Rewrite Time

 I've finally finished the first draft of my new book, and have begun the rewrite. We've all heard many times that writing is rewriting, and anyone who's ever scribbled a page knows it's true. At least I've never met a literary Mozart, whose first draft is so perfect that it doesn't need any alteration. In fact, most authors I know, even very well known and accomplished authors, think of their first drafts as something too embarrassing to be seen by anyone. It's the rewriting that makes the book. If I may repeat something I've written here before – and never let it be said I missed an opportunity to repeat myself – you have to have that block of marble before you can carve out a statue of David.

Rewriting is the fun part, as well. The first draft is eked out of you like bone arrow, but with the rewrites, you have something to play with, to refine, to remodel, to put makeup on and make beautiful. I've begun rereading and adjusting, making sure the beginning matches the end. After the first draft, my beginnings never do match the end, for somewhere in the middle of the writing, I changed my mind about this character, or this action, or this story line. And I didn't waste time by going back to the beginning and fixing it to fit my new vision. No, no, that way lies madness. I can get (and have gotten) caught up in an endless merry-go-round of fixes and never reach the end of a first draft. I just keep going until the MS was done, with every confidence that I can repair all the inconsistencies in the next draft.

As I reread the story, it's interesting to see how it all turned out, to remember what I originally had in mind and see how the tale changed as I moved through it. Questions come up as I put all my ducks in a row. Here is one I always struggle with: how much explanation is too much?

For instance, there is what looks like a coincidence in one scene of the new book. Coincidences do happen in life, but you've got to be very careful about putting one in a mystery story, lest the action seem contrived. And yet, when I set about to explain how this coincidence came about, I didn't like it. Too much exposition and not enough action.

Do others of you writers out there struggle to find a balance between making it real and making it exciting, or romantic, or terrifying, or however you want it to turn out?

I've read and loved many books that elide over illogical plot points. Some best-sellers, too. As long as I like the story and the characters, I don't really demand existential reality in my reading. Yet I don't like holes in the plot big enough to drive a truck through. They take me out of the story. Have I done that, or shall I let my coincidence stand and devil take the hindmost? I'll have to let my pre-readers tell me what they think.

A novel way to connect with readers

 This is a very quick post because I am already late with it and many other things need to be done. But I want to report on a very interesting a successful experiment that a group of local Ottawa authors tried yesterday. 

The first ever Ottawa Christmas Book Fair. It was the brainchild of enterprising Ottawa author Peggy Blair who pitched the idea in September and within a couple of days eight of us had signed on. Besides Peggy, there were Mary Jane Maffini, Brenda Chapman, Mike Martin, Amy Tector, Don Butler and John Delacourt. We rented a hall at a local legion for five hours and developed promotional activities like appearances on local radio and TV, write-ups in community newspapers and newsletters, and posted this poster all over time. With that many people, there were lots of imaginative ideas and useful contacts.

On the day of the event, we set up tables and decorated them in holiday themes. Each of us had our own table  and managed our own sales. We had baked or purchased goodies for a treats table, advertised the cash bar at the legion, and now we settled in to wait. We had no idea what to expect. Would anyone come? It's a work day and already getting dark by 4 pm.

They came! We were flooded with readers who'd come specifically to buy mysteries and each of us was kept on our feet and meeting readers for over three hours straight. I have no idea how many people came although Peggy estimated 150. I have no idea how many books I sold, but readers were leaving with armloads of books. I didn't even have time to eat anything nor visit my fellow authors to check out their books. By the end, we were all exhausted but so relieved and happy that it had gone so well.

Will we do it again? Absolutely. And plans are already underway for other collaborative, mystery-focussed events. So stay tuned.

I Hired a PI - the conclusion

 By Catherine Dilts

My previous post on Type M for Murder (11/5/24) described the events that led to hiring a real-life private investigator. Quick recap – when my father passed, we needed to find his estranged step-son (let’s call him James, to protect his obviously highly treasure privacy), who was included in the will.

June 25 - First contact from me: “Hello Steve, I mentioned to you that my family is trying to locate my deceased father's stepson. I was under the impression the amount of money we were inheriting was not worth hiring someone to track him down. Now my brother says we really need to find James, because the inheritance is too much to stick in a sock drawer in the event the guy resurfaces. My question to you - is it possible to hire you to locate a missing person? What's the process and estimated cost?”

We wouldn’t have required a PI if there hadn’t been paranoia and suspicion on both ends of our search. I was concerned about contacting the wrong people with a “you’ve inherited money” message. James was reluctant about replying to the promise of money if he would confirm his identity.

Steve Pease, aka author Michael Chandos, is also a Type M for Murder contributor. As a licensed private investigator, Steve knows plenty about finding people. But first, the bad news: Steve was retiring from the PI business. Followed by the good news: Steve was willing to take a look.

June 25 - Steve replied, “depending on how much you know about James, birth date, locations of things, any previous contacts, maybe I can find him… Do you have photos, SSAN, former locations?... What do you know about him? Does he know who his father was? Does he want to be found? Things like that….”

James had distanced himself from family, including the one person I hoped knew where he was: his aunt. She hadn’t heard from him in over two years. My brother’s law office paralegal had cobbled together a little info. I gathered what I had learned with my amateur sleuthing. We were thin on data.

