"Crit" does not mean criticism. It means critique, and the two words do NOT mean the same
thing.
How can a critique help you sell your work? Just ask Jeanne Stein. She got into an
excellent critique group. Within a year, three of the six members had agents and publishing
contracts. (All three have been guests here.)
Even if you can't find a group that awesome, learning how to do a proper critique will
help you edit your own work.
We all know that an excellent story, polished to a high gloss, is the way to get
published. Join us for our first theme chat in months, and learn how to turn your rough
stone into a polished gem.
Dubbed
“the newest of the blood bards” by Philadelphia Weekly after the publication of
Body Trace, his 2006 debut, Jonathan McGoran—a.k.a.
D. H. Dublin—is back with the June 3, 2008 release of Freezer Burn, the third
book in his Philadelphia-based forensic crime series from Penguin Books. With almost a year
on the job, rookie forensic technician Madison Cross is starting to feel like she knows her
job, but nothing she has encountered so far could prepare her next case. A trash bag full of
hacked-off body parts, an escalating gang war, a victim of brutal torture, and a shriveled
corpse, oozing something other than blood; unrelated at first, together they point to a plot
more elaborate—and more sinister—than anything Madison Cross has ever faced.
Publishers Weekly
calls Body Trace a “brisk, tight novel about the
crime scene unit of the Philadelphia Police Department ...[its] detailed approach and lively
characters make an immersive read.” The second book in the series, 2007’s Blood Poison,
was called “a page-turning thriller,” and “a gripping tale with plenty of twists and turns
along the way,” by Montgomery Newspapers. Midwestern Book Review says it is, “fascinating
...a fantastic thrill ride.” And Angela Wilson of Pop Syndicate writes, “D.H. Dublin’s C.S.U.
Investigation series is fresh, fast-paced and sure to grab readers
and hold them tight until the end... Blood Poison is gripping, and offers up unique
twists and characters that make you want to read more.”
When not writing crime
thrillers under his own name or as D. H. Dublin, McGoran, a Philadelphia native who now
resides in Elkins Park, is Communications Director at West Mt. Airy’s Weavers Way Co-op and
editor of the Co-op’s newspaper, The Shuttle. For more information, including
excerpts of Body Trace, Blood Poison, and Freezer Burn, visit
www.jmcgoran.com .
Brant Randall (Bruce Cook)
teaches Communication at Woodbury University. He originally worked as a
physicist/mathematician at Northrup University. He later earned his MS and PhD in
Communications.
Brant has served as consultant on dozens of independent feature films. He
recently designed a course titled Globalization of Media. Currently he is teaching
Theology of the Horror Film.
Brant lives in Los Angeles with his wife. They travel the world, having adventures and
collecting stories for future novels. (Well, they wish they did.)
JD Rhoadesgrew up in North Carolina, if
you use a very liberal definition of "grown up." He has worked as a radio news reporter,
club
DJ,
television cameraman, ad salesman, waiter, newspaper columnist and attorney
(the last one because all the other ones don't pay squat). His weekly column in the Southern
Pines, North Carolina Pilot was named best column of the year in its division for
2005.
His first novel, THE DEVILS RIGHT HAND, was released in 2005; GOOD DAY IN HELL, his
second novel featuring North Carolina bail bondsman Jack Keller, was released in March 2006.
SAFE AND SOUND, the third Keller book, has been out since July 2007, so you really should
have a copy by
now.
His latest, a standalone called BREAKING COVER, will be released on
an unsuspecting world July 22d. He refers to his style as "redneck noir," a phrase which
used to give his editors the hives until the Washington Post used it approvingly in a
review, so now they're used to it.
Michael
Murphy says: I’ve lived nearly all
of my life in
Arizona and most of that with my wife of thirty-six years. We enjoy our eight grandchildren
and our menagerie of animals including my wife’s dog Tinker who appears in my new novel,
Ramblin’ Man.
I love reading mystery and suspense novels,
and love writing them. Because I find absurdity in just about everything, humor
finds it’s way into my writing along with the chills.
Doug M.
Cummings has been shot at, driven cars at 110 miles per hour, arrested criminals and
been in some hellacious fights. And it's safe to say that all of these adventures, while
moonlighting as a deputy sheriff during college, prepared him well for his life's work as
one of Chicago's finest crime reporters and author of the highly acclaimed Reno McCarthy
crime novels.
Doug began his twenty-five-year broadcasting career as a television investigative reporter
before discovering his passion for the immediacy of news-radio. He worked as an anchor,
reporter and talk-show host in Kansas, Missouri and downstate Illinois before settling in
Chicago.
In more than seventeen years as a
crime and breaking news reporter for the former WMAQ Radio and then WGN Radio in Chicago,
Doug received awards for his coverage of dozens of stories including murders, train crashes,
fires, school shootings and tornadoes. His reports have been heard on every major network.
Doug lives in suburban Chicago with
his friend and colleague, Socks-Monster, the feline action-hero, who recently received rave
reviews for his cameo role in Doug's second novel, Every Secret Crime. They are currently
hard at work on Doug's next book.
THE WRITER'S
CHATROOM
