Write-on Mystery

Jill Edmondson

2011-11-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Jill Edmondson really knows how to throw a party. Her book launch Thursday night at the Pilot tavern featured yummie food, a toast with some great liqueur and the highlight, she read from the 3rd Sasha Jackson mystery: "The Lies Have It" a tale of fetishists and murder. Well done Jill!

Stuart MacBride's New Book

2011-11-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Stuart MacBride is another in the current crop of witty, gritty Scottish writers that have taken the mystery world by storm. Last week, HarperCollins Canada put on a super event with Mr. MacBride who is on a tour. Guests were seated seminar style in a large room with huge windows and Mr. MacBride was in the front like a lecturer. Cake was served and an amusing cardboard cutout mask of a Stewart McBride-like beard sat at each place.

The publishers generously provided a proof copy of Mr. MacBride’s next book Birthdays for the Dead and bags of Halloween candy. The author himself is delightful. High forehead, glasses, dark ponytail, he was six feet of cheerful charm, fast talking and funny.

Thrilled to get an advance copy of a talented author’s new work, I dove into Birthdays for the Dead as soon as I got home. It’s about a somewhat washed-up police investigator on the track of a serial killer with a taste for 12 year old girls. MacBride has a gift for the telling detail, the feel of a cold foggy night, the smells of a dirty slum, the sound of a lowlife bar. The amusing side he showed in his chats and his personalized book signing, surfaces frequently in the book, especially in the detective Ash Henderson's relationship with the loopy young police psychologist Dr. Alice McDonald. It provides welcome comic relief, an antidote to the noirish, gruesome detail of his blackly comic vision of contemporary Aberdeen and environs.

McLuhan’s World, Indeed

2011-10-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

Much has been sung about the man, who would have been 100 years old this year. His theories have been lauded, bandied about, criticized and dissected.

But in the end, Marshall McLuhan was right: “The medium is the message.” There’s no denying it, for even as I write this, I’m taking part in his theories. And yes, we are a “global village,” and one that is getting smaller by the year, thanks to media technology.

McLuhan predicted an entity like the Web, that all-encompassing, overpowering means of communication and information that forms our everyday life – from work to education and business. The proof is before us, on our phones and our computer screens. It is amorphous and unseen; it is cyberspace, the information superhighway, virtual reality.

McLuhan’s ideas really hit home this week as I started a new media job. I’ve known for years McLuhan was right, but the past few years have seen staggering advances in how we communicate and produce information. I can sit in a Hamilton, Ont. newsroom, in front of a computer, and edit and write headlines for a newspaper that is two thousand miles away. It’s just how things are done now.

The production of hundreds of newspapers across North America has been outsourced to centres such as this, where designers and editors put the flesh on the bones on a newspaper. No longer do you have to sit in a city's newsroom to do the job. It’s all part of the Information Revolution, which is taking us, whether we want it or not, to even higher levels of communication.

Is it bad? As someone who started out in the newspaper business when hot type was still around, I’d say no. I’m no sentimentalist. I think progress is good. Change is good. The transformation of the media world the last twenty years has been fabulous, innovative and creative.

Most importantly? The message – and the global village - is alive and kicking.

Vancouver International Writers Festival

2011-10-23T13:43:00.001-07:00

Just finished my final event at the Vancouver International Writers Festival. A brunch with a bunch of great writers, Canadian and Australian. The four days were great but it was so action packed that I haven't had time to post anything. I really don't have time now but will do more when I get back home.

2011-10-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

So Shoot Me

Over on the Crime Writers of Canada National Crime Writing Blog we're writing on the theme of how killing people on paper isn't as easy as it seems. Blame it on CSI, but the average reader is much more savvy about things like blood spatter and gunshot residue. That means if you use these technical terms, you better use them properly.

I ran into a problem when I was using - that is, misusing - prescription drugs. Sure, most people won't know that it's hard to kill someone quickly with drug overdoses. Then a nurse will read your ms and tell you it doesn't work that way. Fortunately the nurse is a friend and she happened to have her outdated copies of her drug bibles.

Some authors get around the technicalities by letting the cops work it out while their amateur sleuth puzzles out the motives. Others, myself included, do a lot of research. If we're lucky and tenacious, we make friends in the right places. I pick the brains of my friends, my friends' friends and people on the street if I over hear an irresistible tidbit of information. My children pretend they don’t know me, then laugh at me later.

Currently I have an almost pathological need to ask police officers questions. You can always tell when a cop walks into a coffee shop where I'm writing. My eyes light up. I take in visual details and look for an opening to glean a bit more knowledge.

So shoot me.

That Special Scene

2011-10-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

A famous screenwriter and director is quoted in John Brady’s The Craft of the Screenwriter saying that at heart of any movie is a single scene, a scene that is the reason for the whole story. Maybe I watch too many movies but still…do you have a favourite novel? A book where the climax is that one revealing, crucial scene, a scene that resonates, reverberates with the author’s intent? Scenes without which there is no story, no meaning, no reason to read any further? What are they? What makes them compelling? I think it was Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver, who said the above but it may have been Robert Towne who wrote Chinatown. Anyway, screenwriters have to reveal character, push the plot forward with very spare dialogue. Not much back-story allowed. As I drive to the finale of my current novel I find myself almost longing for the discipline of screenwriting some days. I must be looking for that extra special scene.

Open with a BANG!

2011-09-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

Last week at Sheridan College, I asked my fiction writing students this question:

“How long do you wait when watching a movie or tv show before switching channels?’

Five minutes? Two minutes? 30 seconds? The responses varied, but averaged out at one minute.

I told them: “One minute. That is one page of movie script. The first page of a novel. So you are telling me that if the FIRST PAGE of writing doesn’t grab you, you don’t give the book/movie/sitcom a chance?”

Struck dumb, is how they looked. Yes, audiences are a fickle lot now. You have to grab them on your first page these days, and better – with your first line!

How to do it?

Start in the middle of something. Start with action or dialogue. Do NOT open with the weather, or description of location, or simple back-story. Start with the meat.

Here’s an example from my novel, Rowena Through the Wall:

“I saw the first one right after class.”

This is a perfect opening line to teach from. This sentence does many things:

It opens with the protagonist. “I saw” – from this, we know that the book will be in first person – we are introduced to our protagonist.

In fiction, readers expect the first person they encounter, to be the protagonist. This is the character they expect to become attached to. Don’t disappoint them.

It opens with mystery: “I saw the first one...”

First one of what? And – it’s the first, so we know there will be more! Lots of questions to intrigue the reader.

It gives some clue to setting. “…right after class.”

In those well-chosen eight words, we have introduced the protagonist, the setting and a mystery.

Other good openers:

“He was a well-dressed burglar, Marge had to admit.” (from “School for Burglars")

Marge is the protagonist; she is watching a burglary in progress. Talk about opening in the middle of something! And we have a picture of the burglar in our minds.

“The thing that shocked Emily was how incredibly easy it was to hide a murder.”

(from “Life Without George”)

Emily is the protagonist, and probably a murderer. Will she get away with it? Will we want her to get away with it?

All this, from one line. Open your books with a bang! Your readers will keep reading.

Melodie's book 'Rowena Through the Wall' hit no. 2 on Amazon.ca bestseller list (fantasy, futuristic) in Aug.

Follow Melodie's comic blog on funnygirlmelodie.blogspot.com

Website: www.melodiecampbell.com

Twitter: @MelodieCampbell

Excited About Bouchercon Conference

2011-09-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

I leave Monday morning from my mountain village in California for the Bright Lights and Big City Spirit of St. Louis Bouchercon conference.

I learned to my dismay that the hotel I'd chosen--"three blocks from the conference hotel--is actually a mile and a half away. Curses and damnation on these lying reservation call centers. Oh well. I hope it's the worst thing that even happens to me.

I look forward to seeing Janet Costelloe and Karen Dryden-Blake again. We met earlier this year in Santa Fe and liked each other. I absolutely loved Wayne Arthurson's first book set in Edmonton, and if I meet him there, I'll harangue him for the next one.

These big mystery conferences are exciting. You get to see big name writers you've read and admired. You have conversations with new acquaintances about books dear to your heart and you can finish each other's sentences.

More to follow, I'm sure, once all of us are in St. Louis.

Crime Writers Homicide Investigation School

2011-08-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'm a real straight-arrow so I never meet the "nose-picking, booger-eatin' morons" Sgt Derek Pacifico talked about in his Homicide Investigation school for Crime Writers last weekend in Covina, California.

For a long time I've been collecting "stupid criminal stories", but Derek topped them all. I just never meet AHs (figure it out) who shoot somebody in the face and think they don't die.

A group of us at the California Crime Writers' Conference in June 2011 heard him give a 4-hour presentation on Interview and Interrogation techniques and were spellbound. We wanted more and he dished it up for us.

Pacifico was funny, serious, thoughtful and thought-provoking. As a law enforcement trainer he's travelled the country teaching the same material to cops. He's worked Homicide Detail as well as all the other facets of police work and now is a Sergeant with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office.

He liked us because we wanted to learn and didn't sit there, arms crossed, giving off testosterone fumes, and the attitude of "Yeah, dude, go ahead. Teach me something I don't know." He was honest and forth-coming about what really lies behind the crime scene tape.

We liked him because he's just plain likeable. From video clips we saw he's got a line of jokey, rapport-building bullshit with criminals in the interrogation room that got him a lot of confessions. I can see why.

