Your Marble Angel…

"I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free."
—Michelangelo

Think of some of your colleagues who have successful mystery novels for sale today: Terry Shames, Alafair Burke, Dennis Palumbo, Tom Savage, Triss Stein, Jenny Milchman, Larry Light, Leslie Budewitz, Matt Coyle, Lois Winston, Mike Lawson, Reed Coleman, Joseph Finder, Sandra Parshall, Hank Phillipi Ryan — to name a few on your long list…

- Contemporary themes…
- Real flesh and blood characters…
- Brainy writers you can communicate with at meetings, or call or email…

You read them all, enjoy most, maybe wish you could have turned in "THAT" novel to your editor this week!

Consider the vast variety of topics these crime writers have chosen — small town Texas, big city crimes, Brooklyn's neighborhoods, kidnapped kids, urban financial crime, small town gift shops, bars, crafts, the law, country life, cops in love — you name it — there's a crime novel on a shelf waiting for your eager eyes!!!

If your thing is international thefts, sex scandals, poisonous foods or French prostitutes — some fellow crime writer will have the book for sale!

Pick a topic that made the news not long ago: Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a onetime presidential contender in France, resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund — after he was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper in Manhattan!

How would your favorite writer handle that one? Think, for example, Larry Light, Alafair Burke, Hank Ryan or Jenny Milchman…

You ponder for a moment and YOUR brain tells you at once which authors might tackle that theme!

And which might NOT!

Or food poisoning at the Mayo Clinic. Again, you can imagine some writers taking on that one and some not touching it with a ten-foot pen!

Back to Mr. Strauss-Kahn… There were many real-life issues in his alleged crime… He was also accused of involvement in a prostitution ring in Lille, France. A Serbian high level official said Mr. S-K's history had no bearing on the guy's financial expertise. That questioning Mr. S-K's economic acumen would be like questioning Pablo Picasso's powers as an artist because of his treatment of women!

Which writers on your FAVE list would do the job?

Maybe you yourself!!!

Crime, whatever the genre, color, size, type, location, is brain food for you and your fellow writers.

A crime novelist is: A hunter, always on the prowl for tasty prey…

A homo sapiens with a big brain, gigantic insight, gift of gab and ability to draw and hold an avid audience.

What kind of crime/scene/action/character tugs at your cerebral head strings?

Thelma Jacqueline Straw

Editing for Fun

Welcome to Terry Shames!!

I've followed eagerly her meteoric rise to fame since I couldn't put down A Killing at Cotton Hill and her wonderful character Samuel Craddock.

Killing was a true winner—of prizes as well as hearts of readers!

And so was The Last Death of Jack Harbin—and I think Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek and A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge will also capture your hearts and minds.

Terry serves on the North California Boards of both MWA and Sisters in Crime and as far as I can tell her fame has not caused her to buy a bigger hat!

Word has it that Samuel Craddock is one of the most engaging new central characters in American Crime Fiction!!

Yep - has my vote too!!

Thanks by stopping by our ranch, Terry. As a finalist for a Macavity Award for Best Mystery—hope you win!

T.J. Straw

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I don’’t know about everyone else, but I’’d rather edit anyone else’’s work than my own. When I read another person’s WIP, I am clever, astute, and forthright. I can give terrific advice, and know that I’’m helping someone write a best seller.

When I tackle my own, on the other hand, I’’m something of a dullard. But that is only true when I actually sit down in front of the draft to start editing. Before that, in my head I’’m turning turgid, bloated sentences into elegant, dare I say “poetic” prose. My characters, who for the past 90,000 words have hidden behind corners refusing to join me, leap off the page with just a few brilliant key strokes. Plot lines that are as tangled as a Gordion knot suddenly reveal themselves to be masters of ingenuity.

Humph. Daydream all you want, honey, the first go-round of edits will barely get you headed in the right direction. Your characters will begin to wake up and stretch, laughing at your attempts to goose them into action. You will read your plot in the next two books you pick up, not to mention that it will happen in real life and your plot will be revealed in a series of newspaper articles. That poetic prose? Pedestrian at best.

You will wonder why you thought you could write scenes set in a city you not only don’’t know well, but have never visited——in fact that you never even wanted to visit. You’’ll wonder why you didn’’t set your book in Paris or Florence, or even New York City——places you actually love. Why Kabul? Or Minsk? Or Ames, Iowa?

Why did you think you knew anything about hacking computer code? Or about the intricacies of banking——or that you could make either of those things interesting? How did you think you could get into the mind of a 30-year-old woman when you left your thirties in the dust a long, long time ago? In your own series you write successfully about a geezer, so how does that give you confidence that you can get inside the head of a forty-year old man?

In the first go at a draft, I have to keep reminding myself that it’’s not a work all done; it’’s a work in progress. I might have to dig a little deeper to understand how a thirty-something woman thinks these days. I have to read articles and books about what it’’s like living in Kabul. I have to make sure the names I’’ve chosen for my Middle Eastern characters are actually workable and that I’’m not naming an Afghani man a name that only an Iranian man would have. I have to check a slew of facts——and then recheck them. And that’’s apart from getting to know my characters deeply, and making sure the plot doesn’’t have gaping holes.

Bottom line: That’’s what editing is——not the fun part you get to do when you read someone else’s WIP, where you point out a little discrepancy and then go on your merry way, but the hard grind of smoothing, rechecking, discovering, and making it work.

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Update: The next Samuel Craddock book, The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake, comes out in January, 2016. I am currently working on a thriller about a terrorist threat to the banking system of the United States.

Terry Shames
A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge, April 2015

Getting Serious

There comes a time in the career of nearly every humorous cozy mystery writer when she says to herself (it's usually she, the men take themselves seriously from the get-go) that it's time to become a Serious Writer and write something Important and True. Yes, my early work was charming, we say to ourselves, but listen, you ain't seen nothing yet. I am about to lay bare the inner workings of the Human Soul.

