Will Rogers Award

 Last Saturday I received the Will Rogers Memorial Silver Medallion for The Healer's Daughter. I was simultaneously thrilled and simply beside myself that I was unable to attend the awards ceremony. I wanted to be in Fort Worth, Texas in person. Not just virtually. 

I will receive the medallion in the mail and am scanning through Amazon for a display box to hold this award and my Kansas Notable Book Award for the same title. My finalist recognition for the High Plains Book Award is signified by a lovely mounted plaque. It will be displayed separately. 

My friend Mary Anna Evans won the gold medallion for Catacombs, a book in her wonderful Faye Longchamp archeological series. 

I'm deeply grateful for my award. This book is based on a tremendous amount of historical research about the unique community of Nicodemus, Kansas and the courageous African Americans who settled there after the Civil War. When I lived in Kansas, the town was just fifty miles away. One of the descendants of these settlers, Angela Bates, became a very close friend. She often referred to me as her "white sister with a black soul."

The book was a labor of love. I also wrote an academic book on the phenomenal contribution of Nicodemus to our country's history. Both books required long hours of poring through microfilm and old newspapers to shape the stories I wanted to tell.

Receiving any award is an incredible blessing. We writers are rather insecure folk. We work alone and dither over everything from word choice to plot construction. We wrestle with scolding characters who want to play a bigger part. We are never sure of our way or that we have arrived after we get there. Awards are like a shot of jet fuel. That and the wonder of a letter from a fan saying they liked my book.

Hat's off to all the awards chairmen and committees that soldiered on through Covid and did their best to make events as meaningful as possible during this difficult time. 

Thou Shalt Dwell

I enjoyed reading Thomas Kies’s post Thou Shalt Hoard Notebooks, partly because I love Stephen King (I’m a Mainer, after all), and partly because Tom got me thinking.

Tom offers Stephen King’s rules of writing, one of which is to take a long break after you’ve finished the draft of a novel and return to it with fresh eyes. This got me thinking about a conversation I had recently with a writer-friend who talked about hitting roadblocks mid-novel and pressing pausing.

She said she gives herself two weeks away from the novel and writes something entirely new, a short story. Once the story is finished, after a couple weeks, she goes back to the book, reads it from the start to the problem area, and usually comes up with a fix. When she leaves the novel, the new project becomes her focus. She doesn’t dwell.

I like to dwell. I’m a good dweller. (Did I just write that sentence?) I think dwelling is productive. My daughter, when she was about 10, came into the office one day and said, “Mom says you’re in here writing. Everytime I come in here, you’re just staring at the wall.”

That’s me writing. I’m a dweller.

Elmore Leonard said somewhere that he wrote the first hundred pages and then figured out where the book was going. I agree, which is probable why I love writing the first hundred pages so much. The path into the forest is never scary. It’s only after you’ve been in there a while and realize you’re lost that fear kicks in.

I’m about 27,000 words into my latest project. I’ve taken breaks to write two academic pieces (both sold, which is nice) and make an hour-long conference presentation for a pedagogy in a virtual setting, which took three weeks to prepare. And I’ve dwelled about the book and where it’s headed. A lot.

Dwelling amounts to note-taking and outlining. Nothing too formal. Asking lots of questions about motivations and why characters are doing what they’re doing and acting the way they’re acting. Plotting out the next five or six scenes.

Dwelling isn’t easy. But it can be useful.

You Know You're A Mystery Writer When... Part 2

 By Sybil Johnson

In June 2016, I wrote a post here on Type M on indications you might be a mystery writer. I think it’s time for the next round:

Some more indications you might be a mystery writer... 

You know you’re a mystery writer when... 

 - You see a bubble maker at an amusement park and you wonder if it could be used to create toxic bubbles.

 - The first thing you think of when you hear about a pumpkin race is: could a gun fit inside the pumpkin? 

 - While cooking dinner, you tell your spouse about a new poison you read about and neither of you think it's a strange thing to talk about while eating.

 -  You spend a day driving around with your spouse looking for good body dumping sites.

- You see a bonfire being built and you immediately wonder if there's a body inside. 

 - Your husband brings home a sample of Gloves In A Bottle, not because he thinks you'll find it useful, but because he thinks you can experiment with it and use it in a book.

 - You hear about a flight attendant not showing up for a flight and the first thing you wonder is if they’d find her body in her house, not if she’d get fired.

 - You watch every episode of The First 48, Forensic Files etc. and take notes. 

Here’s the list from the 2016 post so you don’t have to go look it up:

 - You see a body fat scale in a catalog and wonder if it could be modified to be used as a murder weapon. 

 - You start writing a romance and you kill off the love interest within the first two chapters.

- You like to pick out the mistakes on a television crime drama.

- The first thing you do when you enter a hotel room is look behind the shower curtain to make sure there’s no body. 

- You think twice about throwing out old underwear because someone could get your DNA off it. 

- You see someone in a hardhat working on a traffic light and wonder if they’re really fixing the light or doing a bit of surveillance.

- Someone annoys you and you immediately start planning their fictional death.

- Dinner conversation includes whipping out a set of lock picks and talking about trying them out on your hotel room door.

- You drool over the latest book on forensics.

- Your browser bookmarks include sites on poisons, how burglar alarms work and other things you wonder if the government will feel the need to interrogate you about.

Making lemonade out of lemons, Part 497

By Rick Blechta

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it must be like to be sentenced to prison. It doesn’t have to be maximum security, just a place where one can’t leave and has to live by someone else’s rules 24/7.

I’m certain everyone knows from where these thoughts are originating. Here in Toronto, we’ve been under lockdown more or less since Boxing Day, which is an appropriate start to something like this. Even though we can go out to shop for groceries and other things, we are spending most of our time in our homes, a box more or less.

Now I don’t have any experience with being incarcerated, but for 14 years I did work in a summer music camp which ran for 3-4 weeks. Since we only have one car, my wife would drive me up, give me a kiss and take off for home. I was pretty well stuck there since with only two hours off in the afternoon when the campers had recreation and our workday finishing at 9:00 pm, where could we go even if we had transportation? The nearest town was about 30 minutes away.

