2024 – The Year I Discovered True Crime Podcasts

 Catherine Dilts

This year had the usual ups and down. Some more sad than usual, like my father passing in March at the age of 89. Some stressful, like remodeling half our house.

Under the column listing happy events was discovering the wonderful world of podcasts. Especially true crime. I’m often late to the party, whether it concerns technology or current entertainment. I don’t know why it took me so long. I love multi-tasking, and podcasts are perfect when I’m running, cooking, or gardening.

Because I have only just begun to explore podcasting, my list of favorites will be limited.

Small Town Dicks: My younger sister nagged me until I gave this podcast a listen. Yeardley Smith (yes, the voice of Lisa Simpson from the animated TV show) hosts police detectives and brothers Dan and Dave, plus a revolving cast of law enforcement professionals. They discuss criminal cases in – you guessed it – small towns. Many are cases Dan or Dave were involved in, and they offer an insider view of criminal investigations, explaining terminology and procedure.

True Crime Garage: Two guys sitting in a garage, drinking beer and discussing heinous crimes. I presume Nic and the Captain are recycling those bottles, because of their one rule stated in every episode: don’t litter. Their cases can be international, but are mostly set in the US. At the end of unsolved cases, they offer their opinions on whodunit. They also cover solved cases, missing persons, and serial killers.

The FOX True Crime Podcast: host Emily Compagno has access to major players, and is backed by an investigative team. Compagno often interviews survivors of crime, with compelling episodes on people who lived to tell their stories despite horrific attacks. I’ve heard podcasts as varied as how juries are selected, serial killers, how DNA can solve cold cases, Secret Service protocol, and the Jonestown massacre.

Hell and Gone: tagline – “There is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens.” Catherine Townsend receives pleas for help from people all over the US seeking answers about their missing or murdered loved ones. Her cases seem to take her frequently to the rural South. Multiple episodes are often needed to chase down clues and suspects.

Single case podcasts: They typically follow cases from beginning to end, unfolding as new evidence is uncovered, or arrests are made.

One of the first podcasts I listened to was The Piketon Massacre. Almost an entire family was wiped out by another family, at least partly over a child custody dispute. Drug use, trailer houses, and infidelity abound in a case with hillbilly feud tones. The criminals are tried, and verdicts declared in spring of 2023. The hosts Stephanie Lydecker, Courtney Armstrong, and Jeff Shane are currently following The Idaho Massacre.

Burden of Guilt, hosted by Nancy Glass, covers the bizarre story of a two-year-old blamed for the death of her infant brother. The accused began to pursue the truth as an adult, not willing to accept her family’s blame. Glass reveals the challenges of solving a forty-year-old cold case with the forensic evidence of that era. Not to mention uncooperative family members.

Status Untraced: A missing person case. In 2016, Justin Alexander went to the Parvati Valley in India seeking adventure, enlightenment, and maybe coincidentally drugs. Host Liam Luxon retraces Justin’s route, and discusses the theories surrounding his disappearance. 

My newest discovery might be a stretch to fit in my true crime library.

Tooth & Claw: True Stories of Animal Attacks. Sounds sensationalist, but this podcast is hosted by wildlife biologist and animal behavior expert Wes Larson. His brother Jeff and friend Mike add commentary that can be juvenile, but funny. I’ve learned a lot about animals, and what to do if you encounter one in the wild. Dos and don’ts, what your chances are of surviving an attack, and whether the species is endangered or thriving. Great to listen to while I’m running trails through thick trees.

I’m missing a few that I’ve given a listen, because I’ve forgotten the podcast name and can’t find it at the moment.

A word of caution: if listening to true crime or animal attack stories while running, do not have earbuds in both ears, in case something or somebody tries to sneak up on you. And prepare for many jump scares caused by garter snakes, birds, and bunnies bursting across the trail right when you’re listening to the really scary parts. Please note the perfectly harmless snake slithering for cover in the photo, the cause of many a jump scare.

I’m certainly not the expert here. There are so many true crime podcasts, I’ve barely dipped my toe in the pond. I’m sure there are plenty you could recommend, and please do, in the comments.

What Are We Afraid Of?

I was recently asked to judge a writing contest called “Winter Hauntings”.  Local writers were invited to create eerie stories with a local flavor.  The most difficult part?  It can only be about 1,000 words. 

On January 29th, the winners will be announced, and local community theater actors will read the three finalists. It’s a great event with music and it was sold out last year. 

All of the entries were excellent and there were some that were outstanding.  Now, there were also a couple that I didn’t find scary.  

But what frightens us is subjective, isn’t it?  What scares the bejesus out of me might not have any effect on you.   

I went to Google to see what scares most of us and it, in itself, was kind of scary. Chapman University does an annual study to find out what frightens Americans the most.  Please allow me to list their findings for 2024:

1) Corrupt Government Officials (65.2%)

2) People I Love Becoming Seriously Ill (58.4%)

3) Cyberterrorism (58.3%)

4) People I Love Dying (57.8%)

5) Russia Using Nuclear Weapons (55.7%)

6) Not Having Enough Money for the Future (55.7%)

7) US Becoming Involved in Another World War (55.0%)

8) N. Korea Using Nuclear Weapons (55.0%)

9) Terrorist Attack (52.7%)

10) Biological Warfare (52.5%)

Chapman University explains that American’s fears rise and fall with current events, but they also correspond to social media.  For example, ranking high but not in the top ten was a fear of rising crime, in spite of the fact that rates of crime continue to fall. 

