Joanna Campbell Slan

Keep It Spare and Lean: An Interview with Chris Grabenstein

2012-01-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

Note: Chris Grabenstein will be one of the Guests of Honor at Sleuthfest, March 1 - 3, 2012. He's the author of the John Ceepak series, for which he won the Anthony Award for "Best First Mystery."

JCS: Chris, I know that unlike most authors, you didn’t just get a wild idea and start writing. Before you started your Cepak series, you studied James Patterson’s success. What sorts of decisions did you make? How have they worked for you? (I recall you talking about the titles that were all of the same ilk.)

CG: Well, sometimes, I just get a wild idea and start writing. However, when I first contemplated writing a mystery, I did approach the task the same way we used to go after a new campaign in advertising. What could I do that would be different in a world cluttered with seemingly millions of sleuths? How could I make a character stand out? This was the same exercise we always went through when developing a new TV spot -- how do I break through the clutter? How do I make someone not click the remote and zap my commercial?

Having worked with James Patterson at J. Walter Thompson advertising, I remembered his breakthrough coming with the creation of Alex Cross and a series of books titled after lines from nursery rhymes. ("Kiss The Girls," "Along Came A Spider," etc.) I set out to attempt to do the same thing. I had the title TILT A WHIRL before I had anything else. I knew the second book could be called MAD MOUSE or MIND SCRAMBLER. The books would all be named after amusement park rides...and the title rides would act as metaphors for what happened in the stories. To avoid the Cabot Cove syndrome ("Murder She Wrote") I set my series in a tourist town that could easily have a transient population and a new cast of victims and killers every week of the summer.

Then I needed to create a sleuth unlike any the world had seen. That's when I came up with the notion of an overgrown Eagle Boy Scout who will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do. He seemed to be the polar opposite of the boozing, depressed, divorced, no-code-but-my-own, noirish heroes populating so many mystery stories -- the dark knights I still love. I created John Ceepak to be different.

JCS: How did you come up with the name “Cepak”?

CG: I came up with Ceepak after going to a wedding where one of the groomsmen, a former soldier, was named Ceepak. And all of his buddies called him by his last name. If you hang with a group of guys, there is usually one who doesn't seem to have a first name. I was always "Grabber" in high school; never "Hey, Chris," always "Hey, Grabber." You'll notice that very few characters in the stories ever call John Ceepak "John." And Danny Boyle is always "Danny." It wasn't until the third book that someone pointed out to me that Ceepak's initials were "J.C." Cue the Twilight Zone music...

JCS: Your books are a bit unusual because like the Sherlock Holmes stories, they are told in first person by a secondary character who admires the protagonist. How’s this working for you? Why did you choose to do this? What are the drawbacks and the strengths of this approach?

CG: I tell the stories in Danny's voice for the same reason I think Doyle tells the Holmes stories in Watson's voice: First person narration by our sleuths would have readers throwing the books against the wall in anger. Can you imagine a tale told by the arrogant, conceited, but brilliant Holmes? His brain would move far too swiftly to fill us in on all the little details he'd already deciphered and moved on from. The same with Ceepak. His by the book, just the facts, code-following ways may smack of a goody-two-shoes and Dudley Do-Right if he did the narration. So, I gave the story telling chores to a 24 year old part time cop who, like Watson, admires the master sleuth he is working with. Danny is also a lot funnier than Ceepak...although Ceepak is attempting to develop a sense of humor as the books progress.

I think the device works for this particular pairing -- because of the "lead" sleuth's personality.

The stories are also told in first person present tense...which drives some people batty. I think the present tense helps the action clip along and is how cops tell stories. "We go into a bar. There's this guy with a gun who has his paws all over a waitress. We pull out our service revolvers..."

JCS: Your background is in advertising. What did you learn from advertising that you apply to your work in novels? Your writing is very spare, with no wasted words or overlong descriptions. Has the art of brevity, which is key to advertising, ever been a problem when working on books?

CG: Yes. Right. We ad folks write tight. They used to tell us to keep a copy of a Hemingway book in our desks. Keep it spare and lean and don't waste time on the stuff nobody wants to read anyway, to paraphrase Elmore Leonard who, I think, also has a background in advertising. The biggest thing I learned in advertising came from James Patterson, who was my creative director: Hit 'em with a pie in the face and once you have their attention say something smart. Remember, nobody wants to watch TV commercials or stop listening to music on the radio to hear your ad or quit flipping through Kardashian Wedding updates in People magazine to gaze upon your glorious print ad. We learned to give readers/viewers a reward for their attention. Interestingly, when I was published by Carroll & Graf, the publisher told me, "I like advertising writers. You don't waste people's time." I guess that's because we only had thirty seconds (70 words max) to grab someone's attention and then convince them to go buy whatever Whopper we were selling that month.

Has it ever been a problem? I hope not. But, I try to write the kind of books I love to read: page turners that can make a transcontinental flight seem like it lasted three minutes instead of six hours.

JCS: Your plots hustle right along. What’s your process? Are you an outliner?

CG: I'll talk more about this at Sleuthfest on the plotting panel. I am a hybrid, I think. I stake out four key plot points, as if I were scripting a two hour, two-act movie. I then know where I have to be at a certain word count and work toward that goal. It help keeps things focused...but I make up what happens in between the plot points on a day-to-day basis. I also overwrite like crazy. My 75,000 word Ceepak novels tend to have first drafts that are 90,000 words long. Then I go back and chop and prune.

JCS: You’ve had such a successful career as a writer. What sort of advice could you share with others just getting started?

CG: First of all, that's very kind of you to say. My advice is probably the same as everyone else's: Read a lot. Write every day. I heard somewhere that it takes 20 minutes to drift off into that "awake dreaming" zone where the real magic starts happening. So, try to sit down for an hour everyday and get 40 minutes of dream time in. Also, and I learned this writing 500 TV commercials for every one that ever got produced, I think you have to LOVE the writing. Not the riches (well, there aren't any of those anyhow), fame, acclaim, awards, snazzy author photo, or cocktail parties with publishers (do they still have those? If so, how come I'm never invited?). The only part of this business you have control over is the words and the process of writing. I absolutely love sitting down every day and getting lost in whatever story I am weaving. I always have, I think. No one can take that feeling away. Everything else? It may never come or it might all disappear. Love the writing...not being "a writer."

JCS: You learned a technique in improv classes that you use with your writing. Would you share it?

CG: Yes, I will. In fact, my afternoon talk on Craftfest Thursday will be an improvisational workshop where I will teach everybody the "Yes, and..." rule of improv. It is a rule I use every day and will help writers get beyond the blank page and into places they never could've dreamed they'd be going. (Okay, that was a thirty second ad for Craftfest. Once an adman, always an adman...)

JCS: You live in New York City. Make us all jealous. Tell us if that has been a boon or a bane to your career.

CG: I think New York is a great place to live as a writer. If I need a crazy character, I go out and walk around the block. I found a major character for my new middle grades caper series on a bus ride uptown one morning. It is nice to be able to go to an MWA meeting in New York and rub elbows with superstars like Lee Child. However, I think writers can live anywhere.

I really think having an agent in New York has been a boon to my career. They go to cocktail parties. They schmooze with editors. They do a lot of lunches. That's how we got the idea to turn THE CROSSROADS from a 120,000 word adult ghost story into a 50,000 word middle grade mystery. My agent bumped into an editor at a party who was looking for ghost stories for middle grade readers!

JCS: Anything you want to tell me?

CG: I'm looking forward to Sleuthfest. I've always heard it's the best "writers" conference. And I can thank Charlaine in person for making me a New York Times best seller (because she and Toni Kellner asked me to do a short story in DEATH'S EXCELLENT VACATION which made the top ten..and not because MY name was on the book cover!)

Visit Chris at http://www.chrisgrabenstein.com/

How to Protect Your Library--Books Are Meant to be Loved

2011-12-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

Reading to my dogs. Note the "red eyes." Sigh. Am I really demonic?

In this Sunday's New York Times, someone wrote into the Social Q's column with a question that illustrates life as we know it. Seems that "Anonymous in Vermont" had a calamity during the annual Christmas party. Thirty adults and 30 kids were in attendance. Unfortunately, one of the kids puked on Anonymous's e-reader--and ruined it. Now Anonymous wants to know, should he/she ask the parents of Up-Chuck to replace the e-reader?

Since our world seems to be dividing into two camps, those who love e-readers and those who abhor e-readers, I could almost hear the anti-e-reader camp cheering and shouting, "Boo-ya! If it had been a paperback, all would have been fine."

But that's not really true. Without getting too graphic, trust me when I say that if someone pukes on a paper product, it's ruined.

So what's the point here?

I Have Two Great Loves

I love paper and I love my e-reader. They both have their strong points and their weaknesses.

I like traditional books for research because I like to mark them up, use a highlighter and stick Post-It notes inside the book to mark passages I want to revisit. (I know that some of you are shuddering at the thought of marking up a book. My dear friend Chris Clark-Epstein taught me that a book is a resource. She suggested creating my own index in the front of a book so I could quickly find pertinent facts. It was one of those timely suggestions that really transformed my daily life.)

I love my e-reader because it holds so many books, it's easy to read at night (the light that's attached to the cover functions almost like a night light), and books are delivered immediately to me. (Which I admit is my idea of heaven--books that appear magically on request.)

Books Are Made to be Eaten

I once heard an interview with the son of the woman who wrote Pat the Bunny. He suggested that that his mother's book was a mega-seller because...kids ate it. Yes, he admitted that kids loved chewing on Pat the Bunny almost as much as they liked having it read to them.

I've kept all my son's books, and I can tell you that many of them have been masticated. And yes, one was even puked on. Some have ripped pages. Some are discolored. All have been loved.

Solutions?

Keeping kids away from books is not a solution. Having a library of indestructible kids' books is.

Books are meant to be loved, and handled, and enjoyed. And occasionally...puked on.

To properly protect a kid's book, cover the pages with clear Contact paper. Then you can wipe them clean. Better yet, buy two copies. One for "loving" and one for the future.

I started to write: "Don't give them your e-reader without supervision." But after watching my grand-nephew toggle through my sister's iPhone, I can't suggest that. The next generation won't waste time thinking of books as "either/or." They'll simply accept that books will come in paper or in new formats.

After all, it's the content that counts.

An Interview with Julie James: 'My Writing Process Is My Own'

2011-12-02T05:54:00.000-08:00

My guest--Julie James.

Note: Each year I conduct interviews with famous authors who will be guests at various conferences. Julie will be appearing at Love Is Murder, Feb. 3-5, 2011, in Chicago.)
1. Julie, you were an attorney before you went into writing novels full-time. What is it about training as an attorney that seems to make for such fantastic authors? What did you learn in your work as a lawyer that you still use when you write today?

A. Maybe all us lawyers write simply to escape our day jobs? Kidding! (Mostly.) I think it’s a couple things. First, as a lawyer, you write a lot. Second, as a trial lawyer, your job in many ways is to tell a story—to take the facts and present them in a way that hooks the reader or listener (i.e., the judge or the jury) and convinces them to accept the story as you tell it. Plus, being a lawyer involves many hours sitting in front of a computer. Good training for a full-time career as a writer.

2. In the “traditional” romance novel, the hero and the heroine must be kept apart, usually by misunderstandings. You, however, do a fabulous job of throwing in one crisis after another that keeps your characters apart. Do you plot all this out in advance? How do you keep coming up with believable interruptions rather than the trite “misunderstandings” that blemish a lot of romance novels?

A. I actually find that the Big Misunderstanding isn’t used all that much in romance—at least not the ones I’ve read. From time to time, I’ll see a review of a book that uses the Big Mis as a device, and if it’s not done well readers will call an author out on that fast. That’s not to say you can’t have misunderstandings in a story—of course you can, we have misunderstandings in real life. But if your characters are smart, rational people, you can’t drag out a misunderstanding for too long that could be cleared up by one simple conversation.

In answer to your other question, yes, I do plot out my books in advance. I generally put together about a fifteen to twenty page outline of the book, which I use when writing a synopsis for my editor. But when I’m actually writing the book, I rarely look back at the outline. By that point, the book is developed enough in my head, and I want the freedom to deviate from the outline if that’s where the story takes me.

3. You say you think of your voice as “smart, sexy and sophisticated.” Your characters banter, and they crack jokes in such a way that the dialog reveals a unique voice. How did you find your voice? Do you ever have days when it doesn’t show up for work? If so, how do you reclaim it?

A. LOL, is that what I said about my voice? Apparently, my voice also includes being a little full of myself. : ) I actually wrote screenplays before I began writing novels, and my books certainly tend to be dialogue-focused. My characters are usually somewhat on the sarcastic side. Perhaps a lot on the sarcastic side. And typically there’s a lot of back-and-forth banter between the hero and heroine.

Do I ever have days where my voice doesn’t show up for work? Hmm. . . I’d say not really. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get stumped. Sometimes I’m trying to do something with a scene that just isn’t working, sometimes a plot point isn’t developing the way I want, or sometimes I struggle with getting the tone of a scene right. But my voice, so to speak, is typically there.

4. You went to your first RWA convention prior to becoming a published author. Most folks won’t “pop” for a conference until they have a book. What was your thinking? Was it of value to you? Would you recommend other pre-published authors attend conferences before they have a book in hand?

A. I was pretty unfamiliar with the romance genre until I’d learned from my editor, after selling my first book, that I had, in fact, written a romance. (I’d called the book a “romantic comedy” when we sold it.) So for me, it was valuable to attend the conference simply to familiarize myself with the genre. Also, I think conferences offer great networking opportunities—I met several authors at that first conference with whom I continue to be friends. And there are a lot of helpful workshops at these conferences for both published and unpublished authors—I still attend workshops, even though I’ve written five books and now present workshops myself. There’s always room to learn more.

So bottom line, I think attending conferences can be very valuable, and I do recommend them to pre-published authors—IF it’s financially feasible. Let’s be honest, these conferences often aren’t cheap!

5. You are a big believer that “action speaks louder than words.” How do you come up with the right actions to reveal your character’s inner worlds?

A. Hmm, did I say that somewhere? I mean, sure, I believe that—particularly with my characters, who often use sarcasm to deflect their deeper emotions. I’ll give you an example—in my most recent book, A Lot Like Love, the hero (an FBI agent) and the heroine (a billionaire heiress who owns a wine store) have to pretend to be a couple as part of an undercover sting operation. Now, they say they don’t like each other— and there’s a lot of back and forth banter and sarcasm between them. But the hero stops by the heroine’s wine store one night, and sees that her store is so crowded she hasn’t had time to take a break and eat dinner. So he leaves and comes back with a Portillo’s burger and cheese fries for her. And sure, he grumbles through the whole thing and makes all sorts of wry comments about how billionaire heiresses probably don’t eat cheese fries, and how she’s too thin already, but regardless, the actions speak for themselves—she was having a rough day at work so he went out and got her dinner. Even if he’s sort of cranky about it, it’s still romantic.

6. I think you write the BEST sex scenes of any author I’ve ever read. They are hot without being gross. Care to share tips on how to do a scene that sets the reader’s pulse racing without grossing her out?

A. Thank you! And… I’m kind of wondering what books you’re reading where the sex scenes are gross. Because that’s not good for anyone. : )

Honestly, one way I think you can make a scene instantly hotter is with dialogue. A few good old-fashioned dirty words, when well-timed, can get the pulse racing. Also, one of the key things is that the sex scenes need to be a continuation of the characters’ relationship. Meaning, if the hero and heroine have been trading all sorts of quips and banter throughout the book, well, they should continue that playfulness, that teasing, in the bedroom as well. No matter how descriptive, those scenes should be about the emotions the characters are feeling. Heck, even if it’s a one-night stand, and all the guy is thinking is “Oh my god, yes—I’m getting laid!!, well, that’s the emotion you need to convey in the scene. Sex is intimate, and people are (literally) exposing themselves and making themselves vulnerable to another person, so there needs to be some sense of what’s going on in the characters’ heads.

7. Please talk about the differences between the romance market and the mystery market. Is one more important to you than the other? How are the fans different?

A. Candidly, I’m not that familiar with the mystery market. But I’ve written two romantic suspense novels, and I’m sure there is some crossover. What I can say is that romance readers tend to be extremely voracious readers, and I’m truly appreciative that my books have been so well-received by fans of the genre.

8. Go back in time and talk to Julie before her first book was published. What would you say to her?

A. Oh gosh, this is like the, “What would you say to yourself if you could go back to high school” question. I’m always terrible at these types of questions. I don’t know that I have some great, deep answer so instead I’ll give a practical response. One thing I wished I had known before I was published was how much promotion authors need to do themselves. That would not have changed my decision to write—not at all—but I was pretty clueless after selling my first book when it came to marketing. So writers should be aware that this job does, in fact, involve more than actually writing.

And here’s something perhaps a little deeper: I think I would tell myself that my writing process is my own, and not to worry about how other authors write, or—more specifically, how fast they write. I tend to be a slow writer—I do a book a year in a genre in which many authors write two or more books a year. So I’m constantly reminding myself that it doesn’t matter how fast I go—what’s most important is that I’m pleased with the outcome, regardless of how long it took me to get there.

Learn more about Julie by visiting her website: http://juliejames.com/

Why Electricians Should Not HONK OFF Their Mystery Writer Clients

2011-10-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from my note to my contractor, Rob:

It was a dark and stormy day when they found a body washed up on shore. “Oh, my god, it’s that dreadful electrician,” she thought as she stared down into his white and bloated face with the black electrical tape wrapped around his neck. The fish had eaten his eyeballs out. He lay there half in and half out of the water but he was wearing his gray shirt with his name embroidered happily in red. That—and the fact he wasn’t all the way in or out of the surf--was how she recognized him. He always did things halfway. Two of her driveway lights, the outlets in her garage, and the fixture in her laundry room were all non-functional after his last visit. Of course, his bill was complete. He’d seen to that.

Watching him move back and forth with the force of the tide, she wondered: What happened to him? Could it be another homeowner tired of his complacency and threw him to the sharks off the coast of Jupiter Island? Or had the contractor grown tired of apologizing for the man’s ineptitude and decided to throw in the towel…and the electrician along with it? Was there a more sinister reckoning behind his demise? Perhaps he’d played with the wrong light switch, confused the wires, tripped the circuit breaker one too many times, and POOF!

A crab scuttled up, picked at his flesh and raced back to its hole. A seabird swooped down, landed on the man’s boot, hopped along his leg and pecked at the hairs in his nose.

With a shrug, the woman kicked sand in the corpse’s face and walked on, picking up shells, and thinking, “Hmm. Karma is a booger.”

Happy Halloween! You're Invited to an Online Party!

2011-10-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

If there's one holiday that gets my vote for TOTAL CUTENESS, it's got to be Halloween.

HALLOWEEN PARTY ONLINE

On Monday, October 31, we'll be inaugurating my new "fan page" on Facebook. Helping with the festivities will be 12 of my best author buds. Here's the lineup:

9 to 9:30 p.m. EST
Mollie Cox Bryan (Scrapbook of Secrets)
Angie Fox (A Tale of Two Demon Slayers)

9:30 to 10 p.m. EST
Betty Hechtman (Behind the Seams)
Laura DiSilveria (Die Buying)

10 to 10:30 p.m. EST
Julie Compton (Tell No Lies and Rescuing Olivia)
Alan Orloff (The Taste)

10:30 to 11 p.m. EST
Casey Daniels (A Hard Day's Fright)
Vicki Doudera (Killer Listing)
Penny Warner (How to Party Like a Vampire)

11 to 11:30 p.m. EST
Joanna Campbell Slan (Make, Take, Murder)
Margaret Grace (Murder in Miniature)

Special "drop in" guests will be Linda O. Johnston (The More the Terrier) and Monica Ferris (Buttons and Bones).

We'll be giving away books, books, and more books! Just come to my new Facebook Fan Page and click "LIKE" or ask to be my FRIEND. (Which you are, aren't you?)

SLAN's SLAM ALBUMS

In the spirit of the spirits, I make these two adorable "slam" albums. Here's a great explanation of how to create the body of the albums: SLAM

Now on to the fun part...

Both "spiders" are just buttons with googly eyes. To one, I attached wire legs. To the other I cut a thin strip of blackish page and folded it accordian-style. That became a leg.

Is this fun or what?

Happy Halloween!

P.S. READY, SCRAP, SHOOT is now available for pre-order!

I Started (Writing My) Novel to be Polite: An Interview with Julie Hyzy

2011-10-20T02:00:00.000-07:00

I don't remember when I met Julie. She's one of those people who is so nice and so easy to be with that she's like a long-lost pal the moment you are introduced. I interviewed her for the Love Is Murder newsletter. Her answers are pure Julie!

**

JCS: Julie, you started as a short story writer convinced she couldn’t finish a book. Tell us about your friendship with Michael Black and the good advice he gave you. Didn’t the two of you also collaborate? How did that work?

JH: Absolutely true. I'd dreamed of being a writer since I was a kid, but I had no clue how to go about it. Once my daughters were old enough to get breakfast for themselves, I decided to find out how to get myself published. That was just about ten years ago, but with all the changes in the publishing world of late, it feels like it's been much longer. Anyway, I thought I'd do best if I could find a writing group.

After a couple of detours, I happened upon The Southland Scribes. At that point I'd written a few Star Trek short stories, hoping to get into one of their annual anthologies (I did, eventually, three times!). The Southland Scribes, however, was a novel writing group. They were the only game in town, so I told them I wrote novels. Total lie. As it turned out, they welcomed me warmly and I shouldn't have worried. Mike Black was part of that group at the time. He was the most-learned, most-published member and was extremely generous with all his hard-won information. He encouraged me to write more, and I was thrilled to comply. Heck, getting feedback from him (and from the group) was gold. I'd never had anyone critique me before and I learned so much.

After a while, Mike suggested I try my hand at novel writing. I demurred initially because I didn't think I had the stick-to-itive-ness I'd need to stay with a novel for months. But he kept telling me he thought I could do it and that it was my logical next step. Here's the honest truth: I started a novel to be polite. He'd been so helpful and I'd learned so much that I felt I owed him to at least try. I didn't think I'd finish. He also talked me through outlining a novel, which helped a great deal. Nowadays I sort of outline with a much different process, but back then my outline was my lifeline. I started the novel to be polite, and found -- to my everlasting surprised -- how much I loved the freedom of novel writing. It was so great. As soon as I finished, I wanted to start another. So I did.

Mike and I collaborated on DEAD RINGER. Kind of a fluke how that came about. There was a short story contest going on while we were critiquing one another. I had an idea for it and we worked together on bringing it to life. It didn't see publication then (it did later, elsewhere), but we found the exercise to be fun. We joked around about writing a novel together and we tied the endings of our respective novels together in anticipation of someday collaborating. I think working on that short story had given us so much enjoyment that we decided to go for it sooner than I'd expected (I had a book deadline at the same time so I wound up writing two books at once). Total blast. I know I gave Mike fits because he had a plan in mind for the plot and I tended to deviate often (and wildly). But I think I added a few good things to the mix, too.

We took turns telling the story in first person. Could have been confusing, but I think it turned out okay. It gave me a chance to have Alex St. James, my Chicago news researcher, work with a Mike's Ron Shade. One of our biggest hurdles was the fact that we both had secondary characters named George. But we managed to work around that. And even though I know I caused Mike a great deal of angst during the process, I think we're both very happy with how the final story turned out.

JCS: You’ve offered a few stand-alone novels on Kindle. Why? How’s that going for you? With two successful series, why did you care to add more titles?
My Kindle/Nook titles are mostly my out-of-print titles, brought back to life. Alex St. James went out of print a few years ago and publishing them as ebooks gives me a chance to introduce her to new readers. So far, it's going well. I did put up one original novel, PLAYING WITH MATCHES, under my N.C. (not cozy) Hyzy pseudonym. That one hasn't really found an audience yet. It's slightly harder edged, but I like Riley. She's a private investigator in Chicago, making ends meet by doing background checks for an upscale dating service. I had so much fun writing that one! I hope to add to Alex's adventures first and then continue writing for Riley. You asked why I care to add more titles? Simple answer: I love to write and there are far more stories in my head than I can ever put to paper (or pixels).

JCS: Where did you get the idea for Ollie, the White House Chef? What was the biggest obstacle you faced in getting that series published? Do you have any concerns that the FBI or CIA will come knocking on your door because you plot against the president? (Okay, a “mythical” president, but still.) How do you do your research?

JH: Everybody asks that question! Here's how it went: You know we have our first ever female executive chef in the White House, right? Her name is Cristeta Comerford. (Usually when I get to that point in answering the question, people start tuning me out. But there's more.) Cozy mysteries, or amateur sleuth mysteries are dependent on the protagonist stumbling over dead bodies or conspiracies on a regular basis.

Where better than in the White House? The thing is, I didn't come up with the actual concept. The late Marty Greenberg did, and he asked me to write it. I wasn't given a series bible or any plot lines, I was given the description: "female White House chef" and told to run with it. So, even though Tekno (Marty's company) owns the copyright, I did come up with Ollie and her cohorts on my own.

After five novels written and the sixth one in the works, Ollie's become a very good friend. Although I can usually predict what she plans to do next, she does have a knack for surprising me.

Do I think the FBI and CIA will come to my door? Probably not. I've done so much research so far, acquiring all sorts of White House books and DVDs, talking to current and former staff members and Secret Service agents, and plugging suspicious search terms into my browser, that if they really thought I might pose a threat, I'd have heard from them by now. Unless of course, I'm under surveillance and I don't even know it. Hmm... I do have two FBI agents living next door. You think that may be a coincidence?

JCS: Tell us about Grace from your Manor House mysteries. How did you plot such a complicated book? You also manage to put a lot of tension into Grace’s relationships. First with her crush, Jack, and then with Frances, her assistant. Did you plan for that or did it evolve naturally from the characters?

JH: Thank you so much! I'm thrilled to know you enjoyed it.

Grace and the Manor House series is a far more personal series for me than WHChef is. I don't have an awful sister, nor do I have a crush on a man hiding his past, but I did find out about a major family secret after my mother died, much the way Grace did. It was a huge story, but the moment I heard it, I knew it was true. It was as though all the pieces in our family history that didn't fit suddenly came together. Quite a revelation, and having gone through such an upheaval, I'm able to understand exactly what Grace is going through. They say to write what you know... and I have, sort of. I've also written to discover more of what I want to know.

