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About M.M. Chouinard
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Blog post(Post contains affiliate links, only for products I have read/tried)
Hello!
I hope you're doing well and staying healthy during these crazy times! Because so many of us find ourselves sheltering in place right now, I thought I'd try to step up my recommendations a little to spread the word about some murder-&-mayhem-related awesomeness that I'm enjoying lately.
Today I'm gonna talk about First Cut, by Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell:
What made me -
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Hello!
I recently started listening to the popular podcast My Favorite Murder. Several times in the first few episodes, the hosts joke about people possibly finding the concept of a 'favorite murder' strange, or a general obsession interest in true crime a bit odd (or downright disturbing). This topic is something I've thought a lot about: What does an interest in true crime and/or crime fiction say about a person? And what does it say when that -
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Hello!
Time for this week's Murder & Mayhem recommendation: Exhibit A, a Netflix true-crime documentary.
Exhibit A is an intriguing twist on true crime shows--it's kinda like the flip side of Forensics Files. Each episode examines a type of forensic evidence and, through a target case, questions to what degree we can really trust that evidence.
By now most people have heard of the CSI Effect: the expectation juri -
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Hello!
You all know I'm a fan of all things crime friction and true crime. An evening spent watching Forensics Files followed by reading a thriller late into the night? Sign me up. But what you might not know about me is that I also love retro 50's and 40's inspired fashion. So you can imagine my pure, unadulterated joy when I discovered that these two things actually overlap in the real world...
I recently went to a 'curio -
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Hello!
So, I've been doing a little something on my Facebook page and Twitter that I've been calling M.M.'s Mayhem & Murder feature, and decided it was time to bring it over here to the blog, too.
The idea is this: I love true crime and fictional crime, and a whole range of odd things that touch onto one or both of those areas. Not surprising considering I write crime fiction, I know! But I figured since I'm constantly on -
Blog postFollow my blog with Bloglovin Just a quick post so I can claim this blog on Bloglovin! :)
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Blog postHello everyone!
I'm doing something a little different today, sharing a post by another writer, one I know and admire: D.K. Dailey. Many are the times she's been a cheerleader in my corner, making sure I'm never tempted to give up my dreams of being a writer--so I thought I'd share a little of that cheerleading with you. :)
M. xoxoxox
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I Am a Dreamer: Gearin -
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Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K...
I’ve been a bit busy lately, and my blog has suffered—the most relevant reason is that I was contacted by an indie publisher interested in publishing one of my books, and I’ve been researching like crazy to see if we’re the right fit. Exciting, and I'll keep you posted!
Before time got away from me, I intended to put together a year-end post about a few of the books I read and enjoy -
Blog postI participated in NaNoWriMo last month, for the fourth time; as you can see from the widget in my sidebar, I ‘won’—I hit 50,000 words on November 16th. I purposefully tried to finish ahead of schedule because I had my own personal goal of 75,000 words for the month, and I knew the second half of November was going to be a bear; I made it to 75,002 words on the evening of November 30th. Huzzah!
Since then I’ve worked on it in between coughing fits and bursts of unconscio -
Blog postToday I’m back with the final NaNoWriMo-related book review I’ll be doing this year; if you missed the first two you can find my review of Fast Fiction by Denise Jaden here, and Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt here. Today we’re going to look at Write-A-Thon by Rochelle Melander; this book is a better fit for the ‘pantsers’ or ‘discovery writers’ out there among you.
If you’re new to NaNoWriMo, you may not yet have heard the terms ‘pantsers’ and ‘plotters’ yet. -
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I’m back with my second NaNoWriMo-relevant book review, this time Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. If the thought of 'pantsing' it gives you night terrors and you’re looking for something that can help you write a book with structure, direction, and developed characters all in a month, this may be the book for you. If you like order, exercises and worksheets, this book is definitely for you!
Book in a Month has a clear s -
Blog postThat’s right, my favorite time of year is rapidly approaching—National Novel Writing Month, aka, NaNoWriMo. This will be my fourth NaNoWriMo; I made it to about 25,000 words on my first attempt, and then ‘won’ the next two. I’ll be trying my hardest to make this my third win in a row.
Why do I love it so much? I wrote a blog post answering that question last year, which you can find by clicking here; if you’re still deciding to give it a try, check that post out. The qu -
Blog post(Review copy provided for honest review; affiliate links)
Hello! Good to see you again! I’ve been away for a few weeks both finalizing my second novel, now called Deadly Avatar, and jumping deep into the query process. But that’s a post for another time, and I’ll be back with more about that soon.
