2authors blog--The official blog of the award-winning writing team, V. and D. Povall.

Hello again readers!  As our mystery novel gets closer to publication, we're back with another blog about one of our favorite mystery writers. Last week, it was John D. Macdonald . This week, we're talking about the murder mystery GOAT (greatest of all time)--Agatha Christie (no relation to Chris). Did you know she's the greatest-selling author of all time, in any genre? With the exception of Shakespeare and the Bible, Agatha Christie is the champ with over 2 billion copies sold.  Christie was born into a wealthy family in Torquay, England in 1890. The youngest of three kids, Agatha was homeschooled until she was 12. After her father died, she was sent to boarding school. Even at this young age, she was writing poems and short stories. When she finished school, her mother took her to Egypt for the summer, and she fell in love with the location, which she would later use as the setting for multiple stories.  She was married to Archibald Christie in 1914 after a very brie...

Hello Readers! Last week we explored the murder mystery genre, and because John D. Macdonald is one of our favorites in that realm we thought he deserved his own blog.  We're trying to get you excited about murder mysteries because our next novel (which is getting closer and closer to publication) "An Educated Death" has a lot of the classic hallmarks of the genre. We've been enjoying these kinds of stories for decades, and have always wanted to write one ourselves. One source of inspiration was Mr. Macdonald. Here's a little more info about him and what makes him special.  John Dann Macdonald was born in Sharon, PA in 1916. After graduating from Syracuse University, and then receiving an MBA from Harvard, Macdonald joined the Army as a first lieutenant just before WWII broke out. He served in the OSS in the China Burma India theater. If you've read his stories, you know that he set some of his earlier work in this region, and that was no coincidence. It's...

Hello All, We're back this week with another genre deep dive. As we wrote in a previous blog , our next novel will be a murder mystery, so this week we're going to explore the genre. What makes something a murder mystery? What are the hallmarks of good murder mystery stories?  The first thing to look for in a murder mystery is...a murder.  That may sound obvious, but nevertheless, you can't have a murder mystery without a murder. Or, at least, a supposed murder.  The next thing you need is a good puzzle that needs solving. The writer must leave clues for the reader, provide multiple believable suspects, and have a protagonist (or multiple protagonists) attempting to solve the crime. A good sidekick is a staple, too. Oh, and don't forget the murder weapon. A compelling murder mystery is a carefully orchestrated dance between plot intricacy and engaging characters. The trick is to strike a balance between withholding and revealing crucial information and holding readers o...

Hello Readers! We're back after a week off. This time around, we're going to look at a funnily-named and perhaps confusing genre: The Space Opera.  Have you heard of this before? A zaftig woman belting out Puccini on the bridge of a starship?  We kid. It's not exactly that literal. But if you aren't familiar with space opera, we're going to break it down for you. It's also the genre that our novel Ascension: Kelahya Unbound falls under.  Space operas are grandiose, large-scale stories set in space in the distant future. Think soap opera, but, ya know, not set in Port Charles. These sweeeping epics typically involve clashes between civilizations or worlds and have melodramatic love stories.  Think Star Wars.  What differentiates science fiction and space opera? Sci-fi emphasizes the science. Space opera doesn't concern itself with such matters. Science fiction would be a novel like Annihilation. Space Opera would be a novel like Dune.  Although the term was ...