Other fears that scored high were serial killings and mass shootings.  Yeah, I get that. 

Going into the study, it was generally thought the number one fear would be the Fear of Public Speaking.  Nope…it came in at 29%, a few percentage points below the fear of sharks. 

I was personally disappointed that Climate Change didn’t figure higher in our list of fears. 

So, to wrap up, none of the stories I judged for the contest had anything to do with corrupt government officials. There were ghosts, killers, and ravenous birds, but no cyberterrorism or nuclear weapons.

I, however, still enjoy a good story with mists in a swamp, noises in the dark, mysterious footsteps on the stairs, and a good jump scare.  

I wish you a Happy New Year that is completely devoid of any of the listed scary items.  Vampires and zombies, we can deal with them.  

Writer Anxiety

 You don't have to scratch a writer very deep to have them vent about writer anxiety. I suppose that most everyone involved in a demanding activity, particularly one in which we expect a public payoff, suffers from this type of anxiety. It's known by other names such as stage fright or pre-race jitters. What drives anxiety is fear, and for writers it's an acute fear of rejection and fear that you've missed your mark and thereby wasted your time pounding the keys. 

Writing is an intensely intellectual and emotional effort that demands your complete attention. Once you break focus, the mental gears grind to a halt. You can't write with your brain partially engaged. Adding to the challenge, is that good prose can't be formulaic. If you write to a template, the narrative will become stiff, clichéd, and unconvincing. I've heard people say that writing a series is easier than a stand-alone because you've got the world and characters figured out. That's partly true. But that becomes its own hurdle as you now have the issue of bringing in backstory and establishing those same characters and setting in a way that orients a new reader without forcing the returning reader to slog through familiar territory. And there's avoiding similar plot twists. And never, ever plagiarize from your earlier works.

All of this is what makes writing so hard. With practice, the crafting of scenes, understanding how to present details, pacing, that becomes a little easier to handle. But the story-telling part always remains the confounding uphill battle. I remember an interview with Carl Hiassen where he was asked if after publishing so many books, did the writing become easier? He answered that at the moment the writing seems easier, then that's the moment you get complacent and start to suck. 

To be productive in writing, we're advised to mute our inner critic and get that first draft done. Then afterwards, take heed of what Ernest Hemingway said: "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector."

How then do we tackle writer anxiety? By returning to the basics. Start with BICHOK--Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. Enlist your writing tribe, one with the chops to call you out when you're no longer seeking counsel but procrastinating. Have faith in yourself and in the process. Easier said than done.

Five Ways to Empower Yourself Regarding Social Media in 2025

By Shelley Burbank 

I'm adding art journaling to my life in 2025

The new year is just a few days away. As 2025 rounds the bend, many of us will consider changes and improvements we’d like to make in our lives, both personal and professional. I’ve known for a while a major change I wanted to make for both personal and professional reasons, and all of a sudden (or again?) I’m seeing other creatives questioning the same promotional “strategy” we all love to hate. 

I’m talking, of course, about social media, and I have some suggestions for you. 

If you want to get to the bullet points right away, slide down to the bottom of this essay, look for Five ways to empower yourself regarding social media in 2025, and skip the wordy stuff. Otherwise, read on.

Pay to NOT Play?

There’s no need to rehash the history of socials. We’ve all heard it before. Most of us have also read about the keynote address presented by Leonardo Bursztyn at the Economic Society of Australia annual conference earlier this year. (Lecture based on When Product Markets Become Collective Traps: The Case of Social Media by Leonardo Bursztyn, Benjamin Handel, Rafael Jim´enez-Dur´an, and Christopher Roth. (See 1 in End Notes) 

In this study, researchers found that university-aged social media users would PAY TO DEACTIVATE their accounts if they were assured that ⅔ of other users also deactivated. It seems that we don’t necessarily enjoy being on social media. We just have a fear of missing out. Not only that, we’d pay actual money to free ourselves from social media’s unhealthy, sticky, long-fingered grip. 

 Let that sink in. 

 [pausing ……..] 

Clock Ticking on Tik Tok 

Okay, then, moving on. In other social media news, Tik Tok is set to be banned from the U.S. on January 19 if something doesn’t intervene (like the Supreme Court) in the meantime. 

While “BookTok” has created some viral bestsellers that otherwise would have been lost in the sea of publishing, it doesn’t guarantee authors will earn a living wage from their books if only they crack the Tik Tok code. Like everything else in this business, luck on Tik Tok overrides effort, time, and skill. If you want to gamble on a platform, enjoy! Why not? But if you actually believe you’ll become a New York Times bestseller just because you went viral one silly reel about something unrelated to your book, then you might as well book a trip to Vegas and step up to a slot machine. 

So, yes. On January 19, I hope Tik Tok goes down. I hope every other social media follows suit. Sorry, not sorry. We were better off without them. 

Meanwhile, I’ve vowed to 90% quiet quit Facebook and Instagram (my preferred platforms with the most engagement and followers) in 2025. Meaning what? I’ll post every 10 days or less or when I have an announcement to make. I won’t be scrolling. I won’t be commenting. I won’t be engaging except to answer comments on my own posts. Again, sorry. But not really. Because I want social media to fail. 

