Characters We Love

Elizabeth Zelvin

I woke up this morning thinking about Brat Farrar: not just Josephine Tey’s 1949 mystery, but Brat himself, the horse-loving orphan who agrees to impersonate a lost heir and finds his “belonging-place.” Yep, I remember the dialogue as well as the characters, decades after I last reread the book. If that’s not a measure of the novelist’s art, I don’t know what is.

Nowadays we hear a lot about “crime fiction,” sometimes accompanied by a dismissal of the traditional mystery. For me, character is the heart of a good book, and my favorite traditional mysteries have it. No matter how long it’s been since I visited them, I’m not going to confuse Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane with anybody else or forget the important events in their lives. The same goes for Judge Deborah Knott, Sharon McCone, Mary Russell, Kate Shugak, Anna Pigeon, and Skip Langdon. All of these characters go through a process of growth and change in the course of a series arc.

One of my newer favorite authors is Charlaine Harris, not because her deft mixing of subgenres started a trend but because each of her protagonists is distinct and memorable. Lily Bard’s the one who survived a horrific abduction and rape, learned martial arts, cleans houses, and roams the streets at night. Sookie Stackhouse is the telepathic barmaid who dates vampires. Harper Connelly got struck by lightning at fifteen and now finds dead people, arousing suspicion and challenging disbelief with her knowledge of how they died. Nor are these details simply backstory stuck onto a generic protagonist figure. All these women have depth and complexity. All are endearing. After reading about them, I’m always eager to come back for more.

My favorite characters in other genres share this ability to leap off the page and into the reader’s heart: Jamie and Claire Fraser, Miles Vorkosigan and Ekaterin, Francis Crawford of Lymond and Philippa. To me these are real people, whether they live in the past or in the future. In a weird way it doesn’t matter that they exist only on the page. Great characters forge a bond between the author’s imagination and the reader’s and create a small miracle every time we open a book.

Now I’ve got a book and characters of my own. I would be thrilled if they find their way into readers’ hearts like those I’ve mentioned. A few people are starting to talk about my protagonist Bruce and his sidekicks Barbara and Jimmy as if they’re real, as if they have a past and a future outside the covers of Death Will Get You Sober. In fact, I know they do, because they talk to me in my head while I drive or take my daily run. They’re insistent, opinionated, and sometimes smarter and funnier than I am. For sure they’ve got fewer inhibitions about what they’ll say. Come to think of it, they’ve already found their way into at least one real-life person’s heart: my own.

What would make you kill?

Sandra Parshall



I’m baffled by people like Scott Peterson, who think murdering a spouse is the easiest way to end a marriage.


I always look for more, thinking the simple desire to get out of the marriage can’t be all there is to it. Surely some dark and twisted story remains to be told, surely secrets will emerge that might make the murder understandable, if not justifiable. But no. In many cases, the husband – or the wife – just wants to be free and doesn’t want to bother with a divorce.


I couldn’t write about such a killer, because the motive makes no sense to me. The person who kills in a fit of rage is easier to understand than these bland people who plot and carry out murder for the flimsiest of reasons. There’s simply nothing there to explore.


Equally off-putting are psychopathic serial killers. Judging by the popularity of this type of book, I’d say mental illness makes good drama for a lot of people, but I can only stay interested in a serial killer novel if the people investigating the crimes are compelling, with their own fascinating stories. A mentally ill murderer’s motive is imaginary, unconnected to the real world, and for that reason, it bores me.


Strange as it may seem, I need a killer I can identify with. Someone I can understand. And that forces me to ask: What is worth killing for? What could make me take another person’s life?


Not an easy question for someone who is basically a pacifist and a physical coward. I seldom see any justification for war. I might get mad enough to say, “I could strangle her!” but I’d never do it. As a kid on a farm, I was always horrified by the casual way adults wrung the necks of chickens. When I find bugs in the house, I usually pick them up and put them outside. But... I kill spiders. I leave them alone if they’re in the yard, but any spider that’s in the house or even hanging around outside a door or window will be mercilessly dispatched. And I’m sure that in some circumstances I could kill another human being.


Self-defense – most of us probably take it for granted that we would kill rather than be killed. Even if the thought of taking a life repulses us, we know the instinct for self-preservation would kick in.


I would kill to save a child, any child. Could I do it to save an adult? I have to admit I’m not sure. The most honest answer: Depends on who it is and what he or she means to me. But I wouldn’t hesitate to inflict grievous bodily harm, at the very least, to stop the torture of an animal.


To create a killer I can write about convincingly, I have to find that dark place where my own murderous impulses hide. I have to pull them into the light, examine the forces that created them, and weave my character’s heart and soul around them. I have to understand my killer’s behavior, and at some level I have to empathize with it. I hope I can also make the reader feel a spark of pity for this person who has been pushed by life into the role of killer.


