Lea Wait's Blog, page 64

But Where’s the Dead Body?

Today we have a very special guest at Maine Crime Writers. I’m especially pleased to have Shelley Burbank visit us because, way back in the dark ages before there was an Internet, she was a student in a section of Freshman Composition I was teaching as adjunct faculty at the University of Maine at Farmington. Shelley didn’t really need me to teach her how to write an essay. She was already a terrific writer and she still is. She’s here to tell you about her first novel, which will be available tomorrow! Please welcome this native Mainer, currently living in California, to the blog.

 

BUT WHERE’S THE DEAD BODY?
Or why my debut private detective crime novel isn’t a murder mystery

Much has been made of Raymond Chandler’s rules for crime writing. Google “Raymond Chandler’s rules for writing mysteries,” and you’ll be presented with a list of links to blog posts and Reddit discussions–all citing the rules (sometimes called the Ten Commandments) culled from an essay entitled, “Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story.” This essay by Chad Nevett was published in The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler. I haven’t read the essay yet, but from what I gather, there were also 13 addenda, which means he really gave 25 rules for the eager new mystery writer to follow.

The  rule that gives me the most angst at this point in my nascent career as a mystery writer is #2, written as follows: “It must be technically sound as to the methods of murder and detection.” It’s actually the only one of the major rules that implies a mystery story must include a murder–which my debut private detective novel, FINAL DRAFT: An Olivia Lively Mystery, does not.

I can’t say I’ve successfully checked all of Chandler’s other boxes. I do my best. As one of my father’s fifth-grade students once blurted out to him, “That’s the best a horse can do, is try.” But for some reason the lack of a dead body in my crime novel about plagiarism (and to a lesser degree, mortgage fraud and cyber crime) seems to cause some people a bit of consternation, especially when considering that bugaboo of the bookselling world–categorization.

“What kind of mystery is this, exactly?” one might ask. “It’s not a cozy because the main character’s not an amateur sleuth. It’s not a police procedural because the main character’s a private eye. But it’s not a hardboiled detective story, because there’s romance and… well…brunching.”

Honestly, if I could go back and change it, maybe throw a fatal stabbing or a nice choking or a toss off a tall building or a sly sip of poison into a champagne glass, I would. But the origin story of my story sheds some light on how I happened to write a mystery without a murder. And how I wrote it without knowing the rules. And how I didn’t plan on writing a mystery novel to begin with.

It was 2014. I’d successfully sold four or five stories to the confession magazines: True Love, True Story. These venerable pulp classics folded after ninety-plus years just as I’d broken into a paid market, and when I thought about what I should do next, I decided I would find something on the cutting edge, something new peeking over the horizon. This time I’d get in at the beginning rather than the end. I discovered an online writing platform called Wattpad.

Now the funny thing about Wattpad in 2014 was that fan fiction ruled, specifically fanfic based on the teen band One Direction. Yes, Harry Styles’s band. That guy. Read about Anna Todd, sometime, and her four After movies based on her One Direction fanfic series written on

Teenage readers and amateur writers abounded on the platform, but there were some older writers posting stories as well. I jumped on board having little idea how it worked. I figured I’d put something up as an experiment and learn as I went along.

I’d been a Nancy Drew fan as a kid, and I read a smattering of crime fiction every year. A few cozies. A thriller or two. Romantic suspense. Why not offer a chick lit short story with a vaguely criminal vibe? I’d already written “Disguised,” a flash fic that featured a feisty female P.I. hot on the trail of her cheating boyfriend. In combat boots and a blond wig. It was 500 words or so. I didn’t expect much of a response.

Shortly after I posted, the weirdest thing happened. I started to get all these comments from readers. “I love this! When is the next chapter?” “Olivia Lively’s great! I can’t wait to see what happens next!” “Hurry up and post!”

I blinked at the screen. What next chapter? 

I soon  figured out that readers thought this was just the opening pages of what would be a full-length mystery novel. I decided to give it a shot. I needed to create a case for Olivia to solve, and I turned to Wattpad itself for inspiration. So many young writers added wording to their book descriptions along the lines of, “Don’t steal my story! This story is copyrighted!”

They were worried about plagiarism. I thought, So why not write a story about a struggling young writer claiming his mentor/professor stole his manuscript? That should interest these young readers.  And that’s how the book came to be. I posted one or two chapters per week. I made online friends from around the world. I gained a respectable number of followers and over 400,000 reads with the story. It never occurred to me to murder anyone in this particular story—or to look up “the rules.”

