Beth Groundwater's Blog, page 43

Deadly Currents in a "Year's Best Books" List!

I'm thrilled that Colorado Country Life magazine picked Deadly Currents as one of their "Year's Best Books"!!! And they gave it a lovely review, too. :-)

NaNoWriMo or NaNoTryMo?

November is National Novel Writing Month, and writers around the world are working toward a goal of finishing a 50,000 word rough draft of a manuscript during the month. They're keeping track of their progress and encouraging each other at the official NaNoWriMo website.

My local writing organization in Colorado, Pikes Peak Writers, is encouraging their members (like me) who don't have it in them to crank out that many words in one month to set an alternate goal and work toward that. They call their project NaNoTryMo and are offering a number of "write-ins" to get writers working together on their goals. See the PPW website for information.


I won't be participating in the official NaNoWriMo site, because I'm working on an existing manuscript versus starting a new one. But, I've set a goal of 20,000 additional words on my current manuscript for November. That's continuing at my current goal rate of 5000 words/week. I already have about 35,000 words written, so if I meet my NaNoTryMo goal, I'll be at 55,000 words at the end of November.

This manuscript is the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series, titled Cataract Canyon. I need to finish the rough draft by mid-January, when I receive the galley proof for the second book, Wicked Eddies, to review & edit. So, I'm looking for motivation & encouragement to keep on cranking out those words! What will make meeting this goal especially hard is that I'll be touring November 11-18, cramming 8 events into that week to promote the trade paperback and ebook re-release of A Real Basket Case.

Are you a writer? Have you set a goal for yourself for November? What is it and what's your plan for reaching that goal? Are you working with a group of fellow writers so you can encourage each other? I hope so! Good luck to all of you NaNoWriMo and NaNoTryMo writers out there!

A Blogtalk Radio Interview at GZONE

Today at 2 PM MST, 4 PM EST, I will be a guest on Giovanni Gelati's GZONE Blogtalk Radio program. I hope you will listen either during the broadcast (when you can phone in with questions) or later from the archives. You can find the program HERE.

Visiting the Barnes & Noble Mystery Book Club

Today I am a guest author on the Barnes & Noble Mystery Book Club. What is this, you might ask. It's an on-line discussion group at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers website, one of many Genre Book Clubs and Idea Boards that are available to readers at the website.

For those of you who are interested in mysteries (and who among my blog readers isn't?), I suggest you join this free discussion group and participate. The moderator, Becke Davis, is very active is encouraging mystery authors to visit and in posting worthwhile discussion topics.

My guest article today is about "Stretching the Boundaries of a Cozy Mystery," but I'm ready to discuss any topic or answer any question that book club members throw at me. So have at it!

Internet Appearances for A REAL BASKET CASE

For the trade paperback and ebook re-release of the first book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series, A Real Basket Case, I've planned a tightly-packed joint appearances schedule during mid-November in Colorado with fellow Colorado-based mystery author Ann Parker. But, if you don't live in Colorado, don't despair! I'll also be winging my way all over the Internet. Here's where you can catch me:

Monday, October 31 - Sunday, November 6
International Thriller Writers Thriller Roundtable
"What moved you to write your first novel?"
(A very appropriate discussion since A Real Basket Case was my first published novel!)

Tuesday, November 1, all day
Barnes & Noble Mystery Book Club
Guest Post on "Stretching the Boundaries of a Cozy Mystery" and Q&A

Thursday, November 3, 2 PM MST, 4 PM EST
Interview and Discussion on
Gelatis Scoop GZONE Blogtalkradio Program

Sunday, November 6, 5 - 7 PM MST, 7 - 9 PM EST
Question & Answer Session
The Writers Chatroom

Monday, November 7, all day
Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers
Guest Post "Recipe for a Mystery Lover's Gift Basket" and Q&A

Wednesday, November 9, all day
Pat Bertram Introduces...
Interview and Q&A

Thursday, November 10, all day
dru's book musings
Guest Post on "A Day in the Life of Claire Hanover by Beth Groundwater" and Q&A. I'll give away an autographed copy of A Real Basket Case on this blog, so be sure to comment to enter the contest!

Speaking of contests... I'm running a book giveaway contest at Goodreads, ending November 5th. You can enter it HERE. And for the whole month of November, I'm reactivating my Q&A Discussion group on Goodreads. If you're a Goodreads member, please join and join in the discussions!

Is that enough? I sure hope so!

Judging a Book By Its Cover

Over at Inkspot today, the blog for Midnight Ink authors, I posted an article about my Midnight Ink book covers and how I've been able to influence their design. Cover art is very, very important in marketing a book, so I, like most authors, tend to obsess over them just a wee bit. ;-) Please read the post and let me know what you think about the topic in the comments.

Today's Mystery Author Guest: Barbara Graham

As promised yesterday, fellow mystery author Barbara Graham is visiting my blog today. To read her bio and see her photo, please page down to yesterday's post. Above is the cover photo for Murder By Music: The Wedding Quilt, the third book in her quilting mystery series.

