SUSPENSE!!!

Suspense, when it appears in a novel is a compilcated component. Some stories are written to maintain suspense throughout the story line. Most of the suspense I incorporate in my stories is timed suspense. It's written to take the read on highs and lows and keep the main point of the story in the middle - making it enjoyable because you never know when the pace will change.

Sometimes humor can be suspenseful. Not all suspense is drama. One trick of many authors is to do a quick turn from humor to drama in a sentence. It raises the level of cognitive dissonance i.e. Feeling different things at one time Happy/Sad, Calm/Excited, Relaxed/Alert... and so on.

Another device an author can use to create suspense and throw the reader off is something called a "Red Herring". It's a specific item in a book that seems to have importance to the story but either is dropped and never mentioned again, or its importance to the story is greatly diminished. There is a "Red Herring" in Flesh, Bone, Clone (copyright©2014 Edward R. Murphy) it's an interesting part of the book but not an essential part that the reader is lead to believe.

I hope you enjoy the cognitive dissonance in my books.. Perhaps it will cause the hair to rise on the back of your neck or a sharp chill to run down your spine.

Keep reading - It was reported today that ebooks have overtaken paper books in sales amount. 52% ebooks vs. 48% paper books.

ERM

Fight Scene's

One of the most difficult scenes to write in a novel is the fight scene. In Flesh, Bone, Clone (copyright©2014 Edward R. Murphy) there is a fight sequence incorporating men, women, machines and monsters. It's a pivotal scene that changes the course of the book.

When I undertake a fight scene I try to view the scene in my mind from various points of view. If someone fires a gun or hits someone it will have an effect either on the person being hit, the one doing the hitting or on someone outside the immediate POV - a bystander or other scene participant.

The thing to remember when doing a fight scene is to be sure to include dialogue. When hitting or being hit most people do make a sound. If your scene only describes action than it would be like reading a silent movie script.

A quick update on my names project: or FBC. I am about 1/3 of the way through the story and have over fifty names so far. When I'm done I'll need a quick bio on each name.

Till later keep reading

ERM

Names, names, names

Currently reviewing the Flesh, Bone, Clone manuscript for a proper name listing of all characters in the novel. This is a task that I have learned overtime is important for changing or adding scenes. It's something that I will do as I write my next novel. It's kind of a pain to go back and look them up. Names are such a critical part of writing a fictional novel. A name can set the tone of a story or offer information to the reader so they can visualize the character.

FBC Moving Ahead on the Manuscript

I'm doing some technical reviewing of my novel Flesh, Bone, Clone. I'm going to verify some of the science I use in the book. The scenes with some of the clones need to be enhanced. One of the tough things to do when writing action scenes is to make it dramatic enough to be believable. Hopefully I can do that. Well I'm off to write. Watch the blog for more writing news.

The picture below is an example of a stretch of Arizona highway similar to a major scene in Flesh, Bone, Clone Copyright © 2014 by Edward Murphy.

ERM

Rewrite or Not

Cure Complex is ranked 5th out of a 100 books at the eBook Mall reader's list. Yah!!!

I have been giving a lot of thought to rewriting Cure Complex as a side activity to my novel schedule. I want the characters to have more depth and emotional expression. Also the technologies and science have advanced over the past twenty years that I think it would be worth updating. For a free preview of the book the first chapter is on the curecomplex website.

Didn't do much writing today. I spent the day taking notes and planning scenes for the ending of FBC.

ERM



Ongoing Manuscript Review Effort

My current novel I'm working, Flesh, Bone, Clone (copyright©2014), has undergone several core changes over the past few months. I have been working non-stop on it to ensure the best possible reading pleasure fans of my work. I sent the unedited manuscript to twelve people - friends, family, peers and associates. I had a few of them pass it on to people that don't know of me and my writing. I sought their comments and suggestions. fortunate for me I received really great creative and technical input.

The major overhaul of the MS was in the area of grammar and spelling. I was very lucky to have someone with a background in English and style go over the MS with a fine tooth comb. The corrections made in punctuation, spelling and word use made the story snap alive.

Another vital area of review for the MS came in the form of story tracking - making sure a person who dies sin the beginning doesn't speak at the end. Oh it happens. I have over one hundred character's with speaking roles in this MS.

The most significant comment received concerned the ending. Thirty percent of the readers liked it and seventy percent wanted it changed. My problem - after four years of work - I'm still tinkering with the ending.

Hopefully I'll have everything with the MS tightened up and ready to submit to my publisher by the end of March 2011.

The picture above right is a copyrighted image that I purchased from the net. I am using as the cover art for the FBC novel. It illustrates the idea of Flesh and Bone being altered by DNA manipulation. What do you think? Comments? The story line involves human cloning.

ERM

What this blog is about!

Welcome to my Blog. I've decided to keep my fans appraised about my progress in writing. At the moment I'm completing a new novel with the working title of "Flesh, Bone, Clone" (copyright© 2014 Edward R. Murphy) - it's an action adventure medical thriller. I plan on finishing the novel by the end of February 2014. I'm sending the manuscript to a few new publishers. I have my old publisher (Hardshell Word Factory) as a standby. I'd like to see if perhaps a new publisher could bring a fresh breath of air to the marketing side.

I am going to start an effort to land an agent for my writing. If you know of one let me know. I understand in order to be successful you really need to have the representation of an agent.

I have a new novel in the wings but I'm holding off until I wrap up my current one. I also want to update and rewrite my published novel "Cure Complex" (copyright©2003 Ed Murphy). I think new developments in medicine and science applied to the 2003 novel would greatly enhance the story. Also I have come a long way in fleshing out characters in a story.

I'm changing my official author's name from "Ed Murphy" to "Edward R. Murphy". There is an author that uses the Ed Murphy moniker and he writes religious books that have received terrible reviews by the critics. Unfortunately for me book selling websites keep getting us mixed up. They claim I wrote his book and he wrote mine. I have even been elevated to the level of Doctor on many sites. I wish it was true but...!

Hope you enjoy this blog. Let me know what you think. If you want please pass it on.

ERM