Lea Wait's Blog, page 81

And It Came To Pass

A darkness was spreading over the world and had covered a frightening portion before the Cosmic Caretaker noticed. They had been so engrossed in the latest book borrowed from the Library at the Center of the Universe, their dereliction of duty was almost forgivable. They placed a bookmark at the end of a particularly juicy chapter and set it down.

“Damn humans,” They muttered, observing multiple disasters unfolding around the globe. “They give more trouble than any other six worlds under my care combined. Well, grousing isn’t gonna fix much, so where should I begin.”

They got up to speed by watching several hours of media broadcasts, realizing all too soon that most of what humans considered news was anything but. Fixing that was as good a place to start as any. They snapped their fingers and social media was filled with cute cat photos and prancing unicorns. Every time anyone tried to post something hateful or untrue, they lost a finger and their device melted.

They turned to the networks. There was so much bias passing for news, they wanted to initiate a blackout. Instead inspiration hit and every time someone tried to pass off a lie, or a distorted fact as news, they turned into a chicken. In short order, newsrooms across the globe were cleaning up chicken poop, broken eggs and loose feathers.

They sat back to watch the carnage and realized there were more serious issues at hand than disinformation. Evil was rampant, and the number of souls perpetrating it was far beyond what human laws and morality could deal with. “Well, desperate measures and all that,” they muttered. What was that old sports adage humans used-Addition by subtraction, or something like it. They didn’t want to create a new problem while trying to fix another. Ten million is a good number to start with, they thought and snapped their fingers again. When the full moon rose that evening, people all over the globe were stunned at the change on its surface. A pile of evil people, ten million in all, was visible to the naked eye.

Unfortunately a scramble ensued to fill power vacuums everywhere as a result. Fortunately the Cosmic Caretaker had a Plan B. Anyone perpetrating an act of violence following the mass export of evildoers to the moon, was turned to stone. Public works departments had to hire additional staff and rent front end loaders in order to free streets and public buildings. It seemed like there was an endless number of fools in the human race, but after six months, the number of new statues slowed to a trickle.

Cleaning up evil was just the beginning. They turned their attention to damage done to the planet by unchecked development, greed, and stupidity. This was where the Cosmic Caretaker’s creativity really came to the fore. The quickest way to right the ship known as Mother Earth was to capture carbon, and they did so with a flourish. Flying devices sucked it from the atmosphere and the oceans before compressing it into diamond hard sheets that were superimposed over decaying roadways. Excess went into building giant greenhouses. Construction company and paving executives cried foul, but taxpayers and government officials secretly, and not so secretly celebrated. When global temperatures started dropping back to normal, and drought-stricken areas began experiencing rainfall again, more of humanity celebrated.

After brewing a fresh pot of coffee, the Cosmic Caretaker read for a bit before resuming their cleanup of the dumpster fire known as Planet Earth. They had a special fondness for the State of Maine, having camped in the northern part when they were younger. This time, a giant delta-winged craft made measured passes across the state, sucking up ticks, Browntail Moth caterpillars, and green crabs until none were left. Once they were captured, the haul was compressed and shot off, to descend weeks later through the super hot and acidic atmosphere of Venus. Sure, some of each species would migrate back into the state, but the moderating temperature would make the numbers negligible.

They thought for a bit over a second cup of coffee. The obsession with other peoples’ private lives and bodies disgusted them. Another finger snap was in order, they decided, but it needed to result in something so startling it couldn’t be ignored. “Of course,” they said with a smile. “A play on a book title would be a perfect tough. In a matter of days, all the zealots who wanted to inflict their values on women of childbearing age, found themselves with a womb, complete with a view port, filled with nearly mature porcupine fetuses. “Serves those pricks right,” they muttered.

The Cosmic Caretaker knew they couldn’t fix everything on the first pass, but one particularly annoying aspect of their earthly check-ins was how sloppy and lazy many inhabitants were. Trash was scattered all over, with dog poop being the most offensive. This fix required a double finger snap which was tiring, but the results were criminally satisfying. When offenders turned in for the night, they found their discards placed under the sheets.

