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Tuesday, August 25, 2020
A potpourri of thoughts
Monday, August 24, 2020
Writing Distractions and Building Tension
I’m easily distracted and the last few days have kept me from being creative. First of all, the obvious distraction is the pandemic…and the upcoming election. The Democratic Convention was this past week and that kept me glued to the television.
Well, that and the new Perry Mason reboot on HBO. I highly recommend it.
Then, on an upside, I received an email from a former student who told me I’d inspired her to finish her novel. She told me that after finishing the class, she went back and completely rewrote her first chapters. Then she asked what her next step should be.
I gave her my phone number and told her to call me. I advised her to get a beta reader to take a look and then, if she can afford it, a professional editor to help find typos and punctuation mistakes. Then I told her how I found an agent. I also told her to keep in touch.
That was a nice distraction.
Then on Thursday, I got up at 4:30 to take my wife to a surgical center for a minor procedure. They said it would take about three hours and they wanted me close by so the instructions were that I should stay in the parking lot. I brought a Harlan Coben mystery to pass the time.
About a half hour into my vigil, sitting in the North Carolina heat and humidity, I went to start my car, a hybrid, and discovered that my battery had died. Calling my mechanic, he told me that the soonest he could get a battery for my car would be a week from then.
I was feeling the tension.
I called an Uber, went home, and got my wife’s car. An hour later, I was driving her home. The rest of the day, I forgot about my car and looked after her recovery.
The next day, I called Triple A, gave them my information, and they told me to call them again when I was in the same place as my car. I drove across our high-rise bridge to the mainland and back to the surgical center to find that the road was blocked off with police officers and ambulances everywhere. I could see that my car was the only one in the parking lot, because the center had been evacuated. Police barriers prevented me getting anywhere near my car with a tow truck.
A police officer told me to come back in an hour.
More tension. And a plot twist.
An hour later, they had extended the lockdown area and now there was a SWAT team onsite. When I again asked an officer about my car, he told me it wouldn’t be before tomorrow.
Even more tension.
But out of adversity comes opportunity. I have a work in progress and I’ve been a little dissatisfied with it.
That’s when it came to me. It needs more tension!
And I need fewer distractions.
So, on Saturday, I had my car towed, the mechanic told me I might get my battery much earlier than he had predicted, my wife is recovering well, and I’m writing again. And the SWAT team thing? The press release was maddeningly vague. Someone had threatened themselves with harm.
And they lockdown four city blocks? And have a SWAT team onsite? That individual must have threatened to harm themselves with a nuclear weapon.
Just kidding. It all ended peacefully. Happy ending.
Friday, August 21, 2020
What You Don't Know
Sorry to be so very late today. Classes begin on Monday, and this morning we had orientation for incoming grad students -- virtual orientation with each faculty member taking 3 or 4 minutes to introduce ourselves to the students who hadn't met up during PhD student weekend.
I was thinking about my first classes of the semester on Monday and Tuesday and the work I still need to do on my online courses when I remembered today is my day to post.
I was up really late last night and up early this morning. The first thing I thought this morning was the short story that I have due (for an anthology) at the end of the month. The theme is the midnight hour. I had nothing -- no ideas. Then while Googling for images from 1939 (as I thought about a scene in my historical thriller), I came across one of Edward Hopper's 1942 painting. On of my favorite paintings by him, called "Nighthawks," The nighthawks are three people and a counterman in a diner. This painting always makes me think of Ernest Hemingway's short story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and of the movie based on his short story, "The Killers."
I saw the painting, and I knew my short story would be set in a diner. I couldn't decide who my sleuths would be -- whether it would be a Lizzie Stuart mystery featuring my crime historian and her fiance, John Quinn, a former homicide detective. Or maybe a Hannah McCabe story, with my Albany homicide detective and her police partner, Mike Baxter.
Because of a series of unexpected events -- including conversations I had with two baseball fans -- I'm now writing a Lizzie Stuart story. I have already established that Quinn is a baseball fan. And it seems that the year of the story -- the series, including my 6th book in progress, is now up to 2004. As I was informed that was a landmark year in baseball. That Red Sox curse that I then remembered. It makes sense that Quinn would stop to watch the game that he has been listening to on the radio. It's late, and he needs a cup of coffee and something to eat after driving back to Gallagher from the airport.
I discovered a few minutes in one of the games -- I happened on it in a video -- when play stops because one of the players is hit with a ball. That is the perfect moment for my killer to strike -- while everyone is looking at the television screen. And Lizzie, who Quinn calls from the diner decides she really wants a hamburger and fries and will sleep a lot better if she gets out of the house after spending the day trying to finish a paper that is due. She gets to the diner just before or just after the murder. . .
I think it will work. But I know next to nothing about baseball. I have never been to a baseball game. I have never even seen an entire game on television. I do know a bit about the history of the game -- the 1919 Black Sox scandal, the Negro baseball league, Babe Ruth, baseball movies and documentaries. But Quinn is a fan because my friend -- with whom I talk through my plots-- convinced me that baseball is a thinking person's sport. A sport that Quinn would appreciate.
Thankfully -- one of life's blessing if you're a writer-- people who know about a topic are always willing to share their knowledge -- love sharing their knowledge. My thanks to my two guides through the 2004 baseball season.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
A Refresher Course in Suspense
When I (Donis) am really in the zone, in the midst of a scene, I’ve been known to leap up from the computer and begin pacing the floor, unaware of my surroundings, muttering dialog to myself. I imagine that to an observer I look like a hands-free cell-phone user. Except there’s not a person on the other end - there’s another world.
I sometimes have to figure out how I’m going to pull off a particular scene I have in mind. I know what I would like the reader to see in her head, what emotions or feelings I’d like to convey, but what is the most effective way to paint that picture, to evoke those feelings? If I write the scene in two or three different ways, I’ll often be able to come up with the right combination of images, but occasionally, I’ll realize that I don’t quite have it.
