Favorite (And Least Favorite) Things About Writing

 

by Sybil Johnson 

I’ve been thinking lately about what I do and don’t like about writing. Overall it’s a big like, otherwise I wouldn’t bother writing at all. But, pretty much like everything else I’ve done, there are things I’m not particularly enamored of.

I don’t know if this is just me but, no matter how much I like doing something, there’s always a part that makes me groan just a little. Sometimes groan a lot. And, always, at the end of a long project I want to hurry up and get it finished. I’ve learned to curb this last bit because I know that I don’t always do the best job when I’m in a hurry.

Here are my favorites and least favorites: 

- My favorite parts about writing a new story or the plotting and editing. I’m not a huge outliner. As I’ve noted before, I’m more of a plantser. I think about the crime and the characters involved and a bit about the major story arcs, then I start writing. I also love editing something I’ve already written. No matter how bad it is, I enjoy whipping it into shape.

- My least favorite part about writing a new story is working on the first draft. It’s not a horrible dislike. I do have fun writing new scenes. But it’s hard, hard work. At least for me.

- My least favorite thing about the non-writing aspects of the publishing world are trying to get someone to publish your work and marketing. I’d much rather be working on a story than figuring out how to place ads or do the independent publishing thing. I do, however, enjoy being interviewed for podcasts and being on panels at conventions. I missed Left Coast Crime and I won’t be at Malice Domestic this year. (I’ve been to the last 7 so I am very sad about this one.) I will, however, be at Bouchercon in San Diego. I love going to conventions to meet readers, talk about my books and see the many mystery writers I’ve met over the years. 

- The final thing I enjoy about writing is the satisfaction of having a project finished, knowing that it all came out of my imagination. That is a truly satisfying thing about writing.

This year I’m going to work on the things I don’t like, figuring out how to improve in those areas.

What about you all? What are your favorite and/or least favorite things about writing or the publishing biz?

What in the World?

 by Charlotte Hinger

I'm going through a novel, tightening wherever possible, and discovered the strangest thing. I dislike the construction of "said he" rather than "he said." But the "said he" usage is throughout my book. I have no idea how that happened, or why I didn't notice it. 

Thanks to the power of global searches, I will simply ask Word to find "said" and look at how it's used. Of course, it's better if "said" is used sparingly. That is not to say it should be followed by an adverb, but unique vivid description of action or a character tag. 

In addition to "said he" I'm annoyed by long passages of unattributed dialogue. I find too many authors think their dialogue is so skillfully done that the reader can easily tell who is speaking. 

For that matter, I don't like fiction that has no quotation marks. Writers who omit them strike me as affected in some way. 

Now, I'm worried that my previously published books have some peculiarity that I was unaware of. Are my other novels riddled with "said he"? What else have I done? I don't have the guts to look. 

Writers who care about improving become much better craftsmen over time. Even if no one is coaching them. I don't know how this happens. To be honest, I don't understand how the writing process works. All I know is that I'm better than I used to be. 

I have a contract for the book I'm revising now. Word count is limited to 105,000. That's quite reasonable. It's easy to find 10,000 words that should be deleted. What's scary is that every paragraph is just terrible. They all seem bloated. 

Does anyone ever reach the point where we get right the first time?

Our First Ever Local Writers' Conference

I’m excited that the Carteret Writers Network is gearing up for its first Writers Conference taking place on Saturday, April 15 from 8:30 to 5:30 at a lovely location called Carolina Home and Garden in Newport, North Carolina here on the coast. 

I’ve attended large conferences (Thrillerfest, Bouchercon), mid-sized conferences (North Carolina Writers Conference, The Virginia Festival of the Book) and smaller events like the Suffolk Mystery Writers Festival that just happened last weekend. Sometimes I’m a little overwhelmed at the larger events.  With so many other authors in attendance, it’s easy to feel lost in the crowd.

The smallest conference and the most exclusive that I’ll ever be invited to was in 2018.  It was the Poisoned Pen Conference with Soho Crime celebrating Ian Rankin.  All told, there were 26 authors there including Hank Phillipi Ryan, Dana Stabanow, Stephen Mack Jones, Tim Hallinan, Mark De Castrique, and of course, the iconic Ian Rankin.  That conference was held at the Arizona Biltmore and was incredibly cool!! 

Most recently, the Suffolk Mystery Writers Festival was held to fifty authors so that it had a very intimate feel to it.  It was limited to one day, had only eight panels, but had enough space that all the authors could display books and sell them (all sales handled through the event organizer). 

I’m hoping that the Carteret Writers Conference will also have that kind of intimate vibe to it.  I’m scheduled to be the Master of Ceremony for the day.  We’ll be having a good friend of mine as a speaker (and keynote speaker at lunch)—Sara Johnson, (www.sarajohnsonauthor.com) the author of the incredibly engaging Alexa Glock forensic mystery series.  She’ll be speaking about the Importance of Setting.  Point of information—her books take place in New Zealand.  

A second friend of mine who will be making an appearance is John DeDedakis, (www.johndedakis.com) who is a mystery novelist, writing coach, manuscript editor and former writer for CNN.  He’ll be speaking about Buffing and Polishing—the Art of the Rewrite.  He’ll also be on a Q&A panel that will discuss editing and publishing and will include Robin Miura of Blair Publishing, Ed Southern of the North Carolina Writers Network, and L. Diane Wolfe of Dancing Lemur Press.  

There will be workshops on Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, a discussion on Independent Authors, and Podcasting. Then at the end of the day, there will be a cocktail hour with live music.  

If you’re in the area and interested in writing, you’re not going to want to miss this all day event!! It’s not going to get any more up-close and personal than this.

To register for the Writers Conference, go to www.carteretwriters.org. 

Proofing and Public Speaking

By Johnny D. Boggs

Yesterday was one of those days I dread.

First, I had to get the final proof of a forthcoming novel for Kensington titled Longhorns East – shameless self-promotion – back to the production manager.

That’s never fun. Well, it’s fun to know that you’ll have a book coming out – in September – but that also leads to all sorts of stress.

