Fiction with a Message

Sandra Parshall

Some people believe that fiction writers, along with actors and musicians, should keep their opinions to themselves and do their work with no goal beyond entertaining an audience. No social or political messages should be allowed to make readers stop and think about real-world issues.

Fortunately, crime fiction authors have always ignored that advice, because they realize their characters don’t exist in a void and have to make their way in the same world readers inhabit. Some of the most popular mystery writers have proved it’s possible to present their own passionate viewpoints without losing readers. Carl Hiaasen is an anti-development crusader in south Florida and gets that across in his books, but readers are too busy laughing to object to having their consciousness raised about environmental issues. Long before Hiaasen, John D. MacDonald kept readers enthralled with mysteries that highlighted destructive development in the same fragile Florida ecosystem.

Many crime fiction writers explore a variety of today’s most sensitive social issues in their books. Julia Spencer-Fleming, for example, has woven mysteries around the plight of illegal migrant workers, teenage pregnancy and abandoned babies, violence against gays, and post-traumatic stress in soldiers returning from Iraq.

More often, though, writers focus on particular issues that mean the most to them. The challenge they face is finding fresh ways to weave those topics into entertaining stories. I asked three authors who are currently including environmental issues in their novels why they feel fiction is a good medium for their message and whether any readers have objected to being “educated” as they’re entertained.


“Crime fiction is a good medium for exploring ANY issue that people feel passionate about, because that passion, when pushed to the extreme, can lead to murder,” Beth Groundwater says. Beth writes a series featuring river ranger Mandy Tanner, who works on the Arkansas River in Colorado.

C.J. Lyons agrees. “All my crime fiction has a message, whether environmental or simply about everyday people finding the courage to become their own heroes.” C.J., a physician who began her career writing medical thrillers and now co-authors environmentally themed novels (Rock Bottom, Hot Water) with activist Erin Brockovich, says Brockovich sought her out as a writing partner because of the strong message about self-reliance in C.J.’s first series. “I feel fiction is an appropriate medium to explore issues, whether environmental, political, or moral/ethical. Crime fiction is the best venue because at its base you have the timeless struggle of good versus evil, and our job as writers is to explore all that messy gray area between the two.”

“Environmental thrillers offer a unique opportunity to educate readers about real-world problems in the context of an exciting story,” says thriller writer Karen Dionne. The world’s dwindling supply of clean water and misuse of this precious resource has been a major concern in Karen’s personal life and she explored the issue in her first book, Freezing Point. Her second, Boiling Point, is about the disastrous consequences of a radical scheme to end global warming. Both of Karen’s eco-thrillers, she notes, have been used as course material at the University of Delaware.

Whatever a book’s underlying message, telling a compelling tale must come first.

“I always try to balance things so the reader can make up their own mind without being preached to,” C.J. says. “Above all, my job is to entertain...the education comes in a close second, but if a book isn't entertaining, who's gonna read it in the first place?” She says she hasn’t heard any complaints, and in the case of the books co-written with Brockovich, some readers have asked for more information about mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia and the dangers of nuclear power.

Beth Groundwater always tries to see her writing through the eyes of a reader. “I complain when an author stops the action in the middle of a gripping story to stand on their soapbox and push (or have one of their characters push) their viewpoint on an issue,” she says. “I prefer to show how the issue affects my characters' lives, then let readers draw their own conclusions. For example, in Deadly Currents, I illustrate how water rights affects the lives of not only river rangers and rafters, but of everyone who lives and works in the water-starved American West. Because of my organic approach, I've never gotten a complaint from a reader about preaching my beliefs. I have, however, been told that I've opened readers' eyes about an issue and made them think more about it, even to the point of changing their opinion.”
 

Human impact on the natural world, and the constant push-and-pull between environmentalists and business, can be divisive and inflammatory, and Karen believes writers must keep this in mind. “I think more than most other kinds of fiction, environmental mysteries and thrillers walk a fine line. There's always going to be a certain amount of political and sociological baggage that goes with having written an eco-thriller. If a reader disagrees with the author's environmental position, that may well get in the way of their enjoying the story.” 

