Playwright David Mamet's three lectures at Columbia University are ostensibly about issues of dramatic structure, but as they unfold, and Mamet continually explores the relationship between dramatic structure and the lives we live, much broader concerns are revealed. Here, for example, is Mamet on political propaganda: It is ... essential to the healthy political campaign that the ...

Manufacturer: Vintage
Written By: David Mamet

The mystery, like other stories, relies on believable characters, a strong narrative, and crisp prose. But it is also "a way of examining the dark side of human nature," says Writing Mysteries editor Sue Grafton. The book's 37 contributors ponder everything from brainstorming ideas to dealing with editors. Jeremiah Healy jump-starts the book with a piece that considers the unwritten "rules" ...

Manufacturer: Writers Digest Books

Edgar award nominee James N. Frey, author of the internationally best-selling books on the craft of writing, How to Write a Damn Good Novel, How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced Techniques, and The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth, has now written what is certain to become the standard "how to" book for mystery writing, How to Write a ...

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
Written By: James N. Frey

How long can someone survive in a cold, damp cave without food or water? How was diphtheria treated in 1886? Can Botox kill? Can DNA be found on a knife years later? How are mummified corpses identified? How long does it take blood to clot when spilled on a tile floor? What happens in death from electrocution? As a consultant to many novelists around the world and to the writers ...

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Written By: D. P. Lyle

Raymond Chandler was one of the most original and enduring crime novelists of the twentieth century. Yet much of his pre-writing life, including his unconventional marriage, has remained shrouded in mystery. In this compelling, wholly original book, Judith Freeman sets out to solve the puzzle of who Chandler was and how he became the writer who would create in Philip Marlowe an icon of ...

Manufacturer: Pantheon
Written By: Judith Freeman

Here's the book no writer of murder mysteries, thrillers, action/adventure, true-crime, police procedurals, romantic suspense, and psychological mysteries, whether scripts or novels, should be without.

Manufacturer: Michael Wiese Productions
Written By: Martin Roth

Like Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, Sara Paretsky and Thomas Harris, you, too, can learn the trade secrets of quality detective fiction.It's true.  Just one year from now, you can deliver a completed mystery novel to a publisher--by writing only on weekends.  Authors Robert J.  Ray and Jack Remick guide you through the entire mystery-writing process, from creating a killer to ...

Manufacturer: Dell
Written By: Robert J. Ray

Have you ever thought about writing a mystery, and gave up the idea because you weren't sure how to start it? Well now is your chance to go out and write that mystery you have always dreamed of. You Can Write A Mystery, written by Gillian Roberts, author of the Anthony Award-winning Amanda Pepper Series, will help you start your mystery and guide you through to the end. "The ...

Manufacturer: Writers Digest Books
Written By: Gillian Roberts

The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whonunit has guided and inspied mystery writers–veterans as well as beginners-- for nearly a decade. Here William G. Tapply, with more than 20 popular mystery and suspense novels under his belt, isolates the crucial "elements" of the mystery novels that publishers want to publish and readers want to read--original plots, clever clues, ...

Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
Written By: William Tapply

Suspense, like other genre fiction, is often assumed to be inferior in quality to more "serious" fiction. A suspense story can be every bit as well-wrought as any other, argues Patricia Highsmith in Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. To show how, Highsmith focuses as much on her failures as on her successes. Amid discussions about growing ideas, story development, plotting, first and ...

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Written By: Patricia Highsmith