Categories of Suspense: Women-in-Jeopardy

This is the second to the last post in the series of categories of suspense, as given in T. Macdonald Skillman’s book, WRITING THE THRILLER. Women-in-Jeopardy, also called Fem-Jep or Child-Jep, is easily blurred with the category of Romantic Relat… Continue reading →

Categories of Suspense: Romantic Relationship Suspense

I’m almost finished with this min–series of suspense categories, as outlined by T. Macdonald Skillman in her book, WRITING THE THRILLER. Today’s topic is Romantic Relationship Suspense.This category usually has a bit of a gothic twist to it. The … Continue reading →

Categories of Suspense: Psychological Suspense

I’m looking at T. Macdonald Skillman’s categories of suspense, as listed in her book WRITING THE THRILLER. Today’s category is brought to you by the letter “aaaarrrrrrgggggghhhh!” The psychological suspense is a broad category that spans basically… Continue reading →

Categories of Suspense: Political Thrillers

T. Macdonald Skillman’s book, WRITING THE THRILLER, outlines eight categories of suspense. I’m discussing Political Thrillers today. Again, this category is fairly easy to identify. If the subject matter is political at the heart, it falls in this… Continue reading →

Categories of Suspense: Medical Thrillers

Again, I’m probing the depths of wisdom in T. Macdonald Skilman’s book, WRITING THE THRILLER. Today we’re looking at the definition of Medical Thrillers. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Skillman says: “Doomsday viruses, chemical weapons, research sc… Continue reading →

Categories of Suspense: Action-Adventure

Due to a goof on my part, my blog posts haven’t been posting. Here’s last Thursday’s post:I’m pulling all the goodness from T. Macdonald Skillman’s book, WRITING THE THRILLER, before I have to return it to the library. In the next several posts I’… Continue reading →

Categories of Suspense: Legal Thrillers

Due to a major goof on my part, last Monday’s post never showed up. Here it is: T. Macdonald Skillman’s book, WRITING THE THRILLER, lists eight categories of suspense novels. Today I’ll look at her discussion of Legal Thrillers. Legal Thrillers fo… Continue reading →

Mystery vs. Suspense Part 6

To my three loyal readers, I apologize for the lateness of these posts. I switched blogging sites and forgot to change the address in my contacts. My bad. Now that you’ve had to wait for it, here’s the last post about Carolyn Wheat’s list of 16 di… Continue reading →

Mystery vs. Suspense Part 5

Again, I’m looking at Carolyn Wheat’s list of 16 differences between mystery and suspense. You can find this list in Wheat’s book HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION. It’s also reprinted in T. Macdonald Skillman’s book WRITING THE THRILLER. Difference num… Continue reading →

Mystery vs. Suspense Part 4

Once again, I’m copying from Carolyn Wheat’s list of 16 differences between mystery and suspense. You can find this list in Wheat’s book HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION. It’s also reprinted in T. Macdonald Skillman’s book WRITING THE THRILLER. But no … Continue reading →