Research: Like Salt To Mashed Potatoes, Part 1

By Lonnie Cruse

Over the next several weeks Sharon will be posting about critiquing/self-editing so I decided to post my workshop on research. Hope you enjoy the series.


PASS THE SALT PLEASE
or
Why research my writing? It’s just fiction, after all.

We’ve probably all eaten mashed potatoes at some point in our lives, so we know that:

A. If they are salted, we can’t see it.
B. If they are salted too much or too little, we can taste it.

Research to an author’s book should be like salt to mashed potatoes, not too much and not too little. The words should taste just right.

Readers love nothing better than catching writers in errors. Doing our homework is important. Readers will stop reading our books if they think we don’t care enough to get the facts straight, facts like which way a one way street runs when using an actual location, what building is located where on which street, what year this or that world-shaking event happened if we plan on using that information, and so on.

Am I saying we writers can never change things around to suit our story? No. Actually I moved buildings around in downtown Metropolis, Illinois when I wrote my first book, MURDER IN METROPOLIS, but I put a disclaimer in the front stating that “No facades were damaged during the moves.” We can make changes to actual locations, etc, so long as we somehow let the reader know we’ve made them, not mistaken them.

In my second book, MURDER BEYOND METROPOLIS, I portrayed the Brookport, Illinois Police Department as they actually were a few years ago when I first researched them, located on the second floor of a very small, very ancient building that today still houses city hall. The Brookport Police Department now resides in a brand new facility with all the bells and whistles, but I liked the setting of the old building so I used it and put a disclaimer in the front of the book so residents of Brookport would know I’d done my homework. It’s all in the details.

If you think you hate doing research, let me assure you it can be fun. I’m not going to advise you to hide in the back of some dark, dank library amidst the dusty tomes, digging for knowledge. In this class you will learn how to get out of your writing office (even if that’s just your laptop on the kitchen table) and go in search of interesting information. You’ll be gathering tidbits from newspapers, television, the Internet, real life experts, and the ordinary, everyday people around you. And I may be able to get you involved in a high-speed car chase or two, if we’re lucky.

Truth to tell, research is something we writers do every single day of our lives, whether we realize it or not. We file interesting facts away in our office, or in our brains, to use later in a story. We might have to go back and re-research it at some point (no gagging or spitting, please, keyboards are moisture sensitive) but it WILL be worth it.

A word of caution, we CAN get so caught up in researching that we neglect to write. Or worse, we’ve spent all that time learning about a subject, so we’re going to teach every single bit of it to our readers, whether or not they want to learn it. In which case we’ll either insult their intelligence because they’ve already learned a lot of the information on their own, or bore them to death and possibly get ourselves arrested for manslaughter. Use your research, don’t let it use you.

Properly researching our story can bring it alive in terms of setting, character, facts, time frame, and probably a million other ways. And our research will also suggest subplots, new twists, and brand new stories to write. Which is where the handy dandy research folder comes in.

SUGGESTION: If you don’t already have one started, get a file folder and label it RESEARCH. Place any important research information you already have into that folder. You might want to use one of those expandable folders, closed at both ends, so research items don’t fall out.

EXAMPLE: When writing my first book, I decided to take a research trip downtown for a closer look at the courthouse, since the body in my story was going to be found there. After the book was published at least two people told me they went downtown to verify whether it was physically possible to place a body where I’d placed mine. It is. (Wiping sweat from brow.)

I hope you enjoy this series. If you have any questions, please free to contact me.

Two Deadly Daughters Meet at a Deadly Mystery Conference

by Julia Buckley
 This is the second time I was able to meet up with Lonnie Cruse, my fellow Deadly Daughter, at a mystery conference. This time it was at Authorfest at the Schaumburg Library this past Saturday. Thank goodness for mystery conferences, I say! How else would we authors keep in touch?

Lonnie is a fun and interesting person, and we got to be on a panel together, attend sessions together, and talk in general about the odd business of publishing. Here's our panel audience.

I am happy to say that I did NOT spill water on her this time, as I did at Love is Murder last year, and I think Lonnie was grateful for that favor.

Here's a picture of Lonnie posing with Mary Welk, who was also on our panel. What a lovely couple of ladies. Who would ever guess that they write about gruesome murders? Which reminds me--we got to hear a presentation by Luisa Buehler and Kelle Z. Riley about what sorts of deadly poisons we can find in our garden and how we can use our knowledge of chemicals to make a death look accidental. Very informative, if a bit frightening. Who knew that many things were poisonous?

All in all it was an interesting day. Lonnie sold far more books than I did, so she is the queen. :)

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR SHANE GERICKE

By Lonnie Cruse

Morning all. Author Shane Gericke (pronounced Yurkey) and I did an interview recently while he was recovering from shoulder surgery (nightmare for a writer, of course.) I think you'll enjoy getting to know him. His website is at: http://www.shanegericke.com

LC: Good morning, Shane. Please, tell us a bit about your books.

