Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Stephen B. King | The Incongruity of Beauty
Author Guest / April 15, 2019

We use the word beauty in many different scenarios and situation, but could we ever use it to describe death? In Glimpse, the Beautiful Deaths, criminal psychologist Patricia Holmes, attached to the Major Crime Squad of the Western Australian Police Department does. That’s a beautiful dress, we might say, or what a beautiful day, those flowers are beautiful, that child has a beautiful personality, she has a beauty spot on her cheek……….You get the idea for how often we can use the adjective. I’ve even heard sports commentators say what a beautiful shot, he’s swimming beautifully and once, in a heavyweight boxing match, what a beautiful knock out punch. It seems to me to be over-used, and in some cases is completely opposite from what the word actually means. Patricia Holmes, asks us to consider beauty in its purest form. She describes a man who has an obsession to own and possesses beautiful things so badly it leads to six cases of murder. During a meeting with homicide detectives where she delivers the profile of the man they are hunting, she nicknames him Gordon. She urges the men to think of him that way; an ordinary man, not a master…

Robin Bielman & Samanthe Beck | Buddy Writing
Author Guest / April 15, 2019

There are buddy cop films where the plot involves two people of different personalities who are forced to work together to defeat the bad guys, sometimes learning from each other in the process. And then there are buddy writers. Two people of comparative personalities who choose to work together to create a story that readers will hopefully love, most definitely learning from each other in the process. Crockett & Tubbs, Murtaugh & Riggs, Turner & Hooch, Tango & Cash, Thelma & Louise. Okay, T&L weren’t cops, but they were best buds until the very end so for the purposes of this post, we’ll compare it to typing, “The End.” See what we did there? You’re so clever, Sam. No, you’re so clever, Robin. What we’re trying to say is, we had a kickass time writing this book together. As with any big undertaking, there were good days and bad days. There were rewrites and respites. Coffee fueled most of our writing/brainstorming sessions—we can totally vouch for the power of mochas. And plotting sessions by the seat of our pants ruled our word counts. We took long walks along the beach to talk through scenes and emotions and characterization and how…