What I look for in making a decision to buy a book

by Rick Blechta

Aline’s post from yesterday (just below this post if you haven’t yet read it) was enjoyable and thought-provoking, and ever since reading it, I've been thinking about what she said.

The question was then: what tips me over the edge and into purchasing a book?

I would have to say a really great review or a recommendation from someone whom I really trust who say, “You’ve just GOTTA read this book. I know that you'll love it!” (If it turns out that I don’t love it, then I immediately unfriend the person on Facebook – just kidding.

If I’ve read and enjoyed a book by an author, I will quite often pick up another by the same author (especially if it's accompanied by one of the above recommendations, as well).

If I’m browsing in a bookstore, I will pick up a book that has what I consider an interesting cover, I will flip it over, read the back (or flap copy) and if it tickles my fancy, I’ll buy it. As a side comment, I almost never go by what blurbs say, unless they’re a quote from a reputable review source, in which case I might take that into account. I especially don’t go by author blurbs because I know how that works…

Finally is this: if three people in the course of one week personally recommend a particular book to me, I will go out an buy it with no questions asked. This method has never yet failed me and it's happened a bunch of times. I’ve always enjoyed those books so recommended. I call it my Rule of Three.

What Really Is in a Name?

How likely would you be to pause, looking along the shelves of a bookshop, and cry, 'Oh, I simply must read this!' as you spotted a book entitled Four and a Half Years of  Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice? I can't say I would, but millions did when it was sold under the title Mein Kampf. (It's hard to say just how many millions, since there has been a German ban on disclosing the figures and even with the new edition publishing houses won't say).

Trimalchio in West Egg: Something That Happened: The Last Man in Europe: A House of Faith. I don't know who it was who persuaded F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh to change them to the rather snappier The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, 1984 and Brideshead Revisited but I reckon those authors owed them a considerable debt of gratitude.


Certainly whoever convinced Tolstoy that despite the fact that the boy got his girl in the end, All's Well that Ends Well wasn't really a suitable title for a book that majored on bloodshed, death and disaster and ended with Moscow engulfed in flames, did a service to the innocent reader who might otherwise have embarked on it in a spirit of cheerful optimism. (Though come to think of it, Shakespeare's so-called comedy of the same name isn't exactly laugh a minute either.)

The factors that most persuade me to buy a book are:

1. That it's by an author I've read and liked before.
2. That a friend I trust has recommended it.
3. That I've read a good review.
4. That the blurb catches my interest.

Well down the list come the cover – sorry, Rick! – and the title, unless it's one of those very quirky ones like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In general I describe the book I'm reading by location – 'It's the one lying on the floor by my side of the bed' – if my husband's going upstairs and I want him to bring it down.

However, editors and marketing departments do think the right title is crucially important.

I don't know if other authors find appropriate titles that appeal to their publishers more easily than I do, but considering that these giants of literature most certainly got it wrong I probably shouldn't sulk when what I think is a perfectly appropriate title is rejected. On this evidence, they've probably done me a favour. Probably. Well, you wouldn't expect me to agree totally, would you? I bet Tolstoy muttered into his beard that War and Peace was just a statement of the blindingly obvious.

Stranger Than Fiction

I (Vicki) met Ryan Aldred when he attended my first eight week course in Writing Popular Fiction. I am delighted to say that the MS he brought to class for critiquing has now been published. 

By Ryan Aldred

My debut novel Rum Luck came out a few weeks ago. To say I was excited about receiving the first box of books is something of an understatement; I immediately found myself nose-deep in the vanilla pages, calling out to my wife Andrea, “It smells like a book! My book smells like a book!” (What else it could possibly have smelled like, I have no idea.)

As I read my finished novel for both the umpteenth and very first time, I was struck by certain elements that felt particularly surreal: a car that needed to be pushed down a hill to bump-start the engine; a car mirror that had been broken loose by a presumed monkey’s coconut; and the inexplicable appearance of a sign in a window that read “Kittens for rent.”

In short, the peculiar events that actually happened during my travels in Costa Rica.

But some stories are simply too outrageous for a work of fiction. Such as the time when I found myself at a dive bar at the very same moment as the tin shanties across the road – belonging to women of negotiable affections – caught fire, and I found myself amongst those helping them evacuate boxes after boxes of textbooks from their homes.

(Why did they have so many textbooks? I asked myself years afterward. But some mysteries are never solved.)

Naturally, this took place after I’d consumed a conspicuous amount of Imperial. So much so that, when an errant dog took an interest in the commotion, I raised a hand and said “Luego, luego”, having determined with flawless logic that 1.) dogs in Costa Rica only understand Spanish and 2.) ‘Goodbye’ was close enough to ‘Stay’ for my
intended purposes. (Spoiler: It wasn’t.)

There are some of my favorite anecdotes, and yet I doubt I’ll ever find a way to work them into a book. The old saying holds true – truth is stranger than fiction, particularly works of fiction. As one editor said amidst the Rob Ford debacle, “You couldn’t put it in a novel; no one would believe it!”