Even though I enjoyed many aspects of this camp, it did feel pretty claustrophobic. The best I could manage was a walk through some nearby woods. To me, it did feel a bit like prison.

So now I’m feeling that way again, my wife too. Two or three days can go by where I don’t even leave our property. The sidewalks are icy and right now it’s cold, cold, COLD, so even walking in our neighbourhood isn’t too inviting.

Michael Connelly’s most recent book, Law of Innocence (excellent novel, by the way), finds one of his series characters, Mickey Haller, in jail awaiting trial since he hasn’t been granted bail. Connelly paints a pretty good picture of the way being locked up must feel. This supplied additional fuel to my recent thoughts.

Where does my post’s title fit in, though?

Well, the other day I decided I might as well use the way I’m feeling to write some scenes of incarceration as a sort of test bed for future use, get down my thoughts while I’m in the moment.

It’s been very elucidating. In looking at stuff from a few days ago, I feel I’ve captured something worthwhile. Since there’s no immediate need for this material in my WIP, I felt free to just “let ‘er rip” and that freedom has been liberating and shows in what I’ve set down.

Will I use it? Who knows? If I do have the need for prison scenes at some future time, I’ve at least got some useable templates.

So I think this has been worthwhile to do. But it also led to an unexpected reaction: I feel a lot less worse about being cooped up indoors than I did.

And that’s a very good thing.

Stay well everyone!

Thou Shalt Hoard Notebooks

 By Thomas Kies

Starting today, I’ll be teaching my Creative Writing Class again for the next six weeks.  I always start the first class with introductions.  Then I ask each participant what they hope to get out of the class, what they enjoy reading, and if they have a work in progress. 

Then I spend some time talking about the basics that we’ll be exploring more in detail as the class moves forward.  I always start with some of Stephen King’s rules for writing.  Whether you like him or not, the man is prolific and successful and knows a thing or two about writing. 

First write for yourself and then worry about the audience—I like this advice a lot.  If I think too much about somebody reading what I’m writing, I’d never get a first draft done. 

Don’t use a passive voice--Using the passive voice distances the subject from the action of the sentence, which leads to less clarity and urgency. It can also add unnecessary words to your manuscript, since the passive voice generally requires more auxiliary verbs than the active voice does. You need a lot more space to say :The ball had been kicked by me" than to say "I kicked the ball."

Avoid adverbs, especially after “he said” and “she said”—It’s not that I personally NEVER use them, I just use them sparingly.  

Don’t obsess over perfect grammar—hell, sometimes I’ve made up words.  Not using perfect grammar can drive a copy editor nuts, but as King says, “The object of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then to tell a story.”

The magic is in you—I’m not sure what he means by this, but I like it a lot

Read, read, read— I know what he means by this.  It’s really surprising to me that when I ask my students what they enjoy reading, there are some of them who simply don’t read anything. 

Turn off the TV—I’d like to add to that, turn off the internet.  They are both black holes of time. 

Don’t worry about making other people happy—I want to make my publisher, my agent, my readers, and my wife happy when I write.  However, I don’t obsess over the subject matter or how it’s written.  My fourth book comes out in July and there’s lot in there about Climate Change.  I know some people who simply aren’t going to like it. Oh, and spoiler alert, climate change is real. 

You have three months—King suggests that a first draft shouldn’t take more than three months.  Of course, his day job is writing books.  I have a day job that’s not.  I’m not going to take this one to heart. 

Stick to your own style—I read a lot, mostly mysteries.  Sometimes I have to go back and reread some of my own work so that I don’t subconsciously try to mimic someone else’s style of writing.  

Dig—According to King, “Stories are like relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world.”  My read on that is digging deep into your own emotions and memories to get to something that connects with your readers.  

Take a break—I like to do this when the book is finished.  Walk away from it.  Don’t think about it.  But come back and look at it again with fresh eyes.  King says, “You’ll find reading your book over a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience.”

Leave out the boring parts and kill your darlings—no matter how clever you think a turn of phrase might be if it doesn’t move the story forward, throw the little bugger off a cliff.

The research shouldn’t overshadow the story—Not always as easy as it sounds.  I did a ton of research on climate science and the oil industry.  I kept wanting to show my work, but honestly, it’s best if it’s kept in the background. 

You become a writer simply by reading and writing— King said, “You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”  There’s nothing I can add to that. 

I like teaching the Creative Writing class because it forces me to go back and look at the basics.  I like to use the NBA as an example.  Even the best players in the world are continually running drills and practicing their layups. Everything comes down to knowing and practicing the basics.

That being said, my wife set up new bookshelves in the hallway and I gave her carte blanche to come into my office and take the books with which she’d like to populate the new shelves.  Along the way, she found about seven notebooks in which I’d started a project, then set it aside.

I recall a saying that goes, “The first rule of writing is thou shalt hoard notebooks.”

Publication Day

My twelfth novel, Valentino Will Die, dropped on February 2, Groundhog Day, but it was hardly a deja vu launch. Instead of being able to interact with a warm and friendly live audience, the launch was a ZOOM event with Barbara Peters through Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. As our own Barbara Fradkin noted in yesterday's entry, a virtual book launch has its good points, mainly that no one has to travel in order to attend. You can watch the event in your jammies. But it isn't quite the same experience for the author, anyway. I appreciate being able to read the audience and soak up the good vibes in person. I read our Barbara's entry with great interest, since she set up her entire launch ON HER OWN like some sort of superhero, whereas I only had to remember how to put on makeup and sign into Poisoned Pen's zoom invitation. (If you'd like to see how it went, the entire chat is archived here.) I'd better get used to this brave new world, because I feel this is the way its going to be for awhile. Since there will be no traveling for appearances or conferences for the foreseeable future, I'm in the midst of planning lots of hardcopy giveaways of earlier titles, as well as as many online events - guest blogs, articles, zoom appearances, classes - that I can talk people into hosting me for. If any of you Dear Readers have great ideas for authors on the best way to connect with you during this strange time, be a pal and let us know!