I did plan for a book with complicated relationships. I have lots of plans for Grace going forward, and I think readers will enjoy watching her evolve and become stronger as she learns more about herself and as she interacts with the people in her life. I adore writing for Frances. She's just so much fun and although she isn't based on a real person, she does share qualities with several people I've met in my life. She and Bennett (Marshfield's elderly owner) may just be my two favorite characters in that series.

When the first book came out, a great many people wrote very nice reviews about it. One reviewer didn't like the fact that there were so many characters. Isn't it funny how authors give so much weight to the negative comments? Anyway, I digress. That one reviewer dinged me over the huge cast. I was surprised, initially, and a little hurt (who doesn't get hurt by a bad review?) but then realized that I shouldn't let one person's opinion waylay me from my plans. I created a large cast because I have many, many stories to tell.

JCS: Your bio is incredibly short on your website. You neglected to tell readers about your work with MWA and your awards. You’ve won an Anthony, a Barry, and a Lovey. Tell us about what it feels like to be so honored. (Julie, you have to be one of the most modest authors around!) You’d written other books before. What “came together” for you to make your White House series so yummy?

JH: Oh... I have to tell you, the night of the Anthony win was the most magical night ever. That came just two days after winning the Barry Award, and I was flying as high as a person could. That's why I dedicated BUFFALO WEST WING to everyone from Bouchercon 2009. For me, that was truly the best Bouchercon ever. And winning the Lovey... wow. There's nothing quite like being home among so many wonderful people -- people I love -- who show me such warm and wonderful support. I am the luckiest person in the world and I can't thank everyone enough for welcoming me and my characters into the mystery community.

Honestly, being nominated is the true honor. I remember telling everyone that I didn't want Bouchercon 2009 to arrive because then I could no longer call myself an Anthony or Barry nominee. Then it would be over. I had no idea I had any chance of winning these awards.

Magical. Really. That's what it was.

What came together to make all this happen? There's only one answer: Amazing, supportive readers. Without them, I would be nowhere.

JCS: How many daughters do you have? And how many at home? How do you manage to write and keep up with the demands of a busy household?

JH: We have three fabulous daughters. Robyn is a full-time illustrator who has done work for Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine among others. Sara is in graduate school to become a special education teacher for the visually impaired, and Biz (Elizabeth) is in college now. She recently declared herself an English major, but hopes to pursue theater as well. All three are happy, compassionate, and bright. We're very proud of them. This fall, for the first time, we're empty nesters and the household is suddenly quiet. Far less busy than it's been in the past. That's not to say the girls don't call on mom fairly often -- they do. But I do find myself with more time to write now than I ever had before.

JCS: Like so many of us female mystery authors, you were hooked on Nancy Drew at an early age. How has that influenced your career? I wonder what will charm the next generation of mystery authors. What do you think?

JH: How has it influenced my career? Oh my gosh, I wanted to BE Nancy Drew. I still do. Writing mysteries allows me to walk in her shoes. Allows me to have adventures and put broken pieces back together and set the world right. I love it! Yes, Nancy was my role model and to this day, I try to fashion my characters after her. No, they don't all have titian hair, or pop off to Machu Picchu on a whim. Nor do they always get along with the local police, but they do share Nancy's world view. They take the high road (most of the time) and try to see the good in people.

Ollie is far more sure of herself (like Nancy) than Grace is, but Grace comes from a different background and hasn't experienced the family support Ollie has always enjoyed. I see Nancy in them both.

As to your other question I, too, wonder who will charm the next generation. I do love Flavia de Luce, but she's young. Nancy had her own car and was a more modern young woman, even in the 1930s when she first burst upon the scene. As much as I enjoyed THE HUNGER GAMES, I don't see Katniss Everdeen as a role model. But Hermoine Granger certainly is. She would be my choice, even without magical skills. Impossible to predict at this point, but certainly fun to guess!

##

Julie Hyzy is the author of the bestselling Manor House Mysteries and White House Chef Mysteries. Visit her at http://juliehyzy.blogspot.com/

Dangerous Dames Tour

2011-09-24T06:31:00.000-07:00

Prepare for a perilously good time when the “Dangerous Dames’’ visit the Raleigh-Durham area for a book tour, Oct. 13-17. Deborah Sharp, Julie Compton, and Joanna Campbell Slan live up to their billing: They kill people for a living -- at least fictionally. In reality, the three nationally known mystery authors are perfectly nice women with families and pets and houses with mortgages. There’s not a homicidal maniac among them, except when it comes to plotting their novels. However, at least one of the Dames confesses to considering murder while undergoing editing. Several appearances are scheduled throughout the area. (See schedule below.)

Most will feature the “Dangerous Dames’’ in a panel discussion. Moderating is Molly Weston, who blogs and lectures about mysteries. An avid Tarheels fan, Weston also edits the Sisters In Crime journal, inSinC.

Here’s more on this lethal literary trio:
Julie Compton mined her training as a lawyer to write her debut, Tell No Lies. Aptly described as part Scott Turow and part Jodi Picoult, the legal thriller earned a starred review from Kirkus, which called it a "taut, tense cautionary tale … with courtroom drama and a surprise ending." Her most recent release, Rescuing Olivia, was praised by Publisher's Weekly as an "intense, entertaining second novel" with a "super-satisfying resolution."

Compton, who left the practice of law to write full-time, now considers herself a recovering attorney. She hopes to never fall off the wagon. She lives near Orlando, Florida.    

Deborah Sharp, a former reporter for USA Today, traded in sad news stories for funny fiction. She sets her ''Mace Bauer Mysteries'' in a sweet-tea-and-barbecue slice of her native Florida. Sharp rode a horse across the state to research her second book, and landed on NBC's Today show in a tacky wedding veil for her third. Mama Sees Stars, her fourth, garnered a starred review in Library Journal: “This zany fourth entry . . . is a feature worthy of the big screen.’’
Sharp and her TV reporter husband, Kerry Sanders, live in Fort Lauderdale. No kids. No pets. They had goldfish once. Turned out badly.

Joanna Campbell Slan is the author of the “Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series’’ and a dozen other books. Paper, Scissors, Death -- the first book in the mystery series -- was an Agatha Award Finalist. It is also one of Kindle's top 50 bestselling books. Her most recent release in the series is Make, Take, Murder. Slan’s newest mystery series starring Jane Eyre as an amateur sleuth will be released in July 2012, from Berkley. When she isn't traveling with the Dangerous Dames, she divides her time between Washington, DC, and Jupiter Island, Fla.

**
Dangerous Dames Schedule

Friday, October 14, noon — Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill

7:00 — Page-Walker Cultural Arts Center, Cary, co-sponsored by the Cary Library

Saturday, October 15, 2:00 — McIntyre's Fine Books, Fearrington Village, Pittsboro

Sunday, October 16, 2:00 — Halle Center, Apex, co-sponsored by Eva Perry Library

Monday, October 17, noon — Holly Springs Library (brown bag lunch)

3:00 — West Regional Library, Morrisville

And on the fifth day, they collapsed. (Kidding!)

The Right Editor Can Change Your Life: An Interview with Hank Phillippi Ryan

2011-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

1. JCS—I guess the big question is why? Hank, you were/are already an award-winning reporter. A huge success. So why did you decide you wanted to add being an author to your list of accomplishments?

HPR--Well, thank you. Your question made me stop and think—because it wasn’t so much “author” I was going for...as I just had this terrific idea for a story. You know how when you have a good idea, you just know it? And I got a strange spam in my email one day, and it crossed my mind—maybe it’s a secret message. And I just—stopped in my tracks. It was such a perfect plot for a mystery novel, and I just—knew it. And from that moment I was obsessed with writing the story of whether there could be secret messages in computer spam, and how that would work, and who would do it...and why. And that became PRIME TIME!

2. JCS—The original draft of Prime Time was not the same as the draft that eventually got published. Would you share with us what happened? What changes you made? I know that your agent (or was it the editor) didn’t know if you could revise your book, but you did. How hard was that? Most folks get stuck in a mental rut and can’t make changes in tone, but you did. How?

HPR--So interesting. The initial draft of PRIME TIME—well, you have to remember, I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve been writing television news stories and investigative reporter for more than 30 years, so I figured a story is a story, how hard can it be? Which was, of course, absurd.

Anyway, the first draft of PRIME TIME was lighter, funnier, and the main character Charlotte McNally was a little—ditzy and self-centered. It was chick lit, no question, and I finished it just as the chick lit genre was crashing.

I got the nicest rejection from an editor—who said, essentially, she loved the whole thing—except for the tone. And she told my agent she’d be interested in reading it if I could make it less “chick lit” and more “women’s fiction” mystery.

Well, after so long in TV, I’ve had editors say: can you make it more investigative? Or more featurey? Or shorter? Or longer? Can you do it like—a SONG? (Okay, kidding. ) But the idea of re-editing for tone was not outrageous to me. I saw the editor’s point. And it was a fascinating thought.

My agent said, “I don’t think you can do it.” (She was my agent at the time. I now have a different agent.)

I’ll never know if she was telling the truth, or trying to challenge me.

But I had no doubt I could do it.

I just thought of the story in a different way—and went through every line and scene, thinking: what would make my characters have more depth? Be more thoughtful? Stronger? Be more connected to the real world and real conflicts? What would make people care?

I went through the whole thing wearing that filter. And so interesting—the result was EXACTLY the same plot. Exactly. But it just had a different feel.

Get the right editor—and it can change your life.

3. JCS—Your father is a music critic. What did you learn from him that has an impact on your career as a writer? On how you take criticism? On how you approach the craft of writing?

HPR--I’ve never thought about that. (He’ll be happy to hear that, huh?) My dad is very—honorable. Very reliable. Very sincere and tolerant and loving. (He left the newspaper to join the foreign service, and retired after 35 years as a diplomat.) He’s written two non-fiction books on American music, and he’s incredibly organized about it. SO there’s that.

He’s also incredibly straightforward. When he read one the first things I wrote (not one of the Charlie McNally books), he said: “Honey, this is really a good start. But there’s a thing called ‘voice.’ And you don’t have it.”

I remember that so well! Back then, I had no idea what he was talking about. But it made me think about what he meant, and about authenticity. That was—fifteen years ago, I guess.

My stepfather was a really brilliant lawyer. From him I learned to question everything. And to be persistent. And never to be satisfied until something is the best it can be.

4. JCS—Your pacing is exquisite. You’ve said that everything must serve the story. Do you have any sorts of tests you use to check for pacing? What’s your plotting process? How do you know if you’ve gotten bogged down—and what do you do to speed up the drama?

HPR--Thank you! (These questions are so nice…) And yes, of course, the story is the only thing that matters!

When I do long-form television stories, I print out my draft scripts, and use a pink magic marker to highlight the “cool parts.” That’s what I call them, I know it sounds silly. If the cool parts are too smooshed together, or it there’s too much time without one, I know I have a pacing problem.

Same with my book manuscripts. It’s like—leading someone though the forest, by telling them there might be a gold coin on the path along the way. To keep them going, the gold coins have to be there, and you want to make sure there are enough of them along the path so they continue with their journey, and can’t resist taking the next steps to get the next one.

See what I mean? It’s the same with writing a page-turner. There has to be a compelling thing, a big question or an important conflict or a critical decision—something that makes the reader unable to stop.

And how do I know? Besides “pinking,” I just read over what I typed the day before. If my mind wanders, or if I find myself thinking, yeah yeah, blah blah , get on with it—then I know I’ve got to ratchet up the suspense and timing. I say: why do I care about what’s happened here? And then I do something to make myself care.

The “plotting process”? Cue crazed laughter. I usually start with one cool, unique element. The secret messages in spam, or in DRIVE TIME, they way a certain code would work. (You’ll never look at parking garages the same way!) Then I mull over—with my characters—what would REALLY happen next? And then, I see.

I know, that’s not helpful. What can I tell you? The ideas come when they’re meant to come. (So far. Knock on wood.)

5. JCS—Undoubtedly, you are the nicest person in the world. I mean, everyone thinks she’s/he’s your best friend. Although you will soon be building an addition to your home to house all your awards, you are always friendly, approachable, and kind. Are you really that nice? What keeps you so grounded? Is this a career strategy or a personal quirk or a genetic trait?

HPR--I’m laughing too hard to answer this. People are often surprised that I’m “nice”—in my job as investigative reporter, I’m always confrontational, demanding, critical. I guess...I try to remember we’re all doing the best we can, you know, even if it doesn’t always come out that way.

I also sort of live by the mantra—“you never know.” You never know what’s good or bad when it happens, right? And people always say: “someday we’ll laugh about this.” I say—laugh sooner.

6. JCS—Your mother must be one of the smartest women on the planet, and I know her advice to you has been invaluable. Could you share some of her wisdom? Tell us how that governs your actions as an author and a person.

HPR—Oh, just ask her! (Couldn’t resist, mom.) She’s incredibly—supportive, but never lets me off the hook. When I won my most recent Emmy (yes, the 27th) she said—Oh, honey, do you still care about that?

But you’re right, Joanna, she is amazing. I called her when I was in the midst of Prime Time, about halfway through, and I said Mom, I love this book, it’s funny, it’s original, and I love the characters. But this is much more difficult than I ever could have imagined. I’m just—not sure I can finish it.

And there was this pause, and then she said “Well, honey, you will if you want to.”

And, blam. That was all I needed to hear. I think about that all the time. I realized that my future was in my hands. Depending on my desire, and my passion, and my hard work.

7. JCS—How much of you is Charlie? How are you different? Does her relationship with Josh parallel your relationship with Jonathan? Do you ever worry about revealing too much of yourself and your inner fears through Charlie?

HPR—Fine fine fine. A lot of Charlie is me. She’s younger than I am, yes, and funnier, and a better driver, and a little more confident. But she—as I was for many years—is married to her job in television, and wonders what happens when the camera doesn’t love her anymore. And yes, actually, I did worry about becoming the poster child for “aging women in television.” I guess that happened, but turns out, I’m happy with that!

Fictional heartthrob Josh parallels real-life heartthrob husband Jonathan? Ah..I have to say, not at all. They’re both terrific. And I adore them both. But really? Josh is completely fictional, and their relationship is very different.

8. JCS—Tell us about your schedule. You’re an indefatigable promoter. You’ve just sold a new suspense series. You write short stories. You’re always on the road. How do you keep all those balls in the air? Do you ever have any Down Time? (That’s a suggestion for another title, eh?) How do you relax or do you?

HPR—Yes, my new series! I’m incredibly happy with the whole thing—the first is THE OTHER WOMAN, and it’s a novel of suspense about a disgraced TV reporter on the trial of an ex-governor’s secret mistress. (And I was finished with the book before Arnold and Maria’s situation. So that was quite amazing.) As one character in THE OTHER WOMAN says: “You can choose your sin, but you cannot choose your consequences.”

I think the log line might be: Seduction, betrayal and murder—it’s going to take more than votes to win this election.

It’ll be out in hardcover from Forge Books in 2012, and the next one in 2013. (The amazing Lisa Scottoline says: A killer plot, compelling characters and non-stop suspense. Riveting!")

I can do the crazy schedule because I love it. I just—love it. And Jonathan is incredibly supportive. Sleep was the first to go, then cooking, then laundry. But we’ve worked that out. Well, not the sleeping so much, but I’ve learned to go on less.

Relaxing? Hobbies? Here’s a real confession: I have a very hard time with that. I have no hobbies. It’s probably a problem, actually. But for now, I’ll just ignore that.

9. JCS—What’s the best writing advice you can share?

HPR—It’s all fine. It’s fine, and if it’s not fine now, it’ll be fine later. You can always fix it, you can always make it better, things always work .Face your problems, and they’re never as bad as they seem at first. There’s a motto on my bulletin board: “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” That’s how I try to think about things. I just figure—it’ll work. Maybe it’ll be in a way you didn’t predict, you know? But maybe that’ll be even better.

You can worry along the way, or you can not worry. And you’ll arrive at EXACTLY the same place. So why not enjoy it?

Accept the Restrictions: An Interview with Donald Bain

2011-07-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

Note: Donald Bain will be a featured author at the 2012 Love Is Murder Mystery Conference, Feb. 3-5 in Chicago. I interviewed him for the LIM newsletter.

1. JCS--You are in the unusual position of writing in partnership with someone who doesn’t exist, Jessica Fletcher. Angela Lansbury told me that she was in your publisher’s offices and someone complimented her on her book series. She told them, “But I don’t write those books.” Obviously, your unique situation is confusing. Care to comment?

DB--Because many of the 110 books I’ve written were ghostwritten for other people, I suppose that “collaborating” with a fictitious TV character isn’t so unusual. Giving us a dual byline was, of course, a marketing move by the publisher. When I make appearances there sometimes are people who are disappointed that I’m not Angela Lansbury (I apologize to them for not wearing basic black with pearls). And there is at least one fan who is really confused. She e-mailed me to say that she was amazed how much Jessica Fletcher looks like Angela Lansbury. Angela has told me the same thing that she told you, that she’s been stopped in airports and on the street by people who thank her for having written the books. She always graciously thanks them for their kind words and moves on. So far the confusion hasn’t negatively impacted my relationship with Jessica; at least I don’t think it has.

2. JCS--Your first Jessica Fletcher book came out two years before the series ended. What are the challenges of writing a book based on a TV program? Fans can get pretty snarky if an author messes with the perceived canon of an icon. Did that worry you? Did you ever have any problems with that? What advice might you share with someone who wanted to write about a pre-existing character?

DB--You’re right, of course. Writing a media tie-in book poses certain problems, but none that can’t be overcome. I owe it to fans of the “Murder, She Wrote” TV show to be faithful to the Jessica Fletcher character, as well as to other characters and to the tone of the series overall. Before I started writing the first novel 22 years ago I watched as many episodes of the show as possible, and didn’t commence writing until I felt confident that I had all the nuances down pat. Even then I missed a few. For instance, I didn’t pick up on the fact that Jessica doesn’t drive a car, and had her behind the wheel in the first book, Gin & Daggers. And there have been other slips, although they’ve become fewer as I continued writing the series. (There are now 37 books and a new 3-book contract. Remarkably every one of them is still in print).

My advice to writer who might end up basing a novel on a pre-existing character is to accept that there will be restrictions on what you can have that character do and say. Having been handed a wonderful character like Jessica Fletcher, who was created by others and given life by Angela Lansbury, is a gift for which I’m thankful. On the other hand it is limiting to an extent because I can’t deviate from that character’s basic nature, philosophies, likes and dislikes. It’s a trade-off that I’m perfectly happy with.

3. JCS--Under your direction, Jessica has gone to some pretty nifty places like Moscow and Manhattan. She’s done some way-cool things—and I know that you always do a site visit. Tell us a bit about how you do your research. Your wife Renée is involved. Tell us about how she helps you with your research, please. In SKATING ON THIN ICE, you shared the sort of insider info on skating, learning to skate, etc., that all authors dream of scoping out. Any tips on going beyond the superficial information?

Renée and I are true collaborators on the series, and have been for the past dozen or so books. We research the books together, brainstorming where to set the next book, and arranging travel to those places, which includes appointments with local law enforcement officials, politicians, local characters whose lives might lend color to the story, and others who can provide an interesting slant. We travel with cameras, a tape recorder, and notebooks and try to nail down everything about the setting as possible. Our readers expect details to be accurate, and we strive to achieve that. Of course we also turn to the best travel books and the Internet as other sources of information.

The research for SKATING ON THIN ICE came primarily from Renée’s lifelong love of figure skating and the many other skaters with whom she’s been involved. She skates a few times a week and interviewed her skating instructors, rink operators, Zamboni drivers, and anyone else who had something to add to the story.

To answer your final question about tips on going beyond superficial information, I suggest that when researching factual material for a novel that you seek the answers in the children’s section of the library. Too much information bogs down a good story. What’s contained in children’s books on any subject gives the writer just about the right amount of background to weave into the story.

4. JCS--Some authors are highly resistant to work for hire or using a pen name. Forgive me if I misunderstand your position, but is the Murder She Wrote series work-for-hire? If so, what suggestions can you make for any writer considering work-for-hire? If it is not, would you please educate me about what it is? It looks like there would be obvious upsides and downsides to your situation. Dish.

DB--The term work-for-hire denotes a writing assignment that involves a flat fee payment, without financial participation in the project. I’ve done those, especially earlier in my career, and would do others provided the flat fee was large enough. “Murder, She Wrote” is not a work-for-hire project; I participate in royalties from all the books. Having a financial piece of the action serves to motivate a writer, although too many projects are offered in which the up-front money is small on the premise that the writer will get rich on the back end. When one of my books, COFFEE, TEA OR ME? was published back in the 60s it was a runaway success and generated numerous motion picture offers. It also spawned an offer to turn it into a Broadway musical comedy by stage luminaries Anita Loos and Jule Styne. They offered a small advance with a generous financial participation if the show was a success. I opted for the bigger up-front money from (because I needed it), and have regretted the decision to this day.

Writers accept work-for-hire assignments because they need the money. That’s all there is to it.

5. JCS--You advise authors to develop a strong storyline. What’s your process? How detailed is your working outline?

DB--“Story” is everything in a novel. Assuming that a novelist can write coherently and correctly, the story that he or she wants to tell becomes paramount. All the good writing in the world can’t salvage a poorly conceived and constructed plot. Renée and I come up with a storyline of about six or seven pages before starting to write, and then watch as the story begins to deviate from the original outline. We discuss each scene before it’s written. At the same time we keep going back over what we’ve already written to refine, add salient material, and ensure that the plot is staying on track. We don’t develop a long, detailed outline before writing. Some writers do, and need it. We prefer a looser storyline in which we know how the book will start, where it will go in general terms, and how it will end. But even then we find that what we considered solid major plot points change as the story progresses.

6. JCS--You have written a variety of genres, as well as non-fiction. (Can a genre be non-fiction? Hmmm. I don’t know!) Writers are typically told NOT to do that. But obviously, you’ve been very successful. Were you ever warned off of writing in different genres? What skill set stays the same no matter what you write?

DB--Good writing is good writing no matter what the genre. I disagree that a writer shouldn’t switch genres. Having to address a different sort of book after writing another type can refresh and reinvigorate a writer. I learn from everything I write, be it a western, murder mystery, historical romantic novel, business advice book, or comedy. To me being a professional writer means being able to do just that. But a writer must also be realistic when choosing assignments. For instance I would never agree to write a book about finance because I find that topic daunting and beyond my ability to absorb it. I’m also careful to not lend my name and writing ability to the sort of book that would turn off readers of the “Murder, She Wrote” novels, who appreciate the series’ lack of explicit sex, gore, and foul language. We receive many e-mails from teenagers who enjoy the novels, as well as from parents who use the books to jump-start their children into a reading habit.

7. JCS--You’re a proud graduate of Purdue University, as was my father and my sister. Purdue isn’t usually the first school that springs to mind when people think of a launching pad for authors. Comment?

DB--Hail Purdue! When I went to Purdue I never intended to be a writer. I went there because of its excellent educational radio and TV program, and worked in that field before turning to writing. What Purdue gave me was a sense of a larger world and the people who inhabit it, and I love going back each year to lecture to creative writing students.

8. JCS--Mr. Bain, you and I are the only two people I know who are fiction writers and who have won Silver Anvils. How did your work in PR help prepare you to become a successful author?

DB--Everything in my life has helped prepare me to become an author—being a salesman, my three years as an officer in the Air Force, performing as a jazz musician, working in radio and TV, learning to fly—and my years as a PR executive, primarily in the airline industry. Everything gets used when I write. My PR experiences brought me into contact with a wide variety of people, always a good thing for a writer. It also sharpened my ability to explain concepts and things in writing. And, of course, it has helped tremendously in marketing my own books.

For more information about Donald Bain, visit his website.

Signing in St. Louis

2011-05-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

I had the best time in St. Louis. I did a signing at my friend Mary Pillsbury's store in LaChateau across from Frontenac Plaza. Her store is totally elegant, and her jewelry is just divine.

Mary's store is mentioned on page 335 of Make, Take, Murder

Isn't Mary's store beautiful? So elegant.

That same night I went to Pudd'nhead Books in Webster Groves, where I met with my friends and longtime fans: Stephanie, Christine, Candy and Linda. They have been coming to see me at Pudd'nhead for the past three years. How phenomenal is that? I really appreciate them taking the time to visit with me. Stephanie has already read Make, Take, Murder twice!

Left to right: Stephanie Koenig, Christine Schuetz, me, Candy Brown, and Linda Burmeister.

And the surprise of the evening was two new fans, Jeannie and Mary. It was fun to meet them, and I enjoyed getting to know them. Later, I went out for dinner with my good friend Karen DG. She's been a great help with my books, as she's a super editor. Very precise. We got caught up despite the fact that the restaurant we chose had a REALLY, REALLY loud band.

Okay, I look weird, but it was the end of a long day! I'm with Jeannie Boettcher and Mary Shasserre

The next day, I signed at Dream House and Tea Room. We had sold so many books at Mary's and at Pudd'nhead that we had to take orders from the women who came to hear me. Judy Macher owns the Dream House and Tea Room along with her partner Tracy. I have many fond memories of the place as my mother and I used to go there for lunch.

After my signing, I met with my dear friend Dana C. We walked around the Chesterfield Mall to get our exercise. Dana used to be my Jazzercise instructor, so we always try to include a bit of sweat in our meetings. Okay, I was sweaty and she glowed! Then she helped me plot Book #6 in the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series. I value Dana's opinion. She's a friend and a fan, so she told me what she wanted to have happen--and that matters. Sometimes we authors get too cute for our own good.

Tomorrow I go to O'Fallon, Illinois, to visit my friend Ann Farnen at Scrapbook Factory.

Does it count as a book tour if you mainly visit with old friends? I hope so. Because to me, that's the best part!

Answers? I've Got a Few

2011-05-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: When will Make, Take, Murder be available on Kindle or Nook?

ANSWER: I have no idea. See, my publisher converts the files to a format that e-publisher can use. Then it's up to the e-publishers (Amazon or Barnes & Noble) to post the books. (Feel free to bug Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And tell me what you find out, okay?)

**

QUESTION: Will Make, Take, Murder be available in large print?

ANSWER: I have no idea. So far, Wheeler Publishing has purchased large print rights to the other books in the series. You can contact them at Thorndike Press.