This is particularly true for stories set abroad. Most days, one does not expect to have one’s belongings rifled through, to be delayed for hours on end, for strangers to continually invade one’s personal space, and to consume strange and unusual cuisines solely due to dire need – and that’s just the flight. If I ever did have an entirely uneventful trip, I would be so fearful of the karmic imbalance that I would no longer leave my house – which would no doubt be crushed by falling ice from a passing jetliner.

One day, perhaps, I’ll be able to revisit those burning shanties. Or the beach bar where a local real estate agent kindly asked that I hack into Interpol to remove a misunderstanding about a small packet of cocaine. Or the fateful night a friend escaped a near-stabbing by rather brilliantly claiming that he had only arrived that day, and so he couldn’t possibly be the jerk who’d hit on Stabby’s girlfriend the night before. (He was definitely that jerk.)

But even then, I intend to revisit reality sparingly – lest a sudden dose of truth render my fiction completely unbelievable.

Rum Luck was a finalist for a 2015 Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, and is the first book in the Bar on a Beach Mystery series. Now available from Five Star. When not writing, Ryan runs a small Canadian charity that provides education in Afghanistan, Uganda and other at-risk regions. His website can be found at www.ryanaldred.com, or you can find him on facebook – https://www.facebook.com/aldredauthor/ – or twitter – https://twitter.com/raldred

Lavishly Gloriously Overwritten Books

I've been thinking about Rick Blechta's recent post on the death of description. He discussed the use of detailed descriptions in books written in the 19th and early 20th century. Description in books currently published just give a nod to elements that comprised lengthy paragraphs in the past.

For some reason I've developed a passion to reread some of my favorite books. One of them, Not As A Stranger, is the greatest medical novel ever written. However, it is so lavishly, gloriously, overwritten that it makes War and Peace look like a Tweet.

I wonder if it would be published now. It's too superior to be tossed in a wastebasket. But on the other hand, editors are too often overworked, overburdened, and over bottom-lined. They simply do not have the time to straighten out this kind of book. I suspect the sender would get a short email. "Please cut and resubmit."

Many of my "favorite" books are lengthy. Characters were well-developed and complex. On rereading some of these novels I'm surprised at how little I understood the themes when I read them in my 20s. So it's odd the books have stuck with me for so long.

One of the standard questions authors are asked at presentations is "What is your favorite book?" Mine has always been Green Dolphin Street. It's been a long time since I've read it so it will be interesting to see if I bring fresh eyes to that book also.

A number of people have heard me give that reply so a book club last year decided to read it. It was immediately and universally disliked and the group abandoned it at once. I suspect because it, too, depended on the same kind of lavish description Rick mentioned.

As a writer I'm very alert to lines that slow the book down. In my own writing, on second drafts I check to see if sentences can be deleted and if I'm repeating descriptions. We simply live in a very fast-paced world.

Tweet or die.

Trust Your Advance Readers (even if it's Mom)

Stephen King, in On Writing, says, "The editor is always right." In the publishing phase of a book, King's meaning is pretty obvious: Your editor has usually seen everything twice, and her advice comes late in a manuscript's life and focuses on additions and/or deletions. But there's a stage (or stages) before that. And when writers are drafting, spending hours alone, fearing a leap into the wrong rabbit hole, many of us seek advance readers – people with whom we share works-in-progress, valuing any and all feedback and reactions.

Usually, these readers simply validate choices you've made, catch embarrassing typos, and provide motivation to write quickly – they're reading as you write, after all, and they want to know the ending.

Sometimes, though, they offer feedback that changes the way you think of your book. I had that experience recently.

Despite my love for Stephen King's work and admiration for the man (he is, after all, a fellow Mainer), I, like many writers, get married to my work-in-progress. I'm lucky to have three or four friends who love crime fiction and read with discerning eyes. One is quite literally the most positive human being I've ever been around. (I must tell her to be mean when she reads.) In a former life, she was a biologist who hunted and fished where Peyton Cote fictitiously does. Now she's a research librarian. Another is a semi-retired math teacher, who reads two to three books a week and watches nearly as many Red Sox games. Another is (and don't smirk) my mother, who is a voracious reader and has the odd habit of offering me her opinion whether I want it or not (I bet that gives her something in common with your mother).

A funny thing happened on the way to the 50-page mark of this latest work-in-progress: My mother read the wrong book.

Not all her fault. I'm writing a version of a book I started almost four years ago when I was between Peyton Cote novels. The first two readers are offering feedback, liking it, and spotting my typos – nothing unusual. But then 10 days ago, I got some notes from my mother and quickly realized she was reading the wrong book – the one I began in 2013.

I stopped when she wrote, "I like this version much better than the other one. Nice rewrite."

The "old," version, the one that's been sitting in the bottom drawer of my Google desk for two and a half years is after all a very different novel – same lead character, but a very different plot, more thriller than mystery. I called her immediately. What did she like so much about this rewrite?

As I listened to her praise this older version, I heard a lot of things that made sense (yes, Mom gets smarter as I get older).

So, where does this all leave me? Looking for ways to combine what I like about the new with what I know my mother is correct about the old – and in my second week working on a lengthy and detailed synopsis.

