Best of Burghosphere Bloggers: Steel City Intrigue

Steel City Intrigue: a novel approach to blogging

I have been writing for local newspapers, blogs, comics and so forth for a few years now. Writing comes pretty naturally to me. It is just my rambling, blathering, rants typed out instead of shouting these things on a street corner. If I did share my musings via a soapbox and not a blog I would rightfully be locked up. This is my way of saying I am a writer and all writers are one street corner rant from ending up on a Secret Service list somewhere.

So it is appropriate that one of Pittsburgh’s brightest bloggers, J.J. Hensley is himself a former Special Agent with the Secret Service. You might be expecting his blog to be filled with pieces on the inner workings of the Illuminati, government cover-ups about UFOs, and the well-guarded secret Coca Cola formula. Alas he doesn’t tackle any of these great mysteries. He instead explores a much deeper one- How to write a novel.

While he does sometimes delve into the topics of security and strangely Playdoh, his posts on the writing process really standout. I view writing a novel like I view building a bridge. I am pretty sure I know how to do it, but really have no idea where you start? -Either end? The middle? Do you build it first and then haul it into place? No idea.

J.J., who is an award-winning mystery writer, takes the mystery out of writing. His posts are informative and entertaining. After reading his posts you feel empowered with the ability to write rather than rant on a street corner. While he may not teach you how to build a bridge he will teach you how to bridge the gap between day-to-day writing and writing a novel.

I am almost out of literary puns so I will end with declaring him the winner of “The Most NOVEL Blog” award. See what I did there.

You can read his blog at https://hensleybooks.wordpress.com

See more award winning blogs at http://mostwantedfineart.com/2014-events-at-mwfa/best-of-the-burghosphere-2015/