After a call to my brother, we realized we knew pathetically little about this guy who was part of our family. I felt guilty I hadn’t made more of an effort to connect with him. But we were adults when our father and James’ mother married. James had been an unruly teen in high school. There just hadn’t been the time, or I suppose the desire, to forge relationships.

June 28 - I couldn’t decipher whether Steve was frustrated or amused when he emailed, “Literally ANYTHING you can remember, from all the basic history, and then any tidbit of content, places, other people that may know him. Circumstances - how did you lose him?” 

As a writer, I love stories. And the contorted family history made for a story I could tell. After wrenching the memories from my reluctant brain, I typed up a page of everything I knew about James, my father and his wife, and the estrangement.

July 1 - “Hi Steve, This might be a little rambling, but I put together what I have. I can try to dig for more info if this isn't helpful. It should be highly entertaining, though.”

July 3 - To which Steve responded, “This is a great model for a Southern Murder Mystery potboiler.”

James’ mother was a Louisiana girl who desperately craved to be a Southern Belle. My father was a Midwestern guy thrilled to attract the attention of a much younger woman. When James came out of the closet, although my father accepted him, his own mother cut him out of her life.

July 12 – Over two weeks into the investigation, Steve attended a PI seminar. He presented our missing step-brother case for a brief group discussion. Steve told me we needed hard data, like James’ Social Security number. I began to worry we’d be unable to locate James.

Steve sounded less optimistic, too. “Maybe James is no longer in Colorado. I did not find him on any prison inmate listings.”

That is how little I knew my step-brother. I had entertained the idea he might be in jail. Or living under a bridge.

July 13 - Steve sent me this. “He either moved or did a serious drop-out.” Again, Steve requested James’ exact birth date and social security number.

Later that same day, James responded to an email from Steve. At the same email address my brother had used to contact him. Coming from Steve Pease of Glass Key Investigations LLC must have convinced James the attempt to contact him was legit.

Steve asked James to provide some details to prove he was actually our James. The info was not in my father’s online obituary. Only family knew this stuff. Yes, this James definitely was the right guy.

After confirming my brother was able to make contact with James, Steve closed our case. He sent us a report on his methodology and the results of the search. James really didn’t want to be found, but now he seems happy to be in contact with his step-siblings, on his own terms.

July 14 - “We are lucky a simple route found him,” Steve reported. “I queried top level county databases and the Colorado Secretary of State's databases, and was about to dig deeper. This email contact was lucky and it eliminates the lengthier inquiry, and it is cheaper.” 

My family is all about cheap. So, a happy ending? A family healed? Sort of. We’ve reached out to James. He knows our email addys. It’s on him if he wants to try to establish relationships at this late date.

If you need to hire a PI to find your own missing relative, here’s what I learned. Life is not a Hallmark movie. The best ending might be simply to acknowledge everyone is alive and not in jail. Another lesson learned – keep track of people. Don’t let them fall off the grid entirely. Otherwise, you might end up paying a PI to dig up info you could have known all along.

It's the People You Meet

What’s the best part of this crazy writing life? It’s the people you meet. 

Way back in college in the 1980s, I met my friend, Mary Ann. She, too, wrote stories in notebooks. She, too, wanted to be a writer. We encouraged each other. We read each others’ work. When graduation day arrived, we stayed in touch. Almost forty years later, we are both still writing. We still read and encourage each other. We’ve both improved so much, and neither of us ever gave up the process of improving our craft. 

Forty years. Whoa. When I stop to think about it, I’m amazed and grateful (and a little weirded out about how much time has passed, to be honest.)

As the 90s made way for the 2000s and then the 2010s, I met writers online in places like iVillage and eHarlequin and Yahoo groups. It was through Yahoo that I joined a community of confession magazine writers. The “Trues” were venerable pulp magazines written in first person, featuring relationship stories and a formula known as “Sin. Suffer. Repent.” And they paid by the word. I wanted in. 

Though the stories were supposedly written by readers, in actuality, a stable of authors penned sometimes multiple stories in the same issue. Because of this group, I broke into a paid, national magazine market with four stories over the course of a couple of years. When the magazines folded after a 98-year-run, we scattered. Alas, I’ve lost touch with most of these authors, but one I continue to follow on socials and enjoy seeing his many, many projects, including editing a mystery magazine and so many crime anthologies it’s hard to keep up. His name is Michael Bracken. You may have heard of him. 

In 2014, I joined Wattpad and met so many talented, new authors who serialized their fiction (and some nonfiction) on the platform. I collaborated with some for a collection of author interviews and published others in a Wattpad-based literary magazine I edited. Though many have drifted off-site into indie and traditional publication, we follow each other on social media.

Meanwhile, other IRL (in real life) writerly relationships developed. Maine literary author, Carolyn Chute, held an annual series of writer circles here in our neck of the woods, and some of us eventually gathered ourselves into a weekly writing group. Four of us remain close–my lovely Advance Copies Writing Group–and I’m meeting them on Monday for tea and scones. We cheer each others’ successes, encourage each other’s dreams, and even though we’ve gone in different directions artistically, we still support each other in our various endeavors and dreams.  

