Posts
Sharon Wildwind
There comes a point when a chapter sits there and stares at you. The longer you stare at it, the longer it stares back. Some people call it writer’s block, but in fact, it may be more story block.
Granted, writers attempt to keep going under horrendous circumstances that have nothing to do with their story line. There comes a point where real life overtakes narrative. Writers have to stop writing while they work with health professionals, lawyers, spiritual advisors, or whomever the heck it takes to get through the crises.
On a less horrendous scale, we know the remedy list. Get more sleep. Exercise. Decrease stress. Eat more beans, steamed vegetables, and multi-grained carbohydrates. Drink less alcohol, caffeine, and sugar.
We also know the remedy list for the story. High public stakes, high private stakes, or both. (Donald Maass) Sufficient goal, motivation, and disaster for each major character in the scene. (Debra Dixon, Sherry Lewis, and others) Characters wanting something right away, even if it’s only a glass of water. (Kirt Vonnegut)
If we’re doing all that good stuff—or as much of it as we can accomplish in a given day—and the chapter still stares back at us, what next?
Change the point of view. Yes, your story may be in first person so all of the chapters have to be in Annabelle’s point of view, but as an exercise try writing from the point of view of anyone else in the scene, even the dog, cat or canary if you’re desperate. There a good chance that another character will spot the flaws.
Re-sequence. Right now Tyrone enters the scene after Annabelle says, “I've seen to it that Tyrone will never get promoted.” What happens if he comes in before she says it? Why would she still say what she said if he’s in the room? What if he comes in the split second after she says it, and neither she nor the reader are certain if he overheard what she said? The registered letter is delivered at the end of the scene. What happens if it’s delivered at the beginning? Or half-way through?
Mash heads. If one character is observing another character, have the two of them clash instead; the more raucous and public, the better. Instead of Tyrone suffering through Annabelle’s terrible presentation, why not have him challenge her: “You’re not prepared, you have no clue how to use a laptop projector and frankly, you’re boring us to death”? One of the delicious things about writing is that characters can say and do the most outlandish things, which can be undone with a flick of the delete key.
Backtrack. For some reason I’ve never understood, I always concatenate two of Robert Frost’s poems—Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and The Road Not Taken—when I think about this technique. The only reason I can figure out for that is that one poem is about moving forward when you’d rather stay in the same place, and the other one is taking what will likely be the more difficult route to travel.
This chapter may not be working because a few chapters back, you took the wrong road. Start by reading the chapter immediately before the one you’re having trouble with. Then the one before that, and so on back for about three to five chapters. Can you find any places where you skimped, skipped, or took a turn that led you to this dead end?
The registered letter arrived three chapters ago because a letter was a quick and simple way to provide a piece of information that moved the story along. Quick and simple is your clue. No, I don’t want to bring in an IRS investigator in person to tell Annabelle that Tyrone’s company went belly-up and he’s facing a tax audit of major proportions. I can whine to my heart’s content why doing it that way will be harder and longer and unnecessary, but unless I move forward and take the road more difficult to travel, chances are I’m going to stay stuck.
Five Writing Rights. In nursing school we had drilled into us five medication rights: the right drug, to the right patient, in the right dose, by the right route, at the right time. Similar rights apply to writing. Is this chapter about the right risk, for the right characters, played out to the right degree, told from the right point of view, at the right time in the story?
Unfortunately, as in many things about writing, the questions are easier than the answers. When I'm stuck in horrendous traffic waiting through multiple stoplights, it helps if I remind myself that there are no cars at that intersection from two hours earlier. Moving on may have taken longer than usual, but eventually the cars did make it through the intersection. Rest assured the same thing will happen with your chapter. Eventually, you'll get through this story block, too.
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Quote for the week:
Never be afraid to ask the next question: “Why not?”
~Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer
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Now for the promotional part of this week's blog. As you probably know, Poisoned Pen Press is holding a virtual mystery convention, in cyberspace, on Saturday, October 24. One of the ways that this event is going to be different from your usual blog, You-Tube presentation, or web cruising is that you must pre-register in order to participate. So, if you've thought you might drop by come the day, please register in the next week. Click here for more details.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Adventurers, Fate, and The Will to Fly
by Julia Buckley
I blogged at Mysterious Musings once about Amelia Earhart and the small plane that let her down in the end; she disappeared in 1937, and how she died remains the subject of debate. Late in 2008 America heard the fate of explorer Steve Fossett, who disappeared in his small plane on September 3rd, 2007. And on today's date in 1997, John Denver crashed in his small plane and died on impact.
Many a celebrity and many an adventurer has died in a small plane crash; Denver's death was particularly sad for me, because I'd always been a fan of his music. While some criticized Denver for not being country enough and others simply labeled him as weird, I always recognized the poet in him--all one had to do was listen to his songs.
Denver focused on nature and positive feelings. His homage to his first wife Annie, appropriately named "Annie's Song," was one of the loveliest tributes ever written. How could a woman not be flattered when a man claimed "You fill up my senses/like a night in a forest; like the mountains in springtime/like a walk in the rain; like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean. You fill up my senses; come fill me again." ?
One of my favorite Denver tunes was a little-known anthem to nature called Eagle and Hawk. It went:
"Oh, I am the eagle, I live in high country
In rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky;
I am the hawk, and there's blood on my feathers,
But time is still turning, they soon will be dry.
And all those who see me, and all who believe in me,
Share in the freedom I feel when I fly . . .
Come dance with the west wind and
Touch all the mountaintops;
Sail oe'r the canyons and up to the stars--
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future,
All that you can be, not what you are."
Denver's crash shocked me, because I had just seen him on a talk show a couple of days before. He was fifty-three but looked ten years younger; he was happy and positive and talking about new music he was going to be making. And then, in an instant, he was gone in the way so many others had been gone before him. Like Earhart and Fossett, Denver couldn't resist flying, and his aircraft was considered experimental.
Denver's website claims that "John Denver’s generosity of spirit colored his music with a pure, simple grace, casting a spell that crossed the barriers of age, economics, geography, language and politics."
I would have to agree. And while Denver accomplished much, not only in his music but in acts of philanthropy, I wish he had been given a bit more time.
Photo link.
I blogged at Mysterious Musings once about Amelia Earhart and the small plane that let her down in the end; she disappeared in 1937, and how she died remains the subject of debate. Late in 2008 America heard the fate of explorer Steve Fossett, who disappeared in his small plane on September 3rd, 2007. And on today's date in 1997, John Denver crashed in his small plane and died on impact.Many a celebrity and many an adventurer has died in a small plane crash; Denver's death was particularly sad for me, because I'd always been a fan of his music. While some criticized Denver for not being country enough and others simply labeled him as weird, I always recognized the poet in him--all one had to do was listen to his songs.
Denver focused on nature and positive feelings. His homage to his first wife Annie, appropriately named "Annie's Song," was one of the loveliest tributes ever written. How could a woman not be flattered when a man claimed "You fill up my senses/like a night in a forest; like the mountains in springtime/like a walk in the rain; like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean. You fill up my senses; come fill me again." ?
One of my favorite Denver tunes was a little-known anthem to nature called Eagle and Hawk. It went:
"Oh, I am the eagle, I live in high country
In rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky;
I am the hawk, and there's blood on my feathers,
But time is still turning, they soon will be dry.
And all those who see me, and all who believe in me,
Share in the freedom I feel when I fly . . .
Come dance with the west wind and
Touch all the mountaintops;
Sail oe'r the canyons and up to the stars--
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future,
All that you can be, not what you are."
Denver's crash shocked me, because I had just seen him on a talk show a couple of days before. He was fifty-three but looked ten years younger; he was happy and positive and talking about new music he was going to be making. And then, in an instant, he was gone in the way so many others had been gone before him. Like Earhart and Fossett, Denver couldn't resist flying, and his aircraft was considered experimental.
