Becky Clark's Blog, page 22

Favorite Thing I Read Today – from Guide to Gargoyles by Wendy True Gasch

Two things, actually.

• “What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, these savage lions, and monstrous creatures?” ~ St Bernard, 12th century

• “Indiana oolitic limestone is relatively soft and easily cut when first quarried, but it hardens during prolonged exposure to air, enhancing the lifespan of whatever form it takes.”

Which is why they built then National Cathedral with it, which is where I bought this book, which is because I love gargoyles, which is why I’m sharing it.

Favorite Thing I Read Today – From Paper Towns by John Green

This is actually over more than one day of reading. So sue me.

• You could not say she was fat, or that she was skinny, any more than you could say the Eiffel Tower is or is not lonely.

• I always felt you had to be important to have enemies. Example: Historically, Germany has had more enemies than Luxembourg. Margo was Germany. And Great Britain. And the United States. And czarist Russia. Me, I’m Luxembourg. Just sitting around, tending sheep. And yodeling.

• [the car was] composed primarily out of duct tape and spackle…. [it] ran not on gasoline, but on the inexhaustible fuel of human hope.

Somebody’s World

I was sitting with my husband at a restaurant bar watching my beloved Broncos get spanked by the Patriots yesterday. The game was less than spectacular, but it’s always fun to watch football with a beer and a crowd.

The bartender was a true professional, hands and bottles flying, mixers mixing, shakers shaking. Fun to watch. Whenever he slowed down, I peppered him with questions about his job. He indulged my curiosity and kept my glass filled.

We chatted with a middle-aged couple who stopped in for a quick drink before they were off to an event. They both wore Bronco jerseys, so I wondered where they were going. The game was almost over and being played in New England, so I didn’t think it was football-related. They excitedly told us they were going to a punk rock concert nearby. Now, if you’d have asked me where they looked like they were headed and gave me three choices — all three “punk rock concert” — I still wouldn’t have guessed punk rock concert. But their enthusiasm was endearing.

A few minutes later a woman walked over and stood by my side. “I just had to tell you how fabulous your hair is,” she said. She went on to compliment the color, the style, how it was perfect for my face. We chatted for a moment and then she left me to bask in the glow of her generosity.

it’s not the first time someone complimented my hair like this. It had to have been ten years ago. I was walking into the post office when she walked out. Same kind of conversation as at the bar.  It, too, gave me warm fuzzies. And I’ve never forgotten it. Total stranger compliments me out of the blue. BAM. Take THAT, you lazy cynic.

We all get compliments — on our looks, our clothes, our home, our work. Some are less than sincere, some are undeserved, some are a freakishly long time coming. But hearing them makes us feel all squishy.

So why don’t I hand out more compliments?

It won’t change the world, but it might change somebody’s world.

[Psst. Hey, you. Yeah, you ... you just read the HELL out of that. Excellent job!]

 

Halloween

I’ve never been a big fan of Halloween. Seemed like a lot of effort just to get some candy. And I know beggers shouldn’t be choosy, but seriously? Necklaces you chew on? I was no neatnik, but eww, a kid’s collar was never the same.

And not to go all Jerry Seinfeld on you, but what’s the deal with candy corn? It’s clearly neither. It’s the phrase for which quotation marks were made for.

Don’t get me started on costumes either. I trick-or-treated in the wilds of suburban Colorado Springs, at the base of Pikes Peak. Every fairy, superhero, princess, witch, and robot were bundled up in layers and layers of coats and hats. We all looked like hoboes, the best costume EVER.

I clamped a bubblegum cigar between my teeth and terrorized the smiling, apron-clad mothers with my surly blackmail threat.

“Trick,” — at this I cocked an eyebrow and paused dramatically — “or treat.” Luckily, there were some easily intimidated moms in my neighborhood and I never had to resort to anything more ferocious than opening my pillowcase wider. Perhaps a dramatic shake if they didn’t move fast enough.

I tell you this so you will understand the motivation behind the new -t-shirts I made for my Lazy Squirrel Designs store.

 

Just so you know, all the shirts come in a huge variety of styles, prices and colors, and most can be customized. You get to play around until you’ve found the perfect one.