In the end, all this reminds me to trust the people I trust – even if it's you know who.

The Dark Side

I’ve recently gone over to the dark side.

Don’t worry, the only crimes I’ve committed are fictional ones. I’m talking about changing my reading habits. I’ve recently set aside my usual cozy/traditional mystery fare and started reading darker stories. Ones where the protagonists aren’t very likeable, make really bad decisions, and where the endings aren’t always happy ones.

I’ve flirted with the dark side myself in a couple short stories I wrote. I use the term “flirted” deliberately. My stories Meet Market published in Spinetingler Magazine and Annual Marriage Test published in Mysterical-E are a little darker than my usual stories, but they’re still not what I would call really dark. Go ahead, follow the links and read them and see what you think.

I’ve changed what I’m reading because I’m doing a library event with author Sarah M. Chen at the Wiseburn library in Hawthorne, CA. Come September 8th, we’ll be talking about “The Light and Dark of Mystery”. I represent the light side and Sarah represents the dark side. So I’ve been reading her work (my favorite of hers is her novella, Cleaning Up Finn) as well as other similar stories. Mostly in the short fiction category because I can read a variety of authors fairly quickly.

While I’ve been reading the stories, I’ve been thinking about why I prefer to read and write lighter mysteries. I think it comes down to why I read mysteries in the first place. I read them because I want to be entertained and want to escape real life for a while. I also read because I enjoy the puzzle aspect of traditional mysteries. How the emphasis is on figuring out the crime, not on the brutalness of the murder. I also enjoy visiting familiar characters in interesting places. And, most of all, I like that the bad guy always gets his comeuppance in the end, something that doesn’t always happen in the real world.

When it comes to historical mysteries, which I also read a fair number of, I don’t mind things to be on the darker side. I almost expect it. I think that’s because the settings are long enough ago it doesn’t represent real life to me. There’s a certain amount of detachment I can give to them that I can’t to contemporary mysteries.

So, what about you, Type M readers? Do you prefer your mysteries dark or light or both? And why do you read what you read?

The slow death of description

by Rick Blechta

A few days ago while working on a section of my novel, I wrote what I thought was a nifty couple of paragraphs of description, maybe ten lines of text once typeset, that would describe the "stage" of a rather intense action scene. Reading it back the next day which is my usual method of working, I felt compelled to toss out all but one sentence.

Why? Because the writing wasn't any good? Because I'd overdone it?

The answer was, it now seemed over-indulgent.

Some of my favourite reads over the years are older works, novels written in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. One thing I enjoy is the heavy use of description to set the scene. I like that clear mental picture.

I imagine if one were to trace (in general terms) the growth and change in the novel over the past hundred years or so, the diminution of description would be a pretty clear and continuing trend.

In deciding to toss out my deathless prose the other day, I suddenly asked myself why. Why has the use of description in novels (any novels) dropped so drastically? Sure, there are some very successful authors who use a fair bit of description, but there aren't many of them. How many times have we said of a book we're reading, "Come on! Get on with your story," when we're faced with a page or two of description? I know I do it a lot.

Why is this?

Here's my premise and please take issue with it if you like (it's been a long time since we've had a good donnybrook here at Type M: description has fallen out of favour because of movies, television and video clips. We are now used to being shown things visually, not having to conjure them in our imaginations. That's the first part of my theory.

The second is that because we're so immersed in the visual and have seen so much of it, we really don't need to see things so much. We already know what they look like.

Take Michael Connelly's novels as an example. They're generally set in L.A. They are also very sparing with description, basically a sentence here or there and the occasional complete paragraph. The reason he doesn't need it is that we already know what the setting of his book looks like. How many times have we seen that city's freeways? It's downtown area? The desert surrounding it?

So there is my theory. Please take me to task if you wish. I'm spoiling for a fight.

Knowing When to Stop

I love this week's topic. I'd like to share my thoughts about my muse. Unfortunately, I have a looming deadline. I'm trying to write a short story, and my muse is being a pain in the whatever. Not because she is ignoring my plea for inspiration. I have the opposite problem. She has been and is being entirely too helpful.

It started a few weeks ago. I woke up with the title of the story in my head. No idea where it came from. No idea what it meant. I had to go to the Internet to make sure I understood it. That was where the trouble began. My quick search turned up something that made me go "Wow! This is great!" The only problem was I knew nothing about the "this". Muse said, "No problem. Just do a little research."

I did, and then Muse handed me another idea.  A setting that would work. A closed circle of suspects. The sleuth? "Would I let you down?" Muse asked. "Here she is." Except I knew nothing about my sleuth's occupation. Nothing. Nada. I pointed that out to Muse. She said, "No problem. It's a short story. Do a little research."

Okay. I know how to do research. Off to the university library. Books -- even a couple requested from storage. A couple of dissertations. Some articles. Good. This was working. Good to go.

That was when Muse said, "But you know your problem with descriptions. I always work better when you've actually seen what you're trying to describe." That made sense. A road trip on a lovely summer day. Invite friend to come along. Grab camera and go. Come back with photos -- and a couple of more books.

Open small book and make big discovery.