**

QUESTION: What's the next book in the series and when will it be out?

ANSWER: I don't know. I used a working title of Ink, Red, Dead, but that's been changed. The publication date will be April, 2012. I have turned the book in.

**

QUESTION: Will there be more books in the series after the book formerly known as Ink, Red, Dead?

ANSWER: I don't know. My editor has said she wants another book. My agent is planning on talking to my editor. I've written three chapters of a 6th book.

**

QUESTION: Is it true you are writing another series? What's it about?

ANSWER: I've been blessed to sell a new series featuring Jane Eyre as an amateur sleuth. The first in that series will be out Spring or Summer 2012. The publisher is Berkley, and part of the title will be The Jane Eyre Chronicles.

**

QUESTION: Joanna, how can you know so little?

ANSWER: I'm a mom. We work on a need to know basis. Seriously, authors have control over the universe they create, not over the details of the publishing world. I really do adore both my publishers. Obviously they have superlative taste! So when I get more concrete info, I'll pass it along. One nice tidbit of news...while I was at Malice Domestic my agent was contacted about foreign rights to The Jane Eyre Chronicles. That's a very good sign indeed!

**

QUESTION: Where do you live these days?

ANSWER: I divide my time between Washington, DC, and Jupiter Island, Florida. If you become my friend on Facebook, you'll see that I often post photos from both places.

**

QUESTION: How can I get an autographed copy of Make, Take, Murder?

ANSWER: There are lots of ways. 1.) Call Mystery Lovers Bookshop at (412) 828-4877. They have copies. 2.) Call ScrapbooksPlus! at
(703) 263-9503 3.) Email me at JoannaSlan@aol.com and put BOOKPLATE in your subject line. Then tell me how you want me to personalize a bookplate, share your postal address with me, and I'll pop a bookplate in the mail to you. (A bookplate is a fancy sticker.) 4.) Come to one of my signings. I try to post them at http://www.booktour.com/

He Beat Her Regularly--and No One Said a Word

2011-05-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

Some stories stick with you a long, long time. Twenty years ago, a friend named Rob recounted a horrifying scene that he had witnessed at a local country club. Rob was seated where he could observe a group of members who had been drinking heavily. One of them, a prominent local man, grabbed his wife by the crotch and announced to everyone, “See this? I bought and paid for it. None of you can afford it!”

Rob later learned that this man regularly beat his wife, but the local doctors “owed” him, so they patched her up and sent her home. All the best local attorneys were in his debt as well, so there was nowhere for this woman to turn.

I knew of this man and his wife. After all, they were regulars on the society pages. I’d seen the woman around town and I often admired her beautiful clothes and jewelry. Now I winced to think of the shame and pain that she lived with daily.

In Make, Take, Murder, I called this abused woman Cindy Gambrowski. In the first scene of the book, my protagonist Kiki Lowenstein is Dumpster-diving for her lost paycheck when she reaches into a pile of trash and pulls up Cindy’s severed leg. (And yes, Gambrowski is a bit of a pun, since “gam” is slang for an especially attractive female leg.)

To write accurately about Cindy’s life, I consulted with an expert on domestic violence. I also talked to a judge and an attorney to get the legalities right.

I tried to put myself in Cindy’s place. To the outside world, she has everything. But she’s living in a cruel cage, and her jailer is her husband. Knowing that abusers don’t stop, I wondered, “What might a woman risk to be free?”

Readers will quickly learn that Cindy isn’t the only abused woman in the book. Again, my domestic violence expert filled me in on what happens when a woman with kids tries to escape her persecutor. My expert also explained to me one of the common ways that an abuser often tracks down his family. I also learned about some of the psychological baggage that later marks the psyche of an abused woman.

Even though I outline, there are often surprises along the way. In this book, I decided to create WAR, the Women’s Above-ground Railroad, a fictitious organization that would assist women who needed to escape from abusers. My imagination conjured up a dedicated and secretive group of women who would help their frightened sisters adopt new identities in new towns.

Wow, was I ever shocked when my domestic abuse expert told me that such an organization really does exist!

When I finished the book, I felt so passionate about the cause that I donated a portion of my advance to Lydia’s House, which provides transitional housing for abused women and their children in the St. Louis area. I also included information about abuse in my acknowledgement section. It’s my hope that one of my readers might recognize the signs of an abusive relationship early enough that she can escape the sort of torture that Cindy Gambrowski endured.

Note: The "official" release date for Make, Take, Murder is May 8, but most bookstores already have their copies in stock. But before you visit, call and ask if they have their copies of Make, Take, Murder. Also...whenever possible, please put your money where your house is and buy locally.

Kiki in the News

2011-03-10T09:19:00.000-08:00

It's been a thoroughly Kiki type of month.

A couple of weeks ago while I was out shelling with my pal Nancy, I dropped my phone into the briney brink. Bad news. That meant I not only lost my photos, I also lost my ability to read email from the BlackBerry.

Then I had my skin broken by a neighbor's dog, except I didn't know the dog belonged to a neighbor and the health department suggested I get rabies shots.

But while I was having my share of "issues," Kiki was in the news.

First, let me share some great photos taken by Anne Smith at the Boynton Beach City Library event.

Here I am with Connie...

And here's the coveted armadillo vase.

In the hands of its new owner, Lane C.

And finally, the author (moi) with her book. (Since I've moved to Florida, I'm into much brighter colors. Hope you approve!)

I'm excited about appearing at the Virginia Festival of the Book, in Charlottesville, VA, on March 19 at the Omni Hotel. Our upcoming panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book is being billed as one of the 17 hot events that caught the eye of one of the writers at “The Hook” -- along with Kathryn Stockett, Kathy Reichs, Jim Lehrer, Alan Cheuse and top acts. Wow.

Here’s the link: http://www.readthehook.com/89147/books-time-twitter-hooks-hot-lit-picks-17th-festival

I am giving away a Kindle and other cool stuff to celebrate Barbara Vey's Beyond Her Book blog's 4th Anniversary. Go to http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/beyondherbook/?p=3145

And Kiki is up against Jack Reacher in Jen Forbus's World's Favorite Amateur Sleuth Tournament. You can vote here: http://www.jensbookthoughts.com/2011/03/let-voting-begin.html

Please do vote! I want to prove that nice girls do finish first!

Meanwhile, Make, Take, Murder is in production. Be sure to pre-order your copy from any fine bookseller today. The official release date is May 1, 2011.

Dead Armadillo Vase Brings $120 at Auction

2011-02-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

Yep. Read it and weep. Today I auctioned off my precious armadillo, which I turned into this gorgeous (cough, cough) vase, for $120 to benefit the Boynton Beach City Library. Needless to say, the grand unveiling (in which I pulled off blue masking tape and a green garbage bag) brought a tremor of oooohs and aaahs from a stunned crowd of Friends of the Library. Never had they seen such splendid artistry!

The winner asked me to autograph the base, and I happily did.

My sister didn't believe I would ever part with this priceless momento, but knowing that my dead armadillo, the corpse I rescued from the side of the road and a flock of turkey buzzards, was going to a good home made it soooo much easier.

My friend Nancy took this stunning photo. I threw in the silk flowers as a small gesture of graciousness. Nancy said that each time she looked at the 'dillo, it reminded her how important it is to eat FIBER.

After the auction, another woman approached me. "If you make another vase, I'll give $200 to the library. I would have bid on your vase today but I left my checkbook in the car."

Anyone know where I can find another dead armadillo?

Me and My Armadillo--When the Creative Urge Turns to Roadkill

2011-02-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I noticed a dead armadillo by the side of the road. He was a big guy, flat on his back, his legs punctuating the sky.

I wanted that armadillo. I'd seen a stuffed armadillo holding a beer bottle on display in a local shop, but it wasn't for sale. I can't explain it, but that silly piece of taxidermy caught my imagination. I thought it was "way cool."

Each time I drove past that dead armadillo on the road, I thought, "Gee, what a waste." Finally, about four days after I first spotted the roadkill, I called a local taxidermist.

"How dead is dead?" I asked.

He explained that four hours dead is about the limit for his work purposes.

"Okay, this armadillo is way past that. But his shell would still be good, wouldn't it? What could I do with the shell?"

The guy realized I wasn't shining him on. I was serious.

"Hmmm. You could tear off the flesh and get some 20 Mule Team Borax and soak the shell in it. That would kill the smell. After that, get some epoxy. Use it to glue the shell together or into any position you want," he said. "And good luck." With a chuckle, he hung up.

Okay, but first I had to "rescue" the armadillo. I drove to the site, pulled on latex gloves, and shooed away the turkey buzzards. They were reluctant to leave. I picked up the 'dillo by the tail. He was a heavy dude, about fifteen pounds. I stuffed him into a black garbage bag. The cars driving by slowed to watch. I waved.

With my raw material in the trunk, I stopped at the local ACE Hardware store. I bought an alumninum turkey basting pan and the 20 Mule Team Borax. At home, I used an old pair of kitchen shears to cut off the rascal's head (did you know armadilloes have whiskers under their chins and ears like pigs'?), legs and tail. I scrapped all the flesh from his shell that I could, using an oyster shell as my tool. I sprinkled the Borax over the shell. And I waited.

A week ago, I judged my experiment "done." Only one problem: I have no idea what to do with my dead 'dillo. I wrapped him around a big empty bottle of wine. Now I can't get the empty bottle out. I think I'll have to soak him again. And then what?

Any ideas?

By the way, I have NO idea why Blogger insists on making this photo vertical. Sigh. And his shell looks white because there's this sort of scale-like covering on an armadillo's body. It comes off when it's soaked in water. I think I'll have to paint the shell to get it brown again.

Murder in the Magic City

2011-02-05T18:54:00.000-08:00

Can Murder Make Us Laugh? was the name of our panel, the last panel of the day in Birmingham, Alabama, where Margaret Fenton and her friends made all of us authors feel real Southern hospitality.

The verdict? Well, you bet it can! Sue Ann Jaffarian was our moderator. I appeared with Rosemary Harris and Chris Grabenstein.

Ask me about my dead armadillo. Go ahead. Ask me...

I guess I was making a point.

From left to right, starting in the front: Mary Anna Evans, Sara Rosett, Vicki Doudera, Jeri Westerson, and CJ West. Second row: Chris Grabenstein, Vicki Delaney, Sue Ann Jaffarian, me, and Rosemary Harris. Third row: Vicki Lane, Nancy Means Wright, and James Macomber.

Humans Are More Alike Than Different: An Interview With Michael Dymmoch

2011-02-03T09:04:00.000-08:00

Michael Allen Dymmoch will be the Local Guest of Honor for Love Is Murder 2011, held in Chicago, on Feb. 4-6. For more information, go to Love Is Murder.

1. I know that Michael Allen isn’t your given name. Tell us about why you decided to create your own identity and how that influences you as a writer who creates identities on paper.

I prefer not to answer questions about my name beyond saying that your real name is the one you make for yourself.

2. In your Jack Caleb and John Thinnes Mystery series, Jack is a fascinating character who is unusually candid about being a gay man. He even wishes at one point that he felt lust for a woman. You also explore his concerns about dating. How do you keep that candor? What skill do you call upon as a writer to find that ringing honesty?

Write what you know is a cliché because it's true. I would amend it to add or what you can learn. We're all able enjoy stories about people of different genders, times, and orientations precisely because humans are more alike than different in our fears, longings and aspirations--we all want love and work. Bringing Caleb to life was simply a matter of research applied to my own experiences. I know what it's like to be in love, to miss someone so much it hurts, to obsessively desire a man, to dread dating. Therefore, so does Caleb. Caleb is a good shrink because he knows himself. He's open about his sexual identity because he understands openness to be a position of power, and he knows that remaining in the closet invites misunderstanding and blackmail.

3. In the same series, moving in concert with the plot, the characters have these scenes that are mini-short stories, complete with other characters, conflict and resolution. For example, John breaks into his in-laws’ car in such a way that it’s a rebuke to their classism. How do you construct these interludes?

I try to tell the character's story in a way that integrates it into the larger narrative. Some readers (and reviewers) don't get that life is a collections of short stories connected by the memory of the person whose experiences they are. Sometimes the memories are retrieved intentionally and in chronological order, sometimes evoked at random by external stimuli.

How do they come to you? How do you position them so they don’t slow the action down?

Again, writers use their own experiences. I've encountered people like Thinnes' in-laws and his supervisor, Rossi. One of the best things about being a writer is that you can kill people who piss you off without ending up in prison. Or you can put them into situations that show just how badly they behave without getting yourself fired. Also writers steal stories and transform them into tales of their own, which--as Stan Brakhage pointed out--is not unlike taking someone's car, slapping on a new coat of paint and different license plates, and having it for yourself. I love stories. I squeeze small stories into larger ones for the fun of it and because vignettes illustrate character in a way that just saying "Thinnes is a good guy and a cynic" can't.

As for not slowing the action, the story is the thing. As long as they don't derail the story, short stories within the main are like scenic detours in the general direction of your destination.

4. “Jack” is a nickname for “John.” Clearly, names are very important to you. Was there some reason you gave these two very different men the same name? Do they represent different sides of masculinity—the more traditional expectations and the less accepted ones?

Actually, I didn't think all that carefully about those characters' names. Caleb's nickname is Jack because his initials are JAC- Jack is simply the popular spelling of the phonetic pronunciation. The Man Who Understood Cats was originally written as a screenplay which I novelized when I couldn't interest anyone in the script. It was intended to be a cop/buddy film, so the cop was a given--straight, middle class, modestly educated. Caleb became rich, well educated, a shrink, and gay because that combination of characteristics seemed most likely to create conflict--the essence of story. Also I was well educated in the sciences and could research rich and gay. If I'd envisioned a series, I probably wouldn't have been so ambitious.

5.You write with such a sure sense of being a Chicago insider. I’m thinking about the mallard that the police protected and how the building codes invite graft. Tell us about your love of the Windy City and how you collect such anecdotes/information. (I know you’ve been through a citizen’s academy, so maybe tell us about that?)

Stephen King taught me the trick of adding just enough detail to let the reader fill in the rest. Living in Chicago helps, but newspaper and TV coverage of the city (especially by Chicago Tonight and other great WTTW programs), are a godsend. (A duck actually did hatch her eggs at Western & Belmont, protected by cops and crime-scene tape, and covered by several local TV stations.) I also get material from walking and driving around the city and riding the CTA--stuff you can't make up (like the time a motorman stopped his Brown line train to jump out and extinguish a fire on the tracks. I've got pictures!) Police Departments have also been marvelously helpful. Once they're sure you're on the level, not crazy or a crook, and you'll keep it off the record when requested, they're usually happy to share their tales. And cops are great story-tellers. Most departments also have a public relations office or officer. Northbrook's Michael Green spent an hour telling me how his Department worked, And Pat Camden of Chicago PD's News Affairs spent two hours talking to me, then hooked me up with an arson investigator who answered questions I never thought to ask. I've also attended autopsies; and seminars on gunshot and stab wounds, toxicology and forensic science--all of them given by people with great stores to steal --er, tell.

6. “Writers say that what sets them apart from nonwriters is a sense of isolation, and a feeling of being different from others, of always standing apart, observing.” Talk about that. Explain how you stand apart and whether you’ve cultivated that sense of distance.

Another cliché firmly grounded in fact. I always felt isolated and different as a kid--an ugly duckling. When I discovered the writing community, it was obvious to me that I'd been flying with the wrong flock.

7. MIA, your most recent book, is entirely different in tone from Death in West Wheeling and the Caleb/Thinnes series. It’s a combination coming of age novel and a love story. You clearly don’t worry about genre-hopping. What inspired you to write MIA?

I saw an M.I.A. bumper sticker on an old rusty car driven by a man too young to be a Vietnam vet or the son of one. I wondered about the sticker--Did it come with the car? Was a relative M.I.A.? Was the young driver a history buff? Since I couldn't catch up to him to ask, I made up my own story.

An earlier novel was also inspired by a motorist. Driving to work one morning--late as usual, I nearly collided with a car backing out of a driveway hell bent for election. Being a mystery writer, I immediately decided the driver must have committed a murder to be in such a hurry so early in the day. That--considerably embroidered--became the opening sequence of The Fall.

Also, you have nearly the same line in MIA as you have in The Death of Blue Mountain Cat. “The way humans is made, you can’t take care of somethin’ without comin’ to love it or hate it.” (MIA) “Humans can’t remain neutral about anything they give their time or labor to. Whatever we take care of, we either come to love or hate.” (The Death of Blue Mountain Cat) Tell us about why this idea resonates with you.

I guess I just find it to be one of those endearing (or maddening) facts about human beings that fit into both novels (as well as one I'm working on now).

How does a writer use this idea to develop character?

As you illustrated in the above quotes (by telling) or by showing how caring for something brings the character to love it.

8. You reference Groundhog Day in Death in West Wheeling, and Terminator and Starman to name just a few in The Death of Blue Mountain Cat. Are you a big movie fan? How have they shaped your work as an author?

Big fan of Shakespeare's tragedies and many dramatic movies and police series. Screenplays are like short stories and they can be very good outlines for novels if you understand the difference between showing and telling. Screenplays also have a structure that helps keep the story from meandering off point.

**

Michael Dymmoch was born in Illinois and grew up in a suburb northwest of Kentucky. As a child she kept a large number of small vertebrates for pets and aspired to become a snake charmer, Indian chief or veterinarian. She was precluded from realizing the former ambitions by a lack of charm and Indian ancestry and from the achieving the latter profession by poor grades in calculus and physics. This made her angry enough to kill. Fortunately, before committing mayhem, she stumbled across a book titled Maybe You Should Write a Book and was persuaded to sublimate her felonious fantasies. Moving to Chicago gave Michael additional incentives to harm individuals who piss her off. On paper of course. Author of nine novels, Michael Dymmoch has served as president and secretary of the Midwest chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and newsletter editor for the Chicagoland chapter of Sisters in Crime. Michael is a Chicago resident and charter member of the Chicago Mystery blog, The Outfit Collective http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/

Directions for Making a Shell Mirror

2011-01-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

Start with a mirror, of course, but don’t do as I did. I bought a mirror in a frame with a beveled edge. That meant an uneven surface for gluing shells. Buy a flat frame. Glue on the shells. Yes, it’s that easy. Here are a few tips. (Learn from my mistakes!)

1. Sort your shells in advance. I rinse mine with tap water and set them on paper towels to dry. Then I sort them into plastic baggies with ziplock tops. Having them sorted makes it much easier to find what you need. Sort by size, type and color if possible. Sorting by size is particularly helpful!

2. Boil any coiled shells, especially whelks and spirals that might have small critters in them. I try never to take a shell with an occupant, but it can happen. If you don’t boil these ASAP, you will have a huge stinky mess. Trust me on this! You can pick out flesh with tweezers or a straight pin.

3. Include broken shells, large and small shells. Oddly enough, broken shells work very well because you can cover up the missing area, and their unusual shape makes them perfect for nestling against your big shells. Small shells are particularly desirable for snuggling into empty spots.

4. Play with location, putting down your large or most spectacular shells first BEFORE you start gluing things down. I set down an initial layer of shells and built on it.

5. Ventilate your work area. After I finished, I had a colossal headache. I didn’t realize how the fumes were building up.

6. Ignore the “Oh, crud” moment that occurs when you think, “This isn’t going to look right.” It will. I had that moment, but I kept working, even slipping bits of shells under the larger pieces.

7. Let your work dry thoroughly. Otherwise, the pieces can slide.

The glue I used was Quick Grip. I bought two tubes at Ace Hardware and used both tubes. It cleans up with acetone (nail polish remover). It dries clear. It was good and bad. Because it doesn’t completely “set” for 24 hours, I could move things around. It did get stringy, which was bad. I definitely used too much, but I decided to paint my shells with clear nail polish so the extra glue was less noticeable.

Cost: The mirror cost $10 at Walmart, the two tubes of glue came to $8, and the nail polish was about $5. So the total cost of the shell mirror was $23. Pretty nifty when you consider you can’t touch a smaller sized, similar mirror for less than $60.

Here's another photo. This one is before I cleaned off the excess glue, but it gives you a better look at the shells.

I Start Knowing Nothing: An Interview with Rhys Bowen

2010-12-25T13:55:00.000-08:00

Rhys Bowen will be appearing at the Love Is Murder Conference in Chicago, Feb. 4-6, 2011. For more information go to www.loveismurder.net

1. Murphy’s Law starts with a wonderful first sentence: “That mouth of yours will be getting you into big trouble one day.” In fact, all of your books start with a super first line. Any hints about how you make that happen?

I spend a lot of time thinking about the first line. I think it’s so important where you come into a story. Murphy’s Law doesn’t start with a high drama scene. It starts where she’s poised between two worlds. Getting a fast start is more important now than ever because so many people are buying books online. If you don’t come up with a good first line you’ve lost those readers.

Today’s readers are not going to wade through pages and pages of details like they would in the past. No one has the time for that anymore. Everyone has been raised on TV, and that comes in 90-second bites. So deciding where to come into a story is important.

2. Tell us about your process. You do a terrific job of giving backstory while in the midst of an action scene. How do you do that?

It’s going to sound awful, but I start knowing nothing, or the least little thing. For example, I’ll think, “Wouldn’t it be fun to have Lady Georgie going to a wedding in Transylvania?” Then I plot maybe 20 pages at a time. But that’s all. I’m not a puppet master making my sleuth do this or that; I’m following my sleuth and seeing where she goes.

I’ve tried working from an outline, but it doesn’t work for me. When I finish the outline, I think, Oh, I’ve finished with that book. I’m terrified for the first half of every book, and I’m writing scared. When I get to the middle and I start to see how things are taking shape, I start to relax a little.

3. How do you plug in the backstory?

Giving the reader a big dump of backstory is the mark of a beginning writer. It’s more fun to give people hints. For example, at the start of Murphy’s Law, you know Molly is out of breath and her bodice is ripped but you don’t know why. Really it’s like when you are watching a movie and you see a hint of something dashing across the screen. You stop and think, “Oh! What is that?”

So the trick is to keep filling people in, while at the same time you are moving them forward, and not slowing them down. Less is always more with writing, so give the reader the least hint possible you can. My writing is quite spare. I don’t add a lot of description.

4. Both Molly and Georgie, your two protagonists in your two series, recognize that being financially dependent on anyone is the absolute pits. Where does that come from? Is there something in your life that makes that resonate with you?

I’ve been lucky enough to have a husband who is good with money, but I’ve had friends who are not so fortunate. Writing historicals, I’ve noticed that when women had no money, they were completely at the mercy of a man. That’s the way the laws worked, and that was not only true in the 1900s, but you can look at the I Love Lucy episodes and see it. There’s that one where Lucy was terribly afraid to tell Ricky she’d bought a new hat!

My own mother worked as a school principal. She had her own bank account. She made her own decisions, and I learned from her that having your own money allows you to be independent. So I guess that’s my own life coming through.

It’s funny. I’ve written a lot of books but these are the first characters, Molly and Georgie, that I’ve seen myself in, although I didn’t start out with that intention.

5. Speaking of women and their roles, tell us more about Sid and Gus. Were they modeled after Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein? Are they lesbians?

Alice and Gertrude--I didn’t even think of that until you suggested it. I could have a lot of fun with that, but no, they weren’t. Sid and Gus are the epitome of what free women can undertake, what sorts of life they can live, when they have no financial restrictions. And, yes, they are lesbians. You can imagine what might happen to a lesbian couple if they weren’t financially independent. However, in Victorian times, a romantic relationship between women wasn’t frowned upon at all. In fact, it was considered rather sweet for two women to walk down the street holding hands. It was thought that women would grow out of their attachment to each other. And I wanted to portray Sid and Gus as a true Bohemian couple of the times. (And I would have liked them as my next door neighbors.)

6. You’ve collected tons of awards. Tell us what these mean to you.

One thing I can tell you is that it never gets old. Some people get terribly blasé, but I’m always absolutely amazed every time I win, because I know every year that there are a good number of books that were fantastic. I put my awards on a big shelf by my stairway, and I have to see them as I go up and down stairs every day. When I have a depressing day I think, “Oh, well, I have those.” You know, being an author is such a roller coaster ride. One day you click on Google and someone’s said something unkind about your work. The same day, there’s this fantastic interview.

I think we all need to be told all the time that our work is good. When I send a book out to the publisher, I wait to hear back from my editor, “This is good!”What you’re doing is putting out the best part of yourself each time.

**

Rhys Bowen’s most recent work, Royal Blood, will be out September 7th. To learn more, visit her at www.rhysbowen.com

The Christmas Eve That Changed Him--and a Free Book Giveaway

2010-12-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

Note: Doug Brendel and I have been friends now for nearly forty years. He's one of the smartest, kindest people I know. He might also be the bravest. For years now, he and his wife have been traveling to Belarus to minister to people. His newest book is called, "Why I Quit the Church." I asked him to share a post with us, and I think you'll be impressed by what you read. Doug's honesty comes through, shining like a star atop a Christmas tree. His words will help remind all of us to think beyond the simplicity of making purchases, and to move closer to the real spirit of this amazing season.

Want to win a copy of Doug's book? Comment on this post. I'll choose one lucky commenter to win a copy of "Why I Quit the Church," a sometimes humorous, but always honest memoir of Doug's personal journey to find the right church for him.--Joanna Campbell Slan

By Doug Brendel

The Christmas Eve that changed my life was not a starry night. It was a grim, gray morning.

Some guy named Mike and his pals had been feeding homeless people in the park every Saturday morning. But that year, Christmas Eve fell on Saturday; Mike’s pals were out of town. He asked our pastor if our church could help.

I was the associate pastor. If Pastor said yes, I was stuck.

“Say no!” my heart screamed.

Pastor said yes.

I was afraid.

I had never encountered a homeless person in my life.

They must be dangerous.

I was a skinny nerd with a paunch.

I had suburbia written all over me.

These people weren’t going to take breakfast from me. They were going to eat my lunch.

That frigid morning, we scrambled dozens of eggs, made gallons of coffee, loaded serving tables into a pickup, drove to the park — and here they came.
Homeless people began stalking toward our vehicles. My internal radar was beeping madly.

“Morning, Mike!” “Merry Christmas!” “Kim! How ya doin’?”

They were coming to help.

