Category: Writer’s Notes

Information and opinions from fellow authors covering monthly topics such as Contests, Conferences, Mentors, and Writing Clubs. Even seasoned authors learn something here.

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Writer's Notes

Suspension of Disbelief: Rita Lakin

R LAKIN Book coverSuspension of Disbelief – an interview with author Rita Lakin

 

So, Rita, what drove you to write a totally unbelievable series?

Purely by accident. When I left “show biz”, I decided to finally write a novel after 25 years of churning out television scripts. I wanted to write about my mother and aunts and other relatives who retired to a condo in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. But as I started to write it, I knew it wouldn’t sell; not a novel about old people getting older. Definitely depressing. Because I was so ingrained with writing and selling “commercial,” ideas, I decided to turn them into elderly private eyes. And because my relatives were so unknowingly funny in real life, I knew it had to be a comedy. Ergo – a humorous crime series. And to my surprise, I found that I had written a parody of the PI genre.
Tell us about your characters and plots–in what ways are they unbelievable?
I realized that I didn’t have to make things up. Florida turned out to be rich in totally nonsensical craziness. For an example of the outrageous: my senior citizen characters go to the pool for their morning swim, only to find, after jumping in, a lost alligator terrifying them. True story.

Example – This made the news. A woman stopped a thief from robbing her by hitting him with her cane. Within a few weeks, “Cane Fu” shops blossomed, teaching seniors how to protect themselves with canes. True story.

So my plots were easily believingly unbelievable, and wonderfully funny. Like the case of an 86 year old woman who hires our girls to stalk her 89 year old husband to find out if he was cheating on her.

My elderly ladies on stakeout are hilarious. What with “ blankies” for comfort, cards, knitting, and enough snacks for a month. And when they need to go to the bathroom…
Picture a chase scene: the perp is driving 90 mph on the freeway; my elderly ladies are pursuing him at 35 mph on the city streets. They don’t go on the freeway. Not them. Especially at night.

The plots are funny, the characters are funny. And easy to come up with loveable “villains” like the 80 year old Grandpa bandit who robbed banks.

The alligator in the pool, Cane Fu, Grandpa bandit – All these stories were true, unbelievable as they might seem. A wealth of story material waiting to be harvested.

Your Getting Old is Murder series is still going strong. What’s up next for Gladdy and her girls?

Books eight and nine are soon to be available: GETTING OLD CAN HURT YOU and GETTING OLD WILL HAUNT YOU. In the first novel, an angry grandchild comes to wreak havoc on the condo and in the second, Gladdy and her girls deal with a most amazing client who demands they solve a murder. Funny stuff.
~~~

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAuthor Rita Lakin worked in Hollywood as a script writer and then a producer of her own shows. Some of the shows she worked on were: Peyton Place, Mod Squad and Dynasty. Lakin wrote her memoir of those years spent in that world: THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM – Episodes in My Life and Career as a Television Writer.
~~~

GETTING OLD CAN HURT YOU

Life in sunny Fort Lauderdale’s Lanai Gardens is turned upside-down when Ida’s long-lost granddaughter, Tori, gate-crashes the ladies’ deli lunch, demanding protection from men she insists are out to kill her. Determined to assist Ida and her granddaughter, Gladdy Gold’s Detective Agency is on the case.

R LAKIN Book coverBut the stubborn and secretive Tori is not easy to help, regularly sneaking off to the puzzlement of Gladdy and her girls. A series of family secrets leaves a grudge heavy in the air between Tori and Ida: will Gladdy’s gals be able to reunite the warring pair in time to figure out who the sinister men chasing Tori are?

(PUB DATE 10/1/18 SEVERN HOUSE)

GETTING OLD WILL HAUNT YOU

While the men of Lanai Gardens are off on safari, Evvie and Gladdy worry about their grumpy PI partners. The girls are bored. No cases in such a long time! So when a caller in Key West wants to hire the team to solve a murder, Gladdy says yes—maybe too quickly. The girls are thrilled. Key West: a great place to sight-see, too.

Sadly, on the day they leave, Ida is too ill to travel. Suddenly their annoying neighbor, Hy, has gone missing and Ida, feeling better, has to tackle this on her own.