That’s when I go hunting. If I need more suspense, for example, I pick out several works - literature or movies - that made me tense, and try to pick apart how it was done.
I’m always looking for effective ways to building suspense. In the course of writing several books, I’ve seen and read all the classic suspense-building techniques in action, and keep a list of examples, not only to remind myself, but to use as a teaching tool as well.
A refresher never goes amiss, Dear Reader. And if you have other examples, I’m all eyes.
The Ticking Clock : Our hero must accomplish something before a horrible thing happens. Diffuse the bomb! Find out who really did it before the wrong man is hanged! Great example, the movie D.O.A. (the 1950 original with Edmond O’Brien is better than the 1988 Dennis Quaid version.)
Drag Out the Action : Seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But if you just know the trap is going to spring, and it doesn’t ... doesn’t...doesn’t... The anticipation is killing me! The trick here is timing. Great example, Lee Child’s Bad Luck and Trouble.
Add More Peril : Our heroine is running through the jungle and the Columbian drug suppliers are right behind her, brandishing their machetes. She crashes through the brush, and finds herself on the edge of a cliff! There is a river at the bottom of the gorge, so she takes a leap, just feeling the breeze as a blade slashes over her head. She falls 75 feet into the river and realizes it’s infested with piranas! She swims like the dickens, piranas nipping at her heals, and as she nears the shore, 40 tribesmen with poisoned dart blowguns step out from the trees... No matter how bad it is, it can always be worse. Great example, any of the Die Hard movies.
I Know Something You Don’t Know : We’ve seen the villain hide under the stairs, but the hero has no idea as he walks down into the dark basement. The author gives us a piece of information that the characters don’t have. Great example, Louise Penny’s A Fatal Grace.
The Cliffhanger : Remember the villain under the stairs? He leaps out! He grabs the hero around the neck! He pulls a knife! Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Great example, Hour of the Hunter by J.A. Jance.
My Hands Are Tied : Our hero can see disaster about to happen, but is powerless to stop it. Greatest example of all time, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back : The sleuth is investigating Laura’s murder. He cannot discover a single clue to her death. Everyone loved her! She was wonderful and squeaky clean. He’s baffled, and sits in her apartment long into the night, pondering. At midnight, the front door opens, and ... it’s Laura! She’s alive! Then who is the woman who was found lying on the floor of Laura’s apartment, wearing her clothes, shot in the face with a shotgun? Ultimate example, the 1944 movie Laura.
And one of my favorites,
Foreshadowing : This takes some skill to pull off well. Two guys are sitting around discussing the possibility of some nefarious occurrence. “Oh, that’ll never happen,” says one. Want to bet? If the author has set it up well, we now spend two hundred pages waiting with baited breath for it to happen. Excellent example, Robert McCammon’s Queen of Bedlam. What a set up!
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Poking the beast again
In my post two weeks ago, I described how I was "letting my manuscript rest" before beginning rewrites. That was a good excuse for my month of inactivity while I spent much needed real time with family at my cottage and received many much needed hugs after nearly five months of isolation.
This past week I finally began to think about the notes I had made and the questions that needed to be answered, and began to fill in the holes in my research. I contacted a friend in the local duck club to tell me about ducks and a couple of retired social worker friends to ask them about issues of client confidentiality because I wasn't sure whether there were different rules for psychologists (me) and social workers. I contacted the director of a local woman's shelter to ask about their relationship with the police. The answers are beginning to flow in and the gaps in the manuscript are slowly being filled in. Fortunately none of the answers I got created major problems for my storyline, just a tweak, elaboration, or small change here and there.
Next comes a serious examination of my characters, their emotional depth and credibility, and the vividness of their conflicts. I am not a believer in "larger than life" characters who "leap off the page". I want characters who inhabit and enrich the page. I want readers to imagine them as if they were real, interesting, complex, but believable as someone they might know, for good or ill. I want their conflicts and relationships to feel both unique and relatable. Apologies for that awful word; it's late, I've had two glasses of wine, and this blog is due.
THE DEVIL TO PAY is a police procedural with a small group of suspects. Character and motive are crucial to my stories, and so each one of the suspects has to be fully fleshed out with a credible, interesting motive. I don't usually know until I've written the climax who all the suspects are and who the actual killer is, which makes for a lot of reworking and enrichment during rewrites. To a psychologist like me, fascinated by what drives people to the choices they make and by the possibility that everyone is capable of killing someone given the right circumstances and the right reason, this character work is one of the most interesting aspects of creating the novel.
I will do a lot of thinking in the next ten days as I toy with these questions, add scenes, and poke at the heart of existing scenes. It will be frustrating and puzzling and fun. So stay tuned for the next blog, when I may report on my progress. Meanwhile, I'm curious to know what other writers do in their rewrites.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
A bit of flag waving
Photo by maplerose from FreeImages |
My post this week is a bit of a cheat, actually. The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — Canada, see?) article to which I’m going make reference came out at the beginning of July, but I only ran across it this morning.
It’s a list of 14 Canadian mysteries — more correctly, books by Canadian authors and published in this country — recommended for summer reading. None of the authors listed (with one notable exception) are well-known even in this country, let alone the world at large.
Click HERE for the link. (https://www.cbc.ca/books/14-canadian-mysteries-and-thrillers-to-check-out-this-summer-1.5643368)
I’ve read two of the listed novels and I know a few of the authors, but based on other reviews of these books and my own reading experience, what you’ve got here are some damned good reads.
