Lea Wait's Blog, page 57

So, this happened . . .

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett here. There are many times in a writer’s life when something unexpected happens. On average, these are good experiences. One of the best of my career happened last Saturday at the Maine Crime Wave.

This award, given for “excellence and achievements” as a Maine writer by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, was named in memory of my dear friend and fellow Maine Crime Writers blogger, Lea Wait. We lost Lea too early, but it is a lovely tribute to her that the award was created this year and will continue to be presented to Maine writers. To tell you the truth, in a perfect world Lea herself would have been the first recipient. Below is one of my favorite photos of her, together with Kate Flora, Barb Ross and me, on the one and only retreat the four of us managed to organize. We had a blast, and Barb’s husband, Bill Carito, took this photo on the last day.

On Saturday, Kate interviewed me. That was a lot of fun and seemed to go over well. Here’s a photo my husband took of the Q&A.

 

There were other panels throughout the day and had been events the evening before as well. The finale was a “mega panel” centered around what we hate (and love) about writing. As you can see below, it was a motley crew that participated in this one. Left to right here are Cheryl A. Head, Jessica Ellicott, Julia Spencer-Fleming, me, Brenda Buchanan, Carla Neggers (who was Maine Crime Master for the event),Barb Ross, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, Chris Holm, and Matt Cost.

The community of writers here in Maine is alive and well and this is our once-a-year opportunity, since many of us live in remote areas of the state, to get together in person. Writers from other states are always welcome, too, along with avid mystery readers. This “retired” writer had a wonderful time connecting with old friends and making a few new ones, too.

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others, including several children’s books. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Her most recent publications are The Valentine Veilleux Mysteries (a collection of three short stories and a novella, written as Kaitlyn) and I Kill People for a Living: A Collection of Essays by a Writer of Cozy Mysteries (written as Kathy). She maintains websites at www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

 

Another Great Maine Crime Wave!

Kate Flora: For those of you who missed the Crime Wave on Friday night and yesterday,

MCW regulars Vaughn Hardacker, Sandy Neely, Kate Flora, Dick Cass, Brenda Buchanan, and Dick Cass

you really missed a great event. As we are all aware, the writing life is usually a very solitary one. That’s one reason why, when the crime writing community comes together, it is such a congenial event.

One aspect of this community I discovered as a brand new writer was the lack of hierarchy in our community. Whether you’re a newbie working on a first book or a multi-published writer working on a twelfth, the experience of getting that germ of an idea and struggling to develop it into a story is the same. You are in a group who understand those insistent voices in your head begging for you to find the time to let them out. You are in a room full of people who see an empty car by the side of the road with the doors open and begin to speculate where the occupants have gone.

From Julia Spencer-Fleming’s brilliant Friday night interview with the accomplished guest

MCW alum Barb Ross and Nicole Asselin, who describes herself as a “geriatric milennial”

of honor, Carla Neggers, to a series of twelve brief readings from writers all across the genre, the event was off to a great start. Those readings highlighted a comment made in a panel early on Saturday—you can teach a lot about writing but a write has to arrive with a strong individual voice.

Many times I’ve heard it said that even if you take away only one piece of advice from a conference, it would be worth it. On Saturday, it was hard not to come away with an exploding head as there was so much wisdom and so many great pieces of advice about writing.

Here are some of those pieces from my own notes:

When you characters are talking, the reader is a third person in the conversation.

How do you balance using time as a propulsive device versus having the leisure to develop your characters?

Matt Cost moderates a panel

What are the elements of other genres that also weave into your story?

When we talk about suspense, we need to recognize that there are many different kinds, including character friction and romantic friction.

It’s important to be aware of the norms or tropes of the genre you’re writing in, and be fluent in them, before you start breaking the rules.

Want to know what that genre looks like? Read the finalists for the Agatha, the Anthony, and the Edgar for the past several years.

Or if you’re uncertain how to structure your novel, practice by making up a novel using the structure of one of your favorites.

Your character should change over the course of the book and over the arc of a series, and

Jule Selbo moderating a panel

you, the author, should know where your character needs to be at the end. But also be open to the possibility of your character surprising you.

