My Reading Buckets

 by Sybil Johnson

Whenever I finish reading the first book in a series, I mentally place the series into a bucket. I never actually write this down anywhere. I just keep track of it in my mind. These buckets are:

1. Loved it so much I’m going to (a) immediately read the next book if it’s available, (b) talk about the series to anyone who will listen, (c) pre-order the next book. 
   
2. Liked the book enough to want to read the next book in the series at some point, just not immediately. I won’t pre-order a book, but I’ll keep track of when the next book comes out. 
3. Found it interesting, but didn’t really care about the characters or the setting. Might read the next book. Might not. 
4. Didn’t really like it, but finished it. Not worth reading any more books in the series.
5.  Didn’t like it. Didn’t finish it. Won’t even consider reading another book in the series.

I don’t reread books very often, but when I do they’ll come from the first two buckets I described above. Series can move from bucket to bucket as time goes on. After a dozen books in a series, I might get tired of it or it might move down the list for something newer.

Does anyone else do something like this? Or is this just me being odd? I guess it’s my way of bringing order to my world. 

As a writer, I aspire to being in that top bucket or at least the top two. I can’t control this, though, so I’ll just keep on writing stories that I would enjoy reading. Hopefully, I’ll make it into a reader’s top buckets.

Treasure Hidden in the Weeds

 

by Catherine Dilts

 

Gardens need to be weeded. So does fiction.

My garden is in a wild state of growth. There are only six weeks left until fall, and plants are hustling to produce seeds.

The weeds are in high gear, as anxious to propagate themselves as the tomatoes, peppers, and greens.

After a rain is an excellent time to pull weeds. The soil is softer. I’m less likely to damage the roots of the plants I want, as I remove the plants I don’t want. A weed is a plant that doesn’t belong in a particular area. If I plant lettuce, I don’t want it competing for sun, soil nutrients, and water with marigolds.

While I was on my hands and knees, delicately removing unwanted grass from a vegetable bed, I thought about how weeding words, scenes, even chapters, from a novel is a similar process. You don’t want to rip out the good stuff along with the bad.

I tend to write long. I love lengthy novels. I’m sure I’m not the only reader who does. At the 2024 Pikes Peak Writers Conference, I learned the economic reason why you see so few novels over 400 pages. Printing costs.

Even though many readers consume literature on e-readers where paper costs have no effect, the publisher knows a certain percentage of hardcopy books will be printed. The high cost of paper makes the printing and pricing of books a problem.

My publisher Encircle confirmed this when they told their authors the sweet spot for a novel is 90,000 words. More than 100,000 is unlikely to get published. Not because of the quality of the writing or whether the story is compelling or not, but for harsh economic factors. Printing costs.

Kind of like when you have limited garden space. You can’t afford to let the weeds run riot when you’re trying to get a crop of tomatoes to grow. Those weeds compete with the domesticated plants.

We have one garden plot we’re considering converting to a flower bed. We let it lie fallow this year, and the weeds took over. I had extra cucumber plants this spring, so I stuck a couple in this bed. When I got around to checking on them a few weeks ago, I was surprised they were surviving.

Then I took a closer look. Hidden among the weeds were healthy cucumber vines, and one cucumber. That’s when I got busy weeding around the plant. I might as well give it a fighting chance.

I use that approach with my fiction. Sometimes I need to take a shovel and a hoe to the mess I’ve made. Other times, I use a delicate hand to weed out the excess words, the blathering and repetition, to get at buried gems.

By carefully weeding out our writing, we can reveal hidden treasures to readers.

 

 

Writing is Rewriting

 Donis here. First of all, let me join the chorus of delight and welcome our newest Type M author, Catherine Dilts! Oh, how glad we are to have you!

On a less joyful note, I’m still slogging along in the jungles of the first draft of a new novel. When I’m trying to get a first draft to look like something and having a tough time of it (which is always), I often wonder why I put myself through it. But then if I didn’t have a first draft I wouldn’t have anything to revise. I much prefer doing revisions to writing the first draft of a novel. In my metaphorical little world, writing the first draft is a coarse, rough, sweaty process. You slap that gesso on the wall by the bucket load and slather on the background paint. It’s messy and hard and, for me, a daily act of will to accomplish. But rewriting takes skill. It requires a true eye, real delicacy and finesse to shape that big old expanse of plaster into a work of art.

With rewrites, you get to see the story change shape and, if you’re lucky and skilled enough, grow into something beautiful. Of course, there are those horrible moments when you realize that you’re going to have to lose a scene that you really liked, or that word of which you are so enamored because it no longer fits the picture. Perhaps that’s when you know you’re a real writer, when you can cut good stuff for the greater good of the story.

I'll let you in on a little secret, Dear Reader. I keep a file of great lines/scenes/chapters I've had to cut inhales of finding the perfect home for them in some future story. In fact, some of those cut lines/scenes/chapters had led to a future story on their own.