Days passing. Clock ticking. I point this out to Muse. She says, "Just read this. It might be useful. You know I'm always more helpful when you have lots of information." I say, "I have enough information to write a book." Muse says, "Yes, you do. But we'll get to that after we're done with your story. Keep reading."

Last night, I'd had enough. I said, "This is ridiculous. I've got to get some words down on paper." Muse said, "You've been writing the whole thing in your head. You have all the scenes. You have motives and killer." I said, "But I still need to write. Have you looked at the calendar?" Muse said, "Go to bed. We'll talk about it in the morning."

This morning Muse said, "You have to eat lunch anyway. And I know exactly where we should go. Then you'll have all afternoon to write."

Muse and I are getting ready to go out to lunch. Lunch in a diner that I didn't even know existed before I started all that research Muse insisted I do. There are some pictures on the wall that Muse thinks I should see.

After that, I'm going to write because I am running out of time. No more hanging out with Muse. Sit down. Put hands on keyboard and write.

In Search of an Idea

Donis here. In truth I am not filled with inspiration today, which is ironic since over the past few days my blogmates have been writing about the Muses and where ideas come from.

My Muse is taking a nap. This is not an unusual occurrence for her since this is what she does every time I finish a book. So, as I have done at the completion of every single book I have written over the last decade, I admit that I am, at least for the present, brain dead.

Eventually my Muse will slowly stir and an idea will begin to form. When the writing-muscles start to engage again, I become hyper-aware of what is going on around me, of what other people are saying, of what is in the news, of the weather, but especially of what I'm thinking. Most of the time, my thoughts float around in my head like fluffy little clouds that I pay no attention to, but when I'm in this state, I stare at them until I find interesting shapes.

When I was in college, I was a crammer. I never studied much for tests until a day or two before, then I'd study until my eyes fell out. I'd never recommend this process to anyone, though it seemed to work all right for me. Even at the time, I was aware that in order for cramming to work I had to have a literal change of consciousness, and become almost hyper- aware. When I look back on it, I think it was just a matter of paying close attention.

Ideas come to me from the oddest places–from something I’ve read, or some off-hand comment someone says within earshot of me (be careful what you say around a writer). Once or twice from a dream I’ve had. In any event, the idea gets in my head one way or another and wiggles around in there for a while. Eventually it begins to coalesce and I think, “That might make a good story.”

And I'll begin again.

Characters and plot in search of setting

Barbara here.Today I want to continue the fascinating topic of muses that was raised in Aline's and Rick's two previous posts. Aline zeroed in on "motive" or rather the whole picture of what drives that particular killer to kill at that moment in that way, which forms the whole underlying question of the story. Rick addressed starting points--that germ of an image or idea that pops out of nowhere and starts the writer's mind on its creative journey.

Both of these are key elements to storytelling. One provides the initial spark and the other guides us in the weaving of the story flowing from that spark, just as an oyster slowly builds a pearl out of a grain of sand. I want to talk about setting, because that is foremost on my mind right now, and in the case of my Amanda Doucette novels, I can't begin the story until I have some idea of the setting. Each novel in this new series is set in a different iconic location in Canada, with the view that by the time I wrap up the series, I will have touched on Canada's beautiful, varied landscape and culture from coast to coast to coast.

Book One, Fire in the Stars, is set in the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, a wild and beautiful land of crashing oceans, craggy mountains, icebergs, and little fishing villages. It is already written, and due for release in early September. I have visited Newfoundland several times and have roots there, but I made two research trips to make sure I got the right feel and detail for the exact places I was writing about. Book Two, The Trickster's Lullaby, is set in Quebec's Laurentian Mountains just north of Mont Tremblant, and although I went there often for skiing and summer fun, I still made two short trips once I was writing the book in order to get the detail right. The setting needs to match the story I want to tell, and sometimes this means massaging the story a bit and other times changing the exact locale I had in mind.

Setting means not just physical surroundings but also season and weather. My third Amanda Doucette book is set in Georgian Bay and involves kayaks and rich island mansions. During these hot summer months I am finalizing the winter camping story in the Laurentians, and I will be writing the first draft of the summer Georgian Bay story in the dead of the upcoming Ontario winter. So I changed my writing schedule to do some location setting this summer, to figure out exactly where to set Prisoners of Hope. What a fun trip it was, driving the length of the eastern shores of Georgian Bay, exploring little villages and shoreline roads, and ending up in the village of Killarney at the northern tip of the bay, where the dogs and I took a lovely walk along the pink granite shore to the lighthouse.

The villages and shores themselves provided inspiration and plot ideas as well as dramatic atmosphere, and a long talk with the local outfitter helped me to plan the fictional trip my characters will take. None of that would be possible without a hands-on visit. Once I start writing the book, I know I will have many more questions about the setting, and will scour the internet for answers as well as keep a running list. When next summer comes and the first draft is hopefully mostly written, I will make another trip to Georgian Bay to get my final answers.