Writing with these goals isn’t easy, and it makes for some treacherously complex plotting, but working with a simplistic killer would be so boring that I would probably give up long before I could finish the book. Same goes for reading about killers with motives that seem ridiculous to me. If a character is going to commit murder, he’d better have a darned good reason.


How do you feel about this? Do you want fictional killers to have understandable motives that arise from their unique situations? Do you ever feel empathy or pity for a killer?


And what would make you kill?

If not now, when?

Sharon Wildwind

Every year, during the first week in June, the province of Alberta celebrates Seniors’ Week. Many cities have special events for older adults, and I was fortunate to attend a marvelous one last week. It was called Celebration of Creative Aging Symposium.
Here are some notes from material presented at that symposium by Susan Perlstein. She founded Elders Share the Arts in New York City, and is currently the Director of Education and Training at the National Centre for Creative Aging in Washington, D.C.

Creativity is scary as well as having a lot of positive values. The arts are deep play. Current brain research shows that as people age, both sides of the brain integrate. Younger people tend to be more right-brained or left-brained, but older people are whole-brained. One surprising thing that brain research has shown is that when the brain is stimulated with real creativity, brain tissue grows more dendrites, that is, the brain reserve gets larger. The immune system also grows stronger.

In North America, the shift from a negative, medical model of aging into what can older people offer has happened since 2000. Elders Share the Arts (New York City) started by collecting stories and transforming them into all art forms. This grew into the first landmark research on creativity and aging in the US. The research was carried out between 2001 and 2005.

What the results of the study showed was that the health of older people involved in creative artistic expression group improved significantly in all areas. They:
• lived longer
• visited the doctor less often
• took fewer medications
• incurred less health care costs
• had fewer falls
• increased their visual acuity, if they were engaged in visual arts
• had more friends and social contacts
• increased their sense of mastery and control over their lives, even in non-art areas
• had increased confidence
• increased their ability and willingness to problem-solve and locate and use resources
• experienced less depression
• appeared to have a deceased risk for entering long-term care

In addition to providing previously unavailable research data, another goal of the research was to prepare material to present at the 2005 White House Conference on Aging in order to influence the revision of the Older Americans’ Act. This included a 40-state grass roots movement to bring arts and artists to the conference. Both the research and the grass roots movement was successful and a statement that “Older people have the right to access the arts” became part of the Older Americans’ Act.

The National Centre for Creative Aging, www.creativeaging.org, also came out of that research. They continue to promote art projects for older people, and in 2007 they developed a Creativity Matters Toolkit, which is available for purchase, as well as a free Internet newsletter, and training programs for artists to work with older people. Their goal is to pair as many senior’s programs as possible to arts organizations on the local, state, and national level.

Total respect for life experiences is the base and heart of artistic programs for seniors. These are not “keep busy” projects. We are talking professional art instruction, public performances and art exhibits, and social integration into a multi-generational group.

Stop thinking of arts for older people as follow-the-dot kits, sing-alongs, etc. where all the person has to do is slap on some paint or try to remember the words to old songs. Real creativity starts with the blank page, the lump of clay, a drum, or an empty stage.

Stop using bland, non-controversial subjects, such as having older people paint a bunch of flowers on a table. Tap into the individual and cultural heritage that every older person has and allow art to grow out of the richness of that heritage.

Real artists deserve real working space, and real display space. Stop thinking of art for older people in terms of “Art Corners” furnished with second-hand furniture and third-hand, close-out-sale art supplies, where finished projects are Scotch-taped or pinned to a bulletin board with thumbtacks. Get artists into real art studios, real performance spaces. Mount the pictures, frame them, and display them in galleries. Put actors, poets, musicians, and writers on stage. Make CDs. Do desk top publishing. Organize living history festivals and present them in real venues.

Think partnerships. It’s not a matter of corporations or governments making a donation and walking away. Close the circle by taking the art back to those same organizations in the form of art displays, performances, etc.

Train people already working with older adults in the arts; train artists in working with older people.

Form intergenerational liaisons and projects whenever possible. Connect to local school curricula and build artist/school links, such as linking a seniors’ centre and a school in the same neighborhood.

If you want a look at some older people totally immersed in their art, I recommend both of these films, which were shown as part of the Edmonton festival.