The case studies were particularly interesting because they provided a reconstruction of what first just looked like confusion--and probably was. We learned the tedium of stringing a scene and blood, bugs and graves. It's not exciting the way it is on TV.

He's talking about setting up a conference of some length just for crime writers bringing in experts he teaches and works with. Where? To be decided.

I can't wait.

Check him out at Global Training Institute. http://www.crimewriters.globaltraininginstitute.com/HOMICIDE_SCHOOL.html See also Jude McGee's write-up for Ransom Notes. http://judemcgee.com/2010/05/homicide-or-murder-sgt-pacifico-tells-it-like-it-is/comment-page-1/#comment-37

PS Sorry I can't figure out how to link in this software.

Saved by a quarter hour

2011-08-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long hot, humid summer and the crisp fall air can’t come soon enough.

As one of those individuals who suffers in torrid atmospheric conditions – my brain turns to mush – I admit my resolve to finish to my writing project by the autumn has suffered tremendously: from ennui, sluggish holiday recovery, family crises, procrastination and laziness. Should I give it up? It certainly feels like it.

They say familiarity breeds contempt. I’ve been carrying a host of characters around in my head, trying to finish this MS for what seems like eons. Life keeps breaking out around me, throwing up challenges and problems, hassles and calamities. I’m getting a bit tired of these make-believe creatures. They clamor to set about and do things, make pronouncements and go off on tangents. And as prepared as I am to bow to their wishes, I’m supposed to be somewhere else - in real time - in fifteen minutes, or half an hour. And so they wait, impatient, and displaying characteristics I have not yet assigned to them.

What to do? Karen Blake-Hall, our fearless writing group leader, is a firm believer in the fifteen-minutes-a-day regime, especially if you’re on the run. But I write in chunks, I say. What on earth could I achieve in fifteen minutes?

Well, Karen, I’m a convert. You can achieve a lot in fifteen minutes. And the best accomplishment is regaining your momentum. It doesn’t take much. Fifteen stretches to a half hour; a half hour is suddenly an hour. And if tomorrow is busy?

Fifteen minutes will do. You stay in touch with your work. You quiet those characters for a bit and seize control once more.

Mired. Stuck. Blocked. Whatever it is, it seems to just take a nudge – fifteen minutes at a time. At least for now.

Bring on the cool air. My head needs clearing.

Killing is Murder

2011-08-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

The coming theme of the National Crime Writing Month Blog is "50 Ways to Kill Your Lover".

At the risk of jumping the gun, committing murder on paper isn't as easy as it looks. Here are 7 ways NOT to kill your lover.

Shoot your lover point blank - GSR is a bitch to get out of your clothes.
Shoot your lover at a distance with a hand gun - unless you have practice, chances are you'll miss.
Stab your lover through the heart - again, not as easy as it looks. You have to get past the ribs and actually find the heart.
Stab your lover anywhere without making a mess. While inflicting a mortal wound isn't too difficult. It's much harder to stab without causing a long and noisy death.
Bludgeon your lover anywhere without making a mess. It isn't just that blood splatter. It's the negative images where parts of your body gets in the way of the blood splatter. You can get rid of your clothes, but its hard to get rid of walls.
Strangle, smother, or any other method that requires brute strength unless your murderer is very strong or your victim is very weak or incapacitated. (There's a reason women traditionally use poison except...)
Drug overdose - if you want an instant death. Drugs and ingested poisons take time to work. They're also messy because the body tries to purge the toxins. I found a way around this in my next book, but first I had to be lectured by a medical friend of mine who read an early draft. (More about that when I write for the NCWM blog.)

Of course, any of these obstacles can be overcome which brings us to "How Real Investigation Don't Work Like CSI" - but that's another story.

Honouring A Reading Companion

2011-08-23T02:41:00.000-07:00

Like many avid book lovers, I do not often read alone. My life has been rich with cats, from Snooker in Ottawa, to Smudge and Tart through high school, to Manon, Syzygy, and Synergy. Manon passed away last week, but only after being the centre of a number of legendary stories. This is the story of how she spent her twilight days.

My elderly cat, Manon, has decided to spend her remaining days as Manon, Queen of the Balcony.
On the July long weekend, I took her out to soak in the sun. I get direct light from 7-9 a.m. We’ve done this for years.

But this time, when I brought her in, she hopped down, and like a kitten, scooted between my legs to go back out before I could close the door!

It was warm, I was home, and she wasn’t going to have heatstroke as the sun had passed, so I let her stay out. About noon, she started crying by the sliding door.

I went to check on her. She gave me a Look, and moved into Attitude Meowing.

I finally got the message: “Oh, useless Servant, bring me my repast!”

So she ate out there, napped, eliminated, napped. At dusk I brought her in and she vaguely remembered that her previous favourite pastime was sitting on me while I read.

But the next morning, after having her Iam’s with a side of yogurt, she was at the door, donning her Regal Ways. I let her out, and hours later had to drag her in so I could do errands. As soon as I returned, she went back out.

By the Monday night, when I brought her in, she did a sit-in by the screen door, wailing. I had to turn off the AC, and have the maximum screen door in use (with a temp litter box handy) so she could sleep by her Queendom.

Tuesday, I had to go to work. She belligerently threatened to have the SPCA called for animal cruelty if I didn’t let her out for the day.

She’s 19, diagnosed with oral cancer (the vet agreed we’ll just do hospice, with no intervention), so who am I to say she can’t spend her last days how she pleases? She does let me bring her in for the odd hour of reading, and a couple of nights she’s agreed to sleep with me. She is one happily retired kitty!

However, her Queendom and powers of persuasion are expanding. I think she has cowed the Weather Gods, as it has not rained ONE DROP since she took up her new residence. (3 weeks!)

NaNoWriMo from a writer's viewpoint

2011-08-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

I've done NaNo a couple of times. As a writer, I discovered a lot about myself and my story. You discover if you have endurance or not. Yes, endurance, not how long you can run before you succumb to muscle fatigue but how long can you sit in a chair before you become numb from the waist down?

The next thing you discover is whether you prefer M & M's or Reese's pieces and cola or coffee? Remember you are pushing to write as many words as you can each day so stopping for food slows you down.

The hardest thing for me to discover was that the family could actually operate without Mommy. This is both a blessing and a curse. It's great that I've raised the kids to be self-sufficient but it hurts my feelings that they are.

So Jill, here are some other questions to ask the authors of your panel.

- M & M's or Reese's Pieces, cola or coffee?
- Are you prepared for your characters to veer off your storyboard and go their own way?
- Food, do you have your freezer full of quick to cook meals?

Have fun and good luck to all participating in this year's NaNo.

Don't Lecture Me! It's all about Entertainment

2011-08-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

The other day, an American interviewer challenged me about the purpose of fiction; should it always contain a moral message? Specifically, should crime fiction?

My instant answer: No No No! The purpose of crime fiction should be to Entertain, and nothing should come before that.

Why? We have countless other venues that preach morality. Religions seek to teach us how to behave. Every day we are bombarded by newspapers, radio and other nonfiction outlets, that expose us to the ‘evil’ of greedy politicians, nasty world despots and out of control celebrities.

If fiction – and crime fiction in particular – was required to follow a moral code, we would miss so much. If the good guy always won – if the bad guy always got caught – wouldn’t that make crime fiction lamentably predictable?

Does that mean crime fiction can’t teach us something? Of course it can! Put me in the mind of a serial killer for a few hours. Let me know what it feels like to experience the overwhelming greed of a con artist. Dress me up as a torch singer, with a black heart and a gun in her stocking.

Let me discover something about how other people think, if only for a little while. But above all else, entertain me. Don’t preach at me, even from a distance. I don’t want it from my fiction.

Just tell me a damn good story, thank you. Take me out of the real world for a few hours.

That’s the purpose of crime fiction.

Follow Melodie’s comic blog at

thttp://funnygirlmelodie.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html
View trailer and read opening scene at http://www.melodiecampbell.com/

Rowena Through the Wall (Imajin Books) is available at Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk, Amazon.com, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble..

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rowena-Through-the-Wall-ebook/dp/B00557Z2QU

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65519

Who you read … what you believe …

2011-08-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

Who you read … what you believe …

If you were just beginning...

2011-08-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

I'm planning an October panel discussion of published authors, as a prelude to "NaNoWriMo" (National Novel Writing Month). The goal is to be as useful as possible to people who are going to begin (many for the first time) writing a novel. The format will be that a moderator will ask the authors 5 or 6 questions, letting each author take a few minutes to reply to each one.

Possible questions:

What is your writing schedule?

Where do you write and what tools, machinery, music do you have there?

How do you begin - story boarding, outlining, character sketches...?

Think back to when you were beginning. What did you need to know? What was interesting, what was inspiring, what helped?

What else should I ask?

We Are Not Alone...

2011-08-09T00:50:00.000-07:00

The online universe is still expanding. There were many wonderful mystery blogs going strong when Write On Mystery was set up. Indeed, we couldn’t even go with our first three choices for blog name!

Here is just ONE of the mystery blog lists I came across: http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/Mystery_Novels#google1

My first real experience with a mystery blog was with the Ladykillers, top Mystery Book Blog 2010. http://www.theladykillers.typepad.com/ This is an impressive blog, with author photos, links to websites, appearances, advance promotion of upcoming blog topics, and guest bloggers. Very nice that you don’t have to be a member to comment. They get several responses to most of their entries.