Denver's website claims that "John Denver’s generosity of spirit colored his music with a pure, simple grace, casting a spell that crossed the barriers of age, economics, geography, language and politics."
I would have to agree. And while Denver accomplished much, not only in his music but in acts of philanthropy, I wish he had been given a bit more time.
Photo link.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Writing Obsessions - Part 2
Elizabeth Spann Craig (Guest Blogger)
If you missed yesterday’s post, let me catch you up to speed. I’m confessing to being a fully-blown, obsessive mystery writer. Are you one, too? Do you find yourself taking pictures of odd-looking characters when you’re out in public? Does your mind wander off when talking to someone that might be a perfect character for your book? If this sounds like you, then join the club!
More obsessive behavior that I indulge in:
Writing at odd times. Writing all the time. Have you honked your horn at a 40ish woman lately who was busily scribbling and incognizant the red light had changed to green? Might have been me. I frequently get ideas when I’m out running errands and, as a stay-at-home mom, I’m the errand-runner for the entire family. I’ll write at a stoplight in a skinny second. I scribble things in the middle of the night, at church, at school open houses, grocery store deli lines, and in carwashes. I’ve written on my hand, on receipts, and on napkins with eyeliner, crayon, and dead-or-dying pens.
Bringing up murder with non-writers. Apparently, I think that everyone thinks about murder as much as I do. When I’m out having lunch with my mommy friends, inevitably someone will bring up a really annoying neighbor, coworker, or husband. I’ll listen carefully, then say, “That would be a really wonderful motive for murder! Let me jot that down. Did I tell you I just found out that nicotine in liquid form is extremely poisonous? And it’s so accessible!” They have to gently explain, “Elizabeth, we’re just blowing off steam.”
I change storylines when my characters won’t follow directions. I’ve discovered that my characters come to life; and, like willful teenagers, they don’t listen to me. This is a rather Frankenstein-esque turn of events. I am their creator, yet they have their own agenda. You have to wonder if you’re losing it a little when this happens. If I don’t want my character to become an animal rights activist, then I should be able to prevent it. Instead, my characters frequently breathe their first breath and take off giddily in new directions. I try to rein them in, but end up changing storylines to incorporate their hobbies and interests.
I can't stop myself from revising a manuscript--even after I've turned it in to my editor or agent. I keep emailing updated versions of the document, with my new additions and corrections: “Dear Ellen, Please read this version, instead. Thanks! Elizabeth” The next day: “Ellen? Sorry, but I made some additional changes. Could you read over this version, instead?” Thank goodness for Word’s Track Changes, or I’d probably be on my editors’ and agent’s hit list. Even when I should be starting on my new project (that I have a deadline for and am under contract to deliver, for heaven’s sake), I can’t seem to let the original project go. A little wisp of an idea will come to me while driving and I’m jotting it down at the next stoplight. “Ellen? Hey, could you read this version, instead?”
Thanks so much to Sharon and everyone here at Poe’s Deadly Daughters for hosting me the last couple of days. It’s been really fun and I’ve been excited about participating in such a great blog for mystery lovers.
Elizabeth Spann Craig
Visit her web site
Pretty is as Pretty Dies—Midnight Ink, August 2009
Memphis BBQ series—Berkley Prime Crime (as Riley Adams)—May 2010
If you missed yesterday’s post, let me catch you up to speed. I’m confessing to being a fully-blown, obsessive mystery writer. Are you one, too? Do you find yourself taking pictures of odd-looking characters when you’re out in public? Does your mind wander off when talking to someone that might be a perfect character for your book? If this sounds like you, then join the club!
More obsessive behavior that I indulge in:
Writing at odd times. Writing all the time. Have you honked your horn at a 40ish woman lately who was busily scribbling and incognizant the red light had changed to green? Might have been me. I frequently get ideas when I’m out running errands and, as a stay-at-home mom, I’m the errand-runner for the entire family. I’ll write at a stoplight in a skinny second. I scribble things in the middle of the night, at church, at school open houses, grocery store deli lines, and in carwashes. I’ve written on my hand, on receipts, and on napkins with eyeliner, crayon, and dead-or-dying pens.
Bringing up murder with non-writers. Apparently, I think that everyone thinks about murder as much as I do. When I’m out having lunch with my mommy friends, inevitably someone will bring up a really annoying neighbor, coworker, or husband. I’ll listen carefully, then say, “That would be a really wonderful motive for murder! Let me jot that down. Did I tell you I just found out that nicotine in liquid form is extremely poisonous? And it’s so accessible!” They have to gently explain, “Elizabeth, we’re just blowing off steam.”
I change storylines when my characters won’t follow directions. I’ve discovered that my characters come to life; and, like willful teenagers, they don’t listen to me. This is a rather Frankenstein-esque turn of events. I am their creator, yet they have their own agenda. You have to wonder if you’re losing it a little when this happens. If I don’t want my character to become an animal rights activist, then I should be able to prevent it. Instead, my characters frequently breathe their first breath and take off giddily in new directions. I try to rein them in, but end up changing storylines to incorporate their hobbies and interests.
I can't stop myself from revising a manuscript--even after I've turned it in to my editor or agent. I keep emailing updated versions of the document, with my new additions and corrections: “Dear Ellen, Please read this version, instead. Thanks! Elizabeth” The next day: “Ellen? Sorry, but I made some additional changes. Could you read over this version, instead?” Thank goodness for Word’s Track Changes, or I’d probably be on my editors’ and agent’s hit list. Even when I should be starting on my new project (that I have a deadline for and am under contract to deliver, for heaven’s sake), I can’t seem to let the original project go. A little wisp of an idea will come to me while driving and I’m jotting it down at the next stoplight. “Ellen? Hey, could you read this version, instead?”
Thanks so much to Sharon and everyone here at Poe’s Deadly Daughters for hosting me the last couple of days. It’s been really fun and I’ve been excited about participating in such a great blog for mystery lovers.
Elizabeth Spann Craig
Visit her web site
Pretty is as Pretty Dies—Midnight Ink, August 2009
Memphis BBQ series—Berkley Prime Crime (as Riley Adams)—May 2010
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Writing Obsessions - Part 1
Elizabeth Spann Craig (Guest Blogger)
This is a two-part blog. More coming tomorrow, so don't forget to check back.
Elizabeth Spann Craig is the author of the August Midnight Ink release Pretty is as Pretty Dies and the upcoming Memphis Barbeque mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime (written under her Riley Adams pen name.)
She’s the mother of two and currently lives in Matthews, North Carolina. Between juggling room mom duties, refereeing play dates, and being dragged along as chaperone/hostage on field trips, she dreams of dark and stormy nights beside stacks of intriguing mysteries with excellent opening lines.
Writing, in many ways, has completely taken over my life. There aren’t many minutes in the day when I’m not mulling over a plot point, weaving random ideas and dialogue into my book, or scribbling crazy little notes to myself that only I understand.
Occasionally, like most obsessions, I carry things just a little too far. Sometimes my writing methods get me into some trouble:
I become enthralled by people who remind me of characters: to the point of not actually listening very closely to them.
People fascinate me. And too frequently now I size them up to see how they’d fit into my book. What a wonderful lisp! Or, “What a pompous bore. He’d be great to add a little conflict to that party scene of mine. He could even be killed at the party! He’d make the perfect victim.”
I’ve gotten in trouble with this habit of mine before. I was at my son’s soccer practice and a woman came up, introduced herself, and started launching into a longish monologue. I was struck by the fact that she looked exactly like Camilla (the Prince of Wales’ wife.) It was incredible! Her gruff voice (I had no idea what she was saying, but I loved the way she sounded), aristocratically thin and horsey appearance—it all combined to give her this amazing similarity to Camilla. She moved with a rough elegance that amazed me.
I learned a sad lesson later when I discovered she’d been talking to me about the soccer snack schedule and I didn’t have the snack the following week at practice.
I snap pictures of interesting people.