Did I hit my goal? … Am I catching everything that needs fixing? … Does it read the way I want it to read. … Bigger question: Will anybody actually want to read this? I mean, it’s about a cattle drive to New York City and it opens in 1840 England! … It’s also my first original trade paperback. If the sales aren’t there, that’s when novelists get dropped.

There’s no job security in this business.

And you never know what the reading public will like and buy.

For me, the deadline for final corrections is more nerve-racking than the deadline for filing the manuscript. I’m confident that copy editors and main editors will catch the silly mistakes, question the parts that need questioning, offer erudite suggestions (or orders) and turn what I’ve written into something better.

But once I send in the final fixes, it’s all over but the worrying.

And then there was the rest of the day.

I had to give a talk for the Friends of the Santa Fe Public Library on the newest nonfiction book, American Newspaper Journalists on Film: Portrayals of the Press During the Sound Era (McFarland), at the Santa Fe Woman’s Club.

I know. It’s not that big of a deal. And I speak in public often. Have for decades. I’ve acted in theater (still waiting for some company to announce auditions for Mary Chase’s Harvey (Elwood P. Dowd or any part!), Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind (the Reverend Jeremiah Brown) or Sam Shepard’s True West (either brother, but I’ll do the producer, too). I’ve been a talking head on documentary television shows. I get interviewed by newspaper reporters and magazine writers fairly often.

Besides, this is a library fundraiser, and I’ll do anything to help libraries. But then, paranoid as most authors are, I worry about trivial things like How Many People Will Show Up (maybe more this time, since they serve alcohol) … What Kinds Of Questions Will They Ask? … And I have to give a talk. Keep them entertained. Remember not to say anything that will turn them off. But what if they don’t laugh at my jokes?

High pressure. Maybe even more pressure than writing a Western novel that opens in England and focuses on a pre-Civil War cattle drive from Texas to New York City.

It’s a lot less stressful sitting in a room all day just typing ... with nothing to disturb you but doggies that demand attention and spam telephone calls that interrupt your train of thought.

But – and I tell every beginning author this when I’m speaking to beginning authors (which I have to do March 26 for New Mexico Writers):

It’s part of the job.

Research

Left Coast Crime 2023

 Hello, Dear Readers. I (Donis) am not really here today. I am in Tucson Arizona at Left Coast Crime. This is a rather alarming thing for me, since I haven't been in a large group setting for three years and I'm not sure I remember how to interact with others. I suppose I have to start sometime!

One fun thing I'm doing is participating in a live panel on Friday (St. Patrick's Day) morning entitled “Why We Love Research”, with Elizabeth Crowens, Clare Broyles, and Susan McDufee. The wonderful Francine Mathews was scheduled to be on our panel, but she came down with Covid at the last minute. I hope this doesn't bode ... anything!

Anyway, about research: I do a tremendous amount of research for my books. One would expect this of a historic novelist. But only a very small percent of the research I do for each book finds its way onto the page. I'm not writing a history book. I'm trying create a world, and it's amazing how little it takes to add just that perfect touch of authenticity to your story.

Mickey Spillane, when asked how much research he does in the intent of authenticity said, "None. My job is not to tell the truth. My job is to make you believe." (Note: I’ve used that quote for years, but when I looked it up for this entry, I see that it’s actually “I don’t research anything. When I need something, I make it up.” However, I like my version, so there it is. D.)

So why do research if all you have to do is make things up?

The purpose of research is to inform you, the writer, so that when you come to write, you do so from a position of knowledge, not putting all that knowledge on display, but using it to give you and your reader an absorbing, enjoyable, and authentic experience.

My own familiarity with the era I'm writing about is going to show without my having to make a big deal out of it. The characters are going to move naturally through their world without thinking about it, just like we do in our own world. 

I’m able to find out a lot on the internet, but it’s surprising how difficult it sometimes is to find simple facts that would be readily available if I was on the scene. So, I often end up on the phone, explaining what I need to a librarian or historian in whatever area or subject I am interested in.

Libraries have info you don't have. Right now I’m researching realistic and historically accurate ways to kill people. This is always problematic for me. Sadly, I have reached such a state of paranoia that I am a little bit afraid to do murderous research on my home computer, lest the NSA bust down my door in the middle of the night. Once I spent many hours doing anonymous research on library computers because wanted to discover exactly how oil field workers used nitroglycerin to clear obstructions from a well. I am writing murder mystery, after all, and I thought that blowing someone to hell with nitro seemed like a colorful way to commit murder.

 How much research is too much? I mean, eventually you have to write the book. it isn’t necessary to do so much research that I become the world’s foremost expert on my subject. The golden rule of writing is that you must never put anything in your novel that is going to take the reader out of the story. 

Concentrate on finding key points.  Drop details into your story like little jewels.  All you need are the important points and the reader will connect the dots.

Unless you’re writing a research paper or a textbook, a good writer, historic or otherwise, tries to make the reader feel that he’s had a true experience of a time or place or event.  You want to be accurate, but the point is not to give the reader information.  The point is to give the reader an experience. Your job is to make the reader believe.

p.s. When I do play fast and loose with history, such as move a historical event up a couple of months or have a historical character show up somewhere he never went, I always put an authors note explaining the truth at the end of the book. Some reader knows what really happened, and believe me, they'll let you know if you got it wrong.

Being old has its perks

 There are times when I'm glad I'm as old as I am and raised my children in the era before mobile phones, let alone smart phones and social media. Internet technology and communications has changed our lives in extraordinary, unimaginable ways since I made my first phonecall at the age of seven on my parents' one black rotary phone, that sat in the kitchen attached to a long, easily tangled cord. And since I used a slide rule to make calculations and my mother's old typewriter with its two-coloured ribbon to type the most important university papers.

I thought I'd been adapting and keeping up with the times quite well for a pre-IT dinosaur; I managed to analyze my PhD research data using an interactive statistical program (albeit on the university's computer, not my own PC), I have grown to love writing on the computer, although I still write first drafts long-hand, and I tolerate spellcheck, but not grammar check (which doesn't understand fiction writing). In 2009, when social media became a force, I joined Facebook and later Twitter (since deleted) and Instagram, recognizing their value for keeping up with friends and connecting with readers and book lovers. I created a website which I can update myself, I joined this blog. When the pandemic hit, I learned about the new frontiers of video chats, which vastly opened up our world to places and people far away. During this time, I launched two books using Zoom and still use it for the occasional remote book event. I've even learned to give Powerpoint slideshows over Zoom, which is much easier than trying to show them to a live audience.