Then we sit down and undertake to do this.

A number of outcomes can result from our efforts. Hardly any of us actually produce the magnificence we envisioned. Some die before the Great Work is finished. You have to start early, I think. Others produce very long books which the fans and critics find to be bloated and pompous. Others undertake excessively personal works, blowing the whistle at last on their inadequate parents, their disappointing ex-spouses and lovers, their evil bosses, the corrupt System. (Or their sadistic orthodontists. Don't get me started on that.) Some information is better shared with one's therapist, if any, than with the world in general. Bilious rants, while they may be keenly felt, are not Art.

For what we want to do, really, is to make Art. People who want to make money have figured out how by the time they have a couple of books under their belt. You write about things that touch everybody who reads your work, by relating to their own experience or by amazing and thrilling them in ways they never imagined. You find a good agent. Reams have been written on how to that. When your agent sells the book you get busy and promote the hell out of it. Maybe hire a publicist. Soon you're famous, and the money comes rolling in.

Not to disparage the writers who are more successful than others—okay, more successful than me—but what they do isn't always Art. Some of us want to be immortal here. My dad once gave me a copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations in support of my writing, and though I thanked him profusely, I was thinking the whole time that I didn't want to quote other people. I wanted other people to quote me. That's what I wanted out of a writing career.

So I tell myself it's time to get all immortal, and I sit down at the word processor to let 'er rip. But the results are disappointing. Sometimes I can't help thinking about Norman Rockwell in his declining years, who had himself wheeled out to his studio and put in front of a blank canvas every morning, where he would sit with a brush in his hand and stare until suppertime. I've made a few false starts. From time to time I revisit The Bodice Rip't, a thinly disguised account of the collapse of my first marriage. But it was so unpleasant. Nobody really wants to go there.

Quite probably I don't have an immortal work in me. Let's face it, few writers do. I have a gift of subtlety, but nobody gets it. Though I used to have a gift of venom, thirty years of churchgoing have drawn my fangs. I'm not at all sure anymore what is Important or True. I have no clue even now as to the inner workings of the Human Soul, and I'm much too private a person to let strangers get a look at my own. An Important Work may be out of my reach.

I can always write another funny cozy mystery. This time I'll murder that son of a bitch who straightened my teeth.

© 2015 Kate Gallison

Happily Every After, or What Happens Once a Book Comes Out

Welcome once more to Jenny Milchman!

Since I put bread on the table much of my adult life teaching and counseling gifted college-bound students, I take more than usual interest in the career of a younger gifted American author like Jenny Milchman.

In her post today Jenny shows a strong sense of direction for her life as a fiction writer, combined with humility, grit and undiluted courage!

It is my hope that her personal revelations will give strength and courage to other writers -of whatever age - pushing steadfastly through the intricate mazes on the arduous path to acceptance, publication and the rewards of being recognized as a real pro!

Thelma Jacqueline Straw

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Thelma asked me to write a blog post about “how all this success and fame is affecting me” and I read her instructions and thought, Who is she talking about?

I should back up and tell you a little bit about myself (although really, I’m so famous that surely seeing my name should be enough). Ha. Not.

It took me thirteen years to get my debut novel published. Thirteen years of shuns, as in rejection, humiliation, and degradation. Of pulling myself up afterwards, slapping myself around a little, and saying, “Get out there and do it again.”

Unfortunately the ‘again’ part kept happening. Over a period of eleven years, I wrote eight novels, worked with three agents who submitted five of them, and together we amassed fifteen almost-offers from editors who were interested, but couldn’t get a deal okayed. I lived on the cusp of almost for more than a decade.

Finally the literary sea parted, and I was offered a contract for novel #8. Exactly how is a story that’s been told in other posts and articles. What I’d like to talk about now—the part Thelma was asking about—is what happened next.

What happened first-next is that I learned that rejection doesn’t stop just because you land a publishing deal. My debut hadn’t even come out when my agent told me that novels #7 and #9, both of which we’d submitted to my publisher as a follow-up, weren’t quite right. The novel that would come out after my debut turned out to be my tenth.

But Thelma is right that some magical things did begin, and in many ways, landing that publishing deal changed my life and allowed me to do things I’d dreamed of for decades.

Find readers. See someone, then many someones pick my book up off a bookstore shelf. Walk into the crowded event space of a bookstore or a library and get to speak.

Hmmm, funny what a writer’s dreams consist of, isn’t it? It isn’t buying the yacht—or even being met by a handler at the airport on book tour (neither of which has happened to me yet). But getting to share your story, closing the circle Stephen King describes between author and reader? I’ll take that over ten private jets.

But I keep circling back to Thelma’s initial prompt, and I don’t want to be disingenuous about it. It’s true that my debut novel met with some success. It won an award I will always keep in the annals of memory as my “Oscar moment” and has been nominated for two others. When I was given the Mary Higgins Clark award—by Mary Higgins Clark herself—my editor and my husband had to push me up to the stage. My name had been read, but I hadn’t quite registered it.

And thanks to rigorous research by my publisher as to how best to put digital pricing to use, the same book landed, briefly and low down, on the USA Today bestseller list. I got to see my name praised by the New York Times, and better than that—my story. People and places that wouldn’t have existed if I hadn’t made them up.

Remember, this was a novel that had been rejected by everyone. By 2010, when my agent and I were out of options, we had received two final rejections. The first said—

• “Love the array of characters, but the plot moves too slowly.”

While the other went—

• “The plot goes like quicksilver, but we’d have to cut some of these characters.”

What’s a writer to do, with no plot and no characters? We decided to do neither, and then came our eleventh hour reprieve, leading me to believe that if a writer wants to succeed, knock on every door, and then start knocking on things that aren’t doors.

