Nickie's Views and Interviews: Gone Before

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: