Bøker av Cindy Dees

NYT and USAT bestselling author and screenwriter, Cindy Dees, brings her formidable skills as a master storyteller and master writing teacher to this encyclopedic series analyzing the major tropes used in modern commercial fiction. In this volume, Cindy explores 33 iconic backstory romance tropes, the stories made up of the lingering problems, scars, and needs from your hero's and heroine's pasts that must be overcome before they can achieve happiness and true love..Written by a working writer for working writers, this is a comprehensive reference guide and brainstorming tool to help you quickly generate ideas, create characters and plot, revise and edit, brand and market your story. You'll write faster, cleaner, and deliver your audience a story they'll recognize and love.If you're writing a novel, script, play, comic, graphic novel, video game script, or any other story format, this book is for you. If you're writing a love story specifically, or you're writing any genre of fiction in which you'd like to include a romantic relationship, this book is for you.Each trope entry includes: a detailed definition and analysisdescriptions of all obligatory scenes necessary to structure this trope correctlylists of additional key scenes important to this tropean extensive list of questions to think about when writing this tropean extensive list of traps to avoid when writing this tropereasons why audiences love this tropea list of similar tropesa list of examples of each trope in action taken from television, film, and novels...writers in every genre of fiction are going to want these guides in their go-to reference books......a tour de force how-to on creating stories audiences adore......the books every writer has been waiting for-a comprehensive walk-through by an industry pro of everything to think about when building a story of pretty much any kind...

Written for working writers, this is comprehensive reference tool will help you quickly generate ideas, create characters and plot, revise and edit, brand and market a story your audience loves.

NYT and USAT bestselling author and screenwriter, Cindy Dees, brings her formidable skills as a master storyteller and master writing teacher to this encyclopedic series analyzing the major tropes used in modern commercial fiction. In this volume, Cindy explores 33 iconic internal romance tropes, the stories of personal affliction, wounds, fears, and personality traits that form obstacles to love inside the hearts and minds of your characters. Written by a working writer for working writers, this is a comprehensive reference guide and brainstorming tool to help you quickly generate ideas, create characters and plot, revise and edit, brand and market your story. You'll write faster, cleaner, and deliver your audience a story they'll recognize and love.If you're writing a novel, script, play, comic, graphic novel, video game script, or any other story format, this book is for you. If you're writing a love story specifically, or you're writing any genre of fiction in which you'd like to include a romantic relationship, this book is for you.Each trope entry includes: - a detailed definition and analysis- descriptions of all obligatory scenes necessary to structure this trope correctly- lists of additional key scenes important to this trope- an extensive list of questions to think about when writing this trope- an extensive list of traps to avoid when writing this trope- reasons why audiences love this trope- a list of similar tropes- a list of examples of each trope in action taken from television, film, and novels...every kind of writer in every genre of fiction is going to want these guides in their go-to reference books......a tour de force how-to on creating stories audiences adore......the books every writer has been waiting for-a comprehensive walk-through by an industry pro of everything to think about when building a story of pretty much any kind...

"As an elite assassin for the CIA, Helen Warwick was trained to keep a low profile. To blend into the crowd. To eliminate her targets swiftly, silently, and efficiently. But now that she's retired, Helen is forced to take on a very different, and very public, role-as the proud mother of a rising young politician. At a DC press conference for her son's campaign, she sees the ominous green light of a gun laser fixed on her son's head-and her CIA training kicks in. She jumps into action, pushes her son down, and saves him from a sniper's bullet. In that moment, Helen realizes she will never escape the secrets of her past-or the deranged man she thought she killed. . . . He is still alive-and coming for her family. His code name is Scorpius. A Russian mole embedded in the CIA, he recruits dangerous sociopaths ejected from the military and trains them to kill at command. None of his CIA colleagues-including Helen Warwick-know his true identity. But when members of his kill team begin to disappear, he realizes his entire operation may be at risk. His greatest threat, Helen Warwick, has agreed to rejoin the CIA to help expose Scorpius after the assassination attempt on her son. She suspects that Scorpius may be one of her colleagues, part of a vast conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government. And now that her family has been personally targeted, she's willing to break every rule in the CIA handbook to stop Scorpius and his trained killers. Unless, of course, they kill her first. . . ."--

“A pitch-perfect adventure, filled with nuance and dire exploits. Take a breath, hang on, and enjoy the ride with this smart and clever heroine.” —Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author Fans of J.T. Ellison and Julie Clark will be riveted by this exhilaratingly sharp thriller from a New York Times bestselling author and former spy. This taut, action-packed thriller introduces unforgettable heroine Helen Warwick, a highly skilled CIA assassin trying to navigate retirement, settle into a normal life, and reconnect with her family . . . in the midst of mortal combat.Retirement isn’t easy for a former CIA assassin. For fifty-five-year-old Helen Warwick, it may be impossible. Even Helen’s family doesn’t know the true nature of the work she’s done for decades—the secret black ops, the sanctioned executions. But her plan to spend time reconnecting with her grown children has just been blown up—along with her son’s house—by hired killers. Why is she being targeted now—and by whom?Years of eliminating the nation’s enemies one sniper bullet at a time have earned Helen powerful adversaries. Then there are mysterious new foes, including a psychopath dubbed The DaVinci Killer, who wages a twisted war with a rival serial killer to turn murder into art. And when he sets his sights on Helen, she may very well become his next exhibit.From homegrown spies to Russian mafia hitmen, Helen’s ghosts don’t just haunt—they kill. And staying alive long enough to make up for the past, and protect those closest to her, will take every ounce of skill she possesses . . .

"Retirement isn't easy for a former CIA assassin. For fifty-five-year-old Helen Warwick, it may be impossible. Even Helen's family doesn't know the true nature of the work she's done for decades--the secret black ops, the sanctioned executions. But her plan to spend time reconnecting with her grown children has just been blown up--along with her son's house--by hired killers. Why is she being targeted now--and by whom? Years of eliminating the nation's enemies one sniper bullet at a time have earned Helen powerful adversaries. Then there are mysterious new foes, including a psychopath dubbed The DaVinci Killer, who wages a twisted war with a rival serial killer to turn murder into art. And when he sets his sights on Helen, she may very well become his next exhibit. From homegrown spies to Russian mafia hitmen, Helen's ghosts don't just haunt--they kill. And staying alive long enough to make up for the past, and protect those closest to her, will take every ounce of skill she possesses ..."--

Find Meby Cassie Miles Her most challenging task? Seducing her partner.

A Stud Games NovelSurveillance, seduction, and extra-dirty politics.Christian Chatsworth-Brandeis has a problem. A huge one. The US senator he works for has run away with his latest mistress on the eve of a make-or-break fundraising event, and it's up to him to cover his irresponsible boss's tracks.Stone Jackson, Senator Lacey's new bodyguard, looks enough like him that, with some extensive grooming, he might pass for the senator. Christian and Stone hatch a plan to substitute Stone for the senator, but Miami madness and the incendiary heat between them are throwing obstacles in their way. It's a race to find the senator and pull off the con of the century before the attraction between them spins completely out of control.Previously published by Dreamspinner Press as Ace in the Hole by Ava Drake, July 2016.