Canadian crime fiction is not well-known outside — or even inside, for that matter — the Great White North, and that’s a real shame. Louise Penny, lovely as her novels are, is not the only Canadian writing crime fiction. We have a real star right here on Type M: Barbara Fradkin, a multiple award winner and very fine writer. You could do no better than starting with something of hers!
There are other excellent Canadian crime writers, of course, just waiting for the larger world to discover them. This list is a great place to start if you want to read something from a different viewpoint and (generally) setting.
With many people now owning e-readers, it’s easy to have one or more of these novels ready-to-go if you’re about to head out on vacation, no waiting for shipment, just download and enjoy.
If you’ve already gone on vacation, why not make summer last a bit longer by vicariously spending a few hours in Canada?
I’m betting you’ll be glad you did!
_______________
And in a bittersweet moment, I cannot let this week pass without saying goodbye to Aline Templeton who is taking her leave from our blog. I have always enjoyed reading her posts and getting her viewpoint on various things. We all wish you well, Aline. You will be very missed — and please come back whenever you’d like to share your thoughts or promote your next book. The door is always open!
Sunday, August 16, 2020
Once Upon a Time.... and Now
It was very exciting to reach across the Atlantic from my desk in Edinburgh, Scotland, and find myself in company with Canadian and American writers. There was a lot I didn't know about the crime writing scene there that they were so familiar with: I didn't fully understand what a 'cozy' was, I'd never heard of 'pantsers' and the spellcheck was constantly querying words I knew I had spelled perfectly correctly, at least as far as the Oxford English Dictionary was concerned. (Sometimes I changed it and sometimes I got bolshie and reckoned you would probably work out what 'recognised' meant, even if it was spelled with an 's' instead of a 'z'.) Every so often I would throw in a Scots word, like 'peelie-wally' (off-colour, not well) to mix things up a bit.
The wonderful thing was the welcome I had and the friendship that has grown up over the years, not just with the present writers but with the others in the past, and with the readers too who have responded and even been kind enough to buy my books. Type M is truly a family, which makes this a difficult blog to write.
Lockdown in Scotland has been very hard, as it has been everywhere. When you're not able to go anywhere, or to do very much, it's not only a depressing experience, it cuts you off from the meetings and conversations that spark new ideas about the fascinating world of crime writing. Certainly there is usually something fresh you can say with a new angle on an old idea, but I've become worried that I might end up just giving you what is, to use another Scots phrase, 'cauld kale het' (cold cabbage, re-heated)and having you say, as Mr Bennett so tartly did to poor Mary, 'You have delighted us long enough.'
So this, dear friends, is good-bye from me. Oh, of course I'll pop in and see what you're all doing, but it's time you had someone new. I'll look forward very much to reading their posts.
Rick, thank you so much for your inspiration and patience over the years and thank you to my kind and supportive colleagues. I know you have great ideas for the future and wish you every success with this fantastic blog.
And thank you too, to everyone who has been interested enough to read my posts. You can always find me at my website, https://www.alinetempleton.co.uk or on Twitter, @Aline Templeton
Good-bye and good luck. 😀
Friday, August 14, 2020
Dog Days
Before air conditioning, life stopped. Not dead still.--there were still chores and rituals. Chickens to water, cows to milk, and that ever-blooming garden! Air didn't move during sleepless summer nights. Only fans provided some relief.
An overwhelming lethargy hung over life. My sister and I weren't allowed to go swimming. Not just due to the heat, but as nearly as I can recall, Mom believed there was an increased chance of contracting polio during Dog Days.
According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, "in ancient Greece and Rome, the Dog Days were believed to be a time of drought, bad luck, and unrest, when dogs and men alike would be driven mad by the extreme heat."
Other sites mention a time of increased infections, strokes, and sudden thunderstorms.
The Almanac again: "This period of sweltering weather coincides with the year’s heliacal (meaning “at sunrise”) rising of Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius is part of the constellation Canis Majoris—the “Greater Dog”—which is where Sirius gets its canine nickname, as well as its official name, Alpha Canis Majoris. Not including our own Sun, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky."
There was light at the end of the tunnel. My sister and I knew that if we made it through Dog Days, it would cool off. And there was the ultimate prize at the end; we got to start school. Schools had a distinctive odor. Floors were re-waxed during the summer and chalk dust was as alluring as perfume. There were brand new pencils and Big Chief tablets and erasers and our very own desks in which to store everything.
I was in Walmarts a couple of days ago and teared up over the aisles of school supplies. Who would buy them now? What would they do with the excess merchandise? I was suddenly overwhelmed with the awareness of all the bewildered, disappointed children who no longer will have a positive end to Dog Days. What about all the families with 3, 4, or more kids faced with on-line learning? Do they have to buy extra computers?
I have been patiently waiting out Covid and all it's implications. Then it dawned on me this week that this plague might be around forever. Like the flu. Like the common cold. Vaccinations didn't make the flu go away.
Soon people will start coming up with better ways to jump start our lives. Educators are really smart. They will figure out some way to preserve our educational system.
Our lives will change again. But's important to remember that when Pandora opened the box that let out all miseries of the world, hope remained inside.
Soon it will be freed too.
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Summer Reading List
My reading list this summer has been diverse and influences me on many levels.
The Mistress’s Daughter: A Memoir, by A.M. Homes
Dark Rooms, by Lili Anolik
On the Come Up, by Angie Thomas
This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger
White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
The Thief, by Fuminori Nakamura
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
Three of these books I consider mysteries: This Tender Land, The Thief, and Dark Rooms. A.M. Homes' memoir was a book I wanted to read because she's a friend. DiAngelo's book I read because I should. The crime books I read because that's just what I do and have done since I was a kid.
If anyone has read any of these, I’d love to hear what you think of them.