There was one final action they needed to take before sitting back and letting Earth do its thing unsupervised. Humans treated weapons like kindergarten kids treated toys-recklessly. They snapped their fingers and all bombs, both nuclear and conventional softened, becoming huge blobs of silly putty. Attempts to make more elicited a similar result. Firearms were next. Any attempt to use one to hurt another human resulted in the barrel making a U-shape and shooting the perpetrator. Knives being used against another, except when the holder was defending themselves, became venomous snakes that bit the attacker. The homicide rate dropped to all time lows, and emergency rooms heaved a collective sigh of relief.

“It’s not perfect, but when has anything been so,” They muttered, turning their attention to making lunch. They had another pressing task this afternoon. Three new books had come in at the library and were calling their name in a most seductive manner.

(This is what my brain does after reading the daily newspaper. Hope you had a great Fourth of July)

As American as a Bailey Island Ice Cream Social

This post ran the first summer of our Maine Crime Writers blog. We’re are now in our eleventh year. The cast of writers changes but the insights into writing, and Maine, and how writers see the world continue. I’m not sure today’s ice cream social down the road at Library Hall still starts at two, but it will happen, and it will always be a fun part of a Bailey Island summer.

Kate Flora here. As a native Mainer (Union High School class of I’m not telling you) who’s gone away and come back, I’m now enjoying my twenty-second Bailey Island summer, where I struggle to keep my eyes on the computer screen and my mind of my work when I’m constantly drawn into watching fog and sunsets, clouds and lobster boats, osprey, eider ducks, and seals. This is a new part of the state for me. I misspent my youth around Rockland and Camden and I set my Joe Burgess police procedurals in Portland. It’s also, like so much of Maine, as photogenic as a beauty queen.

Bailey Island, part of the town of Harpswell and located at the end of a chain of islands starting from

Cook’s Corner in Brunswick and crossing Great Island and Orrs Island, is reached by an historic (and scarily narrow when you meet a huge truck full of lobsters) bridge, the Cribstone Bridge, made of granite blocks that resemble the pieces in a child’s Jenga toy. It’s a drive worth taking if you’re someone who loves to round corners and be greeted by wonderful views. Maine has over 3000 miles of coastline, and 218 of them are in Harpswell. A hundred years ago, boats used to bring people up from Boston to stay at the hotel, or to board with locals for the summer. Now our summer people arrive by car and SUV, carrying kayaks or towing boats, still looking for that salty tang in the air, the gorgeous vistas of bays dotted with green islands, and the cool ocean breezes.

Like many another who has “discovered” a special part of Maine, I’m always torn between wanting to share my part of the state, and wanting to protect it from an influx of too many people. But the beauty and charm of Bailey Island cries out to be shared, so today I’m going to take you across the bridge, past Giant Stairs Cafe, past our tiny post office that residents raised the money to keep open, and BIGGS (Bailey Island General Store) and on to Library Hall, where the annual Fourth of July Ice Cream social is held.

Library Hall, a former library and community meeting hall that now hosts wedding receptions and art shows as well as community meetings, sits on a hill overlooking a broad open field and Mackerel Cove, a working lobstering harbor, where the boats start going out at 4:30 in the morning, and the thrum of diesel engines echoes around the cove.

On July 4th, Library Hall is set with festive

Giant Stairs on Bailey Island

holiday tables. The gathering is community at its best. The narrow road is choked with cars and the lawn overflows with residents and their guests, as generations of year-rounders and summer folk, from senior citizens to newborns, come together to share a long-standing Bailey Island tradition. Costumes and crazy hats abound. Red and white and blue is de rigueur. One group is running a raffle; another group is giving out information about raising money to help buy one of the island’s treasures, a rock-bordered ribbon of sand called Robinhood Beach.

Inside, visitors who can tear themselves away from the view and the fresh sea breezes on this gloriously clear July afternoon find one of the great bargains of the summer: two scoops of ice cream on top of a brownie, with chocolate sauce and strawberry sauce and whipped cream and a cherry, topped with a teeny American flag on a toothpick, plus a cup of lemonade, all for the giant price of $3.00. It’s especially delicious eating sitting on the broad steps, in the shade of a tree, looking out at the white sails of boats moving among the islands.

Many try to get there early to be in time for one of the highlights of the afternoon–the Kazoorchestra. Clad in red, white and blue topped with crazy hats, with the smallest members arriving in a giant lobster trap pulled by a truck, this group comes marching down the main street, which is also route 24, which is also, in fact, about the only street on Bailey Island. When they arrive, they hand out kazoos to anyone who’s feeling patriotic, adventurous or musical (this last might be debatable) and the band plays on. God Bless America may not sound quite melodic, but the combination of neighbors and friends,  laughing, capering children and ninety-year-olds smiling from their chairs carries it straight to the heart.