But although the Internet and social media have enriched my life, they are not my primary contact with the world. I still love being out in nature, getting together with friends, and connecting with readers and other writers in person. I shop online for some things but still prefer to see and touch potential purchases in person. I still like to roam through stores. 

For some, though, especially the younger generation (anyone under 35, LOL), there has never been a world with screens and digital connections. My own children did not have cellphones, nor did any of their friends. There was no such thing as social media. In their vulnerable teen years, there were rudimentary chat forums as well as email and video games that allowed them to interact online, but because this was limited to a desktop computer (a single computer for all of us, only later did they get their own), the digital world did not follow them around and invade every moment of their lives. No online bullying or unwanted photo sharing, no instant group communications of the latest parties or transgressions. Bullying and social exclusion have always been with us, especially in the pre-teen to early teen years, but social media has amplified it to horrifying heights. Even adults can be destroyed by a negative post gone viral. 

This destructive force is bad enough but our over-reliance on the digital world has even worse consequences. The brain is growing and changing constantly over the first twenty years of life and needs the right stimulation at critical times for optimal development. I remember worrying , as a psychologist, about the effects on young brains of researching material using website-hopping and cut-and-paste answers. I feared young people would not develop the concentration and in-depth analytical thinking needed to see the big picture and synthesize ideas abstractly. And in the younger, developing brain, the loss of creative, unstructured play and hand-on exploration, of sustained attention, and managing time, frustration, and challenge can never be recovered.

I could go on and on, but that's not the purpose of this blog. I started off by saying I was glad I'm as old as I am. My children avoided the pitfalls of modern technology, although I worry about my grandchildren, aged 4 and 5. I have mostly learned to use technology as a tool and an assistive device, but also know how to do many things the old-fashioned way. I am glad that that I've managed to write twenty books without using ChatGPT and will not be one of the millions of hopeful writers trying to be noticed over the flood of fake writing. I think Thomas's point that AI produced a mediocre novel at best and mediocre marks on law exams is heartening, suggesting the power of a truly brilliant mind will still shine through, but it may be only a matter of time before the AI programmers figure that out too. By that time, with any luck I will be beyond the need of lawyers, or intelligence of any sort. 

Black History

 by Charlotte Hinger

Wall Hanging by Kyle Odum

I'm on the board of directors for the Nicodemus Historical Society. I know a lot about Nicodemus, Kansas. Oklahoma University Press published my academic book about the town, and Five Star published a novel centered on this historic settlement. Last summer I attended the annual Homecoming Event and purchased this wall hanging made one of the descendants, Kyle Odum.

Nicodemus was the first black town on the High Plains after the Civil War. I maintain that it was the first time in American history that African American dictated political decisions to the surrounding white community. 

BlackPast is the finest resource I know for learning about black history. So what does it take to create such a wonderful site? A really big need. Dr. Quintard Taylor at the University of Washington saw a need and devised a plan to fill the hole. Before BlackPast there was no single central location on the internet that collected comprehensive accurate material about African Americans and people of African ancestry.

I refer to Dr. Taylor as the "major god of blacks in the West." In every field there is always someone regarded as the ultimate authority. Taylor is tops when it comes to African history. BlackPast received immediate support.

The site began in 2004. In the summer of 2005 Dr. Taylor received a U.S. State Department-sponsored invitation to visit the Russian cities of Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Tyumen, Ishim, and Surgut to give lectures at various universities and institutes. That 14 day tour was initiated by the discovery of the faculty website by students at Urals State University in Yekaterinburg, Siberia.

This online reference center includes an online encyclopedia of nearly 3,000 entries, the complete transcript of nearly 300 speeches by African Americans, other people of African ancestry, and those concerned about race, given between 1789 and 2014, over 140 full text primary documents, bibliographies, timelines and six gateway pages with links to digital archive collections, African and African American museums and research centers, genealogical research websites, and more than 200 other website resources on African American and global African history.

I've done a number of entries for BlackPast. I feel honored anytime I'm asked to contribute.

I don't know any meta site in the mystery field. Sometimes I feel as those of us in the mystery field could use a place that is sort of a mystery central where ideas are gathered in one place.

 

This and That

 

by Sybil Johnson

I missed my last post because I was in the Seattle area. Not much of an excuse, I know. I couldn’t think of anything to talk about before I left... Weather there was actually quite nice, much better than the storm that passed through Southern California while I was gone. I was quite happy to be out of town and even happier when I got home and found the house still in one piece. Our neighbors told us we had so much hail it looked like a snow on the ground. I’ve seen hail before at the beach in the last couple years, but not that much. There was wild weather with snow in places where there shouldn’t be any and way too much snow in places that usually get it. People in the San Bernardino Mountains east of us are still digging out from all the snow. Roads are closed so people can’t get supplies or medicine. Some can’t get home. Relief efforts are proceeding. I hope things get back to normal for them soon.

Today I shall talk about a number of random topics that I’ve found of interest lately.

Let’s start with ChatGPT. I found the posts on the topic by my fellow TypeMers very interesting. I haven’t looked into it much so appreciated what everyone had found out. This seems to be the hot topic these days. It was even the answer to a question on Jeopardy! the other day. Things have certainly changed since I studied Computer Science eons ago. AI was in its infancy. I was always fascinated by natural language processing, but never studied it in detail. I certainly didn’t expect something like ChatGPT would come along. There’s a free AI/Media Advocacy Summit this Friday, March 10 starting at 11 am ET. You can find out more about it and register for it here: https://www.aimlmediaadvocacy.com/

Time zone for the moon. Apparently, the European Space Agency is pushing for the moon to have its own time zone. At first, this seemed very odd to me. I had questions like will there be daylight savings time up there? Why does the moon need its own time zone? After I read this article, it made more sense to me. Right now a moon mission operates on the time of the country who sponsors it. With lots of missions scheduled from different countries coming up in the next few years, there seems to be the need for all of those missions to operate on the same time. Other tidbits I learned: the International Space Station runs on UTC and clocks on the moon run faster than those on earth.

