It's such a handy curse word--F*CK--to grab while speaking or writing. As a writer of noir and hardboiled fiction, I'm as guilty as anybody for using the F-bomb. For the past couple of weeks, though, I've been working on my second cozy mystery (hey, the first was one of my bestselling titles). Now cozies, as a rule, don't use swear words. So, I cleaned up my fictional prose. Here's the thing I've noticed: I haven't missed my old F-friend, at all. I'm not sure what this means except to say it's been a challenge has been to create suspense and emphasis without resorting to the F-word. I just realized it this morning when I began to work and thought I'd blog a few words about it here with you.

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
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