Even better than visiting the setting is walking through the experiences the characters will have. Thus in Newfoundland, I took hikes through the woods and along the ocean cliffs, took the whaling boat trip that my characters take, and ate in the restaurants. For the Laurentian book, I actually took a four-day winter camping trip. I would love to take a Georgian Bay kayaking trip, and am currently trying to see whether I can fit it into my schedule this fall. Stay tuned!

Whither comes the muse? Or “capere musam”.

by Rick Blechta

Funny that Aline would be planning on writing her blog post on the same topic I was planning to use. Since we’re both discussing muses, perhaps we have the same one – or maybe our separate ones are colluding.

Where do ideas come from? While the arts (writing, music, dance, drama, painting, etc.) are all very different, they do share one commonality: they require an initial idea to get started on a new work.

I’m sure every writer of fiction has been faced with the dilemma of “characters in search of a story”. I certainly have. If you write a series as many crime writers do, you face this at the beginning of any new book. For those of us who write one-offs, it’s not as common, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens to most. (It’s always much easier to be confronted with a story in search of characters.)

And that’s where the muses come in, as Aline so ably described yesterday. Where do these ideas come from? It can be from an otherwise unremarkable conversation, perhaps even an eavesdropped one (happened to me in my third novel). It can be something you read or even witnessed. Sometimes an idea just comes out of the blue. Or a serendipitous encounter.

To me, those are the most fascinating. In my novel, When Hell Freezes Over, the genesis of the story came to me as I was driving home from a gig late one night.

Snow, whipped around by a stiff wind, made visibility poor and I sighed as I stopped, the lone car at a light.

A tap on the passenger window startled me. A young woman stared me in the face, so I rolled down the window.
“I need a ride. I have no money and I need to get home. Can you help?”

I almost said, “Sure. Hop in!” before an alarm bell clanged in my head. I would be alone in my car with someone I didn’t know and who might not have the best of intentions.

Instead, I asked, “Where are you heading?”

She gave me her destination, rather far out of my way. Should I take a chance to help a fellow person? All I had was a couple of twenty-dollar bills, no change, so I wouldn’t get off financially easily, but I decided to give her money rather than taking a risk.

“I’m headed in the opposite direction. Here’s a twenty. Take the bus and then a taxi to get home.”

She took it gratefully. Perhaps I’d just been scammed, but I hoped I hadn’t.

Regardless, the light had by now changed and I took off.

It hit me about 3 minutes later: if instead of tapping on the window, what if the girl had just gotten into my car? What would I have done? The answer was pretty clear. I probably would have been stuck driving her to her destination – if everything had gone okay.

A myriad of other possibilities flooded my brain, none of them good. Before I got home, I had the beginning scene in the book I was going to write and a solid idea of where it would take the story.

The next morning I realized another thing: I had just paid a paltry $20 for a terrific idea around which I could craft an entire novel.

Now regardless of being scammed or not, that’s money well spent, isn’t it?

Motives for Murder

What is your starting point for writing a novel? For me, it usually starts with a picture I have in my head: in Evil for Evil, for instance, it was a skeleton shackled to a metal ring in a sea cave wall. I've no idea where it came from, but thank you to whatever Muse put it there because it gave me what I needed to start asking the questions that make a plot – why was it there, who could have put it there? And what could have happened before, to make someone do it – the whole dramatic point of the story.

Means, motive and opportunity – the classic wisdom about what the police need to establish in order to prosecute a crime. It's often the very backbone of a police procedural novel.

Only, of course, when I thought about it, motive doesn't actually form part of the necessary police evidence; maybe the prosecution will suggest one as a way to influence the jury, but for a trial to succeed it's only essential to prove that the accused was in possession of whatever was needed to commit the crime and was there at the time.

'What makes someone a killer?' is the question that interests me most in crime fiction, but it's not really 'motive' that's answers it.

There's a classic list of motives for murder, sometimes summarised as 'love, lust, lucre and loathing.' (My criminal defence advocate son would point out that getting drunk and lashing out was actually by a distance the most common.) It covers jealousy, ambition, revenge.

Yet if you look at the Shakespeare tragedies, Macbeth's motive is ambition, Hamlet's is revenge, Othello's is jealousy – all technically sufficient motives. Give Hamlet Macbeth's motive, or Othello's, and there would be no play. What gives the tragedies their absorbing interest is that each of the heroes is put into the precise position where their particular nature leaves them vulnerable.

It's the interplay of nature, nurture and circumstance that makes the killer and for all the psychological reports commissioned for the courts, in real life you can't  hope to know the full story. When it's your own character, you can – another of those god-like powers that keeps us all addicted.

Happy Happy Anniversary

This week our blogmaster, Rick Blechta reminded the Type M'ers that our blog is ten years. I'm a fairly recent member and came in through the good graces of our beloved Donis Casey. I'm feel humbled and honored to be included with this collection of talented, generous people.

I tried to look up my first blog before I started this post, but I'm going to have to settle for completing this scant offering without including the date.

I'm getting a new roof and guttering on my house. We have a great homeowner's association and this is only going to cost me $40.00. So I'm quite cheerful about all the banging and shower of debris. But nevertheless I can't work with this sort of noise. I jump when there's a bang. Could be gunshots you know. One pays a price for possessing a murderous mind.