 

 

 

Weekend Update: July 2-3, 2022

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Kate Flora (Monday), John Clark (Tuesday), Brenda Buchanan (Thursday), and Jule Selbo (Friday).

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

What a Writer Reads

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, taking a look back at my checkered career and once again finding a convenient topic to blog about. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been rereading many old favorites since the pandemic began. Let’s face it. There’s nothing like a good comfort read (or escapist fiction, if you will) to take one’s mind off real-world problems.

Some of the books I chose to lose myself in have penciled-in dates on the flyleaf to indicate when I read that particular novel in the past. A fair number have more than one such notation, and some go as far back as the 1980s. That started me thinking.

I got serious about writing a novel in 1976. I sold my first fiction, a short story for children, in 1980. In 1982, I started using daily planners, a practice I still follow. Along with appointments, I write down what I’m working on, where I’ve submitted a manuscript, and the title of any book I’ve just finished reading. With the exception of reference books, the ones I don’t need to read from cover to cover to find whatever detail I’m looking for, my daybooks contain a record of every book I’ve read for the last forty years.

What a writer reads can’t help but influence what she writes. I’ve written in several genres over those four decades, and when I was just getting started in each new one, I read a lot of books in that genre to get a feel for what worked and what didn’t. From 1982-86, I was heavily into novels written for ages eight to twelves, since the first fiction I sold was for that age group. What I didn’t remember was how many mysteries I was reading in those years, or that they would lay the foundation for what I’d write in the future.

The titles in those early daybooks include many classic mystery novels—a lot of books by Agatha Christie and Marjorie Allingham with a sprinkling of Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy L. Sayers—but I was also reading romantic suspense, particularly Phyllis A. Whitney, Mary Stewart, and an author most people today probably haven’t heard of—Anne Maybury. At the same time, I was borrowing heavily from my local library, where the mystery collection ran heavily to just a few writers. Some continued to write while others apparently faded away. I discovered Elizabeth Peters and Charlotte MacLeod, both of whom I’ve reread many times, but I also read lots of titles by Anne Morice and Anthea Fraser. With few exceptions, most of what I read fell into the “traditional” category.

Ellis Peters is another name that frequently crops up in my early daybooks. When I began writing my Face Down series, I consciously copied her regular use of a subplot involving a young couple in love. In many of her books, Brother Cadfael helps the courtship along while also solving the mystery at the center of the novel.

I’ve read this futuristic romance at least seven times since 1989

And speaking of romance, by the late 1980s, I’d discovered category romance (with torrid love scenes!), a relatively new genre at the time. Historical romance was a separate genre, and took longer to catch on. I apparently read 425 books in 1988, most of them romance novels. I still reread authors I discovered way back then—Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz in contemporary romance and romantic suspense, and Mary Jo Putney and Jo Beverley in historical romance. When I started writing romance myself. I ended up selling ten contemporary romances (nine of them “category” romances for lines like Silhouette Intimate Moments and Bantam Loveswept) and five historical romances.

In skimming through some of my oldest daybooks, it’s clear that most of what I was reading was directly related to what I was about to write. Once I was actively writing in a genre, though, I usually tried to avoid reading other writers in the same genre. I didn’t want my subconscious to start imitating anyone else’s style. Instead, I read in genres I was not writing. Science fiction was an early favorite. In 1985, I read Harry Harrison’s entire Stainless Steel Rat series. Later I tended to read Regency romance. It was highly unlikely I’d ever try to write in either of those genres and they made a nice change from what I was working on. I kept up that practice, more or less, throughout my career. If I was writing cozies, I read historical novels, and vice versa, and sprinkled in between was a lot of romantic suspense.

Now that I’m semi-retired, I can read anything I want, and I have one big advantage when I decide to reread a book because I enjoyed it in the past: I rarely remember much of the plot, especially if a few years have passed since I last read it, so I don’t have to worry about recalling so much detail that it spoils the story.

Any other re-readers out there? Have you kept track of how many times you’ve reread a favorite book? Is there one you reread at certain seasons? I often reread Charlotte MacLeod’s Rest You Merry as a Christmas treat.

