Let's say hello to Terry Korth Fischer today. Terry is doing a virtual Name Before the Masses tour for Gone Before, a mystery available since January 17th from the Wild Rose Press. The tour will run every Tuesday and Thursday for 15 weeks starting on February 1st.
The author will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes&Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Please use the following link to place your comment:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4065/Blurb
Small-town detective, Rory Naysmith, thought he’d seen it all,
but a young woman’s brutal murder is especially hard to stomach. Doubly so,
when he recognizes the murder’s MO is identical to that of Tobias Snearl—the
killer he put behind bars a decade before. His frustration grows after a series
of senseless accidents plague those dearest to him, and a second woman
dies—this one too close to home. Searching for answers, Rory races against
time, plunging deep into the murder investigations, drawing ever closer to
becoming a casualty of the dark, angry deeds himself, until he finds no one is
who they pretend to be—and none are beyond evil’s reach.
Excerpt
“I
think my guardian angel is off for the Fourth.” The detective studied the
cloudless sky and tried not to think about his foot. It didn’t work. “Just use
the crowbar to break one of these frickin’ stones loose.”
The
jack handle didn’t do the trick. Opening the trenching tool and using the pick
end, Thacker swung it against the largest stone. It bounced off the surface.
Rory
suppressed a scream as pain shot from his knee down his encased leg. “Easy!”
“Sorry,
boss.”
“Try
removing one of the outer stones. Loosen them, and maybe we’ll be able to budge
these. I’ll hold the light, and you make room for these damn jaws to unclasp.
Try finding the cornerstone
A
fine layer of perspiration covered Rory’s face. He felt defeated and a little
nauseous. He leaned back on his elbows and looked at the sky. “Thacker,” he
said, “this is damn unlucky.”
The
rookie moved down the mound to the edge of the pile. Using the crowbar and a
lot of muscle, he attacked. Finally, he was able to roll one stone out of
position. Then another. He was still three feet from Rory’s crevice, working his
way toward the more enormous boulders and Rory’s ultimate freedom, when the
rock he was prying loose rolled out of place. He hesitated. “There is something
funny here, boss.”
“I
could use a good laugh.”
“Not
ha-ha funny, peculiar funny.” “Tell me anyway.”
“There’s
someone else in this rock pile.”
Author bio and links
Terry Korth Fischer writes mystery and memoir. Her memoir, Omaha
to Ogallala, was released in 2019. Her short stories have appeared in
numerous anthologies in print and online. Terry is a member of Sisters in
Crime, Pennwriters, Inc, and Clear Lake Area Writers. Transplanted from the
Midwest, Terry lives in Houston with her husband and their two guard cats. She
enjoys a good mystery, heat and humidity, and long summer days. Visit her
website at https://terrykorthfischer.com
A personal viewpoint of the author:Polishing a Mess
“If I waited for
perfection... I would never write a word." —Margaret Atwood.
Strive for progress, not perfection. Good writers edit their
work, and they sense when it's time to stop. Of course, your work will never be
flawless, but unless you reach a point that you can call it okay, you will never
finish. More importantly, you won’t move on to create more and better manuscripts
because you'll spend all your time in a never-ending loop chasing perfection.
Polishing a written document from a messy first draft to a
final crafted manuscript is tedious. Done correctly, it takes numerous passes
through the whole text to arrive at a point where the writing is ready to
release to the world. But, perhaps like me, you have already made so many
attempts at perfection you can't face reading it—one—more—time! So, although
these are not original, I share some tips for reviewing and editing a
manuscript.
1)
The one thing you don’t want to do is misdirect or confuse
your reader. A reader needs to know where and when the story takes place, the
characters, their desires, what is at stake, and who is in the way—too much
fluff: description, rabbit holes, side plots, gum up the works. The story must
always move forward. And not everything you know belongs in the book.
2)
Refrain from telling the reader something twice, even if you
do it in two different ways. Readers are smart. Trust them; they remember. They
also recognize when you reuse the same turn of phrase, facial expression, or
utterance. I recently read a book in which
all the characters used the same gesture, over and over, and over again. Not
only was it distracting, but it was also eye-rolling sloppy writing.
3)
Look for favorite words. Mine are “maneuver,” “wince,” and “of.”
Yours could be verbs or adverbs, adjectives, or conjunctions. Unconsciously,
you allow them to make their way into your writing, and their overuse weakens
the manuscript. Weasel them out with prejudice.
4)
Use compelling words rather than pompous ones. Strong verbs where
you find weak. If you're writing for today's reader, it's important to remember
you'll be best understood without encumbering your writing with convoluted
paragraphs and elongated utterances. See
what I mean? I don’t suggest you “dumb-it-down,” but such a writing style is
old-fashioned. And worse, it is often skipped over, or the reader stops
reading.
5)
Search out and eliminate qualifiers. These are words like
"very," "quite," "almost," "fairly,"
"just," and "many." For example, consider the sentence: She
was quite beautiful. Is she less than gorgeous? Or is she a bit better than average-looking?
Or is she as beautiful as fudge frosted double-Dutch chocolate cake? Say what
you mean because qualifiers dilute word meanings.
6)
Gender pronouns may signal an outdated writing style. It was
okay only to use the male gender pronoun when discussing people at one time.
For instance: "Everyone should take his book and sing along." Today,
many find the use of only he, his, and him offensive. Like diversity in
writing, it's a slippery slope—but an element worthy of review.
7)
Persevere. Writing a novel is a long-term commitment. And as they
say, every published author is a writer who didn’t give up.
Social media contacts:
Website: https://terrykorthfischer.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/terryiswriting
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerryIsWriting
Amazon Author Page: www.amazon.com/author/terrykorthfischer
Goodreads Author: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14349440.Terry_Korth_Fischer
BookBub Author: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/terry-korth-fischer
BookGems Author: https://www.bookgems.com/profile/tkfischer/
BLOG Website: https://www.terryiswriting.com
Newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/TerryKorthFischer
Amazon Buy link:
https://www.amazon.com/Gone-Before-Rory-Naysmith-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B09KQVCM6M/ref=sr_1_1?
Barnes & Noble Buy link:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gone-before-terry-korth-fischer/1140489584?
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59457770-gone-before
