Preparation

by Catherine Dilts 

Gardening and fiction writing both begin with a dream. In writing, it’s the spark of a story idea. In gardening, the dream is often born in the depths of winter, with a yearning for warm days and neat rows of green things. For either of these dreams to come true, you have to prepare.

What might sound surprising is that the preparation phase in gardening is not about seeds and plants. Not quite yet. Before ever putting a shovel in the ground, you plot out a garden. Measure your gardening space. How much room do you have? How many plants can you grow in that space? What variety will produce the number of tomatoes you hope to harvest? Will you really pick and use cilantro or dill? A certain amount of planning is prudent.

Fiction writing requires preparation, too. Writers have likely heard of the Panster versus Plotter techniques. Pantsers start on page one and just write, letting the story flow under its own steam. Plotters outline their story, like a driver marking their route to a destination on a map.

I have learned through trial and error that I need to outline heavily. Otherwise, I write myself into a corner. I spend hours returning to the beginning of the story to install the clues and red herrings needed in a good mystery. Outlining helps me avoid that.

Most writers aren’t 100% a Pantser or Plotter. Every Pantser I’ve talked to does have, at bare minimum, an idea of where the story is going. And although I tediously outline my stories from beginning to end, they frequently diverge from that carefully crafted path, taking a surprising and unplanned route.

Preparation to plant a garden or write a story can be agonizing for me. But tossing a handful of random seeds onto the ground will be unlikely to produce the vegetables I want. Likewise, throwing words onto my computer in any kind of order usually results in an unreadable mess.

Once the preparation is complete, and I have a map for the garden or the story, the next part of the work starts. Now the real fun begins.

(Note on photo: With preparation, I was able to start a second crop of lettuce in late August after harvesting zucchini.)

Farewell Mystery Magazine

 by Sybil Johnson

I've been writing a fair number of short stories recently so I've once again become aware of what markets I can submit them to. A lot of the places that have either published my work or that I've submitted to before have since folded. Among them are Spinetingler Magazine and Mysterical-E. Though I've seen nothing that officially says the latter is gone, the last issue was in 2022 so I'm assuming the market is dead

The latest casualty is Mystery Magazine, formerly Mystery Weekly, a Canadian publication that was available in both print and e-formats.

I was just thinking I'd submit something to them since they have a good reputation. Unfortunately, I won't get that opportunity.

According to their website: “Due to the subscription challenges we've faced following the closure of Kindle Newsstand, Mystery Magazine will cease publication with September 2024 being our final issue.” You can read the rest of the announcement here.

This makes me very sad. There seem to be fewer and fewer avenues for short mystery fiction that actually pay. Mystery Magazine was one of them. There’s AQMM and EQMM, of course, but they are harder to get published in. Still, I submit to them just in case they find something I’ve written interesting enough to want to publish it.

Anthologies exist as well. I’ve submitted to some of those, but haven’t had any luck until recently. My story, “Fatal Return”, will be in the Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology, Angel City Beat, which should be out at the end of the year.

I really enjoyed reading the stories in Mystery Magazine. Lots of good stuff in there.

Farewell, Mystery Magazine. You will be missed.

When Writers Don't Have a Clue

 by Charlotte Hinger

I was intrigued with Thomas's discussion of viewpoints. My Lottie Albright delves into old murders which causes new murders. It's not really a cold case series, as it focuses on the present day murder. Thus it technically morphs into a suspense. Will my historian/undersheriff figure out who did it back then in time to prevent becoming the victim on the next page?

In some ways, a straight cold case would be easier to present because the Lottie Albright series is told in present day first person. I can't use flashbacks and have to depend on the back story emerging through historical investigation techniques.

My most dependable tool has always been microfilmed newspapers. The Kansas State Historical Society was founded in 1875. They have one of the world's most comprehensive collection of newspapers. All the papers are on microfilm and many are on-line through Chronicling America http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/#Kansas. Instructions for obtaining microfilmed Kansas papers can be found at http://www.kshs.org/p/newspapers-in-kansas/11528.

Since Lottie doesn't have access to the villain's mind the plot depends on her ability to connect the dots. Nothing is more valuable in both academic investigation and mystery plotting than knowing something is just not quite right. In other words, reading between the lines. Because usually newspaper items are objective.

