Alan Orloff's Blog, page 9

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If you’re looking for some great holiday gifts, have I got an idea for you!

I’ll be participating in two multi-author signing events where you can get personalized books for everyone on your gift lists!

This Saturday, December 1, I’ll be at One More Page Books (yes, that’s right, the indie bookstore where President Obama shops) at 1 p.m., along with 15 other local mystery writers (Chesapeake Chapter SinC members): Donna Andrews, David Autry, Karen Cantwell, Jacqueline Corcoran, Meriah Crawford, Maddi Davidson, E.B. Davis, Barb Goffman, Jennifer Harlow, Smita Harish Jain, C. Ellett Logan, G.M. Malliet, Sandra Parshall, Marcia Talley, and Art Taylor.

The following Saturday, December 8, from 2 – 5 p.m., I’ll be at the Grounded Coffee Shop in Alexandria, VA, with nine other local authors, in different genres. More info below:

I’d love to see you at one of these events!

What If?

From a single idea, how do you build enough
of a story to fill a book?

This question is not relevant to my writing process because the plots and characters of my novels appear to me fully-formed.

Yeah, right.

That might be true if my books were two pages long, but when I set out to write a book with 80,000+ words, I know some additional story-building is always in order.

I begin with the premise—compelling characters facing an interesting dilemma—and work outward, always looking for ways to complicate my protagonist’s quest to accomplish his/her goals. A lot of that work takes the form of What If questions. What if he discovers his father’s not really his father? What if his girlfriend turns out to be a Martian envoy sent to negotiate a peace treaty with Earth? What if he studies at the feet of the Dalai Lama, then challenges him to a duel with nunchuks? What if dogs could talk and walk on two legs and drive cars, but still needed to use fire hydrants as bathrooms? (Obviously, some What If questions lead to more promising plot events than others.)

Each twist in the plot (or introduction of a new character, or move to a new setting, or back-stabbing double-cross, or whatever), yields a whole new set of possibilities going forward, so my What If exercise continues with this new set of parameters.

Rinse. Repeat. Increase the stakes.

After some time (weeks, months, eons), I’ll eventually reach The End. Then I sit back and examine what I’ve got. Usually it’s a steaming hot mess of cardboard characters, hokey plot twists, and generic settings (and those are the good parts!).

That’s when the revision process begins. I whittle away all the garbage (Martian envoy? Really?) and bolster all the good stuff. If I need more plot, I generate more What If scenarios. Slowly, painfully, things fall into place and my steaming hot mess begins to actually make sense.

At least that’s the plan.

(This entry is “simul-posted” on Criminal Minds .)

No Chianti on the First Date

What fictional character (other than one of your own)
would you like to have a fling with?

I’m a happily married man, so I don’t have flings. In fact, I don’t believe I’m even allowed to think about having flings (I’ll have to check my contract).

But, in the interest of being a good sport I suppose I could come up with a fictional character to have a fling with (you know, taking one for the team).

I wouldn’t mind, uh, getting to know Clarice Starling from Thomas Harris’s Silence of the Lambs. (Note: Definitely NOT the Clarice Starling from Hannibal. In my opinion, Harris gave her some kind of personality transplant between books.)

Clarice is enthusiastic, conscientious, physically fit, smart, brave, and tenacious. Good with firearms. And fights on the right side of the law.

What more could a guy ask for?

(This entry is “simul-posted” on Criminal Minds )

Barnes & Noble Mystery Forum and Me!

I am VERY EXCITED to be this week’s featured author at the Barnes & Noble Mystery Forum.

Stop by to join the fun. Ask questions, leave comments, raise a virtual ruckus. I’ll be there all week answering questions and raising my own ruckus (now there’s a word that should be used more. Ruckus, ruckus, ruckus).

See you at the Forum!

Just Enough

How much research do you do for your books?

The short answer is: just enough to get the job done. I’m not one of those research lovers who pores over old books in the stacks or delves deep into the details. I do just enough research to allow me to depict the settings, situations, and characters in my books with verisimilitude.

But, on occasion, I will venture out of my writing cave to do some research. Here’s a summary of a recent research excursion I took for my work-in–progress:

The last few scenes of my book take place in Washington, D.C., on the Mall (The National Mall. You know, the place with the Capitol and Washington Monument). So I put myself in my protagonist’s shoes and drove to the Vienna Metro station where I boarded an Orange Line train (I’m a Northern Virginia suburbanite—it didn’t take long).

Then I made notes about what I experienced (saw, heard, smelled (yuck)) as we paralleled I-66 before diving underground. At Metro Center, I changed trains, but not before darting from platform to platform, trying to shed imaginary followers (as my protagonist does). I kept track of which escalators I took and where I doubled back and what the whoosh of air preceding the trains into the station felt like. If anyone was truly following me, I must have looked quite confused (and/or suspicious)!

