What’s New This Winter
Welcome to the News and Updates page at Lynne Danley, Wordsmith.
Hello, Word Lovers!
Holiday greetings from Lynne Danley, Wordsmith and our mascot, Jonas the Thriller Killer! My granddaughter Rebecca made him for me and I love him. We’re so glad you’re here! A heartfelt thanks for visiting my website and joining us as we imagine our world through words.
Check out this snippet of what we have in store for you in the coming weeks.
Join Me on Bluesky!
I’d heard so many good things about Bluesky in recent months. It’s like Twitter used to be before it became so toxic, they said. No ads. Communities of like-minded people, including writers and other creatives. Then Manuscript Wish List announced it was abandoning Twitter/X and joining Bluesky. That was good enough for me. I joined, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve already met wonderful writers, authors, agents, and editors as well as people who share my political views and sports fandom. I invite you to join and follow me there. I’m @danleylynne.bsky.social.
Thunderhead Rising: The Journey Continues
More exciting news!
As some of you know, I’m a professional and academic writer and editor. This is my first foray into novel writing. I’m certainly learning a lot!
While I waited for agents to respond to my rewrite of Thunderhead Rising, the first of the Peter Calder Suspense Thriller series, I decided to shell out some cash and have my plot (as presented in my synopsis) critiqued by a respected agent.
In her kind and thorough critique, the agent told me I’d written two parallel stories that might work best if separated. They’ve got lots of action and interesting characters, but they’re not coming together tightly enough. One, she said, is a psychological thriller and the other a crime thriller.
Wow! I didn’t see that one coming. And she was absolutely right.
What Came Next
First, I went through the two plot lines and wrote a simple 15-page prose plot outline for each. Then I could clearly see the places where plot holes appeared and the two stories diverged. At that point, I had some choices to make. I could rewrite Thunderhead Rising to make it:
A. One of the two stories, scrapping the other.
B. One of the two stories, incorporating the other as a subplot.
C. Both stories as two separate books.
D. A duology or trinity.
E. A new book, quite different from either.
This summer, I tried out a couple different options, writing out a basic outline for each. Lots of new plot ideas and character relationships emerged. Since I already had a polished, finished novel, I had something to work with. I decided to choose option B.
AND NOW, I’M DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE, THE NEW OUTLINE AND CHAPTER BY CHAPTER NOTES ARE COMPLETE AND I AM WELL INTO THE REWRITES. There’s so much new material I’m really excited about. The novel now has an extended name: Thunderhead Rising: Brothers and Sisters. I plan to write at least two more novels in the Thunderhead Rising series.
I promise to let everyone here at Lynne Danley, Wordsmith in on the progress I’m making as I proceed.
I’m looking forward to completing the rewrite so I can get back to work on the sequel. I have lots of great ideas for it percolating around in my head, especially after taking a thriller writing course from Harlan Coben. This really inspired me.
A Short History
A few months ago, I worked with a writing mentor, Barbara Kyle, who told me I’d written a suspense thriller with a mystery element rather than the mystery thriller I’d been pitching. Given that, I realized I needed to change the pace, what was revealed and when, and the way the main plot and subplots wove together. Fortunately, I didn’t have to kill a lot of darlings, but I did move a lot of them into a future novels file. And I cut the length by over 17,000 words — something the novel badly needed.
Meet My Mentor
Barbara Kyle, the author of the Thornleigh Saga series of Tudor-era historical novels, has also written several novels of suspense, including The Man from Spirit Creek, and a just-released murder mystery, The Deadly Trade. I very much enjoyed her writing craft book, Page Turner. Barbara also does private mentoring and conducts virtual classes for writers. So I asked for her help with making Thunderhead Rising a page turner, too.
If you’d like to know more about Barbara and the services she offers writers, please visit her website at https://www.barbarakyle.com.
While working with Barbara, I gained a lot of insight about what was working well and what needed some tweaking here and there. But the biggest takeaway was a genuine surprise. I’d written Thunderhead Rising as a mystery thriller. “But you’ve written a thriller,” said Barbara. To paraphrase her, she said that murders happen in thrillers all the time, and she believes Thunderhead Rising is a suspense thriller rather than a mystery.
The more I thought about it, the more I knew she was right. This was a game changer. So I brought the storylines together more seamlessly to create more high-octane suspense. But the integrity of the story remains, and the changes are working well. Thank you, Barbara!
Did You Know?
Do you know the difference between crime fiction, a mystery and a thriller? Check out my blog on Crime Fiction here.
And since I did several critique and beta reader swaps with some wonderful writers whose work I really enjoyed reading and getting feedback from, I decided to write a two-part blog on beta readers, editors and critiquers. The blogs have turned out to be very popular. You can read Part 1, Beta Readers, here. And check out the Part 2 blog, Editors and Critiquers, here.
(Insider tip: If you subscribe to this website, you’ll be the first to know when new blogs come out.)
News You Can Use
Recent and Upcoming Blogs
All of this rewriting meant taking a short vacation from the blogs. But I recently published my long-awaited blog on the wonderful, fun and supercool world of McMenamins, a chain of restaurant and brew pubs across Oregon and Washington. Each is unique, and there’s nothing quite like them. I loved visiting several McMenamins restaurants and pubs and learning more about the fascinating history of this Oregon institution. You can read this new blog here.
Write Right! has some new and upcoming blogs, too. That’s Annoying! How to avoid irritants that make readers want to scream is showcasing Dialogue and Character Names. Character Challenges, the final blog in the That’s Annoying! series, will discuss annoyances readers waxed eloquent about when writers mishandle characters. After that, I’ll be doing some new blogs on all things writing and editing.
Of course, I’d be delighted to know what you think! So give me your thoughts on all my blogs in the Comments block.
What I’m Reading Now
Recently, I’ve been re-reading my comps (recent books that have important marketable similarities with Thunderhead Rising). And I’m reading some new potential comps, too. Next up: novels by Robert Crais, Lisa Gardner, Nicci French, Greg Iles and Rick Mofina.
For those of you who are hanging out in Submissionland with me, I’d like to recommend a fantastic new book. Lucinda Halpern, owner-agent of Lucinda Literary Agency, has released Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author. You’ll love it if you’re a writer who is attempting to navigate the rough waters of the traditional publishing world. It’s full of fun, novel and useful tips and tricks for acquiring an agent, and it demystifies some of the puzzling and inaccurate information swirling around social media about agents and trad publishing.
Happy reading and writing!
Whatever you celebrate at this festive time of year, I sincerely wish you and yours the happiest of holiday seasons and a successful and prosperous new year.
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May the Words Be with You.