Are you a writer who has trouble with some aspect of writing—description, or dialogue, or action scene? Try typing out or writing out by hand some scenes that work.

It was wonderful to see writers who return every year and learn where they are in their writing. Maybe next year, you will be there, too.

Sandy, John, Dick, Vaughn, and Matt. Such fun to see each other in the real world.

Weekend Update: June 10-11, 2023

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be a Crime Wave report (Monday) and posts by Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Tuesday), Jule Selbo (Thursday), and Dick Cass (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

 Matt Cost will be moderating a panel at the Maine Crime Wave, Love & Death: Writing Romantic Suspense, on Saturday, June 10th, at the USM Glickman Library. The panel will consist of rock stars Paul Doiron, Carla Neggars, Susan Stoker, and Susan Vaughan.

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

This Old House

In a previous life, I was the Antique and Vintage Properties Manager at a real estate company in Norwich, Connecticut. Home to Benedict Arnold and lots of other famous and less seditious Revolutionary War folks, the city is a treasure-trove of fabulous old colonial houses.

I think I fell into the job since my husband and I once tied to rehab a mid-1800s farmhouse on 20+ acres on a dirt road in Garland, Maine. We never finished. At the time, we lived smack in the middle of the Lee Academy campus, and the Garland place was a weekend/vacation respite and retreat, and maybe, we thought, a house to retire in.

Inside, there were hand-hewn beams, wide pine floorboards and a trap door to the boulder-lined cellar. Outside, a disgusting chicken coop insulated with cardboard cartons and a huge rotting barn contributed to the “gentleman’s farm” ambience. I had fun with a crowbar knocking down sagging ceilings (lots of acorns, newspapers, and a rat skeleton), painting kitchen cupboards, and wallpapering. My husband John tried his hand at plumbing, so consequently the cold water came out of the hot water tap and vice versa. He hooked up the collapsing lean-to to his truck and pulled it off the back of the house, filling in the fetid pond. (The transmission on the truck was really never the same after.) We didn’t know about the bad well and bats in the bedroom until we moved out.

Despite its obvious drawbacks, it was heaven for our kids when they were little. So much space to run around. The chicken coop got cleaned up and converted to JACS’ house, a playhouse named for the first initial of each of our kids—Jessie, Abigail, Christopher, and Sarah. They drew on the unpainted sheetrock in their rooms. (Chris’s brilliant contribution in crayon: Girls are stopid. So is Sarah.) There was a tire swing. We’d sit in the barn on a sprung leather couch and watch the garden grow. I made jams, jellies, syrups, pickles, and froze/canned vegetables. John estimated each bag of peas was worth about $25, after considering labor, fertilizer, and the price of the rototiller. A neighbor borrowed the fenced pasture for his sheep and horses, so we had the benefit of animals without the responsibility. To return the favor, he’d invite us to go in his haywagon in the evenings to watch the moon rise and count the stars.

We sold the house when we moved to Connecticut, and it’s been re-sold several times since. The latest iteration on Zillow crushed me—the interior is unrecognizable, although the exterior apparently has not been painted in the 40 years since we left. No more wide pine floorboards, but fake gray laminate ones. (There was a recent article in the New York Times about the ubiquitousness of gray floors—and walls and cabinets—and how they’re all pretty depressing.) The Home Comfort wood/gas combination stove is gone, where I once cooked the Thanksgiving turkey with wood when we ran out of bottled gas. The fireplace tiles I laid have disappeared, as has the fireplace (blocked up, but still with a lovely mantel) and the shelves next to it which held my brown and white transferware. There’s not a scrap of wallpaper left. I have to remind myself that tastes change when it comes to renovation, and publishing too.

Apparently, the contemporary cozy mystery market is completely overstuffed with quaint book shops, sassy sewing circles, candy makers and cupcake bakers, plus unlucky caterers who find a body in the bushes at every outdoor wedding. And according to the P & L folks, historical cozy mysteries just don’t make enough money to acquire. (This, of course, is my preferred lane. Just my usual luck.) However, thrillers and suspense books are selling like hotcakes.

Or cupcakes.