And then there are the professional contacts. Joining Sisters in Crime, I happened across a cozy mystery author named Sarah E. Burr who offered links to her YouTube videos showing how she creates graphics and marketing materials. I reached out to thank Sarah for the incredible information and inspiration and asked if I could interview her for my blog. She agreed, and since then we’ve stayed in touch via social media. She and fellow traditional mystery author, J.C. Kenney, hosted me tonight on their podcast The Bookish Hour.

In San Diego, I met several authors who write women’s fiction and non-fiction, including Marlene Wagman-Geller, who I now consider a friend and whose essays about historical female characters fascinate and charm. 

When Encircle Publications offered to publish my first mystery novel, I had my friend, Kevin St. Jarre, to thank for introducing me to the publisher. Since then I’ve met several Encircle authors who continue to inspire me, including our own Type M for Murder author, Catherine Dilts, who I have yet to meet in real life but who, nonetheless, got me this gig. So generous! 

To sum up, the relationships we create as writers actually make this whole crazy business worthwhile. There are so many more people I could mention, so I apologize if anyone feels left out. These are just a few examples of writers-helping-writers. It's my hope that I, too, can contribute to the community, whether by sharing interviews on my blog, writing blurbs, sharing social media posts, or sharing information about the industry when I have something I’ve found valuable to my career. 

We are a community, we writers. Published or unpublished. Big 5 traditional, small press, or indie. Seasoned craftsperson or enthusiastic newbie. In this season of thanks, I’m grateful for each and every fellow scribbler. 

Thanksgiving Mysteries

 by Sybil Johnson

Halloween is behind us. Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away. Yet a lot of retailers are focusing, as usual, on Christmas. Poor Thanksgiving. It doesn’t get its due.

In the cozy world, holiday themed mysteries are common. You’d think there would be more Thanksgiving themed ones than there are. After all, families get together, arguments ensue, etc., etc., etc.

Back in 2015, I wrote a post about the lack of Thanksgiving mysteries.

Okay, okay, I’m part of the problem. In my Aurora Anderson series, I have a Halloween themed mystery and a Christmas themed book. I just passed right over Thanksgiving. In the series, I decided when I first started writing it that books would take place 2 months apart to give my characters a little breathing room between murders. Hence, the skipping over Thanksgiving. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I feel like I’m seeing more books set around Thanksgiving these days or maybe I’ve just become more aware of them. I happened upon this list of Thanksgiving Thrillers and Mysteries put together by The Monroe County public library in Indiana. It was nice to see some non-cozies mentioned.

This year, I heard through author Diane Vallere about a bunch of novellas set around Thanksgiving. I haven’t read any of the, but I’m happy to see they exist. These are all ebooks only, which makes sense to me for a novella.

I’ve never written a novella, but the idea intrigues me. Any ideas I’ve had so far fall into the short story or novel space. I suppose I could write a Thanksgiving novella that occurs between my Halloween mystery (Designed For Haunting, Aurora 4) and my Christmas one (Ghosts of Painting Past, Aurora 5) and label it book 4.5. I shall ponder the idea.

Do any of you have a favorite mystery or book set around Thanksgiving?

Snow and Long Ago by Steve Pease/Michael Chandos

     Every dozen Octobers, Halloween in Colorado delivers a serious snowstorm. We had an enormous blizzard in 93 (or was it 94?), 60 mph winds, single-digit temperatures and three feet of snow blown to 8 foot drifts. Deadly to man and beast. This 7 November, we had another storm, minus the winds and the super chilly temps, but most of the snow. I live in Black Forest, Palmer Ridge, at 7450 ft elevation, all of which spells serious snow. 30 inches. 25 across the roof. (Lots of shoveling) And power outages.  Six hours, at night. I have a solar system, the TV was off and the thermostat was turned down to minimize power use.  I wrote.

     Having the TV off gives one time to write –> That’s A Hint.

No jokes about my clothes.  I’m a writer and I’m sensitive.

     I worked on a scene from my building novel, a noir-ish murder mystery set in 1963 Los Angeles. Another Hint -> LA in 1963 is Not LA of today. Roads changed names, cities were invented in areas that were barren in 1963. Neighborhood names evolved. In my main character’s neighborhood, the main city road changed names compared to 1963, a prominent Synagog was relocated, and the ethic mix is Very different now. Where he worked as a male emergency nurse no longer exists. Even the terms “emergency medicine” and “emergency room” had Not been invented yet. The ER concept came out of the Viet Nam War, perhaps the only good thing that did. A male nurse, vice an orderly, was rare in 63.

     Conan Doyle said his popular fiction was fantasy. The stories didn’t have to be 100% correct as long as they made sense. Like Dan Brown’s novels. Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. But, if your setting is a real place, you can’t make Big errors like street names. Readers will be jolted out of the story and you might not get them back. 

     A few years ago, I spent two fun days running thru areas of LA where my story takes place, taking hundreds of photos. And I got lost, because streets had changed names since 1963! It hit my head – gotta make sure about principal details.  So, I bought a map.

     Not just any map, but a street map you once could buy at something called a service station. On eBay, I found a Chevron map of LA from 1964, copyrighted in 1963. Close enough. It is part of my checklist for my 63LA stories now.