Gladdy’s case is fraught with strange goings-on, a bizarre client and a murder that nobody believes happened. Meanwhile Ida has to deal with Hy’s awkward secret life. Will the girls, in each of their situations, muddle through their hilarious misadventures?

(PUB DATE 6/19 SEVERN HOUSE)

rlakejojo@aol.com
ritalakin.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Writer's Notes

Suspension of Disbelief: D.R. Ransdell

perf5.000x8.000.inddDanger and Melancholy in the Half-Fictional World

By D.R. Ransdell

I’ve always loved reading and writing fiction, never non-fiction. Why are so many of us drawn to the novel? I’m convinced it boils down to the willingness to suspend disbelief. For the sake of enjoyment, we’re willing to enter the world of the story and stay there for the duration.

Yet that unreal world must be believable. As a writer I play with the fact/fiction blur. I use people I know to create characters. Why not start from scratch? Somehow I assume that if I start with the real and add the unreal, the end result will be just right. Thus the protagonist that kicks off my murder mystery series in Mariachi Meddler is a composite of key mariachi players I’ve worked with. Andy Veracruz has their winning characteristics—and some of their worst habits. In his own way, he’s perfect!

When I started Island Casualty, though, I dug deeper into my past. Not only did I base a central character on a cherished former roommate, but I based the love interest on a guy I’d met briefly and imagined extensively. I called him Hari in the book, but I’d met the real-life version on my first trip to Greece during an all-night singalong from Brindisi to Athens. When Drossos and I found out that we shared a common language of Italian, we couldn’t stop talking. And thanks to his invitation to Kálymnos, we didn’t have to. For five of the most wonderful days ever, I was a guest on a Greek island.

When I needed a romantic Greek hero for my novel, I had one readymade. As I wrote, I was under a Hellenic spell of remembering lovely nights I’d spent listening to bouzouki bands or swimming in the moonlight. In chapter after chapter, I relived my magical vacation and fantasized about a man I would never see again. Who knows what became of him?

Last week I attended the Greek festival in Tucson, the musicians, flown in from L.A., played very well. The bouzouki player’s fingers flashed up and down the instrument while the keyboardist sang haunting lyrics to island rhythms. Yet the music made me depressingly nostalgic as I automatically thought about Drossos-turned-fictional-Hari. I’d been so effective in creating my own world out of the fabric of my life that—well, I overdid it. I made the fictional so present that I was practically in tears.

What’s the moral of the story? It’s great to suspend disbelief. And it’s probably a good writing technique to blend the fictional with the real. But writers ought to be careful not to take themselves or their characters too seriously. Otherwise they’ll be pining over the lost opportunities they never had in the first place! They’ll be lost in their own worlds to the point that they’ll ignore opportunities in the worlds they’re living in. Funny, huh?
But for the readers, the situation is win-win. All they have to do is suspend their disbelief a tiny bit, and they’ll get the full experience. They won’t even need to be melancholy. Opa!
D R RansdellAbout the Author:

D.R. Ransdell writes from Tucson, Arizona, where she enjoys good swimming weather most of the year. During the school season she teaches composition to international students at the University of Arizona. She also moonlights in a mariachi band, which gives her plenty of ideas for murder victims. When vacation starts, she hits the road, leaving behind several mischievous cats. One of her favorite travel destinations is Greece, where each island offers a new favorite beach and she can spend long nights listening to bouzouki music.
Buy links:

Amazon link: http://mybook.to/islandcasualty2
B & N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/island-casualty-d-r-ransdell/1120979158?ean=9781938436307
Blurb:

A lost engagement ring, whizzing bullets, and a midnight Vespa ride add up to a terrible vacation! When Andy Veracruz flies to Greece for a holiday, the California native expects to spend afternoons swimming and nights making love. But at an outdoor café, he meets a fellow traveler who accidentally leaves behind a package. Before Andy can return it, the man disappears. Andy tries to enjoy the rest of his vacation, but he realizes that he’s not safe anywhere on the island. While he’s around, his friends aren’t safe either! He vows not to take any more vacations, but how can he uncover the truth so that he can make his escape?

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Writer's Notes

October: Suspension of Disbelief

By Thonie Hevron

Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge_by_Washington_Allston
Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Washington Allston circa 1843

 

Willing suspension of disbelief is a term coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative.