The good old days - personal contact!

In the meantime, I'm podcasting today, February 4, 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, with PatZi Gil at Joy on Paper, a syndicated radio show for writers and those who dream of writing! I hope you’ll have a listen. 

In other news, this morning I was finally was able to sign up for my first COVID vaccination on February 12, which I always considered a lucky day, since it's the birthday of both Lincoln and my uncle Paul. My husband has already had his first shot, and is scheduled for his second shot on February 13, in a different location. The entire sign-up procedure here in Arizona is convoluted in the extreme, so I consider myself lucky to have any appointment at all! Good luck to all, and stay safe until we meet again in person.

Planning a virtual book launch, Part 2; no hair left but was it worth it?

Barbara here, still alive to tell the tale. This post is the sequel to my Part 1 post two weeks ago, which you can find by scrolling through past posts. Today I talk about the invitation process, because that's where I lost most of my hair, and the actual event itself. So there I was; two weeks before the launch, I had designed a spiffy Eventbrite invitation, with the graphic courtesy of my publisher, I had bought a 100-participant  Zoom webinar package on top of the Zoom Pro Plan (for one month), and I had designed and scheduled the Zoom Webinar.

Eventbrite claimed it could generate an email campaign to send invitations to all my email contacts, and it could also interface with Facebook and Twitter to allow me to invite friends on social media sites. Having invitations delivered by both email and Facebook was important because I have friends and readers in both places. Email first. It turns out I needed to design an exciting email to catch their attention, which contained a link to the main Eventbrite invitation. More work! Fortunately they had a template which I could customize. So far so good. Then I had to send it out via my "subscriber lists", of which I had none. If I had Mail Chimp or Excel or other email list, I could import it, but it didn't like my jumbled mess of contacts. So one by one, I went through my contacts and entered their emails in my newly created subscriber list. Hours later, I had created three subscriber lists. One for local contacts, another for the rest of Canada, and a third for international friends. I figured splitting them up might save me time in the future. The good news is that Eventbrite saves these lists, so if I ever need them again, there they are! But this is not the time to ask if I'll ever use them again.

So I sent the emails out to the lists and turned my attention to social media. Twitter was a piece of cake. Eventbrite supplied a Twitter URL which I simply included in a tweet and off it went into the twittersphere. Facebook was where I lost most of my hair. Eventbrite said it had a seamless interface with Facebook, but they need to look "seamless" up in the dictionary. First, it wouldn't post it to my personal page, where most of my friends and readers hang out, but only to my author page. So it created an Eventbrite announcement that went on my author page, which almost no one looks at and which is almost impossible to navigate. I knew no one would see it there. I hunted around on the site and in the invitation, and finally found a way to "invite friends". So I went through my friend list and selected all those I thought might be interested. When I got through that task, Facebook gave me an error message so I had to do it all over again, breaking it into smaller groups.

Pressed share, and waited to see what happened. Nothing. By this time I had discovered that on my Eventbrite page, I could see each ticket "sold". Quite a few emailed invitations had been viewed and tickets "purchased." Facebook? Nada. I emailed a few friends whom I'd been using as guinea pigs, and one said there was nothing on her FB page and no alert, but she had found the invitation hiding in her Facebook notifications. Who checks their notifications? Not me. So then I posted notices (several over time) on my personal and author pages for friends to check notifications for their Eventbrite invite. An even sillier complication? The Facebook post on my author page gave people the option of clicking "going" "interested", etc. Numerous people had clicked "going", but that did absolutely nothing to get them a ticket. They needed to click on the "find ticket" button buried further down. So I posted more notices on my personal page to clarify the distinction. Bottom line? Eventbrite needs to improve their Facebook interface.

Was I ready for the event now? All running smoothly? Not quite. In the first twenty-four hours, I had "sold" half of the 100 tickets I could fit in my Webinar. And that was even before I invited on Facebook. I knew not everyone wold actually show up, but I didn't want people turned away, so I decided I had to buy a bigger Webinar package. The next size up was 500 participants, which was overkill, but given that I wasn't paying for a room, for food, or other launch costs, I went for it. I won't bore you with the details of trying to "chat" with the Zoom bots; suffice to say I needed an extra big glass of wine by the time I had made the switchover without destroying the existing webinar I had set up.

Once all that was done, I breathed easier and even designed a PowerPoint slide show to welcome people and entertain them while attendees joined in. In the end, 227 people bought tickets and 135 joined in on the night. Rick, my daughter, a tech savvy friend, and I had several practice sessions to make sure the settings were right, the chat and Q&A were enabled properly, the view was correct, and the lighting good. Even so, I chewed my nails. The event itself was a blast, and the feedback afterwards was gratifying.

Many people commented how much they liked the intimate, in-depth, conversational format and the fact they could tune in from home even if they were thousands of kilometres away. They even said they'd prefer this virtual format even when in-person events are allowed again. I enjoyed the hour but I did miss the personal contact. Launches are usually a chance to see old friends again and share some laughs, and it was very unsatisfying to talk into the green light of the camera instead. But I'm very glad that most people seemed to really enjoy it.

There were some technical glitches. Some people couldn't get it, some couldn't sign into Eventbrite on the night and others couldn't find the Zoom URL. Others just said it didn't work. I'm really sorry for these glitches, and sorry people missed out, but so much is out of our control when it comes to technology. 

The verdict? It was worth it. My hair and finger nails will grow back. Now, if only I'd remembered to record it!

Book Restoration

by Rick Blechta

A good year or two ago I posted some videos about how leather-bound books are made and restored. Since we all enjoy books, I figured visitors to Type M would be interested. That turned out to be an understatement. Everyone found the videos as engrossing as I did.

Here’s one I ran across the other day and the skill level of the restorer is quite amazing. Some interesting parts — like how disassembled volumes are re-assembled — are missing, but there is a lot of solid and engrossing information here.

So I thought I would share it with everyone. We all have a few “well-loved books” in need of help. I certainly do. I just wonder what this talented woman’s fee would be.

Enjoy!

What's the score?

Happy Monday from Douglas in Scotland.

