writing – Mark Bruce, Writer

Don’t Get Into the Car

I was reading a thriller from the early part of the 21st century, “The Accident Man.” It’s a pretty good thriller, and the beginning seems to keep going for pages without taking a breath. A handsome British hit man teams up with a beautiful Russian spy to find out who hired them to kill PrincessContinue reading “Don’t Get Into the Car”

Probable Cause?

I was watching Rizzolli and Isles on Netflix last week. It’s a very good show, good characters, good plots, well-written. Set in Boston. It aired in the 2010’s. But on this particular episode, they captured a very bad person, a person who killed indiscriminately, a person who set fire to Rizzolli’s apartment, a person whoContinue reading “Probable Cause?”

Grave Matters

My Facebook feed usually features pretty Asian girls dancing to strange music, videos of shelter dogs getting adopted (I admit I get a little tear in my eye watching them), and music from Japanese hard rock girl groups. It’s very entertaining. Lately, though, I’ve been getting lots and lots of videos of people going throughContinue reading “Grave Matters”

The Vagaries of Love

For most of us, Love is the great adventure of our lives. We will never save the world by cutting the right wire to the nuclear bomb a second before it goes off. We will never commit a brave deed in the middle of combat. We will never climb Everest. We will never throw theContinue reading “The Vagaries of Love”

The Universe Answers

My last whiny blog was about how the mean ol’ universe was oppressing me like that peasant in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Something about how depressed I was and it was all someone else’s fault because they wouldn’t publish my novel. Wah. As if to bring me up short, the Universe sent me an answerContinue reading “The Universe Answers”

Confession

I am a Catholic through and through. And every good Catholic knows that confession is good for the soul. If not the career. I confess that I have not written anything of substance since Nov 30. At that time I was working on a novel (I didn’t get to 50,000 words this year) but theContinue reading “Confession”

The Villian Explains

One of the mystery writing tropes which drives me nuts is the moment in a book where the villain feels compelled to explain everything he’s done. Usually this happens when the protagonist is helpless, at the complete mercy of the bad guy. The protagonist often says something like, “I guess you’ve been very clever inContinue reading “The Villian Explains”

Conventional Wisdom

I have returned from the Killer Nashville convention in Franklin, Tennessee. I was nominated, for the third year in a row, for a Claymore Award (given to an unpublished manuscript). For the third year I went down to defeat. Sigh. But awards are unpredictable. Last year my comic novel, “The Return of Edsel Eddie,” lostContinue reading “Conventional Wisdom”

Stinky Humans

“You’re wrong about humans. Yeah, they may be stinky, greedy, stupid, foolish, dangerous and…uh, what was I saying?” “That humans are stinky.” “Yeah, they’re the worst…” That bit of dialogue has never found its way into one of my stories, but I think about humanity and all its perfidy quite often. As a mystery writer,Continue reading “Stinky Humans”

Writing It Out

I recently broke my writer’s block. I did it by writing. Which is like saying, I got over my fear of heights by going on the high dive, I got rid of my unemployment by going back to work, I got rid of my lethargy by deciding to exercise. I mean, of course the wayContinue reading “Writing It Out”