Every fiction writer must wrestle with this at some time. The worlds we create are products of our imagination with a little fact thrown in.

The main facet of suspension of disbelief: Could this happen, really?

Something that I see in my genre (police procedural/thriller/mystery) so often is multiple officer involved shootings (OIS’s) several times a shift or day or week. Officers never seem to go on Administrative Leave ever. Administrative Leave is a temporary leave from a job or assignment, with pay and benefits intact. Officers are routinely placed on administrative leave after a shooting incident while an investigation is conducted (sometimes by an outside agency for impartiality), without implying fault on the part of the officer.

My husband, the retired firefighter, cries foul when a vehicle is involved in a crash and subsequent explosion (this doesn’t include when the plot specifies an incendiary device was aboard). What typically happens is this: cars don’t explode on impact. If they catch fire, it often due to fuel leaking to an ignition source (such as an overheated catalytic converter).

Cops and fire fighters are readers and know when something just ain’t right. But when you include a feasible ignition source in that Impala that collides with a tree—then you have the “well, it could happen” moment.

ThonieHevron-ByForceorFear.jpgAnother part of suspension of disbelief involves the premise of my first novel. By Force or Fear’s protagonist is a female detective being stalked by a cunning judge. Her superiors don’t believe her when she reports him. In this day of #MeToo, I seriously doubt any responsible administrator would discount the report. But it could happen, right? That’s suspension of disbelief.

The key to making the preposterous believable is to sow seeds of reasonability into the story (foreshadowing) ahead of time or during the event. For instance, an observer of the car crash might see the fallen tiki torch next to the tree or the officer may be the last officer (think a department-wide epidemic with no mutual aid officers available within the day—hey, it’s a stretch but it could happen, right?). Sometimes a scientific explanation after the event can work but that can be dicey. Balance this with authenticity.

The trick to all of this is to make your devices (and plot twists) believable. Do your research, online and on the ground. Talk to police officers, fire fighters, professors, whoever you need to get the scoop. After talking to these folks, you may find that the truth is less believable than fiction!

October 12th will feature D.R. Ransdell’s take on this topic. On October 19th, an interview with Rita Lakin who dishes on the hard-to-believe-it-but-they’re-true stories with her Getting Older is Murder series. Niles Reddick winds up the month on October 26th with writing about differences.

You’ll be glad you checked them all out! Don’t forget to read Hal Collier (Ramblings), Ed Meckle (The Call Box), Mikey (Roll Call) and others on Just the Facts, Ma’am to find out how much stranger truth can be than fiction!

~~~

3 book covers
All three of my thriller novels are for sale on Amazon.com. I’ll also be signing and selling books at the Rohnert Park 2018 Holiday Craft Faire November 23 and 24. 

 

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Writer's Notes

Killing Your Darlings: Gloria Casale

 

Bioterror The Essential ThreatBy Gloria Casale

I don’t usually have a problem killing off any character – even the finely crafted ones. I’m often sure of the characters I want to dispose of when the story line is nothing more than an idea fighting for recognition in the murky darkness of my mind.
However, in my first published book, I had a character I’d developed to be strong, intelligent, and significantly concerned for the welfare of his family. In my original version, the man was promised freedom for his wife and family if he agreed to steal smallpox from the Russian laboratory at Novosibirsk (Russia) and transport the deadly toxin to Jakarta.

I developed this character carefully: the Russian scientist whose family was starving because the Russian government stopped paying their scientists, allowed the conditions in the laboratories to disintegrate, and devoted all their resources toward building up military power. Yuri was devoted to God, deeply loved his wife and children, and was a dedicated scientist.

At a scientific meeting, he met the Syrian chairman of a laboratory in the Middle East who promised and provided huge amounts of money in all the denominations the Russian and his family would need to escape from Russia. The Syrian also delivered alternate IDs and passports. The Russian scientist was also promised a laboratory where he could continue his work as a genetic engineer, and a lavish home and life-style.
Yuri steals the toxin, crosses the western border of Russia into Latvia, and flies from Germany to Jakarta. When he delivers the vials to an intermediate in Jakarta, he is stabbed and left to die in a back alley.

Originally, that was to be the last mention of this character. I didn’t plan to include him or his family as an integral part of the remaining story.
My critique group was fascinated by this character, his wife, mother-in-law, and children. Each and every person in the group voiced the opinion that I should not kill him.

Yuri was too good a character, one they all admired. He was doing the wrong thing – for all the right reasons – and had to survive.
The group wanted him to live. And all but demanded I keep him alive. They encouraged me to figure out how he would be found and what would happen to him and his family.
I was left with the chore of determining out who would save him, and why he would be saved. Then I had to add information on how his wife, mother-in-law, and children fared as they traveled west.

I faced a major re-write.

The resulting story carried the same message I wanted to convey but was enriched because of all the interactions between the characters. As a result, the story had interesting twists and turns. I loved doing the research to create all the situations the scientist and his family would eventually face.

Overcoming all the problems I invented for each member of the family, providing a believable, unique voice for each character was a challenge.

As a result, I learned a great deal, and the story became fascinating read.

