Booze and guns. Booze and swimming. Booze and driving. Booze and burgers. Only one of these options go well together in real life. In fiction, however, these combos can be 100-proof plot lubricant. (Image via Pexels)
Reader of this blog and The Writer’s Guide to Weapons book, Aaron Marshall, is working on a WIP featuring a critical scene involving firearms and alcohol. Here’s the question he wrote to me, as well as my response. Continue reading
There’s a reason the term “shot in the dark” doesn’t mean “to do something with great clarity.” (Michael Connick photo)
Michael Connick recently completed a nighttime match with the International Defense Pistol Association (IDPA). This resulted in some interesting insights for using handguns in dark or low-light conditions that fiction writers might find illuminating. His guest post is below. Enjoy!
~Ben
Michael Connick is the author of “Trapped in a House of Mirrors” and “Funhouse Mirrors.” Both are available at all fine book retailers. (Image courtesy of the author)
According the National Criminal Justice Reference Service of the US Department of Justice , about 90% of police shootings happen in low-light conditions.
Bad things done by bad people tend to occur in the dark. If your protagonist needs to go after some evil-doer at night or in a darkened building, they are going to need to be able to see threats well enough to accurately engage them with their handgun. They are going to need to be familiar with the techniques required to manage lights and handguns in the dark.
This article is going to discuss some of these techniques. Continue reading
It’s one thing to write about the crazy things that happen in fiction. It’s another to find a junked up car to test them out in real life. Michael Connick falls into the latter. Enjoy!
~Ben Continue reading
Crossbows in fiction experienced a bit of a renaissance with the popularity of The Walking Dead and Daryl Dixon. But are they really any better than compound bows? This guest blog from Tomaz Rodica, of ArcherStop, compares the two. Be sure to let me know your opinion in the comments. Enjoy!
~Ben
This guest post comes from Megan Robin, someone I first met at the 2016 Writer’s Digest Conference. I’m glad I did, because not only is she a terrifically talented writer, she pitches blog posts about weapons in children’s stories. What’s not to like about that? Enjoy!
~Ben Continue reading
The Writer's Guide to Weapons 