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Going Down The Punctuation Rabbit Hole
Exclamation marks, periods, semicolons, etc. We use them every day and don’t think anything about it. They’ve always been there for us. We think of them as being necessary for the written word. But they didn’t always exist. Even spaces between words or divisions into paragraphs wasn’t there when written language came about.
I’ve seen this myself from the years I’ve spent studying Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Coptic. Nary a space in sight. It’s amazing how fast you can get used to figuring out where words and sentences begin and end. Or, in the case of AE, what direction the text is written in.
But I didn’t really know anything about when punctuation marks came into being. I still know only a little, but I’m finding it a fascinating topic.
This whole foray into the history of punctuation started when I read a post by author Kathleen Valenti on Chicks on the Case about exclamation points. I, myself, am a heavy user of exclamation points in emails and letters. I’ve learned to rarely, if ever, use them in stories I write.
Her post got me thinking about the several semesters I took of Swedish (don’t ask me to translate anything, ‘cause I’ve pretty much forgotten it all). I had this vague memory that the use of ! in Swedish differs from how we use it in English. So I did a little googling and found an article on the top 5 mistakes Swedes make when writing English. Number 1(!) was in the use of the exclamation mark. In Swedish it’s used to indicate a positive friendly tone while in English we tend to think of someone shouting or being overly excited about something.
This got me thinking about how punctuation marks came about in general. So I did more googling and came across an article by Keith Houston on “The Mysterious Origins of Punctuation.”
That led me to his book, Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols and Other Typographical Marks where I’ve learned a bit about the pilcrow (paragraph mark), the interrobang (combination of question mark and exclamation mark) and other symbols like the at sign and hyphen. I’m still in the process of reading the book, but it’s great so far.
I also found the book Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation by David Crystal. This one gives a history of punctuation in English as well as advice on how to use it.
From what I’ve read so far, written texts were seen as an aid to reading aloud. Reading silently was a tad suspicious. So letters were all caps, squished together with no punctuation. Aristophanes in 200 B.C.ish came up with the first forms of punctuation to help with reading aloud. That didn’t stick. But punctuation started gradually being added until, in the 7th century A.D., spaces in English became common practice and reading silently was no longer suspect. Basically, our current punctuation has its roots in the middle ages and was pretty much set when the printing press was invented.
There’s so much more to learn and it’s much more complicated than I’m making out. You’ll just have to pick up one of those books and see for yourself.
The interrobang is an interesting little twist. It’s a cross between an exclamation mark and a question mark and was invented in the 1960s. You can put it in your Word documents by using the Wingdings 2 font. You can read a short history of it here.
Yes, you’re right, I’ve seriously gone down the rabbit hole on punctuation and I’m enjoying every single minute of it.
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Something for more for writers to think about
Monday, August 10, 2020
A Healthy Respect for Teachers
I look forward to hearing what they’ve written.
Teaching this class in-person has given me a new perspective on what heroes our schoolteachers, school administrators, bus drivers, and janitorial staff really are. I teach seven adults, neatly spaced apart in a fairly large classroom, where masks are required. It’s a pretty safe environment.
There are going to be times and circumstances where in kindergarten up to college classrooms where that will not possible. I’m hoping that all the students and teachers stay safe and healthy.
In my classroom we discussed heroes and how they might be written. how they need to be relatable but flawed in some way. And heroes are always up to the task at hand, no matter the consequences or the danger.
We have them in real life. We always have, but it’s much more obvious now. The doctors, nurses, and health care workers risking their own lives to treat those sick with Covid-19.
As always, our heroes are also the law officers, firemen and EMTs that continue to work even though they’re putting themselves in danger of contracting the disease. And many of them have.
Less obvious are the people who are working in our grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, and (thank heavens) the liquor stores. We also need to thank the truck drivers, the mail carriers, and sanitation workers.
Our teachers are also heroes. They always have been, but now more than ever they’re putting themselves on the front lines.
One of the many reasons we enjoy reading mysteries, especially in uncertain times, is that we’re pretty certain that by the last page, justice will be served and the heroes will be victorious.
But this isn’t fiction.
It’s real life. And it's scary as hell. So, when you interact with our real-life heroes, thank them and tell them how much they are appreciated.
Real life heroes, good on you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Friday, August 07, 2020
Inhabiting Characters' Minds
For the past week, I've been reading Naomi Hirahara's Mas Arai novel, Hiroshima Boy. If you haven't encountered him, Mas is in his 80's, a member of the Japanese American community in Los Angeles, and a retired gardener. In this book, he travels back to Hiroshima to bring half of his dead friend's ashes to the man's sister. On the ferry to Ino, where the woman lives in an assisted living facility, he notices a teenage boy in a red San Francisco T-shirt. Later, he finds the boy's body. Then the ashes he has brought with him disappear, apparently taken by the woman who wandered into his room.
What I realized about this book is that my brain shifts gears when I'm reading it. I am seeing the world through Mas's eyes. I am inhabiting his mind, and the way he thinks is almost like meditation. I'm not good at meditation. It makes me impatient. I want to get it over with and check it off my list and move on. I almost put this book back on my TBR pile. But then I clicked on a news website (in my endless surfing from one website to another looking for good news). There was an article about the 75th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima. Obviously, this was the right time to read this book. So I went back to it -- back into Mas's head. I'm slowing down and letting him take me along at his pace. Having surrendered, I really love this character. Bonus: the plot is intriguing and I'm getting a history lesson from the perspective of a survivor.