~~~

Gloria CasaleAbout Gloria Casale

Gloria Casale Writes, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offers mystery novels for lovers of spy thrillers. So far, she has published Bioterror: The Essential Threat. The prequel to Bioterror will be published in the next twelve months. Her second series, Counting Down, details the lives of ten women from one neighborhood. The women are disappearing one by one years later. A female serial killer is determined to kill them all. The author is also currently working on An Emergency Medicine Memoir she hopes to have the first of a two to three part series released in December 2016.
Gloria Casale earned her medical degree from the University of Kentucky, and completed advanced training in anesthesiology, preventative medicine, and public health. She received training in bioterrorism and bioterrorism response at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and is a recognized expert in the international transport of disease. Gloria served as a consultant to the Division of Transnational Threats at Sandia Laboratory.
The author has been an invited speaker to members of the US military and various ports associations on the topics of bio-weaponry and the international transport of pathogens. She currently lives in New Mexico with her tuxedo cats, Hugo and Thumbs.

Website: Gloria Casale

Buy Bioterror: The Essential Threat

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Killing Your Darlings: or Whatever by Marilyn Meredith

By Marilyn Meredith

When asked if I’d like to join in on this discussion, my first thought was eliminating those pesky words and phrases that pop up almost unintentionally in everything I write—so, that, just, as, and any unnecessary adverbs and adjectives.

But instead of talking about them, I thought I’d like to bring up my darlings I don’t want to kill off.

I love writing about ghosts and spirits, and in nearly all of my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries one or two make an appearance. (Oops, I guess I couldn’t really kill them off because they are already dead.)

In my latest offering, titled Spirit Wind, there is indeed a ghost, and something else that travels on the wind. Unfortunately, it isn’t available yet because I haven’t finished it.

AColdDeath-lgIn the most recent published tale, A Cold Death, the ghost of a young girl seeks Tempe’s help.

The one before that, Seldom Traveled doesn’t have a ghost, but there is definitely something supernatural watching over Tempe as her life is threatened by fire and a murderer.

I can’t imagine writing about Tempe and not including a ghost, spirit or something not quite of this world. Besides the fact that I like imagining what it might be like for Tempe to be confronted by these other worldly specters, it’s great fun to write about her encounters and weave them into the story plot.

To end this, I don’t want to write what everyone else is writing about. Keeping my darlings, in this case, ghosts and spirits, “alive” in Deputy Tempe Crabtree’s world is what I plan to do.

 

