Welcome to the News and Updates page at Lynne Danley, Wordsmith.

It’s Fall!

My favorite time of year

Hello, Word Lovers!

Autumn 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 these snippets of what’s happening in the coming weeks.

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Social Media News: Join Me on Bluesky!

I’d heard so many good things about Bluesky in recent months. It’s like Twitter/X 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.

The Latest News on Thunderhead Rising: An Author’s Journey

As some of you know, I’m a professional and academic author and editor. This is my first foray into novel writing. I’m certainly learning a lot!

Last year, while I waited for agents to respond to my rewrite of Brothers and Sisters, the first of the Thunderhead Rising 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:

Last summer, I tried out a couple different options, writing 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.

Earlier this spring, I completed the first major rewrite and revision of the novel. There’s so much new material I’m really excited about. It’s quite different from the previous version. It’s much more focused. I gave this novel an extended name: Thunderhead Rising: Brothers and Sisters. I plan to write at least two more novels in the Thunderhead Rising series.

And then

It was time to go back to school! That was great fun.

I’m a proud member of Sisters in Crime and their SinC Guppy Chapter. Guppies are members who are new to writing crime fiction and looking to connect with other Guppies and SinC members who are there to help them navigate what can sometimes be rough waters. The Guppy Chapter offers frequent classes on writing, revising and editing, getting published, marketing books and more.

I completed a four-week class called Guppy Revision and Self-Editing with writer and teacher Jim Jackson. Since I’d just finished the Big Rewrite, I got lots of great tips and tricks for editing and revising novels and developed a specific work plan for completing the revision of Brothers and Sisters.

There are lots of great Guppy classes I’ll be checking out during the next few months. There’s always more to learn!

The Latest News

Last week, I finished the final polishing of the rewrite and submitted it, along with my query letter and synopsis, to a professional developmental editor for final edits. I’m so excited to hear what suggestions he has for making it agent-ready. I hope to put it back on submission at the end of September or early October.

I promise to let everyone here at Lynne Danley, Wordsmith in on the progress I’m making as I proceed.

Once the book is out on submission, I’m looking forward to getting back to work on the sequel. I have lots of scary ideas for it percolating around in my head, especially after taking an online thriller writing course from Harlan Coben. This really inspired me.

A Short History

After I completed and revised my first draft of the original Thunderhead Rising and put it out on submission, I received kind and encouraging but definite rejections. 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 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 recently-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 remained, and the changes worked well. Thank you, Barbara!

Blog News: 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 whose feedback was so helpful, 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

News and Updates on Recent and Upcoming Blogs

All of this rewriting and editing has meant taking a vacation from the blogs. But I did publish 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 blog here.

Write Right! has some upcoming blogs on all things writing and editing, too. Look for new blogs: Editing and Revision, Why Do Publishers Have Word Counts?, Point of View: The Who and the How of It, The Book Submission Process, Plotters and Pantsers, and How Should I Publish My Book?

Do you have any requests for blogs from Oregon Author or Write Right? If so, please let me know on the blog comments block.

Of course, I’d be delighted to know what you think about the blogs, too. So please do give me your thoughts on all my blogs in the comments block.

Book News: What I’m Reading Now

Recently, I’ve been re-reading my comps (recent books that have important marketable similarities with Thunderhead Rising: Brothers and Sisters). And I’m reading some new potential comps, too. Next up: novels by Robert Crais, Lisa Gardner, Annie Proulx, Kristin Hannah, Suzanne Chazin, and Rick Mofina.

For those writers who are hanging out in Submissionland with me, I’d like to recommend two classics I read recently.

I’ve attended a few webinars by the wonderful writer and agent Paula Munier, and I’m always so impressed by her timely and succinct advice for writers. Paula does a webinar based on her book Plot Perfect, and I just had to rush right out and buy a copy for myself. It was a FANTASTIC read! I can’t wait to try the exercises as I work at the second novel in the Thunderhead Rising series.

How do you give your writing that emotional touch that grabs readers and keeps them loving and pulling for your protagonist while they connect with your other characters? Agent, writer and fiction teacher Donald Maass shows you how in his thoughtful, intelligent and superbly instructional book The Emotional Craft of Fiction. I loved this book. I knew my novel needed more emotional depth in places, but I wasn’t quite sure how to make it happen without ratcheting up the word count. Now I’ve learned all kinds of ways. You can, too!

Happy reading and writing! Time to lounge in your favorite place to enjoy the autumn leaves and sit in the sunshine with a good book.

Think I’ll join you!

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May the Words Be with You.