Oddly enough, this has reminded me of Goodfellas. I have watched this movie multiple times. Several times recently because it's among the films I'm discussing in a book about gangster movies. If you haven't seen the movie, it's based on the life of real-life mobster, Henry Hill, who became a government informer. I thought of this movie while reading Hiroshima Boy because watching Goodfellas requires being in Henry Hill's head. Hill is played by Ray Liotta, who provides the exuberant voiceover. We follow Henry from boyhood, when he becomes fascinated with the mobsters who hang out across the street, through his life as an adult criminal, and then his downfall when he is forced to go into the federal witness protection program. What stands out about Henry is his enjoyment of what he does. He "normalizes" the world in which he lives. But the sudden, explosive acts of violence that he and his colleagues engage in are an aspect of this world. These men are criminals and killers. And in the scene that leads up to his arrest, being in Henry Hill's head is like being deranged. He (Liotta) tells us about his crazy day, as he is preparing an elaborate meal, picking up his brother, getting the woman who is transporting his drugs ready for her trip, and worrying about the plane overhead that seems to have him under surveillance. He is high on his own drugs and so tightly wound that a doctor insists on examining him. Being in Henry's head toward the end of the movie is knowing you're in a bad place and -- if you didn't know how his story ends -- you would wonder if he (you) are going to make it out alive.
As a reader/viewer I appreciate the depth of these characters. As a writer, I'm analyzing how I'm brought so fully into their worlds. I'm also thinking about why I find it impossible to do more than skim American Psycho, and why I still haven't been able to make it through the much less graphic movie. I suspect it's because there is nothing about the protagonist that I can comprehend. There is too much darkness there.
At any rate, it's something to consider as I work on my historical thriller. Do I want to have readers enter my villain's head and understand how he sees the world? Do I want to give him that opportunity to reveal himself? The thing is it could completely change my book. For the reader to go there, I have to go there first. The last time I did that with a character in another book I was working on, I saw the world through his eyes and realized he was not capable of what I wanted him to do. If that happened with my thriller, it would completely screw up my book.
Thinking. . .
Thursday, August 06, 2020
Depressed
Wednesday, August 05, 2020
Letting it rest
Tuesday, August 04, 2020
Star turns
Monday, August 03, 2020
Breaking Out
Friday, July 31, 2020
Sweating Reviews
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Appropriation or Appreciation?
I use, I think, seven characters’ third-person limited POVs, including an African American teenage boy, a white teenage girl, a white woman in her 40s, a black man in his 20s, a white male in his 40s, another white male in his 50s (the co-protagonist), and the character in question, his Korean wife (the other co-protagonist).
I had a really great exchange with this insider, who is knowledgeable and thoughtful. It was eye-opening for a guy who just four years ago published the third Peyton Cote novel, a series told through Peyton’s eyes.
I’m a 50-year-old, white, male, who grew up upper-middle-class. Privileged beyond belief, admittedly. Only three years ago, an agent told me I needed a strong female character. I thought it would be a fun challenge: Could I write from a female POV convincingly? an opportunity, which, in itself, illustrates my privilege.
I’m 100% behind social-justice causes, including #OwnvoicesBooks. I’m also certain it’s easier for me to write a character who thinks, acts, speaks –– and is very much like –– me. I attempted to show the trials and tribulations I assume a female Asian woman might face in a male-dominated profession. And I see the problematic portion of the previous sentence –– “I assume” –– because, as a white male, I have the option of walking a mile in another’s shoes, when others do not. The problem for me is that I see no other way to write the book. The plot can’t be told from one POV (or I’m not smart enough to figure out how to do it). Five people who always read my work as I write indicated they knew the male lead (the American), at least in part, by his interactions with his Korean wife. It was a part of the book they all enjoyed.
I toss this conversation forward because it’s an important one, and I look forward to hearing from others.
Coincidently, I just read Angie Thomas’s fantastic On the Come Up and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility. I recommend them both highly.
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
My Christmas In July
The month started off with my helping Christina Freeburn celebrate the release of her latest book, Dash Away All, on Facebook. It was a fun 2-hour event. We did posts every 10 minutes, alternating them between the two of us. I think that worked out quite well. Her book takes place in July on the set of a Christmas movie. A fun read. Her main character has been hired as the onset crafter for the movie. Things did not turn out as she planned!
Here are a couple of the ornaments I painted this month. I’m working on some others as well. These two I gave away at the Facebook event I mentioned above along with a copy of my own Christmas book, Ghosts of Painting Past.
Other good Christmas books I read are Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge by Laura Levine and Premeditated Peppermint by Amanda Flower, both cozy mysteries.
The other book of note that I’m currently still reading is “The History of a Nutcracker” by Alexandre Dumas. I picked this little gem up at a Barnes & Noble a couple years ago. I’ve never seen the Nutcracker ballet, but I’ve listened to the music and sort of, kind of know the basic story. What I didn’t realize is that it has its origins in a story by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman, first published in 1816, called “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”. Fast forward to 1845 when Alexandre Dumas adapted a version of the story in “The History of a Nutcracker”.
In terms of short stories, I’ve been enjoying Steve Hockensmith’s “Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime”. These all appeared originally in EQMM or AHMM. You can hear him read some of the stories on the EQMM podcast. There’s a list of all of the ones that have been on the podcast at https://www.stevehockensmith.com/steves-stories
I haven’t only been reading or viewing Christmas stuff this month, but my occasional dipping into it has kept me sane.
Monday, July 27, 2020
We Are What We Read
I’m nearly at the end of teaching my Creative Writing class and it’s been as much of a learning experience for me as it has for them. We started out as eight strangers and by the end, we know a lot about each other.
In each class, I assign a writing prompt such as create a character and put that character in an action scene. This week’s writing prompt is to write a scene of romance primarily using dialogue. Next week’s assignment, and our final one, will be to write the first few pages of your book and the last few pages of your book.
All of the members of this class are good writers. Some are outstanding.
One of the classmates uses the writing prompts to add to his folksy short story about a boy losing his bike. One of the writers is extraordinary at humor. One has a remarkable ability to describe scenes. One is a thriller addict and it comes out in his writing.