 

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.

 

What Makes a Good Book? By Matt Cost

What makes a good book is a conundrum. For many years a good book has been determined by a select few reviewers who dictate whether a book has literary merit. But the truth of the matter is that most (almost all) readers do not have a PhD in English nor an MFA in writing. Doesn’t it stand to reason that the majority of readers will have different tastes in books than the reviewers, certainly those at the most established and hallow of institutions?

If not reviewers, then, perhaps it is popularity as determined by lists such as the New York Times Bestseller List or the Amazon Best Sellers. Interestingly enough, these two lists have very few crossover titles. They are both based on algorithms only known to the powers that be, and again, are suspect in how accurate that they are.

The New York Times collects their data from a smattering of stores across the country ranging from big box stores, large chains, and small independent shops. They do not share from which particular sellers that data is compiled. They do take into account Amazon sales, but not to the tune of the 65% of market share that Amazon controls. In other words, it is not a accurate list.

Amazon is even more disingenuous. They don’t share their algorithm for determining sales but say it involves past rankings, current trends, product price changes and promotions, and other things as well. Other things? It seems to me this would be simple. They sold 113 copies of MOUSE TRAP and that was more than the competitor, MIND TRAP, at 111 copies. Nope. Activate the algorithm. That is not how it works. Nobody knows how it works.

So, if literary reviewers are merely opinion based human beings based on life experiences that don’t match hardly any of the population, and popularity indexes are suspect at best, what are we left with in determining a good book?

Here is my guide to choosing the book that is right for you.
1) Find reviewers, big or small, who speak to you. Chances are, you’re not going to like the same books espoused in the New York Times Book Review. That doesn’t mean you don’t like reading. That just means they don’t speak for you. Find YOUR reviewers.
2) Share books that you liked with friends without judgement. Maybe you like romance. Good for you. So does most of the world. Maybe your thing is horror, or fantasy, or mystery. Heck, maybe you’re an adult who loves young adult titles about historical characters. You have to be honest with yourself, speak up, and share what you like. And listen to others that do as well.
3) Know what you like, or more importantly, what you don’t like, and pick accordingly. I recently had a reader ‘shelve’ one of my books as potty mouth. Yes, it has bad language. If you are offended by swearing, don’t read books that contain it. The same goes for violence and sex.
4) Pacing: Characters, adjectives, description, and setting (CADS). How fast or slow do you like the story to go? If you prefer breakneck speed, you might not like page-long descriptions of characters using many adjectives to fill out the setting of the book. Or vice versa. Many people love detailed and lyrical prose on every facet of the book. Chances are you fall somewhere in the middle.

In summary, be honest with yourself in what you like to read. Then, find reviewers, friends, and authors that represent that genre you call your own and live there. Read on. Write on.

Matt Cost is the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of the Mainely Mystery series, the Clay Wolfe/Port Essex series, and several works of historical fiction.

Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.
Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.

Some questions and answers for writers about how to get started

I was chatting with a neighbor the other day, and it turns out she’s been working on a book for several years, but is stuck and wondering where she can get support, information, resources, etc. In short, shes wanted to know how she could learn more about writing.

Some of her questions reminded me of the questions I had way back when I was trying to write my first book. That made me think that there may be other writers who have similar questions.

Keep this in mind with every answer, so I don’t have to keep saying it, that everyone is different. Every writing process is different. Figure out what works for you, then do it.

Q. Do I need to take special writing classes? I tried one once, and didn’t really like it. Oh, and I don’t have any money, anyway.

A. No, you don’t need to take special writing classes. You can if you want to, but it’s not required. But you do need to find some way to learn more about that craft than you know now.

The number one thing to do is read as much as you can, both good books and bad books. Think about what you like and don’t like and figure out what they’re doing that works. Read criticism as well — it’ll make you think about your writing. I don’t mean book reviews, since most aren’t that helpful. Look online for “literary criticism.”

ind writing resources that help you learn how to do what you want to do. Understand grammar, puncutaiton, word use and the more complicated things like point of view, first person vs. third person and more.

One book that’s necessary to have — and yes, buy the book, is the Chicago Manual of Style. This is the style book that the publishing industry uses and will help with the technical stuff. Also dig out your old Strunk & White “Elements of Style,” and if you don’t have one, go buy one. Yes, buy a hard copy of the book (more on this in a minute). One book I always recommend is “Don’t Murder Your Mystery,” by Chris Roerden. It’s an excellent resource for learning about bad writing habits and how to overcome them. You don’t have to be writing a mystery to benefit from Roerden’s advice.