This has yet to get me in trouble, but I’m sure my day is coming. At first I took pictures of interesting places for my files. I love dark places, abandoned barns, old houses that are falling apart, tired-looking architecture from long ago. Then I graduated to people. I kept finding unusual people around. Sometimes I’ve got my camera out anyway and it’s not that noticeable (I don’t think, anyway) what I’m taking a picture of.
The elderly gentleman above was a very interesting man I saw at a large amusement park a few weeks ago. He had the requisite black socks pulled up too high, was eating a lollypop, and shared his table with an egret. He also had a purse. He had to have his picture taken!
Unfortunately, he was already quite suspicious of me because…well, because I was staring at him. My social skills since becoming a writing enthusiast have definitely gone out the window.
I carefully looked in completely the opposite direction, leaning my chin on my hand. I snapped the picture with the other hand. As you see, the picture didn’t turn out exactly as I planned. Since, of course, I wasn’t looking through the viewfinder. But my second picture turned out much better. I won’t share that one here. But he was a wonderful character. Too bad he ran away from me as fast as he could.
Your name? Your child’s name? Your funny turn of phrase? Your eccentric habit? Look out, they may become my material.
I’m particularly looking out for things that get under people’s skin on an everyday basis—it might be enough to commit murder under, in the right circumstances. Just the final straw to push someone over the edge. Or enough to add a bit of side-drama to my book—like the gnomes in my recent release, Pretty is as Pretty Dies.
They came about right after a friend complained bitterly about her neighbor’s yard art. I decided yard gnomes would be the perfect way for my sleuth to get back at her interfering son. The fractious book club in my novel? It was inspired by a club that actually did exist…until the members became so irritated with each other that the club folded.
Am I alone in this odd behavior? Do you have any writing obsessions or eccentricities you’d like to share? Be sure to check back in tomorrow for more ways I’ve complicated my life with my obsession.
Elizabeth Spann Craig's web site.
This is a two-part blog. More coming tomorrow, so don't forget to check back.
Elizabeth Spann Craig is the author of the August Midnight Ink release Pretty is as Pretty Dies and the upcoming Memphis Barbeque mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime (written under her Riley Adams pen name.)She’s the mother of two and currently lives in Matthews, North Carolina. Between juggling room mom duties, refereeing play dates, and being dragged along as chaperone/hostage on field trips, she dreams of dark and stormy nights beside stacks of intriguing mysteries with excellent opening lines.
Writing, in many ways, has completely taken over my life. There aren’t many minutes in the day when I’m not mulling over a plot point, weaving random ideas and dialogue into my book, or scribbling crazy little notes to myself that only I understand.
Occasionally, like most obsessions, I carry things just a little too far. Sometimes my writing methods get me into some trouble:
I become enthralled by people who remind me of characters: to the point of not actually listening very closely to them.
People fascinate me. And too frequently now I size them up to see how they’d fit into my book. What a wonderful lisp! Or, “What a pompous bore. He’d be great to add a little conflict to that party scene of mine. He could even be killed at the party! He’d make the perfect victim.”
I’ve gotten in trouble with this habit of mine before. I was at my son’s soccer practice and a woman came up, introduced herself, and started launching into a longish monologue. I was struck by the fact that she looked exactly like Camilla (the Prince of Wales’ wife.) It was incredible! Her gruff voice (I had no idea what she was saying, but I loved the way she sounded), aristocratically thin and horsey appearance—it all combined to give her this amazing similarity to Camilla. She moved with a rough elegance that amazed me.
I learned a sad lesson later when I discovered she’d been talking to me about the soccer snack schedule and I didn’t have the snack the following week at practice.
I snap pictures of interesting people.This has yet to get me in trouble, but I’m sure my day is coming. At first I took pictures of interesting places for my files. I love dark places, abandoned barns, old houses that are falling apart, tired-looking architecture from long ago. Then I graduated to people. I kept finding unusual people around. Sometimes I’ve got my camera out anyway and it’s not that noticeable (I don’t think, anyway) what I’m taking a picture of.
The elderly gentleman above was a very interesting man I saw at a large amusement park a few weeks ago. He had the requisite black socks pulled up too high, was eating a lollypop, and shared his table with an egret. He also had a purse. He had to have his picture taken!
Unfortunately, he was already quite suspicious of me because…well, because I was staring at him. My social skills since becoming a writing enthusiast have definitely gone out the window.
I carefully looked in completely the opposite direction, leaning my chin on my hand. I snapped the picture with the other hand. As you see, the picture didn’t turn out exactly as I planned. Since, of course, I wasn’t looking through the viewfinder. But my second picture turned out much better. I won’t share that one here. But he was a wonderful character. Too bad he ran away from me as fast as he could.
Your name? Your child’s name? Your funny turn of phrase? Your eccentric habit? Look out, they may become my material.
I’m particularly looking out for things that get under people’s skin on an everyday basis—it might be enough to commit murder under, in the right circumstances. Just the final straw to push someone over the edge. Or enough to add a bit of side-drama to my book—like the gnomes in my recent release, Pretty is as Pretty Dies.
They came about right after a friend complained bitterly about her neighbor’s yard art. I decided yard gnomes would be the perfect way for my sleuth to get back at her interfering son. The fractious book club in my novel? It was inspired by a club that actually did exist…until the members became so irritated with each other that the club folded.
Am I alone in this odd behavior? Do you have any writing obsessions or eccentricities you’d like to share? Be sure to check back in tomorrow for more ways I’ve complicated my life with my obsession.
Elizabeth Spann Craig's web site.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Reading And Re-reading The Masters
By Lonnie Cruse
I recently purchased Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie for my Kindle. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to read or at least re-read a Halloween mystery. I'm sure I own a hard copy of this particular mystery, buried deep somewhere out in our storage shed, along with my other bazillion or so Agatha Christie books. I think I own everything Christie ever wrote, except maybe a grocery list and I'm still looking for that. But I'm not willing to dig that deep, in that rather scary shed, for the books I do have. Those are paperback. Any hardbacks by Agatha Christie are safely stored in the house, likely in my closet. We won't discuss how easy or difficult it is to find a book in there. Moving quickly on . . .
I'm enjoying the Halloween read and not remembering the ending, which is good, right? Maybe I didn't read it before? Who knows? But that book prompted me to buy and download several other Christie mysteries for my Kindle. I'm looking forward to re-reading those mysteries: Murder At the Vicarage, A Murder Is Announced, Body In The Library, Secret Adversary, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I'm going to be very busy reading. Or re-reading.
As a general rule, I don't re-read books. There are too many new books out there to re-read something I've already read. However, if a book really captures my imagination, I can read it over and over. That's rare, for me. We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson is the one book I've re-read the most. And I'll likely read it again, sometime in the future. After I work my way through all those Christies, of course. Shirley Jackson's twist endings catch me by surprise every single time, but Castle is my all-time favorite by her.
As to Agatha Christie, the above listed books are all my favorites. Well, of course I love The Murder Of Roger Ackroid, but I have that one in an old paperback and I know where I can lay my hands on that one, in my closet, so likely I'll risk a trip in there to get it.
I'm also searching the Amazon Kindle store for the best version of the complete works of E. A. Poe for my Kindle. I've got that collection in a hardback book in a basket by my bed, having read it from cover to cover many years ago, but I'd like the Kindle edition to "read on the go." There are several versions available at various prices, but I haven't settled on one yet. Poe is well worth re-reading at any time. Okay, I'm prejudice. So are my blog sisters. I'm trying to find a Kindle version with an interactive table of contents so I can jump from story to story with ease.
So, are you a re-reader? If so, what books are you willing to read again? And what book or books would you NEVER consider parting with, even if you don't plan to read it/them again? Why did that book or books earn a permanent place on your book shelves, in your closet, or in your shed? Please let us know, as I might want to read those books. After Agatha Christie. And Poe. Of course.