I get tense just looking at the covers. Blood spatters. Frenzied fonts. Someone, usually a female, is missing and probably dead or wishing she was. When they are optioned for movies, I have to close my eyes when the tell-tale ominous music starts. I do most of my viewing on my computer screen, and my hand is primed to cover it at the first sign of trouble. I am a cowardly person.

To everything there is a season. We’ve seen vampires and witches come and go and yo-yo back, and once-dead contemporary romance has resurrected itself with cutesy cartoon covers. Let’s dig out the crystal ball. What do you think the next publishing trend will be? What do YOU want to read? How do you feel about gray everywhere?

The oil tank at the front door is an “improvement.”

For more info on Maggie and her books, please visit www.maggierobinson.net

Seduced to the Natural World

We need nature writing. We need it now more than ever: need to be seduced into the natural world: need to savor what remains or take direction toward finding new landscapes and experiences. We need to manage the grief we feel when we lose a place and its wildlife—or be ready for the grief to come.

Barbara Kingsolver nails that one. “The final stages of grief. Dellarobia felt an entirely new form of panic as she watched her son love nature so expectantly, wondering if he might be racing toward a future like some complicated sand castle that was crumbling under the tide. She didn’t know how scientists bore such knowledge. People had to manage terrible truths.” (From “Flight Behavior”)

************

My first exposure to nature writing probably came from Blueberries for Sal.

“On the other side of Blueberry Hill, Little Bear came with his mother to eat blueberries. ‘Little Bear,’ she said, ‘eat lots of berries and grow big and fat. We must store up food for the long, cold winter.’”

This is the view from Nancoweap. Anasazi granaries are carved into the wall here. This is a Powell expedition pic, but one of my favorite places.

But the first time I was literally immersed and awed by it, was reading John Wesley Powell’s original journals of his Colorado River while I spent twenty days rafting and hiking that river. I wrapped his journal in double baggies and a waterproof bag. It still got damp: huge waves there. I read it by headlamp with my toes in wet sand. The sound of rapids was so urgent and powerful, it felt like extra blood pumping through me. I was primed for his words.

I didn’t keep the diary I planned because Powell had painted the canyon’s wonders and perils so vividly, I was simply awed by his prose as well as the river and the canyon.

He writes, “The little valleys above are beautiful parks; between the parks are stately pine forests, half hiding ledges of red sandstone. Mule deer and elk abound; grizzly bears, too, are abundant; and here wild cats, wolverines, and mountain lions are at home. The forest aisles are filled with the music of birds, and the parks are decked with flowers. Noisy brooks meander through them; ledges of moss-covered rocks are seen; and gleaming in the distance are the snow fields, and the mountain tops are away in the clouds.”

From his Maine cabin Bernd Heinrich gives a deep dive on ravens. He and his students lugged in carcasses and roadkill in order to get close enough to study them extensively. Bernd kept a low profile hiding in a blind he built, but he created the conditions to get close—very close— to the birds.

We are partial to Henry David Thoreau’s “The Maine Woods” yet we do feel him in almost every line because the woods enters his pores before he pours it out. (Still love it.) “The spruce and cedar on its shores, hung with gray lichens, looked at a distance like the ghosts of trees. Ducks were sailing here and there on its surface, and a solitary loon, like a more living wave — a vital spot on the lake’s surface — laughed and frolicked, and showed its straight leg, for our amusement.”

The woods also terrified him, (here after an unsuccessful Katahdin climb in bad weather.) “Here was no man’s garden, but the unhandseled globe. It was not lawn, nor pasture, nor mead, nor woodland, nor lea, nor arable, nor wasteland…Man was not to be associated with it. It was Matter, vast, terrific…rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! the actual world!”

Maine can also lay claim to the brilliant and brave Rachel Carson. What must it feel like to have the entire corporate, industrial complex with its money and might come down on you? And congress, too? They all tried to destroy the fearless Carson who knew poison from her research lab to empty birds’ nests. She is credited with starting the modern environmental movement, all because birds could not hatch the next generation. She made it visible. She made it sing.

“Who has made the decision that sets in motion these chains of poisonings, this ever-widening wave of death that spreads out, like ripples when a pebble is dropped into a still pond? Who has placed in one pan of the scales the leaves that might have been eaten by the beetles and in the other the pitiful heaps of many-hued feathers, the lifeless remains of the birds that fell before the unselective bludgeon of insecticidal poisons? Rachel Carson “Silent Spring”

Like good nature writers who take us there, Carson took us first into nests so we could feel small bird lives—disappearing.

