Guest Blogger: Gerrie Ferris Finger

I love to research. Having hopped a slow moving train once, I knew I had to jump off before it got going too fast, and there have been few periods in my life when I haven't had a dog. But what did I know about the workings of a train yard, or how search and rescue dogs are trained?

At times, I'd rather research than plot action or get inside a character's head, to say nothing of those tender love scenes. When I've written myself into a conundrum, I'll throw something into the mix of which I know nothing, and go on a researching mission.

I also love authenticity, which means I have to get to the source, the gritty in the nitty. When I wrote The End Game, I knew from the start trains and dogs would figure prominently in the story. Computers, too, along with cops and prisons. Cops were easy. I worked with them when I reported for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. My heroine, Moriah Dru, is a former cop, now the owner of a PI firm specializing in finding missing children. Her lover, Richard Lake, is still a cop, useful in getting information, and often a partner when the Atlanta Police Department allows it.

The story is set in Atlanta, where I've lived most of my life. Still I needed to go into a specific neighborhood and get the feel of it, make it a character. Historic Cabbagetown is a small in-town community, built on the railroad tracks in 1881. It provided workers for the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill.

Because my tale involved kidnapping and murder, I renamed the streets and disguised the houses. I wouldn't want a resident to think I'd pegged him or her as the bad guy. That being said, my former newspaper reviewed the book the reviewer wasn't fooled.

Back to trains, I must have filled half my computer's memory with articles and opinions on trains, from the workings of a rail yard to hoboes – excuse me – box car tourists. I visited a rail yard, and a media representative answered all my questions and invited me to follow up any time. He did ask that I not use sensitive information about guards and shift changes and photography – this for Homeland Security purposes. I had no problem arranging shifts to suit my story, and, I learned, despite vigilance, box car tourists are as determined as ever to ride the rails.

Did you know air horns (trains no longer have whistles) are tuned like instruments? Knowing horns helps Dru and Lake track the bad guys.

And did you know there's such a thing as train talk? Short toots means the train's backing up. A blast, blast, toot, blast means the train is going across a grade crossing.

I love research, but I never, ever let it bog down the action. The way I do it is sneak relevant information into the copy bit by bit. There's nothing worse than showing off your knowledge by boring your reader.

Search-and-rescue dogs, I'm convinced, were given to us mortals by a benevolent goddess. In my next life, I'm going to be a trainer. I witnessed these dogs working and learning their specialty (not all dogs are genetically qualified). These specialists do it for the pure joy of showing off their talents and getting a treat at the end of the search. They are tireless in their quest, and, like us, they suffer disappointment if they don't succeed.

Buddy and Jed, my search-and-rescue dog characters came out heroes. Maybe because when I wrote them into the plot, I thought of them as heroes.

I had fun researching computer hacking. I wrote the novel before Criminal Minds shot its first episode. My computer hacker, Webdog, does basically the same thing as Garcia in the show. He is as essential in solving the case as Dru, Lake, the dogs and train talk.

Here's a sample of Webdog's work:
Webdog: "No (human trafficking) ring's advertising on the Web, but they use the lists to troll for buyers. There are contact codes in some of the ads. One has an embedded e-mail address in it."

Dru: "I bet you're going to decode them."

"I ran the alphabet on the script kiddies who do the routine codex of using numbers and characters for the alphabet, and the routine hacker prefixes, suffixes and equivalencies."

Dru: "Dandy."

Webdog: "I found one e-mail series that's interesting. I finally figured out what crypt they're using. It's a Perl-Crypt-Enigma simulator."

"Which is?"

Webdog: "It's an application of the Enigma machine used by the Germans in World War Two."

Dru: "You mean you use World War Two technology to crack an e-mail code?"

Webdog: "Alan Turing, who is the brains behind the first computer, cracked the code because the Germans got sloppy and left their prearranged setting on letters like AAA or XYZ. Default settings will get you every time."

Some things I didn't have to research. My father taught me to play chess when I was growing up. If I lasted to play the end game, it was because my king didn't fall to his rooks or knights.

Gerrie Ferris Finger is a winner of the Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition. She lives on the coast of Georgia with her husband and standard poodle, Bogey. For more about Gerrie and her work, visit her web site or her blog.