What's Old is News Again

If I’m not going to use socials for marketing and promotion, how will my readers know when I have a new book for sale? The newsletter, of course. Year after year, I give lip service to building my email list, but I haven’t really focused on it lately because of Mailchimp costs and now Gmail and Yahoo! authentication issues. Now that Substack has solved my deliverability problem, working to increase my email list is my #1 marketing goal this year. 

Want a peek at my PINK DANDELIONS newsletter? Go HERE. 

I’m also interested in being invited to speak as a guest on podcasts. Finally, going back to the basics means writing and submitting short stories to paying markets like magazines and anthologies. 

Have I mentioned how happy and excited I am now that I’ve made these decisions? 

Every day I feel a little more like my old, creative self. Giving so much away for free these past years has demoralized and discouraged me. Taking back control of my creativity and how much access I give the public feels both freeing and empowering. 

In summary, here are some tips that may help YOU get off the social media hamster wheel. 

Five ways to empower yourself regarding social media in 2025 

1. Limit your social media posting days. This could mean you only post one day a week or two or even one day per month. Put it on your planner/calendar, then ignore the little app symbols on all the other days. Lather, rinse, repeat. 
2.  Limit your daily time spent on social media. If you must check your socials every day, set a timer. When the buzzer rings, press that little x in the corner and put your phone down. Go write something. Or take a walk. 
3.  Quit one or more platforms. Pick your favorite. Delete the rest. Or pick your least favorite and delete that account. Or put one or more on hiatus for a while and see if you miss any of them. More importantly, see if doing so impacts your sales or the open rate on your marketing emails or any other metric you can devise. 
4.  Slow your scroll. When you are on socials, limit yourself to posting and responding to reader comments. Do not scroll your feed. Do not engage on other peoples’ profiles or pages. The idea here is to MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA UNSOCIAL. Will your people be upset? Um, people are willing to pay to get off the darn platforms if everyone else does. They might, in fact, admire and be grateful. If not? 
5. Nurture a “don’t care” mindset. This might be the hardest thing, but training yourself not to care if you lose a few followers–or a lot of them–will set you free. There is little correlation between having a ton of followers and book sales. The favorite example of late is the Billie Eilish memoir. (See 2.) You can Google it, but I’ve given you a link below.

 I hope you’ve found this essay helpful and inspiring. Let’s ALL write more fiction and nonfiction and memoir and poetry and fewer social media posts in 2025. 

Happy New Year! 

Shelley 

--------

End Notes

1. https://theconversation.com/would-you-pay-to-quit-tiktok-and-instagram-youd-be-surprised-how-many-would-235180

2. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/books/social-media-following-book-publishing.html

Merry Day After Christmas

Merry Day After Christmas, Type M-ers.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed time with family and friends and you are enjoying vacation days this week. Having a week off provides time to reflect and look ahead. This is the time of year when I always try to look forward and set some writing goals for the upcoming year.

A note about setting goals: They have to be obtainable. Here are mine.

Write 15 pages a week. I don’t say “write every day” because my day job runs 60+ hours a week and being a dad and husband trump everything else. But I can pound out 15 pages in four 90-minute, early morning sessions, which feels doable.

Outline. This is a challenge for me. I’m better at journaling about characters and desires/challenges than I am actually creating a chapter-by-chapter outline. I find when I do that the book veers off course anyway. But it is an exercise worth doing, so I will try.

Strive for balance. Day job + Homelife + Writing = a lot. Keep that in mind and offer self-compassion.

This is my list of goals. Maybe they’re too simple. But I like simple and straightforward.

Happy holidays from Michigan!

(Corrigan Family Christmas Tree. 9-footer. I forgot the chainsaw....)

Book Mania

 By Charlotte Hinger

Every Christmas our family goes all out to support the publishing industry. We buy books like crazy. 

A friend asked me recently if I read fiction when I'm writing and if that interferes with my own work. No, reading while writing doesn't affect the work in progress, and giving up reading when I'm writing just makes me cranky. When I read a book with great description or characterization I try to improve whatever is on my computer at the time. I also find myself giving more thought to details in my own work.

I own way too many books. I simply can't help myself. They are as addictive as a drug. 

Most novelists have a horror of "unconscious plagiarism." So I was infuriated by a friend's recent blog on the outrageous blatant plagiarism perpetrated by a woman who copied a novel nearly verbatim and then posted it on Amazon as though it were her own book. She made quite a bit of money by doing this.

I feel so strongly about the issue of creative piracy that I won't even read books that expand on a dead author's characters or plot lines. I'm too cowardly to list all the books I refuse to read because I don't want to respond to readers who see nothing wrong with it.

To me, poaching characters is dishonorable! What's more, a line from an old Kipling poem, The Mary Gloster, comes to mind: "They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind, And I left them sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

Now we have AI to deal with. But I've noticed books built on another author's work flounder in the marketplace because the original creative spark isn't there.

Creative energy is unique to an individual. The source can't be duplicated. There is a great deal of craftsmanship involved with creating good books and much to be learned by studying the techniques of the masters. Especially when one begins to write. 

I often turn to books that I especially liked to see how they did something. I went back to Love Let Me Not Hunger to see why I thought Mr. Albert's leaving the circus was one of the saddest events I had ever come across.

How do other writer get characters out of room and change scenes? Oh. They don't. They simply double space. Why do the pages in this book rush by? Oh. Short, short sentences. Short chapters. Mostly action. Why do I like longer books with more detail? Oh. It's characterization.