My bad. I know I’ve been naughty. Please forgive my brazen nerve.

Eventually, I decided to take the book, originally entitled Disguised, off the platform. I sent it to Encircle Publications figuring if they didn’t want it, I’d put it away and work on something new. Happily for me, they liked it. It’s coming out March 8, this female private detective/chick lit mash-up set in Portland, Maine. There’s an academic-type mystery, suspense, and a cast of slightly-odd characters: Quirky college employees, competitive MFA students, a sleazy ex-boyfriend, a manipulative mother, a hot heart doctor, and of course, feisty and fashionable Olivia Lively, P.I.

But no dead body. Not a single one.

Shelley Burbank is a mystery and women’s fiction author and journalist based in Maine and San Diego, California. Her short fiction has been published in True Story Magazine, San Diego Woman Magazine, and The Maine Review and will be included in the Partners In Crime Anthology, Crime Under the Sun, due out this summer. Her debut novel, FINAL DRAFT: An Olivia Lively Mystery will be published by Encircle Publications on March 8, 2023. Shelley’s currently hard at work on the next Olivia Lively mystery, NIGHT MOVES. PS: There’s a dead body in this next one.

Winter’s Joys (Really).

It’s March, and there’s only so much complaining you can do about the sleet, the slush and the potholes, so today I’m going to talk about the joys of winter.

The snow’s piling up outside my window as I write this, but I’m looking on the bright side. While it’s true the third month of the year often seems to last 60 days, optimism is not a fool’s attitude. The light is coming back, kids, and spring is around the corner. Really.

As to the season we’ll soon kick to the curb, here’s my list of things that make me happy in the winter:

Good Mittens:  Warm hands are happy hands, am I right?

Are these mittens, or are these mittens?

Gloves are okay on chilly days, but when it is really cold, mittens offer your fingers the opportunity to huddle together for warmth. I have several pair for bitter cold days, like those I’m modeling  here in a photo taken a couple of years ago on New Year’s Day when the wind was howling during one of our #SundayBeachWalks.

Heated Seats:  Though a latecomer to this innovation, I’m a total convert. There’s nothing that eases your drive to or from work on a cold day like a warm bottom, and it’s good for a lower back ache, too. I have had many cars that were slow to warm up (if they warmed up at all) and recall plenty of teeth- chattering drives when it was too cold to even sing along with the radio. But these days I’m toasty warm on my commute, and that makes me happy, happy, happy.

Plenty of Windshield Washer Fluid:  Who among us hasn’t pulled the little windshield washer lever and instead of the expected gush of blue fluid, gotten a bare trickle woefully insufficient to wash the road grit and grime off the windshield? It’s horrible—especially while driving on the highway—and kind of terrifying at night. What a joy it is to know that you have a topped off reservoir and with the flick of your finger can wash away whatever crap the SUV in front of you is spewing your way.

My winter bible.

Soup: Making soup, especially on Sundays, has become my superpower of late. I was gifted with a wonderful soup cookbook two Christmases ago and have been working my way through it.

Last weekend was a creamy cauliflower soup topped with crispy prosciutto. Tomorrow will be chicken stew.  By spring I’ll tuck it away and pull out the grill, but right now, it just looking at the cover makes me happy.

Lighting the Yard Until The Light Comes Back: We are not the sort of people who leave our holiday lights up year-round (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But for the past few years we’ve embraced solar-powered lights and it has changed our life. No more stepping out onto the icy deck in our slippers to unplug the things before retiring for the night. Our deck railing is wrapped with white and multi-colored mini lights and strings of larger white lights hang from a trellis and fence posts on the edge of the yard. It’s a small thing, but a happy thing.

The best thing is they turn themselves on and off.

Books. This goes without saying, yes?  I’ve not finished working my way through the holiday book stack yet, but have added to it lately with two much-anticipated books.

MCW alum Barbara Ross published a delightful novella called PERKED UP in a collection with Leslie Meir and Lee Hollis. A complement to Barb’s wonderful Maine Clambake series, it has a St. Patrick’s Day theme.  I finished it this snowy morning and enjoyed it tremendously. Soon I plan to try the Irish Soda Bread recipe Barb included in the back to see how it stacks up to my dear departed Mum’s.