A New Voice: Meredith Cole

Interviewed by Sandra Parshall

Meredith Cole directed feature films and wrote screenplays before writing mysteries. She won the St. Martin’s/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery competition in 2007, and her debut novel, Posed for Murder, was published yesterday, February 17, by St. Martin’s Minotaur. She blogs at www.thedebutanteball.com.

Q. Tell us about Posed for Murder.

A. Posed for Murder is about a photographer named Lydia McKenzie who has a fascination with murder scenes. She recreates historic cases for the camera, using her friends as models, and shoots in a film noir style. But when she finally interests a gallery in her work, a killer starts murdering her models and posing them just like her pictures.

Q. Your education prepared you for a career in film. Why did you decide to write books? What can you do in a book that you can't do on film, and vice versa? Do you plan to continue doing both?

A. I wanted to be a writer since before I could even read. I would dictate stories to my mother. In high school I became fascinated by film, and pursued a film career through graduate school. I directed two feature films, "Floating" and "Achilles' Love." I wrote a lot of screenplays, but I got tired of putting them in a drawer. Film is an expensive medium, and it’s difficult to get films made (even if you win Academy Awards) without big names attached and lots of cash. I realized that I'd always read more books than watched films, and storytelling was storytelling. So I set out to write a book.

Q. Why did you choose to write in the mystery genre?

A. I've always loved mysteries. When I first tried to write novels, I attempted what I thought of as serious fiction. But I ended up stuck in someone's head for pages and pages, and the plot went nowhere. I found the mystery genre very freeing, because I had somewhere to go and something to do there. I let the plot pull me through my first draft, and really enjoyed the ride.

Q. What was the inspiration for Posed for Murder?

A. I love photography, and I've always been interested in the "artist's eye." As a writer, I walk down the street and notice all sorts of weird details that I store away. And then someone will mention some shop moving away or some building going up, and I'll realize that I was so enthralled by something else that I never even saw it. I wanted to see a story though the eye of a photographer, and use her special skills to solve it.

Q. Why did you choose Brooklyn as a setting rather than other places you lived, such as the Charlottesville, VA, area where you grew up?

A. Williamsburg, Brooklyn is both a fascinating and frustrating place. It's a hip artsy neighborhood filled with young people, art galleries and boutiques. People come here from all over the world to try to make it as artists. I've lived here for almost 10 years, but didn't grow up here--so it's both familiar and fascinating to me. It's also a place in flux, unlike Charlottesville, so I think I found that appealing. But I don't rule out writing something set in Charlottesville, Northern Virginia or Washington, DC--all places that I've lived.

Q. Was this the first novel you'd written, or do you have others stuck in a drawer somewhere?

A. This was my second Lydia McKenzie book. The first was mostly backstory, but has a plot I might try to recycle someday!

Q. What made you decide to enter the St. Martin’s Press/Malice Domestic contest? Had you tried to sell the book before entering the contest?

A. I tried to get an agent for awhile, and was told by a couple of agents that there wasn't a market for my book. This probably means they didn't know where they could sell it, or thought it would be too hard to do so. So I took a chance after learning about the contest from Robin Hathaway, a winner from years ago, and entered the contest.

Q. What was it like to get the call from St. Martin’s telling you that you'd won? How long did you have to keep it a secret before you could tell people about it?

A. I knew I was a finalist, but I had pretty much convinced myself there was no way I'd win. I saw I had a voice mail on my phone, and I was quite shocked to hear Ruth Cavin asking me to call her. Instead of calling her right back, I went over to the sink and started washing dishes. I think I was in shock. Then I told myself to snap out of it--she wouldn't be calling with bad news--and called her back. I kept winning a secret from almost everyone for awhile (except from family). But then I started letting it leak to friends. I had to spill it to the Guppies (an online SinC chapter of unpublished writers) because it would have been like keeping something amazing from your biggest support group. The Guppies all knew I was a finalist, and they were good about keeping it quiet. I think I was supposed to keep it quiet up until Malice Domestic, but Sarah Weinman got to blow my cover on her blog after we met at the Edgars right before Malice.

Q. You've had to wait quite a while between winning the contest and seeing the book published. Have you filled that time with writing the second book? Has it been difficult to concentrate on writing while you've been in the limbo between selling and publishing?