Most of us go to the masters for instruction and inspiration, but a pox on anyone who goes with the intention of copying material.

 

Every Day Is Saturday

By Steve Pease/Michael Chandos.

 

     I’m a day late with my blog because I don’t know what day it is.

 

     When you have a job, you have structure, and your day is defined by that structure. On Monday you get up at 5 or 6 to drive to work, on Saturday and Sunday, you don’t. You bowl on Tuesday, eat lunch with your office section on Friday and gather for a beer after work. You pack a lunch every day, you exercise or go to the gym, you watch Monday Night Football.

 

     When you retire from the J.O.B or from work (a four letter work ending in K), most of the structure goes away. “Every day is Saturday.”  Projects around the house, decluttering, irregular exercise, watering the lawn, (YAWN) and maybe some writing. None of that will get the writing job done. It can become a blur.

 

     Here’s two tall tales about writers. Stephen King in his must-read book “On Writing” describes his writing day as up early, writing for four hours WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, lunch, then business in the afternoon (ie no or very little writing, but often editing)   

 

Writing and editing are different functions and should be separate.

 

John Stith, mostly an SF novelist, when he was working, got up at 4 am when the house was quiet, wrote til 5:30 or 6 when the family got up, and that was the writing for the day. In retirement, he still gets up early and reserves the morning for writing. He struggled to find the structure to frame his day, and, finally, just did it.

 

     That’s how you start. Look at how you write, how your day is built, how your head works and chisel out time to write when it’s best for you. Are you a morning person? Afternoon? (not me) Make a CONTRACT with yourself of when the writing occurs. Enforce it! Train your mind to look forward to those hours and reward it by showing up to work.

 

     For me mornings are best for exercising, house work, cutting the lawn, maybe email. I don’t like afternoons.  I want to nap and sometimes do (not over an hour). I do business, I might edit, pay bills, walk the dogs. Go shopping, start dinner.  My writing time starts around 7, maybe 8, and goes to 1 AM or later. Little editing, that’s afternoon work.  Creative work only during those hours. It works.

 

     Make writing a habit. Tell your head when Writing Time is and make sure you show up. Your creativity will show up too.

How the Sausage is Made

 I read Tom's entry about letting your newly-finished MS rest, below, with great sympathy and understanding. Mainly because I am doing the exact same thing right now. I've been writing on a new book, a stand-alone, I think, for over a year. For me, at least, it takes a long time to really get to know a brand new set of characters, a new setting, a new time period. I used every minute it took.

As I was writing this tome the story was wandering around in the wilderness, looking for the path to take it to the end. Every two weeks I would submit 20 pages to my critique group, and I almost always got positive feedback on the direction of the tale, my style, etc. As I wrote, I kept tweaking the plot. The direction kept changing, sometimes subtly, sometimes with a screeching u-turn. As I approached the climax, the end did not quite match the beginning any more. I knew there was some major rewriting in store.

Then the day came that I submitted the final pages - the reveal, the denouement. And my group hated it. Part of the problem was that for the past year, I've been submitting 20 pages ever 2 weeks. the group didn't remember many of the clues I'd dropped early on. The rest of the problem was that over that long year, I overthought everything and ended up with a much too convoluted reveal.

So. Time to let the story rest for a few weeks.

For me, this is how the sausage is made. It happens to me a lot, though not usually in such spectacular fashion. My first draft beginnings very often don't match the ends, because I keep getting brilliant ideas as I write. Or more properly, my characters get brilliant ideas and won't do what I thought they ought to do.

In any event. The story is resting and ripening in a drawer, and I've been sharpening my knives in anticipation of killing a lot of darlings in the MS. As the theatre manager character says in the movie Shakespeare in Love, it'll turn out fine. I don't know how. It's a miracle.

Since this is my last entry before Christmas, let me wish you Dear Readers a very happy Holiday Season, and may the upcoming year bring you blessings. (Please!) And here's a photo of our lovely tree for your enjoyment.

 

Encouraging Your Muse

 Catherine Dilts

Waiting passively for “the muse” to whisper in your ear is like sitting in a dark room waiting for someone to turn on the lights. There’s a point at which you need to stand up, walk across the room, and flip on the light switch.

There are periods when writing fiction can feel like slogging through a murky bog. Other times, the ideas rush like a clear mountain stream drawn downhill by gravity. There’s an undeniable ebb and flow to creativity.

What happens when a writer has gone days, weeks, or months without a visit from their muse?

Creativity can’t be forced, you might say. To which I counter: people do all kinds of things to trick their brains into being in the right state to perform various tasks. I recall finding my younger daughter sitting in her room with a text book and a candle. She explained that she was training herself to be focused to study whenever that scented candle was burning.

Ah, a physical cue. Like brewing coffee in the morning as you get ready for work. The smell of the coffee, even more than the caffeine, is a signal for your brain to switch gears.

Routines and triggers can cause you to anticipate an activity, but can they make you feel creative? Yes. I believe you can trick your muse into showing up, just as you can steer your brain, if you consistently use the same techniques.

All of the techniques. Because your brain is a crafty creature, and dull routine can sap creativity. So change things up.

Routine: Yes, I just said dull routine can sap creativity. But a routine is essential for convincing your brain that it’s that time of day. Time to write! Use scent, sound, and scenery cues. Like my daughter’s scented candle, smell is a powerful trigger. Some authors need the sounds of a coffee shop, while others need noise-cancelling headsets, or certain types of music. While writing an as-yet unpublished novel, I played late sixties to early seventies music constantly, to set my mind in the time period. 