The other book that has me buzzing with excitement is my friend Cheryl Head’s standalone novel TIME’S UNDOING, a dual-timeline novel about a young Detroit journalist who travels to Birmingham, Alabama to dig for the truth about the 1929 murder of her great-grandfather when the Klan was on a prolonged reign of terror.  The reporter’s research alarms people who want to keep ugly secrets buried, putting her life in danger.

Cheryl’s inspiration for this book is her own grandfather’s murder, which makes it all the more powerful.  She’ll be attending the Maine Crime Wave Conference in June to talk about TIME’S UNDOING, which has received rave reviews.  I’m beyond thrilled for her, and cannot wait to read what I know is project of her heart.

What makes you happy in the winter? What books have you enjoyed and what are you eager to read? Any good soup recipes? 

Brenda Buchanan brings years of experience as a journalist and a lawyer to her crime fiction. She has published three books featuring Joe Gale, a newspaper reporter who covers the crime and courts beat. She is now hard at work on new projects. FMI, go to http://brendabuchananwrites.com

 

 

 

 

Weekend Update: March 4-5, 2023

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Brenda Buchanan (Monday), special guest Shelley Burbank (Tuesday), Jule Selbo (Thursday), and Joe Souza (Friday).

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

Matt Cost was quite excited to get a blurb from the legendary King of the historical thriller, William Martin, for Velma Gone Awry. His review is spot on and ends with a bang. “Before you’re done, you’ll find a mountain of entertainment, a book filled with action, suspense, plot twists, and a sense that you’re actually living back there in the fantastic world that author Matt Cost brings so vividly to life. Velma may have gone awry. But don’t let her get away. Read the book.” This follows an outstanding review from the Midwest Book Review, as well as a blurb from our very own Jule Selbo. “…a smooth, captivating, twist-y mystery… 8 Ballo is a grand combo of brawn, intellect, empathy, and fast wit.He’s a sleuth worthy of hire, and this reader is looking forward to his next adventure.” The cover artist for Encircle Publications, Deirdre Waite, has updated the cover of Velma Gone Awry with these comments, and the book is ready to go for the April 12th release date.

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

The Magic of Changing Places

Kate Flora: If this were any other March, my husband Ken and I would have recently completed our marathon drive to Florida, where we would spend the month. We would have spent those hours on the road listening to a novel—probably Dickens—and arrived at our rental with a sigh of relief. Alas, Sanibel Island, where we have rented for many years, was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Ian. So this year, because winter is too long and we feel the need to get away, we’re going west.

I’ve blogged before about the value of being in new and different places and seeing new things. There’s something about different weather and about temperatures that are different from New England in March that can be inspiring. So can seeing different vegetation, different animals, and different types of houses. Botanical gardens will have different plants. People’s yards will have different landscaping. Restaurants may feature different ethnicities. There is so much to observe in a new place, or a different one.

As a writer, I find these changes of scene particularly valuable. There’s a kind of brain reset that happens when I have enough concurrent days when I don’t finish my morning coffee and amble over to my small, crowded office where my unending to-do list confronts me. The light coming through the windows will be different. The views outside the windows will as well. There will be new smells and sounds and sometimes even the leaves on the trees will sound different when the wind blows.

When I used to teach writing (something I miss, by the way) one of the exercises I would give my students was to have them carry index cards with them (or a small notebook) and write down things that they observed. Often, at the second class, having been given this assignment, some of them would come in and say they hadn’t seen anything. I would ask if they used headphones or earbuds and usually got a yes. “You have to unplug,” I’d say. “Writers are observers.” And then I could tell that despite what their mothers had told them about minding their own business, their passion for writing was a license to be nosy.

I am sure that some of them were shocked. But being nosy is one good way to collect places, and characters, and voices. My writing partner, Joe Loughlin, used to say it was important to try and involve all the senses, and he was right. Another exercise I used to give my students was to choose a place and describe it three times, each time using only one isolated sense. It could be a revelation to aspiring writers to break the process out like that and see what they discovered. I called it “tuning up their observation skills.”

A few years ago, my husband was shocked when I started vacationing without my laptop. Before that, it always seemed that book arrived from my publisher either just as I was leaving for vacation or while I was away. And as some of you know, publishers always want the manuscript turned around in a week. I even carried it in my backpack on a hike through the Czech republic. I am not taking Mr. Laptop on any more hikes, but he’ll definitely be coming to Utah and Arizona with me. I hope he’ll have a good time and not try to be too productive.

