The year 1888 was busy in the annals of crime. While Jack the Ripper preyed on prostitutes in London, H. H. Holmes oversaw the construction of a large hotel/office building designed with unique amenities. It included hidden rooms, doors literally going nowhere, an airtight vault, and a chute going all the way to a basement crematorium. By the time of his execution in 1896, H. H. Holmes, Chicago serial killer at the time of the 1893 World’s Fair, had reportedly murdered more than twenty people. The History Channel series American Ripper gives us the H. H. Holmes treatment but with a twist. The premise is that H. H. Holmes was also Jack the Ripper. Jeff Mudgett, Holmes’s great-great grandson is determined to prove his ancestor was the notorious Jack and partners with Amaryllis Fox, a former CIA operative, to hunt down the proof. First-Rate Production First, the positive. This production is top notch when it comes…
If you’ve read any works by Henry James, American-born British author (1843-1916), great suspense probably isn’t the first thought that leaps to your mind. Consider the all-important first sentence of his famous novella The Turn of the Screw. The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child. That’s sixty-two words in the first sentence alone. By today’s standards, such writing is “wordy” at best and “frankly hard to read” at worst. But writing styles come and go just like the bell-bottoms of the seventies, and during James’s day, this was cutting-edge stuff. Perhaps the economical writing so popular today…
Hey, I have some exciting news to share with my readers. My literary agent (Hartline Literary Agency) called yesterday. One of our targeted publishers likes the book proposal and has requested the full manuscript of Drone (book one in the hoped-for Time Redeemer series). So I’ll be sending off the manuscript today. No guarantees, but at least there’s some activity on the novel front. I’m also about 11K words into Daymare, book two, and having fun with it. In addition, I’m getting started with Scrivener, writing software that is sure to make life easier with book two. I’ll be sure to let you know what happens. Thanks for your support! Can I just say that this writing journey can be lonely at times (after all, writing is a solitary venture), but encouragement from my readers helps me remember that “somebody is out there” who is reading and enjoying my projects.…
