Walker BuckalewMay 142 minDogs and Cats and NovelsThe latest novel in the Rebecca Series, A Fearful Thing, is the first in the Rebecca Series and in the Visioners Series – a total of five...
Walker BuckalewApr 113 minConstructing Novels: Part FourIn Part Three, I described the importance of contributions of in-process readers of manuscripts. And I closed by noting that, aside from...
Walker BuckalewApr 112 minConstructing Novels: Part ThreeWhen my wife Linda finished reading her third three-chapter block of manuscript pages for A Fearful Thing – on its way to becoming the...
Walker BuckalewMar 233 min“How Is a Person Supposed to Read Fiction?”C. S. Lewis told his readers and his correspondents repeatedly that, when you read fiction, you will not have a good experience unless...
Walker BuckalewMar 93 minReal-Life Characters: A Fearful ThingI have mentioned in earlier posts that the characters in my novels are not based on actual people. Rather, I normally create my...
Walker BuckalewFeb 12 minCover Art: A Fearful ThingBefore the proliferation of e-readers – and using them as convenient and inexpensive substitutes for actual books – the cover art...
Walker BuckalewDec 14, 20213 min“I really enjoyed your book”: A Fearful ThingOccasionally I – like other authors – get notes from people who have read one of my novels. They sometimes write, “I really enjoyed your...
Walker BuckalewNov 19, 20213 minWhy is there Violence in the Rebecca novels? A Fearful ThingNear the end of my second adult-level novel – the second in the Rebecca Series – we read this passage: The gunman, kicking wildly at her...
Walker BuckalewNov 2, 20213 minRomance in the Rebecca Series: A Fearful ThingIn previous posts, I’ve suggested that, in action/mystery novels, a background romance can add suspense to the mystery and depth to the...
Walker BuckalewOct 18, 20212 minGood Endings: A Fearful Thing At the end of the highly successful film The Bourne Identity, the actor Matt Damon somehow finds the actress Franka Potente on what...
Walker BuckalewSep 27, 20213 minBoats and Ships and Weapons: A Fearful Thing My stories – adult and young adult – often feature boats or ships at some point. What’s the difference? Well, the easiest way to think...
Walker BuckalewSep 10, 20213 minAction Scenes: A Fearful ThingA Fearful Thing, the fifth novel in my Rebecca Series, opens with a car chase through the streets of London. On page two of the book, we...
Walker BuckalewAug 24, 20213 minResearching Novels: "A Fearful Thing"My new novel, A Fearful Thing, is the fifth novel in the Rebecca Series. It is set in the year 1985, four (fictional) years after the...
Walker BuckalewAug 10, 20213 minThe Female Lead Character in the Rebecca Series and in the new release: A Fearful Thing Over the years, when I have found myself speaking to students in their classrooms, or to adults at book-signing events, I have often been...
Walker BuckalewJul 26, 20212 minSympathetic Characters: Self-Reflection versus “Wallowing”I have noted before, in other posts, how fast and hard I tend to get rolling when an action scene approaches. Since I am fast on the...
Walker BuckalewJul 13, 20213 minHow Long is a Novel?In the introduction to his novel tilted Winter Prey, John Sandford observes that this story was one of his first in which the novel’s...
Walker BuckalewJun 27, 20212 minCreating “Evil” CharactersAuthors, readers, and book reviewers often agree that in many novels, the “evil” character is the one who is the most carefully developed...
Walker BuckalewJun 14, 20212 minWhat Exactly is a “Christian Novel?"During book readings and other kinds of presentations related to my novels, I have often been asked that kind of question. The most...
Walker BuckalewMay 31, 20213 minConstructing Novels: Part Two In Part One of this two-part post, I wrote about how novels are often pieced together. And I mentioned that, in the first two novels in...
Walker BuckalewMay 16, 20212 minConstructing Novels: Part One Whenever I am a guest teacher for an hour or so in a high-school or middle-school English class, I usually pull a novel off of the...