Do Not Go Gently: the power of imagination in aging
http://www.donotgogently.com
2007, 57 minutes, US production, narrated by Walter Cronkite.
Explores the thoughts of older artists and others involved in creative aging. How important is imagination to the experience of being human? What are the most inventive artists expressing at a very old age? And why? This is a very powerful film, featuring:
• Arlonzia Pettaway, 84, quilter from Gees Bend, Alabama.
• Frederick Franklin, 93 ballet artist, who’s still dancing and teaching younger dancers
• Leo Ornstein, over 100, musical composer and pianist
• Several groups around the US, which offer artistic programs for their senior members

Still Kicking
www.goldenbearcasting.com
2006, 35 minutes, US production
Amy Gorman invited Frances Kandl to journey with her throughout the San Francisco Bay Area searching for female role models—very old women, still active artists, living with zest. While Amy chronicles their oral histories, Frances is inspired to compose songs for several of these women, many well past 90, culminating in concerts celebrating lives liberated by age. Artists featured:
• Frances Catlett, 95, painter
• Ann Davlin, 93, dance and piano teacher
• Madeline Mason, 101, doll maker
• Elsie Otaga, 91, ikebana artist
• Grace Gildersleeve, 95, rug weaver
• Lily Hearst, 108, pianist
------
Writing quote for the week:

If you don’t have a sense of wonder, you can’t create. Wonder begins when you ask a question to which there is no clear answer. The question and answer must flow through one another. The question must be the answer and the answer must be the next question.
~Ted Blodgett, City of Edmonton poet laureate

A Day in Chicago at Printer's Row

By Julia Buckley
We braved the rain and the El today to go to downtown Chicago and the Printer's Row Book Fair; I had a signing spot in the MWA booth for two lovely hours, before the rains came. My sherpa was my husband, a veteran of public transportation since his high school days. I, however, never quite took to the El; I find it about as comforting as riding on a rocket must be. There were times--far too many to count--when I complained to my co-passengers (my husband and two sons) that the train was rocking too much, hinting at derailment.

My husband scoffed at me. "Do you want me to notify the conductor that the El is jostling my wife?"

"Yes," I said.

Somehow we made it to Chicago, despite the fright of an El ride.
This futuristic subterranean hallway smelled vaguely of the elephant house at the zoo, but the boys found it exciting. I was just glad to be using my own feet as a form of locomotion.

We soon found, upon ascending into sunlight once again, that we had taken a train which left us rather far from our destination (Polk and Dearborn). So we walked and walked. I told my husband that he was not a very reliable Sherpa, to which he responded in most husband-like style that he simply would not be my guide next time, if that was how I felt.

A man visiting from Kentucky gave us instructions about how to find Polk Street. This is humiliating because A)We live fifteen minutes from the city and B)My husband has worked downtown all his life ("Just not that PART of downtown," he insisted).

It was so humid that even the pigeons were resting.
At long last we found our wonderful MWA booth; my table mate was Jess Lourey, and presiding over the whole event was MWA Midwest President Julie Hyzy, who is doing a terrific job as our leader, due to her unending effervescence. If you've met Julie, you know what I mean.
Jess and I hadn't met since Bouchercon 2006, but she was just as lovely and charming as ever--and she sold out every single copy the bookseller had of her Murder by Month mysteries. She is, apparently, a rising star in the mystery world.
Her head hasn't gotten too big with success, however; she was still willing to pass out flyers for the MWA tent before she made her nine hour drive back to Minnesota. After the two-hour stint that Jess and I shared in a humid glare, but with an occasional cooling breeze, the rain came sweeping in on poor Sam Reeves and Michael Black, the MWA stalwarts who manned the table next. I can only hope that they and their books weren't soaked by the torrents we watched out of our El car on the jostling journey home.

And by the way, it was a successful day for me, as well: I sold all but one of the copies of THE DARK BACKWARD; a most rewarding feeling. I even decided to give my Sherpa another chance. After all, he got me there and back in one piece.
Mystery Writer Jess Lourey approaches passersby with flyers for the MWA.

Weed Words

by Darlene Ryan

A couple of months ago Lynn Viehl had a great post about weed words—words that come up over and over (and over) in our writing. Most of us are probably guilty of overusing the same few descriptive words—really, terrific, great, wonderful, exciting and probably. What Lynn was talking about were object words. Things. She admitted to what she termed “my obsession with doors. You can tell when I've rushed too much on editing one of my novels because of the thirty or more door references in the story.” She also admitted to a fondness for water and window sills.

Sharon Wildwind says if she’s not vigilant her characters tend to shiver a lot. Janet Koch confesses in her last manuscript “I had people whirling and spinning all over the place. And lots of throats were mentioned--throats being cleared, breaths being caught in throats, fear rising in throats.”

My most persistent weed words are action words; hands running through hair, walking and very weirdly, vomiting. People in my books tend to have a lot of hair and they’re always running their hands through it. It makes sense that hair would show up a lot in my writing because I am a little hair obsessed. What I dream of is hair like Angelina Jolie’s or Jessica Simpson’s. What I have is hair like Clay Aiken circa the early American Idol days. Which my mother tried to remedy with a succession of Toni home perms. Picture Clay Aiken with an afro and you’ll get the picture. No wonder everybody in my books is always touching their gorgeous hair. (Note: the results of all those home perms have nothing to do with the actual Toni home perm and everything to do with the fact that my mother believed if twenty minutes would result in soft, gentle curls then forty minutes would yield fabulous, bountiful curls.)