Wikipedia says, “Nature writing can be defined as non-fiction or fiction prose or poetry about the natural environment.”

Hmm. Not quite.

It seems most often (unless it’s a scientific research paper) the hand of humans—the human with its reactions and emotions— is woven (with skill) or interjected (narcissistically) into nature writing. Seems unavoidable if someone is going to share nature with us—report it out to us.

What about fiction? Sometimes nature illuminates fiction. Listen to Barbara Kingsolver fuse nature and character in one sentence. It’s just a phrase, but it takes us both to the power of the butterflies and also how Dellarobia was undone at the same time.

“The density of the butterflies in the air now gave her a sense of being underwater, plunged into a deep pond among bright fishes.”

“Flight Behavior” is an amazing novel: monarch butterflies against … pretty much the world. Nature is often an important character.

Writing stories from South Berwick, ME we have Sarah Orne Jewett (born 1849). “There’s sometimes a good hearty tree growin’ right out of the bare rock, out o’ some crack that just holds the roots’, she went on to say, ‘right on the pitch o’ one o’ them bare stony hills where you can’t seem to see a wheelbarrowful o’ good earth in a place, but that tree’ll keep a green top in the driest summer. You lay your ear down to the ground an’ you’ll hear a little stream runnin’. Every such tree has got its own livin’ spring; there’s folks made to match ’em.”  “The Country of the Pointed Firs”

More recently Paul Doiron’s, “Hatchet Island” makes characters of the sea, the islands, and the birds who seek refuge there even as he intends to allow no refuge for a killer. “The wind was forecast to rise later, turning onshore in the afternoon, but so far, the air remained breathless. The sea was a sheet of hammered platinum. Every stir of my paddle brought the fecund smell of the ocean into my nose and mouth. It was as if I could taste the teeming life in the depths: the phytoplankton and the zooplankton, the oyster beds, the shoals of mackerel, and the deep-diving seals. The sensory stimulation left me feeling intoxicated.”

Good accurate, nature writing woven into fiction, gives readers genuine renditions of the natural world. It lends belief-power to whatever else might be fictional on the page. If the biology is accurate and rich and powerful and even insightful, why not accept the entire story as authentic and rich and powerful—even if the plot is fiction?

We fiction authors do a lot of nature-based research, even if it only lands as a few sentences. I asked the wolf coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation to proof my first novel for canine accuracy, and I found a wolf refuge where I could sit and watch wolves close up. David Mech’s book was my wolf bible.

Here’s the passage in “Deadly Trespass” where Patton (my narrator) meets one.

************

I smiled because the wolf seemed to be smiling at me, its mouth at a quizzical angle. Yellow-gold eyes calmly examined my face, holding my eyes. I’d never had an animal initiate a penetrating stare with see-everything eyes. Pock, sleeping heavily on my feet, brought me happy dog faces, not a searching interview. The wolf’s fur glowed with approaching daylight, patches of tan-white hair electrifying the black bristles that fluffed his cheeks. I’d seen dead wolf hair on Gordon. On this animal every hair breathed. Colors vibrated toward each other as he panted.

I thought his proportions made him male, but I couldn’t be sure. He was twice the size of any coyote that dodged my headlights. Two bold wipes of black hair crossed under his chin and plunged toward his legs. He looked like a bandit, cartridge belts slung over his chest, swaggering attitude on display. He yawned, curling black lips to show off incisors. My chance to see—close-up—three-inch fangs that could drop a moose, nose first. With liquid ease he slid saucer-sized front paws to the ground, leaned his head on them, and considered me from a level perspective. Stretched before my tent he was almost as long as my five-and-half-feet of tall.

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Please do share out good stuff to others! I shared this Margaret Renkl piece with neighbors who leave outside lights on all night. Now, we are planning a firefly backyard gathering. Opinion | ‘Why Do You Still Have Lightning Bugs? Ours Are All Gone.’ – The New York Times (nytimes.com) “Firefly populations have dropped alarmingly, and it’s mostly our fault. Light pollution interrupts the flash patterns that fireflies use to communicate, making it more difficult to find a mate and evade predators. Development means the loss of the leaf litter and fallen branches and high grass that make up firefly habitat. …” (Renkl is the author of the acclaimed “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss.”