Another attractive blog, http://mysterysuspence.blogspot.com/2011/07/mystery-crime-fiction-blog-carnival_31.html, has been around since 2009. This one focuses on reviews. They have over 400 members, and interviews with the likes of Jan Burke and L. J. Sellers.

A Canadian contribution to the sub-genre is http://mysterymavencdn.blogspot.com/. They use lots of photos, including latest book cover of the blogger.

The Cozy Mystery List blog comes up often when using Google. It’s a simpler format, focused on the cozy sub-genre of mysteries. http://www.cozy-mystery.com/blog/

Using the theory that we are all one big supportive community, I encourage you to check out these blogs, and find more wonderful ones. Post there if you like, and if appropriate plug Write On Mystery.

Defining Success

2011-08-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

How do you define your success?

Success is defined in the dictionary as: degree or measure of succeding; favourable or desired outcome. As writers we define success as a contracted book but there are more ways for us to count our successes.

One of the ways I count my success is writing one hundred words a day. They have to be new words so when I do editing I still have to write my hundred words a day. Now you might say that's not much of a challenge but I usually don't stop at a hundred words. I get two or three pages done each day, more on days I don't go to work but if all I get is two pages every day for seven days, then I have fourteen pages or a chapter every week. At the end of the year, I've written fifty-two chapters. Whoo! Whoo! for me.

Accountability is another way to measure success. Another group has word count Wednesday. Now that means that every Wednesday you post your success. Now many words have you written? Have you entered a contest? Have you submitted to an editor or an agent? In othe words, what have you actually done for your writing career for that week.

In another writing group we have success bracelets. Now what sister doesn't want a lovely bracelet with each step of her writing career symbolized by a charm? I'm typing this article and looking at the way my charm bracelet reflects the light. It's a wonderful measure of success.

I hope I've given you some ideas that you can incorporate into defining your success as a writer.

Series entries

2011-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

I just finished the new Sookie Stackhouse short story in Home Improvement: Undead Edition (edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner). The short stories in the Sookie Stackhouse series have been interesting. Some have depicted pivotal events (such as Sookie being informed of her cousin's death), others have seemed as if they might lead to whole new and amazing story lines (such as Sookie sleeping with a shape-changing fairy - which seems to have had no consequences, at least so far...does anyone know what gestation period would be likely?), this story may have introduced a new ongoing character, or added another complication for Sookie if anyone searches her land. If we gained new insight into any character, it may have been J.B.!

In Dark and Stormy Knights (edited by P.N. Elrod) the new Harry Dresden story by Jim Butcher is fun, introduces a new character who may be a player in the series future, and shows us a side of Harry that we already know, but that we love. I have to say that my favorite short story of the last few years was "The Warrior" by Jim Butcher published in Mean Streets. Lovely entry in the series, character growth for Harry, and a different view of the series (and the world) for the reader!

The latest Jim Butcher novel, Ghost Story, is an interesting series entry. Some entries in series are game changers, others circle back to the status quo, and some seem like second halves of the story told in the previous book. Ghost Story seemed to me to be the second half of Changes, and the two together are a game changer in the series. Changes raised some disturbing ethical questions about Harry. In Ghost Story some of the questions raised are answered, and the story (the entire series) can move forward in a new direction. Nicely done! This is not the book that one should use as an introduction to the series, but it is essential for those who follow Harry Dresden.

The series entry I'm anxiously awaiting is the "Ivan" book in the Vorkosigan saga. If anyone is interested in a taste of the Lois McMaster Bujold series, there are links to free "samples" from the series in the Baen Free Library:

The Hugo- and Nebula-winning novella "The Mountains of Mourning"

http://www.webscription.net/p-622-the-mountains-of-mourning.aspx

and one of the prime entry-point books for the Vorkosigan series, The Warrior's Apprentice.

http://www.webscription.net/p-1290-warriors-apprentice.aspx

Dog days and holidays

2011-08-01T14:53:00.002-07:00

A week by the sea – not a thought spared for writing, even emails – and there’s a curious lightness to my being, a certain liberty from all things cerebral that is enlightening and emancipating.

A more enterprising would-be writer would count a holiday as a break to really get down to some serious writing. Not me. I’d rather relish the things that live and play outside my head, rather than the characters that inhabit it daily, crying out for dialogue, action, plot.

So, I’ve come home. They haven’t. They’ve been away, too, God knows where, and at this point I don’t really care. It’s hot, the AC isn’t strong enough, my desk sits in direct sunlight. An added fan brings some relief, yet still my hot brain doesn’t want to write. I’m still on a beach. My toes are in the sand, my head under a straw hat. My heart is still cooling itself in the ocean. I no more want to sweat it out with a passel of words that need re-arranging and rewriting than do the proverbial flight to the moon.

My characters all live in England. It’s November there, it’s rainy a lot of the time, and there’s angst and a few murders to be solved. They’re all wearing wool suits and good stout shoes and it’s cold. There’s fog, drizzle and each home, office or building they enter and inhabit is damp, moldy, and without central heat. All in all, it’s a world away from our hot summer. A bit of cold damp is highly appealing right now, but how to get there? How to recapture the presence and personalities of those characters that were carefully produced and assembled in my head? I’ve missed their foibles and strengths, curiosity and courage, but I’m reluctant, in these dog days of our brief summer, to plunge into their world again.

Those experts are right: One must write every single day, otherwise you risk losing your momentum, your flow, your initiative. Seems mine went out with the tide and didn’t return.

But write I must, heat or no heat. The people in my head seem to be returning, even as I plunk away here at the keyboard, and they’re beginning to hammer at the door to my overheated creativity. They want out again. They want to get back to work. They tell me they were at the seaside, too, walking the beach, dining out, gazing at stars, breathing that energizing sea air. They enjoyed the break from the November rain, they say. Now it’s time to get back to solving those appalling murders. Fun is fun, but justice is far more important, they say. So get over it and get back to it.

The dog days, at least for now, seem to be over. So are my holidays.

2011-08-01T14:53:00.001-07:00

Seat of Pants to Chair for Long Periods of Time

2011-07-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

The question circulated amongst us here of how we keep ourselves motivated to write during the summer. As a Canadian, now living in the mountains in Central California, the end of winter lifts the heart. It's cold and it snows here. That surprises people.

When summer comes, doors and windows fly open. We move laptops out to the deck and shed clothes until we're down to only one layer.

Much of the last few months as summer settled in with one nice day after another, I've been working with Jodie Renner, an editor specializing in mystery and thriller fiction, whom I met at the Left Coast Crime Conference in Santa Fe this March.

We engaged to work with one another over my second murder mystery, Rip-Off, featuring Detective Dave Mason of the Santa Monica Police Department.

I've worked as a free lance editor over my years of wordsmithing. When anyone hands you their precious manuscript, there is the hope that you will hand it back, gushing, "Oh, it's perfect. I've alerted the awards committee. I wouldn't change a single word. You genius, you."

I admit it. Me too. And, of course, it wasn't perfect, and she suggested many changes. I bristled at some, sulked for half a day, and then did what she suggested.

I've kept at it while my friends went swimming, picked cherries, had picnics and parties, organized expeditions driving into Los Angeles to concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and the Santa Monica Pier.

I kept at it even when it felt like picking over the bones of road kill because, first of all, I was paying her. She asked questions that made me think. She was encouraging just enough to drive me through a second and third revision of a chapter. Occasional compliments made me preen with self-satisfaction, until the next page when she wanted to delete a section. I thought of offering her a knife to chisel the words from my breast instead.

It became a collaboration. So much time is spent alone, seat of pants pressed to chair for long periods of time. I've had a partner, someone who knew my story as well as I did.

Now our partnership has come to an end, and my manuscript is immeasurably improved. As you all know, it's only the beginning of the next phase.

And it's still August.

The difficulty of creation/ease of destruction and grants

2011-07-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

Today on National Public Radio's Morning Edition
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition
there was a story about the cliff-high Buddha statues in Afghanistan that were destroyed by the Taliban. A group funded by the UN is trying to piece them back together. Destroying them took moments, rebuilding them will take years (and skill, and patience, and hard work). Destruction is cheap. I thank God for people who stand against it by creating (and re-creating...)

Creating is expensive, especially in terms of time and hard work! In response to Janet's challenge I went web-searching for financial support to sustain writers as they work at creation. I have never applied for these grants, so I can't say much about the process.

For the search I simply went to Google and searched "grants writing .gov". I found that the primary support from the Federal Government for writing is through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts: http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/Lit.html. So I looked for "regrants" on a more local level via Google: "grants writing California" (since I'm in California). There were a few interesting items in the results. One was "Women Arts" http://www.womenarts.org/fund/FundingSourcesforLiteraryArtists.htm.

I ran a new search, replacing "writers" with "literary" to get away from the many grant writing sites, Google: ".gov california grants literary" led me to the California Arts Council Site:
http://www.cac.ca.gov/opportunities/main.php.

So, there are grants out there. Go forth and create!

Mystery Grants

2011-07-26T02:39:00.000-07:00

This year, I’ve become aware of some of the writing grants available for mystery writers.

Grants do not have to be repaid. They may come from the government, schools or non-profit agencies. They may provide money for publishing, courses, retreats, attending conferences, research, and to support minorities.

As I’m in Canada, I’ll use two Canadian examples.