The reason I say buy the hard copy of the book is that you want to have them handy as references. You should actually read “Elements of Style” and “Don’t Murder Your Mystery” all the way through. You’ll want to put sticky notes in them and bookmarks, so you can go back and remind yourself of things. Just because the internet exists doesn’t mean it’s the best way to use a resource. That doesn’t mean you can’t look up stuff on the internet, too. Just, for these resources, buy them and use them.

Another thing I recommend is to attend the New England Crime Bake, even if you’re not writing a mystery. You will meet fantastic people who are doing exactly what you’re doing, attend panels and workshops that’ll answer a lot of your questions and find out how to access resources and more.

One last thing. Learn to diagram sentences. I’m not having fun with you, I’m serious. It’ll improve your writing and editors will love you. Even if you were force-fed it by really mean nuns in grade school, give yourself a refresher.

2. Should I join a writing group?

It’s up to you. The benefit is that you have kindred souls you can discuss writing with, and if they are the right people, they’ll also help you make your writing better. Sometimes it’s hard to find a good fit, so keep that in mind. But don’t shy away just because you’re afraid to have people read and critique your writing. If you want your book to get published, you have to get used to that. You’ll eventually learn what criticism is worthwhile and what type of it isn’t. If they’re not getting what you’re doing, and you’re confident that you know what you’re doing and have done the work to back it up, it’s not the right fit. If you find that what they discuss with you makes sense and it’s making your writing better, it’s the right fit.

3. But if they read my stuff, they may steal it, right?

No. They won’t. If you gave 10 people in a room a writing prompt, they would all come up with wildly different stories. Only you can write what you’re going to write, since it’s coming from inside your head. Sure, they can try — though in my 15 years of blabbing on and on and on to other writers about my plots, characters, story lines, etc., no one has ever stolen squat from me that I know if. This isn’t to say there may not be some people without great imaginations who need to steal from their writing group pals, but they’re not going to do with it what you would, so don’t sweat it. There are much bigger things to worry about, believe me.

And think about this — you just spent 20 minutes describing every minute detail of your book to me. Every. Single. Detail. And you didn’t even know me when we began talking. So, obviously you need to talk about it with someone Now, just hang tight right here, I gotta get home to my laptop and get all that down. Kidding! I have my own book going on in my head. Yours is  yours. I think most writers feel the same way.

4. I know I’ve seen books with similar plots, you even told me your first book, COLD HARD NEWS, started with a body in a snowbank, and I know I’ve read other books with bodies in snowbanks, um, so. Just saying.

Yes, it can be worrisome when you’re writing and you see some reference to some other book, and it has something yours has in it too. You’re afraid either 1) everyone will think you copied or 2) you and this other person have both written the exact same book, so you have to scrap yours and start with something new since theirs is being reviewed in People magazine and yours is still 59,000 words of blah blah blah.

Neither of those things will happen. (See answer to question 3.) When that starts to worry me, I just channel Sister Catherine, my seventh and eighth grade English teacher, who told us, triumphantly and constantly, “No writer is original! Even Shakespeare wasn’t original!” Hit yourself on the shoulder really hard with a ruler, too, so you don’t forget it. Not that that ever happened to me.

5. How do I write good dialogue? It’s really hard!

Yes,  it is. Writing is hard. The best way to write good dialogue is to know your characters well. Think of how they would speak and what they need to say in the scene. Don’t just borrow lines from buddy movies, because the dialogue in those movies sucks. I was a judge in the Writer’s Digest self-published contest for several years and if I see one more scene were someone gets hurt, but says cheerfully, “I’m okay!” or “I’m too old for this shit,” I’m going to throw my Netflix subscription out the window.

I can tell by the look on your face that answer wasn’t the quick fix you wanted to hear, but the better you know your characters, know what’s going on in a scene and know how much and how little to say, the better your dialogue will be.

6. I know you keep saying writing’s hard, there are no quick fixes, blah blah blah, but give me something. Isn’t there something?

Yes. And you’ve already heard it. Stephen King in another excellent writing book, “On Writing,” says to sit down and write. Just write. And keep writing. (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the idea.)