One of the many common questions put to authors is whether they listen to music while they write. 

I do listen to music while I bang away at the keyboard. And I can grow quite evangelistic about the sort of music I prefer.

Ever since I was a lad I have appreciated, enjoyed, nay, loved movie scores. This goes back to even before I was fully aware that people actually wrote them. I'm sure I didn't believe they just arrived whole from the heavens but I couldn't at that time name a composer. 

It was predominently western themes that caught my interest at first, with a smattering of TV themes. The Big Country, The Magnificent Seven on the big screen, Doctor Who, Mission:Impossible, Man in a Suitcase among the small screen offerings.

I still have the first album I ever bought with my own money - well, my parents' money, because I was at the time without funds of my own due to not being in gainful employment, child labour having been effectively outlawed in the UK for a number of years. 

It was a collection of movie themes on the United Artists label and it cost me the princely sum of 21 shillings. That's £1.05 in today's decimals. And yes, it had versions of The Big Country and The Magnificent Seven.

And just to prove it -

As I grew older I realised there was a whole world of such music out there. There was a snag, though.

Simply this - it wasn't cool.

I was met by superior smirks and sneers when I professed a love for the compositions of John Barry, Elmer Bernstein and Lalo Schifrin (whose music was cool even then but they didn't understand that. I give you one word. Bullitt. I rest my case).

In fact, it was Schifrin's theme to Enter the Dragon, complete with Bruce Lee's vocal stylings, that had a sales assistant actually laugh in my face when I requested the single. It wasn't Bowie, or T. Rex, or even Perry Como, who I could have been buying for my mother. This was the tune to a film, for goodness sake! And because he never saw it on Top of the Pops or The Old Grey Whistle Test (two shows popular here in the UK back then showcasing pop and rock) I was a figure to be scorned. The mocking look irritated me then and it does now. 

I refused to be bullied by these arbiters of cool. My love of movie scores grew. At that time they were called soundtracks but that had to change as more film makers opted to use pop and rock on their movies. If custom-written music was used it was released as the Original Score. That is, when it was released, or at least available here in the UK.

So when I'm writing, it is more often than not film music blasting over the speakers - and I will often select it to fit the storyline and, on a meta level, the particular scene I am writing that day. If it's something soft and perhaps lyrical then James Horner might come into play. If it's an action beat then Jerry Goldsmith is the man for me. Incidentally, he is my all-time favourite composer and no matter who else I mention here, no matter what I'm writing, there will be at least one of his compositions also used. Thought you'd want to know.

For a long time I thought I was alone in this but in the past few years I've discovered that there are other authors who take the same approach. 

There is a reason for this.

Film music should be about story and emotion and atmosphere. The best composers, past and present, have to be storytellers as much as the screenwriter and director. They have to understand pace and mood. They have to know what will work in a particular scene in order to bring out its intent. A good composer can also make a mediocre film more exciting than it actually is - Jerry Goldsmith was a master of that. 

That is why I find such music so helpful in my writing. It's all about the feels.

When writing my first Rebecca Connolly book 'Thunder Bay', my scores of choice were, among others, 'The Fury' and 'Dracula' by John Williams but also some classical pieces, particularly 'Isle of the Dead' by Rachmaninov and various bits of Sibelius. I wanted that dark, brooding feel, you see, and they deliver that in spades. 

For the next in the series, 'The Blood is Still', I went for Bear McCreary's music for various series of 'Outlander'. There was a Jacobite rebellion connection to the story and the music worked perfectly. Obviously! (Also, he is one of the best composers working today). Because there was a childhood memory element, I also used Elmer Bernstein's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'

For three months I have been battering away at a spec novel that has been in my head for years. Around 100,000 words since November. I will pause here for you all to say attaboy.

It's an historical adventure/thriller and for its score I relied on two Spanish composers - Fernando Velazquez and Roque Banos. Their work is dark, mysterious and richly romantic, making it just the job for my storyline. 

The book may never see the light of day but I had a ball writing it and the music had a lot to do with that. Roque Banos' music for the Spanish period film 'Alatriste' is an absolute joy and contributed greatly to what I hope is the spirit of my book.

Am I listening to something as I write this?

Well, I am, thank you for asking.

I have Daniel Pemberton's music to the revamped 'The Man from UNCLE' blaring right now. It's bright, breezy and carries enough of the spirit of the 60s and Lalo Schifrin cool, mixed with some John Barry and Ennio Morricone, to make it work in the film, as a listening experience and as a nostalgia piece. My only gripe is that it doesn't feature the original theme to the TV show at any stage. 

Guess who wrote that? 

Clue - his first name was Jerry...

Tech Blues

 Yesterday I had another frustrating encounter with technology. The video trial period had run out on my Ring Doorbell. I received notice that I should enroll in a Protect Plan. There was an inexpensive one available. I quite like Ring because I can hear the doorbell in my basement. 

When I went on-line I was informed that I didn't have an account. I certainly did. My iPhone said so. The device worked perfectly. So I got in touch with a very savvy tech person. She patiently walked me through a number of steps. 

Nothing worked. According to the computer I simply didn't have an account. 

That was so not true. I protested vigorously to the techy. We went back and forth for a while. I kept getting notices that I was taking too much time between responses and the chat would soon close if I didn't reply at a faster pace. My problem was the length of time it took to alternate between the chat, the website, and the info on my phone. 

Finally she suggested that I had set up the account using a different email. She cut me off. 

I never use a different email. Like never. But I had. Then I remembered why. 

The Geek Squad person who came to install the first doorbell discovered my wiring wasn't sufficient and I needed a battery-charged device. He had set up an account using my usual email. So I was forced to use alternate identification when I switched to another device. 

The whole tech exchange took a lot of time. I mean a lot. 

Barbara's post on working through the dynamics of setting up virtual launches contained wonderful information. I really appreciated it. In fact, I would love to get more information about blog tours. 

We have to bite the bullet. Tech skills are part of the game now. I am fairly tech savvy, but learning process upon process takes a great deal of time. 