All the walking that shows up in my writing has a certain logic as well. I walk a lot. I always have. What I can’t figure out is why my subconscious always has to have someone heaving in a book.

I never seem to see my weed words when a book is in manuscript form. When I’m doing re-writes I’m zealous about looking for the overuse of words such as probably, slowly, a lot and really. But I don’t seem to see the all the times a character is walking along pulling her hands through her hair. Or vomiting. Or maybe the truth is that I see them but every single occurrence seems essential to the story. At least at the time.

So what are your weed words? Do your characters whirl or shiver? Do you have a thing for hair? Or doors? Or queasiness?

TRENDY???

By Lonnie Cruse



Sandra Parshall recently blogged here about whether or not people enjoy reading the really graphic stuff. She also posted about it on a list or two of readers/writers, and she got quite a bit of discussion going. Coincidentally, members of the board of Sisters In Crime met with representatives of some well-known publishers to discuss what’s hot and what’s not. Apparently thrillers are, cozies aren’t. Okay, before you burn your completed cozy manuscript and rush to your computer to write a thriller, let’s talk about this.

During the discussion about these findings, one opinion posted online that struck a chord with me (paraphrasing here) was that popular trend or not, no publishing house or bookstore was going to force that person to buy and/or read something she didn’t want to simply because it was being touted as the latest trend. To which I quickly responded “Amen, Sister!”

Let’s face it, fashion designers have been pushing trends on us ever since fig leaves went out, and heaven help anyone caught wearing something that’s gone out of style. Or heaven forbid, white shoes after Labor Day. My darling sister-in-law takes great delight in reminding me of that rule every fall, and though I love her dearly, I take just as great delight in flaunting my white shoes in front of her. But really, haven’t we all learned to hang onto our out-of-fashion clothing, so we won’t have to buy them again when the trend swings back around? Lucky those among us who held onto their pedal pushers ages ago because now they are called Capri’s. Anyone trying to buy a Poodle skirt NOW is in for sticker shock. And who would’a though some fool would have brought the color chartreuse back into style? Hated the color way back when, still hate it now. But mostly I’m waiting for Nehru jackets to come back in style for men.

Fashion trends come and go at the drop of a hat (you’ll pardon the pun?) mostly because the industry needs something new every few minutes to be sure the rest of us are busy emptying our pocketbooks (does anyone call them pocketbooks anymore?) to buy something new and keep up with the latest trend.

And so it is in publishing. Nothing can stay static, new trends must emerge quickly so the buying/reading public will buy/read what’s hot. What they have not taken into account is that most of us have minds of our own. Therefore, we refuse to wear the latest style IF it doesn’t suit our bodies or dollars and we refuse to read what’s hot if it doesn’t match our reading tastes. So while thrillers might be “in” those who read cozies will stick to cozies and those who like thrills will still read thrillers when the current trend swings the other way. And most likely, never the twain shall meet.

I’ve always been a fan of vampire lit, and no one sets my little heart to beating like Bella Lugosi. I was reading vampire lit long before it became the latest trend. I’m still reading it, and I’ll be reading it when it goes “out.” Which could happen by the time I post this, given it’s been a trend for more than five minutes. Maybe you should grab one to read now, assuming you’re interested?

My point, which I’m sure you’ve gotten by now, is NEVER write to a trend. By the time you finish typing 200-300 pages, had it critiqued/edited, sent it to the rounds of agents and publishers, you’ll get letters back stating that the trend is over and you need to write to the newest trend. The White Sock Killer Trend? (Does she wear them or kill them? You decide.) Or perhaps the, um, er, ah, frankly I can’t think of any other subject beyond white socks that has NOT been covered in mystery, try as I might. If you have an idea for a new trend, go for it.

But mostly you should write what you know and more important what you love. It may have been done, and done, and overdone again. It may be out of style. But if you love it and know it, you’ll most likely do it well, and if you’re lucky, better than anyone else. And someone will buy it. And read it. And you’ll have started yet another “new” trend. I’m saying do your own thing. Don’t try to do someone else’s. Have fun with it. And don’t forget to create a character who wears Nehru jackets. Trust me, it will sell. And trust your own instincts as to what you should write. (Pictured right, Nehru jackets worn by two rather famous models.)

Don't Go to Dayton in June, Either

Elizabeth Zelvin

This piece was inspired by Rosemary Harris’s guest blog on The Stiletto Gang, “Don’t Go to Dayton in February and Other Lessons Learned on the Road.” Like her, I will start by saying the people in Dayton were wonderful and welcoming to me and my book. The problem for both of us lay in getting there. Rosemary got ice storms. Here’s what happened to me.