So in a few days I am off. It will be so sad to miss lounging by the pool and long beach walks every evening just before the sun went down. I’ve worked on a lot of books on Sanibel over the years. Sometimes I wonder whether the warm weather might have mellowed Joe Burgess as he gets older and grouchier. Maybe someday I’ll go back and reread the whole series and see if those I worked on in Florida, or on Bailey Island, feel any different.

How Many Milch Cows?

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, once again deeply engrossed in genealogical research. Now that I have the time to explore Ancestry.com more thoroughly, I’m discovering wonderful treasure troves of useless information. A big time-waster? Probably, but to my mind it’s much more fun than spending the same number of hours on Facebook or Twitter or TikTok or playing games online.

So what am I into now? Tax rolls. Notices of sheriff’s sales. And my current fascination, the non-population, aka agricultural census schedules. These were taken in 1860, 1870, and 1880 and recorded information on farms. Since most of my ancestors in the U.S. in those years were farmers, they kept popping up in searches until I finally took a look at one and got hooked.

Old Hickory Farm, Ferndale, New York

Like all old records, they aren’t always complete and some years seem to have been skipped for certain people (or perhaps their names were so illegible that they aren’t turning up in searches done with the correct spelling). In some cases, the first page of the schedule is there, but not the second. Even with those gaps, I discovered quite a bit about four of my great-great grandfathers, all of whom lived in Sullivan County, New York in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The 1860 non-population census included John G. Gorton of Ferndale, one of the great-great-grandfathers. In 1860 he owned 80 improved and 195 unimproved acres of land valued at $4,800. He also had two horses, four milch cows, two oxen, nine other cattle, and thirty sheep. His livestock was valued at $600 and his personal estate was valued at $1,500. Tunis Misner of Liberty, whose daughter would later marry John’s son, farmed 75 improved acres and 25 unimproved valued at $5,000. He had two horses, eight cows, two oxen, two other cattle, and eight sheep, valued at $650.

On the maternal side of my family, great-great-grandfather Isaac Applebee owned real estate in Parksville valued at $500 and had a personal estate of $250. The non-population schedule gives him 5 improved and 120 unimproved acres of land. The value of his farm implements and machinery was $15 and he had one cow, two working oxen, and one swine, valued at $125.

Hornbeck farm, Hurleyville, New York

Meanwhile, Lawrence Hornbeck of Hurleyville, whose son would later marry Isaac’s daughter, had real estate valued at $1000 and a household that included two servants. Lawrence farmed 38 improved acres and 45 unimproved. He had one horse, four cows, two oxen, three other cattle, six sheep, and one swine, valued at $200. In the previous year the farm had produced fifty bushels of rye and fifty bushels of oats.

The non-population schedules for 1870 also included Lawrence and Isaac. Lawrence listed 50 improved acres and 25 of woodland for a value of $1600 and owned farm implements and machinery worth $50. He owned two horses, six milch cows, two working oxen, eight other cattle, four sheep, and two swine. The value of all his livestock was $800. He produced 100 bushels of Indian corn and the same of oats and ninety bushels of buckwheat.

Isaac and Mary Applebee

Meanwhile Isaac Applebee had moved his family from Parksville to Hurleyville. In 1870 his farm contained 100 improved acres and 50 acres of woodland and was valued at $3,400. Farm implements and machinery were worth $100 and he paid $300 in wages during the year, including the value of board. He had two horses, fifteen cows, three other cattle, two sheep, and five swine. The value of all his livestock was $1,100. His land produced twenty bushels of rye, fifty of Indian corn, 250 of oats, and 150 of buckwheat.

Isaac and Lawrence are also in the non-population schedule for 1880. Isaac had 60 tilled acres, 80 acres in permanent meadow or pasture, and 30 in woodland. The value of land, buildings, and fences was $4,000. Farm implements and machinery were valued at $250 and livestock at $700. He paid $70 in wages. The value of production was $1,000. He planted 50 acres in hay and mowed 50 acres. He had two horses, two oxen, fifteen cows, and nine other cattle and sold fifteen still living. He sold 6,000 gallons of milk in 1879. On hand on June 1, 1880 were forty barnyard poultry and four other poultry. They produced 160 dozen eggs in 1879. Seven acres were planted in buckwheat (150 bushels), four in Indian corn (125 bu.), five acres in oats (120 bu.), two acres in rye (20 bu.), one acre in potatoes (100 bu.), and two acres in apples (100 trees; 100 bu.). The total value of orchard production was $15. He also cut twenty cords of wood in 1879, valued at $40.

