Telling Secrets

 

By Thomas Kies

I wouldn’t come back again to talk about Bouchercon except I just paid off my credit card for the expenses I incurred while at the conference.  It was amazing how fast things added up while I was in San Diego.  Or how expensive things were.  $17 for a glass of wine…yikes.

But that’s not what this column is about.

It’s about the subject matter discussed at a number of panels that weekend. Secrets.

Isn’t that what’s at the core of a mystery?  Whodunit? Why? How? 

We’re always writing about secrets. Humans are much like puppies. We’re curious animals.  We want to know the answer to secrets.  That’s what makes us read to the last page of a novel.  We want to know what happens.

We have an internal drive to uncover secrets because of that curiosity. Secrets can be exciting, exotic, and mysterious and the very process of uncovering secrets can be thrilling. 

When it comes to crime novels, uncovering secrets is motivated by a sense of justice or a desire to expose wrongdoing.  Our fascination with secrets is a fundamental part of human nature.

Sometimes, however, we want to uncover secrets for their salaciousness. In my Geneva Chase mysteries, I’ve written about sex clubs, swinging, and BDSM dungeons.  When I’ve been at book events, inevitably someone in the audience will ask, “How do you know about these things?”

I’d love to just smile at them coyly, wink, and remain silent.  Let them think what they might.  Keep it a secret.

But instead, I tell them the truth.  I used to work for newspapers and magazines and through my job, I’ve seen many things and been in some very “interesting” places. 

Speaking of the news…that business is all about uncovering secrets.  Take a look at the news if you want to see some secrets exposed and some secrets that have been hinted at but not yet told. 

Here’s a headline from a recent edition of the Washington Post.  Va. Dem. House candidate performed sex online with husband for tips.  C’mon, there’s a novel here.  We both know it.

I’m not sure this could be classified as a secret because the woman and her husband livestreamed the sex acts.  Will it have any effect on her campaign?  Well, they say any publicity is good publicity. 

Here’s a headline from a recent edition of the New York Post: SD Gov. Kristi Noem having ‘absurdly blatant and public’ affair with ‘handsy’ Trump aide Corey Lewandowski, sources say.  What makes this more fun is that Kristi Noem is married and has repeated preached the gospel of “family values” and scoffed at anything other than “traditional marriages”. Is there a novel in this one?  I’m not so sure.  Corey Lewandowski had extramarital affairs before that have made the news.   But until recently, this one with the governor had been kept a secret.   Shhhhhh.

And lastly, here’s a non-sexual headline from Fox News: NASA detects molecule on another planet that can only be produced by life. The planet, K2-18b, is about 120 light years from Earth and it’ there that the Webb Telescope detected evidence of dimethyl sulfide.

Wow…the big secret.  Is there life on other planets?

Or, the bigger secret…is there life after death?

The one I’m most concerned about…who took the last piece of chocolate out of the candy dish in the kitchen?

And my writing tip of the day is when revealing secrets, do it slowly, lovingly.  Tease the reader. 

Now where the hell did that last piece of chocolate go?

Creativity

 There’s a theory that everyone is born with in innate sense of creativity.  As babies grow into toddlers, and toddlers grow into school age children, they have within them a sense of adventure and curiosity.  As they discover and learn, they take great joy in creating, whether it’s coloring, drawing, painting, singing, dancing, or making castles out of Legos. 

That same theory posits that as we grow into adulthood, we’re often urged to forget our creative side and conform.  Buckle down, do what’s necessary, make money.  

But that creative spark, though dampened, lives on in all of us.  It may come back out in the form of a hobby, tending a garden, making a special dinner, or redecorating a room.

This weekend my wife and I had an outstanding dinner at the house of two friends of ours.  In addition to a delightful meal, the conversation was thought provoking.  We talked about food (of course), home remodeling, a smattering of politics, watching your adult children evolve, and ghosts.  Yes, ghosts.

We also had a very interesting discussion about creativity.

We can save our discussion on ghosts for another blog.

Being of a certain age, we all had former lives and are all redefining ourselves.  One of us was a concert pianist who performed all over the world.  Her husband was a noteworthy magazine publisher.  Now they own a boutique hotel here on the coast, in a historic little town right on the waterfront.  They’ve redecorated, upgraded, installed a 21st Century computer and reservation system, and began a marketing program that includes sophisticated usage of social media. 

Additionally, they buy fixer-upper homes, make them look pretty, and sell them, moving on to the next project.  

They’ve traded one set of creative skills for another.  

My wife was at one time a very successful market research analysist who had done work for major corporations all over the world.  She’s retired now, and during our discussion, wondered what her creative superpower might be. 

During our earlier discussion, we talked about her enjoyment of genealogy and how it led to her discovery of a brother she never knew she had.  It’s an amazing story that I may share on another occasion.  But the conclusion we reached was Cindy’s creative superpower was in her curiosity.  She’s a discoverer—an explorer. 

Mine is that I’m a crime novelist and I make stuff up.  Being a novelist has always been a dream of mine.

I read where the definition of creativity is: Transforming your ideas, dreams, and imagination into reality. 

An article from Huffington Post cited a recent New Zealand study which says that “engaging in creative activities contributes to an “upward spiral” of positive emotions, psychological well-being, and feelings of “flourishing” in life.”

The Pacific Standard Magazine cited another study conducted at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro on college students that says that “those who reported feeling happy and active were more likely to be doing something creative at the time.”

When I think about it, the happiest people I know are the ones who are creating and/or exploring—trying new things. 

So, what do you do to get your creative spark fired up?

I take a walk around our neighborhood or up to the beach.  I find that by the time I get back, I have a fresh perspective on what I’m currently working on.

Here are some other suggestions I found on the web:

Keep a journal and jot down ideas as they occur to you.

Exercise.

Take a media break.

Read a book.

Don’t be afraid to play.  Thomas Edison’s notebooks and Alexander Graham Bell’s prototypes suggest that they played while working. 

Take a break from your daily routine.

Try to think about things and look at the world around you in a different way. 

And finally—I like this one the best—dare to dream!