Guest Author Lorie Lewis Ham

Lorie Lewis Ham

This weekend, Type M 4 Murder is happy to welcome our honored guest blogger, Lorie Lewis Ham. Lorie lives in Reedley, California and has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was 13, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper, and publish 7 mystery novels. For the past 14 years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, where you can hear an excerpt of her book One of Us, the first in a new series called The Tower District Mysteries. Book 2, One of You, was released in June of 2024. You can learn more about Lorie and her writing on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Facebook, BookBub, Goodreads, and Instagram @krlmagazine & @lorielewishamauthor.

The Importance of Setting

by Lorie Lewis Ham

I wrote a series of mysteries many years ago featuring a gospel singing amateur sleuth (I used to sing gospel music). I set the series in a fictional version of my hometown of Reedley, CA. Then I took a break from writing mysteries to start an online magazine called Kings River Life. When I came back to writing fiction a few years ago, I was ready to do something new. 

The Tower District

When thinking about what to write next, I first decided on a setting for the books. While every part of writing a mystery novel is important, I think the setting can set the tone for the whole book/series. This time around I chose a real life setting with just a few elements fictionalized for story purposes. I chose to set my new series in the Tower District of Fresno, CA. This is the arts and entertainment district of Fresno and it is almost like its own small town, as it is very different from much of the rest of the city. It is a very artsy, quirky, creative community filled with theatre, art galleries, dance studios, and more. It is also filled with charming and quirky residents. There is a lot of history in this part of town as well—my main character often says that being in the Tower is like stepping back in time.

This setting has definitely set the tone for my new series The Tower District Mysteries—every book has something to do with that artistic community and the arts—especially theatre. It dictates what sort of stories I tell and what type of characters are in my books. The Tower District is almost like a character itself. 

I have found that the setting has also done something else for my books—it has helped them sell. Outside of the area, readers have found this setting interesting and unique. Locally, people have been excited to read about their own community and they have been very supportive. Perhaps part of that comes from it being an artistic community—they want to be supportive of other’s artistic endeavors. I also think they like the idea of people beyond the Tower District being able to learn about it and fall in love with the place too. Funny enough, when I wrote about a fictional version of my hometown I didn’t find that same support—so I think what community you write about can make a difference. 

I have also discovered that my books appeal to another community—and this was completely unintended. They seem to appeal to those who love pop culture just as I do. Sharing my love of TV shows, anime, manga, etc. in my books has made a connection with others who find joy, and often comfort, in those same things. Recently I was part of a booth at a book festival, and someone literally stopped to check out my books simply because I was wearing a shirt from the anime Fruits Basket. The shirt caught their eye and we talked a bit about the show, then I told them that my main character shared that love of anime and they bought my book! My main character also has a love of all things King Arthur and even knows how to use a sword (these are contemporary mysteries). I too have a replica of Excalibur and have brought my sword to events, which has also been a big hit. 

So I would definitely have to say that the setting of a book, and those extra little elements we include, really can help our books connect with readers. 

Universal Buy Link for “One of You” https://books2read.com/u/m0eWAy 

Elevator pitch-

Secrets, gossip, theatre, mystery writers, and murder! A Halloween Mysteryfest. Or is it a murderfest? One author murdered, others attacked. Is the killer writing their own murder mystery in blood? It’s a mystery set in the historic Tower District—Fresno's dining, arts, and entertainment hub. 

What It's Like to Hire a PI

 By Catherine Dilts

This summer, I hired a Private Investigator. The experience had little in common with what I’ve seen in movies or read in novels. This being a rather mundane missing person’s case, there were no late night stake-outs and absolutely no gun play.

Me, being the customer, didn’t fit the classic mold of a glamorous redhead puffing on an opera-length cigarette holder with gloved fingers. I was wearing baggy sweats when I contacted the PI via email, and my mousey hair was pulled back into a messy bun with a cheap plastic clip.

Nope, no glamour. Just my family needing to locate a person none of us had heard from in years. My father passed away in March. His second wife preceded him in death by several years. In his will, Dad left a bequest to his estranged step-son. Before my brother, the executor of the estate, could finish the legal paperwork, we needed to find our step-brother. Let’s call him “James.”

Step One: DIY investigation. We began with my brother requesting a paralegal in his law office attempt to track down James. That quickly reached a dead end. My brother decided since I write mysteries, I could find our step-brother. So I tried. I started by contacting James’ aunt. She hadn’t heard from him in a couple years.

I was very concerned about throwing out a “you’ve inherited money” message to potential strangers. Aren’t we warned constantly to beware the dangers of the internet and social media? In fact, this may be why my brother’s and my efforts failed. Would you open an email or respond to a social media message promising you an unexpected, if modest, reward? What if the wrong person answered? Would I end up with creepy stalkers demanding money from me?

Step Two: Hiring a PI. I told my brother I was uncomfortable with the idea of contacting sketchy potential strangers, and my efforts to connect with who I thought was the real James went unanswered. But I did know a Private Investigator from my mystery writing group. Anxious to close the estate, my brother gave me the go-ahead.

Enter Steve Pease, aka author Michael Chandos, our own Type M for Murder contributor, and an honest-to-goodness licensed PI. He quoted me a retainer price my brother approved. We hoped the case wouldn’t become too lengthy or complicated. 