Dentists with therapy dogs. Did you know that there are dentists who have therapy dogs in the office? People can request their services while getting work done. It lessons anxiety for some people. I looked to see if there were dentists who have therapy cats since I’m more of a cat person. Alas, and not unexpectedly, I could find none.

Jaywalking in California. As of January of this year, jaywalkers no longer have to worry about getting a ticket unless there’s “an immediate chance of a collision.” This is known as The Freedom To Walk Act.

Life At Sea Cruise. There’s now a cruise where you can live at sea for 3 years. The itinerary consists of 375 ports in 135 countries. It will hit all 7 continents. There’s an on-board business center so you can get work done, if you want. Price starts at around $30,000 per year for an inside cabin. The most expensive is a suite at $109,000 a year. There’s room for about a 1,000 passengers. There’s a gym and hospital on board. There are people to prepare food for you. They have their own security force and jail if someone commits a crime onboard. (That was one of the FAQs.) You have your own fridge in your room. You could cross a lot of places off your bucket list... It’s scheduled to begin Nov 1 in Istanbul. Sounds pretty interesting to me. No, I’m not going to do it. It does seem like the perfect trip for a writer, though. You could give up your apartment or rent your house out. You can have your mail forwarded to a virtual mailbox. Maybe you could even get someone to pay for it in exchange for daily posts on what's happening on the cruise and/or frequent articles. It's something to think about. You can find out about it and book it here: https://www.lifeatseacruises.com/ 

Those are the things I found interesting lately. Let me know if anyone books that cruise!

Surprise Breaks

 by Charlotte Hinger

One of my all-time favorite writing projects was the Sheridan County History Books. I edited these books They were unique because all the work was done within Sheridan. County. We actually had our own commercial book-binder in the area. A local artist designed the covers. Several contributed original art. We found a lot of old pictures and the stories were absolutely wonderful.

It was especially gratifying to see the wonder on some the contributors faces to learn details about their families that they had not known. The hardships and the sorrows of homesteading. The bonding with their relatives through collecting information.

This experience, of course, became the foundation for my mystery series. Oh, the stories people told me behind closed doors. This project was a gift. A surprise. It came out of nowhere when Don bought a livestock truckline and we moved to Hoxie. The local historical society was looking for someone to tackle organizing and editing the history books and I was delighted take on the work.

My latest book contract resulted from a chance contact at a writing convention. More about this historical novel later. The book is dear to my heart, and it was an incredibly lucky break. 

I was reminded once again of how some wonderful opportunities come out of the blue and it's not always necessary to "make" things happen. That mentally is a trap authors fall into right now. We are oppressively aware of everything we could be doing regarding social media or promoting our work on-line.

I'm especially appreciative of gracious little jolts--the surprises--that come my way despite my bumbling.

ChatGPT---Lookin' Over My Shoulder

by Thomas Kies 

I see an awful lot of chatter about an Artificial Intelligence app called Chat GPT. Wildly popular, ChatGPT debuted last November and is free for users.  It generates “sophisticated, human-like responses based on requests from users and mountains of data.” The app can be used for writing everything from emails to essays to coding.  

It’s also raising concerns for universities…and publishers…who are rushing to include this in their policies concerning plagiarism. 

In a column posted by a local real estate broker/owner here on the North Carolina coast, she quoted a CNN report by Samantha Murphy Kelly, business reporter.  “Real estate agents say they can’t imagine working without ChatGPT now.”  The local broker said in her column that real estate agents are using it as a time saver to write emails to clients, especially for repetitive questions and inquiries but also for property descriptions. 

That seems benign enough. 

Some law professors at the University of Minnesota used the chatbot to generate answers to exams in four law courses, then graded them blindly alongside actual students’ tests. ChatGPT averaged a C+ performance but fell below the humans’ B+ average.

Okay…but it still passed what amounts to a bar exam!

According to a Reuters report, if applied across the curriculum, that would be enough to earn the chatbot a law degree, though it would be placed on academic probation in Minnesota, ranked as the 21st best law school in the country by US News & World Report. 

The chatbot could have earned a law degree!

What about in the field of fiction?  Clarkesworld Magazine, a Hugo Award winning publisher of science fiction short stories has closed itself to submissions after being inundated with Artificial Intelligence generated pitches that overwhelmed its editorial staff. 

In a typical month, the magazine receives a dozen or so short story submission that were suspected of plagiarizing other authors. But since late last year when ChatGPT was released, they’ve seen that rate go way up. The founding editor, Neil Clarke, said that this past January they rejected one hundred submissions, banning the “authors” from submitting again.  Then in February, they banned five hundred more. 

Clarke said, “I’ve reached out to several editors and the situation I’m experiencing is by no means unique.”  He also said, “It’s clear that business as usual won’t be sustainable and I worry that this path will lead to an increased number of barriers for new and international authors.” 

Intrigued and a little frightened, I Googled “Can ChatGBT write mysteries?”

A couple of blog posts popped up.  One was from a blogger who had asked the chatbot to write a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The writer points out that Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain so anyone can try their hand at getting a Holmes mystery into print.  

The chatbot insisted that it could write a Holmes tome in a thousand words or less.  It did so in a little over 800 words.  I read it.  If he were alive, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wouldn’t have anything to worry about.  It was rife with plot holes.

Then another blogger posted about how he had asked the app to write a mystery and once again, it wrote something in about a thousand words.

Maybe that’s as long as it thinks a mystery should be.  I’ve never used ChatGPT, nor have an inclination to do so, so perhaps the user mandated the word count.

Once again, the story was filled with plot holes and worse…cliches.  

It literally started out with “It was a dark and stormy night.” 

So, as a mystery writer, should I be looking over my shoulder for robots wielding a pen?  Yes.  I think all authors should.  

AI will only get better with time. 

