Debra H. Goldstein's Blog, page 9

The Tension between Truth and Verisimilitude in Historical Fiction by Karen Odden

One of my favorite funny stories about writing comes from my friend Susan Elia MacNeal, who has published ten Maggie Hope mysteries set in WWII. In researching, Susan read Winston Churchill’s letters, where she found he used the abbreviation “OMG.” It’s not as surprising as it sounds; because telegrams were expensive and priced by the word, abbreviations became habitual in letters as well. But Susan obviously couldn’t put “OMG” into her book because even though it was historically true, it would diminish the verisimilitude. I could just imagine a laughing reviewer: “What’s next? Churchill writing TTYL? Seriously?”

In this case truth and verisimilitude couldn’t be reconciled. On the one hand was some “common knowledge” about modern-day texting; on the other, some very “uncommon knowledge” about Churchill’s writing.

But what about less extreme instances?

As writers representing our fictional worlds (historical or not), sometimes we run up against readers’ assumptions or “common knowledge” about a period or place, which can range from slightly skewed to outright misinformation.

For example, after Down a Dark River was published, a reader complimented my detailed research, but said I had one important fact wrong: the Victorians drank tea, not coffee, as Corravan does. “There wasn’t a Starbucks on every corner like now,” she concluded, softening her criticism with, “LOL.”

I understand why this reader believes the Victorians only drank tea. Tea was a more common beverage

 – although coffee had been a staple in the 18th century. Also, tea is ubiquitous in popular television and movies about England, from adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels to Ted Lasso. (Many readers lump Austen in with the Victorians, though she died twenty years before Victoria took the throne.) Tea also is a trope for the class-consciousness in Victorian England – with the aristocratic ladies sipping it, pinkies up, and the servants serving it.

However, the fact is that thousands of pounds of coffee were still making their way into London every year, and silversmiths were still crafting gorgeous coffee services in the 1870s.

This reader’s comment about the Victorians and tea gestured to a larger concern – namely, (when) should writers sacrifice or elide historical truth to keep the reader from tossing the book aside, saying, “Oh, that’s ridiculous”? Are there ways that I might cue a reader that what they believe about Victorian England might not be wholly accurate – without info-dumping and without “talking down” to the reader? I started keeping an eye out for how other authors do this, and I began incorporating techniques into my own books.

One easy possibility is to address the assumption directly. In the sequel,Under a Veiled Moon, I have Corravan mention that Harry Lish (who lives with him) likes tea, but Corravan can’t abide weak liquids in the morning. It cues the reader that I am aware that most people drink tea, and Corravan is just a bit contrary, in this, as he is in other things.

Another way is to have one character in the book stand in as the skeptic, holding a view that a reader might hold. This can result in two characters arguing (yay, conflict!), with one character finally proving that the counter-intuitive fact is correct. In Down a Dark River, Corravan and Dr. Everett argue about whether Madeline’s husband has the right to take her out of the hospital, against medical advice. Dr. Everett correctly insists that under the Victorian legal doctrine of coverture, the husband’s wishes always trump the doctor’s, even if the wife is profoundly ill – which surprised some readers.

I also use the Author’s Note at the end as my Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card for taking some liberties, such as moving a church from one part of London to another because I liked the church’s name and its true history of providing a home and services for reformed prostitutes.

One helpful practice is I ask beta-readers to put a “TV” in the margin when something might tug at the verisimilitude and feel unbelievable to a modern reader, or a reader who doesn’t know an unfamiliar setting.

The good news is that if the bulk of a book is demonstrably well-researched, creating a coherent and detailed world, it achieves the overall effect of verisimilitude, and writers can often get away with presenting a few unlikely facts. The important thing is to be mindful about the tension that produces and about when and why you’re going to insert it.

How do you handle this issue?

