Writers are always instructed to make sure everything within the pages of a fiction manuscript advances the story. While it's one of the better "suggestions", aka "rules", it too is not foolproof and inarguable. Stories combine a multitude of factors. Characters, locations, sights, sounds, smells; literary, action-packed, ordinary, extraordinary, fantasy, supernatural, historical, criminal, styles…

  Summer TV makes a case for Anna Wood and Cam Gigandet as the sexy Yankee lawyer Jamie Sawyer at odds with the Charleston, South Carolina, newly appointed City Attorney Roy Rayder. If you like Southern sizzle and pop, Reckless is a well cast and tightly wound drama with good writing, plenty of conflicts, and each…

             Computers are a necessary evil and a frequent nuisance. I've been locked somewhere in the netherworld of no ethernet or internet for a few days. As you might've guessed, it has been . . . difficult. Now with a new modem/router and several hours of extra frustration setting up, it appears I am up…

  Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;   their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave;   with their tongue they speak deceit. Declare them guilty, O God!   Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins,   for they have rebelled against you.…

                        Noble Intentions – Season One – (Episodes 1 – 5) by L. T. Ryan takes Jack Noble in a strange direction as his services lead him deeper into the criminal element run by the all-world gangster known as "the old man". From assassin, sniper, to all-around hit-man, Jack sinks farther into a callous killing machine mode. His ability…

  If you've ever watched the TV series 24, you know what it's like to watch a thriller. I cannot think of another program that is as relentless with conflict as 24. From the first tick of the clock to the last, the action, the tension, the good and evil, rage on at a breakneck…

   Some authors prefer to create villains. Writers can make them as evil as they choose. If you want to read about some of the worst, I suggest you take a look at "Eenie" in Dean Koontz's From the Corner of His Eye or any of the bizarre and intricate bad dudes in the Patrick Bowers…

     That seemingly never ending battle between good and evil rages on in life and literature. Yesterday in my review of Thin Line by L. T. Ryan, I mentioned the concept of even within the "good" people the potential for horrible evil resides. Christians know human beings are not "good" as some would have us all believe.…

                                   A popular concept for thriller authors is contemplating the difference between good and evil. Steven James in his Patrick Bowers Series dares to speculate the availability of evil resides in even "good" people - as in the potential to commit an evil act even when they know it's wrong. However, the opposite is rarely true.…

  You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil;    with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence;    you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies;    bloodthirsty and deceitful men    the Lord abhors.   Psalm 5:4-6 (NIV)