Some people simply aren’t interested in mysteries that are “about something.” One of Karen’s readers complained in an online review, “I sympathize with the message, but at the same time, I read fiction to be entertained, not to be told how often we are destroying the earth even if it may be true." Other readers, though, have echoed the Romantic Times reviewer who said, “[Freezing Point's] ingenious plot, genuine characters, superlative writing and nail-biting suspense will change the way you look at a bottle of water.”

C.J. believes the six most powerful and irresistible words in the English language are "Let me tell you a story..." When it’s done right, a story can change lives, change opinions – or, at the very least, give the reader something to think about.

How do you feel about fiction with a message?

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Learn more about C.J. Lyons, Beth Groundwater, and Karen Dionne on their websites: http://www.cjlyons.net, http://www.bethgroundwater.com and http://www.karen-dionne.com/.

Whitewater Rafting with Beth

by Beth Groundwater

Everyone who leaves a comment for Beth will have a chance to win a copy of her March 8 release, Deadly Currents.

Mandy Tanner, the sleuth in my new mystery Deadly Currents, is a whitewater river ranger on the upper Arkansas River of Colorado, the most commercially rafted river in the U.S. The huge volume of commercial and private boaters keeps Mandy and her fellow river rangers busy performing rescues, checking licenses and safety procedures, clearing dangerous debris, etc. Mandy knows the rapids like the back of her hand because, like most of the seasonal river rangers who work for the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area (AHRA), she used to be a rafting guide, taking tourists down the Arkansas on guided trips.

And I’m one of those tourists who love to ride the waves of Colorado’s whitewater rivers! Many people think the experience must be terrifying. But the risks can be managed so the danger is minimized and the fun is maximized. First, you must:
1. Be in good health (heart attacks are the most common cause of rafting deaths).
2. Know how to swim.

Additionally, you MUST share your medical conditions (such as diabetes or asthma) with your rafting guide and bring along any essential medications or equipment (such as an inhaler or epi-pen). One rafting guide I interviewed said his first customer death on the river was a man who suffered from emphysema, didn’t divulge that condition on his paperwork, then left his medications in his car. The man fell in the cold water, was pulled back into the raft, but couldn’t catch his breath. That guide is still haunted by the man’s death, even though he could do nothing to help him and it wasn’t his fault!

You should know your limits, based on physical condition and experience level. If you’re a first-time rafter, you should raft a river section that doesn’t have any rapids classified higher than Class III, Difficult. And if you do tackle Class III rapids, you should have a professional guide in your raft.

The International Scale of River Difficulty rates individual rapids and river sections on a six class scale. They range from Class I, Easy, with small waves with no obstacles, through Class II, Medium, up to Class V, Extremely Difficult, with long, violent rapids. The highest is Class VI, formerly classified as Unrunnable or Danger to Life or Limb, which are only attempted by expert kayakers after hours of scouting and with safety lines and rescuers standing by.

Family “float trips” usually stay in the Class I–III range, and the roller-coaster adventure trips that I and other whitewater adventurers take are usually in the Class III-V range. I have set my own upper limit at Class IV. You should always be prepared to swim any rapid your boat goes through, because the raft may flip or you may be tossed into the water. And I’ve decided that I don’t want to swim any rapid higher than IV, even though I’m a strong swimmer for my age.

The photo below was taken during a trip with my husband, my son and one of his friends, and our guide on the Blue River of Colorado last summer, which was a Class II-III run and lots of fun.

Everyone in the raft wore a helmet and a PFD (lifejacket). Even if you’re on an easy float trip, you should wear a helmet in case you end up in the water, to protect your head from hitting a rock or floating debris. If you take a commercial rafting trip, the guides will educate you on how to swim a rapid if you wind up in the water. You lie on your back with your feet pointed downstream, so you can use them to push yourself away from rocks. And, most importantly, you hold onto your paddle, for the same purpose, and so when someone pulls you back into the raft, you can still perform your paddling job.

