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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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."