–Marilyn Meredith

~~~

Marilyn in Vegas 1
Marilyn Meredith

 

Bio: Marilyn Meredith is the author of over nearly forty published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra with her husband, grands and great-grands, and numerous animals. Under the name F. M. Meredith, she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series. She is a member of MWA, three chapters of Sisters in Crime and on the board for Public Safety Writers Association.

 

Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and follow her blog at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

 

Latest books:

AColdDeath-lgA Cold Death

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Death-Tempe-Crabtree-Mystery-ebook/dp/B074XNP87Z/ref=sr_1_1?=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535043293&sr=1-1&keywords=A+Cold+Death+by+Marilyn+Meredith

 

Seldom Traveled Front Cover

Seldom Traveled

https://www.amazon.com/Seldom-Traveled-Tempe-Crabtree-Mystery/dp/1594264333/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535043293&sr=1-2

 

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Killing Your Darlings: Rehabilitating the Bad Guys

By Lesley A. Diehl

When I wrote the first book in my Big Lake murder mystery series (set in rural Florida, land of cattle, cowboys, alligators and swamps) and published it with a small press, I created a character I called Toby Sands and made him the partner of my protagonist’s love interest, Detective Stanton Lewis. Where Lewis was tall, handsome, and smart, Toby was short, fat, lazy and always looking for shortcuts he thought would either bring in some cash or make him look cleverer than Lewis. That never happened. Toby was doomed to fail at whatever he did unless it was napping in his police car under the shade of a palm tree. If these qualities weren’t bad enough, Toby also liked to chew tobacco. He was so addicted that confined spaces reeked of his chaw, and the other police officers complained so often about the stench that his boss, the captain of the force, assigned him an office by himself, the smallest one, the one in which the air conditioners worked only sometimes. Did I say? Toby also liked to drink…on the job. Toby was a phenomenal failure with a false sense of his abilities.

 

Dumpster_final_eBookIn this first book of the series, Dumpster Dying, Toby tries out schemes with local criminals—informant to drug traffickers, gofer for a kidnapper and clean-up man to a killer. He gets caught and tossed off the police force. While waiting for his trial, Toby moves to a shack in the swamps and grows a beard but continues his messy habit of chewing. His white beard takes on the color and odor of tobacco. Toby had become even more pathetic, yet I found it impossible to toss him out of my next book. I decided he was too wonderful (as in horrifyingly fascinating) a character to dump, so I put him to use as a police informant, earning his way out of a jail sentence by helping Detective Lewis track down the killer of a barbeque cook-off contestant. Grilled, Chilled and Killed might have offered Toby redemption if he accomplished what he was assigned. Instead he almost destroyed Lewis’ case by tampering with evidence and, to make money on the side, participating in a kidnapping scheme arranged by an international criminal. Toby may have gone big time, but his abilities hadn’t, and he faltered in both of these endeavors, his downfall helped by the story’s protagonist who was aided by a feral pig. End of Toby? No, not yet. It was time for a third dose of bad boy Toby.

 

I brought Toby back for two books when some might argue I should have killed him off. IDiehl Grilled_final_eBook did not because, although he is a bad boy, he has staying power in terms of being a character readers seem to love to revile. Like me, I think readers feel a bit sorry for Toby. Rehabilitation is always an option.

In Scream Muddy Murder, the third and newest book in the series, Toby has fallen for a woman who is Toby’s match in surprising ways. She is tall, wears her hair in a teased, seventies style, and she’s the daughter of the preacher who has set up a revival tent south on the Big Lake. Toby has become her project. She brings him to God and to employment in her father’s revival business. Best of all, God and the love of this woman convince Toby to give up booze and chewing tobacco and take up praying and bathing. The series protagonist, Emily Rhodes, can’t believe Toby has changed for good, and perhaps the reader shouldn’t either, but for a time, Toby is clean, sober and in love. This is the transformation I saved Toby for. Now it’s up to him to hold onto it.

 

Diehl Muddy_cover_1563x2500_eBookIn many of my books, I’ve let other “bad darlings” sail off to foreign ports or fly off to an uncertain fate in South America. What’s wonderful about not killing them is that I can bring them back for another dose of their badness and perhaps a final measure of justice at the hands of one of my sassy country gals.

 