The Canada Council for the Arts is probably the most visible supporter. Many mysteries I’ve seen in the last year have included thanks to this institution. They provide support for the creation, translation, publication and promotion of Canadian literature, the Writing and Publishing Section funds author residencies, literary readings and festivals. They have provided funding regularly to Bloody Words, and on the BW 2010 site, it is shown that they invested over $20 million dollars in writing and publishing in Canada. http://www.canadacouncil.ca/writing/

The Toronto Arts Council, is very regionally specific funding. They have Writers grants for individual artists, and Project Grants. They will not invest in publishing, but they do support many aspects of the writing life. http://www.torontoartscouncil.org/Grant-programs/Literary

The paperwork can be a little intimidating, but if this helps you to pursue your dream, I think you can work your way through it quite adeptly.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it: post on the blog a brief description, of any writing funding for which mystery writers could be eligible.

Norway and the Truest Sentence You Can Write

2011-07-24T17:15:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be a lighthearted blog on things that can kick-start our brains for writing: running, movies, crosswords…

But the world has intruded. The Norway shootings, the Somalia famine, grip us, inspire pity and fear. What if it was my kid at summer camp when the maniac opened up? Or what if I was that hungry mother or father in Somalia dragging myself and my starving little ones hundreds of miles in search of food and a dirty bit of tent to sleep under?

Fleeing war and famine or right-wing lunatics -- who would have time to daydream characters and situations, plot and setting? Is it even right to be so involved in our little fictional worlds when the real one needs help?

Let’s look at Prableen Kaur: As a deputy leader of Norway’s Labour party’s youth wing she was trying in her own way to make the world a better place before Friday’s massacre. Instead she ran for her life along with hundreds of other youth persecuted by a madman. But in the middle of the most terrible event that had ever happened to her she prayed, and then, updated her face book and Twitter accounts and after her rescue blogged her first person story. She was reaching out, making contact and telling the truth she saw. That blog will probably form part of the case against the attacker, Anders Breivik when it comes to court. Apart from surviving, it was the most important thing she could do.

So my question is, is it enough to witness to what’s going on and write the truest sentence that we know as Anne Lamott says in her tough and funny memoir, Bird by Bird? Or should we be actively engaged in making the world a better place? Or both? And if we can only do one of then which should it be?

The Game's Afoot

2011-07-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

Summertime - a great time to catch up on reading. Or writing. Not a great time for watching television.

Not that I watch a lot of that, of course. Who does? (wink wink) Still, there are new episodes of Murdoch Mystery to see and the new series of Sherlock on DVD to watch again. This week both have reminded me of the joy and challenge of a constructing a really good puzzle.

Unlike reality, a good mystery has to have all the pieces laid out for the reader - the true detective. While real cops have to muddle along with messy real crimes, a whodunit needs to present the clues - not in plain sight but not too obscured with extraneous information. Also unlike reality, not only does it have to make sense, it has to be engaging too. Not easy.

It wasn’t until I had to plot out the action plan for a climactic battle that I got a handle on how I could pull off a decent murder... mystery. In order to keep everyone straight, I had to make maps of the battle field, diagrams of the actions with “with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one” to quote Arlo Guthry’s Alice’s Restaurant.

The most useful part of the process, from a writing point of view, was the timeline. This told me who was fighting who, when, and why. I slotted the motivations and outcomes into a table, but the timeline kept everything straight.

It was the same principle as a detective’s evidence board. When I finally had a crime to commit (to paper), it was like a murder investigation in reverse. I started with all the facts, worked out some of the critical misdirections, then decided how the information would be revealed in the course of the story.

I was on the third draft of Under A Texas Star when I started using this method of organization. Though the murder investigation is the B plot of the story, I wanted it to stand up in court (the one where my readers are the jurors). I created a timeline, a table of suspects and list of clues that would lead to the murderer plus a few red herrings that would point to the other suspects. Marly and Jase’s detective work - separately and together - further the investigation, their character development and their relationship. I kept it all straight with my timeline...“with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.”

It becomes a kind of game. The puzzle has to be challenging enough to be interesting, but not so complicated that you annoy your reader. Above all, the puzzle must further the story, not replace it.

When I plot out a mystery, the game’s afoot.

Of your favourite authors, who creates the best puzzle for you to solve?

Motivation

2011-07-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Where I live in Canada we are in the dog days of summer. This week the weather is hotter here than in Florida. We all like to relax in the summer, sit on the patio and drink a cool one, but as writer's we still have to produce our pages.

I have several methods to stay motivated. I write every day. Yes, every day. My friend, Cindy Carroll, started a group where we have to write 100 words every day for 100 days. Sounds easy, does't it but in reality it's the hardest thing I've ever done. If you miss writing your 100 words for a day, then you have to start at day one all over again. It took me the better part of a year to get my 100 words for 100 days. I'm now trained to write every day.

The local chapter of Romance Writers of America have Word Count Wednesday. We post our word count for the week and our other accomplishements. Have we submitted to an agent or editor, have we gotten a rejection or a contract? I find it invirgorating to see what other writer's have accomplished in a week.

These groups have inspired me and keep me writing.
So tell me, what motivates you to write?

Re Heather's post and Rosemary's contract

2011-07-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Heather thanks for the pick-me-up. Finding our rhythm, finding the time to find our rhythm...if the only way forward is scribbling on napkins -- I've done that too! The only thing that really works as our friend and fellow Sisters in Crime member Rosemary McCracken used to say when I whined at her about when and how I would get my police mystery completed is, are you ready? : "bum in chair" so that and an assured talent is the answer because guess what!!. She's just got a book contract! I'm so excited and happy for her. I know you'll all join me in saying congratulations to Rosemary as the first Pat Tierney mystery comes soon to an E and print world bookstore near us soon.
20 July 2011 08:09

Rosemary's book contract

2011-07-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, PS you can learn more from Rosemary at her blog - rosemarymccracken.wordpress.com or on her facebook page

Ramifications of a dream

2011-07-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

The dream isn’t always that easy. Turning the desire to write into reality can be a harsh and unforgiving process, i.e. there will always be laundry and, sadly, dinner does not cook itself. Life in general is a time-devouring machine that does not, nor will it ever, provide great swaths of time, peace or tranquility for you to simply sit down and write that book you’ve dreamed of writing since childhood; because life happens one way or the other, and time, dictated by our endless obligations (even if done out of love), means our days are far too short.

Carpe diem, the popular aphorism goes, but carpe minutum might be a better adage: If that’s all you have, then scuttle off to that computer and put down the few words or ideas that rattle about your brain. Because it may be a few more days before those minutes present themselves again.

It’s hard to seize the dream; doubly hard if like many of us, you are attempting it for the first time. We don’t have that rhythm yet; we stumble, unsure of our methodology and research. We write, only to rewrite and start again.

When transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, a philosopher of nature, wanted to improve and work on his craft, and to try and live simply, he vanished to a small hut for two years where he reveled in the state of solitude. “Walden” is the product of that episode. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams,” he stated. All fine and well for him. He was ALONE in that hut.

So we hang on and we write when we can, our notes to the ready, resorting to long hand when the computer is not available, scribbling ideas on napkins, plunking key ideas or plot developments into emails or messages that we send to ourselves from our cell phones. We’ll all get there some day. If you’re devoted, you’ll spend every spare second making it happen.

As George Bernard Shaw said, the “people who get on in this world ... get up and look for the circumstances ... And if they can’t, make them.”

So just do it, for heaven’s sake. It’s how dreams come true.

Re: Confessions of a Literary Slut

2011-07-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Just finished Rowena Through the Wall and still day dreaming about all those gorgeous, dangerous, sword-fighting men. Think 'A Knight's Tale from a female point of view with a dash of Narnia and plenty of sizzle. Rowena is a captivating heroine and I can't wait for her next adventure.

The end of an era

2011-07-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's not exactly the end yet, but I think that this:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/blogs/popcornbiz/Sookie-Stackhouse-Author-Charlaine-Harris-Gets-Graphic---Literally-125363048.html

is the first glimpse of the end. In it Charlaine Harris mentions that she is two books from the end of her Sookie Stackhouse series.

Vampire stories have been around for centuries, if not millennia. There were legends before Stoker wrote Dracula. In the beginning they all seemed to include variations on the theme that young women were perfect victims, they could be lured into danger because passion, compassion and even curiosity could be used to entrap them.

I'm not sure why it is that this form is the one in which many authors repudiated the "female as victim" theme, but they have done so with a vengeance. One of my favorites is _Those Who Hunt the Night_ by Hambly. The main female character shares the stage with her husband, but she is no shrinking violet. She has brains and backbone. (Wonderful book.)

Then we had the entire Buffy universe. When I first heard about the series I rolled my eyes and refused to watch it. A friend talked me into watching the hyena episode and I was hooked. This was at a point in my life when I was profoundly disappointed in the way young women had turned their backs on feminism. I heard college students say that they could not be feminists because they liked men. I like men, what does that have to do with wanting to be treated with respect, to be allowed to follow my dreams, to receive a living wage for my work? I was around in the 1970s, I knew that feminism was not a repudiation of being feminine; but somehow popular culture seemed to have adopted that viewpoint. Then there was Buffy. She wanted to be popular, she was shy around handsome guys, she lusted after the pretty prom dress... and she could kick a^#. She was a fresh archtype, a girl who was strong and who wanted friends and family, a woman who was competent and who wanted to be loved. I don't actually think that this was a new archtype. I think that this is exactly what we were fighting for when we wanted mothers who stayed home with their children to get Social Security AND wanted women who wanted to be firefighters to be allowed to get an interview and take the physical test. We never wanted to deny half of ourselves, but Buffy gave young women of this generation a model, so that they could see that those attributes could exist in one person.

