In need of a book recommendation? We’ve got you covered! Check out what the WR staff has read & rated by following Writer’s Relief on Goodreads. This week’s books are:

• The Book Of Fate, by Brad Meltzer

• Shiver (The Wolves Of Mercy Falls, #1), by Maggie Stiefvater

• Chronicle Of A Death Foretold, by Gabriel García Márqez

In need of a book recommendation? We’ve got you covered! Check out what the WR staff has read & rated by following Writer’s Relief on Goodreads. This week’s books are:

• The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #8), by Louise Penny

• Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk

• Fables, Vol. 1: Legends In Exile, by Bill Willingham

In need of a book recommendation? We’ve got you covered! Check out what the WR staff has read & rated by following Writer’s Relief on Goodreads. This week’s books are:

• Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3), by Tana French

• Back Roads, Tawni O’Dell

• Batman: Year One, by Frank Miller

In previous posts, we identified several genres and subgenres of fiction (See Genres Defined, Part I and Part II.) Here we’ll answer the question “What is a thriller?” and examine some of this popular genre’s subcategories.

If you have written a book or novel, you’ll want to be sure that it meets the basic criteria of book publishers and literary agents. Follow the rules of genre fiction (whether it’s romance, Western, thriller, fantasy, historical, sci-fi, or horror), and you are more likely to get your book published.

Freddy, Jason, The Wolfman…Classic monsters of the big screen are famous for scaring movie-goers into fits of teeth-chattering terror.

But some of us (raise your hand if you’re guilty) have contracted a serious case of the creeps from monsters that appear in literature.

Is it just us, or are some things scarier when you have to imagine them yourself?

Check out our slide show of literary monsters—if you DARE!!!

Writers can suffer from recurring nightmares: you know, the one where the literary agent at the conference laughs at you in front of your friends, or the one where you’re naked at open mic night (or is that just us?). Fear gets down deep in the human consciousness, and if you as a writer aren’t exploiting fear to the utmost in your short stories or novel, then you’re missing a golden opportunity.

Even if you’re not writing in the horror or thriller genre, a healthy dose of fear is essential in your story. Fear creates rounded characters and lots of page-turning tension. Read on as weshow you how to scare up a little extra fear in your story.

In need of a book recommendation? We’ve got you covered! Check out what the WR staff has read & rated by following Writer’s Relief on Goodreads. This week’s books are:

• The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey, by Mrs. Carver          

• Friends Are Like That, by Patricia Hermes

• The Tombs Of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle, #2), by Ursula K. LeGuin