Mike’s group had been showing up in the park every Saturday morning for months. These were friends. They looked forward all week to this.

The breakfast line formed. There were 50 or so.

A good-looking young man — could have been a movie star — blond hair, chiseled features.

A round-faced Native American, pockmarked and bloated.

Small red-haired woman, no more than 30, but shriveled and bent.

Guy with one eye.

Jolly fellow, Arkansas twang, face encircled by red curls.

Young guy wearing far too little in such cold. Old guy wearing so many layers, he could hardly move.

Smiley, tousled-haired boy, three fingers missing.

Cackling, greasy-bearded hobo.

Babbling, shiny-faced girl: mental case.

Tall guy, cross-eyed, in an outback safari hat.

Sleepy gray-haired woman wrapped in a blanket.

And I was not afraid.

Even today, years later, I can’t explain what happened to me that day.
I moved among these people, and my heart moved in with them. This lovely mixed bag of miscreants and sad sacks. It felt like a family reunion. I shook hands, grabbed wrists, gave Christmas greetings. I slipped an arm around people’s shoulders, joked and laughed.

You can tell when someone wants to talk, and sometimes that’s when you can move in close, close enough to smell the days-old perspiration permeating their clothing, look them in the eye, put your hand on their elbow, maybe even reach up behind their neck and pull them into a hug. The fabric they’re wearing can be slick with grime. They can reek with the sweet salt stench of sweat. But when you touch them, something happens. It’s not that they come to life; they’re already alive. But they brighten. Or they animate. You might be the only person to touch them that day — or that year.

I kept going back, every Saturday.

They taught me to love.

I became their pastor.

Christmas Eve has never been the same for me.

**

Doug Brendel’s new book is available at http://www.WhyIQuitTheChurch.com

That Creative Urge

2010-12-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

I've decided that I simply have to have a shell covered mirror for the bedroom of my new home in Florida. So I've been shopping. Online. In person. In catalogs. The prices of such mirrors are reasonable until you get to a certain size, the size I need.

I was in a retail store the other day, talking with the owner, who happens to be a friend of my sister Jane. Jane seems to know everyone in southern Florida! I told the owner what I wanted. She had several mirrors with shells, but none of them was large enough.

"Don't buy one," she said. "Make one. Go to Walmart. Find a mirror the size you want. Got a glue gun?"

Of course I have a glue gun. It was one of my first purchases after I arrived in Florida.

"Use your glue gun. Buy shells if you have to or collect them."

Wow. I mean, I'd thought about gluing a shell mirror together, really I had, but I figured there was some trick to the whole enterprise. That the shells would stink. And yes, I know that they can. One year we picked up shells from the beach and I didn't boil them. I usually do, but this year I didn't. We were driving back to St. Louis from South Carolina when we needed something from the trunk. David popped it open and the smell about knocked us over. Lesson Learned: Boil shells to make sure you get all the dead critters out!

So...I'm going to make myself a glorious mirror. Stay tuned! I'll tell you more as I go along!

I'm curious: Do you ever convince yourself that you can't possibly try making something? I know I sure do. And yet, everything we see was made by somebody, wasn't it? So why shouldn't we be the creators?

I Believe in Instinct: An Interview with Jon Land

2010-11-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

Jon Land will be appearing at the Love Is Murder Conference in Chicago, Feb. 4-6, 2011. For more information go to www.loveismurder.net

1. Your books are very complex with multiple points of view and several story lines running through them. How do you plan them out? What strategies and techniques can you share?
Great question to start with—you’re challenging me right off the bat. And the simple answer I actually don’t plan them out. As a writer, I believe in instinct. You got by your feelings, let your gut tell you where to go. But the real thing is, and this goes to strategies and techniques, to never lose sight of the most important thing a thriller must have: pace. That’s what keeps readers turning the pages into the wee hours of the morning. You make it impossible for them to put the book down by never having any slow or dull parts. And its instinct, your own sense of entertainment as you write, that dictates when it’s time to stay with a sequence and when it’s time to cut. My experience in screenwriting has helped me out a lot here but generally it all comes down to telling a story.

2. For someone who has never written multiple points of view, can you give any pointers?

I may have already done that but let me summarize it this way: know your characters and know the story you’re trying to tell. John D. McDonald once said in answer in the question what is story, “Stuff happens to people you care about.” Well, the more you know your characters, the more they come alive, the more reader cares about them. The structure of thrillers harks back to old-fashioned quest stories. People are after something, what Hitchcock called the McGuffin. So in writing the multi-plotted thriller the question a writer needs to keeping asking themselves is What is my hero after and why? If you can’t answer that, something’s wrong.

3. From Israel to Mexico and many places in between, you move your characters around the globe. Please “talk” about settings. Do you chose a place you want to visit and then write your books or do you travel first and then develop your settings? How do you manage to portray places with so much gusto? You are very good at involving all the senses.

Oh boy, you had to ask me that! Okay, confession time: I’m a Goggle-natic. It’s impossible to visit all the places I write about, so the trick is find enough information out about a place to make it seem like I was there. My late great agent Toni Mendez also represented Milton Caniff, the cartoonist behind Terry and the Pirates. Milton described himself as an “armchair Marco Polo” and I think I’m following his example. Creating a strong sense of place has always been important to me but it’s reached new heights in my Caitlin Strong/Texas Ranger series because there’s so much available. The key, and this relates to my responses to your other questions, is to describe the scene from a character’s viewpoint instead of the narrator’s. In other words, give us the scene from the inside out, not the outside in. Do that and you’ll be describing what the character sees, what’s important to him or her, not you as the author.

4. You chose an unlikely pairing, a Jew and a Palestinian, Ben and Danielle, for Keepers of the Gate. Talk about why you selected such star-crossed lovers, and why you ended the book on such a poignant note. What sort of research did you do for the book? Were there really Nazis who passed themselves off as Holocaust survivors to escape prosecution?

That takes me back a ways since it’s been so long since I worked on a Ben and Danielle book. But that series was a culmination of two things: my growth process as a writer where I wanted to incorporate more emotion in my stories and, frankly, the fact that the sales of my more traditional action-adventure thrillers had bottomed out. I needed to do something more, both creatively and business-wise. As far as research, I have always refused to be a slave to it. In other words, I decided what I want to do and then I find a way to make it work. Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote that it doesn’t matter to me if you believe what I’m saying is true; all that matters is that you don’t disbelieve it. When I started the book I had no idea if there were Nazis who actually pretended to be Jews, but it turns out there are a number of stories just like this. And, I’ve gotta tell you, the great thing about writing about places few will ever see is that nobody knows when you mess things up! (laughs) Like my descriptions of Gaza and the West Bank. In the case of the Ben and Dan books, though, I’m amazed at how far my research into those places carried me in the compliments I’ve received over the years from people on both sides of the fence. Literally now, regrettably.

5. Your Caitlin Strong series also features two people from opposite ends of the spectrum. There’s third-generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong and Cort Wesley Masters, the killer. Why do such pairings appeal so much to you? Do you consciously design such friction to use to create tension? Your names seem to foreshadow the characters’ personalities. Please comment on that.

Well, you kind of answered that in your question. Story is all about conflict, putting forces in opposition to each other. When people interact, there has to be something tugging or pulling at them, something they’re trying to resolve. That’s easy when it’s a hero and a villain confronting each other, less so when two characters on the same side interact. The key is to create emotional conflict as opposed to physical conflict. In the course of the kind of scenes you’re alluding to, characters don’t just reveal truths about themselves, they’re forced to confront those truths. James Lee Burke is a master of this. As for names, well, in STRONG ENOUGH TO DIE giving the villain the name “Harm” might have pushing things a bit but go back to the books that helped create this genre: Ian Fleming’s Bond series. How about those names? Oddjob, Goldfinger, Rosa Klebb, Emilio Largo, Dr. No—I could go on forever. I’ve got a screenplay out now where the villain’s name is “Payne.” The hero of the same script, based on a short story I wrote for THRILLER 2 called Killing Time, is Fallon. No first name, as if part of his life is missing which it is.

6. You are a master of short chapters that leave the reader with a cliffhanger. Do you plan these? Talk about that technique.

I do indeed plan that and it goes to writing in a format that is comfortable and easy for readers to follow. I used to write longer chapters and use scene breaks. Now, just about every time the scene breaks, I start a new chapter instead. I think it was Michael Crichton who first did that, followed by James Patterson. Comes down to helping the reader find his or her own comfort zone. As far as cliffhangers go, hey, that goes all the way back to Dickens whose novels were first serialized in magazines. He was paid by the word and a cliffhanger each installment was crucial so readers would buy the next one. My primary goal as a writer is to make it impossible for you to put my books down. Do that and everything else falls into place.

7. Obviously, Caitlin Strong is a woman. And so is Danielle. How does a man write from a woman’s point of view? Since Caitlin isn’t a girly-girl and Danielle is pretty tough, I imagine you can take some liberties, but did you have to make any mental adjustments? How do you make sure you get it right?

I’m very much in touch with my feminine side! (Laughs) No, seriously, I’ve written about serial killers, human monsters, Palestinians, criminals, Russians and I’m none of those either. I don’t know if you’d call it a mental adjustment. It’s more about perspective, since all my scenes are written from the viewpoint of characters. That forces me to get inside their heads and let them drive the action instead of me driving it for them. I don’t write their dialogue, they recite it and I transcribe it. The fun in writing characters like Caitlin Strong is that she’s a woman trying to make it in a man’s world. So right away you have conflict, tension, something she must overcome. These books never would have worked had I written her as a man. Getting it right means staying true to the character I’ve created. My final edit is always done by my publisher, Tom Doherty. And after reading the next Caitlin Strong book (STRONG AT THE BREAK, Forge, June ’11), he said not only did Caitlin gun down too many bad guys, she was starting to enjoy it too much. That was a great note and I took it to heart since it I think it revealed that Caitlin was becoming desensitized to all the violence around her. My point is you have a strike a balance between traditional female qualities of love and nurturing and the gunfighter Caitlin is at her core. And that’s probably one of the greatest features of this series.

8. Where did you come up all that wonderful Texas Ranger lore?

Well, I’m happy to say for once this is all about research. There’s a wealth of books available on the history of the Rangers and I’ve read probably a dozen of them, always in search of those stories and parables that begin each section. I think I get as many compliments about them as I do anything else in the Caitlin Strong books!

8. Your books are so varied in the worlds they portray. Talk about that, please.

Let me answer that in terms of the “emotional” words they portray. Each character has his/her own quest, something they’re trying to attain. In my older work, the quest was always clear. But in the Caitlin books the characters aren’t always sure what it is they’re searching for. The difference, and what I strive for in this series, is to provide that motif for all characters, no matter how minor. I need to define all my characters, in other words, by detailing how they define themselves. The conflict lies in the fact that it’s dynamic, not fluid. Like Guillermo Paz, the assassin first assigned to kill Caitlin who ultimately becomes her protector. He’s the series’ most beloved character in large part because he is still evolving emotionally.

9. In the Strong Justice, you have a character say something to the effect that the United States worries too much about terrorism abroad and not enough about securing our own borders. Please comment. Is that just a character’s point of view, or do you share that concern?

I do share that concern but let me answer the question as it relates to my next Caitlin Strong book, STRONG AT THE BREAK, in which Caitlin takes on the right wing extremist militia movement. Homeland Security has already identified homegrown terrorists, not just Muslims either, as the greatest threat facing our country today. The level of hatred that has spread across this country since Obama became president is despicable. America at its absolute worst. I know I’m wearing my politics on my sleeve here but how can you now listen to these right-wing wackos calling for Second Amendment remedies, secession, and armed insurrection and not be both pissed off and scared? How long before the murder of an abortion doctor or Holocaust museum guard becomes a bomb in a temple or a courthouse or a black church, or gay and lesbian center? These people only respect the laws they agree with and they lack the intelligence and understanding to even consider opposing points of view. This same mentality was behind the burning of witches and the hanging of blacks in the South. And now we’re seeing it again at a much more pervasive and frightening level.

10. What do you think is really happening to the women of Juarez? Any ideas how to stop the drug warfare in Mexico? (That is, do you agree with some experts that legalizing marijuana in the U.S. would help, because right now we have what amounts to another Prohibition.)

You started with a tough question and now you’re ending with an even tougher one. There is evidence that a very small number of people is behind the murders of the Women of Juarez, so the concept of a single serial killer holds water. I don’t believe there’s any way to stop drug warfare in Mexico because it’s systematic to their culture and political problems. The drug gangs are filling a vacuum and Mexico’s culture is essentially tribal to begin with. Would legalizing marijuana help? Just about every study insists that it indeed would.

For more information about Jon Land, visit him at http://us.macmillan.com/author/jonland

Suggestions for Being a More Productive Writer

2010-11-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

Melva Gifford took these notes on a presentation by Kevin J. Anderson that was available through Dave Farland's website. I thought there were some great ideas here.

Presentation by Kevin J. Anderson on Nov. 10, 2010

1. Shut up and write. You can't wait to write until the muse hits. Think of your writing as a job. Brandon Anderson had a night job as a clerk at a hotel when he first started out as a writer.

2. Defy the empty page: If you can’t get through the first sentence
(stuck) then go to the second sentence/scene. Crash through words. Story will pick up its own momentum. If stuck on starting where you left off, then retype the last page of what you wrote before and that can get you going.

3. Dare to be bad: work on different projects at the same time. A. Research B. Outlining, breaking up chapters, C. Character development etc. D. Write the first draft of the manuscript. E. The editing phase. F. Proofreading part (grammar spelling) and G. Running around and do promotions. Kevin has about six projects in various stages of production. If swamped on one project than move to another. Your projects can becomes a horse race with five horses (books) running at a time. Maybe put something on the fire for a new idea if you don’t have other books currently in process.

4. Know the difference between writing and editing. The writing part is the creative part such as building characters and describing the adventure. Editing is the analytical part of the brain. This is where you A. study the sentences, b. determine why a sentence is flunky. Confirm details of the story. When you’re writing, turn off the editor in your head. If you get to a spot that needs research, then make a note on it and just continue with the draft and come back later for the fix or research.

While writing you need to keep focused. Save self criticism and editing of details for the second and later drafts. Be more productive by just concentrating on getting through that draft. Once that is done you can turn off the internal editor. Just concentrate on editing.

5. When you get time to write determine how to use every minute you write. Figure out how to use all that time economically. Even in half hour blocks a lot can be accomplished. Even a few sentences or paragraphs in a short time can move the story forward. John Grissom wrote one page a day on the first book he wrote. Everyone can find time to write one page a day. Even page or few sentences moves the story forward.

6. Set goals for yourself and stick to them. If you set goal to write 5 pages a day than you need to stick to it. It must be an inflexible part of your life even if you stay up to ensure that you write those 5 pages.
Set realistic goals that are challenging. If you set a goal of 5 pages but only consistently write two then modify your goal. Make sure the goal is realistic.

7. Some authors are productive when they think of their manuscripts as being in a race. Once Kevin and his writing group kept track of how many things they had in the mail at one time. Have a list of various markets and just send things out constantly. Have it be a challenge to each other.

Use deadlines for different markets, contests to submit to. Decide that there will be a new story for that deadline for each quarter of writes of the future. Find a way to create goals and write for them and submit to them. Give a reward for accomplishing different goals.

8. Create the best writing environment for yourself. See when you are the most productive. What makes you get inspired to do more work? Figure out what time of day you do your best work. Some authors work well in the morning or evening. See what works best for you. Maybe you need to get up early before you go to work. Some may need music to play in the background while writing. Some may require no sound at all. Some authors might like to go to places because it is busy but they don’t’ have to be involved, such as a coffee shop. Construct your writing environment to create the best environment for you. Look at your office setup. Is your equipment ergonomically correct for your health? Don't hunch. A bad posture/working environment can cause muscle or joint damage.

9. Think outside the keyboard. Your job is to capture words in your imagination. Doing this is not restricted to a keyboard. Some find long hand more useful in their first drafts. Some like to sit outside with a laptop. Some will dictate their story into a digital recorder, while they are hiking. Sometimes the outside environment can add to the creativity.

10. How to get inspired: The more stuff you know about or learn the more that goes into your writing. Learn stuff. Take trips and see things, learn ball room dancing. Take wood working or language. Different experiences can add to your knowledge database. Watch people and maybe make up stories that could give an explanation of why they might be doing what they do. Learn science, politics, other countries and cultures. Take a balloon ride or go pheasant hunting. Shot a gun or visit foreign countries. Learn about other cultures. Don’t just be a home body. Be a sponge you’ll never know where all those experiences and knowledge will fit into a story. Your experiences will be your toolkit for future stories.
11. Know when to stop. Once you’ve edited four or five times, stop and send it out and move on. Be careful of getting input from others. Don’t waste time talking about writing. Many authors waste time "talking" about writing rather than actually writing.

Q & A:
1. Pacing suggestions. Different scenes can accomplish multiple
things simultaneously. Mix world development in with the action. If you have a scene of two charters talking have that scene take place in an interesting place. An example may be of a relationship breaking up while they are at the horse races and they’re betting on an important race that they must win. Or there may be a dialog in a spot where the world building can take place. Scenes don’t have to be an "either/or"
situation. Have scenes do doable or triple duty.

2. What shouldn’t you do as a writer? Don’t get involved in too
many distractions. Turn off your email program. Don’t play games during writing. Try to have your writing computer be a distraction free zone. You may want to check email every hour on the hour. Maybe set time goals for yourself when you meet the daily goal then you give yourself the reward such as playing your favorite Facebook game.

3. How to find professional editing help. Most charge thousands of
dollars to read a manuscript. But many books don’t need it. The book may be ready to send out. When choosing a reviewer, look for their references so you can contact those authors who have used them and see how they did.

For more information, see Kevin Anderson’s website.

Of Mice and Men and Pigs

2010-11-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I visited the local family-owned hardware store for mouse traps. It's not that I saw any mice, but I saw a few droppings and I heard the chewing in the walls. We've learned the hard way that mice travel in troops, and when the weather changes, they find their way indoors for shelter. David is a masterful mouse-trap setter, but he has one type of trap he prefers, so I'm a picky buyer. While I hate killing the little rodents, they do carry fleas and ticks that harbor Lime Disease, so I feel I must keep my family and my dogs safe. Spring loaded traps kill quickly and humanely, whereas poison can be eaten by dogs or kids. For a week thereafter, we caught a mouse a day.

I love hardware stores, and this one is particularly wondrous, full of nuts, bolts, tools, small appliances, fertilizer, and most delightfully, an indoor farmers' market. That day there was a special treat: the owner brought his pet pot-belly pig. I've never "met" a pig before, so I asked permission to scratch her behind her ears. When I did, she had a surprise for me--she fell over on her side as if dead.

Of course, I was appalled. I thought I'd killed her. Turns out she just loves to be scratched and that's her way of showing her enthusiasm. Her owner explained that she is very smart, smarter than a dog, and very clean.

Which brings to mind another neighborhood pig. This one is made of concrete. The story is that one brother gave the other a silly gift. The second brother, wishing to "get back" at his sibling, retaliated with this concrete pig, thinking that he was really "pimping" his brother by giving him something so hard to move. But the second brother had a playful streak, so instead of moving the pig and getting rid of it, he set it out in his front yard. Now he changes the pig's wardrobe and setting to match the seasons.

I love this pig. I've forgotten it's name, but I take my dogs on daily walks around the pig to see its seasonal changes. I've told the family how much joy they have given me.

That's something I love, the unintended positive consequences of living an interesting life. I'm sure that Brother #2 wasn't thinking, "Boy, will I make Joanna Slan's day." He was just doing this thing. But he has made my day. I enjoy his sense of humor.

As they say in the South, "I'm with the pig."

Lessons Learned Judging Contests

2010-11-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Right now, all my spare time goes to reading manuscripts for a contest. This isn't the first contest I've judged, nor is it likely to be the last. Although the effort is certainly time-consuming, it's also a great education. I thought I'd share some of the lessons learned, lessons that apply to any contest you enter.

1. Read the directions. I know you're probably thinking, well, duh! But I can't tell you how many people goof this up. They misread the word count or the number of layouts or the sizes or word length or whatever. They don't include everything that's requested. I suggest you print out the rules and highlight them as you check them off. Ask someone to double-check your efforts. It's easy to get confused when you are nervous, and all of us get nervous when we enter c0mpetitions.

2. Don't annoy the judges. Another, duh! However, one person in this contest sent me a testy email demanding to know why I hadn't acknowledged receipt of his manuscript. I hadn't acknowledged it because I was out of town doing booksignings, and I hadn't seen it. I gave his work a fair reading, but another judge might not have been so forgiving. The rules said not to send anything that required a signature for receipt, which is a pretty clear indication that they didn't want the judges to be bothered. (Yep, that's what that means.)

3. Do put your name on everything you send in. When I judged the Best of British Scrapbooking and Card Contest, I was shocked at how many entries were not properly labelled. When a judge is comparing a lot of entries, it's easy for your work to get separated from your cover letter. Make it clear what's yours. (Of course, if the contest is a blind contest, ignore this.)

4. Use your head when you package your entry. One of the Best of British entrants copied six of her layouts onto one sheet of paper, then folded that paper into itsy bits and stuffed it all into a tiny envelope. It came out looking like an origami project gone wrong. Two of the manuscripts I received were packaged in stuff that caused a huge mess, with stuff falling out, sticking to everything, and generally causing havoc. Another chose a box so big that I might have to add an addition to my home to store it. Another taped and bound her manuscript with such gusto that I spent twenty minutes trying to release the papers and a half an hour prepping the packing materials for the recycling bin. One person three-hole punched his manuscript and put it in a binder. Most readers prefer loose pages. That means we can slip them into a bag and haul them around with us easily. The binder was definitely overkill, although I appreciated that he was trying to make it easier on me, it wasn't.

5. Be honest but not stupid. Don't tell the judges you just whipped this project out in your spare time for a lark. Look at it from a judges' point of view. Here we are giving these entries our best, spending our time on them, ignoring our own work, and a person who didn't give this much effort is basically dissing our craft! If you don't care, don't enter. Leave the field open for people to whom the contest matters. Also, don't tell me how many contests you've entered and lost. That does not inspire confidence!

6. Tell me about yourself, but don't go overboard. One entrant in the Best of British did ten layouts all featuring photos of her. She was sprawled over a sofa with a rose in her teeth and the header was "BEAUTY." She was posed in a half shadow of a doorway with her head cocked back and her eyes closed. That one was called, "MYSTERY." By the time the other judges and I got to the fourth entry--"SEDUCTIVE"--we were rolling on the floor laughing. Needless to say, she didn't make it to the finals. By the same token, tell me your background, but twenty pages of stuff or a page that looks like it came from a publicity kit are not going to help you. They'll just make my eyes glaze over.

7. Make sure you mail your entry in plenty of time. It's really sad when an entry shows up after the deadline. Mail delivery can be unpredictable, and usually if you ask, the folks at the post office or at Fed Ex or wherever will give you the broadest range of arrival times. So do yourself a favor and mail/send your entry in early.

Then move on.

Yes, move on.

Don't fret about this contest. You learned something by getting ready for it. You completed something important. You grew. So you've already benefited, you see. And someone, somewhere saw your work and formed an opinion of you. If you don't make it to the winners' circle in this contest, you might still advance somewhere, somehow in another.

Yes, it's hard. Yes, you are nervous. And yes, we've all been through this. Remember that the judges know what this feels like. And we're rooting for you. We sincerely hope you'll do well, because we enjoy seeing good work.

How to Talk Like They Do in the Lou

2010-11-02T13:29:00.000-07:00

Last week I took my niece Lexie, my sister Jane, and Lexie's son Skyler to lunch down in Florida. Since Skyler is only two, the nice greeter at Chili's gave him the kid's menu and a couple of crayons. I helped a little with the coloring, and then Skyler turned over the menu and there it was...the St. Louis Arch.

That's a photo I took of the Arch this summer looking straight up at it. It's an amazing piece of sculpture. In one way, it's like the pyramids in Egypt. You have no idea how big they are until you get right up next to them. The Arch is huge, the stainless steel panels are huge, and the way it soars up in the sky is breath-taking.

Of all the emblems of Mound City (a nickname for St. Louis), that's probably the most iconic.

I miss St. Louis now and again. I miss my neighbor Kathy and her husband, John, and their dog Bogey. I miss the colors of fall there. I miss knowing where everything was, and oh, a dozen small conveniences like Dierbergs and Annie Gunn's and having a Target right around the corner. For the most part, Northern Virginia feels like home now. It's funny that it only took me a year to be able to travel ANYWHERE confidently without the GPS. Today I dropped David off at the Amtrak Station in downtown DC and realized, "Hey, I know where I am!"

So if you get the chance to visit St. Louis, by all means go. Here's an article I wrote for AOL that will help you talk like a native.

Be sure to take the time to visit the Arch. It's just magnificent. You'll want to go underneath where the museum is and see the film on how the Arch was made. A friend who was living in St. Louis at the time told me that the two sides were not going to meet, but somehow they obviously worked that out.

There's a lesson there, I think. Even when stuff doesn't look like it's going to work out, don't give up too easily. I know that my husband is the most tenacious person I've ever met. A lot of times, I'll think, "This is the end of the road." But David will just keep on keeping on. And you know, he usually gets what he wants.

I hope I can emulate that quality more and more as life goes on.

This photo gives you an idea of the scale of the Arch. At night, the ambient light bounces off it, making a watery swirl of colors, a sort of metallic reflection of the water in the Mississippi River. And of course, the Arch is on the banks of the Mississippi, so that's very fitting.

A Halloween Close Call--A Kiki Lowenstein Novella

2010-10-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Need a Kiki fix? For less than a cup of coffee, you can read the most recent adventure of Kiki Lowenstein, “A Halloween Close Call.” Kiki Lowenstein is invited to a Halloween Party at Detective Chad Detweiler's parents' farm. But mysterious happenings around St. Louis have everyone on edge--and Kiki has a close encounter that leaves a surprising clue behind! This entertaining 10,000+ word novella is only $1.99 and available at A Close Call.