Then there was Sookie Stackhouse. I'm looking forward to the next two books, but I'll be sorry that they are the last. Sookie is a telepath coping with a strange world. She has grown so much during the series. What I've loved most about her is that she cares for others, but also stands up for herself. She can be hurt; but she does not cave, she stands back up and refuses to be a victim. I love her strength.

Much has been made of the Stephen King quote:
"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend."
— Stephen King

I haven't read Twilight, so I can't comment on that. I hope that the vampire novel narrative is not going to cast women as victims of love once more... we've come a long way and I hope that we can stay far away from having to choose between our passion and our strength. I do like this quote by Reba MaEntire:
"To succeed in life you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funnybone>"

I hope that we'll see a generation of female protagonists who have all three.

Why I don't write a memoir

2011-07-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

Why I don't write a memoir

I don't have the courage. There are periods of my life I don't want to remember, much less linger over. But I admire so much the people who do.

A few years ago I offered a workshop in Memoir Writing, here in the village where I live in the mountains in central California.

I titled it "Everyone has a story to tell ..." and more people signed up for the two six-week sessions than I could accommodate. We held the classes that winter at the yarn store, a cozy and intimate setting.

The class attracted people who wanted to get started, keep going, or to finish a memoir. I defined memoir as a legacy for those you leave behind, a reflection on that once-in-a-lifetime experience---a golden summer, a place, a turning point, a triumph, or a tragedy overcome.

My students, who became friends, were full of stories and life experience and I wanted to help them set these stories down on paper. Most of the people in the classes didn't think of themselves as writers, yet they all were story tellers. The teaching part of the each class focused on some of the elements of story telling: plot, pacing, action, dialogue.

We can learn techniques but we all teach ourselves to write by doing it, don't we? By doing it, and revising it, and revising it yet again, and again, until it's pleasing.

I came to admire these people so much. Their stories were so different, and interesting. They took the class because writing a memoir is a way to figure out who you used to be and how you got to be the way you are.

Some class members had big jobs and big lives they want to document for those family members who follow them. Some wanted to explain themselves by leaving their recollections as a family legacy. Some wanted to memorialize a moment in time, “their” war, a family vacation, an award, their remembrance of being part of a historical event.

Most common was the wish to reminisce over the good and the bad memories and find meaning in the events and people in our lives who have shaped us. One woman said bluntly: “Cheaper than therapy.”

Writing your life story takes emotional honesty and bravery. The candor of the shared writing creates and intimate bond. There were tears and a lot of laughter as well.

I'm not that brave. I hide my life story and how I got from there to here in fiction.

Do I dare to read CROSSFIRE?

2011-07-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

My Dick Francis collection, 48 titles, has only three novels that I have not yet read. Bolt published in 1986, Under Order, a Sid Halley novel published after a six year writing hiatus and Crossfire, co-written by Felix Francis. It was going to be years, before I cracked the spine of one of these precious titles. Because after these, I will no longer have the pleasure of enjoying one of his fine adventures, for the first time.

Dick Francis is the author I’ve re-read more than any other. His upbeat tales feature honest, upstanding heroes, and there’s always a new occupation featured in each one. Proof featured the liquor industry. Shattered featured glass-blowing. Longshot featured wildnerness survival tips. Each is a cherished friend, worthy of repeat visits.

So it was with delight and relief this past week, that I discovered the books of Lyndon Stacey. She writes non-series mysteries, set in the horse world. The narrative is light, gently funny, with likeable characters. Even the villains are given some dimension. All her titles are in print, and I can hope a new one to be released within the year.

So perhaps next weekend, I’ll read one of those Dick Francis books. Just one, mind you!

History Spices up Mystery in Inspector Rebus' Pub

2011-07-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

The cold, dark world of Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh, fog, misted windows, bodies in fireplaces or government offices: How unlike the pretty city built on a hill that we tourists see.

Yet Rankin’s detective, Inspector John Rebus, compels us to follow him down the labyrinthine ways of evil doers. He is so popular that visitors can now take ‘Rebus Tours’, the “history and mystery” of the real locations of Rebus cases as well as the more typical Holy Rood Palace and Edinburgh Castle. The tours start from The Royal Oak, one of Rebus’ pubs, on Saturdays.

The night we were in Edinburgh, a cool Monday in June, the minuscule Royal Oak – tiny bar plus a half dozen battered tables, hosted a traditional jam session with musicians wandering in and out as the mood or the tip jar took them. Some of the onlookers were European tourists looking for Rebus. Doesn’t Rebus mostly drink at the Oxford Bar in the city’s New Town? Yes. But he also had a confrontation with his nemesis Big Ger Cafferty at the Oak. One evening Rebus stops there for a nightcap, and is shocked to find Cafferty has been released from prison and is celebrating with a song.

The story of the pub and the singing thug illustrates the marriage of sentiment and hard-nosed thuggery in Rankin’s novels where Edinburgh’s dark and historic Castle broods over the city and the city feels like a character itself. The Scots have fought each other, the Vikings and the English from this place for centuries and the Castle with its prisons, working garrison, tales of siege, poison and death figures hugely in the Scottish narrative. Since they abolished their own Parliament over three hundred years ago to live under Westminster, only regaining it in 1999, the Scots have felt a sense of wrong. That abiding uneasiness, the sense of wrongs unrighted, pervades Rebus’ adventures in the city of the new Scottish parliament.

Confessions from a Literary Slut

2011-07-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

I didn’t coin that phrase, nor does it necessarily point to smutty writing in my novels (although, as they say, some like it hot, and Rowena Through the Wall would probably score a humidex rating.)

No, an early mentor, a guy, once called me a Literary Slut, when referring to my tendency to write in several genres – and sometimes several genres at once. Which brings me once more to novel classification, and those naughty books that don't fit a specific genre.

Rowena Through the Wall is such a novel. I call it comic alternate world fantasy. The romance market calls it paranormal romance. Under fantasy, it would be sword and sorcery. The mainstream market considers it time-travel. In our mystery world, we would label it romantic suspense (of the original definition – think Daphne DuMaurier and Mary Stewart.) Midwest Book Review called it “a hot, hilarious romantic fantasy.” Hard to argue with that!

Why the difficulty in finding classification? Well, like many authors, I didn’t write for a specific ready-made audience. Instead, I set out to write a rollicking adventure, sexy, dangerous and full of humour. I wrote it for me, and other readers like me, who want adventure novels. Like many females, I find big ‘R’ romance not my thing; that is, I don’t want predictable endings.

I do, however, want my pleasure-reading spiced up with the guy-gal thing. The trick is, to work in some passion while writing a plot-heavy story. The romance isn’t the plot (as it must be in a big R romance novel) but it may well be an essential ingredient to motivate the players to action.

The gratifying thing is that Rowena has garnered a male audience as well. One male former editor of a fantasy magazine said the following in a review: “Rowena is a wild ride of fantasy, and male readers will wish she had walked through the wall to them.” When questioned further, he said: “It’s fantasy and it’s hot. It’s got brutal sword fighting. Guys die. What’s not to like?”

So it could be that men and women read the same novels for different things. Or maybe – as I claim – we just all need escape. And frankly, ‘reality TV’ doesn’t do it for many of us. Who the heck needs more reality?

So regardless of what you want to call it, bring on the fantasy, I say! Make my suspense sizzle.

Words not unexpected from a Literary Slut.

Melodie Campbell’s comic novel Rowena Through the Wall (Imajin Books) is available at Amazon.com and Smashwords.

http://www.amazon.com/Rowena-Through-the-Wall-ebook/dp/B00557Z2QU

Follow Melodie at

http://funnygirlmelodie.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

View trailer and read opening scene at

http://www.melodiecampbell.com/

Favourite book and first line

2011-07-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

Karen, this is s double comment: Favourite first line from Pride and Prejudice: Don't know how often I've quoted it and read it and its also one of my favourite books for re-reading. Also Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility. I find as I read them at different times in my life I get different appreciations from them. A second fave, actually two that influenced me greatly as a kid: Gone With The Wind for its tale of a woman's adventurous life and Officer Factory by H. H. Kirst.

I'm an entrepreneur?

2011-07-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

I'm an entrepreneur. I've always been one, so you'd think that self-promotion would be easy for me but it isn't. Being an introvert, I don't like the spotlight. Writing about myself and my work is next to impossible for me so when Janet gave us the challenge of creating a Widipedia page my first thought was 'I'm not that interesting a person'.

I decided to try and figure out why anyone would be interested in looking me up and this is what I discovered.

I write Romantic Suspense stories. I'm a member of Romance Writers of America, Toronto Romance Writers, Sisters in Crime, Toronto Sisters in Crime. I'm a member of the Bloody Words executive or as we call ourselves, the Bloody Gang.

I've started several writing groups so authors can help other authors improve their craft. I've written reviews for authors because I loved their stores. I started this blog so authors can promote themselves and their friends.

All in all I'm just a writer who loves great stories. So what is the one book you've read that you read over and over again?

The tricky first line....

2011-07-05T12:21:00.001-07:00

Between Heather's post on first chapters and Janet's challenge regarding gripping first lines, I've been noticing first lines recently.

I was surprised to see that many of my favorite books begin with a first line that focuses on character, relationships, or theme, rather than on action.