Now I'm facing the ending of the book and wondering if I can pull it off. It's horrible to know exactly how you want it to come off and not be sure you have the chops to do it. I've never quite achieved the brilliant, knock-your-socks-off triumph that I had envisioned, but I'm usually pleased enough in the end. I often don't know exactly how it's going to end, myself, until it does. Once I do finish a book, I love to go back over it and fiddle with it, changing a word here, a sentence there, like polishing a new-made piece of furniture.  Pulling off a great ending requires not only skill, but insight and not a little luck!

Maybe this time!

Now that I think about it, I have to admit that I don't readily feel disappointment when something doesn't pan out, nor am I particularly elated by success. I've had a lot of both success and failures, and when the dust settles, nothing much is changed and I am still me. Another author told me once that she shopped a novel around for eight years, and she grew so calloused by rejection that when her agent did sell it, she felt nothing. I can easily be seduced by praise, though, and I wouldn't say no to a Pulitzer Prize. Something has to keep you going in this business, because the likelihood is that it won't be riches.

Dear Reader

First of all, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Catherine Dilts, whom Charlotte so eloquently introduced in yesterday's post. We're all very excited to include Catherine, who will bring a fresh voice and perspective as she shares her own writing journey. I feel as if I have been posting on the blog for eons, and sometimes I wonder whether I have anything new to say.

That said, I don't believe I have ever talked about the "Dear Reader" letter my publisher always asks me to write as a preface to the Advance Reader copies sent out to reviewers, book sellers,  and others in the book world ahead of the release of a new book. The letter is intended to introduce the book and provide readers with some personal information that the author wants to share. It could be the reason for writing the book, some interesting research that contributed to the story, or a pivotal scene or character.  I don't know whether all publishers do this but Dundurn Press has been including the letter for quite a while. It's usually my last task before the book leaves the editorial phase and enters the publication phase. SHIPWRECKED SOULS is still a long way from appearing on retail shelves in January, but copies will be available for review in a few weeks. I miss the days of old-fashioned, physical "ARCs" as they are called because that was always my first glimpse of the book in its final state. The thrill of seeing the finished book, complete with cover, never grows old. But nowadays, most publishers release the book in digital format on Net Galley, which speeds up the process, saves trees, and saves money on shipping. It also makes the book accessible to more reviewers, including bloggers, thereby extending its reach. 

So without further ado, here is the Dear Reader letter that will introduce the ARC of SHIPWRECKED SOULS. 

 

 

Dear Reader,

SHIPWRECKED SOULS is the twelfth in the Ottawa-based Inspector Green series and Michael Green’s most powerfully personal case yet. 

As he nears the end of his career, he finds himself sidelined into paperwork hell far from the life and death street dramas he loves. He’s drawn to the mystery of an unidentified elderly woman who’s recently arrived from Ukraine. Who is she, and how did she end up dead in a remote back alley? Because his own parents survived the Holocaust and came to Canada to find a new life, he feels a kinship with her.

SHIPWRECKED SOULS is about lives shattered by the trauma of war and persecution and the struggle of survivors to find hope amid the detritus. For Green, it’s also an emotional  journey of discovery into his own past. 

While the story is fictional, I tried to ensure the historical events and the emotional cost are accurate. Although the story is about trauma and loss, I hope readers close the book with a sense of hope and renewal.  

Thank you for coming with me on the journey.

Barbara Fradkin

Catherine Dilts

 by Charlotte Hinger

We have wonderful news for the followers of Type M For Murder. Beginning next week, Catherine Dilts, author of the Rose Creek Mystery series will post every other Tuesday. 

Catherine has lived in Colorado for decades, but spent her formative years in Oklahoma. She must have left a little bit of her heart there, because her new Rose Creek Mystery series is set in the Ozark foothills in northeastern Oklahoma. She also writes novels for various Annie’s Fiction series.

Her short stories regularly appear in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Recently retired from a career as an environmental compliance specialist for a global corporation, Catherine now gets to do what she always dreamed of - write fiction full time.

She and her husband enjoy traveling with their adult children and their families, camping, and the occasional crazy long running adventure. After having thirteen of her short stories, seven of her own novels, and five write-for-hire novels (with three more in the queue waiting for release) published, Catherine still struggles to define success.​

The Rock Creek series is published by Encircle Publications, a New England–based independent publisher offering a growing catalog of trade fiction titles in popular genres—Mysteries, Thrillers, Crime Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Western Fiction, and more—as well as poetry collections.

For those of you who would like a preview of Catherine's work, her short story "Claire's Cabin" was published in the March/April 2023 edition of Alfred Hitchcok Mystery Magazine. The publication date for the third book in the Rose Creek series, The Body in the Hayloft will be announced soon. 

Welcome Catherine! 

Writing the Cozy Mystery

 by Sybil Johnson

Awhile back I answered a call on social media for cozy authors to write an essay about some aspect of writing the cozy mystery. The essays were to be compiled into a book. My essay, “Crafts and the Cozy Mystery”, was selected for the book, which came out this past Monday: Writing The Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft. It’s edited by Phyllis M. Betz, Professor Emerita of English from La Salle University. You might have seen her name on another book about cozies titled Reading the Cozy Mystery: Critical Essays on an Underappreciated Subgenre.