The sign said, “Bridge Out—Local Traffic Only.”

Sadie the GPS said, “Continue 13 miles on Route 35.”

My husband and I decided to keep going and see what happened. New York skeptics that we are, we couldn’t quite believe the signs. I was determined to get to West Alexandria, the small town near Dayton where folks were waiting at the library to hear me talk about Death Will Get You Sober. I figured if we got to the bridge and it was indeed out, Sadie would see our plight from her satellite and direct us around it.

“They must have a man at the bridge directing traffic,” my husband said.

“This is the country,” I said. I waved a hand at the fields around us, where the only signs of life were a couple of cows. “I don’t think it works that way out here.”

We kept driving. Beautiful day. Big sky. Rows of corn no bigger than your thumb. No people. Finally we hit a crossroads. The orange sign said, “Detour.” The arrow pointed left.

Sadie said, “Continue on Route 35.”

“She doesn’t know the bridge is out,” I said.

A marital interlude followed. We turned left. At the next intersection, Sadie told us to turn right.

“She’s trying to get us back to the bridge,” I said. “She doesn’t know it’s out.”

You have to be firm with Sadie. She’s got the view, but we’ve got the wheel. We went straight.

“Recalculating,” Sadie said. One good thing about a GPS is that it doesn’t lose its temper. However, it can be persistent. “In point one miles,” she said, “turn right.”

“She sounds testy,” I said. “She’s still trying to get us back to the bridge. She doesn’t know it’s out.”

“Cell phone,” my husband said. “Call the library.”

At the library in West Alex, they didn’t know the bridge on Route 35 was out. “Really?” they said. “Now, the bridge on Route 503, we know that one’s out. We’ve got your cheeseburgers waiting for you. With fries.”

Eventually we got on the phone with somebody who could identify the crossroads where we’d pulled up to call. They gave us directions: “Turn left at the stop sign onto Preble County Line Road….” It turned out to be the fifth stop sign, but never mind. We eventually crossed a little bridge in working order over a teeny weeny creek and rolled into West Alex, where I’m glad to say they hadn’t eaten our cheeseburgers.

Twin Creek wasn’t always this small, they told us. “You’ve just met Castor,” Suzanne the librarian said. “You should see Castor and Pollux in flood.”

That must be in February, when Rosemary Harris says don’t go to Dayton.

Robert Fate: A "worthless character" succeeds in a life of crime

Interviewed by Sandra Parshall



Robert Fate has served in the Marine Corps, studied at the Sorbonne, and worked as an oilfield roughneck, a TV cameraman, a fashion model, a chef in a Los Angeles restaurant, a sales executive in Las Vegas, a fabric painter for the garment industry, a scriptwriter for the soap Search for Tomorrow, an independent film producer, and an Academy Award-winning special effects technician. Somewhere around the age of 70, he decided to try writing crime fiction, and the result was the Baby Shark series, told in the voice of a girl named Kristin, which has won rave reviews, award nominations, and a devoted following. (The second in the series, Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues, has just been nominated for an Anthony Award.)

Bob lives in L.A. with his wife, Fern (pictured with him at the launch of his third novel, Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption), their college-age daughter, a dog, four cats, and a turtle named Pharrell. Visit his web site at www.robertfate.com.

Q. Kristin Van Dijk, aka Baby Shark, isn’t the kind of protagonist readers might expect from an older male writer. Where did this remarkable girl come from, and how did you end up writing in her voice?

A. Kristin Van Dijk was the key element in the story I wanted to tell, a story of love and revenge set in a time in our history before technology played such an extraordinary role in our lives.

I’ve had a computer from the beginning. I carry a cell phone. My college-age daughter carries an i-Phone and casually chats with friends worldwide. I am okay with technology (like anyone would care if I were not). But I wanted to set my story in a time thought by many to be more innocent. However, those of us who remember the ’50s know the truth of that.

I wanted to tell about a young woman whose father was absent most of her life and then brutally snatched from her when she finally had him to herself, a young woman who experiences unspeakable violence at the hands of vicious thugs, a young woman who survives. I wanted a protagonist with the strength and resolve to come back from the worst that could be thrown at her, to rise from the ashes, to seek revenge, and exact it without remorse. And, I wanted this without creating a cartoon figure. I wanted the kind of reality that some readers would turn away from, but others would grasp as necessary to the tale.

I had no choice. I needed the strength only women have. Only a woman could be the kind of protagonist I needed, a woman in a time in our history when females were beginning to assert themselves, beginning to see that anything was possible. I wanted a female protagonist loose in a man’s world, in a hostile western environment where no matter her age she would be considered a “girl.” Well, okay, I wanted a girl who looked to the future with a gun in her hand and the will to follow through, a girl who wasn’t going to stand for it anymore. That was how Baby Shark was born.