A. Looking back, having almost two years between winning and getting published has turned out to be really great. I've had a chance to network and meet so many people in the mystery community. I've also been able to learn from the experiences of friends, and get lots of advice on touring and marketing. I've also written another Lydia McKenzie book which is almost done. But it is challenging to switch between marketing and writing all the time, and it's sometimes hard to figure out what the priority should be.

Q. Have you learned anything about the publishing business that has surprised you, or has it all been just as you expected?

A. I didn't know what to expect, so it's all been very eye-opening. I've been most surprised by how long everything seems to take. There's a procedure for proofreading, putting out catalogs, etc., that the companies have been following for years, and every step seemed to take months and months.

Q. Do you work with a critique group or individual friends who give you feedback on your manuscripts, or do you go it alone?

A. I have a wonderful critique group I meet with every two weeks (when we can manage it), and who both reads my book as I write it and reads the final draft. I also have a few readers that help me out by reading the final draft cold and telling me if I've made any glaring errors.

Q. What is your writing routine? How do you fit it in when you’re also working at a job outside the home?

A. I freelance, so every day is different. It also depends on where I am in the writing process. I write best in the morning, and I've been experimenting with getting up very early (before my husband and son) and writing. All the marketing has sort of taken over the rest of the day.

Q. Do you outline before you write? If so, do you follow the outline faithfully, or do your characters do things you didn't expect and change the direction of the story?

A. I start with notes on the computer that morph into a rough outline. I divide the outline into chapters, still keeping it rough, and try to get most of the way through the book. Then I use that document to begin writing the book. I find it very helpful to have some place to go because I pick up and put down the book a lot on my way to finishing a draft. Within that structure, my characters end up going different directions, new ideas occur to me and I jot them down, and the plot takes new twists and turns. I have even tossed out two thirds of a book after a rough draft and rewritten it, so the outline is never set in stone. But I don't consider any of the steps wasted--they're just necessary to the finished book.

Q. What do you believe are your greatest strengths as a writer? What aspects of craft are you still trying to master?

A. I think I'm pretty good at character, plot and dialogue--probably from my screenwriting background. But I often forget to describe everything. It's in my head, but screenwriting teaches you to write very sparsely, so I try not to waste any words. Often a few things get left out until the final draft, or when one of my readers comments that they'd like "more".

Q. Do you ever have writer’s block? How do you get through it?

A. There's usually a specific problem that's keeping me from writing (whether it's a plot, work or family issue). But occasionally I just get burned out and need to sit around reading something that someone else has written for a few days. I used to panic when this happened, but then I realized that everyone needs to take a break every once in awhile. I'm also a big believer in deadlines. If someone else doesn't give me one, I make one up for myself.

Q. What writers have inspired you and taught you by example? Whose books are must-reads for you?

A. I really like Ruth Rendell's complex character portraits, and I think Agatha Christie is a terrific plotter. But I think I've been most inspired by the hard working mystery writers I've met personally who have been so generous with their time and advice --like Julia Spencer- Fleming, Donna Andrews, Elizabeth Zelvin, Rosemary Harris, Jane Cleland, Cynthia Baxter and Chris Grabenstein, to name just a few. Reading their work and seeing how they manage their careers has been very inspiring.

Q. Have you found writers' groups such as Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America helpful? In what ways?

A. I can't praise SinC and MWA enough. I found my writer's group, the Guppies, and got information about the Malice Domestic contest through SinC. MWA put me on three author panels last spring before my book even came out, and I'm now planning to do joint events with authors I met at the meetings. I have really met wonderful people through both organizations. They're terrific for networking, but also for finding out about opportunities. They've both been invaluable.

Q. What’s in the future for you? Will you continue writing this series indefinitely, or would you like to try different things?

A. I have a second Lydia McKenzie book written, and at least one idea for a third. But I also have a great idea for a thriller. I would like to continue the series and do other books. Hopefully I'll learn to write faster!

Q. In parting, do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

A. If you enjoy writing, then keep doing it. Don't let anyone tell you that it's impossible, but do realize it's hard work. And you have to be realistic about the business. Very few writers become rich, and not too many more can make a living at it.

For more information, visit www.culturecurrent.com/cole/.