And afterwards, along with the success? A lot of ongoing doubt. Some people liked my first book, but trust me, plenty of people didn’t (just read my reader reviews). I would be lucky enough to see a second novel come out a year later, but that brought with it a whole other set of fears. What if those who liked my first book hated this new one, and those who hated the first hated this one even worse?

Does it ever stop, this writer’s quandary, a primordial soup of second-guessing and undermining yourself? I’d like to ask Stephen King that. Or Kathryn Stockett. You know…the truly famous and successful ones.

I wonder how they see themselves?

There are other doubts besides writerly ones. Every night I wrestle with what kind of lesson my career is offering my kids. Part of the reason I stuck it out as long as I did was because I didn’t want this story to end for my kids on a note of rejection. What kind of Cinderella tale is that? But now the kids are a part of my journey in ways most children aren’t privy to a parent’s career. Is this a good thing—a study in hard work and how there’s always something to reach for? Or should I be leaving my children to school and Scouts and soccer, and shielding them from the realities of a career in media and the arts?

Here’s the thing. As any real writer knows—from Stephen King to the newest newbie on the block—it’s the next book that counts. The one we’re dreaming up in our heads. The one we’ll turn our attention to the moment it’s ready. And nobody, not Stephen or Gillian or JK, knows what their readers will think of that one.

The doubts don’t end, but luckily something else stays constant, too. The readers. The ones whose distant promise kept me in the game for thirteen years. If we keep writing for them, then any success and fame may seem ephemeral and fleeting, but that’s okay.

Coming back to a new story will keep our doubts at bay, too.

© 2014 Jenny Milchman

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Jenny Milchman’s debut novel, Cover of Snow, was chosen as an Indie Next and Target Pick, won the Mary Higgins Clark award for best suspense novel of 2013, and has been nominated for a Barry and Macavity. Jenny’s second novel, Ruin Falls, also an Indie Next Pick, has just come out to starred reviews, and her third, As Night Falls, will be released in 2015. Jenny is now dreaming up the next one.

Find Jenny online at http://jennymilchman.com/jenny/

Your Reader and Your Story

Many readers deal daily with backbreaking issues—emotional hunger, decline of income, reduced leisure time, lost loves, marriage/family/relationship breakdown. Worries about the planet, war, espionage, terrorism, cyberwarfare—a zillion fears of the "What Ifs " that lurk around the corner.

In make-believe pages men and women seek comfort, solace—a little while of feel-good-ness.

Readers sense the almost-close-to-touch dangers—to self, family, home, loved ones, the soil, the air, the gifts from the sea, birds, insects, animals, the human unborns.

Book business people sense an increased hunger for stories that make the reader feel a little more loved, safer. A happy ending, defeat of evils, triumph of love and forgiveness, a kiss from the printed word.

Many readers of our stories are not highly educated, professional types, people with lives of ease and comfort, with stable relationships, big nest eggs safe in bank vaults. Man face daily despair, medical problems, impending loss of sense and memory, in self or loved ones.

Round-the-clock TV noise that clamors with crime, loss, fear—drives many to grab hold of a book or tablet of words—a few minutes of comfort, an injection of happiness and negation of the human lot of loneliness.

A storyteller shares, briefly, his craft of make-believe—to comfort other human beings. Allows the reader to inhabit another life, find solace—if only for minutes.

Writers share their within worlds. Tellers of stories travel to a place few others know, then give that gift back.

A recent post in the Dorothy L Digest caught my eye: "Writers need a thick skin and a thin skin. A thick skin to survive rejection, oblivion and all the other insults and injuries that come with the territory. A thin skin because we have to be super-sensitive in order to feel our characters' … miseries, empathize with them."

In today's global spin there is an almost divine impulse in the creation and exchange of fiction. A very heavy burden and exchange between a writer and a reader.

As writers of stories we may well ask, are we up to the challenge?

Thelma J. Straw

How to Avoid Writing

Examine writing space. Decide that it's too shabby and rundown to be conducive to good creative flow. Think about redecorating.

Go to paint store. Buy paint for writing space, and as long as you're there for the upstairs bathroom, the hallway, the dining room and the back door to the house.

Realize that it's too humid to paint. Nothing will dry. Store paint in cellar.

Boot computer.

Read email.

Do Facebook.

Play four rounds of Shoo Boo.

Realize that Turner Classic Movies is having a John Gilbert festival. You love John Gilbert. Those eyes. that hair.

Watch three John Gilbert movies.

Turn off television. Make dinner. Eat dinner. Wash dishes.

Boot computer. Realize that it's too hot to be conducive to good creative flow.

Play two more rounds of Shoo Boo.

Realize you're too sleepy to play Shoo Boo.

Brush teeth. Take pill. Resolve to write something tomorrow, or if it's not so humid, to paint something.

Turn in.

Kate Gallison

Right Now, Write Now

A few weeks ago, I attended Malice Domestic, the traditional-mystery writer/fan convention held every year in Bethesda, Maryland. After a panel, I was chatting with a woman who was working on her first mystery, and I happened to mention that I have another (full time) career.  She asked me, “How do you find time to write?” Okay, as a writer, I know what subtext is. I knew she really meant, “How can I find time to write?” So I asked her how much time she was able to spend now? And for ten minutes, she laid out all the reasons she just couldn’t find time. Her job, her commute, her family and social commitments; the homework, housework, husband. Not enough hours in the day. I didn’t get to say much. I nodded. My chin(s) got quite a workout nodding.

It’s not the first time I’ve been asked about finding time, but as I listened that morning, I realized how often I hear lists of “Why I can’t”. I began to get a little frustrated.

It’s not that I don’t sympathize. I do. I spent a couple of decades not finding time. And there’s an “if only” lesson there I wouldn’t wish on anyone else.

So, let me get to the point: Novels are written by, well, writing. And then rewriting. And rewriting. And throwing out everything you wrote the day before and starting over. Fixing the gaping hole in your plot. Crafting a better villain. A better story. New writers often believe there’s some magic out there. That they will wake up one morning not only with time, but also with sudden inspiration whereby the book will just flow from the fingertips into the computer.