I'm cleaning out some of stuff during this forced Covid exile. There is a cache of fan letters over the years. Real actual letters. I was--and still am--very grateful for them. They remind me that my main job is producing books. Not conquering technology. 

Juggling

I have a short entry this week because the discussion seems pretty straightforward.

I’m always amazed at my friends who juggle different writing projects at once. These writers work on a novel and a story or script simultaneously. They seem to have the ability to juggle the characters, plots, and settings.

This topic came up recently in a conversation I had with SJ Rozan, who spoke about working on a story while writing a novel. I listened closely because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to write more stories while trying to finish a novel every year or 18 months. SJ was telling me how she hits pause on a novel when she reaches a difficult spot, writes a short story (in a week or two), then returns to the novel with fresh eyes.

This makes sense to me, and it’s something I plan to try. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on the topic of juggling projects.

Developing A Tough Skin

 

Reading Tom’s and Rick’s posts from the last couple days reminds me that writing is not for the faint of heart. At least if you want to be a published writer. Your work won’t appeal to everyone and may, as in Tom’s case, spark the need for someone to write you a letter and tell you why (in this case it felt more like a lecture) they didn’t. And why they’d never read your work again.

I’ve never had anyone write me such a letter (yet), but I really haven’t been writing that long so I’m sure I’ll get something at some point. And I’ve never had anyone come up to me at a signing event and tell me they read one of my books and disliked it, as someone did to Rick. In that case, I picture the person saying what she said and tossing the book on the table in disdain.

I have had someone come up to me at a conference and tell me the cover of one of my books wasn’t great. All I did was nod and say thank you for your feedback. Somehow, criticizing a cover doesn’t get to me like criticizing my words. Probably because I didn’t create the cover in the first place.

But I’ve had my share of bad reviews. I remember reading a review of one of the first short stories I ever had published and feeling like I wanted to curl up into a ball. I think I actually cried. The review was quite thoughtful, but it made a point that I remember to this day. It said that the reviewer felt like I’d given up toward the end of the story and was racing to the finish to just get it done. After some thought, I realized they were right. I have a tendency to get tired toward the end of a project (no matter what it is) and want to just get it over with. To this day, I remember what that reviewer said and slow myself down toward the end of a project, making sure I’m not just trying to “get it done.”

But, from that point on, I pretty much haven’t read reviews, good or bad, unless they are part of a blog tour. I just don’t have a thick enough skin to deal with bad ones and, for even the good ones, if they mention one teeny tiny thing that’s negative, I fixate on that. I do occasionally break that rule for good reviews just to see what’s being said, but it’s pretty rare.

That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate all of those reviews, good or bad. I think reviews are for readers more than the writer, anyway.

I’ve definitely acquired a thicker skin than I had when I read that short story review. But I’m still a work in progress. I’m hoping for the day when any negative comments will just roll off my back and I won’t feel the sting.

File under: You Can’t Please ’Em All

By Rick Blechta

You’ve just got to read Tom Kies’ post (just below this post). I read that and was laughing out loud — really.

“It takes all kinds,” is all I have to say.

I guess it comes down to people’s self-importance. Tom’s correspondent obviously feels he/she Must Teach Thomas Kies A Lesson. My response would be, “As if I care.” It’s not that I’m a hard-ass. I really do want everyone to enjoy my novels and I do feel bad when someone doesn’t. But…

I learned a long time ago that you have to be willing to take the punches when you put your work out in public. Every author has collected a fair share of bad reviews. I certainly have.

But what gets up my nose is when I’m lectured to. Tom’s correspondent is obviously trying to make a point — a needless point, really — that they are better than him, more understanding and more gracious. He obviously insulted this person greatly, but it was only because they feel self-important. “Let me point out the error of your ways, son…”

I have been on the receiving end of some rather, shall we say, pointed emails over my writing years. With only one exception they were prompted by errors I’d made. Some people are kind when they do this, but some people use this information to try to hurt. The funny thing is, my first response to an error I’ve made is that I’ve let down my readers. Why? Because I could have avoided those errors by doing better research. I should have fact-checked something but didn’t. I do not hesitate to issue a mea culpa in these cases, vow to do better in the future, and always reply. The emails that are obviously meant to be hurtful or prove the correspondent’s superior knowledge I ignore. I figure they’ve got issues that make them do this, so it’s better not to engage.

Years ago now I was doing a signing with Vicki Delany since we both had new books out. One lady came up, looked over my new book

“I think I may have read one of your books before,” she told me. Looking at the back cover, she added, “Yes. I did. I didn’t like it very much. It was a bad book.”

And with that, she walked away.

Why would someone think this was the way to handle this situation?

I guess the (generous) answer is, “It takes all kinds.”

But the juvenile inside of me was tempted to shout out, “Well, at least I’m not an ugly person like you!”

Weird Mail

 By Thomas Kies

This week has been a very good week…mostly.  It’s a new day in America, vaccines are rolling out (although, it’s a rocky road to be sure), and my publisher has told me that there’s good news afoot with the re-release of my first book, RANDOM ROAD.  More to come on that. 

Cool stuff.

The one tiny fly in a big tub of ointment was a letter I received through the mail on Inauguration Day.  While I was watching the new President take the oath of office on my computer, one of my staffers handed me a letter with my name on it. 

I opened it and found a two-page letter in lovely handwriting from someone in Columbus, Ohio.  

The letter read: “I bought your book DARKNESS LANE from a library book sale.  Before reading it I checked out RANDOM ROAD so I could read your series in order.  But as it turns out, I’m not going to read them at all.  I want to tell you why.  It might not matter to you—but maybe you can learn from this or at least become aware of it.”

In essence, the letter writer objected to this passage on the very first page of my first book.  In it, my protagonist, Geneva Chase, a crime journalist, is explaining to the reader a little bit about who she is.  The passage reads, “My name’s been on the byline of hundreds of stories over the last twenty years, in four newspapers, three magazines, a half dozen websites, and, for a very short, shame-filled stint, Fox News.”

The letter writer told me that he/she watches Fox News (along with other media by the way) and voted for President Trump. 