Three of the students are millennials and I hesitate to pigeonhole any demographic, but I’ve noticed that when they read their work aloud, they do it from their phones using Google-Docs. And all three of them write about medieval fantasy worlds of assassins, magic, and fierce warriors.
When asked about the subject matter, I discovered that Dungeons & Dragons has made an impressive comeback. I’d thought that the game had died out in the eighties. I was wrong.
I was impressed when one of the other students asked them if they’d read The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit and they replied that they had.
It wasn’t the first time I’d gotten an inkling that younger folks interested in writing enjoyed that genre. I spoke to a middle school class about writing and asked them what kind of interests they had. It was the medieval fantasy genre but also, and not surprising, science fiction and superheroes.
I thought back to what genres interested me when I was much younger. Back in the seventies, pulp science fiction and horror magazines filled with strange and wonderful short stories held my fascination. I began writing my own and submitting them.
Not one of them sold.
However, I did get a really positive personal letter from Ben Bova, the publisher of Omni.
I kept writing short stories and finally got one published in a glossy men’s magazine called Cavalier. A tawdry publication, but the one that first published Stephen King’s short stories.
Mine was called Fast Dancing Detroit Style and it was about a killer who picks up a hitchhiker in the Nevada desert who turns out to be a ghost.
It wasn’t much later that I picked up my first Travis McGee mystery. I was hooked. I discovered that I love mysteries. But that's not what I started writing, not yet.
As a fledgling writer I took a few detours, trying my hand at a historical novel (awful), a horror novel (even worse), and a flat out thriller (my own wife wouldn’t read it).
No, I was exclusively reading mysteries: Sue Grafton, Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosely, Ed McBain, Lawrence Block, and Mickey Spillane, as well as many, many others. Mysteries are my niche. I enjoy reading them and I enjoy writing them.
The point of this rambling blog? We are what we read. Or perhaps what movies we watch and games we play.
Stay safe. Stay healthy.
www.thomaskiesauthor.com
Friday, July 24, 2020
Not Being There
But last fall, I was busy and I couldn't decide whether to drive or to take the train down to New York City and go from there. I reserved my tour ticket after hearing a delightful podcast, and then I dithered about logistics. I decided with all of the videos available on YouTube and elsewhere on the Internet, with all the photos and descriptions I had found, there was no urgency about actually going to Flushing Meadows. I could wait until spring. Then came COVID-19. And by spring break, it was obvious it would be awhile before I could go anywhere.Hardly tragic in the larger scheme of things. But I keep thinking about the mist on a street in Chicago.
It was years ago, and I went to Chicago for a week because the first quarter of You Should Have Died on Monday (soon to be reissued) was set there. I wanted to walk through what Lizzie Stuart, my crime historian, would do if she were in Chicago looking for information about the time her mother had spent there in 1968. I had been to Chicago several times before, but this time I needed to pay attention to details. A fellow author and lawyer who lived there had offered to take me out to Cook County Jail and give me a tour of some other places that might work for my locations.
That first day, I arrived at my hotel, and then decided to go for a walk. I was walking along, when suddenly there was a refreshing mist in the air. I looked around, puzzled for a moment, until I realized the buildings were blocking the view of the river.
On the next corner, a woman asked me to buy a small press newspaper. I bought one and dropped it in my tote bag. Then I came to the kiosk offering tickets for a river tour. Of course, Lizzie would take a river tour. She had nothing to do until she met with the private detective who was looking for her mother the next day. I bought a ticket and decided to walk some more while I was waiting for the next boat. On the next block, across the street, I saw a sports uniform display -- the store Lizzie where Lizzie would buy something for John Quinn, her baseball-loving almost fiance. I went in, bought a White Sox baseball cap because that's what Lizzie, the historian, would buy. Then I walked on until I came to the little burger place where Lizzie would have a late lunch and I noted the architecture and the open door in back. Then I walked back to the harbor for the boat tour -- where Lizzie would notice the passengers and I make notes about what the tour guide was saying about the buildings and the huge Ferris wheel.
Now, here's the thing. I was looking back to see if I had a photo of the Ferris wheel that I could post here because on that tour I had a chance to see exactly how it gleamed in the hazy afternoon sun. I mentioned that in the book. But when I was checking the Chicago Architecture Center site, I saw immediately that the gondolas that I remembered as red and had described that way are blue in the photos. It turns out this is a new Ferris wheel, installed in 2016 to replace the 1995 wheel with the red gondolas that I remembered. But if I hadn't seen the red gondolas and I were writing that novel (set in 2004) right now, I might well have gotten that detail wrong. In fact, that boat tour that was really useful in the book because of what happened on board, might have gotten only passing mention and details taken from a brochure.
From Chicago, Lizzie went to Wilmington, North Carolina. I had been there several times before. This time I went to the library and did the research Lizzie would have done -- and when I asked the questions she would have asked, a helpful patron in the local history room offered a suggestion about the neighborhood I wanted to go to. There I parked, walked over to the fish market and order lunch, then walked along the adjacent street -- where I saw a broken place in the sidewalk and the house where I knew Lizzie would find another lead. In my mind, when the door opened, the person there would be a child. I didn't know what he was going to say, but I knew it would affect the outcome of her search. That conversation sent her -- and me -- to New Orleans. I had been there several times before, but now I was in Lizzie's skin. This time, I needed to find the right hotel for Lizzie and walk her through finding Becca -- a trolley tour of the Garden District, a early morning walk on Bourbon Street with the smell of stale beer, the location of Becca's restaurant.
I'm getting nostalgic writing this. I love field research. It's like going on-location in a movie. I can only be grateful that although I wasn't ready to begin my sixth Lizzie book, I did take the opportunity I had almost two years ago to go to Santa Fe.