Essays are split into four sections: writing genre, writing theme, writing setting and writing character. I have read books from a lot of the authors represented. Authors: Sherry Harris, Vicki Delany, Justin M. Kiska, Diane Vallere, Kait Carson, Tina deBellegarde, Mary Ann Evans, J.A. Hennrikus, Andrea J. Johnson, Peggy Ehrhart, Edith Maxwell, Maya Corrigan, Leslie Budewitz, Jennifer J. Chow, Rabbi Ilene Schneider, Marni Graff, M.E. Hilliard, Amanda Flower, Kathleen Marple Kalb (Nikki Knight), J.C. Kenney, Carol E. Ayer and Winnie Frolik. Phew! That’s a lot of authors!

Phyllis, who I met at Malice this last year, wrote a very interesting and thoughtful piece as an Introduction to the book.

I really enjoyed writing the essay. I’m really happy I took the time to participate, though I admit to a bit of impostor syndrome. But I am happy to be thought of as part of the cozy mystery author world. 

 Buy links: Amazon, BN, IndieBound

You may notice that the price is, well, a little pricey. This is a textbook publisher so I think they tend to price their books higher. You can always suggest that your local library order a copy. It seems like the kind of thing libraries would be interested in carrying. I know some of my local libraries carry Reading the Cozy Mystery. Rumor has it there will be a discount for SinC members, but I haven’t seen anything definitive as yet.

Something New for Me--Historical Fiction

 By Thomas Kies

I’m nearly finished reading a fascinating book called Skies of Thunder by Caroline Alexander. Non-fiction, it’s set in World War II and describes the Burma/India/China theater of war, primarily the transport of supplies and men over the jungles and the Himalayan Mountains.  The terrain is treacherous, the weather is unpredictable and often fatal, the jungles are deadly, and the missions are notoriously muddled and confusing. 

In short, it’s mesmerizing. I’d love to set a mystery there.

I’ve tried writing historical fiction only once.  And there’s a reason for that.  The title of the book was Crossbones and, obviously from the title, it was about pirates.  It was set in 1692 and culminated in the destruction of the notorious pirate haven Port Royal, Jamaica, wracked by an earthquake and tidal wave.   

Not only was the end of Port Royal a disaster, but so was my novel
Crossbones.  I swore I’d never attempt a historical novel again.

Well, fifteen years later, maybe I’ve gotten my courage back.  I’ve always been fascinated with the forties (having been born only a few years later). I grew up listening to the music, watching the movies, and, more recently, glued to documentaries on the war. 

Now, we have some authors here on Type M for Murder who excel at historical fiction.  Admittedly, I do not. Hopefully, they can offer some advice.  But in the meantime, like any novice, I asked the internet for advice. 

In an article by M.K. Tod entitled 7 Elements of Historical Fiction, he lists these items that should be top of mind: Character, Setting, Dialogue, Theme, Plot, Conflict, and World Building.  

Really, not so different than a novel set in our current time. 

Just kidding---it’s way different.  

Let’s take character.  According to M.K. Tod, characters behave within the confines of the era they inhabit.  Obviously, if the story takes place during WWII, the protagonist isn’t going to be pulling out his cellphone. 

Dialogue is tricky.  You want to use some sentence structure and words of the era, but not so many as to be completely distracting to the reader.  I guess this is easier in a story from the forties than a tale from the Middle Ages. 

Setting…well, now, that can be fun, can’t it?  It will be different from what we’re used to, but that’s the joy of a historical novel.  This is where you can bring the past to life.

World building.  Isn’t that the same as setting?  Well, not really.  This is what was happening at the time including politics, world events, occupations, food, customs, social interactions and a lot more. 

Theme, plot and conflict---this is what I’m used to dealing with.  As I teach in my creative writing class, all stories have their basis in conflict.  

So, part of the allure for me is doing research. I can go back and listen to the music again, watch old films, and read the books about that time and place.  Like I tell the folks who take my class, try it on for size and see how it feels.  Write a chapter or two and see if it fits. 

Wish me luck.  And if you have any advice, please share with me.  

Happy writing!

The Nostalgia of Texas Gothic and Horror

Last Monday, I had the pleasure of moderating the Q&A and book signing of I Was A Teenage Slasher with one of my favorite authors, Stephen Graham Jones. It's been years since I've attended such a book event in a Barnes & Noble and it felt pretty damn good. Considering it was a week-work afternoon during rush hour, we had a great SRO crowd.

Slasher is a very American story, tapping on cultural touchstones that may not resonate with someone who was not raised in this country. Though Jones and I grew up hundreds of miles and a decade apart, we were each familiar with the identical childhood and adolescent rituals that provided a backdrop to this tale. The Saturday morning marathon watching cartoons. Hanging out at the local convenience store. High school culture with the cool kids and everyone else. The Band. Majorettes. The markers of Texas Gothic--water towers forlorn as abandoned cathedrals, long stretches of desolate highway through the dusty prairie. Barbed-wire fences and cattle guards. Rust. Dirt. Youthful angst and a yearning for the bigger world on the other side of the horizon. A promise to get away and never look back. Then drawn back to immerse yourself in the selected memories of your past.