My first lesson in hiring a PI was that the more info you already have, the less time it will take to track down the missing person. Less time = less money. I did mention the bequest was modest? My family didn’t want to spend our entire inheritance trying to find James. “Oh great, we found you. But we spent what all of us would have inherited on locating you. Oops. Our bad.”

Thankfully, we had some info. His last known couple of addresses and phone numbers. His mother’s sisters’ contact info. What we didn’t have was James’s social security number or employer. We were reasonably certain he was in Colorado. If he was still alive. Or maybe (sorry James) in prison.

The hunt began.

Middle Age & The Madness of Art

At the Bangor Pubic Library in Bangor, Maine 

It’s the first of November, and I’m in Maine watching orange and bronze leaves carpet the scraggly grass of the front lawn. Maine’s seasons come in distinct palettes. Cold, white winters. Mud-brown and tender green springs. Blue skies and lakes and florals of summer. And the warm reds, bronzes, and yellows of fall. 

As I head into the middle-aged, downward slope of my fifties, I’m all too aware of the changing seasons of life, as well. The writing goals of young to mid-adulthood, once seeming so achievable, have either mellowed or have become greatly tempered by reality. Time, which used to stretch so deliciously into the future, shortens. I realize that since I haven’t hit those big goals by now, it’s more than likely I never will. Yikes. 

Fortunately, with age also comes perspective. Wisdom, even. Things change. Life gives you opportunities you never expected but also throws up roadblocks couldn’t anticipate. You learn to take things as they come. 

I’ve decided to approach this time of life as an opportunity not only to take stock of my accomplishments but also come to terms with my youthful goal of being a professional writer. 

I mean, I AM a professional. I’ve been published and paid as a short story writer, a journalist, a memoir ghostwriter, and a novelist. However, I have not achieved my goal of “making a living” by the pen. It’s harder to do so since the advent of the ebook and Amazon/KDP, and if you don’t believe me, check out the recent Write-Minded podcast with Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner interviewing Michael Castleman whose new book, The Untold Story of Books: A Writer’s History of Book Publishing, gives all the stats (plus wonderful historical perspective on the industry.) https://podcast.shewrites.com/optimism-and-pessimism-in-book-publishing/

My dream of being a financially-successful author probably would have come to fruition by now if it was going to, so now I’m forced to contemplate what, if anything, I can hope to accomplish, writing-wise, in the second half of my life. 

As often happens, a book I happened upon addressed this issue exactly when I needed it. While visiting my parents in the central part of the state, I went to the cellar to look at some old books stored down there and rediscovered a first edition of May Sarton’s Plant Dreaming Deep I’d picked up somewhere and forgot about. What a treasure! I devoured it over the course of two days and came away feeling refreshed.

Sarton wrote the book in 1968 (the year I was born!) when she was 55 years old and was going through a similar mid-life shift in perspective. She’d just upped and bought an old farmhouse in New Hampshire. Reading her musings on middle age and writing was like reading my own thoughts only in a 1950’s poetic syntax. 

She writes, “The crisis of middle age has to do as much as anything with a catastrophic anxiety about time itself. How has one managed to come to the meridian and still be so far from the real achievement one had dreamed possible at twenty?” She goes on to say, “One does not give up if one is a writing animal, and if one has, over the years, created the channel of routine.”

Aha! I think. I, too, am a writing animal! Perhaps with a little dredging of the routine channel (which to be honest is a little clogged these days), I can continue, like Sarton, to be “happy while I’m writing.” The poet, essayist, and novelist then muses about how her writing falls somewhere in between the critically-acclaimed literary and the popular fiction of her day, which she thinks hampers her success, and concludes that she’ll just hold out hope that her entire body of work will one day be seen and esteemed as a whole. 

Sarton also quotes Henry James: “We work in the dark–we do what we can–we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.” [from The Middle Years]

Oh, May Sarton! Oh, Henry James! Thank you for writing, for sharing your gifts with those of us who came to this writing life behind you. I’ll take comfort in your words and dig my channel of routine and stop worrying about financial success. I’ll build my small body of work. I’ll be that writing animal, burrowing along, doing what comes natural to me as breathing. I’ll revel in the madness of art, and that will have to be reward enough.

Read more of Shelley’s thoughts on art, writing, and life in her author newsletter, Pink Dandelions, on Substack. https://shelleyburbank.substack.com/about

Why do we write what we write?

Happy Halloween! I have some scary questions for you today.

What leads us to write what we write? And in an ever-shrinking market, what should lead us to write what we write?

These are a couple of a handful of questions I've pondered for a while.

I wrote five books set on the PGA Tour. They were published by a university press, and the sales figures indicated as much. Then I wrote three books featuring a female U.S. Border Patrol agent. The Peyton Cote series was published by a small mystery house that went out of business shortly thereafter (not entirely due, I hope, to me). I’ve had a starred review in PW, but my sales numbers will tell you “high concept” is not my bread and butter. Character- and setting-driven novels are what I write. And it’s getting harder and harder to publish them, which leads me back to my questions.

What drives us to write what we write?

And what should drive us?

My wife, a human resources specialist who sometimes sees the world very differently than I do, said to me the other day, “Figure out what sells.”

“Um,” I said, “it doesn’t work that way.”

Right?

It was a short conversation. I couldn’t explain it to her.