There is no magic. Repeat, please. And again.

From the Shoe cartoon strip (1977-2000). Visit jeff-macnelly.com

If you’re a new writer who hasn't found time to finish (or start) that book, here's the best advice I have: Right Now, Write Now. Don’t wait till next month, when you’ve settled into your new job. Or next fall, when the kids start school. Or next year when your spouse will get that promotion and you can work part-time. Or when you win the lottery.

You need a routine. You need a commitment. Or you’ll look up a decade from now, and that book won’t be any further along than it is today. So start today.

Create an honest chart of how you spend your time on weekdays and weekends. Remember, it’s like the first rough draft of your novel. Nobody has to see it. There will no judgment but yours.

Are you spending an hour in the evening online, catching up with friends/family or checking out YouTube? Or watching TV? Are you sleeping in an extra hour on the weekends to make up for your long work week? Find what you can change right now. Even if you find only one hour on Saturday mornings and two on Sunday nights, it’s three hours more than you have now. 

Use it. Routine is very important. If you have no ideas ready when your new writing time comes along, hie thee to the computer anyway. Sit down, open the file and just write. A snatch of dialog, a description of a location. Random thoughts on the page might lead to other ideas. They will at least get the juices flowing. And don't leave till your time's up.

You’ll get into the habit of writing, and the habit of not doing something else. And then as you make progress, you'll want and find even more time to write — you won’t volunteer for yet another committee (you’ll learn to say, “Sorry, I just can't do it this time”); you’ll invite friends over twice a month, not every week; the FB page won't get updated for days; you'll revise chapters in hard copy during lunch; you’ll make character notes waiting in line at the grocery store; you’ll take a recorder with you on the treadmill, although “He said (thud, thud, pant, thud, thud, pant), put the gun down (thud, thud, pant, pant, wheeze, gasp)” can be hard to transcribe later. Using a recorder during my exercise walks around my neighborhood has been invaluable in working out dialog, and in showing me how out of shape I am.

Whatever time you can find, find it. But find it now. And eventually you’ll finish the book. It might take three years. Or five. But you'll finish it.

And your new routine will serve you well when you finally sell that first book and the publisher wants the next one in 8 months!

Sheila York

Jim Fusilli's Thoughts on The Writing Life

Jim Fusilli, multi-published novelist, also serves as rock and pop music critic for The Wall Street Journal. A native of Hoboken, New Jersey, he has set many of his novels in this area, called "Narrows Gate." A graduate of St. Peter's College, Jim began his career as a journalist and has achieved acclaim in this field, as well as in fiction. His novel, "Hard City," was named Novel of the Year in 2004 by Mystery Ink.

His short stories are delightful. I love especially "Digby, Attorney at Law," which was nominated for both an Edgar and the Macavity in 2010.

As a long-time friend and admirer of Jim's fiction, I invited him to share his ideas with The Crime Writers Chronicle.

Here are a few comments on Jim's work:

• "A courageous and original writer" …The Boston Globe
• "Fusilli is simply incredible!"…Bookreporter.com
• "Jim's noir prose is peerless" …Kirkus Reviews
• "If you've ever been in love with New York City - this book is for you!" …The Washington Post

Jim's combination of professionalism and graciousness can be seen in his replies to my questions.

– Thelma Straw

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Why do you write novels?

I think the format suits my strengths as a writer: rhythm and tempo; the opportunity to develop many nuanced characters; and the use of setting, both in terms of time and place. I love how the novel promises an extended, intimate experience with readers. We can collaborate with readers and let the novel play out in their minds.

What triggers you to start a new novel - a character? a place? an idea? Other?

My novels tend to revisit the same themes – dysfunction in the family, the value of friendship, identity and alienation. So I look for setting that will encourage the exploration of these themes. With “Narrows Gate,” I had the setting well before I had developed a single character. Until they’re fully drawn, characters are function and representation. After a while, they become people who are like the rest of us: in conflict or in harmony with others who share our setting. Then the adventure begins.

How do you combine your job as journalist and fiction writer?

I plan my activities around my weekly column and other duties for The Wall Street Journal, so I set aside a good amount of time for research, interviews, concerts and performances I’ll be attending, travel, etc. After I have all the data at hand, I try to write the column in one long burst so it has the energy and excitement of the music I’m covering. The rest of my time is dedicated to my fiction.

Do you prefer to write short stories or novels? What are the factors you like in each medium?

I like both. Short stories were a challenge for me and I couldn’t find my way until I began to utilize techniques we see in other media like fast-cutting in film or the way varying motifs work independently yet coalesce in a complicated piece of music. Now I enjoy writing them, though they take an extraordinary amount of time to do well. But as I said earlier there’s something about writing a novel that’s so satisfying. Once I can see the world I’m creating in a novel and can occupy the minds of the characters as they engage it, I’m very content.

What was your best preparation as a child or student or in former jobs for your career as a novelist?

Given my themes, I suppose my childhood in Hoboken was the best preparation. My parents were loving and encouraging in their way, but our extended family was a mess and Hoboken was a dangerous and dying town. Early on I began to go off on my own and reject the conventions of the culture in which I was raised. Not in an aggressive way, but I was determined to become something different than what was expected of me.

Do you work alone, or do you have a partner, team, etc. With what kinds of people do you discuss your ideas and progress on a new book, if any?

I work alone and never discuss works-in-progress in any detail. I’ll say to my writer friends that I’m working on this or that, but I’m pretty vague about the details. I don’t believe a work of art exists until it’s done. By talking about it, you can spend all the energy that should go into the work. When I was stuck on a draft with “Narrows Gate,” I shared the manuscript with two publishing executives. I’d never done anything like that before but “Narrows Gate” was such a different project for me – a big epic that spanned decades and had several independent but ultimately interlocking storylines. I felt I need some guidance. Now that I’m working on a sequel, I’m on firm footing so I doubt anyone but my wife, agent and editor will see it before it enters the pre-publication editing process. Until I shared it with my agent, no one saw or even knew about “Road to Nowhere” except for my wife and one writer friend.