Lawrence Hornbeck, who lived no more than a mile away, tilled 28 acres, left 27 untilled, and had 20 acres that were woodland. The value of the land, including buildings and fences, was $2000. The value of farm implements and machinery was $200 and the value of all livestock was $480. In 1879, he spent $20 on building and repairs and $20 in wages, including value of board. The estimated value of all farm produce sold, consumed, or on hand was $650. Twenty acres were mown and twenty acres were not mown. Twenty-two acres were planted in hay. He owned two horses, eight cows, three other cattle, two swine, and fifteen barnyard poultry. In 1879, the farm had produced 700 pounds of butter and sixty dozen eggs.

Nathaniel Gildersleeve Gorton in 1872

John Gorton’s son, Nathaniel Gildersleeve Gorton (my great-grandfather) also shows up in the 1880 non-population census, where he was listed as Gildersleeve Gorton, owner. This was the same farm that had once belonged to his father and now consisted of 113 improved acres and 40 unimproved. The value of farmland and buildings was listed as $5,000. His farm implements and machinery were valued at $200 and his livestock at $1,200. In 1879, he spent $50 on building and repairs. The estimated value of all farm productions, sold, consumed, or on hand was $150. Thirty-five acres of his land were mown for hay and on June 1, 1880 he owned one horse but no mules or asses.

Useless information? Maybe. But the details are evocative, and if someone happened to be writing about that period of history . . .

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.

 

The Guest Who Came in from the Cold

Irene M. Drago: Last summer, I spied two crime writers at the Railway Village in Boothbay. Kate Flora and Jule Selbo were sitting behind a table covered with stacks of their top selling mysteries, and I was sitting a few authors away. We were all waiting for the heralded Books in Boothbay to begin. The hands on the clock mounted high on the Meeting House wall informed me we had five minutes to showtime, so I made a beeline to Kate. Why Kate not Jule? Well, that’s a key point in my first blogpost as a guest of Maine Crime Writers.

In Maine, authors tend to form a Congo line as they move from one event to another. When we shake the hand of one author, they turn and introduce us to another. And just like that, we connect and begin to support each other. I met Bruce Robert Coffin at the Poland Spring Strawberry Festival in 2018. As we signed books from morning to dusk, we chatted about the writing life. During that conversation, the former detective sergeant mentioned Kate Flora. He said she was one of his greatest mentors, and I sensed his sincerity. In 2020, when COVID–19 cancelled all our events, I asked Bruce if he’d be willing to interview me about my new novel via a Webinar with Curtis Memorial Library. He said yes and that virtual event was the best conversation I’ve ever had about The Maine Point.

Are you wondering how I’m going to weave Kate Flora and Jule Selbo into this blogpost? Am I creating a mystery? I hope so because since moving to Maine I’ve come to believe that mystery writers rule. Over the last six years, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Bruce, Maureen Milliken, Charlene D’Avanzo, and Matt Costa, and the more I learn about Maine Crime Writers, the more I want to be a Maine crime writer, but I write historical fiction. For better or worse, the M in Irene M. Drago does not stand for mystery. Nevertheless, my conversations with Bruce and other authors gave me the courage to walk up to Kate Flora at Books in Boothbay and say, “Hi, Kate, my name is Irene Drago.” And much to my surprise, she replied, “I’ve heard that name before.” Then she introduced me to Jule Selbo, and I felt embraced. Within five minutes, Jule suggested I write a blog as a guest of MCW. I shook my head and told her I didn’t write mysteries, but she was ready for that response and invited me to write about my process. In a blink, Jule convinced me to be a guest blogger among some of the coolest authors I know.

Now, on a cold winter day, I’m keeping my promise. In addition to expressing my gratitude to the many crime writers who’ve encouraged me to stay the course and keep writing, I’d like to address the topic of process because that’s where we can find common ground. In order to write a compelling story, in depth research is a necessity. Before I begin a historical novel, I read every nonfiction book I can find that explores the time and place I want to create. Before I introduce the first character and begin a storyline, I peruse maps, photos, newspaper articles, journals, and letters that describe real people, places, and events in a particular time period. The research for Lavinia Wren and the Sailmakers, my latest novel, was extensive beyond measure because I met the granddaughter of one of the last captains and shipbuilders of schooners out of Thomaston, and she gave me incredible insight into the Dunn & Elliot Sail Loft—a fortuitous beginning.