But Slashers is hardly an ode to nostalgia with its graphic depictions of torture and humiliating slayings. Jones used a couple of tropes to power the momentum and stoke the horror. First is that of an unreliable narrator to string you along from one ghastly murder to another, making you distrust your ability to understand the narrative. Second, his protagonist (and villain) and the side-kick accomplice note how the slayings conformed to the plot of a teenage horror flick and so predicted who gets offed next. Jones' prose is so enveloping and descriptive that it's a wonder you can flip through the pages and not get any blood spatter. His writing style is to lead the reader into a darkened room, then "I blow out the candle and let their hand go."

We also saw another side to Jones, revealed by his desire to write a rom-com and perhaps pen the script for a Hallmark Christmas Special (playing it straight, no slashers invited). When asked which character he'd like to be cast as in Pulp Fiction, it was Mia Wallace, played by Uma Thurman.

Characters

 by Donis Casey

I greatly enjoyed Sybil's entry yesterday about categories. I've been working on a new book, possibly a new series, which started out to be a straight mystery. But as the story develops, I seem to be crossing genres. It's turning out to be much more of a fish-out-of-water story. My protagonist wants to figure out who killed her mother, but she has to go to a foreign country and meet members of a family she didn't know she had in order to do it. She keeps leading me down paths I hadn't planned on. Because no matter what I originally intended, the characters make the final determination about what kind of a novel I'm writing.

A novel is a story about someone. In a mystery, it’s the sleuth, a romance the lovers, in a thriller, it’s the guy in trouble. Barbara Kingsolver said, ”A novel works its magic by putting a reader inside another person’s life.” She also said, the difference between non-fiction (such as news reporting) and a novel is that if you read a non-fictional account of a plane crash, you find out the facts about the crash. If you read a novel about a plane crash, you find out what it’s like to be in a plane crash.

So what we as authors want to do is create a world, and invite the reader to come in and stay awhile. In order to get her to want to spend time in our world, we need to populate it with characters whom the reader is interested in. She wants to know what is going to happen to these people—for the good to be rewarded and the evil to get their just comeuppance. If we do our jobs right, the reader doesn’t just want to know, she’s desperate to know. And in order to make the reader care about our characters and want to know what is going to happen to them, we have to make them real to her. The characters are more important than the plot. You might not remember who done it, but you will remember the characters.

So how do you get to know the people you want to write about. I think in the same way you get to know a person in real life. You watch what they do, you listen to them speak. They reveal themselves to you over time. Perhaps the attitudes of other people toward someone tells you something about both of them. Before you even start writing about someone, you’d better know all about him—who he is, where he came from, what he wants, why he is like he is. All of this affects the way he speaks, the way he presents himself.

The more you write about a character, the more she will show you things about herself that you didn’t know when you first thought her up.

Musings on Categorization

 by Sybil Johnson

People like to categorize things, to put things in boxes. I think it makes it easier for us to deal with and remember all of the information that we’re bombarded with every day.

This includes categorizing books. We have crime fiction, non-fiction, scifi, general fiction etc. With crime fiction there are sub-categories like cozies, thrillers, private eye...

Categorization can be comforting. We know what to expect. If I pick up a book that’s marketed as a cozy, I know what kind of story I’ll be reading. (Assuming it’s categorized correctly.) I expect certain things from it. If those expectations aren’t met, I can get a little miffed.

I picked up a book the other day that sounded intriguing. I didn’t really know going in how it was categorized. I started reading and almost immediately was confused and a little unsettled. Not that it wasn’t interesting. I wasn’t sure if I was reading a comedy, a mystery, a mystical story... It unnerved me for some reason.

Knowing what a book is categorized as going in seems to be important to me. It also seems to be important to marketing folks. What happens, though, when you have cross-genre books? I’ve heard of books that aren’t published because they don’t know how to market them.

But, does a book’s categorization prevent people who might enjoy it from reading it because they don’t read: cozies, thrillers, scifi, etc. I hope not.

#

In other news, I am very excited that my short story, “Fatal Return”, was selected to be in the latest Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology, Angel City Beat. I believe it’s going to be out the end of the year, but I don’t have a firm date yet.

This is the first time one of my short stories has made it into an anthology. I’ve had some published online, but usually it’s rejection, rejection, rejection when it comes to anthologies. 

Here are the stories and the cover: 

 

Scams and Scoundrels

 by Charlotte Hinger

I can't keep up with all the crooks operating online. Sometimes I think the people who never use the internet are the smart ones after all. 

A couple of weeks I foolishly bought a new sofa bed and matching loveseat without selling my old furniture first. I truly thought someone would snatch it up immediately because it's in perfect condition. I love this all-leather sectional. There's also a matching chair and two ottomans.