He/she went on to say, “One tiny little action I can take (a peaceful protest if you will) against those who are not my respecting my side is to not read your book.  Those words, “Shame-filled stint at Fox” wounded me.  I get slammed even in a mystery book? I wonder why you felt the need to include a swipe like that. Did you think it sound cool?”

Well, yeah. I know it felt kind of cool when I wrote it.

But you know, I never explained why Geneva was ashamed of her time at Fox.  She was a heavy drinker in those days.  Who knows what she might have done?  And there was a lot of sexual harassment going on in that company in those days.  Or so I’ve read.

The letter writer continued, “Thankfully there are many other books for me to read.  Oh my goodness! I’m starting to feel bad about this.  Like I might be hurting your feelings.  Probably not.  I hope not.”

No, my feelings weren’t hurt.  I’ve been slammed much harder than this. Writers have to have a thick skin. 

The writer went on to say, “The vast majority of Fox watchers are good, smart, interesting, tolerant, freedom loving people.  We are not racists; we are not rubes.  We think for ourselves.  We deserve respect. 

“That’s it.  I’m not including my name etc.  “Our Side” tends to lay low as it can be dangerous to say the wrong thing.”

These are dangerous times we are all living in.  

I try not to get too political when I’m writing a mystery.  But Geneva Chase is a snarky smart-ass.  It’s in her nature to be insulting.  That’s why she’s so much fun to write.   She gets to say things I can’t.

To my letter writer from Columbus, Ohio.  Sorry if you felt insulted.  RANDOM ROAD wasn’t written with that intent in mind. 

Listening to the World

 I have to admit that I am much more visual than aural as I move through the world. I love colors and shapes and visual connections. I like moving furniture around and flipping through magazines to look at how rooms are designed. I find it difficult to spend time in certain rooms because I find them oppressive. I wear pops of color on rainy days. I see first and then understand. I watch people -- their smiles and frowns and gestures. I remember faces although I have always had a problem remembering names. 

This week I have had the experience of spending time with someone who listens to the world. Oddly enough that someone is my new puppy -- Fergus, an almost 4 month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He arrived from Maryland a couple of Sundays ago, and he alternates between bursts of boundless

energy -- leaping, barking, nipping fingers -- and passing out with legs in the air in puppy exhaustion.

What is fascinating about Fergus, with his face so solemn in repose, is that he listens. A trip to the backyard is full of trotting about and tugging on his leash and digging up and trying to consume doubtful items. But there are also moments, when he stops and sits down or goes still of a sudden. During those moments, his head moves from side to side as he listens to birds in a nearby bush or the traffic passing on the two streets parallel to ours or to the sound of another dog barking. He listens to the wind and the squirrels. He seems to be taking it all in to his fluffy ears and storing it in his mental files. 

I am fascinated by this because I have had dogs before, and I don't remember any of them listening in this way. Yes, when there was a familiar sound or something out of the ordinary that put them on alert. But none of them with Fergus's absorption in the everyday. Or, with his silence.

Watching Fergus listen makes me listen. And that reminds me of how much better use I should make of sounds in my descriptions -- and in my plotting. I need to think about what my characters attend to when they listen.What sounds delight them or make a shiver run down their spine?

I'm not sure I even have the words to describe some sounds. I must see if there is a list somewhere.

And I will continue to watch my dog and try to move beyond my default setting and use my ears.

Note: Harry, my cat, seems to share my visual orientation.

More Virtual Book Launching

 Oh my God, people, what a week, month, year it has been. Today is inauguration day, so I've spent most of the day glued to the television, watching events, celebrating, and breathing a sigh of relief. My last entry on this blog was Jan. 6.  My mood was much different. Horrified. Reading Charlotte's entry, below, gave me chills. Her experiences, coupled with the Capitol riot, reminded me of one of Brad Pitt's lines out of the movie Troy: "Men are wretched creatures." I've seen so much goodness in my lengthy life, but sometimes I despair. But thankfully, sanity has returned. At least for the moment. 

Now it's back to work. I read Barbara's entry from yesterday with great interest. I, too, am doing a virtual book launch in ten short days for my second Bianca Dangereuse Hollywood Mystery, Valentino Will Die.

Who is trying to kill the world's greatest lover? As Rudolph Valentino lies dying, his dear friend and screen idol in her own right, Bianca LaBelle, promises him she will find out who is responsible. One of his many lovers? A delusional fan? Or could it be a particularly vicious mobster? Publishers Weekly says “Lovers of old movies and Hollywood gossip will have fun.” 

I can only be thankful that my launch will be a Facebook Live virtual event hosted by Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale Arizona on January 30 at 4:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time  (6:00 Eastern, 5:00 Central, 3:00 Pacific). I have nothing but awe and admiration for Barbara for planning the Jan. 28 virtual launch of The Ancient Dead FROM SCRATCH. My hat is off, and I hope Barbara's event is a smashing success.

Of course, I hope my event is a success, as well, so I hope you'll check in and join me at Poisoned Pen Bookstore's Facebook page on the day. Fortunately, all I have to do is ZOOM. I did learn how to share photos while zooming, which is about the limit of my ability to learn new things.

I’ll be all around the blogiverse and the podcast airwaves for the next few months, and I plan to do a number of book giveaways, as well, both of the Bianca novels set in 1920s Hollywood and the Alafair novels set in 1910s Oklahoma, so keep your eyes peeled!

I'll be podcasting on February 4, 11:00 Eastern Standard Time, with PatZi Gil at Joy on Paper, a syndicated radio show for writers and those who dream of writing! I hope you’ll have a listen.

And now I must sign off and return to another frustrating task that has had me flummoxed for a week - trying to make an appointment for a Covid vaccine shot. Wish me luck, and I hope to see you on the 30th.

Planning a virtual book launch; Part 1, hair tearing and panic attacks

Today, as you read this, the United States and most of the world are collectively holding our breath, hoping for peace while fearing the worst as one of the most momentous shifts in power takes place. I don't yet know how it will turn out, but my thoughts are with the United States today.