Many argue that a mystery is really the killer’s story, not the protagonist’s. I don’t completely buy this, but I do believe that if protagonists can grow and develop, then so should almost despicable bad guys like Toby. Jail or death for a killer might be the kind of justice warranted for a stone-cold murderer, but for someone like Toby who’s dabbles ineffectively in crime, the writer might consider a reprieve…at least for a while. If Toby engages in any more bad behavior, I might have to send him to prison, but I can always parole him and return him to society. But will he be reformed? There are some things Toby will find hard to give up: his tobacco, his cheap whiskey and his delusional sense of his own capabilities. Toby is a continuing thorn in my other characters’ sides, but his presence creates tension and conflict and, most importantly, my brand of swamp humor. I’ll keep him.

 

Buy link for Dumpster Dying

https://www.amazon.com/Dumpster-Dying-Book-Murder-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01MRWGBC8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536077241&sr=8-1&keywords=Dumpster+Dying

 

Buy link for Grilled, Chilled and Killed

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_fb_1_19?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=grilled%2C+chilled+and+killed&sprefix=Grilled%2C+Chilled+an%2Cdigital-text%2C158&crid=1JHJCM5D32GN

 

Buy link for Scream Muddy Murder

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Scream+Muddy+Murder&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AScream+Muddy+Murder

 

For more about Lesley’s books go to her website www.lesleyadiehl.com

Diehl
Lesley A. Diehl

Lesley retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in Upstate New York.  In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office, and gators make golf a contact sport. Back north, the shy ghost inhabiting the cottage serves as her literary muse.  When not writing, she gardens, cooks and renovates the 1874 cottage with the help of her husband, two cats and, of course, Fred the ghost, who gives artistic direction to their work. She’s presently interviewing for a coyote to serve as her muse for her books and stories set in rural Florida.

She is the author of a number of mystery series and mysteries as well as short stories, most featuring her quirky sense of humor and a few characters drawn from her peculiar family.

 

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Killing Your Darlings: Judy Alter

JAlter Chaos cover Sept 2018By Judy Alter

The literary advice, “Kill your darlings,” has been attributed to William Faulkner and probably a hundred others. Almost a cliché today, it is meant to remind authors to catch repetitive use of words such as just, and, but—those empty words that pad the writing but mean nothing or those over-written purple moments that cause readers to roll their eyes.

I’ve always considered the phrase in another light. To me, the darlings are characters. Almost every writer has probably been guilty of being so enamored of one of their characters that they let him or her take over the story when, really, they’re not part of it. But it’s hard to kill off or write out a character you’ve created, and think is a brilliant addition.

In Contract for Chaos, the eighth Kelly O’Connell Mystery I discovered the value of letting your darlings quietly disappear rather than killing them. In the first book, Skeleton in a Dead Space, Joanie is Kelly’s best friend and an important secondary character. Until she confesses to a one-night stand with Kelly’s ex, maybe resulting in her pregnancy, and then marries the detective assigned to investigate the murder of that same ex. Kelly has to grapple with some moral uncertainties.

I tried to work Joanie, the new husband Buck, and the baby girl into the second book, No Neighborhood for Old Women, but they just didn’t fit. They had no part in the story, and I left them out. Kelly marries Officer Mike Shandy, of the Fort Worth Police Department, and guess who’s his boss? Buck. He appears in subsequent books, though not in a major way, and Joanie is far in the background.

In Contract for Chaos, Joanie is thrust into the center Kelly’s friendship. Buck is killed by a sniper, and Mike is appointed interim chief. Kelly stands by Joanie in a practical way (cleaning her house for the horde of officers and their wives who will descend to express their sympathy) and in an emotional way—listening to her grief, crying with her, standing by her at the funeral reception, even tentatively offering her work in her office.

Contract for Chaos primarily deals with the racism that has raised its ugly head in this country and what it can do when it is unleashed in one city. The shooting of Buck Conroy is not racially motivated, as far as Kelly can tell, and Mike agrees. But solving that murder is a big part of the book, so Joanie is again a major figure. It works more smoothly than if I had invented a new character.

So, my suggestion? Kill all those repetitive and over-written words and phrases but be careful about the characters you kill. You may need those darlings again one day.

 

About Contract for Chaos

When four young men sign the rental contract on a Fairmount house, realtor Kelly O’Connell has no idea she has just signed a contract for chaos. But the racial tensions sweeping the country erupt in Fort Worth, and her tenants fan the flames. A young black policeman shoots an unarmed white teenage thief who charged him, the chief of police is shot by a sniper, and Kelly’s husband, Mike, is appointed interim chief of police. Protests, threats, beatings, and graffiti mark daily life in Kelly’s beloved city. She must protect her infant, reassure her older daughters, and support Mike as he deals with the racism and dissension creeping through the police force and the city. How can she keep her family safe and stop the hate? Will the mayor’s city-wide Celebration of Neighbors calm a city on the edge?

 