A friend came along and we walked through my locations -- driving from the airport to Santa Fe, walking around downtown, stopping in art galleries so that I could get details for the gallery that Quinn's sister owns. I collected maps and menus and newspapers. I have all of that in a banker's box along with my notes. I have photos. I'm ready to start writing. I plan to have that book finished by the end of the year.
I am so glad I have seen and felt Santa Fe for myself. I know even though Lizzie is going to be distracted while she is there, she will want to go back.
Thursday, July 23, 2020
The Tale of the Printer
So much good news from my blogmates lately! (well, except for Rick, who has to go back to the drawing board on his WIP. I sympathize. I've been there.) Congratulations to Barbara for finishing the first draft of her new novel, to Aline on the occasion of her Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary, and to Charlotte, whose historical novel, The Healer's Daughter, won a Kansas Notable Book Award, is a finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist for the High Plains Books Award!
As for me, I'm slogging through, like so many writers. I've started a new novel and am trying to muster up the discipline to write a certain number of pages every day, when in reality I'm so distracted by the disturbing state of the world that it's a wonder I manage to get out of bed in the mornings. Added to the fact that I live in the festering germ swamp that is Arizona, things keep going oddly wrong in my little world, which doesn't help my state of mind. I had all kinds of trouble with my internet connection in May and June. We had repair people out twice in a matter of weeks. But as it turns out it wasn't us – in the alley behind out house, someone had run into the provider's tower with his car and caused some kind of short. That's what they told us, anyway. Whatever it was, we seem to be doing all right now, connection-wise. I have read, however, that since the pandemic began and the number of people working from home has skyrocketed, home internet connections have been problematic for everyone.
Then yesterday my printer gave up the ghost. I did everything I could think of, but the message on the printer screen says “Your printer needs repair. Please unplug.” I hunted through the online jungle to find out who is selling the same Canon PIXMA printer that I could buy online and perhaps pick up curbside. No luck at any venue. That type of printer is no longer made. Figures. I bought $75 worth of ink cartridges for it last week. So today we put on our hazmat suits and went to Best Buy to actually look at printers, and guess what? The local Best Buy stores are basically sold out of printers since, as the salesman told me, everyone is working at home and they can't keep them in stock. (aside – the young man, though properly masked, kept unconsciously stepping closer to me, invading my 6-foot safety space, and I kept backing up like he was coming at me with a knife.)
So here are my printer choices: I can order a new printer of unknown quality (plus ink) online, or I can haul my old printer in for repair, which might be faster, but will probably cost more than buying a new printer. I could also go to more electronics stores, but I think I've had as much human contact as I care to for a while. My husband and I talked it over, and decided to drop the old printer off with the Geek Squad and pay the price to get it fixed. In the meantime, there will be no printing here at the Casey household for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Reaching the end
I've been writing the first draft of my next Inspector Green novel in fits and starts for months. Humming along nicely in February and slammed to a halt in March by the pandemic. Spent two months obsessively reading news, checking numbers, sewing masks, and listening to our PM's daily briefings. Picked the novel up again in May when I found I could concentrate enough to write a coherent paragraph. And then in June to July, turned to a sloth by the heat. BUT... Drumroll...
This afternoon I finally wrote THE END on the final page of the first draft of Green #11. It weighs in at 89,050 words and 352 pages. That will no doubt change, with the paring down of blubbery prose and the fleshing out of characters and subplots I didn't know I needed. There is much work to be done yet, but at least I now know it's a book, which is a tremendous relief. It is a story with a beginning, middle, and end. There are characters who can be tweaked but who know what their job is. And it now has a title that may stick around! THE DEVIL TO PAY.
One of the challenges I face in the rewrites is that because of the pandemic, I wasn't able to do much of the research I planned to do or discovered I needed as the book went along. So I had to rely on Mr. Google or make stuff up. I made a lot of stuff up, like the procedures the Ontario Provincial Police uses when investigating a homicide, or the protocols followed for bail hearing in the Ottawa courthouse. I want to avoid being contacted by an astute lawyer reader who says "That's not how it's done at all." I'd like to talk to the OPP, I want to visit the courthouse, but neither are feasible right now. I also don't know how protocols will have changed by the fall of 2021 when this book hits the shelves. Will there still be masks and physical distancing, or will we all be rejoicing in our post-vaccine freedom?
So for now I will research what I can, contact my police friends and other experts to answer the questions that have cropped up, and make a note of what will have to wait until the book is in the final editorial phase with the publisher (like the vaccine info). I may also have to live with some of the stuff I made up. It is fiction, after all.
So I have printed the draft out, and as of tomorrow, I turn from THE END of Draft One to Chapter One, Draft Two. And begin to tear the whole thing apart, with the file of notes and questions compiled during first draft at my elbow. But for now, I'm going to pour a glass of wine. And do a little jig. (Photo not provided).
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Coming to a VERY painful conclusion
Monday, July 20, 2020
Excuses, excuses!
Friday, July 17, 2020
Facing Reality (Virtually)
I've had a very exciting month. Last week I learned that my historical novel, The Healer's Daughter, had won a Kansas Notable Book Award. I cannot find the words to tell you how thrilled I was. Was then, and still am.
A week earlier I was informed that this book is a finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion. And the week before that I received another call--I was a finalist for the High Plains Books Award. So many, many good things happening all at once. It was almost too much to take in. I'm simply stunned.
Then yesterday my local Sisters In Crime chapter told me The Healer's Daughter was also historical suspense. For that reason, I'm asking Rick Blechta, our blogmaster, to post that more current cover photo in place of Fractured Families.