7. One last thing, do I really need to have it edited? If I do, my sister-in-law is an English teacher, so she can do it, right?

Yes to the first part. No to the second part. Whether you’re going to self-publish or query agents or something in between, you want to have the best possible manuscript. English teachers are awesome, but they don’t understand all the aspects of actual editing that a book editor does. Yes it costs money. It should. It’s one of the most undervalued professions in the world.

As a judge in the Writer’s Digest self-published contest I read more than 500 self-published books (yes, I know). I can count on two hands and have fingers left over how many were decently edited. Bad editing makes a bad book.

While you’re at it, learn about simple formatting, too. And please, whatever you do, don’t use the space bar to indent and don’t put two spaces after a period (this isn’t the 1960s and you’re not using a typewriter). And uncheck the box in Microsoft Word that says “leave a space between paragraphs.” And… geez. I could go on all night now that you got me started.

I’ll stop now. You, though, can start. Start writing. Now. I mean it. Yes, right now. Don’t make me get my ruler out.

The Introvert’s Hangover™

Before I get yammering here, please wish my good wife and the only person left in the world who laughs at my jokes, a happy birthday. She is XX years old.

I woke up last Sunday morning feeling a little tired and cranky. This was not my usual fifteen minutes of moving my joints and brain enough to turn on the coffee pot, but a deeper fatigue, almost exhaustion. If I were still a drinking man, I would have put it down to excess, but a glass or two of wine is the extent of my dissolution these days.

It wasn’t until Anne asked me how Crime Wave went that I realized what I had was the Introvert’s Hangover.

If you’re not familiar with it, Crime Wave is Maine’s annual writing conference devoted to crime, suspense, and mystery fiction, with panels, interviews, and a good deal of schmoozing. It was staged in Portland on June 11, spanning an entire Saturday, and for many of us, was the first  large scale in-person event we’ve been to in two years or more. You could see it in the tentativeness of hugs and handshakes, the occasional mask, even though we met outside under the tent.

(And many thanks to USM, MWPA, Sisters in Crime, and the folks who worked to make the day a success.)

But an entire day? After a couple of years of Zooming, the occasional outside walk with a friend or two? An entire day, with scores of people?

Despite what all you sociable, outgoing bubbly types might think, introverts do not dislike people or their company. Many of us like the occasional buzz of connection, conversation, and colloquy. But for most introverts, that takes much more energy, much more work than it does for more extroverted types.

Add to this the fact that there were many people for whom this was their first Crime Wave. Interacting with new people takes even more energy than reconnecting with old friends.

The whole thing bore an emotional content for me, too: gratitude for having survived the pandemic (so far), an acknowledgment of the privilege we have to expend our energy on something as essentially frivolous as writing crime fiction, and the pleasure of being outdoors on a rare beautiful Maine spring day.

So yes, come Sunday, I had a hangover. But I don’t regret it a bit, any more than any other hangover I’ve ever had, except maybe the one in 1974 from gin and grapefruit juice. The fatigues and crankiness will recede eventually and sooner or later, I should be ready to come out and play again.

In other news, yes, I have another book coming out. This one, The Last Altruist, is not an Elder Darrow book. It’s set in southern Maine and tells the story of a returning war veteran, Ardmore Theberge, dishonorably discharged from the Army for beating up a superior officer. He befriends a local store owner, under pressure to sell her building, and her mentally challenged son, Robbie. When a real estate developer is killed and it looks as if Robbie did it, Ardmore steps in to protect the boy. Here’s a look at the cover.

Not yet, but soon, you will be able to preorder from Kelly’s Books to Go or your favorite independent source.

Weekend Update: June 25-26, 2022

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Maureen Milliken (Monday), Dick Cass (Tuesday), Matt Cost (Thursday), and Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Friday).

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

On June 11th, many of us gathered in Portland for the Maine Crime Wave. It was exciting to be together in person again. To meet new authors and to see some of our regulars as well as many alums of the blog. Sorry you missed it? Stay tuned for next year. It is always great to hear writers on writing, as well as hilarious panels where the authors lie about their adventures in research and publishing.

 

 

 

 

 

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

Rejection. Rejections. And Blizzard Therapy

I want to talk about rejections.

On Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter and these public places, we don’t usually hear about gut-wrenching stuff. These sites are perhaps how we market ourselves to the world. How we manage the front window of our lives and perhaps pull the curtain on the back room which might be darker and certainly messier.

I’m not saying what is shared out there isn’t genuine. These sharings simply seem selective as in … no one wants to hear someone whine.

I won’t go back too far, just to my last bout of job hunting (2008-2010) and then a bit of feedback as I shopped around my first novel. One led to the other. At the age of sixty-three (2009), when I seemed suddenly unemployable, my soon-to-be husband said, “Ok. Write the book. I’ll pay for vet bills and food.”

And I won’t try to say that rejection is a healthy thing that sets us on a better road or is a gift. That feels glib. Rejections hurt. And when they pile up like during my job-hunting failures and then my attempts to find representation as well as sell the novel, they deliver messages that take grit and courage to face the messages they deliver.

Fact to Face: You are now probably too old to compete with job candidates fifteen to twenty years younger in a Maine job market swamped with qualified younger applicants.

Job Rejection Letters (just a few here):

“My apologies for the length of time in getting back to you. We received 67 applications for the E.D. position, and the process has taken longer than we anticipated. You were among the top eight candidates, but we initially chose to interview a smaller number whose experiences most closely matched IHE’s needs.”

“The number of highly qualified applications that we’ve received has been truly remarkable.  We wanted you to know that, while we were impressed with your skills, experience and genuine interest in working for MITA, our Search Committee is pursuing other candidates at this time.”

“As an organization we were flattered to see such interest in our Coalition and this position. We received a large number of very qualified applicants and this made our selection process more difficult.”

“I wanted to thank you again for talking the time to interview with us for the Director of Marketing position.  I was frankly overwhelmed by the number of highly qualified individuals who applied for the job.  Given this fact, we had a difficult decision to make, but we have offered the job to another candidate and they have accepted.”

Fact to Face: Even with an agent, my novel is not going to get picked up by a national or even a Maine publisher.

Book Rejections (just a few here; usually email)

“I also loved the concept for WOLF WOODS — as you know, we’ve done incredibly well with Margaret Mizushima’s novels, which have a similar concept, and I adore Maine and the idea of setting a thriller there. Try as I might, though, I just didn’t fall in love with Patton in the way I would need to in order to be able to make an offer on this.”

“The plot was great, but it took much too long to get into it. Too many detailed descriptive passages and tangents detracted from the main plot. I found myself trying to skip ahead and bypass the unnecessary prose.”

“I think the author has an interesting idea here and certainly can write, but I’m sorry to say that the story didn’t resonate in the way I had hoped.”

“She knows her territory, and I enjoyed her descriptions of Maine. However, I didn’t find the murder as believable as I’d need to get invested in the mystery. I’m sorry that this one isn’t for me, but thanks for giving me a chance with it.”

 Did I stop job hunting? Yes. I stopped applying for career-level jobs but pursued seasonal work like the front desk at the Botanical Gardens.

Did I stop trying to sell the novel? No, but I moved over to co-op publishing or “pay to play” where I paid for most of the same services a small Indie publisher might offer me. (Great help: Jane Friedman’s chart.)

Did all this sink me? Sometimes, but my mode-altering drug of choice is the outdoors … with me in it. Yes, sometimes I sank as low as a fetal, rolled up ball on the floor, but then I have dogs that lay their heads in my lap and lick my tears and say (quite selfishly) “You done? Let’s go out.”

If we are still standing, we have our survival strategies, but rejection is still often a life altering event. Piled on repeatedly, it demands survival strategies, friendships, grit, and often a renewed faith in ourselves when the rest of the world is rejecting us.

And for me, there’s nature’s feel-good message after a blizzardy ski or a hike where legs get wobbly before the car appears, or unexpected wind makes the paddle home a wrestle with the lake.

That’s when I am in a full-on acceptance mode, far beyond any hint of rejection and I can honestly say what really matters: “Damn, I’m good.”

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

PS Just for fun: famous rejections: Marcel Proust had to pay for his own publication.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig was rejected 121 times before it was published.Animal Farm by George Orwell was rejected because “there is no market for animal stories in the USA.”J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame was told “not to quit her day job.” Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was rejected 38 times before it was published.John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was passed on because le Carré “hasn’t got any future.”

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 2022. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.

 

 

Rejection. Rejections.

I want to talk about rejections.

On Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter and these public places, we don’t usually hear about gut-wrenching stuff. These sites are perhaps how we market ourselves to the world. How we manage the front window of our lives and perhaps pull the curtain on the back room which might be darker and certainly messier.

I’m not saying what is shared out there isn’t genuine. These sharings simply seem selective as in … no one wants to hear someone whine.

I won’t go back too far, just to my last bout of job hunting (2008-2010) and then a bit of feedback as I shopped around my first novel. One led to the other. At age of sixty-three (2009), when I seemed suddenly unemployable, my soon-to-be husband said, “Ok. Write the book. I’ll pay for vet bills and food.”

And I won’t try to say that rejection is a healthy thing that sets us on a better road or is a gift. That feels glib. Rejections hurt. And when they pile up like during my job-hunting failures and then my attempts to find representation as well as sell the novel, they deliver messages that take grit and courage to face the messages they deliver.

Fact to Face: You are now probably too old to compete with job candidates fifteen to twenty years younger in a Maine job market swamped with qualified younger applicants.

Job Rejection Letters (just a few here):

“My apologies for the length of time in getting back to you. We received 67 applications for the E.D. position, and the process has taken longer than we anticipated. You were among the top eight candidates, but we initially chose to interview a smaller number whose experiences most closely matched IHE’s needs.”

“The number of highly qualified applications that we’ve received has been truly remarkable.  We wanted you to know that, while we were impressed with your skills, experience and genuine interest in working for MITA, our Search Committee is pursuing other candidates at this time.”

“As an organization we were flattered to see such interest in our Coalition and this position. We received a large number of very qualified applicants and this made our selection process more difficult.”

“I wanted to thank you again for talking the time to interview with us for the Director of Marketing position.  I was frankly overwhelmed by the number of highly qualified individuals who applied for the job.  Given this fact, we had a difficult decision to make, but we have offered the job to another candidate and they have accepted.”

Fact to Face: Even with an agent, my novel is not going to get picked up by a national or even a Maine publisher.

Book Rejections (just a few here; usually email)

“I also loved the concept for WOLF WOODS — as you know, we’ve done incredibly well with Margaret Mizushima’s novels, which have a similar concept, and I adore Maine and the idea of setting a thriller there. Try as I might, though, I just didn’t fall in love with Patton in the way I would need to in order to be able to make an offer on this.”

“The plot was great, but it took much too long to get into it. Too many detailed descriptive passages and tangents detracted from the main plot. I found myself trying to skip ahead and bypass the unnecessary prose.”

“I think the author has an interesting idea here and certainly can write, but I’m sorry to say that the story didn’t resonate in the way I had hoped.”

“She knows her territory, and I enjoyed her descriptions of Maine. However, I didn’t find the murder as believable as I’d need to get invested in the mystery. I’m sorry that this one isn’t for me, but thanks for giving me a chance with it.”

 Did I stop job hunting? Yes. I stopped applying for career-level jobs but pursued seasonal work like the front desk at the Botanical Gardens.

Did I stop trying to sell the novel? No, but I moved over to co-op publishing or “pay to play” where I paid for most of the same services a small Indie publisher might offer me. (Great help: Jane Friedman’s chart.)

Did all this sink me? Sometimes, but my mode-altering drug of choice is the outdoors … with me in it. Yes, sometimes I sank as low as a fetal, rolled up ball on the floor, but then I have dogs that lay their heads in my lap and lick my tears and say (quite selfishly) “You done? Let’s go out.”

If we are still standing, we have our survival strategies, but rejection is still often a life altering event. Piled on repeatedly, it demands survival strategies, friendships, grit, and often a renewed faith in ourselves when the rest of the world is rejecting us.

And for me, there’s nature’s feel-good message after a blizzardy ski or a hike where legs get wobbly before the car appears, or unexpected wind makes the paddle home a wrestle with the lake.

That’s when I am in a full-on acceptance mode, far beyond any hint of rejection and I can honestly say what really matters: “Damn, I’m good.”

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

PS Just for fun: famous rejections: Marcel Proust had to pay for his own publication.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig was rejected 121 times before it was published.Animal Farm by George Orwell was rejected because “there is no market for animal stories in the USA.”J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame was told “not to quit her day job.” Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was rejected 38 times before it was published.John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was passed on because le Carré “hasn’t got any future.”

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 2022. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.