I recently purchased Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie for my Kindle. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to read or at least re-read a Halloween mystery. I'm sure I own a hard copy of this particular mystery, buried deep somewhere out in our storage shed, along with my other bazillion or so Agatha Christie books. I think I own everything Christie ever wrote, except maybe a grocery list and I'm still looking for that. But I'm not willing to dig that deep, in that rather scary shed, for the books I do have. Those are paperback. Any hardbacks by Agatha Christie are safely stored in the house, likely in my closet. We won't discuss how easy or difficult it is to find a book in there. Moving quickly on . . .
I'm enjoying the Halloween read and not remembering the ending, which is good, right? Maybe I didn't read it before? Who knows? But that book prompted me to buy and download several other Christie mysteries for my Kindle. I'm looking forward to re-reading those mysteries: Murder At the Vicarage, A Murder Is Announced, Body In The Library, Secret Adversary, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I'm going to be very busy reading. Or re-reading.
As a general rule, I don't re-read books. There are too many new books out there to re-read something I've already read. However, if a book really captures my imagination, I can read it over and over. That's rare, for me. We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson is the one book I've re-read the most. And I'll likely read it again, sometime in the future. After I work my way through all those Christies, of course. Shirley Jackson's twist endings catch me by surprise every single time, but Castle is my all-time favorite by her.
As to Agatha Christie, the above listed books are all my favorites. Well, of course I love The Murder Of Roger Ackroid, but I have that one in an old paperback and I know where I can lay my hands on that one, in my closet, so likely I'll risk a trip in there to get it.
I'm also searching the Amazon Kindle store for the best version of the complete works of E. A. Poe for my Kindle. I've got that collection in a hardback book in a basket by my bed, having read it from cover to cover many years ago, but I'd like the Kindle edition to "read on the go." There are several versions available at various prices, but I haven't settled on one yet. Poe is well worth re-reading at any time. Okay, I'm prejudice. So are my blog sisters. I'm trying to find a Kindle version with an interactive table of contents so I can jump from story to story with ease.
So, are you a re-reader? If so, what books are you willing to read again? And what book or books would you NEVER consider parting with, even if you don't plan to read it/them again? Why did that book or books earn a permanent place on your book shelves, in your closet, or in your shed? Please let us know, as I might want to read those books. After Agatha Christie. And Poe. Of course.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
DEATH WILL HELP YOU LEAVE HIM
My first book trailer video
Elizabeth Zelvin
My agent said we have to try it without waiting for the jury to return a verdict on whether it boosts sales. So I did. The publicist at my publisher’s said the biggest mistake people make is spending thousands of dollars on it. So I didn’t. I did everything myself except putting it together, which would have required me to master do-it-yourself video software. Janet Koch did the skillful editing and production, and yes, she's available and will do the parts I did myself as well if you want to hire a pro.
And here it is—ta-dah!
Death Will Help You Leave Him
Writing the dialogue was a terrific exercise in revision. As I pared it down to the bone so it would fit into a single minute and not overpower the visuals and the music, I realized afresh how much of what I write on the first, second, or third go-around is extraneous. I’m preparing for my book tour, to start (beginning at Bouchercon in Indianapolis) as soon as Death Will Help You Leave Him hits the stores next Tuesday. As I think about reading Page One at my launch party and maybe in the course of a talk as an example of voice, I wish it weren’t too late for one more round of editing, so I could make the printed page as punchy as the video script.
The perfect music was a gift from a friend: my favorite song by singer/songwriter Bernice Lewis. It’s worth clicking on the video just to hear part of “As Soon As It Stops Raining.” It’s from her album Isle of Spirit, and you can get a download of the whole song via a link on her website.
Shooting the visuals—I took both photos and video clips on my little digital camera—reminded me how lucky I am to live in New York. To get the clip of a rainy night seen through the windshield, I waited for it to rain and recruited my husband as chauffeur. He’s a new and cautious driver and needed some coaxing. But the glow of red and green traffic lights and the shadows of ghostly figures crossing the street came out just the way I’d envisioned it. My only beef: I wish we’d had time to wash the windshield first.
I needed a cemetery in Brooklyn. The only possible choice was Green-Wood Cemetery, founded in 1853 and now a national historic landmark. I photographed many more weeping angels than I used and discovered, among other things, that because of the risk of the West Nile virus, it’s no longer permitted to leave cut flowers in vases of water on the graves between March and November.
I shot my fictional Brooklyn bakery at Rocco’s in Greenwich Village, where the pastries in the display cases were just as glorious as I’d hoped, and the SoHo art gallery in a SoHo art gallery. The classy lingerie shop on Madison Avenue was smaller and more crowded than my fictional version—no little gilt chairs or espresso machine—but the sexy undies were even more colorful than I’d pictured them. Even more colorful were the displays of fish, fruit, and flowers in Chinatown on Canal Street. (If you come to my launch party at Partners & Crime on October 27, you'll get to taste Rocco's cannoli.)
I got everything I needed except a genuine car crash in the bumper-to-bumper traffic between Manhattan Bridge and the Holland Tunnel. I had to buy a four-second audio clip of the thud, squeal of brakes, and shattering glass. It cost me $2.96. And for the daytime taxi clip, I simply sailed out the door of my building, walked a few paces to the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 86th Street, and hit the record video button on my camera. I knew plenty of taxis would come rolling by in all directions. They always do.
My agent said we have to try it without waiting for the jury to return a verdict on whether it boosts sales. So I did. The publicist at my publisher’s said the biggest mistake people make is spending thousands of dollars on it. So I didn’t. I did everything myself except putting it together, which would have required me to master do-it-yourself video software. Janet Koch did the skillful editing and production, and yes, she's available and will do the parts I did myself as well if you want to hire a pro.
And here it is—ta-dah!
Death Will Help You Leave Him
Writing the dialogue was a terrific exercise in revision. As I pared it down to the bone so it would fit into a single minute and not overpower the visuals and the music, I realized afresh how much of what I write on the first, second, or third go-around is extraneous. I’m preparing for my book tour, to start (beginning at Bouchercon in Indianapolis) as soon as Death Will Help You Leave Him hits the stores next Tuesday. As I think about reading Page One at my launch party and maybe in the course of a talk as an example of voice, I wish it weren’t too late for one more round of editing, so I could make the printed page as punchy as the video script.
The perfect music was a gift from a friend: my favorite song by singer/songwriter Bernice Lewis. It’s worth clicking on the video just to hear part of “As Soon As It Stops Raining.” It’s from her album Isle of Spirit, and you can get a download of the whole song via a link on her website.
Shooting the visuals—I took both photos and video clips on my little digital camera—reminded me how lucky I am to live in New York. To get the clip of a rainy night seen through the windshield, I waited for it to rain and recruited my husband as chauffeur. He’s a new and cautious driver and needed some coaxing. But the glow of red and green traffic lights and the shadows of ghostly figures crossing the street came out just the way I’d envisioned it. My only beef: I wish we’d had time to wash the windshield first.
I needed a cemetery in Brooklyn. The only possible choice was Green-Wood Cemetery, founded in 1853 and now a national historic landmark. I photographed many more weeping angels than I used and discovered, among other things, that because of the risk of the West Nile virus, it’s no longer permitted to leave cut flowers in vases of water on the graves between March and November.
I shot my fictional Brooklyn bakery at Rocco’s in Greenwich Village, where the pastries in the display cases were just as glorious as I’d hoped, and the SoHo art gallery in a SoHo art gallery. The classy lingerie shop on Madison Avenue was smaller and more crowded than my fictional version—no little gilt chairs or espresso machine—but the sexy undies were even more colorful than I’d pictured them. Even more colorful were the displays of fish, fruit, and flowers in Chinatown on Canal Street. (If you come to my launch party at Partners & Crime on October 27, you'll get to taste Rocco's cannoli.)