Confidence: Believe in yourself, your message, and your skillset. There’s no greater drag on creativity than self-doubt. If you falter, “fake it ‘til you make it.”

Keep going: When you think you’re stuck, or become bored with a project, push just a little bit longer. You might make it past that speed bump and get rolling again.

Step away: The polar opposite of the above advice? Not exactly. The step away technique doesn’t simply mean quit writing. Work on a different story, writing-related social media, promotion, or research.

Touch grass: the youngsters use this phrase to mean “step away from your electronics.” Get off social media, peel your face off your computer/TV/phone screen, and go outdoors. Sunshine and fresh air have wonderful healing properties. Get grounded in nature. Or focus on a different type of creativity. Crocheting, painting, tying flies, or cooking, like making a batch of my annual gingerbread dinosaur cookies shown in the photo above.

Lately, I’ve been experiencing an upswing in creativity and energy. I know this feeling isn’t permanent. There will be times when my desire to hammer away on my keyboard flags. This time of year, there’s no grass to touch. But if I hit a slump, maybe I can touch snow to jumpstart my creativity.

Let That WIP Rest

 When I was in the hospital, I had a lot of time to think.  It’s either that or watch a ton of FRIENDS reruns.

Before going to the Galapagos, I’d sent a manuscript to my agent to read.  When I hit the send button, I thought it was a pretty good story. But as I said, while recuperating, I had a chance to think about it and knew that I was wrong. 

I could make that sucker better.

I needed to let the manuscript rest first, and then go back and look at it, rewrite it…reedit it.  

What do I mean when I say, “Let it rest?”  I mean put that story in a drawer and leave it alone for a few weeks or even longer.  Take some time to read books, visit friends, travel, or maybe even start a new project.  

Then revisit your Work in Progress.  You’ll see it with fresh eyes, getting a new perspective. You’ll be better able to spot plot holes, character inconsistencies, and other issues you may have missed. You’ll come back to your manuscript with a more objective and critical mindset.

It’ll help you gain clarity on both your story and your characters.  It may help you find new ideas or answers to problems that you couldn’t see before.  

Coming back to your Work in Progress will help you polish your manuscript. It’ll also give you a chance to renew your creative juices.  

Guaranteed, it will help you catch a ton of typos.  

As luck would have it, my agent hadn’t had a chance to read the manuscript, and I asked her not to.  Not until I had a chance to take another look at it.

By spending time reediting the work, I’m able to put more “flesh on the bones’ of the characters I’ve written.  You want them to be as three dimensional as you can possibly make them. 

I hope to be finished with the edits before the end of the month and get the manuscript back into my agent’s hands by the first of the year.  I think it will be a much better product.  I've even retitled it. Fingers crossed, we can find it a home.

Creative Longings

By Shelley Burbank

I was chatting with an artist friend of mine, Sharon, about creativity.* Sharon once wrote a novel. She always wanted to be a writer, or thought she did. She’s very talented. She can write a beautiful sentence, build a story, and conjure characters from thin air.  

Writing, however, made her unhappy. By her own account, writing took her to dark places, made her miserable. Dealing with the publishing landscape multiplied that misery by a hundred-fold. After much soul searching, Sharon realized she and writing needed to break up. Instead, she turned back to her first love, art. It is as if the sun burst forth from the clouds.

Since taking up sketching, painting, and other visual art again (plus interior design, to boot), she’s light, happy, fulfilled, and practically blazing with joy. It’s been wondrous to behold. 

Here’s a not-so-secret secret: I wish I could draw. Draw, paint, all kinds of visual art. I’ve practiced. I can sometimes do a passable facsimile of the thing, but drawing doesn’t come naturally. The urge to create something in visual media comes naturally. The act–the muscle memory and the eye–not so much. (Collage is satisfying, and I’ll do that for myself when the mood strikes. For my own enjoyment.) 

I love illustrated books and stories. I envision these illustrations and want them for my stories and think I want to make them. If I’m being totally honest, though, I think what I really want is the finished product. I’m not that interested in the process, and we all know that process is the good part when the art’s real inside. When the art’s part of you. 

An illustration by me

Today I told Sharon, “I’m jealous of artists. But I remind myself I can enjoy it without having to DO it.”

“That’s where I’ve gotten to with writing!”

“Why do I think I have to DO everything????”

“Girl, if I had that answer for myself, I’d share. We both have the ‘I bet I could do that’ gene.”

“Right,” I said. “I bet creative people just get urges to create. Maybe it’s that simple. So do the one you’re best at. Support the rest.”

That last bit hit me, even as I typed it. Creative people are often drawn to multiple disciplines, hobbies, arts. Piano lessons in grades 1-5 taught me I’d never be a musician, even though I enjoyed playing my favorite songs well into my college years. Sometimes I suspect I’d be good at sculpture. Or pottery. Or weaving. But I’m old and wise enough now to know that’s ridiculous. 

I learned to knit and tried spinning yarn for a while, loving the idea of fiber art. I had fun playing around with the spinning wheel and drop spindle, looking at fiber art magazines, day-dreaming about natural dye processes. I carded, rolled, spun yarn, and knit a scarf from mohair roving…

Reader, it didn’t stick. 

My one true passion has always been books and writing. Writing is where I’ve put my energy and my ten-thousand hours. Writing is my art form. 