When I write historical fiction, my goal is to draw the reader into my characters’ world and lead them to believe that the characters might have lived. Lavinia might have talked and dressed just the way I describe her, and she might have felt the same joy and sorrow I spill onto the page. Recently, I received an email from a reader who wondered if Lavinia Wren was an actual person in history. The reader asked, “Did Lavinia attend Colby College and work for prison reform?”  Though I was flattered, I had to tell her that Lavinia was completely fictitious, but some of the supporting characters were actual shipbuilders and sailmakers who lived and worked in Thomaston. I also told her that the storyline involving the prison—in Thomaston but not of it— was inspired by a real prisoner. Then I sweetened my reply by telling her that Charles Ranlett Flint, one of Lavinia’s closest friends, was my touchstone. Born in 1850, Charles was the son of a prominent shipbuilder and became enormously successful as a commission merchant. In fact, he was labeled the “Father of Trusts.” Historical fiction blends fantasy with reality and that’s an intriguing process.

All of my stories are imbued with hope, but they are also peppered with flawed characters who struggle with the challenges of life and death. As a former teacher of language and literature, I often say we teach history through war. As a novelist, I prefer to pull the thread of love, not war, through history. If I’m looking for common denominators among mysteries and historical fiction, the exploration of good and evil comes to mind. Lavinia Wren is orphaned by the Civil War, but she survives because of love. My historical novels are multi-generational, family love stories, and every generation is impacted by war. That’s the cold reality, but this winter I’m a guest blogger for Maine Crime Writers, and I’m feeling the warmth of the Maine literary community. We will survive.

Irene M. Drago’s first novel, Daughters of Long Reach, won a Next Generation Indie Book Award and led to a sequel, The Maine Point. Both have earned her praise for creating historical fiction that rings true. Born in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, Drago has always been fascinated with tugboats, schooners, U.S. Navy ships, and every kind of watercraft. After college, she worked for the Defense Department as a Russian analyst, earned a Master of Arts degree in Spanish language and literature, and taught at the high school and college level. She lives in Bath, Maine, the City of Ships. In the summer, she and her husband enjoy piloting their Maritime Skiff around Casco Bay and watching their grandchildren grow.

Mysteries That Feature Books

Charlene D’Avanzo: Although I’ve read lots of mysteries none focused on books. It’s no surprise though that quite a few whodunits do feature libraries and librarians, book groups, booksellers, and more. Here are some that use the silence, solitude, and eyes peering from the other side of the spines to good advantage.

Bottom line is that the quiet is only comforting until you want — no, desperately need — someone around to help you.

Here are a few novels to get you started:

The Woman In The Library by Sulari Gentill

When a scream shocks the quiet reading room at the Boston Public Library, security guards rush to investigate. Those inside must stay where they are until the area is secured. Four researchers in the reading room are now trapped together, each with their own suspicions and fears. This story-in-a-story novel is all about the frights and friends we can make between a library’s walls.

The Plot is Murder by V.M. Burns

Who doesn’t dream of owning a mystery-filled bookstore? Samantha Washington is preparing to open exactly that while also writing a mystery of her own. But, when a realtor ends up dead n her backyard, suspicions turn her way. Samantha does, admittedly, know a lot about crimes. Before she can open the store of her dreams and finish her book, Samantha teams up with a group of retirees, including her grandmother, to solve the case.

Murder By The Book by Rex Stout

 When everyone who has read Leonard Dykes’s unpublished manuscript -including the author himself – is found dead, brilliant and eccentric Nero Wolfe, along with his sidekick, decides to set a trap.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

 

 

 An eccentric researcher is found dead in the basement of the Literary and Historical Society in Quebec City. Shrewd Chief Inspector Armand Gamache investigates.

Weekend Update: February 25-26, 2023

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Charlene D’Avanzo (Monday), special guest Irene Drago (Tuesday), Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Thursday), and Kate Flora (Friday).

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

February 28 is your last chance to snag Maggie Robinson’s cozy, 1920s-set Nobody’s Sweetheart Now for $1.99. Blurb, first chapter, and buy links: Nobody’s Sweetheart Now | Maggie Robinson

 Matt Cost has had the second book in the Mainely Mystery series, Mainely Fear, released into the wild on Audiobook.