I got everything I needed except a genuine car crash in the bumper-to-bumper traffic between Manhattan Bridge and the Holland Tunnel. I had to buy a four-second audio clip of the thud, squeal of brakes, and shattering glass. It cost me $2.96. And for the daytime taxi clip, I simply sailed out the door of my building, walked a few paces to the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 86th Street, and hit the record video button on my camera. I knew plenty of taxis would come rolling by in all directions. They always do.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Sophie Hannah: New Mistress of Suspense
Interviewed by Sandra Parshall
Sophie Hannah does suspense the way Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine does it: by using the mundane routines of everyday life to construct a nightmarish trap for her vulnerable characters.
Sophie is a bestselling crime fiction writer in Britain and is rapidly winning readers all over the world with her beautifully written and cleverly plotted psychological thrillers. Little Face, Hurting Distance and The Wrong Mother (titled The Point of Rescue in Britain) have been published in the U.S., and The Dead Lie Down (titled The Other Half Lives in Britain) is slated for American publication.
Before she turned to crime fiction, Sophie was already the celebrated author of three mainstream novels, a children’s book, and several poetry collections. Her poetry is studied at schools across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and two children.
Sophie will appear at Bouchercon in Indianapolis this month and afterward will speak and sign at several bookstores before returning home.
Q. You wrote several non-genre novels before turning to suspense. What lured you over to the dark side?
A. I've always been obsessed with mystery fiction, since I was a kid. My parents bought me one of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven mysteries when I was
about five or six, and I remember reading it and thinking, “Stories with mysteries in them are so much better than those without -- why don't all books have mysteries in them?” I've never really changed my mind on that point. I read all of Enid Blyton, then discovered Agatha Christie and read all her books, then Ruth Rendell... I'm a mystery addict, really! I think it's because I'm quite nosy. In real life, I'm always desperate to know something -- what someone's thinking, what's going on behind the scenes in people's lives that they don't talk about -- and the great thing about suspense fiction is that you know your nosiness is going to be satisfied at the end of the book.
Q. Why did you choose to write suspense rather than traditional whodunnits told primarily from the sleuth’s or police detective’s POV? What is it about the suspense form that you find rewarding as a writer?
A. Well, each of my books combines two narrative perspectives. I always have a female protagonist in some kind of nightmarish situation, and half of each book is narrated in the first person by the heroine of that particular book. But then the other half is in the third person from the main detectives' points of view. I decided, when I set out to write my first crime novel, that I would do it this way and it worked so well for me that I've stuck to it. It enables me to look at whatever's going on from two very distinct angles and I think it helps to portray the events of each novel “in the round”, as it were. For the heroine, whatever's going on is liable to ruin her life (if not end it!) unless she can sort it out. For the police, it's their job to solve the mystery and sort out whatever crime might have been committed, so not as much is at stake for them, or rather a lot might be at stake but its usually professional stuff -- their reputation, their career prospects. I like, in my novels, to show what the same crime means to different people.
So, that's my literary explanation, but from a personal point of view -- bearing in mind that I write the books I'd love to read but that don't exist yet -- my two favourite sub-genres within the crime genre are the first-person-narrated woman-in-peril psychological thriller and the third-person-narrated police procedural, so I thought: “Why not have the best of both worlds and combine the two?”
Q. You feature the same police detectives from book to book. Do you plan to develop them more fully and focus on them more in future books?
A. Yes, I do plan to develop my cop protagonists further and keep them in my novels for the foreseeable future. As a reader of series detective novels, I always look forward to the new Inspector Wexford, or the new Inspector Morse, and I think there can be real pleasure gained from having a recurring detective character or characters -- it's like meeting an old friend again after not seeing them for a while! Also, now I'm very attached to my police characters. I'd really miss them, I think, if I stopped putting them in my books. My readers also are attached to them, and regularly email me to check I'm planning to continue their story.
Q. In The Wrong Mother, your portrayal of mothers and their feelings toward their children is brutally honest. How have your female readers reacted? Do they identify with characters who love their kids but sometimes feel burdened by them, or do they consider your fictional mothers abnormal?
A. The funny thing is that I thought some people might disapprove of the negative attitudes towards motherhood in the book, but I've had an overwhelmingly positive reaction -- loads of emails from women saying, “I thought I was the only one who'd ever felt that way, and I'm so pleased you had the courage to write a no-holds-barred account of it.” Even my friends who have loved being full-time mums and are, in my view, perfect mothers said that they loved reading about nasty, selfish mothers resenting their children. I think, even if you are someone who behaves well, it's always fun to read about someone else behaving really badly!
And the nasty-mother scenes were very cathartic to write, I must say! I found it very hard when my kids were little, and I always struggled to do my best for them, and wouldn't have wanted to do otherwise, but I thoroughly enjoyed inventing a character who shamelessly prioritizes herself over her daughter every time and wishes she'd never bothered having a child. In my darkest moments, I did have some thoughts along those lines. Luckily, extensive child-care provision from nannies, nurseries and babysitters enabled me to get through those difficult early years. Otherwise, I might well have become as deranged as the worst mothers in my novel!
Q. Two recurring themes in your books are mother/child relationships and false identities. What draws you to these subjects?
A. I don't have mother-child relationships in all my books. They're prominent in both Little Face and The Wrong Mother, but I've written two other suspense novels that are child-free. I need regular breaks from the company of children, in writing as in life! But, yes, I suppose mother-child relationships and, more generally, family relationships are a particular interest of mine. There's so much drama in families, so many secrets and undercurrents and hidden resentments. I find them fascinating.
I am also fascinated by the idea of people turning out to be not who they're supposed to be -- I think because, to me, the scariest thing I can imagine would be finding out that things are not at all how they seem. If the version of your life that you believe in one hundred per cent turns out to be false, how terrifying is that?
I'm also fascinated by the apparently impossible in a mystery plot -- yet it must be possible because it's happened. Like that moment in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, when one character me mentions to another that Norman Bates lives with his mother and the other character says, “But his mother's dead. If she's living in that house, who is it that's been buried in such-and-such cemetery for twenty-five years?” There's a real thrill in realizing that the seemingly impossible is actually happening. Also, mysteries that seem impossible are harder to solve, and that's an added interest of mine as a writer -- I like the challenge of finding the perfect solution to an apparently impossible mystery!
Q. In a review of Hurting Distance in the Independent, the reviewer wrote, “This is a far better-written book than any genre label might suggest.” American crime fiction writers are accustomed to that kind of snobbery, but does it surprise you? Do you think mystery and suspense novelists (who, in my own opinion, are producing some of the best writing being published these days) are less respected than they should be?
A. Yes, there's that same snobbery about crime fiction in the UK. I just totally ignore it. Having read A Dark-adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, and Half-broken Things by Morag Joss, and In the Woods by Tana French, and countless other brilliant crime novels, I am in no doubt that mystery and suspense fiction can be every bit as worthwhile, memorable, deep and full of literary merit as literary fiction. My theory about the snobs (some of whom even love reading mystery fiction themselves, but still dismiss it as disposable) is that they're insecure about their own cleverness. They want to prove their intellectual and literary credentials, and use their choice of reading matter as a way of doing this. Whereas I know I'm clever and don't feel the need to prove it, so I allow myself to read and write the most enjoyable kind of fiction there is: mystery fiction.
Q. How has your life changed since you became a bestselling writer? What is the best aspect of this kind of success, and what are the drawbacks?
A. The best thing about being a bestselling writer is that so many readers write to me to say they love my books, and that's fantastic. It really boosts my confidence, and helps me to trust my creative instincts, because I can think to myself, “I must be doing something right, or all those people wouldn't write me those nice letters.” So now when I have a new idea that seems a bit scary and risky, I tell myself, “You've got to do it, however scary it seems -- if you hadn't taken those risks before, you wouldn't have written all those other books that readers loved enough to make the effort of writing to you.”