When I got off the subway—where the protagonist in my story gets off—I pulled out my camera and began to take pictures as I walked. In many cases, I didn’t even slow down as I pressed the shutter button, because I was timing how long it took me to reach certain landmarks. (In all, I took 221 pictures.)

I continued this for the next hour or so, snapping more pictures and traipsing along the Mall. Then I visited a couple of D.C. “attractions” (which shall remain nameless for the time being), to do some research for two particular scenes. At each place, I took a guided tour, again snapping pictures and asking questions where necessary (the questions had more to do with the buildings’ layouts, than the collections, which I’m sure made my guides suspicious. Thankfully, no one called security on me).

When I got home, I revised my draft to include all the new material I’d learned. I need to make another jaunt into town to shore up a few more details, and then it’s a wrap!

(This entry was “simul-posted” on Criminal Minds )

Bouchercon, Baby!

Every year, a whole bunch of mystery-loving people—fans, readers, writers, criminals (maybe)—get together, all in one place, to celebrate The Mystery. And that place is a convention called Bouchercon.

This year, Bouchercon is in Cleveland. It’s this week, starting on Thursday and ending on Sunday.

I’ll be there, so if you see me, please stop me and say hello!

Here’s my panel info:

Date/Time: Saturday, from 1:30 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Title: HE SAID. HE REPLIED. HE GASPED.
Subject: Writing snappy dialog that keeps a reader turning pages
Panelists: Myself, Michael Sears, Kira Peikoff, David Freed, Gail Lukasik, and Jessie Chandler

I’ll also be hosting a table at the Librarian’s Breakfast on Friday morning.

As they say, Cleveland Rocks! So does Bouchercon!

Scurvy Dogs Unite!

I'm sure ye mateys already be knowin this, but today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, one o' me favrit days o' the yarr.

O' course, me close mates and me young uns get their fill might quick, and they be all babblin' at me to walk the plank--or else. Arrgghh, them scurvy dogs!

To celebrate the day, ye might get a chucklin' by doing what Cap'n Alan tells ye:

Proceed to yer Facebook page. Scroll down to the mid-depths, on yer right, neer the blasted copyright notice. Click whar it sez English, then spy ye whar it says English (Pirate). Click thar, and yer got yerself more fun than a barrel o' rum.

Avast and shiver me timbers! Have a grrreat day. Arrggh!

At Least I Can Spel!

It’s back to school time! What career or knowledge would you or
your protagonist like to go back to school to learn?

Considering that I call myself a writer these days, my answer might surprise you (maybe not, if you’ve read my books!), but I think I’d like to go back to school and learn, um, English (you know: grammar, creative writing, literature, crumpets).

You see, I never had to take any literature or creative writing classes in college or grad school (us engineers weren’t expected to actually know how to write), and back in high school, I wasn’t really paying attention.

Which has led to some severe gaps in my education. First, I don’t think I ever formally learned the mechanics of writing. Don’t always write in complete sentences. I couldn’t diagram a sentence if you gave me a map. I don’t know a dangling participle from a flying Wallenda. I try to never split an infinitive, but I’m not really sure what an infinitive is. When faced with the choice between “who” and “whom,” I’ll usually opt for “that guy.”

All this would not have pleased my late father, an ex-English teacher.

And my knowledge of the so-called “classics” is even sketchier. Until recently, I didn’t know the difference between Jane Austen and Jane Eyre. In high school, I stopped reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, before he’d even reached puberty. I never did really understand what was so great about Gatsby. I didn’t even understand Cliffs notes. And To Kill a Mockingbird? Pretty good movie.

So sign me up for English class. If it’s full, though, that’s okay. I’ll just take Phys Ed instead. A little exercise does wonders for the creative mind.

(This entry had been “simul-posted” on Criminal Minds .)

Wanna Write A Mystery?

I’m pleased to announce I’ll be leading another workshop at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. It runs eight weeks, on Saturday mornings from 10 – 12:30, beginning September 15 (no meeting on October 6).

Writing the Mystery Novel: Introduction

If you’ve always wanted to write a mystery novel but didn’t know where to start, this workshop is for you. We’ll discuss writing fundamentals (voice, character, plot, setting, etc.) and their application to the mystery. We’ll examine characteristics of the many subgenres and learn about mystery-specific conventions and pitfalls such as TSTL (too-stupid-to-live) syndrome, macguffins, red herrings, killer twists, wacky sidekicks, and smooth clue dropping, Among others. Sessions will include instruction and writing exercises, with an emphasis on giving and receiving critiques of participants’ work.

It’s educational! It’s fun! It’s mysterious!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or leave them in the comments!

Dream On

Oh, if only I had an assistant…

Today, on Criminal Minds, see what I’d have my assistant doing!