It was not snatched up immediately. The first person who responded was a scammer. Luckily, I had read all the warnings on Facebook, Craigslist, and NextDoor. The lady who was so eager to buy the set offered to send me a cashier's check. However, she said since she was in the process of moving to Fort Collins she would simply have a mover pick up the furniture. 

All three sites, warned about taking a cashier's check since they can be faked. I was quite leary anyway of someone wanting to buy furniture they had not seen. So I asked her to overnight the check to a certain person at a bank in Hoxie. (name withheld to protect the innocent) I assured her via text that it would not be necessary to give her any account information. I would simply alert the officer that the check would arrive and he could take care of depositing it. 

Naturally, the check never arrived. How can this be a scam? What this kind of person is after is account information and all kinds of personal details.

The best way to conduct a transaction like this is to meet in person in a public place, like a Walmart parking lot, and ask them in advance to bring cash only. Always bring a friend along. Don't risk meeting people alone. Bring the merchanise with you so they can look it over. 

As you can see by the photo, it would be impossible to bring the merchanise with me. But I can ask an able-bodied friend to be with me in my home. On the other hand, it's no protection against people who just want to look the place over so they can plan their next heist more efficiently. 

I suspect that this furniture will end up in the basement which is actually a pretty good idea. Not a great idea, but not too bad. It easily sleeps one person. 

As to writing scams, oh dear, where to begin? The first rule used to be--never give anyone any money.  Legitimate trade publishers give the writer money. Writers don't give money to the publisher. However, since I first began there are a lot of variations and some of the houses expect writers to share the expenses. Some of these arrangements are legitimate and an excellent compromise.

Then there are the fake agents. Years ago, a lady who had never sold a single book, came to a writers conference every year. She wore stunning hats and dark glasses and glorried in the flock of writers begging for her to take them as a client. I knew another agent who never read a single word of books that were submitted.

Why would people do this? I have no idea. 

Mother Nature's wrath

Sybil's post about conflict struck a chord with me today. She listed the three basic types of conflict - with yourself, with another person, and with the environment. Including all three in the same story makes the story even more vivid. The more conflict and challenge, the better. The environment can be a physical challenge like a dangerous whitewater river, a steep mountain, or a dark, underground cave, but it can also be the weather. Many a classic whodunit has centred around a blizzard in a remote inn, and as a Canadian, the extremes of winter weather make it easy to imagine being blinded by the snow, losing ones way, floundering in the snowdrifts, and succumbing to the cold, not to mention power outages and blackouts.

Even a regular  mystery about interpersonal conflict can benefit from having some extra drama thrown into it by Mother Nature, and this summer is shaping up to be full of Mother Nature's wrath. Climate extremes are becoming more and more common, adding to the stress and struggles of people just trying to cope. Just today, Eastern Canada, and in particular the Toronto area, was hit with massive thunderstorms that dumped torrents of rain on the area within a very short time, with hail and tornado warnings added to the mix. Rivers and lakes overflowed their banks and flooded streets, blew the lids off sewer manholes, and caused widespread power outages. Luckily, although many people are inconvenienced and the cost of cleanup will be exorbitant, I have heard no report of fatalities.

But a mystery writer is always thinking about the possibilities. A body is discovered, a long-buried secret is dislodged. I remember an instance in England where a long, severe drought dried up some reservoirs that had flooded out villages years before, and no fewer than three famous British crime writers wrote mysteries about bodies that were exposed by the drought.  In the British crime drama I watched recently, After the Flood, a man's body is discovered in the cleanup of a serious flood, apparently drowned, but an autopsy revealed no water in his lungs. In my upcoming book, SHIPWRECKED SOULS, a house in Kyiv, Ukraine is hit by a Russian airstrike and in the rubble of the attic, a mysterious note is found that kicks off a chain of events that leads ultimately to murder.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, landslides, floods, wars... The possibilities are endless. They can all cause massive destruction and uproot people's lives, shattering their sense of security and causing them to refocus all their priorities on survival and recovery. It brings out not only the worst but also the best in people. Against that backdrop of upheaval and potential death, human experiences and emotions are heightened. it's as if even everyday life is thrown into more vivid relief. There is a reason why some of the most powerful books and films take place against the backdrop of war.

The stakes seem higher, the potential for heroism and villainy amplified. The stories beg to be told, not to exploit the suffering of those enduring it in real life, but to bear witness and to do what we writers do best; examine the social cost.

Finances!

 by Charlotte Hinger

One of the best writers I know is Johnny D. Boggs. He actually earns a living from his writing. Of course, he qualifies that by adding "it depends on how you define a living." 

I admire him tremendously for the quality of his writing. He and board member Natalie Bright gave a great panel presentation at the recent Western Writers of America convention in Tulsa.They talked about being alert for opportunities to publish articles. 

Conferences are really expensive. The price of registrations, hotels, and transportation, is daunting. Yet Johnny said on the way to Oklahoma he came up with ideas for articles related to the trip that he could submit to five different magazines. 

 He's very, very good at recognizing opportunities. 