Also, I now have much more money than I had before, which is great. People say that money doesn't buy happiness, but it certainly buys you a lot more freedom, and you can't be properly happy if you aren't free. The drawback of my situation is that with every book I become more worried about letting readers down -- is this book as good as the last? You've got more to live up to, and you have a sense of constantly competing against yourself, which can be exhausting.
Q. How do you manage to write while keeping up a busy promotion schedule and managing a household with children? What is your writing routine like?
A. When I'm working on a first draft, I write every weekday, between about 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. When I'm not working on a novel, I'm touring, or sorting out my house/children. The answer is that I manage by running myself into the ground and being exhausted all the time. I ought to take better care of myself, but I'm too busy to work out how to do that (like the heroine of The Wrong Mother!)
Q. I hope you’ll enjoy this year’s Bouchercon in Indianapolis and your bookstore appearances in the US afterward. Have you been to the US before to promote your books?
A. I was in the US last year promoting Little Face. So this is my second US tour.
In the third week of October, Sophie will appear at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ, Houston's Murder by the Book, and Oakland's A Great Good Place for Books. Check the stores’ web sites for dates and times. Visit Sophie’s web site at www.sophiehannah.com for more information about her and her books.
Sophie Hannah does suspense the way Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine does it: by using the mundane routines of everyday life to construct a nightmarish trap for her vulnerable characters.Sophie is a bestselling crime fiction writer in Britain and is rapidly winning readers all over the world with her beautifully written and cleverly plotted psychological thrillers. Little Face, Hurting Distance and The Wrong Mother (titled The Point of Rescue in Britain) have been published in the U.S., and The Dead Lie Down (titled The Other Half Lives in Britain) is slated for American publication.
Before she turned to crime fiction, Sophie was already the celebrated author of three mainstream novels, a children’s book, and several poetry collections. Her poetry is studied at schools across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and two children.
Sophie will appear at Bouchercon in Indianapolis this month and afterward will speak and sign at several bookstores before returning home.
Q. You wrote several non-genre novels before turning to suspense. What lured you over to the dark side?
A. I've always been obsessed with mystery fiction, since I was a kid. My parents bought me one of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven mysteries when I was
about five or six, and I remember reading it and thinking, “Stories with mysteries in them are so much better than those without -- why don't all books have mysteries in them?” I've never really changed my mind on that point. I read all of Enid Blyton, then discovered Agatha Christie and read all her books, then Ruth Rendell... I'm a mystery addict, really! I think it's because I'm quite nosy. In real life, I'm always desperate to know something -- what someone's thinking, what's going on behind the scenes in people's lives that they don't talk about -- and the great thing about suspense fiction is that you know your nosiness is going to be satisfied at the end of the book.
Q. Why did you choose to write suspense rather than traditional whodunnits told primarily from the sleuth’s or police detective’s POV? What is it about the suspense form that you find rewarding as a writer?
A. Well, each of my books combines two narrative perspectives. I always have a female protagonist in some kind of nightmarish situation, and half of each book is narrated in the first person by the heroine of that particular book. But then the other half is in the third person from the main detectives' points of view. I decided, when I set out to write my first crime novel, that I would do it this way and it worked so well for me that I've stuck to it. It enables me to look at whatever's going on from two very distinct angles and I think it helps to portray the events of each novel “in the round”, as it were. For the heroine, whatever's going on is liable to ruin her life (if not end it!) unless she can sort it out. For the police, it's their job to solve the mystery and sort out whatever crime might have been committed, so not as much is at stake for them, or rather a lot might be at stake but its usually professional stuff -- their reputation, their career prospects. I like, in my novels, to show what the same crime means to different people.
So, that's my literary explanation, but from a personal point of view -- bearing in mind that I write the books I'd love to read but that don't exist yet -- my two favourite sub-genres within the crime genre are the first-person-narrated woman-in-peril psychological thriller and the third-person-narrated police procedural, so I thought: “Why not have the best of both worlds and combine the two?”
Q. You feature the same police detectives from book to book. Do you plan to develop them more fully and focus on them more in future books?
A. Yes, I do plan to develop my cop protagonists further and keep them in my novels for the foreseeable future. As a reader of series detective novels, I always look forward to the new Inspector Wexford, or the new Inspector Morse, and I think there can be real pleasure gained from having a recurring detective character or characters -- it's like meeting an old friend again after not seeing them for a while! Also, now I'm very attached to my police characters. I'd really miss them, I think, if I stopped putting them in my books. My readers also are attached to them, and regularly email me to check I'm planning to continue their story.
Q. In The Wrong Mother, your portrayal of mothers and their feelings toward their children is brutally honest. How have your female readers reacted? Do they identify with characters who love their kids but sometimes feel burdened by them, or do they consider your fictional mothers abnormal?
A. The funny thing is that I thought some people might disapprove of the negative attitudes towards motherhood in the book, but I've had an overwhelmingly positive reaction -- loads of emails from women saying, “I thought I was the only one who'd ever felt that way, and I'm so pleased you had the courage to write a no-holds-barred account of it.” Even my friends who have loved being full-time mums and are, in my view, perfect mothers said that they loved reading about nasty, selfish mothers resenting their children. I think, even if you are someone who behaves well, it's always fun to read about someone else behaving really badly!
And the nasty-mother scenes were very cathartic to write, I must say! I found it very hard when my kids were little, and I always struggled to do my best for them, and wouldn't have wanted to do otherwise, but I thoroughly enjoyed inventing a character who shamelessly prioritizes herself over her daughter every time and wishes she'd never bothered having a child. In my darkest moments, I did have some thoughts along those lines. Luckily, extensive child-care provision from nannies, nurseries and babysitters enabled me to get through those difficult early years. Otherwise, I might well have become as deranged as the worst mothers in my novel!
Q. Two recurring themes in your books are mother/child relationships and false identities. What draws you to these subjects?
A. I don't have mother-child relationships in all my books. They're prominent in both Little Face and The Wrong Mother, but I've written two other suspense novels that are child-free. I need regular breaks from the company of children, in writing as in life! But, yes, I suppose mother-child relationships and, more generally, family relationships are a particular interest of mine. There's so much drama in families, so many secrets and undercurrents and hidden resentments. I find them fascinating.
I am also fascinated by the idea of people turning out to be not who they're supposed to be -- I think because, to me, the scariest thing I can imagine would be finding out that things are not at all how they seem. If the version of your life that you believe in one hundred per cent turns out to be false, how terrifying is that?
I'm also fascinated by the apparently impossible in a mystery plot -- yet it must be possible because it's happened. Like that moment in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, when one character me mentions to another that Norman Bates lives with his mother and the other character says, “But his mother's dead. If she's living in that house, who is it that's been buried in such-and-such cemetery for twenty-five years?” There's a real thrill in realizing that the seemingly impossible is actually happening. Also, mysteries that seem impossible are harder to solve, and that's an added interest of mine as a writer -- I like the challenge of finding the perfect solution to an apparently impossible mystery!
Q. In a review of Hurting Distance in the Independent, the reviewer wrote, “This is a far better-written book than any genre label might suggest.” American crime fiction writers are accustomed to that kind of snobbery, but does it surprise you? Do you think mystery and suspense novelists (who, in my own opinion, are producing some of the best writing being published these days) are less respected than they should be?A. Yes, there's that same snobbery about crime fiction in the UK. I just totally ignore it. Having read A Dark-adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, and Half-broken Things by Morag Joss, and In the Woods by Tana French, and countless other brilliant crime novels, I am in no doubt that mystery and suspense fiction can be every bit as worthwhile, memorable, deep and full of literary merit as literary fiction. My theory about the snobs (some of whom even love reading mystery fiction themselves, but still dismiss it as disposable) is that they're insecure about their own cleverness. They want to prove their intellectual and literary credentials, and use their choice of reading matter as a way of doing this. Whereas I know I'm clever and don't feel the need to prove it, so I allow myself to read and write the most enjoyable kind of fiction there is: mystery fiction.