Judy-BGBlurred2 (004)About Judy Alter

An award-winning author, Judy Alter has written seven previous books in the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries series: Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, Trouble in a Big Box, Danger Comes Home, Deception in Strange Places, Desperate for Death, and the novella, The Color of Fear.

She also writes the Blue Plate Café Mysteries—Murder at the Blue Plate Café, Murder at the Tremont House, Murder at Peacock Mansion, and Murder at the Bus Depot. With The Perfect Coed, she introduced the Oak Grove Mysteries, followed by the 2017 title, Pigface and the Perfect Dog..

Judy’s historical fiction, stories of women of the 19th-century American West, and her mysteries are available in print and ebook on Amazon, B&N and other platforms. Retired after twenty years as director of a small academic press, Judy is single parent of four and grandparent of seven. She lives in Texas, sharing her cozy cottage with her Bordoodle, Sophie.

Follow Judy at http://www.judyalter.com; her blog, “Judy’s Stew,” http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com; on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/judy.alter and https://www.facebook.com/Judy-Alter-Author-366948676705857/; or on Twitter, where she is @Judy Alter

 

 

 

 

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September: Killing Your Darlings

By Thonie Hevron

Malice cover“In writing, you must kill all your darlings.”

― William Faulkner

My reason choosing this topic is embarrassing. When planning my last novel, With Malice Aforethought, I had an idea. An outline followed, then the beginnings of a story. I began work. Some months later and about 30K words into Malice, I happened to re-establish contact with a man I worked with many decades ago at the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Mike Brown was generally accepted to be one of the most competent, sensible and well-liked deputies around. When he retired, he was a Captain, and a 16-year veteran of Violent Crimes Investigations unit. He’d worked both positions my male protagonist held in the story. I reached out to Mike and asked him to read my outline.

His answer was quick: this scenario couldn’t happen.SCSO patch

Oh no! What was I going to do with the beautiful words I wrote? Thirty thousand words—a third of the book! It was with great anguish, I pressed the “delete” button. Mike was very generous with his time and with further discussion, I came up with a reasonable scenario that Mike said was credible. This newer version was not only more accurate, but it was better. It fit into my character needs better, was more exciting and allowed more plot flexibility.

In short, killing my darlings made for a better story.

My sacrifice on the altar of fiction authenticity was worth it.

When I announced this topic, my idea was to discuss how to cut words—words being the author’s darlings. But in receiving early posts and feedback from others, I’ve found some authors consider this phrase to mean actual characters. I believe there is no wrong answer and I’m thrilled to read others take on the subject. For every author, cutting their precious words is difficult. I can’t tell you yet what works for me, because with four books under my belt, it seems to change all the time. I do have a file of deleted scenes I keep so I don’t feel like I’ve wadded up the words for the waste basket. I’ll leave expert advice to three authors who present well thought out suggestions. They are below if you’d like to read further.wastebasketKristen Keiffer writes in Well-Storied, September 10, 2015 “8 Things to Cut When You Kill Your Darlings.” Her post is short, cogent and efficient. If you’re an author editing your manuscript, check this article out. “What it Means to Kill Your Darlings” on WritersLife.org (2016) offers more ideas by Bethany Cadman.  Ruthanne Reid’s Thewritepractice.com offers more suggestions how to recover from your assassination in her 2015 offering: “How to Kill Your Darlings and Survive the Process.”

I’m posting on Saturday, the first of September because I have a full house of authors this month who want to talk about murdering their own syllables.  On September 7th, Judy Alter has insight into killing off characters versus your own words. Lesley Diehl decided to interpret “Killing Your Darlings” as killing off characters, in her case, sometimes a really bad guy is too wonderful, too aggravating, too colorful to kill off even though he might deserve it! Her post appears on the 14th, Marilyn Meredith on September 21 talks about characters she doesn’t want to kill off, and Patricia Guthrie winds up the month on the 28th.

 

Categories
Writer's Notes

Mentors: Paying it Forward

Death Over EasyBy Edith Maxwell

I came late to mystery writing and I had never formally studied creative writing. Once I joined Sisters in Crime, mentors seemed to be everywhere. I signed up for twenty-page manuscript critiques at the New England Crime Bake conference. I joined a writers group of more experienced writers than me and worked through scenes from my work-in-progress. I attended a weekend workshop with three multi-published mystery author teachers and made some lifelong friends among several of the other unpublished aspiring authors.