This series is also highlighted in an article that Cost did for Digital Publishing that will be published on March 6th. It is about the transformation from bookstore owner to writer. Thirty years ago, he owned a mystery bookstore in Brunswick, Maine called The Coffee Dog Bookshop. That bookstore lives on in the Mainely series, as the protagonist, Goff Langdon, is a PI and a mystery bookstore owner.

Cost recently was on a radio panel discussing the effect that AI is and will be having on writers, authors, and books. Check out the panel of the Bonnie Graham Technology Revolution and can be viewed HERE.

Kate Flora recently introduced a great short program for the Sisters in Crime New England chapter on Shortcast, a short program for producing podcasts that is perfect for the intimidated. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yayf2UEZGHE

Kate Flora: And I just got the cover for a collection of short crime stories designed to showcase the contributors series books titled: A Sampling of Sleuths.

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, I’m Too $@#! Old for That

 In 2004, I was a Fishtrap Fellow at the Fishtrap Writers’ Conference in Joseph, Oregon. The theme of the conference was “Writing and the West,” and included poets, fiction writers, songwriters, and anyone else who had anything to say about living in and creating in the Western half of the country. I remember most clearly meeting Rosalie Sorrels, a folksinger who’d played with Dave Van Ronk, Utah Phillips, and Pete Seeger. She was 71 at the time, and I don’t know if I ever said it to her out loud, but I surely thought “I want to be just like you when I grow up.”

Notwithstanding the question about whether I ever grew up, what I meant at the time was I wanted to emulate her easy way with her art, her sense that no one much cared what you did so you might as well do what you wanted, and her willingness to share what she knew with anyone who showed the slightest spark of interest. Her creative spark was as alive then as it had been in her youth, playing guitar in the cafés of New York.

I’m a lot closer to 71 now than I was then (obviously), but I find I’m still looking for the mentors to carry me later into my seventies, on into my eighties, and sans creek-rising, the nineties and beyond. Who are they?

Pablo Casals, who practiced his cello four or five hours a day into his eighties, because, as he said “I think I’m beginning to see some improvement.”?

Eubie Blake, the jazz musician who played and recorded until he died at 96?

Harriet Doerr, who published her debut novel at the age of 74?

Georgia O’Keefe, who went blind at 84, but continued to paint until she died at 98?

I teach older adults and I’m always troubled by the fact that so many people in that cohort don’t think of themselves as creative. Many have lived lives of great achievements in business, education, family life, and yet they don’t see the spark that made them alive through  their work. Worse, they think they are too old to create any more, too old to pick up a paintbrush, a pen, a hammer and chisel.

What works in their favor, if they could see it, is the shedding of some of the daily responsibilities: commuting, working, childrearing, the expectations of others. Time becomes more abundant as we age, though it moves a hell of a lot faster. But it is nothing to take a little time for yourself and create something. Write a poem, knit a scarf, tie a fly. The product doesn’t have to be beautiful and it doesn’t have to be extraordinary. But the impulse needs breathing space. It is nothing to create, and it is everything.

Will AI replace fiction writers? No. You’re welcome.

Maureen Milliken: I decided to take the day off from writing a post and have artificial intelligence do it instead.

Kidding!

But I’m sure many writers have had the same experience I have — that smug guy (it’s always a guy, sorry fellas), who seems to look for reasons to diminish or patronize your writing by coming up with “reasons” it won’t succeed. I don’t know about you, but it’s been happening since I started writing my first book, and now that I’m on my fourth one, it still happens. Twice in the past few months I’ve been asked by different acquaintances some version of “What are you going to do when AI is writing all the books?”

My answer? Gosh, I guess I’ll strap on my jet pack, move to Mars and start the hologram pet cat business I’ve always dreamed of.

Kidding again! My out-loud answer is “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. It’s not my problem.”

There are definitely some writing careers that AI could surplant. Since it draws information from the internet (though not always accurately), writing jobs that revolve around gathering information and disseminating in a way designed to get online clicks are probably the best use. I’m not talking about journalism, which when it’s done right involves critical thinking and judgment calls, but rather the kind of stuff you see all the time like “10 reasons you should embrace AI” Or “The top five all-time best movies” or “25 things you can make with tofu.”