Q. How has your life changed since you became a bestselling writer? What is the best aspect of this kind of success, and what are the drawbacks?
A. The best thing about being a bestselling writer is that so many readers write to me to say they love my books, and that's fantastic. It really boosts my confidence, and helps me to trust my creative instincts, because I can think to myself, “I must be doing something right, or all those people wouldn't write me those nice letters.” So now when I have a new idea that seems a bit scary and risky, I tell myself, “You've got to do it, however scary it seems -- if you hadn't taken those risks before, you wouldn't have written all those other books that readers loved enough to make the effort of writing to you.”
Also, I now have much more money than I had before, which is great. People say that money doesn't buy happiness, but it certainly buys you a lot more freedom, and you can't be properly happy if you aren't free. The drawback of my situation is that with every book I become more worried about letting readers down -- is this book as good as the last? You've got more to live up to, and you have a sense of constantly competing against yourself, which can be exhausting.
Q. How do you manage to write while keeping up a busy promotion schedule and managing a household with children? What is your writing routine like?
A. When I'm working on a first draft, I write every weekday, between about 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. When I'm not working on a novel, I'm touring, or sorting out my house/children. The answer is that I manage by running myself into the ground and being exhausted all the time. I ought to take better care of myself, but I'm too busy to work out how to do that (like the heroine of The Wrong Mother!)Q. I hope you’ll enjoy this year’s Bouchercon in Indianapolis and your bookstore appearances in the US afterward. Have you been to the US before to promote your books?
A. I was in the US last year promoting Little Face. So this is my second US tour.
In the third week of October, Sophie will appear at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ, Houston's Murder by the Book, and Oakland's A Great Good Place for Books. Check the stores’ web sites for dates and times. Visit Sophie’s web site at www.sophiehannah.com for more information about her and her books.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Keep the Home Fires Burning
Sharon Wildwind
I've been away.
Since my last book, Soldier on the Porch, was pubished two years ago, I’ve been living through a writing hiatus. Something like actors “resting” between parts, though not exactly like that.
I've discovered three things about myself as a writer in the past two years.
First, I am not a short-story writer. I tried to think of stories that I could turn out quikly, as a side line while working on the next book, but every time new characters and sub-plots twisted themselves into a complicated story that could only be done justice by a book-length format. I never finished a single short story. The good news is I have several great ideas for new books.
The second thing I discovered is that I sort of folded as a writer and sort of didn't. A long time ago, when I took a business class, the instructor said to start out spending 60% of your available time on the business of running the business and 40% of your time on turning out the product (also known as “the book). The only scientific rationale he had for that was that keeping the business going is likely to take more time and energy than turning out the product. Every year, for eight years, my yearly stats have come in within 1% of the 60%/40% split.
This is not something I do consciously. I work on what needs to be done, jot down notes about what I do in a day timer, and add the numbers up once a month. Some years, around August, the year looks so skewed that I think this will be the year that can’t possibly balance out. Some kind of magic happens between Labor Day and the end of the year because, sure enough, by December 31, the numbers are right where they should be.
Even though the percentages continued to look good, what didn't look so good was a decline in the total number of hours. The decline was insidious: a small decease one month, another small decrease the next month and by the end of the 2008, the total number of hours I'd devoted to keeping on keeping on was down further than I wanted them to be.
I think it was akin to the my-term-paper-isn't-due-until-May syndrome. Remember when a teacher assigned a big project and told us we had all year to work on it? I'd start with the best of intentions in September, peter out by Thanksgiving, ignore it completely over Christmas break, almost panic in January—ah, it's still four months away, why worry—and then rush to finish in the two weeks before I had to hand something in.
I knew I had to write another book and that finishing that next book sooner rather than later would be a good thing. I started it with the best of intentions and peered out.
It's a year and nine months before the next book is out, I have time.
There's this other project I want to work on.
I've been writing awfully hard, maybe I should do art for a while. This is the kind of thing I was doing when I probably should have been writing.
I'm going to sleep in this morning. I can still spend an hour on the book instead of the three hours that I'd planned, but what the heck, I have lots of time.
The upshot was that I arrived at the day last month when Missing, Presumed Wed came out, the next book wasn't finished. Close, very close, but not done. I’m not exactly proud of that. What I have learned is that I have to build some personal motivation into the process; that I can’t rely solely on external deadlines to get things done.
However, the third thing I learned was that my being a writer didn't peter out into nothingness. I might have been putting in fewer hours each day, but I was still writing and running a business. I kept up with what was going on in the mystery world. I learned new things about writing and marketing. I wrote a business plan and achieved most of the things I'd set out to do. I made new writing friends. I explored new markets and new social sites. I wrote two drafts of a book, and a lot of blogs, a reasonable number of book reviews, and some critiques, and took a bunch of notes for all of those short stories that want to grow up to be novels.
In the words of one of my favorite characters from childhood television, Major Seth Adams, “Wagons, Ho.”
I'd better get started again. I still have a lot of territory to cover.
Since our Canadian Thanksgiving will have come and gone by the time I blog again, I want to wish everyone north of the border a Happy Thanksgiving next Monday. For those of you south of the border, I recommend you have a pie tasting day on Monday. It’s never too early to sample pumpkin pie.
-----
Quote for the week:
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
~William James, American psychologist, philosopher, and writer (1842 – 1910)
I've been away.
Since my last book, Soldier on the Porch, was pubished two years ago, I’ve been living through a writing hiatus. Something like actors “resting” between parts, though not exactly like that.
I've discovered three things about myself as a writer in the past two years.
First, I am not a short-story writer. I tried to think of stories that I could turn out quikly, as a side line while working on the next book, but every time new characters and sub-plots twisted themselves into a complicated story that could only be done justice by a book-length format. I never finished a single short story. The good news is I have several great ideas for new books.
The second thing I discovered is that I sort of folded as a writer and sort of didn't. A long time ago, when I took a business class, the instructor said to start out spending 60% of your available time on the business of running the business and 40% of your time on turning out the product (also known as “the book). The only scientific rationale he had for that was that keeping the business going is likely to take more time and energy than turning out the product. Every year, for eight years, my yearly stats have come in within 1% of the 60%/40% split.
This is not something I do consciously. I work on what needs to be done, jot down notes about what I do in a day timer, and add the numbers up once a month. Some years, around August, the year looks so skewed that I think this will be the year that can’t possibly balance out. Some kind of magic happens between Labor Day and the end of the year because, sure enough, by December 31, the numbers are right where they should be.
Even though the percentages continued to look good, what didn't look so good was a decline in the total number of hours. The decline was insidious: a small decease one month, another small decrease the next month and by the end of the 2008, the total number of hours I'd devoted to keeping on keeping on was down further than I wanted them to be.
I think it was akin to the my-term-paper-isn't-due-until-May syndrome. Remember when a teacher assigned a big project and told us we had all year to work on it? I'd start with the best of intentions in September, peter out by Thanksgiving, ignore it completely over Christmas break, almost panic in January—ah, it's still four months away, why worry—and then rush to finish in the two weeks before I had to hand something in.
I knew I had to write another book and that finishing that next book sooner rather than later would be a good thing. I started it with the best of intentions and peered out.
It's a year and nine months before the next book is out, I have time.
There's this other project I want to work on.
I've been writing awfully hard, maybe I should do art for a while. This is the kind of thing I was doing when I probably should have been writing.I'm going to sleep in this morning. I can still spend an hour on the book instead of the three hours that I'd planned, but what the heck, I have lots of time.
The upshot was that I arrived at the day last month when Missing, Presumed Wed came out, the next book wasn't finished. Close, very close, but not done. I’m not exactly proud of that. What I have learned is that I have to build some personal motivation into the process; that I can’t rely solely on external deadlines to get things done.