American nature writing history reaches back to Spanish explorers and Columbus, but apparently women had not yet been pulled from someone’s rib so they didn’t exist in this summary. I offer up Willa Cather (born 1873).

“… burning summers when the world lies green and billowy beneath a brilliant sky, when one is fairly stifled in vegetation, in the color and smell of strong weeds and heavy harvests; blustery winters with little snow, when the whole country is stripped bare and gray as sheet-iron. We agreed that no one who had not grown up in a little prairie town could know anything about it. … “My Antonia” (1918)

Finally, enjoy this fabulous (and inclusive) nature writing list of books. (Don’t miss “Refuge” by Terry Tempest Williams.)

 Sandy’s debut novel, “Deadly Trespass, A Mystery in Maine” won a national Mystery Writers of America award, was a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” contest, and was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. The second Mystery in Maine, “Deadly Turn,” was published in 2021. Her third “Deadly” is due out in 2023. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.

 

 

 

 

When AI Bites you in the Assets

John Clark with an expanded look at the evolution of selling books online. First some background. I started selling used books online when I was the librarian in Hartland in order to create a revenue stream for collection development. I sold on Amazon and it was a pretty simple and straightforward process: Provide a condition and an accurate description, add a price, and activate the list. It was a great way to raise funds to buy more books and develop a DVD collection.

After several years of doing so, I realized I knew enough about what sold for decent money so I could go to a library book sale and buy items that would sell well online. My library initiative became a new hobby, particularly once I retired. The challenge of finding treasures at book sales also gave me the same thrill as the one I experienced when opening a treasure chest in a computer role-playing game.

Remember when everyone was talking about banks being too big to fail? Well we know how well that turned out. Amazon seems headed in a similar direction and it’s because it’s too big to operate intelligently any more. Bots, those little kernels of AI, run more and more of its operations every day.

That once straightforward process of listing a book/DVD/Cd has now become extremely frustrating. Many of the books I’ve tried to list on Amazon in the past year have resulted in a message to the effect that I am not authorized to sell this refurbished item, and there is no option to appeal. Trying to get in contact with a real human is equally elusive, and what, exactly, is a refurbished book?

The latest crisis is this ominous message many sellers have found at the top of their seller page: Your account is at risk of deactivation. To comply with the INFORM Consumers Act, which goes into effect on June 27, 2023, Amazon needs to collect and verify information about your Selling on Amazon account. Currently, you have one or more verification action items pending. Please review the list below and visit the Seller Account Information page to start verification.

I discovered it a couple weeks ago. When I go to find out what is needed to remedy the situation, I can find nothing that needs to be corrected. I’m not alone in trying to deal with the problem. It’s been a hot topic in the seller forum.

I wouldn’t be so unhappy if getting in contact with a human being was viable, but Amazon’s reliance on bots makes this a near impossibility. I don’t feel optimistic about my future selling prospects on their site.

What does this leave for options? I could invest a lot of time and money in joining something like ABE Books, of create my own store front, but since we’re talking a couple thousand in gross annual sales, such an option doesn’t make sense.

Instead, I’m listing and selling more on ebay. I’ve been a member there for more than thirty years, initially as a buyer, but more recently as a seller. I’m listing my reasons why below.

1-I can list almost anything, if I can describe it accurately. Years ago, my late mother-in-law gave me a musty coyote hide her father had trapped in the 1950s. She said it was probably something destined for the trash heap…I sold it on ebay to a lady in San Jose, CA for $10.50. My digital camera, coupled with my library cataloging skills, make listing an item accurately pretty easy. Items that are not being offered for sale anywhere online can be listed. I just sold Records of the Past Exploration Society Volumes 1-6 1902-1907 Ex-reference Collection, on commission for a local library. While individual volumes were listed on some sites, multiple ones were not for sale anywhere.

2-I’ve been a member long enough so I can list 250 items a month without having to pay an insertion fee.