Here's a sample:

Chapter 1
“If it’s spooky or scary, count me out.”
Detective Chad Detweiler grinned at me. “Even if I’m there to hold your hand?”
“Sorry. I don’t do scary. I love Halloween but I draw the line at being frightened out of my mind. I get enough crummy surprises in my daily life, thank you,” and to underscore how adamant I was, I crossed my arms over my chest. But I couldn’t look stern for long. Not when I was around my friends, so I spoiled the impact by smiling. I know I did.
See, my name is Kiki Lowenstein, and I’m the original Mrs. Nice Guy. I like butterflies and rainbows, puppies and kittens, sugar and spice, and brightly colored flowers. I always make sure to get my daily quota of cute. You can never have too much cute in your life. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
“So the woman who stared down her husband’s murderer is a big ‘fraidy cat.” Johnny Chambers winked at me. Johnny has Bad Boy written all over him, whereas anyone can see that Detweiler is a Knight in Shining Armor.
I shrugged and stared off into the metal shelves where we kept excess merchandise for the scrapbook store where I work, Time in a Bottle. My friends and I were holding an impromptu get-together here, in the stockroom of the store, to discuss our plans for celebrating Halloween. But walking through a “haunted house,” one of those converted warehouses complete with “zombies” and “ghosts” and “monsters” did not appeal to me one bit. “I did what I had to do to survive. This is different. You all are talking about getting your wits scared out of you as a form of recreation. If that’s your idea of a good time, have at it, go ahead, love you to bits, but I’m taking a pass.”
I know I sounded a bit whiny. I couldn’t help it. Years ago, I learned the hard way that I have a very poor tolerance for spooky stuff. I’d gone with my late husband to a screening of Carrie, the movie made of the Stephen King book by the same name. That last scene where Carrie’s hand shoots up out of the grave had me so terrified I almost went into shock. My teeth chattered and I shook like the leaves on a maple sapling before a tornado hits. It took me weeks to calm down.
I was not interested in submitting myself to being jumped at, touched, or grabbed in the dark by people I didn’t know. Especially if they’re dressed like Frankenstein or the Mummy or even Count Dracula. Ugh.
No sirree. I’m not interest in paying to be shocked and surprised.
Detweiler laughed and pulled me close. “Come here, you.” He hugged me. I relaxed into his arms, a place where I always felt safe. Listening to the soft lub-lub-lub of his big heart reminded me that I wasn’t alone in this world. “If you don’t want to visit a haunted house, we’ll find another way to have fun on Halloween. No problem.”
I stayed in Detweiler’s arms, but rotated slightly so I could see my friends. Clancy and Johnny were joined by Laurel Wilkins and her fiancé Pastor Joe Riley. What a cute couple those two are. Joe and Laurel both are in their late twenties. When they walk by, people turn and stare because they are two exceptionally good-looking people. I mean, you feel like you’re in the company of Hollywood stars when you’re with the two of them. And nice? Shoot. You couldn’t find two sweeter people.
Clancy and Johnny aren’t really a couple, but they are pals, so they occasionally accompany each other rather than sit home alone. It’s an arrangement that suits both of them very well. Clancy could easily be mistaken for Jacqueline Kennedy, she’s got those dramatic, classy looks. And Johnny, well, Johnny is a scamp. There’s a roguish side to his personality that comes through with every move he makes.
I hated disappointing all of them. They had their hearts set on celebrating this Halloween by all of us doing something special.
The question was, what?
Now that I’d put the kibosh on going through one of the many “haunted houses” that regularly sprang up this time of year all over the metro-St. Louis area, what would we do for fun?
“Look, I don’t want to be a party pooper. You all should go without me. I’ll be fine passing out candy at my house.” Of course, I didn’t mean a word of that. I would hate to be left out, but it did seem like giving everyone else permission to carry on was the gracious thing to do.
“Mo-om,” moaned Anya, my thirteen-year-old daughter, who had just joined us. “I’m too big to trick or treat. Sitting home on Halloween will be, like, totally boring. Geez.”
“I didn’t quit trick or treating until I was sixteen,” said Laurel. “But I understand what you mean, Anya. Don’t worry. We’ll think of something fun to do.”
. “Kiki, we wouldn’t enjoy ourselves if you don’t come,” Clancy Whitehead patted me on the back as I pulled free from the big detective’s embrace. “And Anya’s right. Sitting at home would be a drag. So, we’ll make another plan. I’ve never been overly fond of haunted houses either. Some of them are okay, but I was in one where this hand reached out and--”
“La-la-la-la-la,” I stuck both fingers in my ears and sang. “Don’t want to hear it!”
“Geez, Mom,” said Anya. “You are being such a baby about all this.”
“Anya-Banana, it’s okay. Your mom is just being honest with us. We’re all friends here. That’s the way good friends operate. They take each others’ wishes into account,” said Detweiler. He was the only adult officially authorized to call my darling daughter by her old nickname. The hunky detective and my daughter had a wonderful relationship. He was very careful to be totally respectful and clear about boundaries with her, and he was teaching her that sticking up for her rights and feelings was important. He’d seen too many teens talked into stupid stunts by their peers. And worse, he’d handled a grisly abuse case where the stepfather was molesting his stepdaughter. Detweiler, Anya and I had even discussed the situation over the dinner table one night, with him emphasizing that she should never hesitate to tell the authorities if someone acted inappropriately toward her or her friends. No matter how powerful the perpetrator seemed to be.
I could see that he was supporting me in nixing the haunted house to help Anya realize that friends don’t push friends into uncomfortable situations.
I have to admit, my heart was overflowing with love for my daughter and my new beau. I’d heard a lot of horror stories about women with kids getting involved and bad outcomes. But so far, the three of us had been able to discuss frankly any hiccups along the way to becoming a family.
One of those hiccups was melding with Detweiler’s parents, Louis and Thelma, as well as his sisters, Ginny and Patty. Since Detweiler and his wife Brenda were only officially separated, and not yet divorced, I wasn’t sure how the Detweiler family would feel about me. I thought I remembered hearing that Patty and Brenda were good friends. But I was afraid to ask.
Maybe Johnny was right. I can be a ‘fraidy cat. I know I sure do stick my head in the sand sometimes, so maybe I’m more like an ostrich.
“Don’t worry, Kiki. I’ll come up with something fun for us all to do on Halloween,” said Detweiler, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “That includes you, Anya. My niece Emily has been asking about you. She wants to hear how your kitten is doing.”
Anya’s face broke into a huge smile. “Seymour is getting big. Wait ‘til I tell her about how Gracie picks him up and carries him around.”
Hearing her name, my wonderful harlequin Great Dane started to thump her tail happily. Gracie is totally besotted with Detweiler. She had managed to lean her entire body weight against his leg while we were all talking. Now she was looking up at him with moony brown eyes.
Yeah, no doubt about it. My life was full of love and happiness. This wonderful support system of friends gave me all sorts of self-confidence. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve never been more happy or secure.
But I still wasn’t willing to visit a haunted house.
Huh uh.
No way.

**

Hungry for more? Upload the whole novella in seconds at A Close Call.

**

Copyright 2010, Joanna Campbell Slan

I'm a Researchaholic: An Interview with Joe Finder

2010-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Joe Finder will be appearing at the Love Is Murder Conference in Chicago, Feb. 4-6, 2011. For more information go to www.loveismurder.net

1.Unlike most action oriented books, your settings are not exotic. Often the scariest scenes occur in office buildings. Many authors rely on dramatic settings. How do you manage to make such commonplace settings still seem frightening?

The familiar is what we identify with most, and we need to identify with a situation before we can be frightened. Alfred Hitchock understood this. He was the master of taking the ordinary man in the commonplace setting, and turning it into something tense and unexpected. That tension, that fear happens when something disrupts the familiar: the thing under the bed, the noise on the stairs. That’s what I’m interested in.

2.Your hero/ine is often a sort of “every man” or “every woman” who is discounted by others. Why does this type of character appeal to you? It would seem that the pitfall would be a character who is too bland or boring to hold the reader’s attention, and yet your characters are compelling…even if they are slackers. Please comment. Also, you seem to include male characters who are amazed that they’re loved by smart and attractive women. This goes contrary to many male fantasies of being irresistible. Tell us about that.

I think the “everyman” is the ideal protagonist for a thriller, again because of this question of identifying with the hero. I also love the idea of the underdog, the person the reader wants to root for because everyone else seems to underestimate them. Nick Heller can be beaten, and because we know that, the stakes are higher. It’s much more exciting for the reader when he overcomes those obstacles.

Men might pretend to think they’re irresistible, but I’ll let you in on a secret: most of us know that’s a fantasy. Most men have no idea why any woman would find us attractive. Life’s not an Axe commercial. I think both men and women appreciate a more realistic approach.

3. Your books are full of tension and suspense, but it comes from events most of us might imagine ourselves in, such as snooping around in an office where we don’t belong. Or getting caught in a lie. You are a master at upping the stakes and amplifying the threat. How do you do that?

All of my anxieties feed my twisted imagination, or maybe it’s the other way around. I imagine myself in a given situation and ask, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Then I play out the scenario in ways that will challenge the reader’s expectations. If a reader thinks, “Oh, I know where this is going,” but something completely different happens, that’s exciting, that’s thrilling.

You have to start with a character the reader cares about, and then put them through a sequence of events that escalate, with moments of real tension — cliffhangers — in between.

4.You write with great precision about technical situations, such as how cargo planes are managed, how corporate secrets are stored, how stock issues and buyouts happen. You list a lot of experts as resources. Please talk about how you do your research. Do you do it all upfront? Or in stages? Do you interview people or ask questions as you go along? Have you ever be headed down the wrong path and then discovered, because of your research, that you needed to rewrite a chunk?

Research my favorite part of the process. I love research. I’d go so far as to call myself a researchaholic. I need to keep myself from overdoing it, because the easiest thing in the world is to put off writing while I check one last fact or interview one more source. Usually I’ll start with a general idea of setting and plot, but the research will shape the setting, and also provide plot ideas; I’ll ask someone, “What could go wrong? And what would you do then? And how could that go wrong?” The big research happens at the beginning of the process, and I’ll gather enough information to get the engines going.

Once I start writing, though, questions about details inevitably come up. I’ll keep track of them as I go, and call or email my sources during breaks in the writing to get answers. So far, I haven’t had to go back to correct something because I learn it’s not feasible. I’ve usually done enough research in advance to give me a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t.

5.What’s your process? How do you come up with your concepts? Do you outline? You have a lot of twists and turns, and you manage to end many chapters with cliffhangers. Do you plan these in advance?

Everything starts with the “what if?” question. What if my new neighbors were actually spies? What if someone started taking those “business is war” books a little too seriously? What if the entire leadership structure of a shaky company were taken hostage?

From there, I start populating my scenario with characters. Who’s my hero? Where does he or she come from? What does he or she want? Who and what are the obstacles to this desire?

Then I brainstorm the major “beats” of the story, creating a beat sheet that lays out the major plot points of my story. I don’t get too detailed, because I need to figure a lot of it out along the way. If my outline’s too detailed, I’m bored before I even begin.

I follow the basic formula of “surprise, reverse, reveal.” We start with situation A, which suddenly becomes situation B — except it’s actually C, which turns out to be D. It’s like peeling the layers of an onion, and sometimes — actually, often — I surprise myself. I don’t always know where the cliffhangers turn up, and the ultimate resolution often doesn’t reveal itself to me until I’m writing it.

6. Your book “High Crimes” was made into a movie. You were able to make a cameo appearance and spend time on the set. Talk about the difference between a movie and a book. (You did this eloquently in the interview during the movie trailer, so if you could repeat that here, that would be great.)

My big discovery, in watching HIGH CRIMES become a movie, was how much more scope I had as an author than screenwriters or even directors do. I can develop characters and storylines in a 500-page novel that filmmakers can’t hope to convey in 120 minutes. They just don’t have the time or the space to create the kind of world I try to build in each book. Authors can form relationships not only with their fictional characters, but also with their readers, because of the time it takes to read a book. Even a fast-paced thriller is going to take at least a day to read. At the end of that time, the reader feels a connection to me that I think it’s hard to feel with the director of a film.

Beyond that, I had a new appreciation for the absolute control I have, as an author, over my plot and my characters. Filmmaking and television producing are collaborations, and those collaborations create marvelous things. I can feel the excitement and the attraction of being part of that kind of collaboration, but they’re no substitute for the thrill of being able to sit at a desk alone and create my own stories from thin air, with no one to answer to but the reader.

That said, I think authors can learn a lot from the movies: the importance of having your reader identify with the main character, the need to start as late in the action as possible, the deadly effects of over-narration. I want my books to feel like great movies, but deeper, and more nuanced.

7.Your first book at age 24 was a nonfiction account of the ties that Armand Hammer had with the Soviets. For that, he threatened to sue you. How did you cope with the stress of that? What lessons did you take away?

I loved doing the research, making those discoveries, and putting it all on paper. I didn’t love the controversy. What I learned was that I could still do the research, still make those discoveries, still put it all on paper — but I could do that and actually make the story up, rather than being constrained by the facts.

The research I did for RED CARPET became the foundation of my first novel, THE MOSCOW CLUB. I discovered that I could use even more of my research, in a way that was more creatively interesting, if I turned it into fiction. It was a revelation.

8.Talk about the time in your career when your agent suggested you might have to write under another name to “redeem” yourself. What kept you going? What did you do? What did you learn?

Almost every author I know has had times when something went wrong in the publishing process, where sometimes external issues created obstacles an author had no control over. I didn’t want to write under a different name. Instead, I took a break and did other things, and I took a broader look at the genre I was working in.

I saw what John Grisham was doing, setting his stories in law firms, and noticed that no one was setting thrillers in the everyday working world, the place most people live. I saw that the old 1970s conspiracy stories could be played out in today’s business world — in an office environment that looked ordinary to an outsider, but might have secrets buried within.

So I came up with a new “what if”: what if all those old spy techniques — the moles, the leaks, the theft of secrets, the double agents — were being used in today’s high-tech corporations? And what if an ordinary guy — the Hitchcock hero, someone the reader could identify with — got pulled into one of these operations?

The result was PARANOIA. It took me a couple of years to research and write, and when I was finished I felt that it was something truly new, and something I’d be proud to put my name on.

9.Your agent also told you that humor was incompatible with suspense, and you’ve obviously ignored that. Your humor contributes to your characters and gives the reader a nice change of pace. Tell us why you didn’t take your agent’s advice on dumping the humor.

This was another piece of advice I decided to ignore when I wrote PARANOIA. At that point, I felt I had nothing to lose by letting my own voice come through — and that voice, often as not, is the voice of a smartass.

But again, the humor is part of how my protagonist stands in for the reader. When I first started researching PARANOIA, I walked into Cisco Systems and it was like visiting a foreign country. All this jargon was flying through the air, words I’d never heard before, like “bandwidth” and “pushback” and “escalation.” Humor was a natural reaction to that kind of information overload, not only for Adam but for me, and for the reader. Especially when you’ve dropped a character into a strange and complicated situation, humor is a way to reassure the reader that the characters are taking it all in stride, and they should, too.

10.You grew up as a “third culture” kid, a child who spent several years as an expat. Research has shown that “third culture” kids are more curious, more adventuresome, and more accepting of diversity. They tend to get bored easily. Given that many Americans don’t even own a passport, what could you say to encourage Americans to travel and experience other cultures?

This is a really interesting question. What I would say to Americans is that the world is a mansion, and we live in only one room. There are many ways to open the doors to that room, and travel is only one of them.

When you move a lot, you get used to paying attention to new situations. It teaches you to be an observer, to ask questions, to figure out what you need to know. Those are essential skills for a writer.

I’d certainly encourage Americans to travel, but I realize that it’s not always possible, given time and money constraints. That’s one of the great things about books: they let you experience cultures and identify with people whose values might differ. As many places as I’ve been, one of the best trips I ever took was Eleanor Cameron’s The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, which I read as a kid. That was the book that first made me want to be a writer, and I might have found it even if I’d never traveled anywhere.

How to Make a Book Safe and More from Angela

2010-10-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

Angela Daniels wrote a neat post about her visit to Bouchercon. You can read it here. http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/2010/10/24/mysteries-car-deaths-and-safe-cracking/ And that's a picture Angela took of one of the book safes she made in her second session.

You can go directly to this LINK, and see her how to info. Isn't this just the cutest thing?

A Blast at Bouchercon

2010-10-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

I had such a great time at Bouchercon and visiting San Francisco in general. My dear friend Camille Minichino was in charge of the craft rooms at Bouchercon, and she just did a bang up job.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Bouchercon, it's the conference named for Anthony Boucher, and it's the largest mystery conference in the world. The setting rotates from town to town, and since I'd never been to San Francisco, I was happy to have a great excuse to visit.

Another friend, the adorable Angela Daniels from Fiskars, presented two crafts at the conference. Gosh, Fiskars was so incredibly generous! They sent along scissors, tape runners, supplies and bright orange bags.

Angela's first project was covering a composition notebook. I took photos of the results. I'm always amazed at how given the same materials, people put their own creative spin on projects. Aren' t these wonderful?

Her second craft was to make a "secret safe" out of a paperback book. I wasn't able to hang around for all of that because the date coincided with my 28th wedding anniversary, and I wanted to have dinner with my husband.

But I must admit, I'm eager to try that project now. Everyone can use a good safe!

Bouchercon by the Bay

2010-10-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'll be appearing at the Midnight Ink Booth from 12:30 to 1:30 on Saturday, and in the craft rooms with my friend Angela Daniels from Fiskars at 11:30 and 4:30. On Friday night, I'll be doing a signing at the crop at Scrapbook Territories in Berkeley, CA.

If you've never been to a large conference before, or even if you have, these are great tips from Sunny Frazier.

**

Wear comfortable shoes, clothes that travel, and layer clothes.

Be ready to exchange business cards and have plenty handy.

Ask people to attend your panel as you chat them up. They will love the fact you've asked them to come! You get to sign books afterward.

Plant a few copies of your book in the give-away section. This assures you of a few people in your signing line.

Bring a camera, take lots of photos for your website. Pose with the big names. When people ask to pose with you for their website, comply.

Don't try to hit a panel every hour. You will exhaust yourself and you'll hurt from sitting so much.

Get to the humor panel early. It fills up fast. Same with the bar.

Don't spend all your time bonding with the guys. Women are the ones who buy books.

Always be on your best behavior--especially in the elevator.

Stare at people's chest and read their nametags. It's the only time this practice is acceptable.

Rest. It will seem like the longest long weekend of your life. Slip upstairs and crash for a bit during the day. Stay hydrated.

Bring something "nice" to wear to the banquet. Most of the time dress is casual. This is California, but it IS San Francisco.

Find the hospitality room immediately. See what they have up there to munch on. Sometimes this is the only time you get to eat.

Scope out the entire conference set up ahead of time. Study the conference book and try to memorize faces in the book and a bit about each author. I start weeks ahead using the names listed online.

Smile until your cheeks hurt. You'll feel like you're running for Miss America.

Most of all, enjoy the experience. It's the BIG one!

See you there,
Sunny Frazier
http://www.sunnyfrazier.com/

Fall Wall Hanging

2010-10-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

The colors of fall inspire me! I love my photos of fall scenes, and I didn't want to hide them away in an album. So I started collecting twigs, and then I came up with this idea.

Here's how I made my fall wall hanging:

1. Tear a piece of cream muslin 6 1/2 x 15 inches.
2. Using a cross-stitch and embroidery floss, stitch on the three twigs.
3. Add a colorful ribbon tied in a bow. Attach the ends of the ribbon to the hanging with buttons.
4. Matt two photos. Glue these to the fabric.
5. Punch lots of leaves in a variety of shapes and colors. Glue the leaves along the sides of the hanging, taking care to overlap the leave shapes. See the detail photo (below) for ideas.

6. Add buttons.
ENJOY!

Whazzup? Thoughts about Words and a Link

2010-10-01T07:43:00.001-07:00

At first I resisted text-ese and slang, but I started thinking about Shakespeare and how he created so many words we use daily, and I changed my mind. I think some of the new words floating about--LOL, Whazzup?, whodunit, chillaxing--are pretty cool.

How inventive was Shakespeare? One site lists 1,700 words that Shakespeare first used in his works. These include:

* accommodation
* amazement
* courtship
* countless
* frugal
* fitful
* lonely
* majestic
* suspicious

He also coined many phrases that we use today, including:

* dog will have its day
* eat out of house and home
* all that gilters
* break the ice
* kill with kindness
* it's Greek to me

The English language grows every year. One reason is technology. We add new words to accommodate (thanks, Will!) new ideas. I was working with a computer tech the other day, a man young enough to be my son, and we discussed how computers of old took up entire floors. How they had to be shut down to cool off. How all the programming was on punch cards. Think of all the changes! It's now commonplace to talk about:

* Mac
* PC
* Microsoft
* Windows (with a capital "W")
* hard drive
* laptop
* Internet
*Wi-Fi
* thumbdrive

And of course, words that once had meanings have changed, so that when we talk about "wireless" we're not discussing a radio.

Another way that words are added is by adopting foreign words, such as jihad, shirah and anime. Since the world is a smaller place (theoretically), we have more contact with other cultures, so we're adopting more words than ever.

Then, we have the zeitgeist words, the words that come out of our culture. These wouldn't make sense to someone who lived in another time, but they are au courant and useful now.

*Obamacare
* "tea party"
* mortgage backed securities
* Madoff
* September 11

And words from the world of science, commerce and medicine, such as:

* Viagra
* supernova
* blood diamonds
* botox

It's interesting how the newest words seem to come with the most baggage. That makes sense when you realize that words spring from political situations or cultural icons/changes.

Some words are only regional. Yesterday I was working on Ink, Red, Dead, which is the tentative title for Book #5 in the Kiki Lowenstein series. I described one of the new characters as having grown up in the "boot heel." Now, if you are from St. Louis, you would understand that this is the southwestern corner of the state of Missouri, and that anyone coming from the "boot heel" is probaby considered a hillbilly by the swanky folks in Ladue.

It's weird how a word can be so loaded. Kiki would never think twice about someone coming from the boot heel, but other people in the book definitely look down upon this woman's background.

Another word I'm using is "scrubby Dutch." Okay, really that's two words. It describes the houseproud German immigrants to St. Louis. "Dutch" is a mispronunciation of "deustch." At first I felt pretty squeamish about this phrase, because I didn't want to be offensive. But a lovely group of my fans met me at a Barnes and Noble in Fenton. They actually asked me to create a "scrubby Dutch" character.

So I did.

Which leads us to another word: EASY.

Yeah, that's what I am. I'm sort of a pushover where my fans are involved.

LINK

Here's a link to a new review of Photo, Snap, Shot. I was delighted that P.J. liked the book, because she's a real expert on mysteries. I was hoping I could grow enough as an author to please her!

Interview with Joan Johnston

2010-09-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

Note: Joan Johnston is one of the authors who will be appearing at Love Is Murder, Feb. 4-6, 2011, in Chicago.

1. Joan, you are an incredibly prolific writer as well as a successful one. Tell us about your habits as an author. Can you share any tips for staying focused and productive? You’ve said you write one book at a time. Do you work on other ideas, but only write one at a time? It seems like you must have a lot in the hopper, as well as what you are working on.

I'm currently working on a five-book series called the Benedict Brothers for Mira. The first book of the series, Invincible, will be in stores October 26. The next book in the series, Unforgettable is due October 1. I also just signed a three-book contract with Ballantine Bantam Dell to write a series of historical westerns call the Mail Order Brides. I've been thinking about the western historicals while I work on this contemporary series with a suspense element, but I only write one book at a time. I'm always writing in my head.

I sold my house and moved in August, so staying focused on writing has been a challenge. But I love writing books in a series and want to be sure my novels (both contemporary and historical) are the best they can be. So the secret to being focused and productive is . . . keeping the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. Being prolific (I'm on a three-book-a-year schedule right now) really is about putting in the time to do the work.

2. You describe your latest books as “romantic suspense.” Could you define that term? How are these books different from your earlier romances?

In a romantic suspense, as opposed to a romance, the suspense is more than just a device to keep the characters together in the same place. I write suspense rather than mystery because I'm not good at keeping secrets. Usually the reader knows who the villain is in my books. The literary question is: Can the hero and heroine, through their combined efforts (that's the romance part), keep the villain from prevailing?

3. Your fans clamored for you to continue the saga of the Bitter Creek characters. The cast is staggering. How do you keep all that straight? Please share any suggestions for plotting and character development. How do you keep all the names straight?

Characters become real people when you write about them, so they're easy to tell apart. But the truth is, I do make mistakes. Readers are quick to point them out.

One of my favorite reader "catches" was the fact that in The Cowboy (first book in the Bitter Creek series) Trace and Callie had a three year age difference, even though Ren was supposedly pregnant with Callie at the same time as Eve was pregnant with Trace. That led to some serious finagling on my part--and a fabulous storyline that resulted in a lot of powerful scenes in later books in the Bitter Creek series (especially The Texan and The Loner).

4. You are obviously good at branding yourself. How did you nail down your brand? What has helped you clarify who you are? How does it help you promote your books?

I've written a lot of the same kinds of books--powerful family dramas--even though they may be historical, contemporary or contain suspense elements. The logo "Escape with Joan" came about when I was looking for a specific brand that I could use to describe the experience I wanted readers to have with my books. I began reading to escape from the stresses in my life, and in this challenging world we live in, that's the escape into adventure and romance that I hope to provide for my readers.
In purely practical terms, it also helps to use the same size and font for your name on the cover, and to have some continuity in the look of your covers. I've been lucky to have long-standing relationships with publishers (Ballantine Bantam Dell, Harlequin, Pocket Books and Avon) who've maintained a Joan Johnston "look."

5. Your publication story is unusual. You went straight to two editors and asked to meet them in New York. Do you think that could happen today? And you are very clear about reading the genre and taking classes before trying your hand at a book. What advice would you give unpublished authors based on your journey?

I still think it's possible to meet an editor at a conference, make a connection and then submit your work directly to that editor without going through an agent. However, for this route to work, you need to have written a book that's publishable without a lot of editing. In other words, the onus is on the writer to know the genre (hence, the rigorous reading I recommend) and have some idea where his or her work fits into the needs of the publishing house to which he or she is submitting.

Which means, if you want to write for a particular house, you need to be reading everything that house is publishing in the genre in which you want to write, so you'll know what they're currently buying. Remember, whatever is being published was bought at least a year ago. This doesn't mean you have to write exactly what's being published; it does mean you have to be in the same ball park. Right now, publishers aren't taking risks. I always remind myself I'm not writing the great American literary novel, I'm writing commerical fiction, which means that it needs to appeal to a broad audience, so the publisher can sell a lot of copies (which is why they're in business).