What do you say to neophyte fiction writers - if they want to write a saleable story?

I say: Don't worry about publication. Focus on doing something only you can do. Develop your craft until it raises your work to the level of art. All sorts of rubbish gets published, and it was always thus, even before self-publishing e-books was possible. Try to be great, to write something that will last. Do that and everything else follows.

Is there any novel you wish you had written? Or author you look up to?

I admire many novels, far too many to mention, and many authors I admire for their craft, vision, determination and courage. I’m not the kind of person who wishes for things, but I do read with an admiring eye and I often find myself thinking that a sentence or a phrase or even a single word was so precise and so perfect for the moment that I’m inspired to try to work at that level.

Can you share with us your writing habits - your schedule, methods, oddities, quirks, etc.

I’m very disciplined. I write every day for many hours whether I’m in my office or traveling. It’s my profession. I want to be good at it and if you have any talent, you improve by doing. You have to be relentless. There’s no other way. I can write anywhere; within reason, it doesn’t matter to me where I am. I’ll start writing in an airport, continuing writing after I board and until the cabin door is shut, resume writing at 10,000 feet and keep writing until I’m told to power down. I have a few quirks, but nothing very meaningful. I color-code my To Do list so I can keep track of my progress. That’s a quirk, I guess.

Tell us something about you as a writer we would not know otherwise!

I suppose because I’m the Journal’s rock and pop critic people might assume that I listen to music while I write my fiction. I used to, but I don’t anymore. I can pay close attention to what I’m writing, but my subconscious becomes occupied with the music and I lose that resource. Later, when I’m decompressing and the subconscious should be revealing solutions to problems with my day’s writing or suggesting where my story can go, instead it’s filled with ideas about music. I’ve wasted a writer’s valued resource.

I understand you have a new book coming out in November. Can you tell us something about it and why you wrote it?

It’s the launch of a new series. The debut novel is “Road to Nowhere.” It’s the story of a drifter who witnesses a violent crime against a young woman. He becomes involved, if only briefly and without much passion. Nothing is what it seems, though, and events intensify. When his estranged daughter is threatened, he’s drawn in and finds himself up against some powerful forces.

Though “Narrows Gate” was a success and it sent my career in a new direction, which is what I was hoping it would do, I wanted to do a series again. I like the mystery, crime and thriller communities. I thought I’d learned enough during the past few years about craft and technique to do something interesting – quick and facile and suspenseful, with a balance of violence and wry humor. We’ll see if that’s correct. The main character is mobile – people who remember “The Fugitive” and “Route 66” will recognize the technique of thrusting a character in a new setting in each story so that he becomes involved repeatedly in different worlds while still dealing with his own situation. The response within the industry has been positive to “Road to Nowhere” and the series concept, but it’s up to the readers now.

Our thanks to Jim for sharing these inspiring thoughts!

Thelma J. Straw

A Suitable Job for a Writer

The manly male writers of the late nineteen-fifties all seemed to have similar c.v.'s – longshoreman, short-order cook, and I forget the third thing, cab driver maybe or piano player in a bawdy house – so that it became obligatory to say you had done these things if you wanted to be taken seriously as a writer. (Also you had to drink to excess, but that's a rant for another day.)

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What is a good job for a fledgeling writer? To my way of thinking, anything you can do to keep from having to write home for money. Ideally the job should not be so arduous or time-consuming as to leave you no energy or time to hone your craft. Also ideally, your day job should offer a certain amount of life experience. Anything where you interact with the public is good. If you keep your eyes and ears open you can learn a lot about human nature on the job. I used to enjoy retail sales, though it doesn't pay very well.

During the go-go eighties I wrote user manuals for a software house, and that paid quite well. I mastered the art of gracefully gender-neutral prose. My instructions were clear and unambiguous. Nobody read them; nobody ever reads the manual. But the hours were regular and the money was good.

A job where you write for a living has its advantages and disadvantages. As a naval officer, Robert Heinlein learned to write clearly and say what he meant the first time. Newsman Jimmy Breslin was disgusted by the prose style of those of his fellow Irishmen who became lawyers. The law, he felt, was a bad day job for a writer. Newspaper reporters learn to write fast, write clearly, and write whether they feel inspired to or not, and they are constantly exposed to Life as it is Lived, but openings in that field are becoming scarce.

You might set forth under the impression that you will make money right away by writing what you want to write, be it flaming romances or literary fiction. Occasionally, this sort of thing happens. People also hit it big in the lottery, or so I hear. Good luck. But keep your day job.

Kate Gallison

* Short Order Cook - Kevin Feary

Find the Little Dresses You Need Right Now

I opened my email this morning only to be exhorted by one of those shopping sites I can't seem to stay away from to find the little dresses I need right now, because it's still summer. Yes! The little dresses! It's been a few summers since I could get into most of them, but I think I have a couple under the bed, covered with cat hair, and maybe I need them right now. Or maybe I'll just let them lie there.

Or did they mean the dresses they were offering on the site? It could be that I need them right now, but worse than the dresses I need the three hundred dollars apiece they want to charge me for them.

What do you wear in the dog days of summer? Other than sunscreen. What do you wear when you write? When you surf the net? Does it lift your spirits to gussie up in a sweet little frock (or a sharp tropical shirt, for you boys out there)? Or do you pig it in yesterday's underwear? What effect does your clothing have on your work? Find those little dresses, folks.

As for me, I'm not going to tell you what I'm wearing right now. Cloak of charity and all that.