My deadline for the new mystery is August 16th so I'm leaving daily for a more peaceful place. Through the roofing process my internet is temporarily very erratic. So I'm going to publish this post before it all goes away again.

A sincere thank you to everyone who has followed this blog. And we can't thank Rick Blechta and Vicki Delany enough for starting it in the first place.

Technical Goulash

I'm nearing the 10,000-word mark of a new project that is very different from other books I've written for a number of reasons, the first being that I'm writing in present tense.

Goodreads List of Present-Tense Novels

Interestingly, I taught Naomi Hirahara's Murder on Bamboo Lane this past year, and none of my students noticed the tense (or mentioned it until I did). As a teacher, that was frustrating; as a writer (nice job, Naomi!), that's a good thing. I know if I'm consistent in voice, point-of-view, and tense, I'll go unnoticed, something I'm always striking for: I want readers to be so lost in the story they forget they're turning pages at all.

Writing present tense is interesting on many levels. The syntax, for one, has changed. Sentences are shorter (for me, that's never a bad thing.) I find myself writing a lot of fragments (missing subjects). This is happening naturally. Just riding the rhythm of the book. And my nemesis, the To Be verb, is getting very little airtime, something that pleases me immensely. The chapters are averaging less than a thousand words.

Additionally, the pace of the book is faster because of the tense choice. Dialogue propels the action for me, as always. But the I see this book being shorter than some others I've written in recent years. (Whether that holds up or not remains to be seen. Every time I start a book I tell myself this time I'll be really efficient.)

Like any writer, I will do my best to show and not tell: 

My second-floor classroom looked out onto the quad. There was a grass courtyard nearly the size of a soccer pitch and boxed in by brick dorms and brick office and academic buildings. Morning sunlight reflected off benches that glistened with ice and snow. Christmas was a full three weeks away, but twenty inches of snow had already fallen. Parents' Weekend took place only a month earlier, when cobblestone paths were ablaze with autumn's fallen leaves and playing fields' sidelines were awash in light blue swag and proud parental voices. That seemed a distant memory.

My second-floor classroom looks out onto the quad, a grass courtyard nearly the size of a soccer pitch, boxed in by brick dorms and brick office and academic buildings. Morning sunlight reflects off benches glistening with ice and snow. Christmas is a full three weeks away, but twenty inches of snow have already fallen. Parents' Weekend – only a month ago, when cobblestone paths were ablaze with autumn's fallen leaves and playing fields' sidelines were awash in light blue swag and proud parental voices – seems a distant memory.

The differences are evident. Immediacy being the most obvious. No surprise there. But more subtly, the imagery, particularly of the final line, is punched up. The present tense version in the second paragraph is more forceful.

Now I put the challenge to you: Take a paragraph you've written recently, and rewrite it in the present tense. What differences do you find? This might serve as another technique for your toolbox. After all, a present-tense scene well-placed in a past-tense novel might heighten suspense and add to your reader's experience.

I'd love to hear readers' thoughts on this and my Type M colleagues' opinions.

Poirot: From Page to Screen

I love, love, love Agatha Christie. I’ve read all her books at least twice, and I enjoy the TV and movie adaptations. The version of A Caribbean Mystery featuring Helen Hayes as Miss Marple never fails to cheer me up. Yep, you know you’re a mystery writer at heart when a murder mystery makes you feel better!

Even though I’ve read them all, I’m not as familiar with her short stories. I recently decided to rewatch the first season of the Poirot TV series featuring David Suchet as Poirot.

The first season is 10 episodes, each 48-51 minutes long, all adaptations of Poirot short stories. After watching each episode, I read the story it was based on to see what changes had been made.

Here’s what I noticed:

Captain Hastings and Miss Lemon are often inserted into the TV version of a story where they weren’t in the original. When this happens, there’s usually some scene at the beginning that reveals the relationship between Poirot and the two of them. I have to say, these scenes are the ones I remember the most, probably because they are great fun. And whenever a policeman was needed, Inspector Japp was always the man they called, which wasn’t necessarily true in the original story.

In a couple of the stories, The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly and The Incredible Theft, Poirot is brought in before the crime occurs in the TV version. In the original stories, he’s brought in after the kidnapping and theft, respectively.

In a few of the TV versions, when the culprit is revealed, they added a pursuit scene that wasn’t in the short story. Makes for a better visual and I have to admit is quite fun.

There’s only one story where I noticed the TV adaptation changed a clue slightly, Murder in the Mews. I think it worked out a little better.

A few of the stories collapsed a couple characters, but occasionally new characters were added.

In Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds, there were quite a few changes. Miss Lemon and Captain Hastings were added, the dinner companion was his dentist, someone’s profession was changed, the contents of a letter was changed and a visit to Scotland Yard’s new forensics lab was added.

In The King of Clubs, a famous dancer became a famous actress and the murdered man the head of a movie studio. That gave Poirot the chance to visit a film set.

Overall, they’re quite faithful to the story, keeping the solution and the murderer generally the same. I think these adaptations are great and I have no problems with the changes made. And, dare I say, they made the stories more fun to watch.