3-Unlike Amazon, I can choose to sell by auction, or as buy it now, and determine whether I want to offer free shipping, or charge a realistic fee. I have a media mail chart, so I generally choose to sell an item as ‘buy it now’ with an accurate shipping rate.

4-I can see exactly what an item has been sold for before choosing to list anything. I do this by searching for the book, CD, DVD, etc. and then checking the sold box. This shows me whether any have sold in the last few months and for how much. If none have, or the price was so low trying to sell mine isn’t viable, I move on to another item.

5-I can see which items have been viewed and how many times. Likewise, I can see which ones are being followed. If an item hasn’t been looked at after twenty-five days, I end the listing and add a new one. Items I think might sell if up longer than thirty days automatically renew.

6-Prospective buyers can make an offer. I then have the option to accept it, or make a counter offer. If someone is interested in multiple items, I can combine shipping costs to make them a better deal.

7-Funds are deposited in my checking account monthly.

Is selling online for everyone? No, but it makes for an interesting and profitable way for me to stay busy and intellectually stimulated in retirement.

It’s Amazing Who You Run Into In Maine

It’s amazing who you run into during the course of your regular life. Last week I met an elderly gentleman who casually told me that had a book coming out soon. When I asked what his book was about, he told me it was a book about his life and field of study. After telling me his name, I looked him up and discovered that he’s one of the world’s most famous philosopher. But he is so much more than a philosopher. He’s a neuroscientist and evolutionary biologist who studies consciousness, evolution and artificial intelligence. In fact, he’s beloved figure among Silicon Valley techies.

I immediately purchased one of his books and started reading it. It’s powerful and deep, and very dense. The author makes a compelling case for the evolutionary design theory, believing that life forms adapted throughout the millions of years they were allowed to develop. And while he admits that humans are intelligent designs, he steadfastly argues against an Intelligent Designer—a god if you will. He claims that organisms had “all the time in the world” to develop into what we’ve become today.

It got me to thinking about how this difficult subject relates to writing a novel. It’s a pantser versus plotter argument. Or evolutionary process versus intelligent design. The pantser adapts and changes on the fly in order to create their compelling characters. Unnecessary plot elements fall by the wayside while the good material gets stronger and stronger. The pantser reacts to situations and creates on the fly. The plotter, on the other hand, is more like an Intelligent Designer. There is a well-thought out pattern to their well-constructed plot. Everything moves according to teology. Everything has a purpose that helps drive the plot. The plotter knows where all this will end because he designed it.

Although it’s difficult to argue against the ideas this Maine philosopher is making in his book, I still fall on the side of their being an Intelligent Designer to what we call life. I think the two theories can coexist. Who created the universe? And made all the rules of physics that makes up everything.

Dennis Dennett is a giant in his field. What a surprise to learn that he lives in Cape Elizabeth. This after many years teaching at Tufts University. After reading his book, I have so many questions to ask him if I ever run into him again. If you get a chance, look him up. Or better yet, read his book and see which side of the debate you fall on. Are you a pantser when it comes to the world we live in? Or are do you think all this has been plotted out?

Weekend Update: June 3-4, 2023

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Joe Souza (Monday), John Clark (Tuesday), Maggie Robinson (Thursday), and Sandra Neily (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

 

Coming soon (June 9-10): Maine Crime Wave! Lots of Maine Crime Writers will be there.

For more information, click here: https://www.mainewriters.org/maine-crime-wave

 Matt Cost will be doing a reading Friday night at the Crime Wave (above) and moderating a panel on Saturday afternoon on Romantic Suspense. He will also be doing a book talk on Friday, June 9th, at the South Freeport Congregational Church at 11:30 a.m.
98 S Freeport Rd, South Freeport, ME, United States, Maine

 

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

Oh this glorious, glorious spring!

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

A little Madness in the Spring
    Is wholesome even for the King,
    But God be with the Clown –
    Who ponders this tremendous scene –
    This whole Experiment of Green –
    As if it were his own!

Kate Flora: Recently someone said that if your gardens don’t look good in May, they’ll

It’s a splendid year for lilacs

never look good. I don’t know if this is true. A visit to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens at any season is an experience filled with delight. But yes, right now my gardens are looking quite wonderful, despite all the losses caused by winter weather. They present a dilemma which must be common to all writers: how can we stay at our desks, toiling away on our books, when the world so adamantly wants us to come outside?