However, the third thing I learned was that my being a writer didn't peter out into nothingness. I might have been putting in fewer hours each day, but I was still writing and running a business. I kept up with what was going on in the mystery world. I learned new things about writing and marketing. I wrote a business plan and achieved most of the things I'd set out to do. I made new writing friends. I explored new markets and new social sites. I wrote two drafts of a book, and a lot of blogs, a reasonable number of book reviews, and some critiques, and took a bunch of notes for all of those short stories that want to grow up to be novels.
In the words of one of my favorite characters from childhood television, Major Seth Adams, “Wagons, Ho.”
I'd better get started again. I still have a lot of territory to cover.
Since our Canadian Thanksgiving will have come and gone by the time I blog again, I want to wish everyone north of the border a Happy Thanksgiving next Monday. For those of you south of the border, I recommend you have a pie tasting day on Monday. It’s never too early to sample pumpkin pie.
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Quote for the week:
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
~William James, American psychologist, philosopher, and writer (1842 – 1910)
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Most Embarrassing Moment (To Date)
It's been a long, long time since I was truly, face-reddeningly embarrassed. I spent many of my impressionable years suffering the slings and arrows of teenage humilation, but embarrassment is something we grow out of, right?Or so I thought, until last week when my doctor sent me to a dermatologist for one of those lovely full-body exams, in order to determine if any part of me might need removal.
I'd never experienced this sort of thing before, but I'm a mature woman who has given birth to two children, and nothing fazes me.
So I stood in the center of the doctor's office, uncomfortably but necessarily naked, while she examined me in great, intimate detail. She looked at my scalp through my hair. She scanned my limbs. She lifted the--let's say--floppier parts of me and peered underneath. She looked between my toes. I apologized for the sock lint. "I didn't know you'd be looking there," I said.
One endures exams like this by telling oneself it's all, as Inspector Clouseau once said, "part of life's rich pageant." So I was fine with it, and when she finished I sighed with relief and retreated behind my paper gown and rustled myself back onto the examining table.
Then she sat across from me for our doctor/patient chat. And she said these words:
"So! You must tell me how I know you. I've seen you somewhere before."
Immediate acid flow into the stomach.
"I don't think I know you." Was that desperation in my voice?
"Oh no--I'm sure I know you from somewhere," she assured me.
"I am a teacher."
"That's it! I was just at parent night. I came to your class. You teach my daughter in two different classes, actually."
I remembered then, as the hot, hot blood flowed into my face. I had worn my professional attire and my teacher's nametag. I'd passed out handouts containing syllabi and course outcomes. I had fielded questions with the lingo of academia.
Now she was in her professional attire, and I was wearing a piece of paper. "Well, we've experienced each other's occupations, eh?" I managed.
"Yes!" She seemed to think this was neat--but all she'd had to do was read my handout and ask some questions while she sat in a student desk.
I'd had to stand like a naked Statue of Liberty while she browsed my underarm for moles.
If only she had told me this before the incident. I would have had a chance to run away, to find someone utterly anonymous . . . but regret is the pastime of fools, they say. I am a fool who has spent a lot of energy on this pastime.
So yes, embarrassment can still happen to people over forty. Perhaps it will happen again. There are only so many times in life one is forced to stand nude before a stranger, but are other vulnerabilities, things we don't want exposed and therefore run the risk of future red-facedness.
I shared this story with a colleague who was having a bad day. She laughed so hard she had to bend in half and hold her stomach. She said it was the funniest thing she'd heard in quite some time.
Glad to oblige. But just this once.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The Pen is Still Mightier Than the Sword
Jeri Westerson (Guest Blogger)
Somewhere a pen is screaming.
Or maybe just whimpering. I used to use pens for writing all the time. But now it’s my keyboard. For everything. Practically. I guess I still write out my shopping lists.
And it’s funny because I used to be a pen-aholic. Still am, to a point. Take a look at some of the wacky pens I have collected (http://www.getting-medieval.com/my_weblog/2008/11/of-pens-and-paraphenalia.html). I started my pen love as a kid when I fell in love with calligraphy, which stemmed from my interest in illuminated manuscripts.
I used to pore over those amazing documents, the illustrations and floral designs, and, of course, the lyrical letters. It’s all in the wrist, you know, as well as the nib of the pen.
Using a pen that you must dip into ink makes you a slave to all sorts of aspects of writing: the writing surface, the kinds of nibs, the kinds and colors of ink. And then it leads on to How Do You Make Ink? (Yeah, I was one of those kids.) And because this was the seventies in the olden days before the Internet, it involved many trips to the library where I got to go gaga over more illuminated manuscripts and study technique. I began to invent my own typefaces. Little did I know that this would lead to a career in graphic design, still before computers, where it all had to be done by hand. Some older souls out there might remember the ruling pen, Rapidographs, X-acto knives and Rubylith. Yes, I became proficient in all of those. I was a strictly hands-on kinda gal. And when I did write my stories for fun, I used a yellow pad and a pen.
Much later when I switched gears and careers, the computer was there for my convenience and I learned to compose on the keyboard. I learned to make that as tactile as a pen.
But pens still do play an important role in my writing life. I still like to take notes the old-fashioned way, with a pen and a notebook. And never have pens played as an important role as they do now when I sit at an author table facing a happy reader, anxious to get my signature.
For those of you pen groupies who really want to know, I use a Zebra GR8 gel, black. It’s lovely. The ink moves and glistens for that moment before it soaks permanently into the paper. That’s what pen and ink ought to do: become part of the paper, at one with it. It’s romance, really. Paper, pen, ink. A romantic threesome.
__________
Jeri Westerson writes a blog on things mysterious and medieval (but she uses a keyboard, sad to say) at www.Getting-Medieval.com. You can read more about her newest Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novel, SERPENT IN THE THORNS, on her website www.JeriWesterson.com.
Somewhere a pen is screaming.
Or maybe just whimpering. I used to use pens for writing all the time. But now it’s my keyboard. For everything. Practically. I guess I still write out my shopping lists.
And it’s funny because I used to be a pen-aholic. Still am, to a point. Take a look at some of the wacky pens I have collected (http://www.getting-medieval.com/my_weblog/2008/11/of-pens-and-paraphenalia.html). I started my pen love as a kid when I fell in love with calligraphy, which stemmed from my interest in illuminated manuscripts.
I used to pore over those amazing documents, the illustrations and floral designs, and, of course, the lyrical letters. It’s all in the wrist, you know, as well as the nib of the pen. Using a pen that you must dip into ink makes you a slave to all sorts of aspects of writing: the writing surface, the kinds of nibs, the kinds and colors of ink. And then it leads on to How Do You Make Ink? (Yeah, I was one of those kids.) And because this was the seventies in the olden days before the Internet, it involved many trips to the library where I got to go gaga over more illuminated manuscripts and study technique. I began to invent my own typefaces. Little did I know that this would lead to a career in graphic design, still before computers, where it all had to be done by hand. Some older souls out there might remember the ruling pen, Rapidographs, X-acto knives and Rubylith. Yes, I became proficient in all of those. I was a strictly hands-on kinda gal. And when I did write my stories for fun, I used a yellow pad and a pen.
Much later when I switched gears and careers, the computer was there for my convenience and I learned to compose on the keyboard. I learned to make that as tactile as a pen.
But pens still do play an important role in my writing life. I still like to take notes the old-fashioned way, with a pen and a notebook. And never have pens played as an important role as they do now when I sit at an author table facing a happy reader, anxious to get my signature.
For those of you pen groupies who really want to know, I use a Zebra GR8 gel, black. It’s lovely. The ink moves and glistens for that moment before it soaks permanently into the paper. That’s what pen and ink ought to do: become part of the paper, at one with it. It’s romance, really. Paper, pen, ink. A romantic threesome. __________
Jeri Westerson writes a blog on things mysterious and medieval (but she uses a keyboard, sad to say) at www.Getting-Medieval.com. You can read more about her newest Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novel, SERPENT IN THE THORNS, on her website www.JeriWesterson.com.
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