I can appreciate all the arts. I can listen to Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria and sing it at the top of my lungs in the car all alone, but I’ll never sing opera in public. I love theater, but find me in the audience on opening night clapping my hands off. I’ll pick out beautiful handspun yarn at the Fryeburg Fair and admire the woman spinning directly from her angora bunny in the corner. I’ll follow visual artists on social media and sigh with admiration over the designs, but my collages and art journals will be for myself and for sharing on social media as amateur-at-best pieces, not for professional purposes. I’ll buy hand-thrown pottery, art prints, handmade quilts, and fabulously concocted desserts. Yes, my heart will ache a little to do all these things, but I can resist.   

I don’t have to do it all. Writing is my medium. I can support the rest.

_________

* Names of people in my essays are changed and sometimes the characters are amalgams. The conversations are real. 

Head Scratching

I sold my first book when I was in my twenties, which seems like a lifetime ago. That makes sense since the publishing industry ages in dog years. It was 1999. I wrote a cover letter, submitted to the University Press of New England (I was a teacher and thought selling a novel to a university press would be a feather in my academic cap). I received a letter back requesting the manuscript, and then negotiated (who am I kidding? I took what was offered) the contract myself (getting them to kick in to fly me to Bouchercon each year) and wrote five books in my first series for UPNE. Having “proven myself,” an agent took me on and sold my next series. Pretty typical.

(Photo: Corrigan Family Curling Excursion)  

That was then. This is now.

So much has changed. There are a variety of avenues one can traverse to publication now: self-publishing, hybrid publishing (different from vanity; the author shares production costs for higher royalties and retaining more rights than is typical with a traditional contract), traditional publishing with the “big five,” and traditional publishing with small houses.

Financially, the landscape has gotten confusing. It’s harder than ever to break in with a major house, which, of course, pays the largest advances. Many small publishers stopped giving advances at all but in a perfect world they still treat you like family. And hybrid publishing, if you can afford it and can hustle, might end up paying more than the other options.

Everyone seems to have a story or an opinion on the best route forward. I’d love to hear from the Type M community on all of this.

Rereading Your Past AKA I Wrote That?

 by Sybil Johnson

While I’m proud of all the stories I’ve written over the years, I’m not fond of rereading them. Whether it’s a short story or a novel, I cringe every time I think about it. The older the story is the more resistant I become to reading it.

I don’t even like listening to an audio version of my books. The first 3 in my Aurora Anderson series are available in audio format and have been for a while now. I’ve only listened to the first one, Fatal Brushstroke, on a driving trip up the West Coast. I even found myself gasping once and briefly wondering what would happen next! Yes, I really wrote the book. I had to laugh at myself. In my defense, I’d written a couple books in the series since then and pretty much as soon as I start on a new book, I’ve forgotten what happened in the previous one. Even though the narrator did a fine job, I don’t think I can bring myself to listen to the other two.

I have no problem rereading and rereading and rereading a story that I’m currently working on. I rather enjoy editing it. But, once it’s been published somewhere, I have no desire to read it again. There has to be a good reason for it.

I’m not sure why this is, but I suspect it’s a case of what if. What if I reread it and the writing is just awful? What if the plot is bad? What if the characters aren’t interesting? I suspect it can’t be that bad since someone else liked it enough to publish it, but these thoughts still go through my head. 

Recently, I found the need to reread a couple of short stories that were published in Mysteryical-e in 2009 (“Cemetery Plot”) and 2011 (“Some Like It Raw”) These stories were published several years before my first book came out. I’m currently working on a short story that featured the same characters. I remembered them reasonably well, but I couldn’t remember all of the details.

So I braced myself and started reading. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the stories. I’m sure they could be improved, but I was happy with the versions that were published.

Felix, my first crochet project. Not perfect, but I'm still proud of him.

 

I find it much easier to forgive mistakes in my craft projects. I don’t have this same reaction to what I’ve painted or crocheted or embroidered or macramed... I know I did the best I could at the time and am proud of the result. I’m striving to feel that way about my writing.

What about you? Do you cringe at the thought of rereading something you’ve written? Do you think there’s value in rereading an old story to see what could be improved?

Is snow a blessing

 by Steve Pease writing as Michael Chandos

     My To-Do list is huge. I have house tasks, cars, lawn, filing, all the stuff that occupies life. The weather is bad. What to do, what to do.

     My Writing To-Do list is also huge. I'm a former intelligence officer and private investigator. I like facts, analysis, photos, and articles on subjects that "one-day" might be relevant. I have videos from Youtube about point of view, plotting, pace, marketing, idea generation, various plot structures, and the Hero Cycle. Since I also write hard-ish science fiction, I have articles on warp theories, dark energy, gravity, and trajectories to Mars. I have materials on the courts, the police and Private Eyes. You can never tell when that article about hollowing out asteroids to use as a generation ship might suggest a story.

     I have terabytes of photos of gnarly urban buildings and alleys, futuristic cities and alleys. and Spaceships. The astro engineer in me loves spaceships. Photos of interesting faces. men with the scars of life written in every line, women with piercing eyes, clothing, transportation, house and office interiors, airports and spaceports.