USA Today bestselling author Karen Odden received her PhD from NYU, taught at UW-Milwaukee, and edited for academic journals before writing fiction set in 1870s London. Her fifth novel, Under a Veiled Moon (2022), was nominated for the Agatha, Lefty, and Anthony Awards for Best Historical Mystery and features Michael Corravan, a former thief turned Scotland Yard Inspector. Karen serves on the national board of Sisters in Crime and divides her time between Arizona and Utah. Connect with her at www.karenodden.com

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Kensington Cozy Con Midwest– October 14, 2023

Several Kensington cozy authors, including Debra, will join together for an event sponsored by 2 Dandelions Bookshop (Brighton Michigan) on Saturday, October 14, 2023, from 12 – 4 p.m. The event will be held at First Presbyterian Church, 300 E. Grand River, Brighton, MI 48116.

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Plenty Downtown Bookshop – August 12, 2023

Three Cozy Authors Discuss Murder Over Tea and Cookies with Valerie Burns, Gretchen Archer, and Debra. This mystery author extravaganza will be held at The French Cookie, 125 W. Broad St., Cookeville, TN 38501 from 1-2:30 p.m. Tickets are required: https://www.plentybookshop.com/event-details-registration/mystery-authors-extravaganza

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Kirkwood by the River – July 28, 2023

“From Kid to Judge to Author” – a book talk at 3:30 p.m.

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Guest Blogger: G.P. Gottlieb – Have You Always Wanted to Write a Book?

Have you Always Wanted to Write a Book?  

I could never get above a B in Honors English. My family had moved to a ritzy suburb, and I’d transferred from a rougher, less prestigious high school into a swanky one where girls wore matching shoes and purses. I wore army fatigues and boots. The kids weren’t mean, but they weren’t friendly. I was so swept up in having my own bedroom, I could usually forget about not fitting in at school, but nearly every day, I was derailed by the English teacher’s disdain.

That honors English class was comprised of the school’s elite, the ones who knew they’d go on to run companies, dazzle juries, amass fortunes. They came from a rarified world in which I clearly didn’t belong. My one friend would listen to me grumbling on the way to the next class, and scheme to help me write a comment of such depth and perception for the required discussion, that the English teacher would be forced to acknowledge me.

That never happened, but I didn’t write anything for years. After high school, I went to college and grad school, married, had kids, got divorced, met someone wonderful, remarried, and went back to work. When my 9-year-old daughter went off to her first sleepaway camp, I wrote long letters in which she was the heroine in an exciting, ongoing adventure.

In each installment, she was being shuffled around the country by kidnappers who made her perform in their traveling theater company. I’d show up to rescue her by the end of each letter, but just as we were about to escape, the kidnappers would snag her back so they could exploit her huge talent (In the story, she could sing and dance like Shirley Temple, whose movies she adored).

We moved to another state, and while raising kids and working part-time, I continued writing songs and poems, stories, and complaint letters. I was particularly good at those. I also began writing a novel and spent several years creating a nearly incoherent mishmash of unnecessary characters with a plot that resembled overpasses on a congested superhighway. It was a mess because I kept detouring into unimportant side stories that had nothing to do with the story’s arc. Maybe my high school English teacher had been right, and my writing really was just mediocre.

Then, one day in 2016, I read an astounding editorial in the Chicago Tribune by S.L. Wisenberg, author, and teacher. She’d taught writing at several of the city’s most prominent universities, knew how to make sure every word was precise, every chapter pushed the story forward, and every story flowed in a giant arc. With her help and several years of rewriting, my manuscript transformed until it was ready to be submitted, accepted, and published.

I needed less help with my second book, because my editor had already taught me so much, and by the time I began writing my third book, I knew what I was doing. S.L. Wisenberg had given me back the confidence that the high school English teacher had knocked out of me.

When aspiring authors ask me how I managed to write three novels this late in life, I tell them that I try not to let naysayers stop me anymore. I tell them that if they’ve always wanted to be an author, then find a good editor, be prepared to learn something, and keep at it. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t write, or who won’t give you above a B.

G.P. Gottlieb is the author of Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery (D.X. Varos Publishing 2023), the third in her culinary mystery series. She is host for New Books in Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network, and has interviewed nearly 200 authors. You can read more about her at gpgottlieb.com.