A note about choosing a genre in which to write: Remember that publishers are going to want another book in the same genre as the first one. They've spent a lot of money (hopefully) getting your book out to an audience, and now that you've established an audience, they want another book along similar lines. So don't write a vampire novel (popular right now) unless you love writing vampire novels. Having said that, I've made a point of watching which way the market is trending and changing what I'm writing to fit the market. So I started in historicals, changed to contemporaries and will be writing historicals again (along with contemporaries). The market moves. You can't stand still.

6. I love your line “go for the choke.” Please explain what that means. Your characters do, indeed, tug at the heartstrings. Please share how you accomplish that.

If a scene doesn't bring me to tears, it isn't going to do the same for readers. I'm looking for ways to provoke powerful emotions, which is what I call "going for the choke." It's always amazing to me that just changing one word--or removing or adding a single line--can "ruin" the choke. So be careful when you write. If you write a great scene and have "found" the choke, don't lose it by editing it out.

Okay, so how do I do it? I'm not quite sure. The "choke" arises out of the scene, the characters and the emotions they evoke. It's a sort of "payoff" the reader has been waiting for--which suggests there are also elements of conflict and pacing. It's sort of like mental instability. You can't define it, but you know it when you see it.

7. Your characters get into some highly unusual situations, but you manage to make the reader BELIEVE these situations could happen. You are a whiz at making the reader suspend his/her disbelief. How do you do your magic?

I wish I knew. I'd write a "how-to" book and make a fortune. The magic probably comes from me believing it, and writing that belief into the book.

8. You read a lot of books by men, but you write for a general audience, and I assume that your fan base is more female than male. What do you, as a reader and author, get from male authors that you don’t get from women?

I love books about war; I love cowboys; I love strong men who sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Women aren't (usually) allowed to write about war, presumably because we don't have credibility on the subject, and more men than women are interested in the subject and men prefer to read a book about war written by men. I'd love to write a book about war (especially WWII). It would be an interesting challenge to try and get it published with my name on it.

I grew up in a family of six sisters and one (much younger) brother and my military father was absent most of the time. Reading books written by men gives me a great deal of insight into how men think and how they attack an issue (although not so much about how they feel). One of the reasons I enjoy W.E.B. Griffin's books so much is that not only does he write about war, but he writes about soldier's feelings about the war and about the women in their lives.

A former attorney, Joan Johnston is the best-selling, award-winning author of 50 novels. Invincible will be available in stores on October 26, 2010. Visit her at http://www.joanjohnston.com

Now Available on Kindle!

2010-09-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

I know you've been waiting, and so have I! So I'm pleased to announce that Photo, Snap, Shot is now available on Kindle.

Yes, now you can read Photo, Snap, Shot in whatever size font suits you. You can carry it in your purse along with all my other books, and you won't even have to struggle under the weight of three books...because you can upload Photo, Snap, Shot in your Kindle.

Enjoy! I'm doing my own little happy dance here in my office!

You know, I'd sent emails to Amazon trying to track the progress of this, but to no avail. You see, after my publisher sends out the file, there's a waiting period, and it's up to Amazon to load the file and offer it.

So how did I learn that the book was available on Kindle? One of you told me! I was attending a super class at ScrapbooksPlus! in Chantilly (VA) called "Domestic Goddess" and taught by Sue B. There I was working away on my album when one of the other students mentioned she'd just uploaded Photo, Snap, Shot.

Wow. Have I mentioned lately that my fans mean the world to me? You sure do!

Cork Stamps and a Contest

2010-09-12T08:49:00.001-07:00

Lately I've had fun experimenting with cork stamps. I carve them myself from corks leftover from wine and champagne bottles.

Here's what one looks like:

Here's how to make your own:

1. Sand your cork so that the face of it is as flat as possible.
2. Choose a simple shape. If you don't trust your art ability, find a small clip art image. Either glue it to your cork or draw it on the flat edge of the cork with a felt tip marker.
3. Carve out the image. I find that I do best if I use my craft knife and slice straight down into the cork, then I chip away the excess. Your goal is to leave a slightly raised image.

To stamp your image, use a thick piece of styrofoam under your paper. This compensates for the fact that your cork probably won't be as flat as you'd like.

Now, press the raised image against your ink pad and then onto your paper. Don't worry if the entire image does NOT transfer. That's part of the beauty of this art form.

Finally, add dimension to your image with watercolor paint.

CONTEST

If you would like for me to send you a bookmark featuring some of my cork stamping, just comment on this blog. On Tuesday, I'll choose one lucky commenter to win a custom-made bookmark.

Decorating Composition Notebooks

2010-09-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

This is a perfect time of year to buy composition notebooks at a great price. Big box chains like Walmart and Target, as well as drugstores like Rite Aid and CVS, all have these notebooks at reduced prices.

I suggest you grab a handful and have a notebook decorating party.

Above are a few of my faves. (Starting upper left, going clockwise)

1. Nana--I started with a red background color on the front and back. Tip: Lightly sand your notebook cover to make the paper grip. Add bits of scrap paper in red tones. I painted a piece of chipboard and used rub-on letters to write "Nana." Then I punched a hole in the upper right corner and tied on some ribbon. Last, I glued a piece of velvet along the spine and added sequins.

2. Shop 'til You Drop--The inspiration for this notebook was a marketing flyer I found. It had all the little shops on it. Since notebooks don't need to be acid-free, think outside of the box and use magazine photos or promotional materials. (Yeah, rah, recycling!) I added my initial from a QuickKutz font and a penny.

3. Gryffindor--I think this Harry Potter sticker came with a Happy Meal or some other sticker pack. I wrapped ribbon around a slide mount and "framed" the sticker.

4. DS--I had some embellishments left over after I did a golfing page for my husband. Again, I used my Quick Kutz lettering tool for the DS. On the very center page (with the stitching) I added a silky thread and a metal tag. I stamped the word "Dad" and colored the tag with chalk.

Think of all the ways you could use these notebooks: party favors, stocking stuffers, thank you gifts, teachers' gifts, and again, why not plan a party around making up a bunch of them? They're easy, cheap, and useful.

My kind of scrapping!

It's My Story, Damn It! -- An Interview with F. Paul Wilson

2010-08-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

F. Paul Wilson will be appearing at the Love Is Murder Conference, Feb. 4-6, in Chicago.

1. Paul, you’ve said you don’t believe in gore on the page. You prefer to make the gross/horrific stuff happen in the reader’s head. Would you tell us more about that and why it works so well?

I tend to go by the maxim that less, if done properly, is more. I’ve been through med school and a rotating internship that included surgery. I’ve dissected a human body and I’ve been up to my wrists in blood in someone’s open abdomen. Blood and gore don’t get to me. I’m more disturbed by what I don’t see.

Remember the little girl in The Leopard Man banging on the door to her house to be let in because something was following her? Remember how you thought she’d get safely inside, but she didn’t? Remember how she screamed and went silent? Remember the blood flowing under the door?

I do. And in my mind I saw worse things happening than Jacques Tourneur could ever have shown on the screen. I first saw that scene in the 1950s and I still haven’t forgotten it.

Consider this scene from FATAL ERROR, the most recent Repairman Jack novel: I’ve got a bad guy tied up in a van. He has info he’s not giving up. It’s an improvised situation. The person who’s going to get that info arrives with a paper bag labeled “Ace Hardware,” gets in the van, and closes the door. I don’t need to take you into the van for the details. The Ace Hardware bag is unsettling, but what’s really chilling about the scene is that the person with the bag is an ordinary housewife whose little boy was seriously hurt by this man. Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned … but a scorned woman’s fury can’t hold a candle to that of the mother of a brutalized child. No, you do not want to be in that van.

2. You often write lean. How does one go about learning to write lean? What are the advantages of it? Is it simply your voice or is it a style you prefer?

I let the story choose the style. Lean and mean is good for the Repairman Jack novels—they’re dark and fast-paced—and that’s the style that’s defined my work over the past decade. But if you read The Keep, it’s quite a different style; it’s set in Europe in the early 40s and requires a more elaborate style. Black Wind spans nearly twenty years from the 1920s to the 1940s and involves a clash of cultures; that book demanded still another style.

Lean (but maybe not so mean) works well in the YA Repairman Jack novels. Because I use short, staccato prose, and short paragraphs, the Flesch-Kincaid level for my adult books is around fourth grade. So I didn’t have to change much except the language for YA.

3. Story comes first, you’ve said. How do you meld story and character? Please describe how you move from a story, a narrative thread, to a fleshed out book. How do the characters occur to you?

I rarely start with well-drawn characters because I don’t want the story hindered by what might or might not be consistent with a character. It’s my story, damn it, and you’ll do as you’re told.

In my first draft, the characters tend to serve the plot – but they take on flesh as they react to events or make them happen. Then I go back and further flesh them out into distinct individuals who would be capable (even if the don’t know it) of doing the things they do in the story. I determine what in their past, in their makeup, has made them into this person. And then they become real people.

Repairman Jack was an exception. He and The Tomb served each other. I needed a character who could survive the rooftop battle (even though I didn’t know what he’d be battling), but I wanted Jack to be mine. I took every cliché about the loner hero and turned it on its head. I made him blue-collar, self-taught, and fallible – a reaction to the super-competent, super-trained, always one-step-ahead-of-the-bad-guy Jason Bournes of the times. In fact, I decided on an anti-Jason Bourne – with no black-ops, SEAL, or Special Forces training, no CIA or police background, no connection to officialdom. In other words, no safety net. No one in the system he could call on because he’s under the system’s radar. He has to rely on his own wits and his own network.

Turned out people loved that. They could never be Jason Bourne; they have a better chance at being Jack. He’s a regular guy; people can see themselves having a beer with him.

4. You mentioned your editing process in one interview. Tell us more about it. Any suggestions for how we could all improve our editing? You’ve written so many books. How have you improved your editing skills?

By teaching at the Borderlands Press Writers Boot Camp. Parsing other people’s prose is such detail led to some eye-popping revelations when I returned to my own writing and realized I was committing many of the errors I’d been flagging in others. You know better, but you simply don’t see the errors in your own writing. I became much more conscious of my own prose. I can see a definite difference between my pre- and post-2005 writing. Editing others helped me edit myself.

5. You’ve said that marketing departments got mad at you because you “genre hopped,” talk about how much authors should or should not care about the marketing department. In today’s market, we all seem to want to please our agents and editors. But you seem to have listened to a voice inside, and it has served you well. Could you encourage the rest of us to do the same?

I’m usually two books ahead in my brain, and so I’ve always written the next book that’s ready to go. I’ve felt free to do that because I’ve always had another source of income. That’s one of the reasons a day job is important – it frees you from living advance to advance and allows more elbow room in your writing. You can never ignore your editor and the sales force, but you can challenge them. A day job also keeps you in contact with real people in the real world outside publishing, and that’s very valuable.

6. You have said that no one wanted your horror, which was your first love, until Steven King’s books made it big. Talk about staying true to what you love to write.

I wish I could puff out my chest and say that I’ve stayed true to my muse no matter what, but in reality I don’t have much choice. My brain is wired for the outré. I write weird stuff because that’s how I see the world. My first sale was to John Campbell for Analog – yeah, it was an SF story, but about intelligent mutant rats on interstellar cargo ships, and at the end they ate the bad guy alive. As I said: It’s the way I’m wired.

7. You believe that villains should have a code of honor. Explain that, and why it makes a book “sing.”

Not “should.” I don’t like to “should” on people. Remember, a villain doesn’t think of himself as the bad guy. And I think some of the most interesting villains do have a code that they follow. Fu Manchu and Hannibal Lecter are examples. Kusum in The Tomb had his code. But Rasalom, my big bad guy throughout the Secret History, has no code. He wants to win – by any means necessary. He’s the compleat sociopath, who feeds on pain and misery.

8. You write part-time. Talk about how you use your time, and how you make sure you stay on track with your writing. It’s pretty easy to let other stuff get in the way, and since you are a doctor, it sure seems like you would get some pretty important distractions.

Technically part-time, I guess, but it’s a much bigger part of my time than when I started out. In 1994, after twenty years of writing and practicing medicine each full-time, I cut my practice (I’m in a group) to Mondays and Tuesdays. Those are two long days that leave no time for writing. So, I write Wednesday through Sunday. I try to do a minimum of a thousand words a day on those 5 days. That allows me to accrue 100k words (usually more) in 20 weeks.

As for part-time writing, here's what worked for me: I found a minimum of 3 first-draft double-spaced pages per day did the trick. That's 21/week. At that rate you've got over 540 pages in 6 months. That's a decent-sized novel.

In writing those 3 pages pre day, avoid tinkering with them. This stalls you by fooling you into thinking you're still writing. You're not. And you're losing momentum. Get them down and then leave them alone and go on to the next 3. The time to fix and hone them is after you've finished that all-important first draft. You'll know your characters better then and can go back and make meaningful edits and additions.

When I was practicing full time I'd use commuting time to mentally compose my next pages so that I'd be primed when I sat down at the keyboard. That’s a key point: TURN OFF THE DAMN RADIO AND TAKE OFF THE DAMN HEADPHONES. Stop wasting valuable time listening to other people's words. You're a writer. When you're driving or walking around you should be working on YOUR words -- the words you want to tell other people.

9. You teach writing. If there was one lesson that every student could learn, what might that be? What mistakes do you see people making over and over?

Matters what you want from writing. If being a dilettante suffices, then write when the mood hits you. But if you want to have a career in writing, I think you’ve got to write every day. Even when you don’t have a story, reconstruct conversations, describe settings in new ways, and save it all for later cannibalization. If writing is a career, then it’s got to be part of your everyday life.

10. The scene that sparked Repairman Jack came to you in a dream. How did you happen upon his character? You make a big deal of one of the character’s (Kusum’s sister’s) physical beauty, but you also emphasize that beauty and sexual competency are not ultimately as fulfilling as the union of two souls. Pretty romantic for an action hero. Comments?

As I’ve said, I deliberately designed him as the antipode of the typical thriller hero. I wanted to do the same with his relationships. No new-book / new-girlfriend scenario. That allows for more sex, brings more hormones into play, and that’s exciting, but I decided to go for a stable relationship. I did, however, choose a woman who’s very unlike him – a single mother and a functioning member of society – and, even though they share core values, there’s a lot of conflict. But we can’t always choose who we fall for, and conflict is the heart of drama. The relationship has mellowed Jack, something I didn’t see coming.

11. I find the concept of Repairman Jack fascinating. There’s a Hebrew phrase “tikkun olem” which refers to “repair of the world.” Are you familiar with it? I know your political leanings factor into what you write. Do you see writing as a way each of us can repair the world?

People write for many reasons. For some it’s self expression. For others it’s the words themselves, for others it’s the sheer joy or telling a story. For some it’s an o-c disorder. And for still others it’s because they’re pathological liars and fiction allows them a socially acceptable outlet for their affliction. Too often it’s to achieve a sort of immortality—the hope that something of theirs will go on living after they’re dead. Woody Allen once addressed this in a typically pragmatic way. “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work—I want to achieve it through not dying.”

I believe the “repair the world” approach causes far more problems than it solves – rife with unintended consequences. All politics are local, all repairs are local. Jack shuns the world. He repairs only his world, and that’s a big difference. I’ll repair things right around me, and you repair things around you, and that guy over there will repair things around him, and so on and so on. And eventually, by default, maybe we’ll fix the world. Maybe not.

12. You’ve created such a tight-knit community among your fans. You even play get-togethers with them. What’s the secret to developing and maintaining such a loyal following? How do you balance your personal privacy with being so available to your fans?

It’s not so hard, really. A littler interaction goes a long way. I answer email, participate in the Forum, go to conventions, do signings where I hang out with readers afterward. I happen to like my readers. On the whole I’ve found them to be very bright and fun to be with. But it’s probably the Secret History that glues us. All the interlocking stories challenge them to come up with more connections binds them to each other as well as me. We’ve become this large, polymorphous organism.

F. Paul Wilson is an award-winning, best-selling author of more than 40 books in genres including science fiction, horror thrillers, contemporary thrillers, and novels that defy categorization. The Keep, one of the novels in his Repairman Jack series, was made into a major motion picture. Visit his website at http://www.repairmanjack.com/

What a Burglar Won't Tell You--But You Will Wish You Knew!

2010-08-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some safety tips from reformed burglars shared by Dr. Sarah Layton, Corporate Strategy Institute.

These are useful tips — from former burglars!

1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your (or your neighbors’) carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.

2. Thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my (or my friend’s) return a little easier.

3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste... and taste means there are nice things inside.

4. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they own.

5. I really do look for newspapers piled up in the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it.

6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don’t let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if it’s set. That makes it too easy.

7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom — and your jewelry. It’s not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there, too.

8. It’s raining, you’re fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door. Know that I don’t take a day off because of bad weather.

9. I always knock first. If you answer, I’ll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don’t take me up on it).

10. Do you really think I won’t look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet. Helpful hint: I almost never go into kids’ rooms.

11. I won’t have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if it’s not bolted down, I’ll take it with me!

12. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If you’re reluctant to leave your TV on while you’re out of town, you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television. Find it at faketv.com.

13. If it snows while you’re out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway.

Source: Orange County (Florida) Sheriff's Department

Winner of the Kiki Lowenstein Fan Club Tee Shirt

2010-08-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Jane Jeffers Thomas won the Kiki Lowenstein Fan Club Tee Shirt.

I put all the commenters into a random number generator, and Jane won.

Meanwhile, I'd like to introduce all of you to my talented and beautiful cousin, Andrea Hazel Hamilton, the watercolorist.

You can read about our family reunion at the Killer Hobbies blog.

Lois Hirt Looks for the Smiles

2010-08-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Lois Hirt writes a column called "Dental Scraps." She's interested in dental references we include in our mystery books. After she read Photo, Snap, Shot, she donated it to the National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore!

I was happy to meet Lois, and to share the fact that I've had GREAT experiences with my dentists. In fact, I think so much of my dentist in St. Louis that I even named a character after him: Dr. Mike Wallace.

Lois posted on DorothyL that she "loved the lines where Kiki remembers how she and each family member could take a day to worry." She quotes from Photo, Snap, Shot were Kiki says, "That way we'll worry more efficiently. If something happens to any of us on your day, it's that person's fault--and we can blame her."

Actually, that's an idea I came up with for my own family.

I am learning, however, that worrying is a spectator sport where nobody wins. Sigh.

Lois went on to write, "I can’t wait to see what happens next in Kiki's life. I absolutely loved the last two paragraphs of the book. I could just picture it."

Thanks so much, Lois. You put a great big SMILE on my face!;)

Aloha! A Review of PHOTO, SNAP, SHOT by Cindy Chow

2010-08-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Note: Cindy is the first reviewer to notice that Kiki, too, is prejudiced. By the end of Photo, Snap, Shot, she must question her own assumptions about other people

I admit that I completely lack the Martha Stewart gene. My one attempt at a DIY
design project resulted in six - that's six - pieces of my furniture becoming
"'marbelized" in paint. I come by it honestly, though, as ten years of my
childhood photographs reside in shoeboxes at my parents' home, all in their
original Kodak envelopes.

So it takes a lot for me to continue to follow a "crafting" mystery series, as
there's pretty much no chance that I will ever follow the crafting hints and
tips. However, Joanna Campbell Slan's Kiki Lowenstein's Scrap-n-Craft
mysteries is a series that does have the humor, realistic characters, and
complex plots that compel me to read each engaging new entry. The third in this
series, Photo, Snap, Shot(Midnight Ink) continues this excellence and never
disappoints.

Thanks to financial support from her late husband's mother, Kiki Lowenstein's
daughter Anya attends the elitist prep school Charles and Anne Lindbergh Academy
(CALA). It's the last place one would expect violence to occur, so when Anya
discovers the body of her teacher there Kiki goes into full panic mode. The
school is eager to cover up any hint of impropriety or scandal, so it's no huge
surprise that the woman's African American boyfriend, the basketball coach, is
immediately implicated and arrested.

After being warned repeatedly from interfering in previous murders, Kiki's more
than a little surprised when Detective Chad Detweiler actually asks for her help
in clearing the coach, who happened to have been a Little Brother Detweiller
mentored and believes is a convenient scapegoat.

This places Kiki in an emotionally precarious position, as Detweiler is the
married man she dreams about while two perfectly acceptable other men, one of
whom is the man she SHOULD want to love, stand at the sideline. As they say
though, the heart wants what the heart wants. However, any rash actions she may
contemplate are definitely curtailed by her watchful mother-in-law and friends.

As Kiki ventures in the rarefied world of the CALA elite, she discovers that the
headmaster's wife and four CALA mothers all had past ties that unite them in
hiding past secrets. The murdered teacher herself also had a cloudy past
despite her recent path to redemption.

What surprised me so much in this novel was how the chip on Kiki's shoulder that
resulted from her insecurities and feelings as an outsider prejudiced her
against all of the mother's of CALA. Slowly, as Kiki questions and begins to
know more about each woman she understands that each woman is far more complex
than she realized in her initial snap judgments. The author fleshes out each
woman realistically and empathetically in a way that enables the reader to
understand the sacrifices they've made and how they've become who they are..

Rather tortuously, but realistically, Slan concludes Photo Snap Shot with a
cliffhanger that leaves some questions unanswered and definitely has the reader
wanting more. The next Kiki Lowenstein mystery can't come soon enough. I love
Kiki, a character who has grown stronger in will and character as the series has
progressed while never losing her sense of humor.

Aloha,

Cindy Chow
Kaneohe Public Library

You Say Tomato. I Say Album.

2010-08-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the release of my friend Avery Aames' new book, The Long Quiche Goodbye, I decided to turn a cheese container into an album. Yeah, I'm always looking for a way to recycle!

1. Cover and backside. I used a rubber stamp of a tomato, colored it in, and adhered it to the round with green masking tape. I also used red masking tape to cover the sides of the round carton.

2. Insides. These are coasters I picked up at restaurants. I drew my images onto water color paper so I could experience with paints. I'm not very good, but I had a lot of fun with this! The paints I used are really cheap. Almost any set you buy will do better. I started by sketching different designs and then painting them. There are six inside pages, each is double-sided. The only paper I didn't paint is the green plaid.

I owned that paper, but it was too bluish, so I used a marker and colored the green a more yellowish tone. Be sure to plan which "pages" will be your front and your back (your final) pages.

Special tips for the inside pages...

1. Always start with your lightest color of paint, the one thinned with the most water.

2. Always prep more paint than you think you'll need because if you remix, the color will be different.

3. Use an archivally safe black ink pen such as the Pigma Micron by Sakura.

4. Make a mistake? Paste a new image over the goof.

5. Try wetting your paper and then adding color for a soft look.

6. Keep a tissue or paper towel nearby to blot the color if it's too intense.

7. Want a plaid? I painted the background color first. Then I made stripes with a thin brush. I added a green stripe with the Sakura pen.

8. The tomatoes making the border on the red plaid pages were created with a cork stamp that I carved. I've covered this in other posts, but stay tuned and I'll tell you how in the next blog post.

9. Not a great artist? Look up images on your computer. Print them out and copy them.

You'll note that all the "pages" are strung together with a double set of ribbon. Make sure to allow enough room for the bend of the ribbon so that your pages stack neatly. Also, the first "page" is a shaker box. The plastic overlay was discarded packaging.

Do you like it? What do you think?

What do you think?

The Art of the Cliffhanger and a Contest!

2010-08-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know some of you don't like cliffhangers, but just so you know, I intend to keep writing books that sort of flow into each other. Someone once told me that the first sentence sells the current book but the last sentence sells the next one. I know that I simulaneously love and hate how my favorite television programs end with question mark. But even as I might curse the writers, I find myself eagerly tuning in each week for more.

So what cliffhangers can you expect in the upcoming Kiki Lowenstein books? More specifically in Make, Take, Murder when it comes out May 1, 2011?

First, you'll learn more about Bama Vess, Kiki's new co-worker. Bama (pronounced "Bam-ma" and named long before our president took residence in the White House) is a conflicted woman. She's spurned all Kiki's overtures for friendship. At the same time, Bama does a great job of organizing and running Time in a Bottle. Will she and Kiki make good business partners? What's stopping Bama from being nice to Kiki? Could it be that Bama is as jealous of Kiki as Kiki is of her?

Second, you'll see what happens with Sheila and Police Chief Holmes. This is an old flame, rekindled, but they have a big problem. You see, Sheila is Jewish and Police Chief Holmes is Roman Catholic. Since Sheila is so very, very inflexible...you might guess there will be problems ahead.

Third, Dodie's health problems. Yes, they'll have an impact on how the store runs, and who's involved in Time in a Bottle. That's a given.

Of course, the biggest snafu ahead concerns Brenda Detweiler. There have been hints about problems with her marriage, but what are those problems? And why is Chad Detweiler unwilling to say, "Goodbye?"

You know, I've rarely seen people up and divorce each other. There's always a back-and-forth, a questioning, a sorting out of feelings. I don't think that marriage is a commitment to take lightly, and I truly believe that most people don't. This would be Detective Detweiler's second marriage. Since he's clearly such a cool guy, you have to wonder, what's up? Is he not everything he seems? Or has he simply gotten lost along the way? (My sister keeps teasing me that everything I write seems to be about redemption. Well, I'm a big believer in redemption, the art of the second chance. Most days, I think it's all we have to live for, that hope that we'll be forgiven, that we'll learn something, and we'll do better in the future.)

CONTEST DETAILS

Meanwhile, I'm always curious. Which characters do you want to see return? And why? So here's the deal--you tell me, and I'll choose one of your comments to win a Kiki Lowenstein Fan Club tee shirt! You have until August 15 to comment. (Hey, why not get a friend to comment, too? Maybe she or he will let you share the tee!)

By the way, here's a sweet review of Paper, Scissors, Death,

Made my day!

The World Belongs to the....

2010-07-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I was standing on my last nerve, when I thought I'd scream because right now I feel like I have no control over my life (and I'm a person who values control), a friend sent this.

And you know, it reminds me that the world belongs to the playful.

Okay, deep breath. I can do this.

It's going to be all right. I just need to follow the tail of the fellow in front of me...