But meanwhile, closer to home and on a much more trivial scale, I have been wrestling with my own drama over the past two weeks. That is when I began planning the virtual launch of my latest book, which has landed with a soundless thud smack in the middle of the pandemic dead zone. How hard can it be? I asked myself. I've done lots of Zoom meetings and chats over the past year, some small and personal, others more formal. I've even hosted the odd friend meeting. 

Hah.

The first challenge was how to invite people. I have a disorganized contact list of emails that includes everything from my plumber to the fan who wrote to me from New Mexico. I have no newsletter, no mail chimp, no quick and easy way to separate out the plumber from the fan. As well, I needed to send out the invitations at least two weeks in advance in order to give people enough time to block it into their calendar, but two weeks is a long time to keep track of that Zoom invite if their inbox is as chaotic as mine. So I consulted Google and Facebook friends, and settled on the Eventbrite solution. Eventbrite keeps track of registrants and sends out reminders, and most importantly, it's FREE if the event is free.

I tackled Eventbrite, bringing my knowledge from about 0% to approximately 25% in a couple of days and designing an invitation. There were step by step instructions, and the chance to preview my efforts along the way. Next I needed to somehow link it to a Zoom event so that registrants would receive the link to access the event. I knew I had to test this invitation and its Zoom link to make sure it all worked right before I launched it out into the world, so I created a dummy event – a Zoom meeting – which I inserted into the invite, and then I sent it out to a few close friends to see whether the whole thing worked. It did, and we had a brief Zoom meeting to discuss problems that were encountered. Not many, other than the tedious business of setting up an Eventbrite account and registering. But as my friends pointed out, almost every online business requires you set up an account nowadays, so that shouldn't deter people.

Next I had to set up the actual real Zoom event. Oy. I had no idea how many people would actually attend, but the beauty of a virtual event is that people can tune in from all around the world. I have friends and family, and hopefully unknown fans, all over. I wanted to invite everyone I could think of who might be interested (although not the plumber). 50 people might come, or 150 people. Who knew? I have been to Zoom meetings with 50 little thumbnail faces all over the screen. It doesn't work. It also wouldn't work to have 50 people trying to talk at once. Reluctantly I realized I would need to mute the attendees and hide their videos, so the audience would only see and hear me. Which would be incredibly boring. So I opted instead for an interview format and asked my friend and thriller writer Rick Mofina to interview me.

Once I decided on a two-person interview plus Q&A, I decided that one hour was the perfect length for the event. Shorter, and you can't say all the fascinating things you want to. Longer, and the audience's eyes begin to glaze over. And the date and time was also important. What hour would be convenient for most people, considering this would go across time zones? I settled on 7 pm. Here in the east, most people would be finishing their supper but not yet asleep in front of the TV. On the west coast, it would be 4 pm, at the end of the major work day but before supper. Cocktail hour. I did get notices from across the pond saying it's 2 am for us here, for which I'm sorry. You can't accommodate everyone, as the Olympics found out.

Next I started to research how to set up a Zoom meeting for this format. Google, YouTube, tech contacts, and Facebook friends put in their two cents. It was suggested I could hire a tech person, but being an author with all the financial limitations that entails, I thought, how hard can it be? In the end, I realized I needed a Zoom Webinar, not a Zoom Meeting. So I set about learning everything I could about Zoom Webinars in two days. Time was getting short. I watched three live training sessions on Zoom (all free) and read through their guides and step-by step instructions. First of all, I needed to purchase the appropriate Zoom plan (the free basic 40-minute one wasn't going to cut it). I settled on the cheapest Webinar package for 100 participants which, added to the Zoom Pro Plan, brought the cost to about $75 CAD. I bought only one license, because only one person can be a host at a time. But I could assign co-host duties to someone else (my lucky daughter, in Toronto on her own computer) during the event so I didn't have to juggle everything myself while being interviewed.

Then I set about scheduling and configuring the Zoom webinar. Luckily the live Zoom sessions and set-by-step instructions made this a "relatively" easy part. I invited both Rick and my daughter as panelists, enabled the Q&A function, and did a couple of other things that I hope work. I chose "no registration required", because the attendees had already registered through Eventbrite. One of the beauties of Zoom webinars is that they allow practice sessions, so once the event is scheduled, you can do dry runs as often as you like. 

Next up came the process of sending out the invitations, running the practice session, and finally the event itself. All that is a blog post in itself, so stay tuned in two weeks for Part 2; no hair left but was it worth it?Here's the link to the Eventbrite invitation, in case you want to find out for yourself. Meanwhile, if anyone has held a virtual book launch, or attended one, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A box of issues

 Hi - Douglas Skelton in the hotseat again from cold and damp Scotland.

It's a funny old thing, the English language. I mean, there are words that are spelled the same, are pronounced the same but can mean different things.

Let's look at the word "issue", for instance.

It can mean to leave (issue forth). It can relate to publications (in this week's issue). It can refer to progeny, or the lack thereof (he died without issue). And it can describe personal problems (that Skelton fella has issues).

And it can mean the events of the day.

There's a reason why this etymological conundrum has been on my mind. The word in one of its myriad of meanings has been used in relation to one of my books.

My most recent novel came out in the USA last week. I'm sorry if this seems like shameless marketing (Just to be clear, I'm not really sorry. It's called The Blood is Still and it's out in hardback from Arcade CrimeWise).

Anyway, it's had a couple of fabulous reviews in the home of the brave, one a starred review in Publishers' Weekly, but I don't like to brag. (Just to be clear, yes I do).

The other one, in Library Journal, was also very gratifying but I won't go into detail (just to be clear, they said it was 'an intricately plotted thriller ...  lyrical and thoughtful'.)

It said it was an issue-orientated novel.

I thought, whoa - did I do that?

Here's the thing - turns out I did.

It was written in 2019 and came out in the UK in March 2020. It has its themes and variations, of course, but I didn't set out to write about issues, at least not consciously.

Yes, there is a disturbing, always-in-the-news facet to the plotline as well as an examination of the challenges facing local journalism here in Scotland.

In addition, there is a sub-plot concerning right-wing politics.  Perhaps that, in light of recent events, has given what I simply describe as a thriller a bit more relevance.