Many start by setting up the voice of the narrator. Most of the Nero Wolfe books do this, beginning with Archie's voice, often relating something about the dynamics of the household or about his relationship with Wolfe. (For instance in Fer-de-lance Archie gripes about how is is often the one being sent on errands, in Prisoner's Base he relates his latest ploy to aggravate Wolfe into action, in The Rubber Band we see him hassling Wolfe...) One of the most enjoyable elements in Stout's books is the relationship between Wolfe and Archie, and in one way or another many of the books start with a focus on that relationship.

Another example of starting with the narrator's voice: Amelia Peabody in The Mummy Case:
"I never meant to marry. In my opinion, a woman born in the last half of the nineteenth century of the Christian era suffered from enough disadvantages without willfully embracing another."

Can't you just hear her?

That tricky first chapter

2011-07-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

It’s like getting the lede right on a news story: It has to be succinct, draw in the reader, compel us to read the rest of the piece, give us a taste of what is to come without giving it all away. It’s the point from which all else unfolds. It holds the glimmer of intrigue that gets us thinking, keeps our eyes moving over the copy.

It can be the trickiest part of the story; it used to be that reporters were dunned by a pesky copy desk to ‘make it sing,’ ‘make it tighter,’ ‘make it shorter,’ and so on. It could drive a reporter/copy editor nuts.

Writing that first chapter – the one you might be sending to an agent – is just as bad. There’s a proliferation of writing/publishing courses out there and the few I’ve sampled hammer it home: The first chapter has to sell your story; it has to have a punch; it has to be well-written. One instructor mimed an agent shuffling through manuscripts, reading the first sentence or two and throwing the first chapter on the slush pile. Frightening. Is that how they do it? Five seconds with a first chapter and it’s decided?

Then you’d better get it right. And therein lies the problem. What’s right if your work has never been accepted? What will make that five seconds a winner? How can you possibly know? You can’t. You can only hope that the writing – and rewriting – gets your first chapter to a tight, manageable, alluring and exciting read. You have to hope that the point of the story is so tightly wound from the starting point that the rest of the tale unwinds quickly and beautifully – like a fast ball hit by Jays’ slugger Jose Bautista.

There is no magic solution to the first chapter: It’s a shot in the dark. I suppose ‘believe in yourself’ is as good a mantra as any. Show it to friends you trust. Take lots of advice. Don’t be wounded by criticism. Try to be subjective. Stand back and look at your work. And rewrite. Then rewrite it again.

A Wikipedia Entry for Mar Preston

2011-06-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

It seems very presumptuous to enter myself in Wikipedia but I'm answering the challenge that was posed. Please comment on my entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:marpreston#External_Links

I'm curious to see how others answer.

Good wishes all,

Mar

The Writer as Entrepreneur by Mar Preston

2011-06-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

If you're a very new author like me, you find promoting yourself second in dread only to a spinal tap, a baby shower, and a tax audit-all on the same day.

NO DICE, my first mystery, could sink like a stone unless I act way out of my comfort zone. That means self-promotion. I'm aleady over my allowance of shy attacks for the month.

But something has happened that changed the way I think about myself. I'm defining myself now as an entrepreneur.

I found Women's Economic Ventures-an organization here in Southern California 'dedicated to creating an equitable and just society through the economic empowerment of women.' I know they must have opportunities like this in Canada.

Twenty-seven budding entrepreneurs, and none of them authors, have met four times. the initial ripple of uneasiness and plain fear has been trasformed into a can do optimism at the end of every class. We leave on a high.

We will try to pin down our brand in the fluctuationg publishing marketplace, create a marketing plan, produce financials, and a business plan. Subjects I never could have imagined myself being interested in.

But I want to learn how to earn a modest income as an author who is in business for herself. I have other books I want to publish.

A consultant has gently guided my down the path of assembling the rudiments of self-promotion. That includes a blog (not this one) embedded in a website, and supported by business cards and bookmarks, an e-newletter, as well as a Facebook fan page. It's all there at marpreston.com.

What has helped me most in the class so far is learning techniques of time management. Last week I found myself combing the fringe on the rug to delay writing the next chapter. Have I mentioned Spider Solitaire? It has to stop.

This entrepreneurship class takes into account the emotions that go along with assuming the huge risk of indenturing yourself to the vision of being your own boss.

After all, as authors, we are in business. Publication is only the first step.

Reality Blog Challenge #2

2011-06-28T02:35:00.000-07:00

Writers know, for research, that Wikipedia is a critical tool. Readers know this too. Whether it’s to determine the real names behind Ellery Queen, or the pseudonym for Ruth Rendell, or the order of those Sookie Stackhouse novels, Wikipedia is the easiest way to find the answer.

Marketing savvy authors have Wikipedia pages. Twist Phelan’s is a fine example. Her content is intriguing, yet not all that personal. Read her page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twist_Phelan Did you notice she does not provide where she lives or her age?

A Wiki entry can also be full of connections to other sites. The page for Robert Crais is rich with these. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Crais

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create your own Wikipedia entry. When you’ve got it up do a short post with the link so we can all check it out!

Be sure to use a great photo. Include links to your website, reviews, your publisher…check out your favourite authors and take your favourite features from their page, for your own!

Challenge #1 The Art of Simplicity

2011-06-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

“He was lost.”

That’s it. That’s how Kate Atkinson’s One Good Turn begins.

If that doesn’t draw you in, I don’t know what will. Sometimes the best books begin with the most straightforward statements.

Or, how about Val McDermid’s first line in Fever of the Bone: “It all comes down to blood in the end.”

‘Simple is best’ has long been the maxim for most things in life. Why argue with some of the genre’s finest??

Just Desserts

2011-06-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

The closest my mother would get to science fiction was Star Trek. Most science fiction, in her opinion, was nihilistic and depressing. I tried to persuade her otherwise - with no success. There were no guarantees that she wouldn’t find the book too scary. Yet she surrounded herself with murder, mayhem and deceit - in a word, mysteries.

I grew up surrounded by my mother’s collection of mystery books. Some of the books by Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh had come with her from England before I was born. Other authors, like Ruth Rendell and Rex Stout she discovered since emigrating. I fed her addiction by introducing her to Sue Grafton and Charlotte Macleod, but I never really understood it until I had a few more years of life experience under my belt.

Unlike science fiction, you know a solution will be found in a mystery. No other genre of fiction guarantees that. Life sure as hell doesn’t!

Perhaps that is why, as much as I enjoyed reading them, I didn’t have the urge to write mysteries until after my mother died and I was dealing with the slow demise of my sister and poor health of my father.

There had always been an element of mystery in Under A Texas Star, but with my new-found enthusiasm for mystery-writing, I went over the manuscript making sure that it fulfilled the needs of a mystery. Were there enough clues? Enough red herrings? Was the investigation plausible? When the villains got their just desserts, was it satisfying?

That’s the true delight in a mystery - seeing the justice served in what often seems like an unjust world. And who doesn’t enjoy dessert?

Alison Bruce
www.alisonbruce.ca
twitter.com/alisonebruce

What is your favourite example of "just desserts"?

Time and Place

2011-06-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

The ubiquitous “they” contend writers should stick to what they know; a place with which they are familiar, and a time period to which they can readily refer. So what about all those historical mystery writers who choose to set their work during medieval times, during wars and battles long past? Or place their work in eras where details can be tricky to find and references to politics, daily life and livelihood are crucial to the story?

Ellis Peters did it beautifully; Michael Jecks, P.C. Doherty, Charles Todd and Peter Tremayne all do it, too. Doherty and Tremayne have academic backgrounds, perhaps making their chosen time periods a natural choice.

The rest of us? I’d have to reach into the 6^th century were I to try and base a mystery on what I really know and have studied. Written documentation about life among everyday folk is pretty thin on the ground, most of it coming from monastic sources, and would probably not be truly reflective of the lives of those who had neither the means nor knowledge to record their lives. Feeling truly immersed and comfortable with the customs and way of life would surely be a daunting task for a writer.

Getting the writing done can be a challenge in itself. But worrying about niggling details, precise facts and the exact atmosphere of the place you’re writing about can make the work a real adventure.

Is historical accuracy important? I’d say so. I’ve heard academic historians say they couldn’t read certain mystery authors due to flawed details and facts. But while accuracy is key, so is atmosphere, the place where the tale is set.

Two recently read books stand out as examples that nail time and place: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ book, ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ evokes the place; “As the mail boat lurched into the harbor, I saw St. Peter Port rising up from the sea on terraces, with a church on the top like a cake decoration ….’ And the book doesn’t neglect time, either: “Hitler was fanatic about fortifying these islands – and England was never to get them back,” writes one of the book’s characters.

Anne Perry’s latest mystery offering, ‘Treason At Lisson Grove’ continues with the author’s excellent knowledge of the Victorian era and its societal restrictions and proprieties. She has also written a series of World War I novels that slides readers into the horror of the conflict and its trench warfare.

For anyone interested in the hows and whys of historical or other mysteries, Mystery Readers Journal, edited by Janet Rudolph, would be very helpful. Back issues include African Mysteries, Island Mysteries, Scandinavian Mysteries, History Mysteries, Mysteries Set in Italy – and many other locales. The current issue deals with London Mysteries I. It, along with some back issues of the journal can be downloaded as a PDF for a $6.50. See http://www.mysteryreaders.org/journal.html

Or, for $39, North American readers may subscribe: See http://www.mysteryreaders.org/subscribe.html

The Tyranny of the Blank Page

2011-06-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

It is so intimidating to begin. When the page is blank it is so full of possibilities. Every word written diminishes your options. It's not only intimidating, it's disheartening. What helps you when you're facing that page? I've developed two separate files on my computer that help me. One is encouragement - quotes on creativity. The other is instruction - descriptions of their process as shared by writers I admire.