Q. Your books are set in the 1950s, and they would fit right in with the noir fiction published back then. Are those books favorites of yours, and did they influence your writing?

A. I enjoyed the paperbacks from that time, and remember so clearly the “sexy” covers. But I favored movies over books during the late forties and early fifties, the double features that my older sister would take me to. We would see two movies in one theater, go across the street, and see two more. Watching four movies was a perfect way to spend our Saturday afternoons.

I became a reader on my own, but not until I was nineteen, in Korea, and found the base library. Through my twenties I read everything, all the books of many writers. My adoration of the crime genre came even later than that.

Q. Was Baby Shark the first novel you had ever written? Was mystery writing a long-time ambition, or a more recent interest?

A. Yes, Baby Shark was my first novel. Over the years I have written in a number of forms, but the novel always seemed out of reach. I’m not certain why that was so. Without hesitation, I wrote stage plays, screenplays, TV episodes, magazine articles, poetry—oh oh, my wife just fell asleep. The mere mention of my poetry puts her in the arms of Morpheus. So, no, I had no burning desire to write a novel. I thought I could not, so why even consider it?

Then, Bruce Cook, a friend and filmmaking associate, told me he had joined a mystery writing group and was working on a novel. He asked if I would like to join the group and try my hand at a mystery. Honestly? Since I had always written alone, it seemed like a bizarre thing to do. I said no. But, later, after meeting the writers in the group and realizing they were serious about getting published, I joined and started working in a form I had always thought I could not master. The candid give and take between honest and intelligent writers that has continued for four years now has resulted in all of us finishing novels and being published. It has been a terrific experience, one that I would encourage any aspiring writer to try.

Q. What has been the greatest challenge for you in writing at novel length? Is there any single aspect of craft that you’ve worked hard to master? What comes most easily to you?

A. Once I’d settled on a style of writing that felt natural, the challenge was to stick with it. My writing feels best to me when it races forward without adjectives and passive voice. I want to give my reader the opportunity of filling in what I am certain she or he sees and hears and understands without a lot of deadly description. And, I especially like first person. The idea that Kristin and the reader learn things at the same time, get the same information at the same time, and examine it together appeals to me. It seems like a forthright involvement to have with a reader.

Craft – well, rather than an outline, I try to “see” the story, think it through in visual terms, and then write it from beginning to end, paying particular attention to the action scenes. It’s strange about the dialogue, but the conversations seem to take care of themselves. My stories can be violent, but I see no need to offend readers with overly graphic description. In fact, I look for graceful ways to speak of criminal acts—which ain’t easy, but worth the effort. I go back to change things here and there, but normally I just write the book in one draft. Dialogue keeps a story moving, and conflict, too, of course. Funny how no one wants to get along.

Q. You had many different jobs before becoming a mystery writer. Is there a common thread among them, something that attracted your interest, or were you just restless? Do you plan to stick with mystery writing for a while?

A. Looking back, I think it was fear of commitment that kept me on the move. I think my fears were based in not wanting to look up one day and realize that I had not hitch-hiked through western Europe, been in Nice for Mardi Gras, had not gotten a tan in Ibiza or walked the streets of Paris and Heidelberg and, across the world, Hong Kong. I was entitled to a G.I. Bill after I served my time in the USMC and used every penny of it attending universities in the US and Europe, never to attain a degree, but rather to study the subjects that interested me. The different jobs paid the rent and taught me something new. I’m afraid I’ve been a worthless character most of my life, but well traveled.

Writing crime – I must say that writing the Baby Shark series is the most satisfying work I have ever done. Nothing that I have written before, no employment that I have had comes close to bringing me the joy I feel when I am with Kristin, Henry, Otis, and Jim. I am thankful there are readers for these stories. That makes it better. But be assured, I would write about these folks even if there were no readers.

Q. What’s the best part of being a published novelist? What’s the worst?

A. Actually having a story that spills from my head turn into a book that I can hold in my hand is the best part. When I realized that one hundred copies of Baby Shark had been sold shortly after it was published, I said to my wife, “I don’t know a hundred people. Who’s buying these books?” And she said, “Readers. And with a daughter in college who intends to be a doctor, you better meet a lot more of them.” There’s no rest for the wicked, I think the saying goes.

Q. How do you balance the demands of your new career—long hours of writing, book signings, traveling to conferences—with family life at an age when most people are content to take it easy?

A. I have never seen the upside of taking it easy. I guess it’s there, but keeping busy has always been more enjoyable to me. Not that a warm afternoon in a hammock with a new Joe Lansdale is something to sneer at, but that comes after a morning of writing. It’s the having your cake and eating it, too, thingy.

Q. You give away a lot of copies of your books. Is that part of a marketing plan, or simply something you enjoy doing? What are your ambitions as a writer?