In my more disciplined years, I would make deals with myself: I was allowed to garden for an hour early in the day, before it got hot, and for the rest of the day, I was chained to my desk. Sometimes, when I was deeply in story but the gardens needed attention, it would be a ten hour day with two hours allowed in the garden. Once, when I was late, I confess that I was out there gardening in my nightgown, and got a nasty spider bite.

Recently, I have found that I lack the energy and the discipline to work at either gardening or writing for as long. Since the mosquitoes have come out in force. I figure that if I’m going to wear my tick and mosquito repellant clothes and spray myself, I might as well stay out there longer. After so many years at the keyboard, I do have faith that books will get done, just more slowly. As for the gardens? I never get the work done and I expect I never will.

At times in the past, I’ve blogged about how gardening is like writing a book. You have to take a lot on faith–that that inspiring idea will, if nurtured, grow into a novel, just as that teeny shrub, if nurtured, will one day be a gorgeous bush buzzing with bees. Organizing the colors and textures and heights of plants is also a lot like telling a story. Words, like plants, have to be chosen to best illuminate the story, make the characters come alive, or move the action along. And as with writing a book, when you’re working on one patch at a time, you cannot see the whole, yet you have to have faith it will come together in the end.

The way that writers see the world is a subject I return to fairly often, as you faithful readers may have noticed. During this season, I love watching the tiny shoots of green grow taller every day until they become large, lush plants with the promise of flowers ahead. I prowl along the edge of the perennial bed, looking for those tiny volunteers that have escaped and are trying to survive in the grass of the lawn. I dig them up and find them new places to grow.

What do these shoots of green that seem to change overnight teach me? Perhaps about

Forty years ago, this was a tiny shrub. And I was writing my first mystery

how this is much like the way a book begins. First it is just a tiny idea, and by pondering on it, it gradually grows to become the plot of a book. Like those tiny shoots, a book idea will need attention. It will need to be fertilized with essential questions like: What is this about and why is this book about this particular set of characters? It will need space to grow to it’s full size, in the brain and on the page. It will need the unnecessary ideas to be weeded out so that the plant can grow. Sometimes it will need to be cut back to make the plot fuller and less straggly.

Like a tender plant needing a gardener to tend it, a book idea needs the author to figure out what the story needs to make it grow into a successful book. What will fertilize it? How much water (or perhaps, in an authors case, how much alcohol, or time, or sweat) will it need to make it grow and achieve its full potential? What kind of research must be done to make the setting, characters, and plot feel authentic to a reader. And as in a successful garden, the plant, like a protagonist or antagonist, will need complimentary plants around it to illuminate it and compliment it. What complimentary shapes and sizes and colors will enhance a perennial bed? What sidekicks, bosses, clients, or love interests will shape and enhance your protagonist? What plants, like antagonists, may need to be managed so they don’t dominate?

A most appropriate Mother’s Day gift

And of course, as in any garden there will be the weeds, roots, rocks, and pests, that will want to thwart successful growth to a mature plant, in a book there will be the obstacles internal and external, and the antagonists, both natural and human, which must be overcome in order for the story to come to a successful conclusion where order is restored to the world.

Finally, like a well-told story that is coming to its conclusion, there is the moment in the garden when that plant has been successfully fertilized, watered, and protected from weeds and insects, and it fulfills its purpose by producing colorful leaves and glorious flowers. With the book, that is the moment when the writer types: The End, and sits back with a smile of satisfaction.

Of course, just as in a well-tender garden, the job isn’t finished. Plants need to be divided, cut back, or shuffled around to new locations. In the book, typing: The End is not the end. It is simply the beginning of the next process–revision.

May your words flow and your garden grow!

Print or E-Book? (and a giveaway)

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here with a question for readers of this blog. No, I’m not going to ask you which you prefer, print copies or e-books. Not in general, anyway. My query has to do with only one type of book—nonfiction, specifically reference books.

