Hank Phillippi Ryan

Novels with Surprising Structure - Tall Poppy Writers 2

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What Do “The Appeal,” “Mirror Me” and “All This and More” Have in Common That Will Blow Your Mind?

When we were little kids, if we were lucky, someone would put us on their laps and say the magic words: once upon a time. The walls would fall away, time would vanish, and we’d be transported to a new world. But I think we were also being introduced to…

Hank Phillippi RyanMarch 24, 2025

Fiction Listicles

For Auld Lang Syne: Books Set on New Year’s Eve

High noon. Midnight. When a novel or movie is set at one of those precipitous times, the conflict is built right into the story. The reader instantly knows something is ending, and something is beginning. And to put the focus of action right at that pivotal moment is a laser…

Hank Phillippi RyanDecember 30, 2024

Fiction Listicles

Real-Life Scandal, Gossip and Rumors: The Fodder for Fiction

Hester Prynne didn’t have Instagram or Twitter for her world to spread the word about her scandal — still, she was forced to wear that scarlet A right on the front of her frock. I always imagine the snippy 17th-century Bostonians whispering behind their hands, lasciviously spreading the gossip about…

Hank Phillippi RyanAugust 15, 2024

Miscellany Thrillers

Hank Phillippi Ryan on Fixing Fact Through Fiction in “One Wrong Word”

Guess what I heard? But—you have to promise not to tell. Is there any one of us who wouldn't lean closer and listen to the person who asked us that? Especially if the question was whispered, hushed, delivered with a sense of drama? “Guess what I heard?” means there's a…

Hank Phillippi RyanApril 1, 2024

Listicles Listicles - Featured Thrillers

Why She Won’t Go into the Woods: 7 Sinister and Spooky Stories

Raise your hand if you love to go camping. You will note my hand is down. Besides Girl Scout camp, where I mostly remember bugs and teasing and being unable to sleep because of the stories about the Bloody Hook of the Goat Killer, I really only went camping once.…

Hank Phillippi RyanSeptember 15, 2022

Fiction Listicles Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

A Locked Room Is Not Always a Locked Room

Do you remember when you first read The Speckled Band? The Sherlock short story by Arthur Conan Doyle where a soon-to-be-wed daughter is mysteriously killed in a creepy mansion where no one could possibly have entered her locked room? And then, guess what, ANOTHER soon-to-be-wed daughter has to sleep in…

Hank Phillippi RyanAugust 4, 2022

Listicles Listicles - Featured

10 Breakaway Reads for Spring Break!

Every reader knows about the coveted “Summer Reads” lists (usually published in June), the compilations of the buzziest books of the season. And, of course, the December “Must-Buy” holiday gift lists. But why is there not a “Spring Break” list? Maybe a spring break list could mean … a break…

Hank Phillippi RyanApril 21, 2022

Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured

11 Books for Perilous Times

Oh, yes. I agree. It’s really tempting to pull the comforter over your head and hide until all this is over. The world seems very crazy right now, and … how do we deal with that? Here’s one thought. When the pandemic started, I was in the midst of writing…

Hank Phillippi RyanMarch 3, 2022

Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured

Putting Together the Pieces: 9 Adventures in Storytelling Structure

We all are storytellers, right? In letters, where we are persuasive or loving or newsy. In emails, where we are planning or collaborating or gossiping. In journals, where we are unfiltered, revealing our inner selves. Or, at least, in our vision of ourselves. Even in the most mundane of documents,…

Hank Phillippi RyanJanuary 27, 2022

Listicles Listicles - Featured Miscellany

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Book Gifts Galore!

There’s nothing more rewarding than finding the perfect gift — to make a friend or relative happy, that’s the ultimate reward. But, and we all have to admit it, there are people who are difficult to buy gifts for. Happily, luckily, a book is always a perfect gift. The key…

Hank Phillippi RyanDecember 9, 2021

Fiction Listicles

The Good, the Bad and the Complicated: 8 Books Showcasing Sisterly Bonds

Katniss Everdeen set the bar high for sisters when she stepped in to take her sister Prim’s place in The Hunger Games. Mary Boleyn — good move as it turned out — stepped aside to let her sister Anne marry Henry VIII. Sisterly relationships are fraught and conflicted and seething…

Hank Phillippi RyanOctober 28, 2021

Fiction Listicles

8 Fiction Books Revealing the Risk of Fame

After you read a book about a celebrity you might realize you’d never want to be a celebrity. If you read a book about fame you’d never want to be famous. Because, in books, what happens? The center of attention, the rockstar, the movie star, the influential publisher ... they…

Hank Phillippi RyanAugust 26, 2021

Fiction Listicles Thrillers

BREAKING NEWS: Books With Reporters as Main Characters

Having a journalist as the main character is good news and bad news. The good news is that it solves one of the trickiest problems in crime fiction writing: if your character is not in law enforcement of some kind (or at least a private detective) and they come across…

Hank Phillippi RyanJuly 29, 2021

Fiction Listicles

Whose Story is This? Classic Tales Cleverly Retold

You’ve heard the wry pronouncement, “There are only two plots in the world: someone takes a journey, and a stranger comes to town.” And then someone inevitably replies “That’s the same story. It all depends upon the point of view.” If there are only two stories in the universe, and…

Hank Phillippi RyanJune 17, 2021

Listicles Young Adult

The Books of Our Lives: A Stack of Reads for New Grads

I remember when my grandson was born; I showered him with books. Yes, he was maybe two hours old, but there were books I needed him to have: A Hole Is to Dig, the Edward Eager mysteries, Winnie-the-Pooh, the Narnia residents, The Snowy Day, The Dot and the Line: A Romance…

Hank Phillippi RyanMay 20, 2021

Fiction Listicles

Where History Becomes Story: 8 Tales of Wartime Bravery

It was my father’s birthday the other day. He would have been 97. And in celebrating, I thought about one encounter he and I had some years ago. We were in a friend’s home library, and Dad pulled a battered paperback volume of poetry from the shelves. “This is just…

Hank Phillippi RyanMarch 11, 2021

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Hank Phillippi Ryan

What Do “The Appeal,” “Mirror Me” and “All This and More” Have in Common That Will Blow Your Mind?

For Auld Lang Syne: Books Set on New Year’s Eve

Real-Life Scandal, Gossip and Rumors: The Fodder for Fiction

Hank Phillippi Ryan on Fixing Fact Through Fiction in “One Wrong Word”

Why She Won’t Go into the Woods: 7 Sinister and Spooky Stories

A Locked Room Is Not Always a Locked Room

10 Breakaway Reads for Spring Break!

11 Books for Perilous Times

Putting Together the Pieces: 9 Adventures in Storytelling Structure

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Book Gifts Galore!

The Good, the Bad and the Complicated: 8 Books Showcasing Sisterly Bonds

8 Fiction Books Revealing the Risk of Fame

BREAKING NEWS: Books With Reporters as Main Characters

Whose Story is This? Classic Tales Cleverly Retold

The Books of Our Lives: A Stack of Reads for New Grads

Where History Becomes Story: 8 Tales of Wartime Bravery

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