A. Giving away books is a pleasure as well as a way to establish a readership. I am a brand-new-to-the-industry writer. The first book in my crime series, Baby Shark, was published in September 2006, the second, Baby Shark’s Beaumont Blues, in March 2007, and the third, Baby Shark’s High Plains Redemption, in May 2008. I have been around twenty minutes. Readers must meet Kristin or what the heck am I doing? So, my “marketing plan”—in the broadest sense—is to find and engage readers of mystery. I cannot say enough to thank the members of 4MA and DorothyL for their gracious response to my efforts at establishing an audience. They don’t pander, these tough-minded-but-fair mystery lovers. If they like, they say so. If they don’t like, they say so. But, what has been important to me is they have given me a chance in what everybody agrees is a tough market.

Q. Tell us about the movie version of Baby Shark. Is it moving forward? Who will direct? Who will play Kristin? I heard that you turned down the chance to write the screenplay. Why?

A. Thanks for asking that question, Sandy. I appreciate the opportunity to clear this one up. I am hopeful that Baby Shark will be a movie. The steps to get that done are being taken. Hollywood Producer Brad Wyman, well known for producing Monster, starring Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, spoke to my publisher and then to me about his interest in adapting the novel to the screen. I liked how he saw the story and felt comfortable with him. We are now settling the option agreement, and with luck a film version of Baby Shark could get into production later this year or early next.

The subject of who might play Kristin is fast to surface when movie talk starts. Casting will be the job of Brad Wyman, of course, and because so much rests on Kristin being able to carry the story, I must trust that the actress will be carefully chosen. Remember, he didn’t do badly when he cast Monster.

Yes, the question was asked in my meeting with the producer if I wanted to write the screenplay. I replied that I did not. I want a “screenwriter” to write the movie—a working screenwriter. Someone the producer knows and trusts to do a good job of cutting a 270 page novel down to a 120 page screenplay. I write a visual novel and I think that helps, but my books are not screenplays. The last thing I want to do is get in the way of the production. They didn’t bug me when I was writing the book—fair’s fair.

I think it’s a mistake for a novelist to think of a movie as his or hers. A feature film is the product of a group of skilled and talented motion picture specialists that work together to accomplish the director’s vision. I provide an original story, hand it to the producer, and stand back. If I am asked questions, I will help where I can, and stand back again. That’s how I see my involvement.

Am I excited by the possibility of a Baby Shark movie? You bet I am. Just like everyone else, I can hardly wait to find out who will play Kristin.

Q. What are you working on now?

A. Baby Shark’s Jugglers at the Border is coming along nicely. The publication date will be the spring of 2009. It is number four in the series and may have a little violence in it. I can’t promise, of course, but I think there may be a killing or two. You know, just another Robert Fate cozy with a few brutal murders. It can’t be helped. Kristin lives at a violent time in our country’s history, a time not unlike the present, when much is settled through gunplay.

Q. Do you have any advice for writers who are still struggling to break into print?

A. Marry wisely, someone smart and strong who keeps you honest, and never let a day go by without writing.

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Congratulations to Paul, who won a set of Ian Fleming's James Bond books last week! Thanks to everyone for your comments.

Writer’s Routine

Sharon Wildwind

For some reason, writers are fascinated with other writers’ routines. How do you do it, they ask? As if there were some magic, some ju-ju in following the exact steps. I hate to break this to you, but if there is magic most mornings, I have trouble finding it. For what’s it’s worth, here’s my writing routine:

0630 hours
Pre-flight check
Stumble out of bed. Put on long t-shirt. The one this morning says "Brat."
Turn on Go-Light and sit bathed in eerie blue glow for 20 minutes. My husband calls it my Grow Light, though at my age my chances of overachieving beyond 5-feet have severely diminished.
Log on to e-mail provider. Wonder how it's possible to get 200+ junk messages since yesterday. Clear quarantine folder.
Check weather. We’re having a high of 27. Translate degrees celsius into something meaningful. 80.6 degrees fahrenheit. I can cope with that. Remember to water plants on the balcony. Check gardening calendar over the desk. Make that remember to FEED and water plants.
Read Doonsbury. Raise blood pressure.
Read For Better or For Worse. Lower blood pressure.
Eat oatmeal while reading e-mail.

0800 hours
Instrument check
Decide how much longer I can put off doing computer maintenance and backups.
Decide how much longer I can put off working on quarterly tax report, updating my business statistics, and filing.
Decide how much longer I can put off washing dishes. Wash enough dishes so husband can have breakfast.
Eat toast. Decide if I have to make bread this morning. The answer is yes. Put oats and milk to soak for later.
Wave at husband as he stumbles to the bathroom.