I gather you can make notes in an e-book, but for many people a print copy with post-it notes sticking out and parts highlighted in blinding yellow and handwritten notes in the margins, is still the only way to go. I have written nonfiction as well as fiction and two of those books, How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Renaissance England from 1485-1649 are reference books for writers. Both are out of print in all but e-book editions, and in the case of the latter, written as part of the Writer’s Digest Everyday Life series, the e-book is not much more than a pdf file. It was produced for the e-book market way back in 2004—eons ago in tech terms. Officially priced at $10, most online sellers offer it for less—as low as $4.99—and it has sold at least a few copies every month since it was issued.

How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries: The Art and Adventure of Sleuthing Through the Past won the 2008 Agatha Award for mystery nonfiction and has been available in a trade paperback edition until last year when Perseverance Press, the publisher, closed its doors. I made a few updates (the marketing section, obviously, was completely out of date) and issued a new e-book edition last year. I thought about also self-publishing a print-on-demand paperback version but put that on hold. After all, there were still plenty of copies of the Perseverance paperback floating around. Now I’ve started thinking about it again. As for the e-book, which sells for $4.99, it has had some bumps. There is no Kindle edition because Amazon bots deemed it was available elsewhere for free. Where? I have no idea, but they say their decision is final. B&N, Apple, Kobo, and others are not so short-sighted. A print edition would be listed on Amazon, although Amazon would probably (based on my previous experiences) make it as difficult as possible to actually order a copy.

Anyhoo, I could do print-on-demand trade paperback editions of both these books that could be ordered online or through any bookstore or library or direct from me. I probably will, but I have other reprint projects in the works. I have to wonder if that many people really care if they have a reference book in a paperback edition.

Producing a print-on-demand version of either book wouldn’t be all that difficult. I’ll have to proofread the text again, but there shouldn’t be much that needs changing. Formatting is fairly simple thanks to the company (Draft2Digital) I use to produce my self-published books. They provide ISBNs and generate a table of contents. I just have to be consistent about spacing, font size, and so on in the text. Nitpicky stuff. It can be time-consuming, though. The templates are great but they are set up for fiction and tend to indent in the wrong places or start new pages where you don’t want them to. It usually takes me several tries, making corrections in the manuscript and resending it, before everything comes out looking the way it should.

I already have a front cover for the e-book of the How To, so all I need is the copy for the back cover. However, I will need an entirely new cover for the Writer’s Guide and will need to update the frontmatter, including adding an author note.

I was considering all those things and thinking This won’t be too hard when I remembered something. E-books are searchable. Print books are not. Each of these books originally had an index. The entries can be reused but the page numbers will no longer match. After everything else is good to go, I’m going to have to go through every dratted index entry, find the correct page numbers, insert them in the manuscript, resend it, and hope the spacing looks right when I’m done.

Good grief.

I need to do it right, too, because by the time I add in production costs per book and the cut Draft2Digital gets (both non-negotiable), these paperbacks will have to be priced almost as high as if they were traditionally published. Probably $15.99—so as much as triple what the e-book would set a buyer back.

The templates aren’t fond of bibliographies, either.

e-book cover

On the bright side, I can add back the illustrations from the original Writer’s Guide, since I own them. I added out-of-copyright illustrations when I reissued my juvenile biography of Nellie Bly and it came out really well.

So, at long last, here is my question, in multiple parts: Do you prefer print to electronic for nonfiction? Do you give up if it looks like there will be a wait to get a print copy of the book? How much more are you willing to pay for a print copy over an e-book?

Thanks in advance to everyone who weighs in on this issue in the comments section. I’m giving away a free paperback of the Perseverance Press (2008) edition of How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries to one of you. The drawing for the winner works this way: after three days (on June 4), the names from the comments on this post will be written on pieces of paper that are then crumpled and strewn on the floor. The one Shadow pounces on first will get the book. If I have your email address, I’ll contact you. If I don’t, you’ll have to check back here (in the comments) to find out if you’ve won. Best of luck to you all.

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others, including several children’s books. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Her most recent publications are The Valentine Veilleux Mysteries (a collection of three short stories and a novella, written as Kaitlyn) and I Kill People for a Living: A Collection of Essays by a Writer of Cozy Mysteries (written as Kathy). She maintains websites at www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.