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It’s Not Always a Mystery – But it’s Always a Puzzle! by Valerie Burns

Debra, thanks for inviting me to “It’s Not Always a Mystery.”

 I’ve loved mysteries since I read my first Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew books many moons ago. When I picked up my first Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Akroyd, I fell head over heels in love. I jumped into the deep end of the cozy mystery world and never looked back. What is it about cozies? Good question.

First, what’s a cozy mystery? Cozies are a subgenre of crime fiction. These books typically feature a female sleuth who is solving a crime. Think Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. Cozies are usually set in a small town (although this is changing). They don’t have graphic violence, explicit sex, or bad words. Seriously, can you imagine J.B. Fletcher dropping the F-bomb? Me either. Typically, cozies are lighter and are often themed. There are culinary cozies, bookshop cozies, library cozies, cat cozies, dog cozies, and pretty much any theme you can imagine. But, the heart of a cozy, just like all crime fiction, is the puzzle. A crime is committed, and our sleuth needs to sift through the clues and red herrings (false clues) to figure out Whodunit.

As an avid reader and mystery lover, I loved pitting my wits against that of the sleuth to figure out Whodunit. When I eventually decided to try my hand at writing a cozy mystery, I didn’t realize that there were rules that the cozy mystery author is expected to follow. What rules? Well, the most important rule is that the author must PLAY FAIR WITH THE READER. What does that mean? It means, all clues must be revealed. Not only must all clues be revealed, but the clues must be revealed to the reader at the same time that the sleuth discovers it. No finding an important clue in chapter two and holding it back until the big reveal at the end of the book. Nope. That’s not playing fair.

Another important rule that are unique to cozies is that in cozy mysteries, JUSTICE MUST PREVAIL. Does that mean that the killer will always be caught and punished? Usually, but not necessarily. Justice may mean that the killer goes free. I realize that may be hard to accept, but I recently saw an episode of Murder, She Wrote where the killer was a dog who had been trained to push a button that caused the death of the bad guy. Should the dog be punished? I think not. Or, the ending of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. No spoilers, but justice isn’t always black and white. Sometimes, there’s a lot of grey. Of course, these are extreme examples, but you get the picture.

So, if you like solving puzzles, sorting real clues from red herrings, and figuring out Whodunit, chances are good that you’ll enjoy a cozy mystery. In fact, I just might know a few cozy mystery authors that you might enjoy reading.

 

MURDER IS A PIECE OF CAKE

With small town New Bison’s Spring Festival just around the corner, the pressure is on Maddy to continue her late great-aunt Octavia’s legacy. That means scoring the top prize and transforming Baby Cakes into Southwest Michigan’s must-visit bakery, even though her inexperience in the kitchen brings nightmares of humiliating tagged photos and scathing reviews.

There’s another reason for lost beauty sleep. A second bakery is opening in town under the ownership of CJ Davenport, a shrewd investor with a reputation for sabotaging anyone who gets in his way. And savvy, flashy Maddy tops his list. It’s a sticky spot to be in—more so when Davenport turns up dead with a Baby Cakes’ knife stuck in his back.

Maddy’s whole life just went from #thriving to barely surviving. Now, supported by the crafty Baker Street Irregulars and her new boyfriend, she must find the courage to face off against a killer who could very well get her name trending for the first and last time . . .

Buy Links: Amazon, Nook, Bookshop

BIO

Valerie (V.M.) Burns is an Agatha Anthony, and Edgar Award-nominated author. In addition to the Baker Street Mystery, she is also the author of the Mystery Bookshop, Dog Club, RJ Franklin, and the upcoming, Bailey the Bloodhound Mystery series writing as Kallie E. Benjamin. Valerie is a member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and Dog Writers of America. She is also an adjunct professor in the Writing Popular Fiction Program at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Born and raised in northwestern Indiana, Valerie now lives in Northern Georgia with her two poodles. Readers can keep up with new releases by following her on social media.