At the moment my favorite (paraphrased) quote on creativity is:

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will
close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
Ira Glass, host of This American Life.

You can find a link to the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY
He recommends giving yourself deadlines. He recommends COMPLETING work. I find him inspiring, I hope you do too.

In the second category of support for my writing (instruction): I want to learn from the best. I recently discovered the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. I recommend her books to everyone. They are amazing. Operatic in scope, human in a way that will touch you. The author recently posted about reading order on her MySpace page. Essentially she grouped the books by story arc. I read them beginning with Shards of Honor and then continuing chronologically (as they are listed from # 3 onwards in http://www99.epinions.com/content_4838039684, then add the most recent novel, Cryoburn.) I read them obsessively through December and January, and then read Falling Free and Dreamweaver's Dilemma at the end, when I was desperate for more. If you like science fiction then I think that order works wonderfully. If you will only read mystery then I would start with omnibus book The Borders of Infinity, which gives you a nice mystery in the novella, "The Mountains of Mourning." I would then read from Brothers in Arms forward. They could all be classed as types of mystery (from espionage to straight mystery) from there to the end, if you take them in story arcs. (For instance the mystery in A Civil Campaign is slight - the book is more about political maneuvering. However, if you treat Komarr and A Civil Campaign as one story, then it is essentially a mystery; one which also examines the natural aftermath of investigating a crime and then having most of the information on that crime classified, so that it cannot be openly discussed.)

Having read Bujold, I despaired. Her sheer talent seems so far beyond what I could reach. Then I read a bit of an interview in which she talked about her writing process. She imagines one or two scenes at a time, works through them in her mind, then captures what she imagined on paper. It explains why her books move from one powerful scene to the next, why there are so many scenes you go back to re-read (and then find yourself re-reading the rest of the book because you cannot stop). I'm going to try her process...and keep Ira Glass's advice in mind!

So my question to you would be, what helps you keep writing?

Reality Blog Challenge #1

2011-06-14T02:12:00.000-07:00

Can you feel my words wrapping around your neck, a noose of meaning pushing against your trachea, focusing your attention on their very existence and how they have taken your breath away?

The opening line of any writing is very important. With mysteries, it can also immediately create suspense or just be wicked good fun.

The first sentence can establish an instant connection with the reader. Take Pari Noskin Taichert‘s beginning in The Socorro Blast:

If hell exists, it’s filled with old boyfriends…and a cat.

Just from those 11 words, I bought the book!

Wayne Arthurson began Fall From Grace with:

“Do you want to see the body?”

The speaker of these words is not identified in this first line. So a reader wants to know who is saying this. Yes, I’m taking it for granted we mystery lovers were expecting a body, and frankly are delighted to have found one so soon! Wayne earned bonus points with me, because, having read the book, I know these words actually drive a great deal of the plot, suspense and character. Who can resist wanting to read more?

Your challenge, should you choose to rise to it….Find and post a gripping first line from a mystery.

I encourage all of our team to rally around good examples or razz any weak ones. Deadline is June 27th.

With this dare, I hereby relax the verbal rope snaked about you. As your heart pounds and your lungs fill, remember the thrill. Go forth and seek it anew!

Action First

2011-06-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

“Write what you know dear.”

Umm, maybe.

But maybe that works better for more ‘literary’ novels than our favourite mystery genre.

Literary novels in fact are often very factual, very much based on what the writer actually does know and the kind of people he or she hangs out with. Alas, most writers live ordinary lives. They pick their kids up from daycare, win or lose at office politics and worry about their sex lives or who’s cutting the grass. They aren’t captains of industry, showgirls, women police officers, private investigators or SAS Special Forces parachute jumpers deployed behind enemy lines. Sometime it is hard to care in much contemporary literary fiction whether the boy will get the girl and a job at the plant or the lady with the green flowered curtains wins the bakeoff down on the farm or leaves her husband.

But mystery or suspense authors grapple with life and death, betrayal and honor in darkly compelling settings most of us writers, like most readers, will never inhabit. As a kid I fought giant snakes with Bomba the Jungle Boy, and escaped danger piloting a speedboat with Frank and Joe Hardy. I was also presented at Napoleon's court with Desiree and later married the king of Sweden. Action and adventure, outsize settings like jungles and palaces, hospital emergency rooms or parliament let you dream a little bigger whatever your age.

Because the more important half of “write what you know” is write characters that you know, characters with flaws, ambitions, illicit desires, feelings of loss, joy and satisfaction. Then place those characters in exciting situations and watch things start to boil.

When you give your readers a tantalizing puzzle to solve, life and death situations plus scenery or even fashion then you capture their attention so together you can delve into your characters’ hearts and the myriad decisions they, and we, make each day for good or ill. Those are the memorable stories, when you write what you know.

Hard Core Mystery Writer Defects to Soft Core Sizzle

2011-06-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

by Melodie Campbell

Sizzling suspense, not erotica. Rowena Through the Wall may be hot, but there’s plenty of plot in this adventure. Which brings to mind the topic of novel classification.

We already know the difference between mystery and suspense novels. In mysteries, the focus is (usually) on the solving of the crime. In suspense novels, the crime (usually) hasn’t happened yet, and the focus is on the threat of danger and the need to escape from it. But other genres cross over, and can appeal to a variety of reading markets.

So what makes the difference? How do you define what genre a novel fits into? I’ve heard it explained this way. Disassemble the thing. Consider a book that contains both mystery and romance. Many mystery and suspense novels have a jolt of romance in them. And romance novels often benefit from suspense in their makeup. So how do you tell which is which, when it comes to novel classification and market?

If you take the romance out of a mystery book, do you still have a strong story? If so, it’s a mystery novel. On the other hand, if you took the mystery/suspense out of a romance novel, would you still have enough story for a novel? Then it’s romance.

Rowena Through the Wall is comic paranormal suspense novel, no doubt. Without the fantasy of falling through the wall to another world, there would be no story. Would the novel hold together without the sex? Difficult. You could do the dot-dot-dot thing and gloss over it, but the theme of several men wanting Rowena feeds the action and drives the conflict in this alternate world. So…calling this a hot paranormal suspense novel works too.

But what happened to the hard core mystery writer? She’s still there, working on a second novel called The Goddaughter, a comic crime caper. At least that one is easy to classify. But I might sneak some sex in there too.

Melodie’s novel Rowena Through the Wall (Imajin books) is AVAILABLE for $3.99 in ebook on Smashwords, and on Amazon.com. Trade paperback to follow in July. Follow Melodie on funnygirlmelodie.blogspot.com

and www.melodiecampbell.com

Introducing...Melodie Campbell

2011-06-09T03:02:00.000-07:00

by Wayne Arthurson

I’ve never met Melodie Campbell, but I get a lot of e-mail from her. That’s 'cause Melodie is the General Manager of Crime Writers of Canada, and as a member myself, she sends me information that I need.

Melodie likes to describe herself as a former bank manager, marketing director, association executive, college instructor, and possibly the worst runway model ever. You can also add comedy writer to that and not just because that line is funny. Melodie has this parallel career as a humourist and has written over 100 columns for various North American newspapers. She was the opening speaker for the 1999 Canadian Humour Conference in Hamilton, Ontario, which also proves she’s funny. Check out her humour blog at funnygirlmelodie.blogspot.com, if you don’t believe me.

She’s got a comic suspense novel out this month (Rowena Through the Wall) plus she’s had over 30 short stories published, including a few in great magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and New Mystery Reader Magazine.

So even though I haven’t met Melodie in person, I like her, and not just because of the membership thing. I know you'll like her, too.

Why Blog?

2011-06-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

Recently I was at Left Coast Crime Writers Conference in Santa Fe. I was able to talk to some wonderful writers who shared what they thought every one should know. When Charlie Newton told me to set up a blog, I wasn't sure I could do it.

Now I believed his advise was sound, I just wasn't sure I could do it. I'm not the most technical person in the world, so where would I go to set up a blog? How do I find other writers who were interested in a blog? And what type of a blog would it be?

Luckily for me I was sharing a room with Janet Costello and we talked about the merits of a blog and she came up with the reality blog idea. Absolute brillliance.

When we got home we asked serveral authors to join in the fun and the blog was born.

My next question was what would we all blog about?

Because we have such a diverse group, we have a diverse blog. Some of the writers are funny, some are serious, but everyone is interesting and brings their uniqueness to the group.
My problem will be to keep up with the brilliance of the others.

Character Is Key

2011-06-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

Heather Mac Archer is bang on when she says suggests some of the finest literature in the world contains the elements of mystery fiction: from Brontë to Dickens to A. S. Byatt authors give us flawed characters and hide crucial plot elements until the appropriate moment that reveals things we need to know to understand the story and if we are lucky something of ourselves.

Closer to home, we have The Bishops Man by Lyndon McIntyre from last year. As our sisters in crime colleague Rosemary McCracken points out the question of who is the real criminal, the sex offender who has left a trail of broken hearts and suicide in his wake that is at the heart of the novel is only resolved at the very end. So literary fiction and mystery fiction partake of a common heritage and vocabulary. The important thing now is to up our game, do something different as Heather says with living breathing characters acting from a sense of justice.