As a fiction writer, I look at AI the same way I look at all the other “competition”: Not my problem. I saw a statistic recently that about 4 million new book titles come out a year, with 500,000 to 1 million traditionally published, and the rest independently published. If people start publishing AI books, that’s just more into that mix.

Some of those millions of books published every year are really good, some not so much. Some really good books never make it onto anyone’s radar. Some mediocre ones become big sellers.

You can’t worry about it when you’re writing. The only thing you should worry about is your own stuff and making it the book you want it to be.

I was at an author event a few years ago where an aspiring writer fretted to a panel that some bigger, better writer was writing a book with the same premise as hers. Should she find something else to write about? It’s a common concern when you’re starting out. My first book starts with a body found in a melting snowbank. Every time someone came across a book with a body in a snowbank, they’d let me know. I’d be like, “Uh oh, should I change my book?” The answer was, of course, no.

The thing is, you can have a dozen writers in a room, give them a prompt for an idea, and get 12 wildly different stories. None will be the same. Some will be good, some will be bad. The different outcomes all depend on how the writer’s brain works and their real, human intelligence, along with their imagination, experiences, perceptions of the world around them, and more. If you have AI as the 13th “writer” in the room, its product will probably be a little better than some (I mean you, people who don’t know punctuation, sentence structure, etc). But it will probably be worse than most as far as being interesting, character development, voice, dialogue, and all those things that come out of your writer brain.

Me and James Joyce in Dublin in August. Or rather, a statue of James Joyce. The real person would have a lot more to him.

Voice is one of those often overlooked, but really most important things about individual writing. That is, once you’ve mastered the basic rules and can string sentences and words together in a way that makes sense. Voice comes right from the writer. Voice imitators are obvious. I was a judge in a national contest for self-published writers for several years and unique voices stood out. Some didn’t have voice at all, but were simply rote writers. Technically they were OK, but the books were boring. Many tried to imitate that annoying buddy movie style (think “I’m too old for this [expletive]” every time something bad happens, a line I read in hundreds of books). It didn’t work because it was an imitation, probably from writers who watched more movies and TV than read books.

Another writer’s book was a garbled mess. In my critiques, I always tried to do the postive-negative-positive sandwhich, keeping in mind that while I was reading hundreds of these, this is the one book this person has written and it’s dear to their heart. I gently (honest!) pointed out that sentences had to make sense if you’re going to get your point across to the reader. The writer responded angrily that James Joyce got away with it. My first reaction was “I KNOW James Joyce and you, sir, are not James Joyce.” That’s not what I said. What I said was something like, Joyce knew the rules and any rule-breaking was for a reason. I took a semester of Joyce in college and it was brutal, but illuminating. He’s grown on me over the years. I don’t think this guy was trying to imitate James Joyce, I think he just didn’t care enough to know what he was doing.

Does AI “care”? It’s not a question that I feel I need to spend any time pondering. But inauthentic voice, which AI would have to have, often falls flat.

To belabor the whole thing with a metaphor, it’s comparing the James Joyce statue in Dublin with the real guy. The statue looks like him, but that’s about it. It’s not him. AI fiction writing may look like fiction writing, but, from what I’ve seen, doesn’t have the heart, soul and breathing life that something produced by a human would.

Sure, smug guy who wants to see writers fail will point out, but they’ll perfect it to the point where no one can tell the difference! Gotcha!

No, not got me. Haven’t you been reading this at all? (It’s probably the same smug guy who likes to approach writers at tables where they’re selling books to announce, “I don’t read!” It’s something that happens with alarming frequencey. I just smile and say, “Your loss.”)

I try to imagine someone who publishes a book with AI trying to pitch it to an agent or publisher. If you care so little about what you’ve “written,” if you’re that disengaged, how will you convice anyone else to care?

I know the answer to that is that plenty of writers have done it. Yes they have. I’ve seen writers who do very well, but look at writing as simply producing content that people will buy. In that sense, AI is no different.

I’m sure that people will start creating books with AI. I’m sure some will get published. I’m sure readers will buy those books. Just like countless other books that I take a look at and think, “Seriously? Ugh.”

I don’t care. Let them do it, whether they’re produced by AI or anyone else. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. No one will write the book I’m writing. AI won’t and no one else will, either. Good or bad, it’s all mine. Same with the one you’re writing.

So, no need to buy a jet pack or wait until travel to Mars is a thing, or even consider a more immediate career change because of AI. If you enjoy writing and care about it, carry on. AI is not our problem. You’re welcome.