Of course, if you’re too lazy to put on a shirt, there’s also this …

I dibs half of your haul.

Happy Halloween!

Tattered Cover Book Store

I finally have all my little booky ducks in a row with one of the world’s finest independent bookstores.

All of my books are available from Amazon, either in print or for your Kindle, or both.

But not everyone likes to deal with them, so I have a delightful alternative for you … Denver’s fabulous Tattered Cover Book Store. [Full disclosure, if you use my links to do your shopping at the Tattered Cover, whether you buy my books or not, I earn a penny or a shiny button or a pat on the head or something.]

The Tattered Cover rents and ships books, has three huge locations plus satellite stores at Union Station and the Denver airport, tons of author events, and a staff that knows, quite literally, every-single-thing.

And now, they also sell two of my books. There’s something quite special about seeing your book on a bookstore shelf. A long time ago, I was in my local Borders Books and stumbled upon my first book (out of print now) on the sale rack. The really, really on sale rack. You’d think that would be sad, but you’d be wrong. It was just as thrilling. Perhaps I’m a Pollyanna, but I thought, “Yay! Some thrifty, budget-conscious person can buy this for their kid.”

Thanks for letting me share my excitement. And, remember … buying books is an excellent way to support local businesses and your favorite writers. Plus, they make perfect gifts — always the right size and so easy to wrap! (Click on the covers and go straight to my Tattered Cover page.)

a funny mystery

Simple, healthy, no-fuss recipes

Happy Reading, Happy Cooking, Happy Shopping … Happy Happy!

(Nah, I’m not a Pollyanna.)

What’s That Shadowy Place?

I’m more than halfway done with MARSHMALLOW MAYHEM, the follow-up to BANANA BAMBOOZLE.

The full first draft of MAYHEM needs to be in the hands of my beta readers by September 1st so I’m keeping to a fairly strict schedule. I write most days for about three or four hours. In that time, I can get a fairly solid chapter or long scene.

As much as I like to write, and as interested as I am in this project, I still have to force/bribe/threaten myself to get started most days.

My son mentioned recently that it doesn’t seem like I enjoy writing.

I don’t think he gets it. Actually, I don’t think anyone who doesn’t write can ever really get it.

Writing is hard. But, like exercise, once you start, it’s marvelous and feels especially delightful when you’re done. When you’ve accomplished something. When you’ve wrangled what’s in your head, lassoed it into coherent sentences, tied its legs with a hitch-knot and thrown your hands in the air. A worthy adversary, certainly, but you’re the one at the end wearing the trophy belt buckle.

You don’t earn the belt buckle until you win. And you don’t win until you begin.

There are five minutes before you start writing, when you’re gathering your supplies, your notes, your thoughts. Every word is shiny. Every sentence flawless. Every paragraph polished.

But then the fear settles over you, suffocating, smothering, cajoling. You’re not talented enough. You’re certainly not smart enough. You can’t possibly write a novel.

You take a breath.

And begin.

 

Book Club

I’ll be forever grateful to the ladies comprising the very first book club who read BANANA BAMBOOZLE. Insightful discussion, kind comments, enthusiasm … everything an author might want!

The ringleader asked the group about their secret addictions, starting with me, but I couldn’t think of any. Perhaps it was the word ‘secret’ that  threw me. But as each woman answered, I’d pipe up, “Oh, I do that!” … “Oh, I do that too!” … “And that!”

I won the coveted Most Messed Up trophy. Very proud day, indeed.

Look how cute they are! I think everyone was sitting because that was AFTER we bamboozled.

Here’s hoping your book club is equally fantabulous!

Kirsten Vangness Gets Bamboozled

Wouldn’t you just die if Shemar Moore whispered, “Hey, Baby Girl” in your ear?

Because their characters on Criminal Minds have that flirty will they/won’t they vibe going, gets that every week … and Moore! (See what I did there?)

But she still took time to give Banana Bamboozle a shout-out, which puts me over the moon. Practically as good as if Shemar Moore whispered in my ear.

She’s almost too adorable for the internet, but I’m going to post this anyway and hope nothing explodes.