In the book, autumn brings cooler temperatures to the Smoky Mountains. While the weather may be cooling down in tiny Park County, Tennessee, crime is heating up. Weevil Beasley, the county's loan shark, is found dead and the body count begins. Sheriff Tony Abernathy is soon up to the top of his bald head in murder and mayhem.

Tony's quiltmaker wife Theo is in the thick of it. When she leads her quilting group on a retreat, a killer follows. While dealing with cranky quilters, distraught hotel owners and unfinished projects, Theo has to keep track of gossip for her husband and barely has time to hand out the pattern for her new mystery quilt.

Below are Barbara's answers to my interview questions. Please leave a comment for Barbara, and if you have a question of your own for her, ask it!

1. Who or what inspired you to start writing and when did you start?

I didn't write anything down but I remember making up stories in the third grade and at the same time, I stopped learning math. My early stories usually involved my getting a horse or saving the world or my horse and I saving the world. I also told lies if they would keep me out of trouble.

2. What tools and process do you use to "get to know" your characters before and while you're writing the books?

I like to visualize the whole person. My characters are very real to me no matter if they are irritating, lovable, stupid, bright, or killers. Because most of them are series people, it is a bit like sitting down with old friends and catching up—what's new? Have you lost weight? Don't tell me you're talking to so-and-so again. Have you met the new teacher? What do you think about him?

3. How do you construct your plots? Do you outline or do you write "by the seat of your pants"?

I would love to outline—but—it's not possible for me without a brain transplant. My writing style is more like the weather map view of a hurricane. I start with the victim and everything swirls around it. The characters totally control the story—an intricate plot without people is less interesting to me. A linear search for the solution is unlikely to hold me and real people have multiple facets to their lives.

4. In the age-old question of character versus plot, which one do you think is most important in a murder mystery and which one do you emphasize in your writing?

Absolutely character.

Why?

Because I believe in a mystery the victim is the most important character in the book. Without a fully conceived victim, I cannot imagine creating the plot. Why does this person die, on this day, in this manner? From there I can find the killer.

5. What is the biggest challenge you've faced as a writer and what inspires you and keeps you motivated?

The challenge of finding an agent—so far I'm still failing at that one.
Followed by finding a traditional publisher without an agent—achieved. This was very important to me. I am waaaaay too stubborn to self-publish and my books definitely are better after being edited.

6. What is a typical workday for you and how many hours a day (or week) do you devote to writing?

My workdays are different according to the season. In the winter, when I get the most work done, I hang out on the couch with pen, notebook and a dog. I think. I play with ideas. I take the time to listen to the voices. Then I spend hours at the keyboard, stopping about four o'clock. In the summer, I walk the dogs before it gets too hot, work in the garden and hope I can still remember the ideas that come to me there when I get back inside.

7. What advice do you have to offer to an aspiring author?

Write. Write more and more. Nothing is more valuable for any art form than practice. Musicians play scales. Artists have sketchbooks. Dancers take technique classes. Genius is rare, the rest of us require conferences, classes and critiques. Don't rely on spell check. Don't give up. Almost all of us have three to twenty unpublished books behind us.

8. Now here's a zinger. Tell us something about yourself that you have not revealed in another interview yet. Something as simple as your favorite TV show or food will do.

I love Big Bang Theory!

9. What are you working on now and what are your future writing plans?

I'm doing publicity for Murder by Music: The Wedding Quilt which has on-sale date of 11/11/11 (how cool is that?). I'm doing rewrites for next year's release Murder by Vegetable: The Baby Quilt and am plotting another in the series.

I am still searching for an agent, especially to represent a non-cozy suspense I have written.

10. Is there anything else you would like to tell my blog readers?

Visit my website please! I rarely blog, so thank you Beth for letting me chat on yours. I love to talk to readers, writers and quilters—although I realize I am geographically challenged by living where I do (think Yellowstone National Park)—I do enjoy traveling.

Thanks, Barbara! Now, who has a comment or question for her?

Tomorrow's Guest: Barbara Graham

Tomorrow, fellow mystery author Barbara Graham will be a guest on my blog. Barbara publishes with Five Star Books, who started my gift basket designer series, and that's how we got to know each other and become friends.

Barbara Graham began making up stories in the third grade. Learning to multiply and divide paled in comparison. Born and mostly raised in the Texas Panhandle, she later lived in Denver, New Orleans and East Tennessee. Inspiration for Silersville comes from her Tennessee period. An unrepentant quilting addict, she has been a travel agent, ballet teacher and stay-at-home mom. She lives in Wyoming with her long suffering husband and two dogs. She is a long distance member of various writing groups including—Mystery Writers of America, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.

In her guest post tomorrow, Barbara answers my interview questions, and I'm sure you'll be intrigued by what she has to say. Then, feel free to ask her some questions of your own in the comments.

Cover Art! Cover Art! Woot! Woot! Woot!

My Midnight Ink editor sent the cover art yesterday for the second book in my RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series, Wicked Eddies. that will be released in May, 2012. I know I'm prejudiced, but I think it's absolutely stunning. What do YOU think?

