Saturday, July 9, 2011

Elegant Violence



JAN: I was driving home last night behind a car with a bumper sticker promoting Rugby defining it as ELEGANT VIOLENCE. And I thought.... hey that's a perfect description of how I like to write crime. I like to have just enough violence in it to make it suspenseful and believable, not too much to make it gory. I like the writing to be spare and well constructed. You could call that elegant.

It gave me an idea for a game. Here are the rules. You all must define your writing/or your aspiration for writing/or your definition of mystery or crime writing in two words. The first one is an adjective the second is a noun and you can't use any of the words that anyone else used.

So, that means, ELEGANT VIOLENCE is TAKEN. Your turn.

HANK: UNEXPECTED REVENGE Maybe? Still thinking. (No, that's not one.) Hmm.

DEBS: CAPTIVATING CRIME. Although I can't come up with anything that beats ELEGANT VIOLENCE.

RHYS: ATMOSPHERIC HISTORICAL (If I'm allowed historical as a noun. Heck ,I've just made it at noun.) for the Molly Murphy series and SMASHING ROMPS for the Royal Spyness books.

ROSEMARY: Oh, dear. (No, that's not it.) RUTHLESS PEOPLE. Yes, it's an old movie title but so was everything else I thought of MALICE AFORETHOUGHT, DANGEROUS LIAISONS, etc.

ROBERTA/LUCY: FIENDISH FOODIES.

JAN: Anyone else care to play along?? You can describe your own writing, mystery or suspense writing in general in two perfectly chosen words. Think if it as the headline for your own personal review.

In other matters, I'm not sure you can actually pick a winner of our little game, but there was a winner Thursday.

Donnell from Colorado won a Kindle version of "How to Write a Dick: A Guide to Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths" generously provided by authors Colleen Collins & Shaun Kaufman



13 comments:

  1. HUMOROUS PUZZLE?

    Not as good as Elegant Violence or Smashing Romps. I'll think on it--great idea, Jan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love DARKLY COMIC!!

    As a matter of fact, II might steal that to pitch the book I'm working on.....

    Humorous puzzle is good, but I can't steal it because it doesn't apply to my work!!

    ~jan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, man! I want to steal Elegant Violence for a book title! (Now all I have to do is figure out a plot to go with it, LOLOL!)

    This is tough. I think mine might be Magical Mystery. Or Mysterious Magic. I suck at this, back of the book blurbs, and tag lines. Just sayin'.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great question Jan!

    Delicious creepiness

    ReplyDelete
  5. Defiantly obscure - there' s another one I could steal!!


    And just for the record, my son played rugby at school his first term.

    It is NOT elegant. It's more like a big glob of violence.

    ~jan

    ReplyDelete
  6. Vigilant LEOs

    ReplyDelete
  7. Controlled chaos describes my life. My 10-y-o, who is deep into Greco-Roman mythology these days, asked me what my patron goddess would be if we were back in the days when we worshiped the Olympians.

    I said, "Dischordia."

    ReplyDelete