Never, never, never stand up in whitewater higher than ankle deep! Why? Because the force of moving water is very powerful. If your foot gets trapped between a couple of rocks and you fall down, the moving water will flatten your body. You won’t be able to hold your head up or reach back and free your foot. People have drowned in a foot of whitewater this way. Instead, if you fall out of a raft, either try to stay with the raft and get back in, or swim to the side of the river into a quiet eddy where the current is still and stand up and climb to the river bank.

Commercial guides also train you in how to anchor yourself in a raft, how to pull yourself back in if you get thrown out, and how to pull a raftmate in. This instruction came in handy for me when I took a trip down the Royal Gorge section of the Arkansas River last summer. I was seated in the back next to the guide and behind my daughter with my feet wedged under the tubes of the raft, as directed. We hit a huge wave that bounced me up into the air and off my seat. I wound up with my upper body in the river, but my foot was still wedged in the raft. I reached up (while still holding onto my paddle), and my daughter and the guide were able to easily pull me back in.

Below are some photos from that Class III-IV trip. Most of us wore wetsuits on this trip because the water was mostly snowmelt and very cold, so the suits would protect us from hypothermia if we had to swim any length of time in the river. This trip was an absolute blast—better than any rollercoaster ride I’ve been on!

 

If you’re safety-conscious, whitewater rafting can be a fun, exciting adventure. The safest way to try this adrenaline-pumping sport is by taking a commercial trip, so that you have a trained guide in the raft with you. If you follow your guide’s directions, the only deaths on the river you should experience are those that you’ll read about in Deadly Currents and future books in the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery series.

Have you ever gone whitewater rafting? On what river? What was the experience like? If you haven’t gone, did this blog post make you more or less likely to want to go (I hope more!)? Remember, everyone who comments will be entered into a contest for a free copy of Deadly Currents.

  

Beth Groundwater writes the Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series (A Real Basket Case, a 2007 Best First Novel Agatha Award finalist, and To Hell in a Handbasket, 2009) as well as the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner. Beth lives in Colorado and enjoys its many outdoor activities. Please visit her blog and go to her website for a list of other stops are on her virtual book tour. You can order an autographed copy of Deadly Currents from Black Cat Books (http://manitoubooks.com/).

Solitary writers? I don't know any

Sandra Parshall

Mystery writers, as much as any other authors, like to play up the image of the solitary wordsmith pecking away (preferably in an unheated attic), writing about imaginary people but shunning contact with the real kind.

Attend a mystery conference and you’ll see how absurd that notion is. Mystery writers are the friendliest people I’ve ever met, and many are likely to give you a big hug even if your previous acquaintance has been limited to online exchanges. (I’ve gotten used to people I’ve never met throwing their arms around me, but I'll admit it was startling at first.) In between conferences, those online chats keep everybody in touch, but there’s nothing like a mystery con to make a writer feel like part of a huge community of authors.

I’m only going to two conferences this year, and the first, Malice Domestic, is now past, leaving behind a lingering nostalgia for the energy and enthusiasm of a big crowd of writers and fans. Okay, I’ll admit Malice Domestic was more exciting last year, when I was an Agatha nominee (and winner). But this year was great in its own way because four friends from the Guppies Chapter of Sisters in Crime were nominated.

Liz Zelvin, my blog sister, was nominated for Best Short Story, as was Nan Higginson. Beth Groundwater was nominated for Best First Novel for A Real Basket Case. Hank Phillippi Ryan won the prize for her first novel, Prime Time. Here they are: Liz, Beth, Hank, and Nan.


They’re all terrific writers, and you’ll be hearing a lot more from and about them in the future.

The personal highlight of Malice this year came when a woman in the audience at my panel (“After the Agatha: You’ve won! What’s next?”) revealed that she is one of Poisoned Pen Press’s manuscript screeners and was delighted to have played a part in getting my first book, The Heat of the Moon, published. I wanted to find her and thank her afterward, but she had vanished. I hope she knows her words gave me a warm glow that's going to last a while.