How good is he? Once when he was at a conference he got "altitude sickness" and ended up in the emergency room. He didn't miss a trick and interviewed the ER doctor about the pending signs of this sickness, the inherent dangers, and the best treatment. Another published article! 

Johnny thinks articles. I think short stories. There's no question which "think" is more profitable. 

And speaking of altitude sickness, next spring Left Coast Crime will be held in Denver. For those of you who live at sea level, the Mile High City might require some adjustment. Here's what various internet sites have to say about coping with changes in altitude:

Basically your body is deprived of the amount of oxygen you need. The symptoms usually go away in a day or two for most people. But until the adjustment occurs there can be dizziness, headaches, nausea, and vomiting. 

When I moved from Western Kansas to Colorado, I didn't have any of these problems. Yet, walking any distance was exhausting. That's no longer true.

I've arrived!

Communication Issues in Fiction

 by Sybil Johnson

Sometime in my 20s I decided managing expectations (yours and others) and good communication were the key to minimizing conflict in everyday life. I’m all for minimizing conflict IRL. 

This should not be true of fiction, of course, We need conflict and misunderstandings to make a good story. The conflict could be with others, with yourself, with the environment...

Communication or lack thereof is one source of conflict in stories. I am a fan of Hallmark movies. Not all of them, but quite a large number of them. In a certain type of Hallmark movie, in the last 15 minutes or so, there is a miscommunication between the two love interests. This often comes in the form of one of them overhearing something and misinterpreting it so they leave without talking to the other person. At this point, I’m usually shaking my head and internally screaming at the couple to “just talk to each other!” Okay, sometimes I say it out loud. Of course, they do eventually do this and everything is resolved in the end and they get together.

Apparently, this is called the “miscommunication trope”. Some people hate it, some people don’t. Some believe it mirrors real life where people just don’t want to or are too scared to talk to each other.

There are other forms of communication issues that can lead to bad things happening:

•  A phone call could be missed or someone just doesn’t answer when the person calls. Usually the person who doesn’t answer is annoyed with the one calling. For this one, I’m usually internally screaming at the person to “answer the phone, it’s important! Forget about what happened five minutes ago!” Honestly, people should be texting more often to convey information in these urgent situations, but then, a bit of the story would be resolved too easily. 

• Someone could end up killing an innocent person because they’ve misinterpreted something they’ve heard. Unfortunately, this happened in real life where an Uber driver was shot and killed because someone believed she was part of a scam. https://apnews.com/article/uber-driver-killed-scam-4998a42b2e59aed3dda95f983b2f9b52 

I’m sure there are a lot of others. The above are the ones I can think of right now.

Are there any communication issues that happen in stories that particularly annoy you?

My Crime Noir

  By Thomas Kies

I’ve been working feverishly on a book that I’m really excited about.  The working title is Exit Signs. The first draft of the last chapter is being written today.  Later this week, I’ll go back and reread and edit the manuscript one more time.  It’s very noir, a genre that I’ve always loved.  

The characters in my new book are deliciously flawed.  Nothing is what it seems. The setting is cold and grim. 

I’m having the best damned time. 

So, what exactly is noir fiction? It’s gritty and hardboiled. In many cases it’s centered around a P.I. or cop who is seriously flawed and self-destructive. But noir doesn’t necessarily require its protagonist to be a private investigator or an officer of the law.  Just watch Body Heat or read Double Indemnity by James Cain. 

Noir fiction often revolves around crimes that ultimately contribute to the downfall of the protagonist or other sympathetic characters. Noir fiction is
the ultimate example of no good deed goes unpunished. 

Some of the commonalities of noir fiction are:

1-They’re mysteries.  That’s a given.  But aren’t all stories mysteries?  Will Holmes uncover Moriarity's evil plot in time?  Will Juliet and Romeo live happily ever after? Will they live?  Will Batman defeat the Joker…again?  Thrillers, romance novels, adventure, fantasy, horror…no matter the genre, ultimately, they’re trying to answer questions and solve mysteries. 

But noir mysteries skulk down a very dark alley.  Speaking of alleys, have you seen the movie Nightmare Alley? It’s a wonderful example of noir that doesn’t have a cop as its protagonist. 

2- They often have a femme fatale. (What’s the male version of a femme fatale?  A rogue?) Brigid O’Shaughnessy in the Maltese Falcon is the perfect example of a femme fatale.  She weaves a tale of deceit and intrigue that Sam Spade has to negotiate making it a wonderfully dark tale. 

The actual definition of a femme fatale is: A captivating and dangerous female character often found in literature, film, and art. She combines beauty, charm, and cunning to manipulate and ensnare others, typically leading them to their downfall. These characters are mysterious, alluring, and often associated with crime, betrayal, or tragic outcomes.

The perfect girlfriend. 

3- They often have a gritty, urban setting.  Think New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or San Francisco. But the book I’m writing takes place in the cold reaches of upstate New York in the dead of winter.  I grew up there.  From November to March, it’s frigid and gray.  The perfect setting for crime noir. 

