dialog | Christopher Mirabile

CrimeSpree Magazine Feature

by Christopher Mirabile | Jul 23, 2026 | Author Life, Characters & Character Spotlights

Have you ever heard of CrimeSpree Magazine? I hadn’t either, but I’m glad we have now because it is a gem—a wonderful labor of love, an ode to all things crime and mystery related, and well worth checking out. Run by Jon and Ruth Jordan, with help from...

What Silas Won’t Say: interiority and the problem of a quiet narrator in third-person close

by Christopher Mirabile | Jul 11, 2026 | Writing Craft & Technique, Writing Process & Behind the Scenes

I painted myself into a corner right out of the gate in developing the Silas Lopez series. The protagonist of The Washashore and The Holdfast is about as laconic as they come—thoughtful, observant, but a man who speaks reluctantly, says only what’s needed and almost...

Lighthouses (Anatomy of a Scene)

by Christopher Mirabile | Jul 5, 2026 | Writing Craft & Technique, Writing Process & Behind the Scenes

I was recently invited to share my thoughts on a passage from The Washashore. It gave me a chance to reflect, so I thought I’d capture some of those reflections here. The passage is a favorite of mine, taken from Chapter 45, in which Wren and Silas go on their first...

Why I Wrote the Heart of My First Novel Backwards (And Why It Saved the Book)

by Christopher Mirabile | Jan 24, 2026 | Writing Process & Behind the Scenes

The Writing I Did Before Chapter One // Before I typed a single line of the first chapter of The Washashore, I wrote all twenty-three scenes featuring Wren and Silas. Not an outline. Not notes. The actual scenes—drafted, revised, and polished—before I touched anything...