Music in Prose

By Johnny D. Boggs

Micki Fuhrman called me the other day to pass on good news:

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City had called to let her know that her album Westbound (do we still call them albums?) was winning this year’s Western Heritage Wrangler Award for Outstanding Traditional Western Album.

Which answers that album question.

“So,” Micki  says, “you have a song on a Wrangler-winning album.”

That’s not why Micki’s getting a Wrangler next month.

But it’s cool. Hey, I can’t carry a tune – I don’t even hum well – or pick a chord. A note is something I pay off. A meter is what I feed quarters into to keep from getting a ticket. Scales are what I scrape off fish. Rhythm is something I ain’t got.

But sometimes I string a few words together that aren’t half bad.

The song Micki recorded as a duet with Jon Chandler is “Loving County.” It’s inspired by Elmer Kelton’s great novel The Time It Never Rained, about a ranching couple’s struggles during the 1950s drought. And a comment I overheard from an old cowboy/rancher in a West Texas café:

“A cloud ain’t nothin’ but a high school tease.”

But for a guy with no musical ability, I often think musically when I’m writing prose. I try to follow Johnny Cash’s instructions: Tell the story and get out of the song. Don’t waste words.

Is the rhythm right for this scene, this paragraph? Is this the right word? Do I need something else? It’s the right word, but what if I place it here instead of there? Hmmm … I’m stumbling over this phrase, which means the reader will, too. What if I repeat this word for effect? How does this sound when I read it aloud?

Since we’re talking music, we might as well get to songwriters. My favorites, other than the aforementioned Man in Black? The usual names: Guy Clark, John Prine, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, Townes Van Zandt, Mickey Newbury, Bob Dylan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tom T. Hall, Merle Haggard, Bobbie Gentry, Bonnie Raitt, John Fogerty  …

And many prose writers I admire – Wallace Stegner, James Agee, Dorothy M. Johnson, Loren D. Estleman, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Raymond Chandler – have a lyrical style. 

Rarely do I listen to music when I’m writing. Not because it’s distracting. I worked for newspapers, so I’ve had to write fast with people screaming two desks down from me, or dictate a story from a phone booth with sirens blasting and someone asking me if I could loan him a buck for cigarettes. 

All I want to hear when I’m writing is the keyboard clicking.

Anyway, I’m not moving to Nashville or Austin. And when I play Westbound, I usually listen to “What a Moon” or “Runaway Heart,” both of which Micki wrote.

She’s got that songwriting thing down. I’ll stick to prose. But sometimes when I’m driving at night, a song idea will percolate, and I’ll start noodling for words. Maybe I’ll jot down some lyrics later.

Just don’t ask me to sing anything.

March Forward

 March is both coming in and going out like a lion for me this year – First of all, as I mentioned last time we spoke here, I’m going to the Left Coast Crime conference this year. I haven't been to an actual conference in a long time. I was registered to go to Left Coast Crime in March of 2020, when it was cancelled at the very last minute (some people had actually arrived) by the city of San Diego because of the epidemic. This year LCC is being held in Tucson, which is about a 90 mile drive from my house, so I could hardly pass up the opportunity. The dates are March 16-19, and here’s the link for all the information. It’s way worth it to go and meet your favorite mystery writers in person. I’m a little worried that I don’t know how to speak to people face to face any more, and also a tad worried because the last time LCC was in Tucson I got the flu and felt like I was at death’s door for weeks. You may be assured I just got a fresh flu shot and I’ve been extra-extra Covid boosted.

Still, it’ll be wonderful to see so many fellow crime-writing friends in person again, thought I might be tempted to wave and make kissy gestures at them from across the room. I am getting to do a panel on Friday March 17 from 10:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on the importance of research, especially to historical mystery authors. The panel is called “Why We Love Research”, featuring Clare Broyles, Francine Mathews, Susan McDuffie, and Yours Truly. I’m all exited!

As for my own writing, perhaps the less said the better. I may have mentioned that my long-time publisher has dropped my Bianca Dangereuse series, and I am in the process of slogging around from publisher to publisher trying to find someone who would like to issue the already finished third installment. Seems publishers aren't enthusiastic about picking up a series in the middle. However, several told me they liked my writing and if I wanted to submit something new they would love to read it. Encouraging words. But - it seems I have too many ideas and no clear direction. I am literally working on three books at once - all entirely different from one another; a historical stand-alone, another Alafair Tucker Mystery, and a totally new contemporary mystery that could be the beginning of a series.  I am very much enjoying hopping between worlds and moods and characters, but as I've sadly discovered, it's difficult to plow through when you don't have someone breathing down your neck saying "finish, finish!" If only I knew which book has the best chance of seeing the light of day I'd pick that one and stick with it to the end. Doodling around is fun but not the most professional attitude for an author. 

Inspiration

I love to read the recent posts of my fellow Type Mers, especially when I'm searching for a topic to write about. The perspectives and interests of other writers are a great source of inspiration. I have been doing this blog for a long, long time, and sometimes I feel as if I have nothing new to say under the sun.

The same thing can be said of writing itself. I've written dozens of short stories– although none recently due to lack of time (so I say)– as well as four short novels and sixteen full-length crime novels. I am not a fast writer, nor do I have an easy system for coming up with new ideas for plots and themes. Each book takes a lot of thought, research, and stumbling, bumbling drafts. I read about prolific writers who have fifty or more books under their belts and I am astonished. I don't know how a writer can create twenty original and powerful books about Detective X or Miss Y the librarian. After ten Inspector Green novels, I really want a change. I was afraid I would start creating the same book wearing different clothes, and frankly, I wanted to spread my wings. Hence Amanda Doucette. She gave me a refreshing change and a new writing style, settings, and characters to explore. After five books living with her, I was ready to go back to Inspector Green. With a new, updated twist.

Charlotte Hinger's post about the Masterclasses intrigued me. I'd seen them advertised but, like her, I had always dismissed them. But the four authors she described are all prolific writers with dozens of books to their credit. I was struck by the drive, professionalism, and passion they seemed to convey. I decided that I would try to track down their classes and listen. You don't get to be a successful writer by writing a book or two, and then dusting off your hands and sitting back to savour the results. You write the next book, and the next, because the stories are clamouring to come out. Most of us writers don't write for the money - you're better off being a plumber. We write because words and stories are our way of connecting. With others and with ourselves. 

