Periscope Depth

make you work hard, make you spend hard

(Part 1 in a series of posts promoting my new novel) One of the surest sparks to creativity is to take a familiar situation, reverse some element, and see if you can still make it work. A few years back, I was reading a lot of thrillers for inspiration – Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Joseph [...]

maybe I’m just like my mother; she’s never satisfied

Gina Damico has an entertaining post comparing the five stages of the editing process to the Kubler-Ross stages of grief. It’s funny stuff, and it’s doubtless fresh in her mind since she just wrapped up galley proofs for her debut novel, Croak. So I’d trust her if I were you. I’ve found similar reactions in [...]

when you say good-bye and walk on by

Hardcore video gamers refer to a stack of games they’ve purchased but never played as their “pile of shame.” I think it’s a little silly as a term of art – what’s there to be ashamed of? – but I understand the origin. You recognize the disconnect between what you acquire and what you consume. [...]

the floods is threatening my very life today

A few years ago, Joel linked to a New York Times article on a famous experiment by Dr. Stanley Milgram. And no, not the one you’re thinking of: Quickly, however, the focus turned to the experimenters themselves. The seemingly simple assignment proved to be extremely difficult, even traumatic, for the students to carry out. “It’s [...]

mean old levee, taught me to weep and moan

Went to a great talk by Barry Eisler on Thursday, hosted by Grub Street at the Park Plaza Hotel. Eisler’s a great speaker: not just fun and engaging, but also immensely intelligent on whatever subject comes up. He was a little ragged from having talked at two earlier events that day, but I would still [...]

picking up the pieces of love

Writing continues apace. I knock off just over 1000 words a day, five days a week, which means I’ll probably finish this first draft about 15 weeks after I started. I may take a day to just plow through it and add another 10,000 words to the pile, but that seems unlikely and unnecessary. By [...]

it’s all right, darling; I can think of nothing better

Given that I’ve sold exactly zero books in my life to date, it’s a little presumptuous of me to give out writing advice*. But the writing process is a long one with many distinct stages. So I took a quick inventory of those parts of writing that I have a handle on: * Writing first [...]

but it’s no laughing party when you’ve been on the murder mile

Updates on writing: I commissioned a cover from Ryan Sawyer. The back and forth on design elements took about a month. Coming from a job where I deal with imprecise client demands all day, I tried to be considerate and clear in my comments on each draft. Ryan says I was fine to work with [...]

check the technique, see if you can follow it

Forbes.com has published an op-ed that is the least literate thing I’ve read since the last time I read a Forbes.com op-ed. And I’m not talking about content. I’m talking purely about the ability to string a sentence together and make its meaning clear. Some highlights: Call me prejudice [sic], but if the credibility of [...]

up onto the banks of this hard land

Our ancestors were hunters and foragers. The kind of hunger that we call “starving” today (as in “Mom, I’m -”), they lived with every waking hour. They followed herds of animals that were faster, stronger and better armed than they were and they died if they weren’t smarter. For the first ninety thousand years of [...]

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  • Periscope Depth

    The website of John Perich, author of TOO CLOSE TO MISS and editor for Overthinking It. He's learning about writing, marketing, publishing and promotion, and he encourages you to learn along with him.

    perich@periscopedepth.com

  • TOO CLOSE TO MISS




    "... opens with a bang and never relents ..."
    "... from chapter one, I couldn't put the damn thing down ..."
    "... already looking forward to Perich's next book ..."

    Mara Cunningham knew that sleeping with a married man was a bad idea. But when her lover shows up in the hospital after his wife and son are murdered, the rumors about her turn dangerous. Now she's the prime suspect in a double homicide, and the real killers will stop at nothing to silence her ...

    Buy the book that readers are calling "a great, suspenseful thriller" at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online retailers.



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