I’ve never met a more supportive group of people than crime writers. Once I finished, polished, and found a publisher for my first mystery novel in 2012, I took a deep breath and asked four well-known New England authors if they would write endorsements. They all said they would, and did.

Now I have three multi-book series contracts. I have fifteen novels in print, an additional five completed and in various stages of production, and at least four more under contract. I am living my dream, and it’s time to give back, to pay the generous mentoring forward.

crime-bake-logoWhen a new author asks if I will write a cover blurb, I say Yes (with the caveat that I’ll endorse it only if I like it, but I’ve only had to decline two). When a member of the critique group I finally left asks if I’ll read a new draft of her short story, I say Yes. When the Crime Bake committee asks if I’ll critique one or more twenty-page manuscript samples, I say Yes. I agree to talk to library writing groups and chime in with answers in an online unpublished-writers group.

And when I was asked to serve as Vice-President of our large New England chapter of Sisters in Crime, I had to say Yes. I had left my day job to devote my time to writing fiction, and it was my turn to give back. I wouldn’t be where I am without the workshops, networking, and friends I’ve made in SINC and in our chapter. I’m now in my second year of serving as President, and in my first of two years as co-chair of Crime Bake.

Does mentoring, encouraging, giving back take a lot of time and energy? Sure. So far I’ve never missed a book deadline, though, and I want to help newer writers coming up. I think we can all find opportunities, small and large, to encourage creativity, and frankly paying it forward feels good.

 

Readers: Who have you mentored? How do you find ways to pay forward generosity and advice you’ve benefited from?

 

MaxwellDayBio:

Agatha- and Macavity-nominated author Edith Maxwell writes the Local Foods Mysteries, the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the popular Country Store Mysteries and the new Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. She is president of Sisters in Crime New England and lives north of Boston with her beau and two elderly cats. She blogs at WickedCozyAuthors.com and KillerCharacters.com. Read about all her personalities and her work at edithmaxwell.com, and please find her on social media – she loves to talk to readers.

 

Death Over EasyBlurb:

In Maxwell’s latest mystery, Death Over Easy (written as Maddie Day), restaurateur Robbie Jordan is ready for the boost in business a local bluegrass festival brings to South Lick, Indiana, but the beloved event strikes a sour note. The celebration is cut short when a performer is found choked to death by a banjo string. Now all the banjo players are featured in a different kind of lineup. To clear their names, Robbie must pair up with an unexpected partner to pick at the clues and find the plucky killer before he – or she – can conduct an encore performance.

 

 

Categories
Writer's Notes

Critique Groups: Another Thrillerz Member’s Two Cents Worth

 

By Andy Gloege

f prints magnifierAndy is a member of Thrillerz, my critique group. With four members, we’re a small group of dedicated thriller writers who meet every two weeks. At last night’s meeting, Andy had something he wanted to add to July’s topic. I asked him to write it down. I thought I’d share it with you. Andy always has an interesting take on members’ work–unique and valuable. In this vein, he has something to say that other authors didn’t mention. 

I added the song Dixie Chicken to a playlist on Spotify last week. I was a disc-jockey thirty years ago, and that song—a southern rock classic by Little Feat—played a lot. When it shuffled onto my car stereo I finally realized the point of the whole thing: everybody at the Commodore Hotel bar knows the chorus. They’ve all learned it from the same ingénue.

This is exactly why I appreciate my critique group. Somehow thirty-years back my headphones were off while I handled other things, and I missed the point of Dixie Chicken. Writers have to wrangle ninety-thousand word manuscripts into some sense of cohesion. Writers are human. Stuff will get missed. A good critique group makes notes on grammar, sentence structure, and theme. It also points out things the author might be too far inside the second-draft to clearly see: might Batman’s cape catch on that flagpole? If the killer wears stretch-pants, won’t everyone notice the gun? Instead of oregano, maybe you meant tarragon?

The world is an imperfect place, and filled with distractions. Errors of memory and judgement happen all the time. While writing a novel is a solitary experience, a good critique group makes the writer feel part of a community of artists, and develops its own internal chemistry about the kind of assistance each member needs.

Also, they won’t let you miss what’s going on at the Commodore Hotel.

~~~

notebook-308849_960_720Andy Gloege is a former writer and editor for CBS News. Currently working on a novel, he lives in Sonoma County, California, with his wife and son.