There is even a riot when supporters of a neo-fascist go on the rampage.

Pointing no fingers, of course.

Did I have the rise of the far right in mind when I wrote it two years ago? Yes, without a doubt, for it has been seen here too.

Does the growth of extremism - left, right, religious - cause me concern? In other words, do I have an issue with it? You bet I do, but was I setting out to make a point, be controversial, form a polemic? Not consciously. My principal aim is always to simply tell a story, to create characters that hopefully step off the page and walk around the room with the reader.

As Sam Goldwyn said, messages are for Western Union.

But I was setting my story against real-world problems, and extremism is very much a hot topic so perhaps on some level I was tackling that issue. 

Everything seems politicised now - from the wearing of a mask during a global epidemic to whether you prefer Sex and the City over The Sopranos. Yes, there was such a debate on Twitty with some people growing quite heated and personal. It became a male/female argument, which is frankly ridiculous but that's where we are these days. Like one, like the other, like both. It's a matter of personal taste.

But one tweet was all it took for it to become an issue.

Political extremism has been on the bubble for some time.

To be honest, I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here. I am most certainly not arguing against the review (I have no issue with it at all). I am grateful for it and pleased the reviewer enjoyed the book. I am always gratified when people take the time and effort to review. 

Well, maybe not the bad ones.

It was just that it took me aback slightly because, as I said, I did not set out to write an issue-oriented story though, now that it has been pointed out, I see that to an extent it is. 

I'm also amazed that it took a reviewer to make me realise it and that made me wonder if I had done it before. The only other book of mine I could come up with was book 3 of my Davie McCall series which in part dealt with the treatment of veterans in civvy street. It was one character, but it was there. 

Someone once said something along the lines of that if you want to understand the condition of a society at any given time, read its crime fiction. I think there is some truth in that.

As long as we also tell a good story. 

I'm sure no one will take issue with that.

PS - I was asked last time to publish a shot of Tom, the cat. Or He Who Must Be Obeyed. Here he is giving me the kind of look that tells me I've forgotten to do something, I'm about to forget to do something or there is something I have not done which I didn't know I was supposed to do and therefore could not technically forget to do it but I'm going to be punished all the same.

The Mob and Me

This has been a dreadful week. Doubly so for me as it brought back frightening memories. In 1963 my husband I were at the center of the infamous Garnett Race Riots. Race in this case does not indicate people of color. Race referring to car races as in the Grand Prix.

Don was the Undersheriff in Anderson County Kansas. I was the jail matron. We had a two year old daughter. Our residence was in the center of the town which was built on a square. It was a multi-story brick building. The jail was on the top floor.

Garnett was a small town of about 5,000 people. I don't know when the races started. The peak attendance for this event was estimated at 75,000 people. The 2.8-mile road course at Lake Garnett brought in cars from all of the major automakers including Ferrari, Maserati, Shelby, Chevrolet and Austin-Healey. A Cobra won that year.

That night all hell brought loose. About 3000 young people descended on the town square. The crowd grew rowdy. There was drunken lewd behavior. Scary stuff going on. The chief of police decided to close the beer joints. The group was outraged. There were arrests. The arrests triggered further violence with cries of freedom and a vow to spring the victims. They decided to take the jail.

The jail was my happy home, remember. Luckily our two-year-old daughter was at my parents house that night. The mob was attacked with fire hoses and as much police force as our tiny little burg could muster. Throughout the night law enforcement came from all over the state. The governor called out the national guard.

My shotgun was propped up against my daughters toy chest. There were shotguns and rifles and police in every room of my house. I, and my sister-in-law, made sandwiches and coffee all night long. A policeman died. Over fifty persons were injured. These were mostly hell-raising college students who were intoxicated with both booze and the thrill of the car races. But what sticks in my mind to this day were the cries of "take the jail. Take the jail."

The races were discontinued the next year.

I don't participate in marches, even though I believe in peaceful protests. I believed in the effectiveness of the Black Lives Matter march. Also the Me Too movement. But marches can quickly turn into something else. They grow out of control. You can't tell who you will be marching next to. Marches can turn into mobs.

I was horrified and sickened by last weeks events. This was far from a peaceful protest. I cried all day.

Even as I write this my hands are shaking. My heart ached for those frightened members of congress. There are still those voices in my mind. "Take the jail, take the jail."

A week or a lifetime?

My calendar says I last posted two weeks ago. The newscycle says time is no longer linear (if it ever was).

I sat glued to the TV last week in a way I have not since Sept. 11, 2001. I think I (and every American) was catapulted back in time about two hundred years. I find myself saying (perhaps naively), “We survived 1968” far too often of late. It’s a way for me to speak life into my hope that the sun will come out Jan. 21, and I’ll feel the ship, although still wobbly, straighten and stop taking on water. In short, for me, it’s a way of moving beyond.

All of this leads to the writing topic at the forefront of my mind: Deciding whether or not to discuss contemporary politics in a crime novel. Ezra Pound famously said artists are the antennae of the race. That speaks to a writer’s responsibility. I love reading novels and poems that tackle weighty societal issues. However, this week, I’m reading Megan Abbott’s You Will Know Me and enjoying the absolute escape of the whodunit before falling asleep. I tell students in my Advanced Studies in Rhetoric class on day one that “fiction is universal; non-fiction rarely is.” Can fiction be universal, if it dives deeply but truly into one society’s political issue? Perhaps going deep enough and honestly enough will allow the issue to resonate for readers. And perhaps some readers wish to experience a mystery through a historical or societal lens. I have few answers but many more questions.

The events of this past week –– watching the United States Capital be overrun, seeing a presidency (further) implode; knowing 68 arrests (as of this writing) were made but that had the domestic terrorists been people of color there would have been mass carnage; and worrying about what might play out Jan. 20 –– has me wondering how much my characters should be impacted by (or aware of) the political landscape when they meet on the page. How much social commentary is too much?

I know this: If a decade ago I’d have proposed a political novel with a plot ending with the events taking place last week at the United States Capital, you wouldn’t have bought it.