So far everything I’ve done at Malice has been tied to The Heat of the Moon. In 2006, the book had just been published and my only goal was to make people aware of it. In 2007, I was on the Best First Novel nominees panel and feeling a little anxious that THOTM would overshadow the newly-released Disturbing the Dead. This year, I was on a panel of past Agatha winners, having fun but regretting that I didn't have another brand-new book in hand to talk about.

What’s in store for me next spring? Even I’m not sure yet. But I know I’ll be at Malice, getting and giving hugs, exhausting my cheek muscles with nonstop smiling, and enjoying the great company.

More of my Malice Domestic photos are posted at: www.flickr.com/photos/guppies/

Interview with author Beth Groundwater

by Lonnie Cruse

Good morning, everyone. My blog post for today is an interview with author Beth Groundwater. I hope you enjoy reading about Beth and her books. Thanks for stopping by!

LC: Tell us about your book.

BG: A Real Basket Case is an amateur sleuth mystery. The protagonist is Claire Hanover, the 46-year-old proprietor of a Colorado Springs, CO gift basket business. The action starts when her best friend arranges for a handsome young massage therapist to give Claire a massage, and he's shot and killed in her bedroom. When police arrest Claire's husband, Roger, for the crime, she must convince Roger she wasn't having an affair, and, with advice from a PI friend, find the real killer before Roger loses his job and goes to trial. Along the way, Claire confronts the victim's fiery ex-girlfriend, his drug-dealing cohorts, and the gym ladies he supplied with cocaine or seduced for money. She makes mistakes at every turn, but perseveres. One of my critique partners has nicknamed Claire "Lucy" after Lucille Ball's character, Lucy Arnez.

I've been amazed and gratified by the reviews that A Real Basket Case is getting, such as:

"This will appeal to Desperate Housewives fans and those who like cozies with a bit of spice."
-- Barbara Bibel, Booklist Review, February 1, 2007
"Drugs and jealousy add up to a Rocky Mountain murder. A tense, exciting debut."
-- Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2007

LC: What inspired you to write this book?

BG: I start plotting most of my mystery novels and stories with an idea about the victim and some interesting or unique way in which s/he was killed. For A Real Basket Case, I had a "What If?" inspiration: What if a man is killed in a married woman's bedroom and her husband is found holding the gun that shot him, BUT he didn't do it and the woman wasn't having an affair with the victim? That led to all kinds of questions that had to be answered, like how the man got in her bedroom and how the husband got hold of the murder weapon. Then, I made it even harder for myself by clothing her in her underwear and spraying gunshot residue on the husband's hand. It took me quite some time to ponder out that set-up!

LC: Wow, that would have given me pause as well. I'm dying to see how you dealt with it. Do you have an agent, or did you find your publisher on your own?

BG: I found my agent and publisher at the same time and at the same writing conference, the Colorado Gold, held every fall in Denver, CO. Actually the story begins before the conference and shows how networking works. I had "met" my editor on a couple of on-line email lists we both belong to, and a mutual friend arranged for us to get together for a drink at the conference. So, we had time to chat at leisure about my novel, our working styles, and her publishing house, Five Star Publishing. My actual pitch appointment with her was anticlimactic. Since we'd already talked, I brought in the first three pages of A Real Basket Case, she scanned them, and said, "Oh, I want this." We really clicked, and I consider her a friend now. Also, when I learned my now agent was attending the conference, I remembered that a fellow Sister in Crime had just announced that she signed with him. So, I asked her about him, and she advised me to query him beforehand. By the time of the conference, he'd seen a partial, so when we got together for a drink (notice the alcohol theme here?), we had something to talk about. Plus we had the time to discuss long-term career objectives and discover we agreed on them. Turns out, he and the editor already knew each other, and a plan to submit A Real Basket Case to Five Star was formed. Does it sound like I had an easy time of it? Not quite. Almost ninety rejections from other agents preceded this fortuitous lining up of the planets.

LC: Wow! Great story. I'm with Five Star as well. What are your future plans for your writing career? Series? Stand-alones?