0830 hours
Chocks away
Tell husband I'm running away to North Carolina for a while and does he need anything before I leave?
Make pot of tea.
Put on purple felt hat, which has a "Police Line: Do Not Cross" tape around headband.
Put yellow sunglasses on over regular glasses. Theoretically, this reduces chances of cataracts.
Wave good-bye for now to husband. Put large headphones over ears.
Wonder if anyone would—or should—trust a writer wearing a t-shirt that says "Brat," a purple felt hat, large yellow sunglasses, and headphones.
Decide I need to brush my teeth. Take off headphones, glasses and hat.
Brush teeth. Pour a cup of tea. Put on hat, glasses and headphones.
Turn on background music.
Stare at screen-saver of photographs of the Smokey mountains in spring. Try to ignore that it is summer and 27 Celsius degrees a few feet away from me. Think small wisps of new leaf-growth. Think wood smoke. Think Carolina blue sky and cool mountain breezes. Play James Taylor singing "Carolina in my Mind."

Wait for the magic.



The police came, took their statements, and told Benny he could file a missing-person report on Yianni Skoufalos in forty-eight hours. It wasn’t illegal for a grown man to leave his business unlocked, and there was absolutely no sign of foul play. Benny decided to keep the store upon until the usual closing time, just in case Mr. Skoufalos came back.

Well, okay, maybe some times there is magic. Got any writer routines of your own you'd like to share?
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Writing quote for the week:

Writing is like quilting. Collect the scraps. Cut them into pieces. Look for the pattern. Sew them together. Embellish. ~Sharon Wildwind, mystery writer

Find Your Favorite TV Sleuths

by Julia Buckley

Since I was a kid I've enjoyed reading mysteries, but I've also thrilled to watch them on film and television. Back before there was such a thing as a video tape, my father rented a reel-to-reel filmstrip copy of Suspicion from our library. We watched it in our darkened living room. I can still remember how much I wanted Cary Grant to be innocent, but how much I suspected him nonetheless. The rattle of the projector added tension to the complicated plot.

Nowadays, with elaborate home theatres, DVDs and high-definition everything, it's hard to imagine the impact that an old filmstrip could have, but those images are still imprinted in my mind: the way that Hitchcock captured Grant's changing personas by cleverly using light and shadow, creating a nuanced character in order to highlight the effectiveness of the film's title.

In the same way, I was greatly affected by a whole multitude of television detectives. The memorable ones were those with real human faults and foibles, odd hobbies, strange mannerisms. This is why people love Monk, among many others.

But I'm curious to know who else has fond memories of some of my favorite screen sleuths. Can you provide the answers to the following questions about 1970s era t.v. detectives?

1. This t.v. sleuth was modeled after Porfiry Petrovich in Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. Like Porfiry, he was brilliant, but didn't look the part (he wore a wrinkled trenchcoat and always seemed a bit confused), and allowed people to think that he was a fool so that he could trap them in the end.

2. This police detective was in charge of, according to the show's website, "an elite state police unit investigating organized crime, murder, assassination attempts, foreign agents, and felonies of every type." That state, of course, was Hawaii, and his most memorable line, when the evildoers were captured, was "Book 'em, Danno."

3. This man solved mysteries with his wife. She wasn't supposed to be involved, but he was the Police Commissioner of San Francisco, and she wanted to help with his cases. I suppose that, like Cary Grant, he stayed in my memory because he was so handsome, but there were many thrills in this show, which debuted in 1971.

4. This guy could really take a beating. He was a true action figure who took on all sorts of moving vehicles, burst through windows, defused bombs, scaled buildings. He had a secretary named Peggy who made bad coffee. He had a black belt in karate, but in true hard-boiled style, he preferred to use his fists.

5. This man had a cool theme song and a pet cockatoo named Fred. His character was based on a real New Jersey police officer.

6. These guys were the toughest and most dynamic t.v. cop duo. They knew the streets of L.A. and weren't afraid to get into their red and white Gran Torino and speed toward certain danger. Their signature clothing affected the style of the 70s.

7. This man was the oldest television detective, but he was spry enough to chase down a criminal when the situation warranted it. Usually he just used his gray cells to solve the crime, then had his cousin's son, Jebediah, do the footwork.

8. This man was a sort of Nero Wolfe type--a corpulent detective who solved unsolvable crimes. The two-hour pilot debuted in 1971.

9. This guy was bald and liked lollipops.

10. And I must include a woman: this tough police detective was, according to the show's website, "an undercover agent for the criminal conspiracy department of the Los Angeles Police Department." The press made much of her sexiness, but she did a great job presenting a hard-working woman in a male-dominated profession.

Get all ten and win a set of Poe's Deadly Daughters bookmarks!

I purposely didn't include a quiz question about my all-time favorite, Jim Rockford of THE ROCKFORD FILES (now available on DVD). Also, one of the above shows is available on DVD for the first time starting tomorrow! I'll identify that one later today.