'This Isn't Personal'--Interview with Carolyn Haines

2010-07-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

Note: Carolyn Haines will be one of the presenters at the Love is Murder Conference, Feb. 4-6 in Chicago.

By Joanna Campbell Slan

Sarah Booth and Jitty came to me in tandem, arguing just as they do in the books. When such fully developed characters visit a writer, it’s truly a gift.
--Carolyn Haines

JCS: Talk about hearing fully developed characters, please. Why and how do you think this happens? Can an author improve the chances of such visitations? Should an author ever ignore those voices and replace them? What if the fully realized characters don’t work with plot.

CH: Last question first. Most good plots come from character, so if you’ve got a mismatch, the book isn’t going to work. I do think most writers hit streaks when the characters are fully alive and in the moment with them. When I write, I almost have to get to that place—I have some subconscious control, but it seems as if I’m merely watching, not engaged in the action.

How to bring about this? I think it’s a matter of focus. Knowing your story, knowing your characters, and a real regard for language. Writing isn’t about slapping words together. It’s about thinking. And language is very delicate. We forget that sometimes. Word choice is vital to character development.

JCS: Your Swedish grandmother, and both your parents, were storytellers. What portion of writing is storytelling? How does someone go about becoming a better storyteller? Can that be done?

CH: Attention to structure can improve anyone’s storytelling skills. Oral telling is helpful, because you can watch the audience, see if they’re engaged, if they’re enjoying. If not, a teller can shift gears and up the pace, cut the descriptions or whatever is necessary to reconnect with the listener. Stories have to be told—or written—in an order that makes sense to the reader. This is structure. Cut away the dead wood. Every sentence must count. The process of editing is the way to become a better storyteller.

JCS: Carolyn, you create truly vivid, one-of-a-kind characters. What are some of the techniques you use? I notice that Jitty’s clothes are always a highlight, as are Sweetie Pie’s sunglasses and scarf. You seem to be able to vary the cadence of your characters’ speech. Dish!

CH: Well, thank you very much. I think clothing and accessories are one of the easiest ways to characterize. They can show a character’s humor or quirkiness or hint at the character’s motive (and sometimes this is a deliberate misdirection). I think what makes a unique character is what’s in his heart, his spirit. Is he greedy, selfish, mean, generous, afraid, desperate? What does he desire? Motive is what makes us do the things we do, and motive stems from our unique psychology. Why do some people feel they must have designer labels and others are confident in thrift shop finds? Why are some people happy in the country and others in cities? These are the questions at the heart of a character. It is often helpful for new writers to do intensive character studies. Write it down. Read it often and remember the moments in the past that have brought your character to this particular place and time where the story begins.

Since I clearly hear how my characters speak, I can write their dialogue most of the time without too much trouble. Long ago I was shy, and I listened a lot. It’s a good thing to do. In fact, I make it a habit of eavesdropping almost everywhere I go. Fascinating.

JCS: You are also the Queen of Cliffhangers within the story. A scene always closes with a hook. Is that conscious? Are you a planner or a seat-of-the-pants-er? Do you think through how to sprinkle your hooks throughout your book?

CH: Again, thank you. I do deliberately structure the scenes to try to push the reader to the next scene, but I don’t outline in any rigid way. I write a proposal for each book, and I know the direction and the culprit. I have an idea of key scenes to write toward, the turning points, and then I just cut loose and write. If the characters take the story in another direction, I go with them. I may have to toss away some pages, but the first draft is the joyful part for me. I give myself freedom to explore, knowing I may toss pages. The hard work is the editing.

Mystery writing demands a certain level of planning. It is my job to plant the red herrings and to sweep the reader along to a certain conclusion—and then twist it. I take that seriously and I work hard at plotting. I am not a natural plotter, so it is a lot of hard work.

JCS: Will you share how you develop structure? Do you use the 3-act play or the Hero’s Journey? Post-it notes or wipe board? Scene-by-scene or outline? Once you get your structure down, do you allow yourself to make changes? How do you decide if the pacing is off? Do you have any test you use on your manuscript?

CH: I mentioned the turning points above. This is a basic outline—an inciting event, first turning point, mid-turning point, third turning point, crisis or black moment and resolution. These are not rigid. And remember there are a multitude of plot points. A turning point is very distinct and actually turns the direction of the story—this is a change that sends the protagonist in a new direction. These are not hard and fast. And while this is a “natural” feeling structure, that isn’t to say it is the only way to tell a story. Think of “Babel” or “Crash” both movies that exemplify storytelling in a completely different way, where spokes of the story move out from the central idea like the spokes on a wagon wheel. The old saying about writing is true—you can do anything you want as long as you make it work.
Structure is determined by the intent of the author. In structures such as “Babel” and “Crash,” the intent is to explore and idea. This is very different from traditional storytelling. But the wonderful thing about writing and books is that there’s room for all approaches to story. And the smart writer lets the story tell him which way to tell it.

For many years I worked with a critique group. I teach now, and my time is limited, but I have a wonderful friend, Suzann Ellingsworth, who is good enough to read for me. And I have a terrific editor, Kelley Ragland. Editing employs the logical part of the brain, and a fresh pair of eyes is critical. I try to send Kelley the cleaning manuscript I can. A professional should never expect another professional to clean up a grammar mess or sloppiness. So I go over and over a manuscript before I send it to Suzann, and then on to Kelley.

JCS: What do you find yourself telling your students over and over? What is the one thing that you feel almost every one of your students could improve on right off the bat? (Think of something that makes you want to get a tattoo…or give one!)

CH: Every scene has to move the plot forward AND develop character. Pretty writing isn’t enough. Yes, language is vital, but it does not void the need for plot and characterization.

JCS: What do you think has changed for writers, given the unease in the publishing world? For example, do you think books need to start faster? Have more dialogue? Less description? Or is it the same as always, just more competitive, so there’s an increased need for authors to really be at the top of their game?

CH: What’s changed is that a book has only a few weeks to grab an audience. It’s almost as if the books, and the authors, are viewed as somewhat disposable. There’s also a tendency now for publishers to jump on a bandwagon and produce what everyone else is publishing. So many of the titles look alike and sound alike. And it is harder for writers—not necessarily to get published but to stay published.

An original voice, a solid story, a book with something to say that’s well said will always get an agent or editor’s attention. The trick then is to translate that into sales figures. There are a lot of problems in the publishing business, but one of them isn’t a lack of talented writers.

JCS: Please explain “plot confusion” and how to fix it.

CH: What I see a lot in new writers is that they keep shifting the focus of the story from one character to another. Not that multiple characters can’t have a point of view or a big part in a story. But it must be ONE character’s story. This is a hard, hard lesson to learn. My first book, a horror novel, was rewritten a number of times because I simply couldn’t grasp this. The turning points follow the protagonist. If a writer can keep this in mind, he or she will likely clear up a lot of plot confusion.

JCS: You are very generous to authors at the beginning of their careers. I know of one person who you mentored to publication. What might you say to someone who is mid-list? How does someone break out of the pack and kick it into high gear?

CH: Unfortunately, a lot of promotion has fallen on the heads of authors. So I say embrace it and learn to use it to your advantage. Meet your deadlines like a professional. Be savvy about the business. Listen to other writers and ask questions. Most writers are shy people but very willing to talk about writing, especially in a one-on-one situation.

And try to give back. A handful of people changed the course of my writing career at one time or another. A couple of them were virtual strangers. I do try to return the favor by helping others. I have this corny belief that we really can make a better world if we get over our fears and selfishness and make that small gesture to help others.

JCS: You write with gusto and humor. Do you think that humor is a necessary ingredient for books? Why or why not?

Humor isn’t necessary in a book, but it is essential in life. I write humorous, and I also write very dark. I read both. Some days I want to be chilled and creeped out, other days I want to laugh. Books fit all kinds of people and all kinds of moods.

CH: How do you personally handle rejection? Any advice?

Give yourself three days to get over the soreness. Go ahead and fantasize about beds of fire ants and other things. Then get over it. This is a business and it’s tough, but that’s true of every business right now.

Once the anger is gone, look at the letter. I’ve learned a lot from rejection letters. Editors and agents don’t often write lengthy rejections, but if they take the time to say anything specific, take note of it. Really take note of what is being said. If it’s “we loved your character but the book lost momentum” that’s something to fix. And if an editor says something like that, believe me, they saw something in your book. Take that nugget and work with it.

Remember, this isn’t personal. It’s a business. If you let rejection defeat you, you won’t have a writing career.
**

Carolyn Haines is the editor of DELTA BLUES (May 2010 Tyrus Books) and author of BONE APPETIT (July 2010 St. Martin's Minotaur). Visit her at www.carolynhaines.com

Are My Books In Your Local Bookstore?

2010-07-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

They might be. Or they might not be.

And I can't tell you exactly why. Book distribution...well...it's tricky, and confusing, and a big mystery. Trust me, even Sherlock Holmes could be baffled by the ins and outs of book distribution. My friend Emilie Richards does a wizard job of discussing this on her blog.

So, yes, I know that fans have found my books in chain booksellers around the country. But I also know that sometimes, they don't see my books.

If they've sold out of my books--and I've been told that Photo, Snap, Shot is flying off the shelves, thanks to the great reviews--please consider ordering a copy (or two or three!) from any chain bookseller. They'll have no problem getting copies for you.

I also know of many independent booksellers who do a wizard job of promoting my books. Hurrah for Indie Booksellers! Any local independent bookseller can order copies of my books. Just ask.

Many college bookstores are now carrying my books. If they don't have copies in stock, they too can order them.

There are scrapbook stores who carry my books, and of course, there is always Amazon. They are great at taking preorders. You can also buy my books directly through my publisher by clicking on Midnight Ink.

Meanwhile, here's some ordering information you can use:

1. Make, Take, Murder (Book #4) will be officially released May 1, 2011.
2. Ink, Red, Dead (Book #5) will be officially released April 1, 2012.

Ink, Red, Dead will debut a new character, one that my fans in St. Louis asked me to "invent." Her name will be Bridget Eichen, and trust me, you are going to love her! (Mega thanks to Ruth M. and all the book lovers at Barnes & Noble in Fenton.)

Flip Flip Album

2010-07-16T11:30:00.001-07:00

This is a really cute album (okay, I'm bragging, sorry!) that's easy to do. I made it from fun foam. First I cut the shape of the flip flop 3 times. Added the strap and flower to one shape. Glued a second flip flop to that first shape so that the ends of the strap were inside the "sandwich" or the middle. I added the foot. The toenails are packing tape over colored paper so they are really shiny! And last of all, I put on the flower and the lettering. (The third flip flop shape is the back cover, as you'll see.)

The left "page" is the back of the foam flip flop covered with patterned paper on the left side. On the right is an interior page. The interior is mainly 3" x 7 1/2" which gives you room for a 3" x 5" photo easily.

You can see here that the page on the left has a flap that folds down. It's actually a six inch circle glued to the 3" x 7" rectangular page. That gives me plenty of room for more photos. On the right is a page made from a cereal box. Just sand lightly the shiny side and use a great glue like Crafter's Pick by API. It's fabulous stuff and dries clear.

I love changing up the interior pages. The one on the right has a gatefold. So that part with the flower is a flap that opens to 12" wide. Note the scalloped edge along the top and right side. I slipped pieces of green ribbon under the flower embellishment to look like leaves.

On the right is a wooden embellishment I bought with two others for $1 at A.C. Moore. It adds a nice texture, I think. I colored it with marking pens.

On the left is another flap. Under the piece that says Summer Vacation is a journaling box.

This left hand page is a pocket. It's super for ticket stubs, etc.

The right hand page is corrugated cardboard. I painted it with acrylic paint. Heavy, but cool, and it adds another texture. The leaf under the flower was cut from leftover fun foam.

The right page is the back of the corrugated cardstock covered with patterned paper. The right is the 3rd foam flip flop.

What do you think?

2010-07-07T09:31:00.001-07:00

Here's what Amy Alessio wrote for Bookreporter.com about Photo, Snap, Shot:

"The plot is intricate and fascinating. Real history is intertwined with fiction to make a layered, believable adventure. There is nothing cute about this cozy mystery...Instead, readers will find realistic characters and plenty of tension to keep pages turning right until the end. Award-nominated author Joanna Campbell Slan’s series continues to be strong."

Aw, I'm blushing!

A Capitol Fourth

2010-07-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

Because we supplied the 9' Steinway grand piano for the nation's 30th celebration of the 4th of July, our family was invited to view the party from 12th row seats. Wow, what a great time we had!

Jimmy Smits was the master of ceremonies, and he did a fine job. His comment that his family came here as immigrants--and that America had been very good indeed to the Smits family--touched the hearts of the audience members. It was a timely reminder that most of us came here from another country, and that we owe a lot to this great country.

David Archuleta did a beautiful job with The Star Spangled Banner.

Then Gladys Knight led a rousing "Heard It Through the Grapevine" and got everyone rocking.

Of course, our family was particularly thrilled by Lang Lang, the young Chinese genius. David and I had heard him play the "Stars and Stripes Forever" before, but this time with the Washington Monument in the background, it was a special treat. His hands move so fast as he does the counterpoint of the Sousa melody. Did you know that every instrument has a melody line in a Sousa march? I loved how Lang Lang's fingers were reflected in the fall board of the piano. They took off the lid, and the shots of the inside of the piano with those fabulous strings was totally cool.

Reba McEntire was the last big name performer of the evening. Her voice was as glorious and uniquely American as her looks. I particularly enjoyed her gorgeous blue sequined dress.

The 1812 Overture never sounded better than when fireworks were bursting over the stately white Washington Monument. The obelisk looked like a giant sparkler lighting up the sky!

All in all, it was A Capitol Fourth!

How was your Fourth? Did you catch "A Capitol Fourth" on PBS?

PS Being a mystery writer, I couldn't help but wonder when they used an ice pick to chisel the ice that went into the water coolers. After all the security precautions, an ice pick? Yeow! Oh, and the huge hanging Jumbotron got me thinking, "What if a cable breaks?" I mean, the mind of a mystery author never rests.

For the Love of Rafferty

2010-07-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I "own" a three-legged rescue pup named Rafferty. You can read all about how Raffie became a member of our family, and how he inspires me daily at Coffee with a Canine.

Back from GASC and ALA

2010-06-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a fun-filled, exciting weekend I had!

It started with a class on journaling at ScrapbooksPlus! in Chantilly on Wednesday night. (Yeah, I know that's not the weekend, but my weekends start early.) We had so much fun that Debbie Chabot has invited me back to teach journaling again. We've also scheduled a second dinner mystery theatre event for Saturday, September 11. So stay tuned for all the details because if you're in driving distance you'll want to attend, and last time this sold out fast!

Thursday my friend Becky Hutchison and I hauled bookmarks and cards and books to the American Library Association show floor at the Washington Convention Center. Becky is just one of the nicest people around. And smart? Shoot. She's an anthropologist, which is a career I would have enjoyed.

Then Friday began the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Chantilly. Scrapbookers are a riot. Here's a photo of one wearing a hilarious tee shirt. (If this is you, please tell me!)

One of the wonderful parts of attending such a convention is meeting talented people. Looking at the card below, I think you'll agree that Peggy Potter has talent to spare. It's a fabulous shaker card, and Peggy has me itching to make a few shaker cards of my own.

Of course, you can't attend a scrapbook convention without help from your peeps. Here I am with Esther and Susie from ScrapbooksPlus! Along with Louise, Erin, Christy, Deborah, my son Michael and my husband David, we met a lot of Kiki Lowenstein fans on Friday and Saturday. These cute "Kiki Lowenstein Fan Club" tees are available through ScrapbooksPlus! Call them at 703-263-9503 to order yours. You can also order signed copies of all my books from ScrapbooksPlus! They'll mail them to your door.

Up again early on Sunday to attend the American Library Association convention. Becky took this photo of me being a famous author. Yeah, my life is never dull. They don't tell you when you write your books that you'll also get to haul them around. Here I am at the Sisters in Crime booth huntin for a box of Cut, Crop & Die copies to sign.

Of course, since ALA is a gathering of librarians, you'd expect to meet lots of celebrities. Here I am with "The Cat in the Hat." Wow. I've always wanted to meet him. I like his style.

Just when I thought life couldn't get more exciting, I also met...Joanna Campbell. That's right. This gorgeous young lady shares my first name and maiden name. She saw my name on the program and came over to the Midnight Ink booth to meet me.

Okay, on Monday I slept late and read a book. (I deserved a day off, don't you think?) And today I'm going through all the stuff I collected, all the books we didn't sell, and all the requests for more information.

It was a super, super weekend. Don't you wish you were there with me?

The Winner of the Loot

2010-06-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

Is Leanne B. of Maryville Heights, Missouri.

Thanks to all who entered.

Tomorrow I'll post about my exciting weekend at GASC (Great American Scrapbook Convention) and the ALA (American Library Association).

Free Loot Give-away

2010-06-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

June is my birthday month, so I'm giving a present to you!

That's right, one lucky respondent will receive all this cool stuff: a signed copy of Photo, Snap, Shot; two I (heart) Kiki buttons, bookmarks, and a small album kit.

Just email your name and postal address to me at savetales@aol.com On June 27, I'll choose one lucky winner at random. Why not tell a friend?

By the way, I'm having some GORGEOUS tee-shirts made that say, "Kiki Lowenstein Fan Club," and I'll be giving one away really soon, so I urge you to become a follower of this blog.

Which leads me to an apology. I hoped to have more posts up. Have you missed me? I've missed you. I came home from my Kiki Lowenstein World Tour totally exhausted. Then I couldn't get my photos to upload. I kept trying and trying, before finally breaking down and begging my husband for help. He spent two nights working to get my computer to recognize the software to upload photos. Finally, he called his computer guru and took in my hard-drive.

Believe me, I HATE having my hard-drive out of my sight. Makes me physically ill. I mean, I have books, articles, beginnings of books, unpublished books, contracts...need I go on? You're getting the picture.

Turns out I wore out the USB port. Yep. Now we're accustomed to me wearing the letters off of keyboards, but this was a new low or high for me. So now we're back in business.

And I'm rested up. Here's my upcoming schedule:

Wed., June 23, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., ScrapbooksPlus!, 14502A Lee Road, Chantilly VA (signing and class/ preregistration required for the class, phone 703-263-9503)

Fri., June 25, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., class from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Great American Scrapbook Convention, Dulles Expo Center, 4368 Chantilly Shopping Center, Chantilly VA (preregistration required)

Sat., June 26, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., class from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Great American Scrapbook Convention, Dulles Expo Center, 4368 Chantilly Shopping Center, Chantilly VA (preregistration required)

Sat., June 26, 8 p.m., signing at ScrapbooksPlus!, 14502A Lee Road, Chantilly VA

Sun., June 27, 10 -11 a.m, signing at Midnight Ink (Publisher) Booth, American Library Association, Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW, Washington DC

Sun., June 27 11-1 p.m., signing at Sisters in Crime Booth, American Library Association, Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW, Washington DC

Sat., July 17, 1 p.m., signing at Smithsburg Library, 66 West Water St., Smithsburg MD

And here are some of the guest blog posts I did recently.

Are They Nuts? At the Femmes Fatales Blog, I discuss scrapbookers who got in trouble with the law.

Scrapping Her Way to a New Career At my good friend Emilie Richards' blog, we chatted about who gave me the idea to write about a scrapbooker. Hint: Her initials are E.R.

Why Every Protagonist Needs a Sidekick is the title of the post I wrote for The LadyKillers Blog.

At the Cozy Chicks Blog, I shared a photo of the chaos in my office after a scrapbooking project, plus some thoughts about the nature of creativity.

I wrote about my creative toolbox, the tools I use all the time as an author, for my friend Sheila Glazov's blog.

You can see photos of me and my dogs at Meanderings and Muses.

Okay, that should hold you for a while!

June Appearances You Won't Want to Miss!

2010-06-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

June is my birthday month, and I'm celebrating by spending lots of time with all of you!

Don’t miss my super new journaling class at ScrapbooksPlus!, 14502A Lee Road, Chantilly, VA, on Wednesday night June 23. We're calling it: “You Really Are the Queen of Everything." Hey, you are, aren't you? If not, you should be!

The class will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m., and the cost is only $20. This session includes a month’s worth of journaling prompts, exercises to help you improve your writing, a handout package full of valuable ideas and an autographed copy of my fabulous idea book The Best of British Scrapbooking.

Then, get ready for The Great American Scrapbook Convention (GASC), which will be coming to the Dulles Expo Center, Chantilly, VA, on June 25 and 26.

I will be teaching two journaling classes at GASC. You'll get a great start on new journaling and a fresh take on any old stories you haven't captured in my sessions on "Fabulous Fast, Fresh and Fun Journaling." You can choose to come either Friday, June 25 from 6 to 7 p.m. or on Saturday, June 26 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

You must go to the Great American Scrapbook Convention website to sign up for these journaling classes. Click GASC for more info. The price of the class includes a super handout and a copy of my book One Minute Journaling.

Concurrently, ScrapbooksPlus! will be having an all day crop on Saturday, June 26, from 10 am to midnight. The cost of the crop is $35 and includes lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks and door prizes. The Friday night crop is sold out and the Saturday night crop is filling up fast. Call today to reserve your place! The phone number is 703-263-9503. Admission tickets should be arriving this week so save a few dollars and purchase yours from ScrapbooksPlus instead of at the door the day of the convention.

Special Note: I will be at the ScrapbooksPlus! Saturday night crop signing my books and scrappin'! Come by my table at the convention and say "hi" and do a FREE make and take. Get your special 10% off coupon to the store while you're there.

I hope you can join us for a great weekend of scrapbooking and shopping!

Do Everything You Can For Everyone You Can

2010-05-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I just returned from a long roadtrip. I’m still trying to catch up on my sleep, in fact.

The best part about a road trip is meeting new people and reconnecting with “old fans.” If you’ve ever met me, you know that I’ll do just about anything for my fans.

I changed the spelling of a character’s name to coincide with the name of a young woman, a fan, who was clearly having problems in her life, perhaps even developmental delays.

I pose for photos, which is fun. However, on days when I’ve been traveling non-stop and I don’t look great, I must admit I cringe a bit when folks snap the shutter. But that’s my vanity, which isn’t important here.

I sign anything and everything. If someone is at all interested in my signature, I’m willing to share it.

I send supplies to charity auctions at my fans’ requests. (I might have to start limiting this because the postage is expensive, but for the time being, I do what I can. Occasionally, I’ll take a miss because I’m too busy to check out the charity, but whenever possible, I’ll participate.)

I answer questions, although I won’t give away what happens next in my series. (Okay, I lie. I have assured a couple of fans that Gracie will be the longest living Great Dane on record.)

I consider their ideas, and boy, do they have a lot of good ones! My friends at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers Book Club in Fenton, MO, suggested I add a new character. They want to see someone who is “scrubby Dutch” in my books. “Dutch” in this case is a mispronunciation of “Deutsch,” a mistake that’s been perpetuated in the St. Louis area. “Scrubby Dutch” references German immigrants who were incredibly house proud and tidy. I had hesitated to use the term, because I feared it was a pejorative. However, my readers assured me they’re proud of this, and they urged me to include it. I will!

I give out bookmarks. If you have a book club, and you send me an address, I’ll get you as many bookmarks as you have members.

And I’ll try to visit you or your group. (That's a photo of me with Melissa. She's been a pal for quite a while. I was thrilled to come to an event her mother put together with help from Megan at the Mooresville Public Library in Mooresville, Indiana.) I’ll even scrapbook with you.

Recently, I read a comment by Bill Hodges that sums up my philosophy:

Years ago I hit on the idea that there was something I could do for everyone I met, and it was my responsibility to find out what that was and do it. To that end I taught my children a simple rule: “Do everything you can, for everyone you can, and do it before you need them.” Over the years I have tried hard to help my friends and colleagues in any way possible and I have found their generosity flowing back to me has been humbling.

Isn’t that a lovely sentiment?

You can add Bill to your “friends” at Facebook by looking him up under the name: William N. Hodges.

The Future of rhe Publishing Industry

2010-05-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I did a signing at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Reston. I spoke to a lovely and enthusiastic crowd. We were seated near the children's book section. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a young lady, at most maybe eleven years old, watching me and listening in. Eventually she slipped into a seat in the second row, as her papa watched from his spot by the YA (Young Adult) books stack.

She seemed thoughtful, quiet, and the expression on her face told me she was obviously absorbing the entire scene as I held up pictures of the debutante ball that makes up part of the mystery in Photo, Snap, Shot.

This young lady wore a knee-length rust colored dress, with a ruffle on both sides of the buttons down the front of the bodice, and a sewn-on sash tied around the waist. Her hair was long, dark walnut brown, and it formed waves as it ran down her back. It had been pulled back very neatly with a rubber band.

In so many ways, she reminded me of myself at that age.

At the end of my presentation, she waited until most of the adults had their books signed. Then she brought up a book, and I asked if she would like it signed. (I never assume anyone wants my signature. That's a choice that's theirs to make. I would never be so presumptious.) When she nodded and spelled out her name, I signed the book with deliberation, taking the time to ask her if she liked to read and what she read. She said, "All sorts of things." I asked if she liked mysteries, and she nodded. I asked if she liked Nancy Drew.

No. She'd just read one of those, and no more, because "it creeped me out."

Her language was so vibrant, her words were so emotional and heartful, and her thought was so unexpected that I laughed out loud.

After I finished signing stock for the bookstore, my young fan came back again. Her face full of solemn expression. "What's your name?" she asked me.

I told her. She nodded and walked away. Heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe. Hands clasped behind her back.

I hope that she likes my book. I hope that she'll find something inside to encourage her to be a lifelong reader. I hope that if she wants to write, she'll remember that she once met an author...and that this particular author was kind and interested in her.

Because I was. Of all the people there last night, I cared most about that little girl.

She's the future of this industry.

Visiting University of Pittsburgh's Book Center

2010-05-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

It is a sad fact of modern life that we are often too busy to wander around and explore. But last week when I was in Pittsburgh, I had time in the morning before meeting with the wonderful Lori Vonada (see post on previous day)and her friends, so I decided to get out and stretch my legs.

I've never met a bookstore I didn't like. (That's a lie. I know of two I don't much care for.) So when I saw the sign urging students to turn in their used books at the Book Center I stopped in.