Today I’m back with a review of the second Veronika Layne book (click here to see my review of the first book), Veronika Layne Has a Nose for News, by Julia Park Tracey. This review -
Blog postI’ve noticed two trends in Authorland lately: book trailers and book “soundtracks”. I’m on the fence about book trailers; I like the idea of reaching readers with the same sort of clips they’re used to seeing for movies, but a part of what I enjoy about reading is painting my own mental pictures as the tale unfolds in front of me. Negotiating that shared mental space is a lovely dance between author and reader, and I’m not sure how I feel about something cutting in on that dance.
Bu -
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that a couple of weeks ago, E.L. James (author of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy) held a twitter event that took a turn toward the dark side. A number of people sent nasty tweets attacking her skill as a writer and accusing her of damaging women’s causes. I was disturbed by this, not because it happened per se—internet trolls are gonna hate, that’s no surprise—but because it seems to be the apex of a phenomenon I h -
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Summer is in full swing, which means it's time for beach reads! There's nothing like hanging out on the beach or next to the pool or lolling under an oak tree on a beautiful summer day with plenty of time to read, read, read. And I have a fun read to add to your list: Veronika Layne Gets The Scoop, by Julia Park Tracey, the first installment of the Hot Off The Press series.
Veronika Layne Gets the ScoopVeronika Layn -
Blog postI am frugal by nature. So when my mother-in-law sends me a bushel of apricots and apricot products from her mid-summer harvest, I set about to use it.
I also had in my possession a pint or so of ripe, sweet blueberries, so I decided to make an apricot-blueberry pie. I did a google search to see if recipes for such a thing exist, and lo-and-behold, they do. As it was 4th of July morning, I scanned the ingredients to make sure I had them all on hand, and found that I did, with one min -
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If you’re a writer, you’re a reviser, and if you’re like me, the revising is the hard part. I can produce rollicking piles of crappy writing in no time flat, but it’s a hard, laborious process to turn it into something anyone would want to read. And since I’ve spent half my life revising academic papers, at times it takes a concerted switch in mindset to edit my fiction.
One of the best tools I’ve found for this is The Writer’s Digest Writ -
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So this happened:
I recently wrote a flash fiction piece I was pretty darn happy with, and submitted it to several publications. I got two responses back. The first said my story had been rejected because my protagonist’s mental state and behaviors were completely unrealistic, that nobody would ever react the way my protagonist had reacted. The second also rejected the piece because they weren’t accepting fiction pieces, but said that my story felt very true -
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Do you ever run out of ideas for stories or for people to populate those stories? I have a sure-fire way to stoke the fires of your creativity: genealogy.
I know of what I speak here. My first novel was born from my amateur genealogy research, and I have a second book from that material waiting in the wings. And yes, I am talking about fiction, not non-fiction.
Let me give you a quick example. During my research, I found out I have -
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Hello!
Whenever I'm dealing with life tasks that require a lot of my hands and only a little bit of my brain, I love to listen to podcasts. I have a range of favorite types, but as it turns out, quite a few of them are writing podcasts. They keep me focused on craft, updated on the ever-changing industry (well, as much as anything can, I suppose), and they inspire me when my motivation is flagging. In case you're looking for any of those things, here are my f -
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Warning: This post contains spoilers; proceed at your own risk. If you haven't seen the Mad Men finale, what are you waiting for?? You can watch it here.
For most of the Mad Men finale, I was underwhelmed. I’ve seen far too many disappointing finales in my time, and I tend to watch them now through a scrunched face wincing against the disappointment that seems sure to come. In this case, what I saw wasn’t bad; nothing outrageous or ridiculous, -
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In my recent post about my revision process (you can find it here if you missed it), I mentioned that there were several books that helped me along my fiction revision path (which turned out to be very different from revising my previous non-fiction). I’m going to do a series of reviews on the ones I like, starting with one of my very favorites, Rock Your Revisions: A Simple System for Revising Your Novel, by Cathy Yardley.
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Blog postI just went on my first official writing research trip!
I’m gearing up to revise my third novel and write my fourth; both are set in a little California town that I love. I’ve visited once a year on average for the last fifteen or so years, but always for a get-away, never with an eye to writing about it. So it was time.
I know what you’re thinking. These days, you don’t need to leave your house to research a location. You can stroll the streets of Paris o -
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Do you ever feel like giving up on your writing? Maybe after a rejection from an agent or magazine you thought was a perfect match for your work? Or after you spent eight hours revising a two-page scene only to realize the next day that your original version is better? Or when you’re staring at a blank screen and the voices in your head are whispering to you that you’re crap? Maybe when you read a masterful piece by another writer and feel like
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