Am I right?

“Writing doesn’t work that way” sounds like pretentious artist-speak. I live outside Detroit. This city has gotten very wealthy by figuring out what people want and giving it to them. I once did a book signing next to a NYT best-seller and heard them ask a reader what they wanted to see happen in the series. Maybe the writer was being conversational; maybe they were planning to incorporate the reader’s ideas. I never followed up to ask.

But, as the market shrinks and fewer people are reading, the questions linger for me: What drives us to write what we write? And how do we make that determination?

Happy Halloween!

 by Sybil Johnson

I can’t believe tomorrow is Halloween! The year has sped by. 

When I was growing up, Halloween wasn’t as big a deal as it is now. Sure, kids went out trick or treating and there were Halloween parties at my grade school. I swear, though, that people didn’t decorate like they do now. 

I really enjoyed the pictures in Charlotte’s post yesterday. I have seen decorations around here, but I don’t think anything as complicated as those pics. Here are a couple I encountered this year. I’m pretty sure these 3 ladies are up to no good. 

And just how big would this skeleton be if it came out of the ground!? 

 

We don’t decorate the outside of our house, but I do have my decorations inside. They consist mostly of items I’ve painted or crocheted or macramed... You get the idea. They all tend toward the cuter side. I am not fond of gore. As you can tell, I have a thing for gnomes.

 

 

In the cozy mystery world, there are a lot of books set around Halloween. I love reading them. I wrote one myself for my Aurora Anderson series called Designed For Haunting. Since my series takes place in a fictional LA County beach city, I looked for what’s happening around Halloween in the real LA beach cities for ideas on places to set scenes. We have a silent movie theater in El Segundo, not far from where I live, that plays the silent 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera pretty much every year. There’s also a pumpkin race in Manhattan Beach every year. I created my own versions of each of these for my book. When I was looking for a ghost legend I could use in the book, I researched local legends and found something I could use. If you're writing a holiday mystery of any kind, it's always good to find the unique things that happen in the place it's set.

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween. Why not try your hand at writing a Halloween story?

Try Seasonal

 by Charlotte Hinger

I have a neighbor who goes all out for Halloween. Their display is enormous. I'm intrigued by the figures every year. A lot of them are motion activated. For instance this dead woman holding a dead baby begins to rock. It's hideously frightening. 

It's a funny thing how people love to be scared. Steven King has written a wealth of books that are based on the occult or issues that scare the daylights out of people. The first scary book I remember reading was Washinton Irving's Ichabod Crane. And my Halloween neighbor has an image for that.

And don't trust this bar tender. He offers you a drink when you approach, but don't risk it. Rumor has it that he's up to no good. 

If you would like to write westerns with a specialized appeal, how about this dude for your cover?

Editors love stories that are appropriate for a special event or a season. If you have one in mind, go to work. Submit to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine or Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine right away for consideration for next year's fall issue. Yes, magazines work that far ahead. In fact, now is a good time to polish up a story for new year's Christmas issue. 

Submissions timed for a particular holiday just might tickle the editor's fancy

Hemingway’s Rules for Writing

 By Steve Pease writing as Michael Chandos

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way."

 

Earnest Hemingway developed his writing style writing for the Kansas City Star newspaper.  Their editorial style stressed short, concise and efficient writing, that made the best use of limited page space and minimized costs.

 

His Rules:  1. Use short sentences.  2. Avoid the use of adjectives, especially such extravagant ones as splendid, gorgeous, grand, magnificent, etc.  3. Eliminate every superfluous word.  4. Try to preserve the atmosphere of the speech in your quotation.  5. Both simplicity and good taste suggest home rather than residence and lives rather than resides.  6. Never use old slang.  7.Use revolver or pistol, not gun, unless a shotgun is meant.  8. Don’t say "He had his leg cut off in an accident." He wouldn’t have it done for anything.  9. He died of heart disease, not heart failure - everybody dies of heart failure.  10. Use vigorous English.

 

Newspaper ideals, yes, but fiction can learn from them. Use the right, best word. Short sentences. Don’t flaunt your English "weaving" skills with half-page long sentences and complex phrases. Write with vigorous, emotional language, and you won’t need an adjective or (shudder) an adverb. Be clear what your sentence says. Don’t get cute with your use of slang. Hammett uses some street slang, but it’s in the cadence of the sentence, not in spelling school "skul".

Other Hemingway quotes:

"Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can." A Moveable Feast

"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the baroque is over." Death in the Afternoon

“Find what gave you the emotion; what the action was that gave you the excitement. Then, write it down making it clear so the reader will see it too and have the same feeling that you had." Monologue to the Maestro

"Try and write straight English, never using slang except in dialogue and then only when unavoidable."  From a letter to his sister

"Never confuse movement with action." Advice to Marlene Dietrich

“You see I’m trying in all my stories to get the feeling of actual life across - not to just depict life - or criticize it - but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me you actually experience the thing." Letter to his father

“Keep them people, people, people, and don’t let them get to be symbols.” Letter to John Dos Passos

“Don’t get discouraged because there’s a lot of mechanical work to writing. There is, and you can’t get out of it. I rewrote A Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. You’ve got to work it over." Advice to a writer

“On the Star you were forced to learn to write a simple declarative sentence. This is useful advice to anyone." Paris Review interview

 

“Write as long as you can live.” Green Hills of Africa

The Call

Twenty years ago this month, I got "The Call," meaning the phone call I received from my agent informing me that HarperCollins had offered a contract on my manuscript. For a work like mine, an urban fantasy, they wanted a series and could I write that? Even though I had no idea where to take my character from this first book, I answered, "Of course!"