BG: I've already written the sequel to A REAL BASKET CASE. Tentatively titled TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET, it takes place in Breckenridge, CO when Claire Hanover and her family take a ski vacation and the sister of her daughter's fiancé is killed on the slope. Instead of the marriage problems, Claire has in A Real Basket Case, she has daughter relationship problems in the sequel. I wrote the sequel while I was shopping around the manuscript for A Real Basket Case, and it took so long to sell it that I finished the sequel first. Five Star Publishing looks at sales figures for the first novel before requesting the manuscript for the sequel and contracting for it, but I'm ready when (notice I didn't say "if") they do. Also, I'm currently editing a manuscript that I hope will initiate a new series with a whitewater river ranger protagonist. I'll be sending it to my agent for his review right before I hit the promotion trail for A Real Basket Case.

LC: I've also got a "when" manuscript ready for Five Star. Maybe we need to mount a "divide and conquer" strategy for them? Okay, what inspires you, sends you running to the computer?

BG: An intriguing set-up--the "What-If" that gives me a puzzle to solve, a protagonist who I've gotten to know well enough that s/he starts talking to me in my dreams, and a whiz-bang black moment and climax. When those essential pieces fall in place, I know I've got a story worth telling and I start plotting.

LC: Love it! What authors do you love to read and why?

BG: I'm a very eclectic reader--all types of genres, except I don't like to be scared, so I stay away from horror and thrillers. I'm in a Book Club that meets monthly to discuss literary and women's fiction. My favorites to date are The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I read lots of mysteries, of course. Some of my favorite mystery authors are Western writers who I've gotten to know at conferences: C.J Box, Kathy Brandt, Christine Goff, Maggie Sefton, and Margaret Coel. I also enjoy light-hearted series by Alexander McCall Smith, Donna Andrews, and Tim Cockey. My favorite mystery writer is Sharyn McCrumb, and I'm collecting all her books. I read romance and science fiction occasionally and enjoy Diana Gabaldon, J.D. Robb, Anne McCaffrey, and Douglas Adams. Why do I like these authors? Given the wide variety, I haven't the faintest idea. The most important criterion is to not bore me.

LC: Same for me. If the book doesn't grab me, it goes back in the closet. What writing groups do you belong to, and how do they help keep your fingers glued to the keyboard?

BG: I'm a joiner and a consummate networker. I belong to Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America, Pikes Peak Writers, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. As for keeping my fingers glued to the keyboard, the biggest help to me is the online goal-setter group in Pikes Peak Romance Writers, my local chapter of RWA. At the beginning of every week I set a goal and announce it, then at the end of the week I have to report in on how I did. That public eye has really kept me (mostly) on track. And, I would still be unpublished without my critique group, without a doubt. That's the first piece of advice I give aspiring authors who ask me for guidance--join a good critique group! Without my group's advice, my writing would not have improved to the point where it's publishable. Without their support, I would have given up in quiet despair as the rejection letters rolled in year after year. I still meet with my critique group twice a month, and I hope to for many years to come.

LC: You're lucky to have a group nearby. Mine is online, but still extremely helpful. Anything else you'd like our readers to know about your writing?

BG: Please visit my website at www.bethgroundwater.com to learn more about me and my books. If you sign up for my email newsletter, you'll automatically be entered into a drawing for a gift basket. If there's something about my website that you like, let me know via the Contact Me link. My webmaster is my husband. He could use all the stroking I can get for him, with all the hours of free labor he puts in! Also, as an adjunct to the website, I post about twice a week to my blog at bethgroundwater.blogspot.com. If you want to learn what one author has been going through from the time of contract signing to publication date, take a gander. I write short stories, too, and have published seven, including one in Wild Blue Yonder, Frontier Airlines's in-flight magazine, and one which was translated into Farsi. Some can still be read in online ezines and others are in anthologies available from Amazon, including Map of Murder, Manhattan Mysteries, and Dry Spell: Tales of Thirst and Longing.

Lastly, there's nothing I enjoy more than making a new friend. I hope to meet many new faces at the mystery conferences I'll be attending this year--Malice Domestic, Mayhem in the Midlands, Murder in the Grove, and the Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave. Don't be a stranger. Come up and say hi!

Thanks, Beth, and I do believe you and I met at the Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave in '05. Great chatting with you again!