The Literate Kitty

I don’t have kids, but if I did? My biggest worry would probably be how I was gonna put them through college.  Going to university has never been a guarantee in the U.S., but over the last couple of decades, costs have skyrocketed… meaning you either have to be born into money, qualify for a great scholarship, or go into serious debt, to get a degree. So imagine all the things that might happen if a small, private university held a contest each year—one that only a select few students were even invited to compete in—with the grand prize being everything … a full-ride, plu s a year’s employment at a powerful corporation, after graduation. That’s the premise of David Bell’s thriller, The Finalists , one of the most of-the-moment suspense novels I’ve read in a long time. _______________ It’s a typical spring day—hot, sunny, and beautiful—in Eastern Kentucky, when a group of six college students make their way across campus to the prestigious old Victorian heap otherwise known a...

Ask any writer what their biggest fear is, and they might say it’s no one reading their work. (Well, that, or forgetting to hit “save”, then experiencing a catastrophic power outage or random computer shutdown. That’s definitely another big one.)  If you asked what plagues them most often, though, chances are, it’s gonna be writer’s block. The muse disappearing. Being stuck. No matter what they call it, every writer goes through it… and it totally sucks.  Most of us try to find inspiration, somewhere, somehow. Or we put the writing aside, to let our thoughts (hopefully) percolate. Maybe we start working on something else, entirely. Or, one can go a very, very different route… as does the protagonist in David Bell’s gripping thriller, Kill All Your Darlings. _______________ Connor Nye is an English professor on the fast track at a small college, when tragedy strikes: his wife and son are killed, leaving him alone and adrift.  He manages to keep it together eno...