By Karna Small Bodman For all of us authors, Zoom has been a great way to connect with readers, among others. I figure everyone reading this has a Zoom account and receives many invitations to join meetings from time to time. We don’t pay attention to the technology involved we simply take it for...
MARCH ROGUE ROUNDUP
What we Rogues talked about, researched, and revealed in March... March may be the start of spring, but it began in a frozen wonderland. Our extraordinary guest author ERICA FERENCIK went rogue, leading us on an adventure beneath the auroras and into the permafrost of Arctic Greenland, where she...
NEVER TALK TO A WRITER ON A DAY THE WRITING ISN’T GOING WELL
Never talk to a writer on a day when the writing isn’t going well.
FEBRUARY ROGUE ROUNDUP
What we Rogues talked about, researched, and revealed in February... On day 1, Paul Vidich went Rogue and took us into the skin of a female spy seducing secrets during the cold war. The person you love might have had a whole history before you met--can you ever really know everything about them?...
THE WEIRDEST BOOK EVER PUBLISHED
By Lisa Black Twenty-one years ago when I first picked up Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves from the library on my way to work, I couldn’t resist taking a peek at it after the office had emptied. By the end of the introduction I found myself reading aloud, delighting in the mesmerizing, lyrical...
MURDER AMONG THE RICH AND FAMOUS
By Lisa Black This week I saw House of Gucci—really liked it—and started to wonder: What fascinates us about rich people killing each other? Sure, every society is subject to celebrity worship, but why does that interest increase exponentially when the story involves murder? I have several...
THE BEST SCARY MOVIES EVER
by Lisa Black I love scary movies. I mean love. If you look at my streaming watchlist, it’s 90% horror movies and 10% British crime dramas. And I’m picky—if it doesn’t give me nightmares, it’s not scary enough (only 3 have ever given me nightmares)—and I’ve never found one scary...
WRITERS AND READERS IN MUSIC CITY: FINDING YOUR TRIBE
by Lisa Black Clay Stafford is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and filmmaker who created the Killer Nashville convention in 2006 to bring together forensic experts, writers, and fans in order to educate and empower aspiring and established writers. I was asked to be one of the Guests of...
A VERY PRETTY PRISON
Lisa Black in front of the Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield Don’t worry if you recognize the imposing stone structure—it doesn’t mean you have a criminal record. The Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield was used in several movies but particularly featured in The Shawshank Redemption. The...
INTO THIN AIR: Writing Thrillers and the Strange Disappearance of the Clinton Avenue Five
On August 20, 1978, five young men disappeared along Clinton Avenue in Newark, NJ. Three of the boys were sixteen, the two others seventeen. None had been in any trouble with the law or were likely to run away. None of the five were ever seen again…