I had been primed for this moment from my experience in Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, listening to their pros share anecdotes of triumph and caution after receiving their Call. I knew this contract was but one step forward on my path as a writer, an important step but a single step nonetheless. I knew more work waited: establishing a website, making inroads on social media (MySpace back then), contacting bookstores, reaching out to cons to get on panels now that I was a published writer!

I'd heard other writers explain how "The Call" had changed their lives. However, for some, all was not good, because after receiving the call, the deal fell through, which painfully delayed and detoured their writing journey. At the time, I didn't see The Call as altering my life much since I was in a holding pattern waiting for the chance to break free. I was living in the basement of an ex-girlfriend's house, having been laid off during a reduction-in-force (the second time in my professional career, the third time if you count being mustered out of the Army), and earning my keep by hopscotching from job-to-job. Fixing forklifts, delivering lost luggage, newspapers, pizzas, working in a car dealership. The offer was a three-book contract for a "Nice Deal." It wasn't a big pile of money but enough to rent a place of my own and pay the bills for a while. My life was back on track.

Because of changes in publishing, The Call has since lost much of its significance. Self-publishing has evolved to the point that allows writers to find success without the need for a NY publisher or an agent. Even those traditionally published often opt for a hybrid model to survive.

Considering my single-minded focus on finishing that first book, I saw the forthcoming contract as inevitable, but looking back, it had definitely changed my life for the better, and I have to acknowledge that for me, the stars had aligned and it was the Universe that had given me The Call.

Link Arms and Dance

Donis here today. As I've mentioned more than once on this blog, I'm in the middle of acting as Writer in Residence for the Glendale, AZ, Public Library system through the fall. This coming Monday, Oct. 28, from 6:30 p.m. until 7:45, I'll be conducting a workshop on Characters and characterization (come by and see me if you're in the area). These workshops and consults, plus trying to finish a new book, are all very time consuming, which is my excuse for having not spent a lot of time thinking about what I'm going to write for this blog today. Instead, I'm going to share a couple of important realizations that have struck me recently.

My husband Don is an old* movie aficionado, and we have two-person film festivals at our house with some regularity. This week we rewatched all the Godfather movies over three nights. I've lost count of how many times I've seen these movies. They are like any great art in that they can be indulged in over and over and you can find something new and profound in them every time. This time I noticed that in Godfather II, Michael's bodyguard is also his valet. The man serves Michael tea, then goes off to commit a murder for his boss. I think it would be very handy to have your own personal valet/assassin. That's when you'd know you've really made it.

My second and more important revelation came yesterday. I was relating to Don the latest email I'd received from my sister, who is traveling in Europe. She and her husband had just gone through Sarajevo, and she made it sound like a beautiful and haunted place.

"I went through there on the train in '69," Don told me. "In fact that's where I saw the people dancing on the platform."

A family was at the station to see their young man off on the train. He went around and kissed them all, then the family linked arms in a circle and danced him on his way.

This is a tradition that should be revived and universally spread. It would be a much better world if it were. So I'm serving notice right now to anyone I drop off at the airport in the future. Prepare to be danced on your way.

_________________

*old movies, not old Don

Leaping into the void

 As usual, recent posts by my fellow Type M'ers contain so much food for thought and inspiration for posts of my own. What a wealth of writing wisdom and experience we have in our group!

One theme that runs through many of the posts is how our writing constantly evolves. We are always striving for excellence and innovation. The same old same old is death to a writer. How soon before readers talk about "phoning it in" and "repeating herself"? Ideas and writing styles that we previously rejected, like omniscient point of view and present tense,  are revisited and add a fresh excitement to our work. I am no exception. I am always searching for new twists and perspectives, particularly for my police procedural series which by its nature has a certain structure and is confined to a specific setting. Inspector Green can't go running off investigating a murder in Botswana, and he's unlikely to get involved in a jewelry heist instead of a murder. Murder is his domain. Whenever readers playfully suggest I take him off to Italy (tax credit!) where he gets himself in the middle of an international theft ring, I've always said the police don't operate that way.

But recently I've been asking myself why not? Why not leap outside the box? I actually did just that when, after a series of standard murder cases set in Ottawa, I decided to throw Inspector Green to the wolves, literally. Green is a city boy who's most comfortable in the dusty back alleys of the teeming inner city, so I sent him up into the wilderness of the Northwest Territories to brave the legendary Nahanni River on the trail not of a murderer but of his missing teenage daughter. I had a lot of fun writing THE WHISPER OF LEGENDS, and now I am once again wondering how I can shake things up, not just for Inspector Green but also Amanda Doucette. A certain predictability has crept into the Doucette series as well, even though each story is set in a different place and has a different set of characters and challenges.

My next book, SHIPWRECKED SOULS, is in the final printing stage, and it's time to turn my thoughts to the next project I try to make each book better than the last, but I feel myself at a crossroads, looking for an idea that will take one or both of them in a exciting new direction.