Today's Colorado Author Guest: Terry Odell

As promised yesterday, fellow Colorado author Terry Odell is visiting my blog today. To read her bio and see her photo, please page down to yesterday's post. Above is the cover photo for Finding Sarah, the first book in her Pine Hills Police series. Terry recently regained the rights to the books in this series and republished them as ebooks after updating them.

Here's a short blurb for the book. Being robbed at gunpoint wasn't part of Sarah Tucker's business plan. Neither was falling in love with the detective who arrived to solve the case. For police detective Randy Detweiler, a routine robbery investigation turns into the biggest challenge of his career when he falls in love with the victim and ends up having to save more than her business.

Below are Terry's answers to my interview questions. Please leave a comment for Terry, and if you have a question of your own for her, ask it!

1. Who or what inspired you to start writing and when did you start?

Inspiration? I ran out of room on my walls for needlepoint. I'm not one of those who wrote her first book in crayon. I was a card-carrying AARP member before I started writing, and it was more of a whim. You can find the whole story on my website. Look for "How I Became a Write By Mistake" on my homepage.

2. What tools and process do you use to "get to know" your characters before and while you're writing the books?

I follow Deb Dixon's GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) method. I need to know what my characters want, why they want it, and what I can throw in their paths. For example, in FINDING SARAH, I created a cop who saw his job in black and white. I needed to know how far I could push him before he'd cross the line into shades of gray. In addition, because he became a cop because he wanted to help people, the heroine was a woman who wanted nothing more than to exert her independence, no matter what it took.

3. How do you construct your plots? Do you outline or do you write "by the seat of your pants"?

I'm a pantser, or perhaps, more accurately, a "plantser" because I do plan things out. Just not too far in advance. I use an "idea board" to brainstorm my plots, and a "tracking board" to keep me on the right path. I've got a description of my methods on my website—look for "Plotting for Non-Plotters."

4. In the age-old question of character versus plot, which one do you think is most important in a murder mystery or romantic suspense novel and which one do you emphasize in your writing? Why?

I'm character driven. Also, most of my books are categorized as romantic suspense, not murder mysteries. I've managed to have 7 books published, most of which don't center around a murder. Hidden Fire, the sequel to Finding Sarah, is one of the few that might be considered a classic murder mystery. Realistically, homicides in small towns don't happen the way they did on Murder She Wrote, and there are plenty of other monkey wrenches to throw into the lives of my characters. I disagree that a "mystery" automatically assumes a murder, but that's a topic for another day.

5. What is the biggest challenge you've faced as a writer and what inspires you and keeps you motivated?

Traditional publishers had very narrow ranges of what makes a viable book. Since I write what I want, and not necessarily what traditional publishers are looking for, getting someone to publish my books is the biggest challenge.

Although I consider my books to be 'Mysteries with Relationships", given the publishing definitions, they're called Romantic Suspense. However, I'm definitely a mystery lover, NOT a suspense lover. There's a basic difference in the two sub-genres, and it's a matter of preference, not right/wrong or good/bad. Plus in romantic suspense, you also have to resolve a hero/heroine relationship in one book, not across a series, the way you can in a mystery series. I did break the rules when I wrote a sequel to Finding Sarah. Hidden Fire actually follows the same hero and heroine in another mystery.

Now, the rapid changes in the world of publishing make it possible for someone like me to take the rights back to my earlier books and make them available to readers who enjoy reading books that stray from the narrower confines of traditional publishers. And, I can continue to write what I want, knowing there's a market for them.

6. What advice do you have to offer to an aspiring author?

Read. Write. Read. Read. Write, Write, and read some more. Writing should be as necessary as breathing. Barf it up first, fix it later. Get the words on the page. You can't fix a blank page.

7. Now here's a zinger. Tell us something about yourself that you have not revealed in another interview yet. Something as simple as your favorite TV show or food will do.

When I was at Ralph Waldo Emerson Jr. High, all 7th graders had to write an essay about the school's namesake. There was a prize (of which I was totally unaware) and I was summoned to the auditorium for the annual award ceremony to receive my five silver dollars. (Given that the award assembly was for graduating 9th graders, I was totally out of place.) However, that really didn't inspire me to become a writer. It was an essay, nothing more than one more homework assignment.

8. What are you working on now and what are your future writing plans?

I've got a straight mystery with my editor, and I'm looking forward to publishing something outside of the romantic suspense world. I'm also writing another romantic suspense in my Pine Hills Police series—this one featuring new protagonists, but with many of the same characters from the first two books. I'm also considering putting together a few more short mystery stories featuring James T. Kirkland, a character who appears in a short story anthology, Deception, published by Highland Press. And of course, the boys from the covert side of Blackthorne, Inc. are always clamoring for their turn as heroes of another book.

9. Is there anything else you would like to tell my blog readers?

You can find me at my website. I have a new quarterly newsletter, and I hope you'll sign up for my mailing list. I also have a blog, Terry's Place, and I hope you'll follow me there. Keep an eye on the Deals and Steals tab—you'll never know what you might find.

Thanks, Terry! Now, who has a comment or question for her?