I've never been a fan of "how to write" books. There are many different ways to write and to tell a story, and each of us has to find the way that works for us. Maybe outlining would make my life easier, maybe I should know where I'm going before I start, but that's not how my creative mind works. But over the years I've learned a lot about the craft of writing from other writers and from various workshops, panels, and discussions, as well as from my own bumbling. I like hearing what works for other writers, because most of the time, I find more similarities than differences, and I feel a kindred connection. I pay particular attention to writers whom I regard as exceptional. I look at their use of language, structure, character development, etc. How they weave the story together. 

Most writers always want to be improving the quality of our prose and the power of our stories. Inspiration is not just one ahah! idea that galvanizes a story; it's a hundred little ahah ideas along the way that lift an ordinary character or theme into an extraordinary one. Ideas that make the story sparkle and infuse it with passion. 

Which is something I'm not sure a robot can do.

Now I am curious enough that I am going to check out some of these masterclasses, starting with the ones Charlotte mentioned. To see where their passion comes from and how they capture it.

A Rose is a Rose

 by Charlotte Hinger

The process for recording an audiobook is fascinating. Blackstone Audio used to produce books published by Poisoned Pen Press. Blackstone was meticulous and I was fortune to have had Karen White, a top narrator, for all of my mysteries. She has a terrific voice and carefully collaborates on every pronunciation decision.

How can there be any controversy over how to say a word? You would be surprised. There was a lot of discussion involved with the Spanish honorific doña. Since the Spanish family in my third mystery, Hidden Heritage, had lived in this country a long, long time, would they be using a fairly rare variation of pronunciation followed by a little known group in Spain? Or would they instead cling to the more formal and better known Castilian? 

To Castilian or not to Castilian. That was the question. Four researchers were involved. I can’t tell how much I appreciated the care they took.

Where you live and where you are from has everything to do with how you pronounce a word. If you live in the top half of Kansas you will refer to the Arkansas River as AR-Kansas. If you live in the lower half of the state, it’s Ar-kan-saw (like the state). I write about Northwest Kansas, so I say AR-Kansas.

Even though I'm a native Kansan, people in Northwest Kansas used different words than I was familiar with having moved there from Eastern Kansas.

When we moved to Southwest Kansas I was puzzled over the word "bar-ditch." I honestly did not know what it meant. Then I learned it was what those of us in Northwest Kansas simply called a "ditch." And it certain regions of Texas it's "barrow ditch." All the words meant the same thing. It's the hollow area resulting from borrowing dirt to make a road.

Usage must be negotiated before the final copy of a manuscript. All of my conflicts have been settled amicably. However, with some authors this is nothing short of a duel to the death. I pay a lot of attention to an editor's preferences because they are more to tuned in to the population as a whole.

I was amused at how annoyed we in a recent discussion when city folks used the wrong words. The worst offence has to do with vehicles. An SUV is NOT a truck and it’s referred to by the manufacturer’s name. I would say “go out to my Tahoe (or fill in the blank) and get my address book out of the glovebox.” Yes. glovebox. A truck is a truck. A pickup is not a truck. It’s a pickup and it is NEVER a pickup truck.

We in Western Kansas have spoken.

Scribes to our Robot Overlords

 The previous Type M post from John Corrigan touched upon writing samples from the Artificial Intelligence app, ChaptGPT and its worrisome implications, especially to us writers. I've also seen other examples of what AI can produce as it scrubs the Internet for content in remarkable ways. What really impressed me were its Mid-Century and Art Deco period recreations of Burning Man. However, all was not perfect as like many other amateur artists, AI had difficulty rendering hands. Plus the occasional person was given three legs. Or it could be, AI has already decided that people do need these extra appendages and when it controls the human birthing process in artificial wombs (coming soon to a clinic near you), our children will be the deformed pets of our robot overlords. 

But there are groups who cheer AI's ability to generate content almost instantly. At the 20Books Vegas writing conference, the attitude was that since many of its authors write to market and depend on a prolific output to meet audience demands, the ability for AI to "write" sequels can be leveraged into more books to sell, i.e., more profit. Another group that welcomes AI are Instagram/TikTok influencers, such as models, who also need to produce a continuous stream of content to satisfy their audience and keep the algorithms happy. Many argue that since much of their content is the same--posing in bikinis, etc., why not use AI to make more pictures? 

The ability of AI to mimic reality is both its greatest strength and greatest danger. We're close to seeing credible imitations of people--"deep fakes"--in outlandish video simulations. One app claims it can sample a brief recording of your voice and from that, produce an audio of you saying anything. Couple that with similar video software and your identity as an individual can be at risk. Looking deeper into this dark mirror and acknowledging that the demographic most harmed by social media are adolescent girls, can you imagine the humiliation when an unassuming young woman sees that her image was uploaded into a AI porn app? Whoops, it's already happened.

 

 

Hardcopy and ChatGPT

The pages and the pencil...

Sitges, Spain

Greetings from Spain.

I’m “working” –– chaperoning 14 students to Terrassa. While here, when I have a free moment, I’m finishing a manuscript.

Sitges, Spain

My process ends with a pencil and a hardcopy. I don’t make final edits on my laptop. I need the pages, my clipboard, and always a mechanical pencil. Editing on paper versus the screen has long been debated. I know many people who don’t edit the final copy on paper. They like to be able to quickly cut and move things around. For me, though, I need to cross out, draw arrows, and write henscratch in the margins. Reading on the screen feels too much like composing. The hardcopy, for whatever reason, provides a separation –– I’m a reader, not a writer when I hold the pages.

#

One topic has come up repeatedly in my work as a school administrator: ChatGPT. Who is using it? How to prevent it? Should we embrace it?

Montserrat, Spain

If you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is an AI writing program. I recently told a parent group that if I was paying for a student to get a technical writing degree right now, I’d be very nervous. The program can write what you need –– and pretty well –– in a matter of seconds. I imagine some writing professions will go by the wayside. 

Joy

Which brings me to the question: How will it impact our work as fiction writers? I would love to know what my colleagues at Type M and our readers think. 

