
Thursday, October 18 at 7PM
WRITERS' LEAGUE OF TEXAS
PRESENTS
The Craft of Great Mysteries and Thrillers
On the Third Floor of BookPeople
ABOUT THE CRAFT OF GREAT MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS
Mystery novels (and thrillers and crime novels) can seem intimidating to anyone hoping to write one since, when they're done well, the plot twists and clue reveals make endings hard to predict, even for readers trying to tease apart their mechanics. This panel will pull back the curtain on these genres and discuss strategies and approaches to crafting the plots, characters, twists, and reversals that we love. Four novelists will discuss their own processes and work and their favorite novels.
ABOUT SAMANTHA M. CLARK
Samantha M. Clark is the author of The Boy, The Boat, and the Beast. She loves stories about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances because if four ordinary brothers and sisters can find a magical world at the back of a wardrobe, why can’t she? Until she finds her own real-life Narnia, she writes about other ordinary children and teens who’ve stumbled into a wardrobe of their own. She grew up in different countries around the world and now lives with her husband and two funny dogs in Austin, Texas. Samantha is the regional advisor for the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and she explores wardrobes every chance she gets.
ABOUT MAY COBB
May Cobb is a novelist and freelance writer. Big Woods was selected as the Winner in the 2015 Writer’s League of Texas Manuscript Contest, and the pitch to Big Woods was selected as the Winner for the 2016 NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza. May earned her MA in Literature from San Francisco State University and has spent the past several years researching and writing a book about the late jazz great, Rahsaan Roland Kirk (forthcoming). Her essays and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Edible Austin, and Austin Monthly.
ABOUT AMY GENTRY
Amy Gentry is the author of Good as Gone, a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” and Entertainment Weekly “Must List” Pick. Her next novel, Last Woman Standing, will be published in January 2019. She is also a book reviewer and essayist whose work has appeared in numerous outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, Salon, The Paris Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Austin Chronicle. Amy has a doctorate in English and lives in Austin, Texas.
ABOUT SHERRY THOMAS
Sherry Thomas is a USA Today bestselling author who decided that her goal in life is to write every kind of book she enjoys reading. Thus far she has published romance, fantasy, mystery, and a wuxia-inspired duology. Her books regularly receive starred reviews and best-of-the-year honors from trade publications, including such outlets as the New York Times and National Public Radio. She is also a two-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® Award. Her most recent novels are the Lady Sherlock series.