Wow. It's nothing like the bookstores of my college days. It was bright, inviting, beautifully merchandised, and a feast for the eyes. I wanted to meet the man in charge, who turned out to be Russell Kierzkowski, the Publicity and Special Events Director. Check out his "Mad Hatter Tea Party" idea on their site. Doesn't that sound like oodles of fun?

We talked for a long time. Russ is obviously an avid bibliophile. When we parted, I offered to make a scrapbook page for him. That's it above.

I hope he'll like it! I hope I'll get invited to his next "Mad Hatter Tea Party." (Hint, hint, hint.)

By the way, the store has my books in stock. I'm glad. I think college students need a bit of recreation along with their studies.

One Remarkable Day

2010-05-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

Written by: Lori Vonada, Venus, PA

I have the honor of being friends with a magnificent group of five scrapbookers! Even though there is 20 years between us, scrapbooking is not the only thing we love to do together. We love traveling and shopping together and enjoy endless hours talking and visiting with one another. Even though these women live two hours from me, they are my very best friends.

Last summer one of the women in our group, Kim Englert, came across Joanna’s first novel, Paper, Scissors, Death: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery, while she was working at the circulation desk in the Northland Public Library. Kim bought the novel, read it, and placed it in a bag along with the supplies to create a scrapbook layout and passed the bag along to a friend in our group, Lori Smith. Lori read Joanna’s first novel, purchased and read her second novel, Cut, Crop & Die: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery, put together the supplies to create a scrapbook layout, and passed the bag along to me. I read both books and passed them along with more layout supplies to the next friend in our group, Jan Dineff.

Before I passed the books and layout supplies along, I noticed in the back of one of Joanna’s books that you could write to request bookmarks. I wrote Joanna a letter but honestly never expected to hear back from her. Not only did I receive the bookmarks from her, but I also received autographed book plates for all of us and a wonderful letter personally written and signed by Joanna. In the letter she provided information about a festival she would be attending in Pittsburgh the following May. I read the letter to our group at a crop at our local scrapbook store, Scrapbook Super Station. (Wasn’t that the most appropriate spot?) While we were there that evening, we ran into another friend, Raelene Ellenberger. We told her about the letter. As luck would have it, she had met and talked to Joanna at length just the week before at Scrapfest in the Mall of America. What was the chance of that?!?! We decided we had to meet Joanna!

I wrote Joanna another letter and told her all about our group. This time she e-mailed me. In the weeks to come, Joanna and I e-mailed back and forth multiple times to set up a luncheon meeting while she was in Pittsburgh for the Festival of Mystery. Five of us met Joanna on Tuesday, May 4, in Oakland, PA, and went to the Union Grill for lunch. Joanna is such a remarkable person! (I’m not just saying that either…She truly is terrific!) She brought us each a goody bag filled with scrapbook supplies and our favorite item, the “I {heart} Kiki” pin! She brought along copies of her latest novel, Photo, Snap, Shot: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery, and took the time to autograph them for us. Although Joanna would not tell us if Kiki is going to end up with Detweiler in the end of her series, we learned so much from her about the writing and publishing business. I was fascinated with what she had to say. She took the time to pose for numerous photographs as we walked through the University of Pittsburgh campus on our way back to her hotel after lunch. (Check out all the great photographs below!)

That's the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh's campus.

Here I am with Joanna.

And here's a photo of our group.

We are already looking forward to reading Joanna’s fourth novel which will not be released for another year! (The wait will be horrendous!) Joanna – thank you for spending the day with us! It was a day that will be cherished for years to come. The time you spent with us was truly enjoyable and memorable! (Check out the scrapbook layout I made honoring our day with Joanna below!)

The Luckiest Mom on Earth

2010-05-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

That's what I'm feeling like after my son sent me flowers for Mother's Day. Aren't they lovely?

Here I am hugging him when I visited him in Coral Gables, a few months ago. (I think he looks a little like he's saying, "Gee, Mom. That's enough.") He's become quite the expert on restaurants, so we went to a Mexican place he recommended. The tortilla soup was superb.

And here I am the day before Mother's Day at a special Mother's Day Tea at Scrapbooks Plus! in Chantilly, VA. Debbie Chabot made this beautiful display of my books for the event.

Here's the display:

And here's Marc Chabot busily cutting up the wonderful French pastries they served for attendees. I can't tell you how good the lemon meringue pie was! I teased Marc that if any murders were committed with a cake knife, I had proof he was involved.

Here's one of the lovely teacup sets Debbie Chabot gave each of us. I plan to "take my tea" in my set from now on. These are so pretty, I know they'll brighten up any day!

One of the women asked me, "How do you get your scrapbooking mojo back when you haven't scrapped in a while?"

I suggest opening a scrapbook magazine and copying a layout. When you're feeling stressed or uncertain, copying a layout is a bit like having someone take you by the hand. It leads you gently back to the fun.

Another great idea is taking a class. There's an altered book class being held at Debbie's store on May 15, and I'm signing up. I need a treat--and I need a chance to learn more about altering books. The project she had on display was so fabulous, I'm itching to get started. It's called "Turtle Dreams" and the money goes to helping endangered sea turtles. That's my kind of fun--good works and good times all in one!

Why I Go To Conferences and Other Events

2010-05-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

While I was at Malice, a friend who is a New York Times bestselling author told me that her agent said, "At this point in your career, you no longer need to do personal appearances."

Wow.

I don't know what to think about that. I mean, I understand. At a certain point, your name is well-known and the bookstores are delighted to stock your books. So, I guess you don't have to do so much to promote yourself.

But...I get a lot out of conferences. Oh, sure, I'm still tired and I'm terribly behind. But, I had learned about a new sort of book on tape at the Howard County Library, I met some authors who I hope will become friends, I re-kindled my friendship with other authors, a group of us discussed promotional methods that work, I had the chance to brainstorm a plot with Casey Daniels as we drove to Festival of Mystery, I chatted with another NYT bestseller about when to switch agents and why you should ignore some advice from your author friends, I visited a college bookstore that will now carry my books, I moved a lot of books (the bookstores at Malice sold out of my books and Mystery Lovers sold a lot of copies as well), and I spent time with my fans. Whew.

So faced with the pile up on my desk, I wondered: Did I spend my time wisely?

Then I sent an email to Charlaine Harris asking for a favor. She emailed me that she'd get back to me after she returned home from her tour.

Her tour?

Gee. If Charlaine Harris thinks it's still important to "circulate," shouldn't I be out there pressing the flesh, too? I mean, you can't get any more popular than Charlaine!

Here I am with my Midnight Ink brothers and sisters at Malice before the big dinner.

That's me begging forgiveness from Meredith Cole. I left her out of the list of people who were at the Mysterious Women panel at Howard County Library. And she was sitting right next to me. How ditzy is that? Meredith wrote Posed for Murder, which is about a photographer in New York who becomes embroiled in real life murders when her fantasy pictures are recreated by a killer.

Deb Sharp is one of my favorite people. She writes the "Mama" series. The upcoming one is Mama Gets Hitched. Deb explains, "Mama likes getting married so much that she's doing it again for the fifth time!" As a former journalist, she's committed to doing her research. For one book, she rode a horse across central Florida.

Jan, one of my Pittsburgh fans, made the Stovetop Cookies from my website. Need I confess I gobbled them down on the ride back to D.C.?

I love photos of doors. This one of a church in Pittsburgh was particularly appealing.

Check Out the 5 Star Reviews Photo, Snap, Shot is Getting at Amazon!

2010-05-07T05:35:00.000-07:00

Here's what two reviewers have to say about Photo, Snap, Shot--

Love,love, love this third book in the series of Murder Mysteries about Hard working single mom Kiki Lowenstein. Even if you don't find yourself to be a crafter you will really enjoy this book.

**

This book may be classified as a cozy mystery, but it really is a cut above the standard of that genre. Slan has her characters tackle some very complex problems in this new addition to the series.

While all the 3 books are great reads, it is with Photo, Snap, Shot that we really see growth, both in terms of subject matter and writing. The characters are becoming more rounded and the "community" of the book is getting fleshed out. Both characters from the previous books as well as new character introduced here are realistic and worth investing in.

I suspect that the series will only continue to grow as further books come out, so why not jump on board now, while there are only 3 books to catch up on. These are quick reads and while scrapbookers will find useful tips in each book, non-crafters will all appreciate the story of a single Mom struggling to raise her daughter.

Twenty Types of Misdirection

2010-05-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

There are a variety of ways to obscure facts, to cover over clues, and to intrigue our readers. Here are some of our favorites!

1. Red herring—The name is taken from the practice of dragging a dead fish over a trail to confuse hunting dogs. Here, a false clue is planted, usually by the author.

2. False clue—Different from a red herring, because this clue is planted by a character.

3. Overlooked clue—A classic method relying on our inability to triage information. Often the overlooked clue is “sandwiched” between other pieces of information.

4. Misinterpreted clue—When analyzing the clue, the sleuth comes to an erroneous conclusion. For example, a suspect has cat hair on him, but it came from his own pet not the victim’s.

5. Clues of omission—Something should have been present, something should have happened, or something should have been mentioned, but wasn’t. For example, a dog should have barked at an intruder. If the pooch didn’t, why not?

6. Classic misdirection—The sleuth was paying attention to the wrong situation so that a clue or the importance of the clue was overlooked.

7. Discounted clues—A clue is not given appropriate weight because it’s very commonplace or it’s too obscure to seem meaningful. (Example, a robbery didn’t occur on a cloudy day because a sundial was not functioning. Who would guess a cloudy day would matter?)

8. Dismissed clue—A clue is considered, and then decided to be irrelevant, but actually has import.

9. Cipher clue—A clue that can only be interpreted once a code is cracked or when additional pieces of the clue become available.

10. Point of view (POV) misdirection—Because of one character’s POV, the clue seems meaningless. This can happen because the POV character’s world view is askew, as when prejudiced. Or because the narrator is unreliable.

11. Botched clue—Information is mishandled or misinterpreted. For example, a fingerprint is smudged by the investigator. This could also be the result of an inadequate chain of custody.

12. “Pre-emptive strike” clue—The sleuth is provided information to purposely color interpretation of a clue or a person’s reputation. For example, the sleuth is told the informant is a drug addict when he/she is not, and therefore, the sleuth doesn’t trust the informant’s reliability.

13. Inaccurate witness—This is a case where the witness truly and honestly is mistaken, as when a person’s eyesight or hearing is faulty.

14. “Can’t chase two rabbits a1`nd catch one”—The sleuth, when presented with many leads, follows up on the wrong one, thus losing the opportunity to find/use/safeguard inform.

15. “I’m protecting someone” clue—A clue is falsely provided or a confession is made to protect a secret or another person.

16. Character flaw—A flaw in the sleuth’s character or world view—rather than in a witness’s character or world view —leads him/her to an erroneous conclusion or to overlook key information. For example, if the sleuth can’t believe a woman would kill viciously, he might overlook clues that prove the murderer is female.

17. Specialized knowledge clue—This is a clue that only has meaning to a person with specialized knowledge. For example, only someone who knows about opera might know that Puccini’s Sister Angelica concerns the death of a child.

18. “Warned off” clue—The sleuth is warned to stop an investigation or to overlook certain information. This in itself becomes a clue.

19. “Lost” clue—The clue is temporarily misplaced (such as put in a coat pocket) or forgotten.

20. Personal crisis—Not really a clue, but still a misdirection. This is when a problem in the sleuth’s personal life keeps him/her from properly following up on information or a suspect.

**

Copyright 2007: Judy Moresi (aka J. Hassler Moresi) , Donna Ross (aka Fedora Amis), and Joanna Campbell Slan. For reprint information, please contact Joanna at joannaslan@aol.com

** NOTE: This handout was shared at Malice Domestic 2010

With Deep Appreciation

2010-05-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, someone does something so kind and so unexpected that I just want to dissolve in a puddle of tears. That happened to me last Thursday at the Howard County Library.

I was invited to by Jacquelynn Morris to be a part of their "Mysterious Women" Panel discussion. My friend Elaine Viets had suggested me. Being on a panel with Elaine was a career highpoint. She's been a wonderfully supportive friend and mentor. Back when I lived in St. Louis, I idolized her. It wasn't until she moved to Florida that we met. I reached out to her in an email, asking for advice about becoming a mystery author. In that way, I consider her one of my "fairy godmothers."

So you can see why being on a panel with her was a thrill. That's a photo above of us taking a tour. It's a fabulous library, a real resource for the community. The place was buzzing, and I itched to sit down and pore over some of the resources.

The other authors were Kris Neri, Beth Groundwater, L. C. Hayden, and Debbi Mack.

Right before the panel started, I spotted Kristopher, a young man I met some years back at Malice. That's a photo of us together below. He came over, we exchanged hugs, and then...he gave me a gift.

"You're always giving us stuff, so I thought I'd do the same for you," he said.

And my eyes filled with tears.

I don't expect anything from any of my fans. The fact that you all honor me by reading my work is more than enough. So I was completely caught off-guard.

Have I told you lately how much I appreciate all of you?

If not...consider yourself told!

Here's a look at the project he did:

Scrapper's Block...and the Page for Malice

2010-04-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

I read in one of the scrapbooking magazines that the one color that scrapbookers found to be the one they shun is...PURPLE.

This intrigued me. I love purple. In fact, I love all colors. Why would this one be so readily avoided? I wondered. Then I saw my new book cover--purple and pink. Hmmm. Kevin Brown, the genius who does my covers, seemed to be able to work with purple.

Fast forward several months. I agreed to again contribute a custom-made scrapbook page for the auction that Malice holds every year to benefit charities. Last year my page brought in $140, making it one of the pricier items.

Purple. The page had to be purple to match my book cover.

I went to buy purple paper and discovered there weren't many choices. Lots of pink. Not a lot of purple. I let the paper sit for a while. I started on the rubber stamped portions. But gee...the page itself seemed hard.

I don't know whether it was my mood, the fact I felt I needed to "top" last year, or what, but I had a full-blown case of scrapper's block. So I did what I always do in such circumstances, I found a magazine with a layout I liked and I scraplifted.

The page took me most of the day, between coloring and adding glitter to the teacup, punching and assembling flowers, and so on.

How do you like it? The book opens and has a small album inside so the buyer can add lots of photos. I figure there's room for a big photo in the upper left quadrant, too. Oh, and thanks to my friends at Spotted Canary and EK Success for the flower embellishments.

Large Print News and Is He Dead Yet?

2010-04-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I learned that large print rights to Cut, Crop & Die were purchased by Library Publishing/BBC (UK). So, Kiki and Company will be available in the UK in large print. The ISBN is 978-1-408-4572-8. It's hardcover. There's also a softcover edition, ISBN 978-1-408-45753-5.

I bet the crowds are lining up at Waterstones right now!

Tonight's an MWA (Mystery Writers of America) meeting with a private investigator as our speaker. Stay tuned for more!

All That Other Stuff

2010-04-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Pam DeVoe did a nice interview with me for the St. Louis Sisters in Crime blog. Check it out here.

One of the questions she asked, one I get asked a lot, is, "What's a typical day like for you?"

Today was anything but typical. I worked all day on promotions. I love that, but it's really time-consuming. I worked contacting the media in St. Louis because I'll be there in May. I enjoyed hearing back from my friend Jane Henderson, the book editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, right away. I hope she can get Photo, Snap, Shot reviewed because I think her readers will love it. But I also know book pages are getting fewer and fewer inches to work with.

I worked setting up another signing while I'm there. I'd been trying to connect with Timmy and Nancy from For Keeps Sake, and finally did. I'll go to a crop at their store after doing my signing at Pudd'nhead Books, Friday, May 21. See, scrapbookers stay up all hours of the night, so I knew this would work! It will be nice to see my sister scrappers at For Keeps Sake. I always enjoy Nikki at Pudd'nhead Books. Few people are as knowledgable about this business as she is.

I ordered some cool aprons for the Killer Hobbies Blog Sisters to wear at various events. I looked into some postcards so we could advertise our progressive story, which is really long enough to be a novella. We'll start posting the story on May 2, so if you aren't a follower at Killer Hobbies, you'll want to be!

I followed up calling a local craft store about a signing. I emailed another bookstore about a signing. I set up spreadsheets so I could track blogs that I'll be giving review copies of Photo, Snap, Shot. I emailed handouts to Peter Green with the St. Louis Writers Guild. I responded to fan mail and sent out new bookmarks. (Want some? Mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to me at Joanna Slan, c/o Steinway Piano Gallery, Tysons Corner Center, 1961 Chain Bridge Road, McLean VA 22102.)

Also, I worked with a graphic designer to get an ad ready for Crimespree Magazine. Fortunately, I was organized enough that I had my release form for my new photos at hand. This is one of them. I hope you like it!

I beat myself up a little because I can't find the name of the adorable young lady who runs some of the forums on Splitcoaststampers. See, I use Outlook, but sometimes things slip past me! Sheesh.

Then, from six to nine, I wrote. I'm working on a short story for a competition. I don't know if I'll get that done, but...

My husband will be home in a bit. He had a long day, too. We'll sit in front of the television. While we watch, I'll tie ribbons on bookmarks.

Tomorrow, I start all over again!

Love Crafts and Mysteries? Malice is for YOU!

2010-04-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

If you love mysteries and crafts, you won’t want to miss Malice Domestic, Saturday, May 1, 2010 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA. Mystery authors from all over the world will gather to meet their fans and talk about their books. Plus, there’s a live auction with cool stuff. Here’s a sampling--

* A collection of Peel & Stick stamps, a certificate for a free personalized stamp, and 7 colorful ink cartridges---a $400 retail value!

* A customized, one-of-a-kind scrapbook page by Joanna Campbell Slan, author of the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series. (Priceless. One like it sold last year for $140.)

* A basket from the Killer Hobbies blog sisters. There are 16 great books in this basket, and all sorts of crafting supplies. You’ll have tons of fun keeping busy with the KH Blog Sisters’ loot! Valued at $200.

(I'll post a photo of the customized page and the KH Blog Sisters' loot soon!)

A day pass is only $125. The Saturday pass includes the chance to bid in the live auction and the Agatha Banquet (only a few seats are left). The Sunday pass includes the Agatha Tea. Go to registrar@malicedomestic.org to sign up.

Authors attending will include Dorothy Cannell, Katherine Hall Page, JoAnna Carl, Elaine Viets, Rhys Bowen, and Mary Higgins Clark. For a full list of the authors go to http://www.malicedomestic.org/registeredauthors.html

Time for a Change...or Two

2010-04-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing stays the same, does it? I keep casting my thoughts back to one calendar year ago. The amount of change in my life is positively dizzying. (Is that a word?)

I'm not just talking about a change in locale.

CHANGE IN WORD COUNTS

This morning I heard from my editor that Book #4 is a bit long. I'm not surprised. I had noticed that my original goal was 80-85,000 words. The more recent contract we're negotiating shows a final word count of 70,000 words. That's a big change. Especially since I've been working very hard to develop subplots that take my books to the next level.

CHANGE IN MARKETING STRATEGIES

Today, most publishers schedule books to come out yearly. When you think about that, it's a bit odd. I mean, I watch my favorite shows every week, and they've got me hooked. So why is it different with books? I would love to share my Kiki short stories between the book launches. We'll have to see if I can.

CHANGE IN MY HAIRSTYLE

For some odd reason, most of the curl in my hair has just...disappeared. I have no idea now. Maybe it symbolizes that I'm not nearly so tightly wound. Or maybe it's the result of living near Washington, D. C., where everyone seems to be very, um, personally conservative and straight-laced. Curly doesn't seem to fit my new life.

CHANGE IN MY WEBSITE

Stay tuned. Working on this.

CHANGE IN MY PRIORITIES

A old friend sent me a ranting political piece she'd written that was totally inflammatory--and then she asked me to critique it. This came totally out of the blue. I thought to myself, "I didn't sign up for this." See, when you work at home by yourself all day, and you get something that's so...ugly, it's hard to shake the mood. As a wise business coach once said, "The most important thing any entrepreneur can do is protect their confidence." Translated for writers that becomes, "The most important thing any writer can do is protect her mental state." I should have told my old friend, "Please don't send me anything like this again."

CHANGE IN STATUS

Used to be, I was the new kid on the block. My dear pal Emilie Richards came over for breakfast the other day, and we had a lovely talk about how to write a synopsis, how to keep track of a story in progress, and where we hoped to go with our next books. I reflected at the time that this isn't a conversation we could have had years ago. I didn't know enough to ask Emilie the questions I'm asking today. I guess I'm not such a newbie anymore! This lovely blog post by Pam DeVoe confirms it.

Where Ideas Come From--Mole Removal 101

2010-04-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

While I'm writing I pop up now and again to do household chores. This morning I was moving clothes from the washer to the dryer. First I had to pick off all the pieces of tissue that had partially dissolved in the wash and where stuck all over the pants and shirts.

Sigh. No matter how carefully I search every pocket, I still miss a tissue or two.

Ideas are like that. They pop up in the most unexpected places. They get all clingy and refuse to go away. After they go through the wash, they don't look much like they did originally, but you can still tell what they were. Sort of.

Over on Cozy First Mysteries, a yahoo group, the members are doing a "buddy read" of Cut, Crop & Die. I've been following the comments of Julesy (their leader), Angie, Shannon, Shala, Mare, Vicki, Katie, Shauna, Mary C, and Melissa (did I miss anyone?) with much interest. (Oh, and the yahoo group owner is Beverly.)

Here's how it works: Julesy and Angie(as co-leaders) would post a short synopsis of chunks of the book as they read it. Then the leaders would solicit opinions from the others. It's almost like someone is doing a transcript of a real-time book group. And I love it. Seeing how readers react about my choices is incredibly enlightening. I'm improving my craft by taking note of their responses. And did I mention it's good for the ego? Oh, yeah. On days when I can't get anything written, seeing these nice ladies' responses makes me want to work doubly hard to create books worthy of them.

Of course, sometimes they don't like what I've written. That's okay, too. It's a great learning experience, and usually they have good suggestions. (In fact, one was so good, I wished I'd had it BEFORE the books were printed, but...)

Recently, they read the portion of Cut, Crop & Die where Kiki goes to the spa. Julesy said she was laughing so hard she could barely type her synopsis. My heart soared with joy. Someday, if I'm a really good kid, maybe I'll get nominated for an award for humorous writing. I'd love that because I totally ascribe to Minnie Pearl's comment that laughter is God's hand on the shoulder of a weary world.

The group also wondered where I got the idea for chasing moles away with vibrators. Here's what I wrote:

My husband was doing a “Sheila” about the moles in our yard. As I am wont to do, I started chatting with the pest specialist we hired. (I like to ask people questions about their work. He was initially very quiet, but once he discovered I was really curious, he opened up. I thanked him in the book. His name was Scott.) Then I went online. To my shock, I discovered some online place selling vibrators to get rid of moles. I wondered, “Do the vibrators just make the moles so crazy-happy they stay in their beds all day? What’s the deal here?” A short time afterwards, we were coming home from the airport in St. Louis and drove past all the adult sex toy shops on Lindbergh Ave. I guess every big town has such places. Usually they’re close to where lonely travelers might be.

I put two and two together. I mean, really, does a mole care what the shape of the vibrator is?

Remind me to post the photo of my freeze dried mole someday. I used to travel around the country giving humorous speeches, and that mole was a real highlight. I can't count the number of times I've had my picture taken with him. And no, as far as I know, he's never had a close encounter with a vibrator.

But then you never know, do you?

Taking Criticism (Kate, Are You There?)

2010-03-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

I never, ever wanted to watch Dancing with the Stars (DWTS), but now I'm hooked. My reason for not wanting to be a viewer is simple: I love to dance. Therefore, watching other people having a good time is like...torture. I spend every minute wishing I was dancing along!(Check out the dancing scene in Cut, Crop & Die. I had to tone it down some, but that's me, bay-bee.)

Lately, I've been watching DWTS and thinking about criticism. It's always hard to take, isn't it? But I've noticed that the stars and participants who can't take it are usually the ones who don't make it to the final round. Makes sense.

Now I'm going to get snarky. Can you believe the way Kate Gosselin is acting? I shudder when I see people roll their eyes at the panel of dance experts. I mean, I don't care how snippy Bruno gets or how tough Len is. They do know what they're talking about.

But Bruno and Len and Carrie Ann are just part of the crew. The hardest working folks in the show, in my humble opinion, are the professional dancers. I mean, dancers have the lifespan of a gnat. It's just so incredibly hard on your body. These kids turn up, step up, and dance it up every week. So, spouting off to a dancing pro and telling him he doesn't know how to teach is just wrong. But that's exactly what Kate did. In the UK, they call that "cheeky." To be that rude, takes...well...it takes something. If Kate's goal is to show her kids how to act, gee, I hope the show airs after their bedtime. Especially if reports are true that she's also being a real pill by showing up late on the show. Whoa-doggies. Personally, I'm getting a bit weary of hearing Kate pull the "I'm just a mom trying to survive" card. I see a lot of moms trying to survive, and golly, their lives don't look at all like Kate's.

It's tough to take criticism. I know. I stomp around the house after it comes my way. But notice, that's my house. We don't have cameras rolling here.

Right now I'm working on a new idea. I keep showing it to my husband. He keeps telling me how I can improve it. I HATE his help. Hate it. But he's usually right and I remind myself that if I can put my ego aside and listen, my work and I will both be better for it.

Here's the deal: If you're going to live a public life, you better grow tough skin and a poker face. At the very least, keep your mouth shut when people give you good advice. Oh, and if you want proof that sneering is not a good idea, here's a tip--anytime you can put "sneering" and "your name" together and get google hits, honey, it's time to clean up your act. Even if Bruno did just compare you to a shopping cart!

Besides, didn't anyone ever tell Kate her face could freeze that way?

Notes to Self after Trip to Costa Rica

2010-03-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

Note to self: When sitting out in the sun, first remove cartouche so you don't have a weird white rectangle in the midst of your tan.

Note to self: Just because you are allergic to them, doesn't mean you can't enjoy them. It's okay to love cats from afar. Taking pictures of them is cool. Very cool.

Note to self: Don't forget to look UP. You might miss something beautiful if you don't.

Note to self: Sitting and thinking is important. Take time for it.

Note to self: Sunblock, every day. Even if it's raining outside. Or you will look like this.

Note to self: Pouting is very unattractive.