I can’t believe we missed this!

by Rick Blechta

Last week I failed. It wasn't until Wednesday morning that I realized I'd totally forgotten that the previous day had been Tuesday and that I'd missed my slot on Type M. I don't believe that's happened in the nearly ten years we've been on the internet. Imagine my chagrin!

Well, this week isn't much better, but I did set my computer to remind me of the day and my obligations to Type M. So here I am.

Only problem is, I haven't given any thought to what I want to write about, but there is this:

TYPE M FOR MURDER
IS TEN YEARS OLD!

Unfortunately, because I've been so preoccupied with other things, the anniversary date totally passed by without me noticing! Imagine, please, my extreme chagrin for that egregious oversight.

For those interested, we first graced cyberspace with a post by our founder, Miss Vicki Delany, on June 26, 2006. Here is the link: launching-first-entry-for-our-new-blog – if you care to read it. My first post (now-its-blechta’s-turn) appeared on July 12, 2006.

Since then, the guilty parties have changed a fair bit. I'm still here, as is Vicki (who was away on sabbatical for a short time before we coaxed her back). We currently have a terrific group of bloggers, some part of the scene for a number of years now. I don't know about you, but I've made some great friends on Type M – and I'm not just referring to my fellow blogmates and our guest authors.

The amazing fact is that we're still here. Most blogs don't last anywhere near this long. It's good to stand on the crest of the hill and see what we've done and all the (cyber) ink we've spilled in the process of sharing our thoughts. Sure, we have (and have had) a great group of writers, but the length of our lifespan is due to only one thing: our loyal readers who drop by frequently to read our deathless prose and comment on our thoughts of the day.

And to you, dear readers, we all extend our thanks!

Newsletters and a Contest

By Vicki Delany

Frankie’s post on Friday about her newsletter made me realize that I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned to all you nice Type M followers that I send out a newsletter.

I try to issue it quarterly, with news about upcoming books and my travels, book-related or otherwise. I occasionally have information about contests for books and other goodies.

If you’d like to be put on the distribution list, please drop me a line at vicki at vickidelany dot com.

Speaking of contests, let’s have one!  Everyone who writes to me this week (i.e. before Monday July 25^th) will go into a draw for a signed mass market paperback of Negative Image.  

If you are in Southeastern Ontario this weekend, and looking for something to do, why not come to a cross-genre convention! Limestone Genre expo will be going on Saturday and Sunday in Kingston. It's Limestone Genre Expo and I am the Mystery Guest of Honor. Here's the link with all the details http://www.limestonegenreexpo.ca/  

Perhaps I'll see you there.

Weekend Guest - Janet Hubbard

Type M is thrilled to welcome our weekend guest blogger Janet Hubbard, author of the wonderful Vengeance in the Vineyard series. So pour yourself a nice glass of Burgundy and settle in for a treat.

Accomplices in Tasting

By

Janet Hubbard

I write mysteries set in the wine districts of France. Descriptions of food and wine abound. I place my characters at dinner tables in the various regions that so far include Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy.

One of the most common comments I hear at my readings is, “The research must be tough.” WinkWink. A ripple of laughter follows.

It’s true. I do hang out in some pretty special places, and I have on occasion sipped a fine wine, all in the name of research. However, though I enjoy wine on a daily basis (not, alas, the fabulous wines I write about) and thrill to the taste sensations of a boeuf bourguignon served in an elegant home in a southern village in Burgundy, I am far from being a writer who is adept at teasing the various flavors out of a complex dish, and making it come alive on the page.

I learned as a young adult while traveling through France that winemaking and lovingly prepared dishes are synonymous with conviviality. What drew me to the world of the senses literarily were the people who inhabit it, starting years ago with friend Astrid Latapie, who set the tone for my Vengeance in the Vineyard series with her poetic descriptions. (Most of CHAMPAGNE: The Farewell takes place at her mother’s country estate in a small village in that region.) Since then I have been fortunate to find “consultants” who are happy to share their knowledge, and sometimes their talent. Food and wine critic Dawn Land, for example, came to my rescue when I decided to set an entire chapter of my second novel, BORDEAUX: The Bitter Finish, in Veritas, an oenophile’s paradise in Manhattan. Chef Sam Hazen invited me to come with a friend to enjoy the “tasting menu,” where tiny portions of exquisite dishes were sent out from the kitchen for our delectation. My guest, Matt Tornabene, owner of Manhattan Wine Company, made sure a marriage was created between the cuisine and wine. It was a memorable evening, or so I thought at the time.

My two protagonists in the series—NYPD woman detective Max Maguire and French investigating magistrate Olivier Chaumont—sit on the same banquette Matt and I had inhabited months before, sampling the same menu over conversation that vacillated between the taste sensations they were experiencing (thank you, Dawn!) and the crime that had them flummoxed. Checking my notes while writing that book (BORDEAUX), panic set in. Had I consumed too much wine? What exactly did Chef Sam use to create the piquancy in a particular entrée? I appealed to Dawn, who wrote this for the novel: “The server brought small, white plates upon which rested Montauk Pearl oysters with tequila lime mignonette…Max savored the sensation of cold stone that the oysters had clung to before being picked…” Success!