Shemar Moore Gets Bamboozled

Shemar Moore may play tough guy Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds, but he has a soft spot for BANANA BAMBOOZLE, which delights me more than he can possibly know.

Huge thanks to Shemar Moore for making my world shine a bit brighter!

Ever Have ‘Hummina, Hummina, Hummina’ Moments?

I’ve been asked to join a blog tour. Normally the phrase “blog tour” makes me run screaming from the room, rending my garments and foaming at the mouth, but not this time.

Why, you ask? Two reasons. First, because I was invited by DeAnna Knippling over at Wonderland Press. She knows stuff and I’m a little bit scared of her. Her latest release is Alice’s Adventures in Underland: The Queen of Stilled Hearts, a serial set in a Victorian London in which the zombies have been civilized…mostly.  It’s a historical dark fantasy about a little girl trapped in her society, and the man who tried to give her the key for getting the better of it.

Right??

The second reason I joined the blog tour was because this one was so easy. Most of the time blog tours require months of preparation, scads of PR and abstaining from alcohol for the duration. Or so I’ve been told.

But here, all I have to do is answer four little questions. The kicker? People actually want to know the answers to these! I know this because they’ve, you know, asked me.

1. What am I working on now?

I am about halfway through the first draft of the next Dunne Diehl Mystery, picking up where BANANA BAMBOOZLE left off. I don’t want to give too much away, but MARSHMALLOW MAYHEM involves a dead body, a winter road trip in a recalcitrant RV, edible marijuana, and an adorable, absolutely silent dog, who might actually get a couple chapters of her own. I have fun writing it and I hope people will have fun reading it.

I’m also working on some short story background vignettes, for lack of a pithier name. My characters Dan and Cassidy have a long history together and have found themselves in many hilarious situations. But I can’t put them all in the books, so I’m writing separate short pieces for certain escapades. For instance, in BAMBOOZLE I referenced a trip to Las Vegas. So many readers asked me what happened there, that I feel compelled to overlook the rule that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But you’ll only get these short adventures if you sign up for my mailing list.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Most cozy mysteries have an element of humor to them, but I’ve been told that BANANA BAMBOOZLE  had more than its share of laugh-out-loud moments. I hope that’s true, but I’ve lost all perspective about that. I always think I’m freakin’ hilarious.

3. Why do I write what I write?

I tend to write what I like to read, and I love the cozy mystery genre. BAMBOOZLE  was my first foray into writing one, however. I was coming off a spate of writing books for kids and a bunch of low-calorie cookbooks so I was itching for a change of pace. I also love funny books, but writing humor is difficult. I wanted to see if I could sustain it through an entire novel, rather than just a blog post or Facebook status update.

4. How does my writing process work?

I am an outliner. It’s not your 5th grade teacher’s outline, though. Ted Hardwick, my fab and funny co-writer, and I have conversations (many of them) so we know the broad strokes of the plot. We hammer out a synopsis from this, which is really just 2 or 3 pages of telling the story, as if we were writing a letter to a friend about something that had happened to us. No specifics, unless it’s germane to the plot — clues, characters, locations, snippet of dialogue. Then it gets transformed into an “outline.” I use quotes because it’s really just what has to happen in each chapter or scene to move the story to the end. No Roman numerals or subheads involved.

I like having a plan when I write because I always know exactly what to do the minute I pull up the draft. I never have moments where I look at the screen and think “Hummina, hummina, hummina. Where do I start?”

When I wrote BAMBOOZLE I had a trick of stopping every day in the middle of a sentence so I only had to read a couple of sentences and then — boom  — I’m right back in it the next day. For MAYHEM, though, I’m trying something new. In my daily allotted writing time, I force myself to write an entire chapter. It’s a bit bare bones, but I want to get in the habit of writing faster so I can produce at least a book every year. Two would be even better. I love first drafts but hate — with the white-hot intensity of ten thousand suns — revisions. I’m better at adding purses and jewelry to the outfit of a story rather than pulling a thread and having the entire skirt unravel.

That’s a bit about my writing process. Share your process. I love hearing how other writers write and I hope you do too!