Everything I write is set in Kansas or about Kansas. Even my mysteries (The Lottie Albright Series) are set in Western Kansas. It doesn't exactly make an agent or editor's heart go pitty-pat. Even worse, at the heart of everything is agriculture. Kansas is all about land. Never mind about following the money. In Kansas, follow the land. There has always been murderous tensions surrounding the land.
When the Kansas Notable Book people asked about my home town, I asked that they list it as Hoxie, Kansas, even though I now live in Fort Collins, Colorado. I moved here after my husband died because I wanted to live closer to my three daughters. Even then, I could only bear to do so because Colorado was once part of Kansas Territory. I could still say I was a Kansan.
But now, two exciting award ceremonies will be conducted virtually: The Kansas Notable Book Award and the High Plains Book Award. Right now, it appears that the Will Rogers Award ceremony will be live. If that happens, I will consider driving to Fort Worth, Texas. Some of my friends are planning a wine and cheese party the night of the High Plains Award ceremony. It will be fun to hear "the winner is...." surrounded by this giddy crew.
I believe that authors should support their publisher. I've always been traditionally published and in the past, I've done the best I could with promotion. But the old ways won't work any more. I've had to rethink everything. I've decided to jump right into mastering Zoom technology.
I'm going to contact the organizations that asked me to speak before COVID hit and ask if they would consider a video presentation. I can't personally sell books that way, but I can sustain interest in my novels. If attendees buy a book through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or their local book store, and email me, I will send them an autographed bookplate.
The problem is that "virtual" might be the new reality.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
An ode to my Kindle
But I digress. Among all this, I took a look at my Kindle offerings. I have the good fortune of owning my Kindle titles, so I can set the prices, something I’ve been considering and reconsidering the past few weeks. How much should an ebook cost? What’s a price that encourages sales? I read this article, but didn’t learn a lot.
As a consumer, I hesitate to “buy” a book that’s free. I’ve heard people say they won’t buy one that’s “too cheap,” assuming the worst about the title’s quality. Fair? Who knows. But perception continues to be reality.
So I’m curious, Type M readers, what’s an enticing Kindle price?
All of this leads me to another topic –– the benefits of a Kindle.
As a life-long lover of books, I enjoy the smell of books, the feel of pages turning, the weight of a physical book on my palm. As a dyslexic, the new dyslexic-friendly font, Dyslexie, on my Kindle is life-changing. I recently told a friend: “This is how you’ve been reading since we were kids.” Reading has never been easy, per se. It’s always been enjoyable, a large part of my life, but the new font allows me to read faster than ever. It’s made my Kindle a large part of my life.
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Writing a Christmas Cozy
I also like the idea of Christmas in July. And yes, I’ve been watching Christmas movies, reading books set around Christmas and occasionally listening to Christmas music this month. It’s a nice bit of mental relief from some of the things I’ve been watching lately (Mindhunter on Netflix and Very Scary People on CNN) and reading (the dystopian Maze Runner series). Since I’m in a Christmas in July mood, I thought it appropriate to write this post.
Writing a mystery takes a lot of planning (at least for me) and work. But setting it around a holiday made it a tad easier (just a tad) to write. I had holiday events where I could set interesting scenes. Seeing how a city or area celebrates a holiday also gives the reader a sense of place. How Christmas is celebrated in a warm climate is different than how it’s celebrated in an area where it’s colder.
One of the first things I did was make a list of the various events that usually happen in December in the beach cities of Los Angeles County since that’s where my fictional town is set. After a little time on Google, I came up with a list for me to choose from. Some things I knew about already, others I didn’t.
I found: a sand-snowman contest in Hermosa Beach, a pier lighting ceremony in Manhattan Beach, various Christmas concerts, holiday fireworks in Manhattan Beach, a 5K run in Manhattan Beach, a snow festival in Hermosa Beach where they close off the street down to the pier and cart in snow (or make snow) for a day.
You can’t use everything in a book so I decided on a few key events to include. I made my own version of a pier lighting ceremony, a sand-snowman contest and a school holiday concert for my fictional town. I attended the MB pier lighting ceremony while I was writing the book and got lots of added atmosphere that I wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t seen it in person. You can get a lot of info online, but it’s nice, if you can, to experience something for yourself.
The other thing I wanted to do in this book is include a decades old crime to go along with the modern day one. It’s not super cold here in December so I decided the decades old mystery would revolve around surfing, something that’s done year round.
I always include three story lines in my books. For this one, A was the decades old crime, B was the current crime and C was my main character meeting her boyfriend’s family for the first time. Since family is important during the holidays, I included different kinds of families.
The decades old crime involved the discovery of a skeleton when the house across the street from Rory’s place is torn down. The skeleton is an 18-year-old surfer (and friend of Rory’s father) who was thought to have gone off on a surfing trip around the world, following the path of the surfers in “The Endless Summer”, decades before and just never came back.
I created my characters, decided on the crimes and who did them, and did a little bit of outlining of major points. The story took off from there.
Unlike a lot of writers, I don’t write linearly. When I start a book, I usually write the first few chapters in order, but after that it just depends. If I can picture a scene in my mind, I’ll write it. I don’t always know where it fits into the story, but this method seems to work best for me. I don’t get as stalled as I would if I wrote in a linear fashion. When I do figure out where a scene fits, it requires a little rewriting, but it’s usually a fairly simple task.
As I was working on this book, a heat wave set in. We’re talking around 100 outside (extremely unusual for the beach), no air conditioning (unusual around here for houses to have it) and 85 degrees inside. While it’s not what I would call cold in December here, it’s still not that warm so it was hard at times to get into the Christmas spirit. Listening to Christmas carols helped, but sometimes you just have to forge ahead and use your imagination.
I really like the way the book turned out. I’m currently working on one set around Valentine’s Day, though I’m finding it harder to write. It’ll get done though. I’ll just keep on writing.