Kate Gallison

(Little dresses from ShopBop)

In Other Words —

Not long ago I came across a copy of Johnson’s Dictionary at a flea market. While rummaging through the dusty tome, I found some wonderful words that are no longer in use. I would love to bring them back to life. For example:

AFTERWISE, Wise too late.
(What a wonderful word to describe the whole process of bringing up children. Why had it fallen into disuse?)

DISHCLOUT, the cloth with which one washed dishes long ago, (or broke them).

FLAPDRAGON, a game in which the players catch raisins out of burning brandy. (Sounds like fun to me!)

FLESHQUAKE, a tremor of the body. (How much more exciting than the feeble shivers and shudders we have today.)

FLITTERMOUSE, the bat. (What a beautiful name for such an unsavory critter, eh, Bob?)

GRUMLY, sullenly, morosely. (the way this heat wave makes me feel!)

GUTTLE, to feed luxuriously, gourmetize, a low word. (To pig out, is the modern substitue.)

MOIL, to labor in the mire.

RANTIPOLE, to run about wildly (like my two-year-old grandson.)

STAR-PROOF, impervious to starlight. (Most of the proofs we have today are good proofs--fire-proof, water-proof, moth-proof. But “star-proof”! What an awful thing to be. As I sat pondering this at the window, the first star of evening appeared. I gazed at it a little longer than usual.

Robin Hathaway

Earl Staggs' Kindergarten Challenge

---

Our guest for today is Earl Staggs, a Derringer Award winner, former President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine. His recent novel, Memory of a Murder, earned 13 Five Star Reviews online at Amazon and B&N. Earl resides in Fort Worth, Texas, and is well-known to the mystery community.

He graciously allowed us to reprint his blog from June 11, 2012. He shares his wonderfully creative experience in talking to a group of wee folk about how to be a writer when you grow up.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

T.J. Straw

---

Story by Earl Staggs
Photos by CAROLE RYAN

After I retired from the insurance business, I discovered I didn’t like staying home all day. I found a part time job driving a school bus. The job only takes up two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon, it gets me out of the house every day and keeps me in touch with other members of the human race, and I happen to like kids. Most of them.

Casey Stapp and me. Funny,
I don't remember my teachers
being this pretty.

I also make new friends among parents and teachers. One teacher, Casey Stapp, became a good friend. Her two sons ride my bus, she read my novel MEMORY OF A MURDER, her father is a writer, and I read his book. Not only that, but when she stops for breakfast in the morning, she often brings me a sausage biscuit.

So when Casey asked me if I would visit her class and talk about writing, I immediately said yes. Then I remembered something. She teaches Kindergarten!

Now, I love talking about writing. I jump at the chance to meet with a group of readers or writers, make a presentation at a conference or seminar, or appear on a panel. I’d do it on a street corner if I could get the audience to stand still long enough.

But, how in the world would I talk about writing to a room full of five-year-olds?

Believe me, I worried and fretted over doing this. I wanted desperately to make it meaningful and talk to them on their level. Yes, definitely a major challenge.

While I fretted and worried, I learned something interesting. At this particular school, Rockenbaugh Elementary in Southlake, Texas, all grades from Kindergarten to Fourth Grade have a class in creative writing. I’ve long worried about where the next generation of writers will come from. Most young people I know spend their time thumbing meaningless text messages on their phones with no regard for spelling, grammar or creativity. I was astounded and heartened to learn these young people were being schooled in writing. Maybe there’s hope for the future of writing after all.

But back to my challenge.

I knew I had to present the art and craft of writing in such a way that they would understand what I was saying and, at the same time, be entertained. I knew I had to hold their interest for twenty-five minutes, my allotted time. We’re talking about an audience with an attention span of about twenty-five seconds, if that. I knew I needed to make it interactive and get them involved both mentally and physically.

So, with all that in mind, I went at it. I’m not going to repeat the entire presentation here, but here are some of the highlights.

After Mrs. Stapp introduced me, I asked how many rode a bus to school. Nearly every hand went up. “I love my job and I love my bus,” I said. “I’m going to do a cheer for school buses.”

And I did. I raised a fist in the air, made circles with it, and shouted, “Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! for school buses!”

Then I asked them to do it with me. They did, but it was very soft and timid. I told them we needed to do better and asked the teacher if it would be all right if we made some noise. She said yes, so we did it again. We shook the room.

“WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! FOR SCHOOL BUSES!”

They enjoyed it this time.

Next, I told them I was also a writer. I held up my novel, MEMORY OF A MURDER, and pointed to my name on the cover. Then I held up my collection, SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, and pointed to my name. I did the same with two of the magazines in which my stories appeared and pointed out my name on the covers.

“Do you think,” I asked, “it feels good to see my name on the cover? You bet it does. Let’s do a cheer for books and magazines.”

“WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! FOR BOOKS AND MAGAZINES!”

This time, we shook the entire school. They were getting into it.

“To be a writer and get your name on books and magazines,” I continued, “you have to be a good writer. But being a good writer can help you even if you don’t become a writer. Suppose, when you grow up, you want to work in a bank. One day, your boss tells you to write a report about banks. If you’re a good writer, you will write a good report and your boss will be happy. He may be so happy, he will pay you more money. Let’s do a cheer for more money.”

“WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! FOR MORE MONEY!”

After that cheer, I expected the riot squad to rush in.

I gave them more examples of ways being a good writer could help them as grownups.

“So, being a good writer,” I told them, “can help you no matter what kind of job you do when you grow up. Now let’s talk about how you can learn to be a good writer.”

I talked for several minutes about the importance of school because that’s where we learn all the things we need when we grow up, no matter what kind of job we do. “Without school, we would all be dummies,” I told them.

“WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! FOR SCHOOL!”

Mrs. Stapp winced at the amount of noise we made that time, but she also gave me a smile.

I talked next about learning words and spelling. “To be a good writer or to be good at any kind of job,” I went on, “you have to know a lot of words. Did you know that the more words you know, the smarter you are? That’s right. Read as much as you can and when you come across a word you don’t know, find out what it means and how to spell it. Every time you learn a new word, you get a little bit smarter.”

“WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! FOR WORDS AND SPELLING!’

Then I told them, “To be a good writer, you also have to use something you’re born with. It’s called imagination. That’s a part of your brain where you can pretend and make believe and dream up anything you want to, all by yourself and in your own mind. It’s also where you can come up with ideas for stories to write. Let’s have some fun now. I’ll reach into my imagination and find a story idea that would be fun to write.”

The story idea involved a hero, a princess, a bad wizard, and fire-breathing dragons. I asked for volunteers to play the parts and selected Graham to be the Mighty Warrior and Angel to be the Beautiful Princess. I played the part of Bad Earl, the Terrible Wizard. In our story, the Wizard kidnapped the Beautiful Princess and took her to his castle. The Mighty Warrior had to fight the dragons and rescue her. Everyone in the class was a member of his army, and they had fun shooting their imaginary magic bows and arrows to drive away the dragons. We made a lot of noise playing out our story, but the teacher didn’t mind. At the end, Mighty Warrior Graham had to fight Bad Earl with imaginary swords. He beat me and sent me off to jail.

To end the story, I said, “Then Mighty Warrior Graham takes Beautiful Princess Angel home to her family and they get married.”

That brought loud “Ooohs” and “Ahhhs” from the audience. Graham grimaced and shook his head. He obviously didn’t like the idea of getting married.

“Graham,” I told him, “the good part about making up your own stories is that you can write the ending any way you want. How about instead of getting married, you go to Hollywood where they make all the movies, and you can be the star in a superhero movie?”

Graham liked that idea.

All the kids agreed it would be cool to reach into their imagination, find a story idea like that one, and write it.

To close out my presentation, I thanked Mrs. Stapp for inviting me to come in, and we gave her a cheer.

“WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! FOR MRS. STAPP!”

Then I thanked the class for being a terrific group.

“And remember,” I said, “working hard in school and learning to be a good writer will help you in any job you do when you grow up, even if you don’t become a writer. But, if you do become a writer and someday someone asks you who inspired you to be a writer, tell them Mr. Earl the school bus driver did. That will make me very happy.”

Mrs. Stapp took over at that point and led the class in a cheer for me.

“WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! FOR MR. EARL!”

That, my friends, made me very happy.

Meeting some of the Kindergartners
after it was over.

And that’s how it went when I took on My Kindergarten Challenge. I hope I did okay. What do you think?

Earl Staggs

Going Crazy with the Mad Protagonist

The WIP has reached that place called by Blake Snyder the Dark Night of the Soul, which (according to my reading of Save the Cat) should show up on page 205 or so of a three hundred page novel. What this means for Carina Nebula, the valiant escapee from the psychiatric hospital who has come back to Housel's Creek to clear her name and destroy her evil brother, is that she has to get sick again.

*

Depressing. But that's the whole idea, right? I've been researching various kinds of crazy, and talking to my psychiatric social worker friend, but the only way to get something credible on paper is from the inside.

One of the things the writers don't usually tell you is that they play all the characters in their books, even the nastiest characters, even the sickest. Another is that the best comedy is separated from horror by the merest hair. So I've got to write this chapter now, and it's going to make me a little strange. When I finish, though, I'll have something killingly funny.

Or maybe just killing.

I'll get back to you next week. I think.

Kate Gallison

*Photo by Melanie Orenius, http://donkeyes.blogspot.com/p/melanie.html

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

What I do on weekends is serve as a docent at the Marshall House, which is the childhood home of James Wilson Marshall, the first person to discover gold in California. The house is a museum now. People stop in, tourists and locals too, between one and four on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. When they show up I say, "Welcome to the Marshall House," and spin stories about Mr. Marshall, the gold rush, the house, which was used as a convent for many years by St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, and the valiant Mrs. Alice Narducci, who saved it from destruction when the church had no more use for it.

On days when nobody stops in I go mad with boredom.

The Parlor

"I'm glad you came by," I said to a young girl and her father on Sunday. "I was going mad with boredom." In fact I had gone so far as to boot up the Historical Society computer and play a couple of games of spider solitaire. Before that I swept the plaster crumbs out of the hall where the water is getting in through the bricks and rotting it out, and before that I read some of the Historical Society's books on local history, and before that I took a picture of the parlor.

As they were getting ready to leave the girl said, "You're English, aren't you?"

"Nope. I'm American. I was born in Philadelphia."

"But you speak as if you were English. 'Mad with boredom.'"

"Ah. That. I'm a writer," I said.

It seems to explain a lot when I tell people I'm a writer. I can get away with all kinds of things.

Kate Gallison

Keep That First Draft!

My father was an artist and he also taught History of Art.

He always urged his students to not only look at the artist’s finished masterpiece, but to find and study the preliminary sketches of the work. He believed that those early sketches often had a vitality and spontaneity that got lost or refined away in the finished painting.

The same can be said of a novel. Too much polishing and refining can erase the early energy and excitement of the first draft. It’s important to reread that first telling of your story before you send out your manuscript. Although the first draft is rough, in terms of vocabulary and structure, it may have an electric quality that you want to maintain. Make sure the original spark is still there and that the early energy hasn’t been diluted.

If it has – put it back again.

Robin Hathaway

Thickening the Plot

I confessed to a friend the other evening that I was having trouble with the book I'm working on, that, in fact, I seem to be stuck in the middle. He said, "Are you bored?"

Bored! Good Godfrey. What a terrifying question. How could I possibly be bored with a story that combines the best parts of The Count of Monte Cristo, Twilight, The Fugitive, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? No! No! Overwhelmed, perhaps. Not up to the demands of my material. Surely not bored.

My friend suggested that I abandon the project (same as I did the last four) and start something new. Problem is, I don't have anything else in me right now. No, instead I am going to take my annoying little strumpet of a protagonist by the hair and kick her hind end until she thinks of the next thing to do. That's her job, right? The characters are supposed to take over.