What’s the future of ChatGPT?

Will it impact fiction writing as we know it?

MasterClass

by Charlotte Hinger

 Well, what do you know? There is something new under the sun. It's MasterClass.

For some time my on-line reading was interrupted by a promotion for MasterClass. I ignored these clips the same as I do all other annoying ads. I wanted to cut down on subscriptions, not acquire new ones. 

Then The New Yorker published an article about the lecturers. Those at the top of their field vie with one another to be selected to lead a class. It's the ultimate indorsement of their abilities. Honestly folks, James Patterson and David Baldacci are not in it for the money. 

I'm absolutely hooked. Curiously, the presentations are straight lectures. The "star" sits a chair and tells the viewer everything he knows about his area of expertise. I've finished four classes: James Patterson, David Baldacci, Joyce Carol Oates, and Aaron Sorkin. The episodes vary from 8-15 minutes. Some include a round table analysis of students' work. 

The styles are wildly varied. I enjoyed Aaron Sorkin the most even though he opened by gloomily stating that speaking was very hard for him and he would be much more comfortable just writing the whole thing. This wonderfully talented playwright and scriptwriter wrote A Few Good Men and one of my favorite TV series, The West Wing. One of his most endearing statements was about writer's block. He said that was his default status: deeply depressed and blocked as a writer. 

I like Patterson a lot as a person. He's so passionate about promoting literacy. I'm only an occasional reader of his books, but used one in a creative writing class I taught. I wanted the students to see how he turned a whole plot with one of his one word, one sentence, paragraphs. It's not easy. Plus, I admire the way he gives co-authors full credit on his covers. An amazing fact is that the man writes in longhand while sitting in a rocking chair. He's a generous man and natural outliner. One of his detailed outlines is what his bevy of co-authors receive. 

Joyce Carol Oates teaches writing at Columbia University. Her approach is lovely and poetic and seductive. How can one person master so many different genres? I really wanted her book, We Were The Mulvaneys, to win the Pulitzer Prize of the National Book Award. Her suggestions frightened me. I found myself resistant to accessing some of the thinking she urged me to explore. Yet, as she pointed out, that's where my best writing lies dormant. Oates writes mysteries (both novels and short stories) in addition to literature. She's phenomenal and mystical. 

Ah, Baldacci! He was whisked in on a magic carpet. Yet, like most ultra successful writers he paid his dues. He learned his craft. The man has the most abrupt machine gun delivery of anyone I've watched so far. He does not pause between sentences. His first published novel was Absolute Power. For that he received a 2 million dollar advance for American rights, and 2 million for foreign rights. He's a lawyer so he knew a lot about contracts from the beginning. He has the most joyful presentation and gives a new meaning to "natural writer" When he worked full time as a lawyer, after the kids and his wife went to bed, he wrote from 10pm to 2am every night. I especially appreciated this man because he has the most turbulent intuitive (yet linear) idiotic method of writing a book of any of them. Finally. Someone just like me.

Next on my agenda is one on poetry, followed by lessons in forensics by none other than John Douglas.

First Piece Published--Feeling Remembered.

 by Thomas Kies

As I was walking Annie, our dog, one morning, I thought about the first piece of fiction that I was lucky enough to have published back in 1979.  It was a short story called Fast Dancing Detroit Style.  No, it wasn’t a mystery story.  It was horror—an erotic ghost story. I was paid $250, I was 26 at the time and I thought I was hot as a box of matches.

After all.  I’d been published in Cavalier magazine, the same publication where Stephen King got his start. With the same editor that he worked with, Maurice DeWalt.  

And yes, Cavalier was a men’s magazine that featured some of the top writers of the time, but it was also filled with full frontal nude women.  I remember proudly telling my father about being published and a couple of days later he phoned me to tell me how humiliating it had been to go into an adult bookstore to buy the magazine. I’m not sure he ever told me if he liked the story or not.  

Cavalier was launched by Fawcett Publications in 1952.  The original format was to feature novels and novelettes by Fawcett’s Gold Medal authors like Richard Prather and Micky Spillane. During the 1960s, the magazine featured such writers as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Coover, Richard Gehman, Garson Kanin, Paul Krassner, John D. MacDonald, Albert Moravia, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Shelton, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Theodore Sturgeon and Colin Wilson.

Film critic Manny Farber had a monthly column in the 1960s. Stephen King was a contributor during the 1970s, and his stories were also featured in Cavalier Yearbook.

I followed up my first published story with more horror only to be turned down by Mr. DeWalt saying, “These are too much like Stephen King.”  Okay…I guess that’s not bad.  

I tried other magazines, mostly “pulp publications” like Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Amazing, Weird Tales, Analog, and Strange Tales.  The cover pages, by the way, often featured illustrations of scantily clad women in the clutches of space aliens.  

I even submitted short stores to Playboy (no luck there) and Omni, a glossy four-color magazine devoted to both science fiction and science fact.  The editor was Ben Bova.  He was the author of over 120 books on science and science fiction, had won the Hugo Award six times, and was the president of the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. 

He sent me a personal rejection letter on one of my submissions with a handwritten note that said, “,,,keep at it.  You’re a good writer.”  

That was in the 70s and 80s and I was raising a family and working full time at the Elmira Star-Gazette. I wrote short stories in my spare time on my manual typewriter at my desk tucked away on the porch.  On the wall next to my desk was a corkboard where I kept the rejections slips.  

Back then, you’d submit stories by hardcopy via the mail accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope so that if your story was rejected, you’d at least hear back with a pre-printed slip of paper saying that they were sorry they couldn’t respond personally and that your story just wasn’t right for their publication. 

So, I found my copy of Cavalier from 44 years ago that I tucked away in a closet and reread my erotic horror story.  Could I have improved upon it?  Sure.

But you know, I enjoyed reading it.  Almost as much as I did when it first arrived in my mailbox a lifetime ago. But I think I'll stick with mysteries. 

Tucson Festival of Books

By Johnny D. Boggs

I have been swamped with deadlines, assignments and shoveling snow. But here’s some great news:

March 4-5 is just around the corner.