SG: I have two: BLOWN AWAY, my 2006 debut, and CUT TO THE BONE, which launches worldwide in June, 2o07. Both are about Emily Marie Thompson, who at age 40 abandoned her safe existence as an office manager to become a suburban cop. She’d hoped catching bad guys would free her from the unspeakable tragedies in her life that had looped themselves around her neck and dragged her into the mud of perpetual gloom. Her instincts were right—at long last, her life was sorting itself out, she was leaving the tragedy behind, and she was coming into her own as a cop and a person. Then came the jackals: ferocious serial killers out for blood and vengeance. My story is simple: Emily battles evil without losing herself back to the mud. How she accomplishes that, and interacts with the fascinating folks she meets along the way, provide the drive and sparkle of the stories. And oh, yes, there’s a truckload of shoot-em-ups and blow-em-aparts. Can’t write a thriller without thrills!

LC: Wow, I do love thrills! What inspired you to write this book and/or these characters?

SG: Cops are fascinating, and I like strong women. So I put them together to create a cops-and-robbers series with a worthy female protagonist. But one that wasn’t one of the two female-cop stereotypes I hate most: hard-drinking, jaded, profane and violent (Mike Hammer in a dress) or cutesy-wootsie cop-gal who’s forever leaving her gun in the cookie jar because eek it might go off (Stephanie Plum). I wanted to write women cops as I know them: tough when it counts, vulnerable when appropriate, standing shoulder to shoulder with colleagues and friends, neither two steps behind nor a step ahead. I wanted lipstick and steel, so I created Emily. And her male and female friends, who do so much to shape her life.

LC: Sounds like my kinda gal! Is this a series, or do you write stand-alones?

SG: A series, thanks to my good fortune in finding Kensington Publishing, who saw what I was trying to do and said, “Go for it.”

LC: How did you sell your first manuscript?

SG: By scouring the countryside for a literary agent. It’s almost impossible to get into a big house without one. I found Bill Contardi, who’s been in the game a long time and is highly respected in New York publishing. He’d just come aboard Brandt & Hochman—the firm representing Scott Turow, among other literary worthies—to build the “blood-thrill” side of the agency. Bill picked me up, went through my manuscript, and set me loose on New York publishers.

LC: Wow, you found the right agent! How did you find your publisher?

SG: That was Bill’s department. As agents do, he sent the manuscript to a select group of editors. Michaela Hamilton at Kensington was the first to say "yes." As a first-time thriller writer, I was, well, thrilled to latch on to such a big outfit. Working with Michaela was, and is, a bonus. Her edits are a master’s class in writing, and I learned a ton. I was in the newspaper business for a quarter century, but that does not a thriller writer make.

LC: Two very different kinds of writing, I imagine. What sends you running to the computer to write (aside from a need to make money?)

SG: Fear—that if this doesn’t work out I’ll have to work at a mini-mart. Seriously, I’m happy when I write and unhappy when I don’t. That’s the motivation. I was a newspaper editor for 25 years and my dad was a cop for 30, so both are in my blood. The great clash of good and evil is fun to explore, and writing lets me do it without getting hurt or killed like a real cop.

LC: What writers do you love to read?

SG: John Sandford is my favorite, followed closely by Lee Child, Gayle Lynds, James Rollins, Eric Larsen and anything that appears in The Atlantic Monthly magazine. And there’s a new writer to keep your eye on: Robert Fate. He pens a terrific young-female P.I. series called BABY SHARK. It’s set in 1950s honky-tonk Texas, and his writing is some of the crispest and freshest I’ve seen.

LC: Your BLOWN AWAY just won Best Debut Mystery of 2006 by Romantic Times Book Reviews. No. 1 in the nation for your very first novel! And it became a national bestseller, too. How has that changed your life? Larger hat size? Writing faster? More respect at home?

SG: My hat size has always been too big. Otherwise, I’d never have abandoned a perfectly good paycheck for the vagaries of cop fiction. As for home, I’ve always gotten the utmost respect: my wife Jerrle is the one who pushed me to leave newspapering and follow my dreams of becoming the next Lee Child. She meant it, too—she knew that my leaving the Chicago Sun-Times, where I was a senior financial editor, would instantly cut our income 50 percent. So I could literally have not taken this step with her encouragement and backing. Now as before, I work seven days a week. Sometimes just a few hours, sometimes all day and half the night. Each day is a mixture of writing, book promotion, keeping in touch with industry friends (I hate the term networking. It’s so cold. I think of it as hanging out with people I like and swapping useful information) and keeping my desk somewhat cleared of its perpetual mess. How much I do of what depends on how close I am to my manuscript deadline, how many stops are on the upcoming “road trip” of book promotion, and whether my butt can stand another two minutes in the ^%^^&$#%$ chair.

LC: Ahhh, the chair. Makes all the difference to how long we can sit and write. Where did you get that wonderful picture on your home page?

