C.Z. Swanson

Thriller Author 📚 | Cartoonist 🎨 | Kauai 🌴 Writing your next sleepless night. Surviving the madness with a grumpy cat and a vain gecko demanding top billing.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

Want more suspense in your writing? Make the unthinkable routine.

From The Hunger Games to the author who did it the best, Shirley Jackson.

#WritingTips #WritingCommunity #WritersofX https://t.co/f8jlCL97BC

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@TheHungerGames Our district is not sending its best.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@jaymeLpeck I can live with a sour ending. Nobody promised these people a good time. But give me something that feels earned—a small reckoning, one hard truth. A cliffhanger just makes me feel I’ve bought a book with the last chapter missing.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@RWoodsFiction Guilty. Stayed up reading, then the Kauaʻi roosters handled my wake-up call. My cat Pau sleeps eighteen hours and still expects his food bowl to be filled whenever he wishes. I'm studying his business model.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@MatthewHarffy Congrats! 👋

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@TheHungerGames Creators, while everyone’s watching the new Hunger Games trailer, I'm looking at who taught Suzanne Collins her best trick—and what we can steal from it.

For creative purposes. We’re not sending anyone into an arena.
https://t.co/VM4v0YOZDi

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

Want more suspense in your writing? Make the unthinkable routine.

From The Hunger Games to the author who did it the best, Shirley Jackson.

#WritingTips #WritingCommunity #WritersofX https://t.co/f8jlCL97BC

[The Hunger Games @TheHungerGames]

It's time. Tickets to see The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping are now on sale. Only in theaters & IMAX November 20.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

Everyone’s scrambling for Sunrise on the Reaping tickets, and I’m over here hoping someone recognizes Suzanne Collins in my cartoon. Apparently, I’ve chosen my own arena.

Writers: here’s who taught The Hunger Games author her best trick. Besides making readers deeply afraid to get attached to anyone.

#HungerGames #WritingCommunity

https://t.co/Vyq711tYtH

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

Want more suspense in your writing? Make the unthinkable routine.

From The Hunger Games to the author who did it the best, Shirley Jackson.

#WritingTips #WritingCommunity #WritersofX https://t.co/f8jlCL97BC

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@poojagarg1111 This hits home. I think it's a serious roadblock for writers. Most of us have learned to handle rejection and criticism privately. The real sting comes when someone else brings it up, and suddenly a setback feels like something we have to explain.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@kadaxis I suspect most, if not all, of my dreams find their way into my writing. Even the ones I can’t remember leave feelings that color the next day’s pages. Our subconscious is a coauthor who refuses to keep notes.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

Yes—a Hawaiian healer named Waialani, beloved by her community. In my novel Lolo Girl, she’d spent her life caring for everyone else, but after battling cancer, she’d given up on her own life. She knew how to help others heal, but struggled to offer herself that same care.

I thought her story had to end in death. Then I realized it could end with her choosing to live.

I’d already killed off one main character, and I couldn’t bear to lose her too. As a reader, I hate reaching the end of a book and finding half the people I cared about gone. So I saved her. She still had something to learn about letting herself be cared for.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@gary_hensel Love this. Another great victory is being able to enjoy your life again—to laugh without guilt and realize that what hurt you no longer gets to decide how you feel about yourself or what you believe is possible.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

First article is up!

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

Five masters of terror. Five lessons for writers. Several reasons Pau would prefer we took up gardening.

The series begins in twenty minutes with Stephen King—and why making readers recoil isn’t the same as making them afraid. 🎃

#WritingCommunity #HorrorWriting #StephenKing.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

Stephen King knows you’ll turn the page. Let’s examine what he’s holding over you.

First up in my Five Masters of Terror series: fear, pacing, and when to put the entrails away.

Article is up. Pau has requested we skip the practical exercises.
#SephenKing #WritingCommunity #WritersofX
https://t.co/6JeNGTQGXB

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

https://t.co/Q4t29FGiI8

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

https://t.co/Q4t29FGiI8

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@Nickyshearsby22 That’s what draws me in, too. My thrillers come at it a little differently—what happens when protecting the people you love becomes your justification for doing something terrible? One published, one out querying, and one in progress. Apparently, I’m not finished causing trouble.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

While I'm writing a short article series on five masters of horror, I have to give a shout-out to a contemporary mistress of dark psychological thrillers, Nicky Shearsby

Her novels take a "whydunnit" route into this territory: understanding the person you’d rather keep a safe distance from. That suggests a useful question for writers struggling with maintaining suspense: once readers know who your dark soul is, can you keep them reading to discover how that person justifies being one? A locked door is troubling. Someone on the other side who thinks they’re being perfectly reasonable is much more interesting.

[Nicky Shearsby @Nickyshearsby22]

OUT TODAY! "For The Condemned" is the 4th Flanigan Files novel following the sinister tale of Eugene Mason, on death row for the killing of 8 people. He only wishes to atone for his crimes. Its a shame things aren't so simple.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@AliceBooks333 The trick is convincing creativity to show up while I’m at my desk instead of halfway through a shower.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@Adil_Omar My writing is definitely rock ’n’ roll: questionable hours, too much caffeine, and a cat who keeps trashing the office.

[C.Z. Swanson @uthorcdswanson]

@CaitlinKellyNYC I’m so jealous. My honey-do list has become a historical document.