Because that weekend, I’ll be at the Tucson Festival of Books. For a writer, or a reader, there is no better place to be.

If you haven’t been to Tucson for this festival, you are missing something special.

I was invited to speak on a panel with the great Jane Candia Coleman at the inaugural event in 2009. Remember …? The economic downturn, the longest since World War II. I wondered who would show up to listen to authors or buy books.

Who turned up? Well, 50,000 book lovers and 450 authors/presenters. And an amazing 800 volunteers.

I haven’t missed one since. Nor have many attendees.

The festival has drawn more than 100,000 in subsequent years. Last year, the first since the COVID shutdown (canceled in 2020, virtual in 2021), concern about who would return faded fast. The event, always free to the public and held on the University of Arizona campus, was packed again. Maybe not the record 140,000 of 2019, but those two days were awesome.

Generally, I help staff a booth for Western Writers of America, but sneak away to catch a panel or two if I can. Most years I either moderate or speak on a panel. This year, I’m doing both.

Talk about exciting. I share a Saturday panel about film history books, “Lights! Camera! America!,” with Kirk Ellis and Alan K. Rode (moderated by film scholar Andrew Patrick Nelson) and on Sunday I moderate “Visions of the West” with Kathryn Wilder, Emma Zimmerman and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ted Conover.

But the real treat is talking to nonwriters, wannabe writers, colleagues, friends and literary icons about writing, process, books, literature. I can’t wait to pick Ted Conover’s brain.

Hey, I spend most days and nights alone in an office writing, rewriting, rewriting, rewriting and sweating. Then wondering is anyone really going to read that? Does anybody still read?

Well, the Tucson Festival of Books is a morale booster for any writer. Oh, sure, most of those 100,000 attendees probably won’t have much interest in what I write. But they are proof that people are still interested in literature.

I’ll drive home March 5 excited, ready to step back inside that office for another lonely year. The adrenaline from Tucson will keep me going till 2024.

Hope to you there.

Me, Too (Writing and Post-Covid)

Both Charlotte's and Donis's posts this week struck home with me. At the best of times, I procrastinate even when I have something I want to get done. The only thing I don't do this with is moving around odds and ins that I'm inspired to move around while flipping through home decorating magazines. I love those magazines even though I get sticker shock when I realize I picked up one with an enticing cover and tossed it into my grocery shopping basket without checking that tiny little price. I think they make it tiny just so people who need to dig out their glasses won't bother to stop and do that. And those $10.99 magazines have occasionally costed me even more because I have stopped reading to go to the site where I can see the options and sometimes I buy that perfect thing with one tap of my finger. In my own defense, at the trail end of the worse of the pandemic, I did finally get around to getting my handyman in to paint because I had spent so much time looking at the yellow walls that came with the house when I moved in. And then, when I had refreshed my walls with blue, new accessories were required.

But . . . as I was saying about procrastination, I have now reached "Master Level". It happened during the height of the pandemic when my brain ceased to work. The one good aspect of that was that I started an on-going email letter writing habit again with a friend from grad school. Back in the days when people  wrote letters in long-hand and sent them off by stopping at a mail box, we communicated more often. But in the age of emails, we had gone astray. During Covid-19 we have gotten back into the habit of checking on each and what is going on in our lives. I did the same with a friend here closer to home. And with other people who I communicate with regularly. But even with all this communication, I had curled up in my little nest, tossing mail on my desk unopened, and opening the front door only to walk the dog. I even joined a grocery delivery service -- actually that last decision turned out to be a wise one. After trying at least four other services, I found one that delivers protein, healthy fruits, vegetable, and cookie dough made of ingredients that all look healthy and can be eaten from the container or baked.

My improved communication habits and strategy for getting dinner in less than 30 minutes are in place, and I hope will continue. What hasn't change is my habit of spinning my wheels longer than I should each day before I get going. That means that when I finally start I end up going later in the day than I would like because I have more writing time to try to make up. But this morning when I was putting off getting out this post, I checked today's tip from Ancestry DNA and discovered that the fault is in both my environment and my genetic tendencies. In keeping with that I stopped to read the accompanying articles about other traits before finally getting to my post. Actually, today I have a semi-good excuse. I got up early to take my dog to daycare because I scribbled a faculty event in the wrong box in my old-fashion planner. It would have come up in my electronic calendar, but this week I planned to be proactive -- and I ended up being a week early. So, today, I was so early dropping off Fergus that I thought I could spend time thinking about whether to have brunch or lunch while wandering off to read those "when you have the time" articles that are fascinating when I should be doing something else.

I have found a good idea or two reading those articles. My only problem is sometimes I read something both useful and fascinating but I don't have pen and paper at hand and I'm too comfortable to get up and get both, so I tell myself I will remember, and I don't. I know enough to immediately write down whatever I wake up dreaming. But this week I was having a dream -- a solution to a plot problem -- and I woke up almost there but Fergus had shut himself up in my bedroom when he was pushing at the door trying to get out. I got up to let him out, and as quickly as that my dream was gone. I've been hoping it would come back, but it hasn't.

Like Donis, I am hoping that the more I get out again, the more I will get to at least "re-set" when it comes to socializing again. In one area at least, having animals in the house has helped out. When my beloved Harry died, I found both Fergus and Penelope -- not as replacements for Harry, but as animals with their own personalities. It has taken me a while to settle in with the two of them. But it has also given me a Covid interest. With Fergus, the wonderfully socialized puppy I received from a breeder, the task has been to contain some of that bounciness and train him. With Penelope, my rescue cat from Louisiana, it has taken almost a year between the time she began to talk to me when she wants something and expect me to understand and last month when she began to curl up against me on the sofa and even stretch out in my lap. That would be great except I gave myself a physical excuse for researching rather than writing when I grabbed my lap top to keep it from falling from the sofa and managed to loosen the hinge on one side. She jumped right up and finished the job. Now, I'm going to have to take it back to my computer guy again  after having broken both monitor hinges this time. 

But I have a fully functioning desk top at home and in my office at school. It is only a matter of sitting down at either. Note to self: Ideas rattling around in head have to be put on paper in timely fashion.