4- It has a grim view of human nature.  Like I said before, they’re hardboiled stories, often with great dialogue and a lot of action.  But characters are motivated by their basest of instincts, driven by their lust for sex, power, and money. 

Characters in crime noir are flawed, the stories filled with danger and desperation, the plots riddled with despair, and the settings are bleak. 

Ah, crime noir.  To paraphrase a line from the Maltese Falcon. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.  

Or nightmares. 

Early Writing Days

 by Charlotte Hinger

I confess that Donis's post about the not-so-good-old-days sent me down memory lane. The above picture is of me and two of the daughters and our beloved evil little dog Puppies. More about Puppies later. 

Donis talked about traveling with children years ago. There were no seat belts and a number of times the girls and I would take off at night to meet Don's truck and go on one of his trips. It was an unbelieveable treat for the daughters to pile into the roomy sleeper. A treat for me, too, to be relieved of the tedium of tending to kids and then to eat in truck stops. Later, the third daughter, Mary Beth joined the crew.

Somehow we usually ended up traveling at night to meet him. The sleeping arrangement in the car was predetermined. Cherie was the oldest and she slept in back on the floor of the car. Michele slept across the seats and little Mary Beth was squeezed in the not so roomy area above the seats in the back. Right up against the rear window. If I had to brake suddenly, Mary Beth would be thrown down on top of Michele, and she would tumble down on top of Cherie. 

There were no safety precaustions. And at that time insurance regulations for passengers in commerical vehicles were very loose. Don was a bull-hauler. He hauled cattle and loved doing it. After twenty years, he bought the truckline and managed to keep it going for twenty-three years. But he never lost his love of being on the road. 

We sang on these trips. Don had a great voice with a wonderful range and am amazing memory for county western lyrics. Although Michele aquired a double degree in English and Journalism, she also started a band, The Trucker's Daughter that specialized in roadhouse county music. 

I've drawn on my background as a trucker's wife a number of times for short stories and novels. My first published short story, "Alone At Night" was published in Overdrive, a magazine for owner-operators. To this day, I remember the thrill of having the editor call to tell me they wanted to publish my story. Then they bought another one. I was in seventh heaven!

My mystery, Hidden Heritage, began with an incident at a truckline. It was selected by Kirkus Reviews as one of best 100 mysteries that year, and one of the best 100 fiction books. My latest short story, "Lizzie Noel" published last year in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine was set in a truckstop. 

It goes to show that writing what you know not only provides a wealth of background details, there's an emotional component that comes with living the life. 

M

Writing Classes

 Happy Independence Day! We’ve lived through another Arizona June, and now we have to endure July and August and part of September before we can remember why we love Arizona in the first place.

I complain, but it is a dry heat, which truly does make a difference. And I know. Remember that I grew up in eastern Oklahoma, where 98 degrees is accompanied by 98 percent humidity and 98 million mosquitos, gnats, and midges. And cockleburs. And no air conditioning, at least when I was young. (Besides, we walked twelve miles to school in our bare feet and lived in a box in the middle of the road.)

So thank you, Mr. Carrier, for inventing the air conditioner and making life infinitely easier for us Southerners, even if it has made us wimpier. (P.S. I am aware Air conditioning is bad for the environment and try to temper my use. But I do use it, since I can't afford to move to a cooler climate and I don't want to die. And don't blame Mr. Carrier. He didn't know...) 

I'm working on a new book as hard as I can. It's taking longer than usual since it's a new cast of characters and a new setting and I have to take time to get to know them and how they react to the horrible situations I put them in. I'd like to finish by next month. Partly because I made a bet with our beloved previous Type M-er Hannah Dennison that we'd both finish out new novels in August, and partly because I've agreed to act as writer in residence for the Glendale AZ Library system from September through November, and that's going to take most of my time. Because A) I haven't done a Writer in Residence program since the pandemic and I'm going to have to review and update my programs, and B) I live an hour away from Glendale AZ so I'm going to be spending a lot of time traveling.

However, if you live in the northern Phoenix metropolitan area and want to do a deep dive into writing techniques and tips, do come see me in Glendale this fall. 

Speaking of writing classes, The Society of Southwestern Authors—Valley of the Sun Chapter will present a workshop on indie publishing on Sunday, July 28, 2024 at 2 p.m. You can enjoy the FREE workshop at home on Zoom. The Zoom invitation will be sent out twice: one week before the workshop and a reminder two days before.

The workshop will include two handouts, the first being a checklist of important tasks to consider before publication from covers to blurbs. The second is a list of local and national organizations for writers. You’ll receive the handouts along with the first and second  Zoom invitations.

Three speakers who have all published traditionally as well as self-published will share their experiences: DEBORAH J LEDFORD, SUZANNE FLAIG, AND ART KERNS. 

If this sounds like something of interest to you, email Margaret Morse, President of Society of Soutwestern Authors – Valley of the Sun, and she will send you the invitation. 