     I saved many photos from the online archives of the now-defunct Herald Examiner newspaper in LA. The murder mystery novel I'm working on takes place in 1963. The archives are full of photos from the newspaper from the 50s and 60s. The Examiner never shied away from a lurid story, a nasty murder, a dock worker riot, or Zoot Suiters. I captured hundreds. My 1963 novel, "Shade of Brown", is located in real places with, I hope, genuine descriptions of 1963 LA, thanks to these photographs.

     One of my best resources are my ten years of private investigation case files. Rest assured I don't use real names and places. People treat each other horribly. If you like the noir films post-WW2, you'll appreciate these real-life happenings. Obsessives, liars, cheaters, back-stabbers. A 70 yo woman in obsessive love with a guy in jail in Kansas who is selling her home to bail him out of jail. My research showed him to be a multiple-State felon, a liar and cheater since he was twelve, convicted of robbery in two States, convicted on a confidence game in Texas with open warrants there still. Her grown children were in a panic. I gave them his background papers. She didn't believe them, sold the house, disappeared. 

     That's what I'm doing this week. Organizing, filing, and changing file names to reflect the actual content. This stuff is all gold, IF I can find it when I need it. It is 16 degrees out, 6 inches of snow today, a week of high 30s to come. No open story deadlines. No better time to straighten out a few things.

Grateful

My husband just made a delicious batch of molasses bread. I love it. It makes the whole day better.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I’m more grateful for small things these days than I used to be. I used to have big expectations and was disappointed when they didn’t materialize. I’m seldom disappointed by anything now, since I no longer have expectations. Is this a bad thing?

For forty years, a swami lived in a cave high in the Himalayas, seeking enlightenment. For forty years he sat meditating in complete isolation, naked except for a blanket, never seeing another living soul, eating only rice and drinking plain water.

When the forty years were over, the swami’s mind was as clear and still as a mountain lake, at peace at last. “I have achieved enlightenment,” he said to himself. He decided to come down off the mountain and attend the Maha Kumbh Mela, the great Hindu pilgrimage to the Ganges, which only occurs once every 144 years.

The crowd was so great that the swami was caught in the tide of humanity and swept along as though he had fallen in a river. The noise deafened him, the colors blinded him, the press of people took his breath away, but he was at peace. Until a beggar stepped on his foot and he yelled, “OW, get the #$%*& off my foot, you *%^@_!”

Richard Alpert, better known as Ram Dass, spiritual seeker, teacher, and author of Be Here Now, suffered a stroke in 1997 that nearly killed him and left him barely able to speak. He reports that when the stroke happened and he realized that he was probably dying, his entire lifetime of faith and understanding flew out the window and he became a whimpering coward. What courage it takes to be able to admit something like that.

I think of both those stories often, especially when someone tries to convince me of the rightness of his philosophy. Or when I think I have it all figured out myself.

I used to know stuff, but no more. In fact, in most ways I used to be a better person than I am now. I used to have prescient dreams. I meditated. I played music, painted, and believed things. I read everything and wrote what I wanted. I loved and had passion, and even when I was sad, and afraid, and grief stricken — and I often was — I was basically a cheerful little person.

Now I know nothing, nor do I understand anything. Yet I’m not pessimistic,or optimistic either. It’s more like I am whatever tide or emotion or event is happening in this moment.

And this moment I am very happy for molasses bread.

Shy authors and the promotional game

 Catherine's post on Persistence, and the struggle of introverted authors to toot our own horn, made me smile. How I can relate! It's twenty-five years since my first book came out, but with 21 (soon to be 22 books out), I still have to force myself not only to praise my own work on social media and at parties but also to initiate conversations with (AKA waylay) perfect strangers in mall bookstores and public events. I'm proud of my work. I think I've written some pretty good books, which have even been nominated for awards over the years. But I absolutely suck at saying that. As a psychologist, I was much more adept at listening than talking and much better at letting the other person lead the conversation where they wanted it to go. But no doubt I chose that profession in part because it fit my introverted style.

I've gotten better at this socializing and promoting business over the years and have developed some "patter" I can trot out. In structured situations like doing presentations, interviews, and panels, I am now at ease, but in unstructured conversational settings, it still does not come easily. Yesterday evening I attended the annual Christmas dinner of Capital Crime Writers, a local Ottawa crime writers association founded over thirty-five years ago and still going strong. I was one of the earliest members, one of twelve, none of whom were published (yet) but we wanted to learn the craft and support one another. Over the years members came and went, but the organization grew and many of us went on to successful publishing careers. I remember one of the earliest dinners I attended. I don't recall whether I'd had any short stories out by then, but one of the members had had two works published. They might have been screenplays. The only thing I remember was that I was in awe of her and shy to talk to her. Who was I, after all, to presume to occupy her time! 

Good grief.

My debut baby, Sept 2000

The organization has quite a few published authors now, especially with the recent increase in indie publishing and micro-presses, but at last night's dinner I was one of the longest-published and most recognized authors there. The shoe felt as if it was on the other foot! I wondered if some of the new and aspiring writers would be reluctant to approach me or wait for me to talk first? That turned out not to be the case, but it was a relief not to have to worry about promotion or exposure. I had no pitch to sell, no bookmarks to offer. I could relax and enjoy the dinner and the chance to connect with old friends, commiserate about the book industry, and enjoy the book talk. But I remember that shy little me who didn't know what to say to a real published author and now that I experience it from the other side, I realize it was all in my head.

The glass of wine was nice too.

Persistence

 Catherine Dilts

In the day job from which I recently retired, I outlasted many employees who had much more flash and verve. Merely showing up and doing the work contributed to my longevity at the company.