Here's an example of what I mean by not quite right. An announcement in the 1950s local news item: "Lonnie Balfour and family will be moving to the Balfour homestead later this month. He will take over the extensive farming operation of his late father." Lottie thinks that's funny. Lonnie was a CPA and the second son. The oldest son, Jeff, was the obvious heir. He was a farmer. Was there tension over this? This leads her to the recorded deed and even more newspapers and death certificates. Aha! Lonnie died in a mysterious accident. His descendants are alive today. And so it goes. Diaries, letters, voting records, notes from organizations, and yearbooks have their own testimony.

Was one child consistently on the honor role and in every activity under the sun? And another in the same family barely mentioned in the high school newspaper or not a participate in any groups according to the yearbook? Why? With persistence, it easy to find this out.

It's easy to really keep the plot hopping through the protagonist's questions as long as the writer resists the temptation to inject a massive dose of history and cultural details. For instance, old newspapers show group pictures of students at events. The debate team is especially well-groomed, except for one member. Why was there no one looking out for this kid? Had his parents ever come to one of his debates?\

This series is written in first person. My historical novels are always limited omnicience and shifting third person. In a future post I'll try to explain all the pitfalls of limited omnicience and why I just jump right in anyway.

Being able to enter the mind of the first person protagonist is quite a lot of fun, because one can make this amazing sleuth really smart, not at all like the bumbling novelist who hasn't got a clue.

Writer in Residence

I enjoyed reading Tom's entry about critique groups. I've belonged to a venerable group for years, and they have been invaluable to me, especially by helping me decide which way to go on stories. One thing I've learned from allowing my work to be critiqued is that often what I think I wrote and what readers think I wrote are two entirely different things. One difference between my group and Tom's (besides the wine. I must make a note about that) is that my group is quite small and is made up of only traditionally published authors.

However, a good critique group is a fabulous resource for any writer! So if you write, find one that meets your needs!

Speaking of sharing knowledge, I'm going to be spending the next three months as Writer in Residence for the Glendale Arizona Public Library system. Writer in Residence programs are meant to inspire both budding and experienced authors. I've done WIR programs before, and sometimes I learn as much as the attendees! It's quite an intense experience, so check your local library's website to see if your town offers such a program! Residents can ask questions and bring writing for the WIR to review during free, half-hour consulting sessions at the library. The WIR also offers free writing workshops during their tenure.

Here are the workshops I'll be offering this fall at Glendale:

Creating the World of Your Story: Learn how to create a setting that is authentic as possible at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 at Heroes Regional Park Library, 6075 N. 83rd Ave.

The Plot Thickens: Learn techniques to maintain readers’ interest throughout the novel at 3 p.m. on Sept. 21 at Foothills Library, 19055 N. 57th Ave.

Dialog, Dialect and Voice: Discover how you can use dialog to reveal information about your characters at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 17 at Velma Teague Library, 7010 N. 58th Ave. 

Memoir and Autobiography: Learn how to use personal memories in powerful storytelling at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 at the Main Library, 5959 W. Brown St. 

Characters are Everything: Explore proven techniques for creating compelling characters at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 at Foothills Library, 19055 N. 57th Ave.

Getting Published: Delve into ways to get your book or story published at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 21 at Foothills Library, 19055 N. 57th Ave.

To learn more about the Writer in Residence and other Glendale Public Library programs, visit Home - Glendale Public Library (glendaleazlibrary.com)

 

A Different Kind of Energy

I am delighted to join the Type M for Murder crew with my second post! I’m finding a wealth of insights into the fiction writing process and the writer’s life in other authors’ blog articles. I hope I can contribute new ideas based on my own journey.

This spring and summer, I have been exploring parallels between my gardening efforts and my fiction writing. Writing and gardening share phases of development. Each phase has a different kind of energy. You don’t need to love each phase, but you do need to strive for competency in all the phases if you hope for overall success.

Let’s dig in to the starting point. If you’ve never gardened, this may surprise you.

Gardening doesn’t begin with plants, or even seeds. It doesn’t even begin with the soil. A garden begins with a dream.

During the depths of winter, gardening catalogs begin to arrive in the mailbox. From general commercial seed catalogs, to mom-and-pop gardening supply businesses, to specialty heirloom tomato seed companies, they all tempt with beautiful illustrations of possibilities. Experienced gardeners also have a stash of seed packets or saved seeds from past seasons.

In writing, this is the idea phase. Another sort of dreaming. An image pops into your imagination. A snippet of a scene. A character. A setting. Snatches of dialogue. Most writers struggle with the quantity of story ideas. Which ones will blossom into short stories or novels?

In the garden and in creative writing, you can’t do everything. My garden space is limited. I want to grow ten different varieties of pole beans, but I only have room for three or four. I’d like to grow pumpkins, but they take an enormous amount of unfettered space.