SG: By accident. I’d gotten a new digital camera and was taking photos in a local coffeehouse. Someone volunteered to take my photo, and placed me in front of a bright picture window. Instant backlight, just like in the movies. The result made me look scary and mysterious, and I knew that would be the one for the home page. In art as in life, it’s better to be lucky than good.

LC: What else would you like our readers to know about you?

SG: I was born in a manger, no crib for a bed … uh, wait, wrong guy. Well, let’s see. I was named after the cowboy movie “Shane.” It came out in 1950, I came out in ’56, and my folks liked the possibilities. “Gericke” is pronounced YER-key. Back in Ye Olde Country (Germany) there was a U in there: Guericke. That provided the YER sound. At Ellis Island, someone “Americanized” it by whacking the U, making it unpronounceable. Thank you, Immigration! What else? I like to read all sorts of things, including the backs of cereal boxes. I like to mow the grass because I get my best ideas when I sweat like a fiend. I like guns and shooting. I like Scotch, neither stirred nor shaken. I like to paint (canvas, not houses), but never get the time. I like breakfast out, supper in, the former to read my three daily newspapers, the latter because we’re both good cooks. I do a fair amount of housework, as I have a home office. Doing a little every day keeps our weekends free for friends and other good stuff. I don’t have kids, but would like a pack of beagles someday. At age 11, I was held at knifepoint in a state park toilet and told I would die. The fates and other people intervened before I literally went down the one-seater. Yay! The experience gave, and gives, tremendous insight into the minds of crime victims and other survivors. That really helps the writing sing. To paraphrase whoever said it, That which doesn’t kill you makes your writing stronger. BLOWN AWAY is available in Turkish and Slovak (out as we speak in those countries), and later this year, in Polish and Chinese. Who knew my little cop tale would have so many fans in languages I can’t read? I love foreign editions—and especially the crazy cover art that comes with.

LC: Thanks, Shane!

SG: Thank you for thinking of me, Lonnie. It’s an honor to meet your readers.

TITLE, TITLE, WHO'S GOT THE TITLE?

By Her Ladyship, Lonnie Cruse

How important are titles to you? They’re extremely important to me. Key, in fact. I’ve always wanted to be a duchess or maybe a Dame, meaning like Dame Agatha Christie, certainly not like one of Phillip Marlowe’s dames. Well, let me get back to you on that one, Bogart was awfully cute in that role. Hmmmm?

But, seriously, that’s not what this post is about, titles of royalty. And was that a sigh of relief I just heard? This post is about titles for your writing, your works in progress. How important are they to you? As I said, they are key to me. I simply can not start a novel, short story, newsletter article, blog post, or even my grocery list without a title at the top of the first page to hang it on. It’s like putting a dress on a hanger and hanging it on the closet door so I can stand back and admire it, see if it needs any mending, wrinkles smoothed, whatever. And often the title gives me the inspiration for the story. This one did.

But titles aren’t always easy to come by. Sometimes you come up with a killer idea only to discover somebody else already swiped it before you even thought of it. Bummer. Though novel titles aren’t copyrighted, so you can use the same title as someone else, risking the chance of yours getting lost in the shuffle if the other person is more well known.

When I began writing the Metropolis Mystery Series, the original idea was to use the name of the surrounding towns in Massac County, Illinois, the county where my sheriff would have jurisdiction. My friends and family were more than happy to help out with titles, and next thing I knew people were flinging ideas at me with great verve. “How about JAILED IN JOPPA, or PUNCHED IN PADUCAH?”

It got so I was afraid to go out in public or answer the phone. Then I found a publisher who liked the Metropolis idea, he and insisted we keep the name of the city where the stories are set (and where I live) in each and every succeeding title. Of course that meant I needed another “M” word in each title to play off of the word Metropolis. Sigh, so now people are shouting “M” words at me wherever I go, meaning I still can’t answer the phone or go out in public.

My current WIP is titled MUTINY IN METROPOLIS, thanks to my neighbor up the road, Patrick Mitchell. But I do have titles now, people, thank you very much! Titles R Us. You need a title, you call me. And, by the way, nobody’s using Drowned In Dongola so far as I know, and I no longer need it, in case you’re interested.

So, how important are titles to you when you write a piece? A hanger too keep your work all neat and smooth and out where you can see it? Or do you wait to get a title after you’ve written the work? And if so, how in the world do you manage without one? Doesn’t your story drop to the floor in a heap, suddenly requiring ironing, or at the very least, a good steam job? Just curious. And, do you take your titles from song lyrics, stories, television? The Story Title Store? C’mon, folks, give! Thank you.

Well, I believe we’re done here. You may now respectfully leave my presence, and no, it isn’t necessary to bow as you back toward the door, but I’d love it if you’d call me “Your Majesty” again. Sigh. Perhaps you’d be more comfy with “Queen Mum?”

And where is my tea cup, pray tell? I believe I need some Apple Cinnamon to loosen my tongue from my cheek.