- This event has passed.
AUG 20, 2022 TPS–Keeping the pages Turning: How to Create Suspense, presented by Brad Parks
August 20, 2022 @ 9:30 am - 12:00 pm EDT
Regardless of genre, the rocket fuel for all books—fiction and non-fiction alike—is suspense. You have to keep readers desperate to know what happens next. But how do you accomplish that? How do you keep them turning those pages? Relying on tips and insights he’s learned across the nearly twenty books he’s published as a novelist and ghostwriter—in both the thriller genre and elsewhere—international bestselling author Brad Parks will share his not-quite-patented Formula For Suspense. (Yes, he can express it algebraically; no, you don’t have to bring a calculator.) He will also offer some writing prompts and, for the brave, instant feedback during the workshop.
Presenter Bio
International bestselling author Brad Parks is the only writer to have won the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Awards, three of American crime fiction’s most prestigious prizes. His novels have been translated into 15 languages and have won critical acclaim across the globe, including stars from every major pre-publication review outlet. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Parks is a former journalist with The Washington Post and The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. He is now a full-time novelist living in Virginia with his wife and two school-aged children.
Awards
2010 Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel to Faces of the Gone
2010 Nero Award for Best American Mystery to Faces of the Gone*
2013 Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery to The Girl Next Door
2014 Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel to The Good Cop+
2014 Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery to The Good Cop#
2017 Best Book by Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal to Say Nothing
2017 Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award to Say Nothing
2018 Best Book by Kirkus Reviews to Closer Than You Know
* Faces of the Gone is the only book in history to have both those awards.
+ Parks became the first Best First Shamus winner to later win the Best Novel category.
# Parks is one of two authors, along with Janet Evanovich, to win back-to-back Lefty Awards.