Do You Wish You Wrote That?

 by Sybil Johnson

Someone asked me once in an interview what books I wished I’d written. It’s an interesting question. There are all sorts of reasons that a writer might wish they’d written something:

• It sells really well and makes the author very well-known
• The writing is beautiful and/or the plot is well-done
• It changes the world in some way
• Because you want to be known as the person that wrote that book.

I’m sure there are others. Those are the ones I thought of.

Here are the books “I wish I’d written” and why: 

Dissolution by C. J. Sansom – This is always the one I think of first. It’s a historical mystery set in Tudor times during the dissolution of the monasteries, hence the title. That period fascinates me. It’s well-written, you feel like you’re in Tudor England and it’s well-plotted. Plus the characters are interesting and it’s just the right length. 

Pompeii by Robert Harris – This a historical novel set around the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. For whatever reason (maybe because I watched all of those 1970s disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure), I like reading about natural disasters. Someday I would like to be able to take some disaster and craft a fictional story around it. 

The Legend of Sleepy Harlow by Kylie Logan – This is a well-crafted cozy mystery set around Halloween. It’s fun and clever with interesting characters and I’ve read it at least twice.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – My favorite of Dame Agatha’s novels. A very well-done mystery. Note that the book’s ending is different from most of the TV or movie adaptations that have been done. In many ways, I like the book’s ending better. 

Those are my four. What are your choices for books you wish you’d written?

WWA Forevermore

 by Charlotte Hinger

My trip to the Western Writers of America convention got off to a rocky start this year. I intended to take off for Kansas Monday, stay in Nicodemus with my friend Angela Bates that night and we would leave for Tulsa Tuesday morning. But Sunday evening I gashed my leg on an open bottom dresser drawer and ended up going to ER for stitches. 

Between a dramatic rise in blood sugar and blood pressure due to the trauma, I wasn't fit to drive the next day and we ended up leaving a day later. 

So much of the pleasure I take in this event is visiting with old friends. There are three of us members who attended the Santa Fe convention in 1982: Loren Estleman, Preston Lewis, and myself. That's a long time to be devoted to an organization. 

This year I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Quintard Taylor receive the cherished Wister Award. It's given to an individual who has made a signicant contribution to the literature of the West over their lifetime. Not only has Dr. Taylor written an avalance of books and articles about the West, he also founded a website, BlackPast.org with an amazing 10,000 pages created by over 1,000 academics and independent researchers. It's an amazing resource! 

Dr. Quintard Taylor

No session is complete without our wonderful Roundup editor, Johnny D. Boggs

This is nearly the only time I dress Western

And here's Angela:

Book Contests and Mob Hits for Uncle Sam

 Earlier this week, a fellow writer shared that a couple of writer organizations were asking for book contest judges. Was I interested? No, because I knew what I would be getting into.

Years back, I was a judge for best novel contests by the Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. I did so in the spirit that I was serving the writing community. My intention was that after I received each entry, I would give to it the same attention as did the author and publisher, aware of the hopes and earnest work each book represented. At first the books trickled into my home, welcome as lost children. Then more and more arrived, to be stacked in ever taller piles all over my house. The torrent of books didn't stop. I felt like the Sorcerer's Apprentice.  

Then the hard part...reading all those novels. I empathized with literary agents and editors who must slog through a daily flood of manuscripts. There was no physical way I could read every book within the allotted time. To get through the stacks of entries I had to rely on the dictum: "You have to grab me in the first five pages."

Certainly, each book had been lovingly written and professionally edited. The story lines tight. The characters interesting. The world-building well done. And yet, whether I continued past the opening scene and the inciting incident was purely subjective. You either had me or you didn't. 

The contest rules prohibited us judges from communicating about our assignments until the end when we compared our top ten lists. Interestingly, from our picks of the finalists, every one of us had five of the same titles. So as subjective as the process was, it worked in selecting what we all considered as the best novels.

***

For the last decade, besides penning my own stories, I've worked as a ghost writer. The gig has partnered me with a lot of great people and their wonderful stories.

One of my favorite projects was John Mattia's memoir, Always Forward, his account of growing up in a corrupt and violent Detroit and the enduring painful memories that experience had imprinted upon his life. As a young teenager, he was banished from home in the middle of a blizzard, forced to take care of himself and his younger sister. He dealt drugs and carried a gun for protection, surviving as a street hustler. Living fast and loose until he realized that this career path would land him in prison or an early grave. He decided that the rigorous discipline as a Marine infantryman would deliver the kind of sustaining challenge he needed. Because of his expert marksmanship, he was selected for Scout Sniper training. His deployments with the Fleet Marine Force included a tour in Somalia and this was where he first used his sniper skills. He and his team buddy were given a Mission Impossible-style dossier on the target, a Mogadishu warlord with deep ties in the international black market. Much of the intel came from vengeful locals eager to settle scores. Mattia and his teammate set up their Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle in an abandoned bakery and waited for the warlord and his entourage to arrive at a neighborhood barbershop. When the warlord stepped back out after getting his haircut, Mattia dropped him. I told Mattia, "Shooting a man leaving a barbershop, that sounded like a mob hit." Mattia replied, "It was. A mob hit for Uncle Sam."