White writing BURGUNDY: Twisted Roots, I came across a great website, www.everydayfrenchchef.com and wrote to the proprietor, Meg Bortin, an American ex-pat who is a journalist, and a stellar chef and food writer. Soon we were dining together in Paris, and it turned out she has a country house in Burgundy. It doesn’t get more serendipitous than this! She created menus for the novel, and offered additional information about the food, and a friendship was born.

My world has been enriched immeasurably by wine and food enthusiasts. I think the provenance of the term joie de vivre originated with the vignerons (or wine growers) of French vineyards.

My response when the cliché about how tough the research must be for this series is to laugh along with the audience. It would be too complicated to explain that I have a host of “accomplices” working behind the scenes.

Janet Hubbard’s third novel in her Vengeance in the Vineyard series, BURGUNDY: Twisted Roots, will be published by Poisoned Pen Press in January, 2017. Her website is www.janethubbard.com.

The Art of the Newsletter

I have invited visitors to my website to subscribe to my newsletter. I have collected names and email addresses at book launch events. I have planned to go through my subscriber list and weed out the spammers who bothered to sign-in to leave me a message about working at home (presumably at some occupation other than writing) and to come up with a list of "real people".  I have thought about sending out a newsletter and mentally walked through the process. But I have yet to really send out an actual newsletter. This is a source of recurring embarrassment when someone asks to be added to my newsletter list.

So this month, I am going to send out my "July newsletter," to be followed by my "January newsletter." I should be able to handle that, two newsletters per year.

The question is what should go into an author's newsletter. I am on the subscriber lists of a number of other authors. I'm not sure how I got on all of them, but I find it useful to see what other authors are doing. I enjoy hearing about new books and upcoming events, but I especially like the newsletters that provide something extra. Those newsletters remind me of the newsletter that my real estate agent sends out by snail mail to past and current clients. His newsletter is several pages of homeowner tips, health information, quizzes, polls, and a monthly contest. I don't read all of every newsletter, but I do glance through quickly. And I appreciate the fact that he is taking the time to maintain contact. That's the kind of newsletter I want to do.

In preparation for my first newsletter, I've been searching the Internet for tips and "best practices". Mentioned more than once:
1. Offer information of value.
2. The newsletter should be in keeping with your author brand.
3.Offer subscribers "bonuses" that they cannot find on your website.
4. Use visuals (e.g., photos and sidebars).
5. Content that works well includes: a feature article about book-related topic; your interview of another author; a new book trailer; your to be read (TBR) list; a book review.

I intend to do a feature article about the research I did for my last book that ended up "on the cutting room floor" because it turned out to be irrelevant. I have some photos that will work well. I can probably come up with information for a sidebar. And I'll share information about my current projects.

Anyone else do an author's newsletter? What do you include? Have you encountered any problems?
  

Eavesdropping

I, Donis,  am supposed to be finishing up the edits on my latest manuscript right now. My editor wants the corrected MS by the end of next week. I should be correcting away. Instead I'm taking care of every item on my to-do list for the next month. I never accomplish as many random tasks as I do when I am facing a deadline.

I blame part of my difficulty on summer, or as Charlotte so appropriately called it, the "dog days", when it's too hot to do anything, all your energy is sapped right out of you, and you can't even think coherently. It's the perfect time for reading, the perfect time for observing. And as we know, the ability to observe critically is one of the top requirements for a successful artist of any sort.

One thing that I like to do when I am in observation mode is go to a restaurant or coffee shop and blatantly eavesdrop on my fellow diners. Listening to people talk is a great way to study speech patterns, slang, dialect, as well as a great way to come up with interesting plot lines. I mean, what did s/he mean when she said that! Walking around in the mall is a good eavesdropping technique. I particularly enjoy the walking eavesdrop because one generally only gets snatches of conversation, and if one is in writer mode, one immediately begins to fill in the blanks. I often carry a small notebook with me in order to immediately write down comments that intrigue me. Following are a few actual snatches of conversation that I overheard on several mall walking occasions:

What a sweetheart. It was so horrible I didn't want to ask. Devastating, you know?

I may go out tonight just because I'm so depressed.

Do you think he saw a ghost?
You might do well to check it out...

Oh, my God, I would not share that with anyone!

I don't want to give them too many of my emotions. (either a poet or in need of a vocabulary lesson- D.)

When I was a detective, they tried to get me to take a course in Forensic entomology, but I decided that one of the two homicide detectives on the squad ought to go instead of me. (I tried to follow this guy and listen in some more, but he eluded me.- D.)

I had to kind of become a Nazi to get it back.

He looks kind of like the Hamburgler but not so happy.

My check covers utilities, rent, car payment and the f-ing plane ticket. Never mind clothes or belly dance lessons. (I call this First World Problems - D.)

John, if I wanted to be you, I would be you.

Like Spiderman, but without so much angst. He's so angsty.

The only reason he said that is because he thinks my mom is hot.

Find me an avocado. (Overheard by my husband at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, 1967, and indelibly stuck in his mind.)