So far, my writing career seems destined for more of the same. Persistence. Refusing to give up despite obstacles and difficulties. There’s no glitz or glamour involved. Just plain hard work. The path to becoming a published author wasn’t easy.

In the 1985 dark comedy movie Better Off Dead, starring John Cusack, the main character persistently pursues attempting suicide. I saw it years ago, before exposure to real-life tragedy made this theme not funny to me in the least, so this is not a recommendation to watch the movie. The reason I mention it is due to a persistent paperboy that serves as a running gag.

The kid pursues the main character through ridiculous scenarios, demanding he pay the two dollars owed for newspaper delivery. This boy is not going to give up until he receives what is due.

I could never see myself in that paperboy’s role. I struggle with promoting myself as an author. I don’t want to be that annoying person, chasing down strangers at parties or popping up incessantly on social media, demanding attention. Becoming a running gag.

However, if you don’t let people know you wrote a book, you’re robbing them of the opportunity to support your creative endeavor (I realize how silly that sounds). My husband has prodded me out of my shell. He introduces me as his author wife, then suggests I give them my promotional book mark, which they can’t refuse without being rude.

Yes, I am that shy. When I do push myself to mention my work to strangers, I get one of four reactions.

1)     The blank stare. Perhaps a nod and a bland “that’s interesting.” But no reaction encouraging further conversation. Awkward.

2)   The negative Nellie. “I don’t read books that aren’t true.” Yes, someone said that to me, in a snide tone, instead of an apologetic, “I only read non-fiction.” People can be adept at crushing your dream with a facial expression or cutting words. This type of human is inspiration for sweet revenge. My first short story sale was based on fictionally murdering this person.

3)      The I’ve Got A Story To Tell, Too. You mention you’re an author. Two things can happen. Either this opens wide the floodgate to a dissertation on their career or hobby, all shared without taking a single breath, or expressing a shred of curiosity about your writing. A conversation is supposed to have reciprocity, right? Or, the absolute worst happens when they say, “I have a great idea for a book,” which segues into variations on, “You can write my book for me.” Implying you can't possibly have an idea interesting enough upon which to base an entire novel. But they're willing to share their brilliant inspiration.

4)      The enthusiastic fan. This person smiles and asks questions. What type of fiction do you write? They might mention their own favorite author or genre. They patiently listen to your log line or blurb. And they promise to purchase your book or request it at the library. Whether they eventually do or not hardly matters. In this moment, the fan is a shining angel to the struggling author.

Ironically, my experience as an introverted author attempting to toot my own horn has made me a better listener. I feel for people who just need an audience, for whatever brief space of time. Honestly, wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all exhibited a little more conversational patience? Less me me me and more how is your life going?

But back to promotion, in most ways the antithesis of listening.

The rejections don’t bother me. Much. I recall the story told by a famous author during a writing conference (of course I don’t recall who) going into a bookstore and offering to sign copies of their recent release. The shop attendant gleefully brought out a stack of books – by a different author. Oops.

Whether a famous bestseller or their polar opposite, all authors struggle with achieving recognition for their work. The only thing you really have control over is to keep writing. Do what you love. Be persistent.

AWOL

  I’m afraid I haven’t contributed to our Type M for Murder blogs in much too long.  My initial excuse was a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Galapagos Islands.  That alone will be its own blog somewhere down the line.  While I was aboard the National Geographic ship exploring and hiking the volcanic islands with my wife, I was making notes about a locked door murder.  

It’s a delicious location for a fictional homicide. 

Before flying to the Galapagos, we spent a day exploring Quito, Ecuador.  It’s a colorful, beautiful country.  That in itself is worth a story. 

It was on our trip back, on crowded planes out of Ecuador and Miami that something happened. Something snuck up on me.  Arriving in Raleigh, where we spent the night before driving back to the coast of North Carolina where we live, I developed a cough. 

Worried that I might have contracted something exotic, I saw my health care provider the next day.  Tests came back.  I had bronchitis caused by a rhinovirus…a cold. Heck, that shouldn’t be a problem.  I took the medicine prescribed.

But it got worse.

Here’s where I made a mistake.  I didn’t realize it, but it had gotten so bad that I was suffering from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen.  I thought I was getting better.  I didn’t realize how sick I was getting.  By the time I saw my health care provider again, my oxygen level was at 79 percent.  

They called the EMTs and rushed my butt into the ER. When I got there, my heartbeat was irregular, struggling to find oxygen to send to the rest of my body.  They brought in the crash cart.

One of the people working on me in the ER said, “The crash cart must have scared him.  His heart returned to a normal rhythm.”

At least that’s what I thought I heard.  

I spent the next seven hours undergoing tests and being pumped with oxygen.  The diagnosis was double pneumonia.  Then I spent two days in critical care and five more recuperating slowly in the hospital.  

So, I’m home, thirteen pounds lighter and moving slowly.  But I went to my first writing critique group last Monday.  The first in over a month and I’m going to the grocery store and running errands on my own, so…progress.  

I’m re-editing a manuscript that I’d finished before our Galapagos trip.  While in the hospital, I had some time to think about a lot of things, including my mortality.  This has given me a new perspective and I want to use it to make my manuscript better.  

It’s a chance to look at a lot things with fresh eyes. 

Please accept my apologies for being AWOL and I look forward to joining our Type M family again, hopefully on a more regular schedule.