figuring out who dunnit, it’s piecing the separate threads of the story until you can complete the pattern of the plot into whole cloth. There is much that can be learned from such Golden Era mystery authors. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read although I think may have violated one of the so-called rules of mystery writing in that at least one crucial piece of information was available to the reader. I’ll check and report back.

View all my reviews

Sequel and new short story available for Kindle…

My new novel, the sequel to SHERLOCK HOLMES and the WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE, titled SHERLOCK HOLMES and the BODY SNATCHERS is now available on Amazon.com for the Kindle and on BarnesandNoble.com for the Nook. It’s also available in the ITunes store. In addition, my short story, SHERLOCK HOLMES and the RAVEN’S CALL is also available for the Kindle and Nook. In March, you should be able to get the novel in paperback from both outlets as well as others. Very exciting news!

Writing with mind-mapping…

I’m starting the third book in my Whitechapel Vampire trilogy (as yet still unnamed) and am using a new technique to aid in putting it all together. The technique is called mind-mapping

and allows me to list in a graphical format relationships, characteristics, plot points, conflicts, etc.

You can find a good article here.