Make-believe cops nowadays kick in doors without warrants or punch out suspects to make them talk. Archer Mayor, a Vermont-based, ten-year major case investigator of deaths and juvenile sex crimes — and the author of the 23-volume Joe Gunther police procedural series — will happily share how you can make your fictional investigators both interesting and credible.

After the first draft, ten steps to the best mystery you can write. Some writers love to revise their work while others hate it, but anyone who has attempted to write a mystery knows it's impossible to write a quality novel on the first go-around. This class will explore a step-by-step plan for getting from your first draft to one that's ready for your agent and publisher.

In this class, we'll talk about how to make the reader keep turning the pages: creating a compelling opening; structuring scenes that pull the reader forward; creating characters that make readers care; throwing those characters off balance; raising the stakes and increasing the pressure; and revealing secrets.

A discussion about how to create realistic characters that live and breathe, and how to do it in the fewest possible strokes, leaving room for the dense, twisty plots that characterize crime stories.

Hollywood screenwriters love to quote Alfred Hitchcock’s distinction between surprise and suspense: he once remarked, “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”  OK, but how does that help us novelists write scenes of excruciating suspense? In this workshop we’ll examine scenes from classic thrillers to learn the techniques used by the true thriller masters.  (And Hitchcock’s bomb quote will be explained….)

For writers with tough skin. Send your query in advance. It may be one of the ones selected to illustrate what does and doesn't work. Real examples, real solutions. There's no guarantee you'll end with a query that works, but you will have one better than what you started with.