I have ideas for three new series and a stand-alone novel. I don’t have the energy or physical capacity to bring all of them to life. Not all at once.

You begin with the dream of the garden, or the story. Seeing what you want in your imagination. Lush. Potent. Compelling. The dream begins to take form. Let this phase take you to impossible places.

The dreaming phase is a different kind of energy. Done right, it can lead to amazing results. Ignore the dream, and nothing will bear fruit.

Next time, I’ll talk about phase two in gardening and writing.

Head Hopping

 

By Thomas Kies

For the last few months, I’ve been mentoring a critique group that meets every Monday night at a local wine bar.  The perfect location for the perfect Cabernet or Malbec and pleasant discussions about writing.

Most of the members of the critique group are holdovers from my last creative writing class. Once the class was over, they surprised me by offering to pay me (real money) to run a critique group.  I declined the cash but instead said that I’d run the group on one condition—that they critique chapters of the book that I was working on at the time. 

They accepted and we’ve been working together and drinking wine ever since.

One of the more heated discussions we entered was initiated by a writer who has self-published four books (a series of mysteries) and is eagerly looking for an agent and a traditional publisher.

When she read chapters from her new work in progress, I mentioned that she “head hopped” and I couldn’t get invested in the characters. 

I had warned them that I would be honest in my critiques of their writing.

Head hopping is when a story or a chapter is being told from a character’s perspective or point of view and then abruptly, it changes, and the story is being told from a different character’s perspective. 

When I mentioned this, she couldn’t believe that she’d done it.  I took her chapter home and physically marked off all the places she changed points of view…sometimes in the same paragraph.

She asked, “Why is that bad?  How else can I tell the reader what the characters are thinking?”

Let’s start with why it’s bad.  For one, it’s distracting as hell.  One of the reasons I was having a problem relating to the characters was that I was never sure who I was supposed to be relating to. When I read a book, I want to be immersed in that world, which means I’m seeing it through the eyes of the characters in that particular scene.  

You can’t do that if you’re flip flopping from character to character, hearing the thoughts of different people from one sentence to the next.

I suggested that the writer show me what someone is thinking.  If Sally is having angry thoughts, demonstrate it.  Have Sally throw a coffee cup across the room, screaming words that would make a sailor blush.

If Charlie is embarrassed, have him blush and turn away, staring at his own shoes.

Head hopping keeps the reader from becoming emotionally invested in a character and, worse yet, is confusing.

So, can you change POVs?  Of course you can.  Especially if you’re writing in omniscient third person POV.  But when you do, you should do it in some kind of scene break or in a new chapter.  Otherwise, it’s jarring and confusing.

So, that was a discussion that lasted over more than one glass of wine. 

Same writer, different discussion was the value of plot over character.  We’ll save that for another blog.  That also was a two-glass discussion.

The Purge

 One of my writer fantasies was the world honoring my life and publishing accomplishments with the Mario Acevedo museum, a must-visit shrine for every wannabe scribe looking for encouragement and inspiration. Here are Mario's desk, laptop, printer. Here are his journals. His coffee cups where he kept his pens and paperclips. His pocket knife. His stacks of reference materials. My wish would be of people culling through my archives, searching for unfinished stories and manuscript drafts that would point to even bigger story ideas and insights into me as a writer sage.

Kevin J. Anderson, who took on the Dune series, told of digging through boxes and discarded files tucked away in Frank Herbert's home to discover, YES! notes and sketches about characters and narratives that helped steer the Dune legacy. This is what I wanted from posterity. Not so much, really.

Harboring my dream was the big reason why I hung onto my research files, background material for novels that ultimately went nowhere. Part of the process in your journey as a writer. At the time, I fancied myself stepping into the shoes of Jack Higgins or Alistair MacLean, hoping that my World War Two pot boilers--Torpedoes Los! (A Nazi U-boat at Pearl Harbor comes close to changing the fate of the war) Midnight in Morocco (An American mercenary spoils Nazi plans in North Africa) The Last Warlord (The same mercenary causes more mischief in China)--would get me rich and famous. But God had other plans.

These papers come from my research pre-Internet when you had to write and mail letters requesting info. The US Navy, National Geographic, Boeing, and the British archives at Flypast were more than generous. I got photos, maps, schematics, reprints, unit histories, all for free. 

As I'm getting older, with the days forward considerably shorter than the days behind me, it's time to start downsizing and decluttering. Purge. Besides these documents, I'm also pitching old manuscripts marked up by my critique group. Farewell, fond memories.

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!