So here goes. Maybe I'll drop her in the river again. Cold water is said to be stimulating. I'll let you know how it works out.

Kate Gallison

First Lines That Went Nowhere

While rooting through some old papers, I came across a battered notebook listing some first lines of stories or novels I’ve never written.

I thought I’d ask you which one, if any, sounds the most promising, and if I should continue it. I no longer trust my own judgment. I need help.

1. Pennies, which plague me today, once played a big part in my life.
2. This morning I took my dog and my mother-in-law to have their toenails cut, which pretty much sums up my life these days.
3. “Don’t touch me!”
4. The face in the glass bore no resemblance to the person I know, and whose skin I have worn for almost eighty years.
5. Every station stop on this train ride brought back memories; mostly unpleasant.

Robin Hathaway

The Interior Life of the Writer

I wonder, sometimes, why anyone would follow a blog written by an author who was taking keyboard in hand for no better reason than to put off working on her book. Perhaps some of you read my posts because you want to know how to achieve my stunning level of publishing success. For you, I have seven delicious recipes for beans, which I may reveal to you in next week's post. Or not.

As for my other friends, the ones with a more realistic handle on the literary life, I assume you're tuning in to see what I've been up to lately. Besides trying to keep from writing. Or trying to force myself to write. Whatever it is I'm doing.

You'll be happy to know I've completely recovered from the various conferences of last month. The seductions of the consignment shop I discovered a few blocks away from the Malice Domestic hotel in Bethesda are still lingering in my mind, though. In another year or two, if I can ever stick to a diet and exercise program, I might even be able to fit into some of those gorgeous clothes. For you size eights out there, the name of the place is Second Chance, and they have a web site at http://www.secondchanceboutiques.com/. They don't sell the clothes online, but you can get an idea of what the shop is all about.

This!

Tuesday the sewing machine came, the one I bought to replace Old Betsy, and I promised myself that as soon as I had written another two thousand words on the Work in Progress (which has been retitled Monkeystorm) I would cut out and sew up a dress. The fabric came from Mood Fabrics, a purveyor of jaw-dropping yard goods to the New York designers. Big fun. Check it out. Since they're in North Jersey somewhere the delivery was extremely fast.

So that's what I'm doing these days. I hit my word count and cut out the dress this afternoon. It might be lovely, or it might turn out to be a rag; I never know with my sewing. I have to go cook dinner now. Tomorrow I'll set myself another writing goal and when I achieve it I'll sew up the dress.

Leave a comment. Let me know what you're up to. Let me know how you make yourself write. Let me know whether you like beans.

Kate Gallison

Why a Pseudonym?

Pseudonyms have been used over the years for a variety of reasons:

Georges Sand

1. To hide one’s gender: Ex. The Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, wrote under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton, respectively. Mary Ann Evans wrote as George Eliot. And Baronne Dudevant was George Sand. Those were the days when there was a stigma attached to women writers and the chances of getting published were much greater if you were a man.

2. Your real name is too long, too hard to pronounce or spell: Ex. Joseph Conrad whose real name was Josef Theodora Conrad Nalco Korzeniowski; Oscar Wilde who was Fingal O’Flahertie Wills; Woody Allen, born Allen Stuart Konigsberg; Adolf Hitler, alias Adolf Schickelgruber.

Betty Joan Peske

3. Your name evokes laughter: Ex. Archie Leach alias Cary Grant; Betty Joan Peske alias Lauren Bacall; Malcolm Little alias Malcolm X.

4. You wish to make fun of or insult people in print: This was a favorite sport in the 18th Century. A common pastime was to write letters to the local newspaper ridiculing your rivals or enemies. Benjamin Franklin had a dozen different pen names that he wrote under, i.e., Poor Richard, Busy Body, Silence Dogood and Anthony Afterwit, to name just a few.

5. You are a writer and want to change genres, say from Mystery to Science Fiction: It’s confusing to the reader if you write differently under the same name. It is a good idea to adopt a new name when you launch a new genre.

You don't want people
to know you wrote this

6. A pen name can be liberating: If you think no one will recognize your name, you can really let yourself go and write truer or sexier stuff, or even porn. Your family, friends, or old Sunday school teachers will never know. (Warning: I hear that in many cases the truth will out!)

7. Your previous book sales have been poor and you want to try again: This is tricky because there is a database available to editors and publishers that records the sales of every writer. Attempting to hide your past behind a new name can be difficult, but not impossible. Recently a woman writer with an average sales record was successful in acquiring a two-book contract using the nom de plume--Kate Alcott. Alcott’s new books are doing very well.

So, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!

Robin Hathaway

What’s Left After Art

The only visible sign of the effort that went into the manuscript I will send to my publisher tomorrow are the huge stacks of worked over pages that will occupy a cardboard box in a closet in my apartment until the book comes out. Irrationally, I keep them as a talisman against loss. They are otherwise worthless.

Painters have their sketches and studies, which are surely art in and of themselves. Even their palettes look like art to me.


 I saw Vincent Van Gogh’s palette in an exhibit here in New York. It was so beautiful and exciting to see that the Metropolitan Museum made post card of it. I bought one. Here it is! It has all the beautiful hues that you find in his canvasses, and look at the energy with which he painted.

It seems the palettes of many painters have been preserved.

Here’s Delacroix’s and an example of the marvelous precisely detailed pictures he painted using it. You see him in both.

Gustave Moreau worked from this palette:

Here’s what he made with those colors:

This is Georges Seurat’s:

This palette is where he created his vocabulary. Here is how he put it all together, more like the experience of writing, it seems — point by careful point.

I could look at this stuff all day. But now I have to dot a couple of “i’s” and cross a couple of “t’s” before I send in that manuscript tomorrow.

Annamaria Alfieri