I have an idea, which I'm not yet ready to commit to public view, but I'd love to hear from readers and writers alike about their reaction to well-established series being taken in a new direction. What have you tried? What works? What lands with a thud?

The End

 by Catherine Dilts

The first killing freeze is late to arrive this year. My garden, lacking access to weather apps, has already slowed way down.

The tomatoes have quit producing, not realizing they could have gone on another couple weeks. The cucumber vines shriveled, the leaves turning dry despite regular watering. Instead of one sudden death in the form of a hard frost or early snow, things are winding down. The garden stumbles gradually toward The End.

In writing, two projects reached The End recently. That moment is glorious. Finally completed! Time to sell the books to an eager publisher, make a fortune, and move on to write the next bestseller!

Not exactly. Both novels were brutalized by beta readers. Am I being too sensitive? Maybe just a little. Like the garden, I'm not ready to give up yet. I received the most incredibly helpful comments on the big novel-of-my-heart from my critique partner. I’m getting a grasp on how to do revisions that will convince the rest of the world what a magnificent story I’ve created.

The second project is an ambitious YA co-authored with my daughter. After beta readers didn’t seem to grasp our brilliance, she became depressed. Almost ready to give up. Almost. Then something snapped. She’s coming up with amazing ideas that are giving life to characters, and placing them in ridiculously perilous situations. All the plotlines are weaving together with the strength of a bridge cable.

There’s hope these books will make it into the marketplace eventually. Soon? This rewriting and polishing is a hard task. The goal is in sight. Hope is reborn.

New life when you’ve just about given up. Like my two potted miniature cherry tomato plants. They are the only tomatoes still pushing out blossoms. They might create one last crop for me.

The End in gardening involves harvesting the produce, and doing something with it. Drying, canning, or freezing. (Canning jars ready for pickle relish.) Cleaning up the beds and containers before they're covered with the eventual blanket of snow.

The End in writing frequently results in realizing you’re not finished. There remains more editing, polishing, and review by trusted critique partners or beta readers. The absolute final step is doing something with it: sending it out into the world.

Each phase of gardening and writing is its own special season. Each requires a different kind of energy. And the courage to keep watering that bed if it promises to produce one last crop.

Look at Me! (But I Don't Want to be Famous)

Hi, I'm Shelley! Nice to meet you. 

If there’s one aspect of this writing life that wickedly grins and winks it’s baleful eye at me, it’s promotion. Some authors might dream of being invited to appear on Good Morning America or give a keynote address at a mystery convention, but the idea leaves me cold as Maine frost on a tomato vine in October.  

There are authors who play around on Tik Tok with wild abandon, revel in each new trend on Instagram, and joyfully post to Facebook in hopes of scoring a big viral hit with a reel or meme, even if it’s off-topic, in order to gain name-recognition and maybe a following. They fantasize about big-time fame along the lines of Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. 

I get it. When I was younger that kind of recognition appealed to me, as well. I enjoyed “sharing” my life with people. I didn’t mind being an open book. In my 40s, I took to blogging with abandon. It felt like writing in my journal, only in public. Facebook was fun. I liked connecting with my friends and family and meeting new people to “friend.” Even Instagram seemed enjoyable with all those photos and slick aesthetics.

Eventually, as I became more focused on a writing career, gaining a following seemed a feasible way to make sales once I had books to sell. I thought it might be fun to be a little famous, to be a little bit Stephanie Meyers walking the red carpet after her books-turned-movies shot her into the stratosphere. 

But now? I just want to write. And get paid for it.

That’s the rub, isn’t it? In order to make any sort of living as a novelist (even a substandard living that doesn’t even compare to working the counter at a fast-food joint) we must promote ourselves. Most of us can’t hope to find our readers if we don’t put ourselves out there in some way, and the most cost-effective way to do that is to set up free social media accounts and post madly day after day after day. 

So I do it. 

I talk into my phone to make videos to share on Instagram and Facebook. I create little graphics on Canva to hopefully draw eyeballs to my “uplifting and encouraging” Monday Motivation posts. I share photos of my trips hither, thither, and yon in hopes of “engaging” my audience. I add music to snaps of pretty flowers and foliage. I share my book covers, review quotes, even photos of my “outfits of the day” because my female sleuth character, Olivia Lively, is a private investigator with a closet full of fashionable clothes and accessories. 

LOOK AT ME!” I scream with the rest of them online. Inside, however, I’m whispering, “But I don’t want to be famous.” 

Maybe it’s time I start honoring the whisper more than the scream.  

____

Note: Thank you to the Type M for Murder community for inviting me to share my thoughts on the writing life. I’ve been working on my craft for 40 years, since about age 16, when I decided writing books for a living sounded pretty sweet. The industry, meanwhile, has gone through a huge transition to ebooks and indie publishing, aided and abetted by the rise of social media companies, and the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to understand how publishing works and for whom. I’m happy to share what I know, what I’m thinking about it all, and my ideas for navigating the waters. If there’s a topic you’d like to know more about, drop me a line at shelley@shelleyburbank.com and I’ll take a stab at it. 

To learn more about me in the meantime, check out my Substack newsletter, PINK DANDELIONS and at my website ShelleyBurbank.com