Pinpointing the protagonist

2011-06-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

It could be argued that all works of fiction are mysteries: from Bronte to Fielding, Dickens to Byatt, the finest literature in the world is a collection of words that include a gathering of elements similar to the mystery genre: characters with flaws, origins unknown; enigmatic drama; furtive plot components that wind to a denouement, not necessarily happy, and not necessarily with the sense of justice we wish to find for the characters involved.

But the mystery genre, with its black and white dichotomy of crime and punishment, its sense of right and wrong, is somewhat formulaic and quite unlike any other genre.

Altering the prescribed expectations of whodunits and yet keeping within the format of what the reader wants is where the challenge arises for fledgling crime writers. You don’t want to get mired in the generic aspects of the genus, but you do want to do something different, something that might also catch the eye of an agent so at some point down the road, readers can share your musings.

So, do you create a protagonist so winsome, so droll and intelligent, so wise and knowing that the character alone is irresistible? Maybe. But a regular old Joe or Jill might be a better solution; a central character who struggles with the everyday, just as we do.

My favorite books include diverse and quirky casts of characters with personality flaws and deep-seated troubles: Ian Rankin’s Rebus comes to mind. Martha Grime’s Richard Jury and his sidekick Melrose Plant are others; then there’s Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch, and Kate Atkinson’s beset Jackson Brodie. Each struggles with something from the past, an episode or personal tragedy that drives their sense of justice and the need to right wrongs. Those flaws drive the spirit of the books.

Relatively newbie author Elly Griffiths’ protagonist, forensic archeologist Ruby Galloway, has certainly got herself into a delicate dilemma. Unwavering in her professional skills, she is floundering in her personal life as she has had a child with a married police officer with whom she has worked to solve a number of crimes; a touchy matter. She’s an admirable and independent spirit, despite her self doubts.

We’re all weak, strong, adventurous, sedate. If you’re of any age, you’ve seen it all, done most of it, suffered the slings and arrows, rejoiced in life’s good things and figured out a mystery or two of your own.

And so should our protagonists be much like us: fearful and wise, unsure and certain, helpless and strong, funny and sad, and clever enough to make all that’s bad in our mysteries see justice.

Oh yeah. And they should be durable enough to get us through the plot and help us get it ‘write’ to the end!

Introducing....Alison Bruce

2011-05-31T05:09:00.001-07:00

Alison Bruce has a degree in history and philosophy, which has nothing to do with any regular job she`s held since. After university, her first career was a comic book store manager where she was in charge of advertising and promotions as well as the usual retail chores. She started writing and editing professionally for business and community organizations in 1991. In partnership with two other women, she published Women’s Work for five years, serving as the principle writer and general editor. In addition to CWC, Alison has worked for York Region and the Windfall Ecology Centre. And she will still argue philosophy after all these years.

Okay, that’s the official biographical info on Alison, as given to me. Now here comes the fun stuff:

Alison started writing stories for other people when she was twelve. She lost her first novel in the women's washroom at Ryerson University (not known if it was stolen, or if she flushed it). A year later she received her first rejection slip for another story. Being a sensitive sort, she waited several years before trying for her next rejection slip.

As a result of having inherited her mother’s and sister’s libraries, she now has six copies of The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer. Her niece is named for the title character. Her daughter Kate is named for comic characters: Kitty Pryde of the X-Men and Katie Powers of the Power Pack. Her son Sam is named for the cat she had as a child. Her blog, “Have laptop will travel” (http://alisonebruce.blogspot.com/) was inspired by the book title: Have Gat Will Travel, first seen as a child climbing the bookshelves.

Alison is fueled by coffee and one heck of a sense of humour about life. She’s the kind of gal who gets your back and won’t let you down. She won’t let you down as a writer, either.

Her book Under a Texas Star is now available at Amazon.com. And it’s damn good.

Melodie Campbell

Let's Be a Reality Blog

2011-05-31T03:47:00.000-07:00

I avoid Reality Shows. To me, they promote the competitive side of humanity, and not in a positive way. Big Brother, the Bachelorette, Flavor of Love, Survivor, Dancing With the Stars. To be fair, I haven’t watched full episodes of these.

Yet the last Olympics held me in thrall. That was Reality, too, though, with very deliberate dramatization of individual’s backgrounds. The difference? A very inspirational presentation.

There is no denying that Reality Shows are popular, and have been for a long time. Survivor started in 1992. Some thought Reality Shows were a hedge against strikes by the Writers Guild, and would not be here for long. Hmmm….Survivor, est. 1992…

I will admit to watching one: So You Think You Can Dance. This is more Sport than What Can We Film When They Think No One’s Looking. Each season begins by showing a range of applicants from phenomenal dancers, to heart of gold but missing an element dancers, to have you ever watched the show? foot shufflers. Dramatically presented, and with a positivity and a hey you gave it a good try attitude. But what really seals it for me is the growth of the selected competitors. Some just blossom before your eyes from one week to another.

So, Karen Blake-Hall was starting a blog, with emergent mystery writers. Driving home from work (the best time for ideas!), I mused…with a multitude of blogs out there, what could make hers special? Somehow the Reality Show popularity occurred to me, and I thought…

…How would a Reality Blog work? You can’t eliminate contestants. The blog is a group of writers working together, not competing. Oh, but let’s be real….everyone wants to sell their books and there may be a limited pool of book-buying dollars out there…

I proposed to Karen that part of my role here could be to present challenges. Writing related. Promotion related. We’ve got a number of writers just ready to blossom on the mystery scene with a bloody big splash. Watching their progression, seeing how they respond to different assignments, could be entertaining and for the mystery crowd…intriguing.

The first challenge will be issued June 14th. Keep your mystery-loving, adventure-craving eye on us!

Introducing...Karen Blake-Hall

2011-05-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

Karen is my Sister in Crime in Toronto. She has written in the romance arena, but now she’s found a happy home with crime writing.

The first thing you notice about her…she’s always smiling. Unless she’s talking about plotting. Then she twinkles wickedly!

Asked about her influences, Karen replied “Iris Johansen, Allison Brennan, Sara Paretsky, Wendi Corsi Staub, Heather Graham, of late Rick Mofina, David Corbett, Wayne Arthurson, and Robin Burcell. Once I read a book and I can’t put it down, I’ll read everything I can from that author. I’m just a compulsive.”

She comes with a game plan. And she’s capable of execution! She oversees two critique groups, generates her mystery prose on schedule, and is always on the lookout for good stimulation.
When she realized, at Left Coast Crime 2011, that she should ramp up the violence in her writing, her delight was somewhat disturbingly evident. She shared with me her eager willingness to explore activities in her crime research that neither a martial arts expert nor her husband would participate in.

Currently Karen works in a department store, giving authenticity to the setting of her first mystery. I’ve had a peak at Working Stiffs. It’s going to be a twisted fun read when we get our hands on it! She’ll be posting on every other Thursday, starting June 9th.

Introducing... Janet Costello

2011-05-29T14:53:00.001-07:00

When you walk into Janet Costello’s ‘library in the sky’, you know just the kind of person she is: smart, articulate, and extremely well read. And we’re not kidding about ‘library’. Wall to wall bookcases line Janet’s living room, which includes a centre isle of back-to-back bookcases. Heaven. Take a peek into her closets and you’ll know even more about her: cases of red wine signal the warm and generous person she is.

Rather than write fiction, Janet says she prefers to shine the spotlight on others, and indeed she does this by doing interviews with writers. She is a supporter of all mystery writers, with extra shout-outs for Canadians, Sisters in Crime and her blogmates. Janet has volunteered for several conferences, including Bouchercon 2004, Bloody Words 2010, and can be seen any place where she can pitch in. She has a special knack for creating a variety of puzzles, which are regularly featured in the SinC newsletter.

But reading is where Janet truly inspires awe. Her rush reading pile…well, actually, it’s three bookcases. Rush Rush reading pile – twenty-four books at the moment. She says her influences are biographer Nancy Mitford, Inside the Actor’s Studio’s James Lipton, Edgar Wallace, Nevil Shute, Dick Francis and Ruth Rendell. For their gracious and generous manner at all times, Canadian mystery writers Louise Penny and Anthony Bidulka.

Frankly, if we’re talking gracious and generous, Janet embodies these attributes in spades. I’m proud to call her my friend. Her first post will be on Tuesday May 31.

Melodie Campbell

Introducing...Heather Mac Archer

2011-05-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Heather Mac Archer loves murder; she loves history and is currently writing not one but two murder mysteries one set in the UK and one in Canada. Both feature beautifully detailed locales.
Heather thinks the challenge of a good murder mystery is to draw an emotional link between the murder and the crime. “There is always a link to the past, either in the childhood of the murderer or the life of the victim.”
After her minister father taught her to read at four, she inhaled everything in his library from Thornton W. Burgess animal stories to theology, psychology and history. Spreading her literary wings in the Fenelon Falls Village Library, she consumed all of Agatha Christie by her early teens. She admires Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, Ian Rankin, John Goddard, Kate Atkinson and Anne Perry for their portrayal of the psychological aspects of crime in “a delicious way.” Other influences include two history degrees and copyediting murder stories during her career at the Toronto Star:
“I can’t visit a place,” says the deceptively mild-mannered Heather with a gentle smile and a glitter in her eye “and not sit back and look around and think this would be a fine place to set a murder.”

Heather’s first blog appears Monday, June 6, 2011.

Write-on Mystery

2011-04-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our discussion blog.