Website: http://www.vmburns.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vmburnsbooks/
Instagram: https//www.instagram.com/vmburnsbooks
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/v-m-burns

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Atlanta Chapter of Sisters in Crime – Writing the Mystery Novel: Writing is Not a Crime Workshop – November 11, 2023

Debra, Sharon Marchisello, and Kathy Nichols will participate in a “Pacing and Building Suspense” panel moderated by Angela Costa at 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Decatur Library.

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Killer Nashville – August 17-20, 2023

In addition to being the Killer Nashville Friday Lunch Keynote speaker, Debra will teach her “Conflict” workshop and present a special short story workshop with Robert Mangeot. She will also appear on several panels. Check the schedule for times and room locations

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Sleuthfest – July 6-9, 2023

Debra will be featured on the “How to Write Back Copy,” “Writing Your Own Newsletter Content,” and “The Importance of Strong Secondary Characters (Sidekicks)” panels during the July 6-9 conference being held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Deerfield Beach-Boca Raton.

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Story Fodder by Susan Van Kirk

Recently, I read a blog post by writer Annette Dashofy in which she mentioned an idea that gave me pause. “As writers,” she wrote, “we tend to mine the emotional moments in our lives for story fodder.” This thought certainly rang true with me, but I hadn’t connected it to my most recent mystery series.

My Art Center Mysteries have a dark connection to my life, but one I hadn’t really considered until I let Annette’s writerly thought swirl around in my brain. The second book in the series, Death in a Bygone Hue, is just out, and it continues the story of Jill Madison begun in the first book, Death in a Pale Hue.

Like me, Jill has two brothers, but in a different order than mine, and she returns to the small Illinois town of Apple Grove to be executive director of an art center named for their sculptor mother. In the first book, she is shaky, her confidence at a low ebb. An oil painter by trade, she hasn’t painted in six years because of a horrific event that permeates the entire series, and the Madison children’s lives. Their parents died in a car accident with a drunk driver who hit them head-on.

Fortunately for Jill, despite a murder and an art theft, she is slowly wrapped in the love of her brothers and niece and nephew, and by the end of the first mystery, she begins to heal and is painting again. In the second book, Death in a Bygone Hue, the deaths of the Madison parents show up again when Jill discovers her friend and mentor, Judge Spivey, murdered. He was the treasurer of her art board, and they shared a love of art and conversations about her parents because he knew her parents well. With his death, a valuable connection to her parents and knowledge of their pasts is lost. Jill is shocked when she discovers an unbelievable secret in the judge’s past that might connect to her mom and dad.

The next book, currently in progress, Death in a Ghostly Hue, will also swirl around the deaths of the parents in a more direct way. The young person who was driving the car that killed the Madisons returns to town looking for a way to atone for his actions. It becomes apparent, in a very public scene, that there will be no forgiveness from one of Jill’s brothers. When the young man is murdered, you can imagine the identity of the main suspect.

Only recently, I thought about how this emotional fodder came from my own life. While my art mysteries are quite humorous, the framework beneath this is a bit somber. The Madison family drifted for a long six years, and the whole family dynamic and relationships among the three siblings changed. Had their parents lived, this family might have stayed intact, loving, and in close contact. A watershed moment in my own life was my mother’s young death from cancer. When she died at fifty-six, my older brother’s wife and I were both pregnant with our first children. Our younger brother was fifteen. Our mother never lived to see any of her grandchildren, while my father remarried a couple of years later. The family was never the same. It hadn’t occurred to me until I read Annette’s comment that I was living through and processing that moment with the Madison family. In fiction, as in real life, dramatic events occurring in a split moment change lives forever. I’m planning to give the Madisons a better ending. That’s why I like writing cozy mysteries—I can make things whole once again.

Summary of Death in a Bygone Hue

When Jill Madison returns to her hometown to become executive director of a new art center, she never dreams unexpected secrets from the past will put her life in danger. Her parent’s old friend and Jill’s mentor, Judge Ron Spivey, is murdered. He leaves behind more than a few secrets from the past. His baffling will makes Jill a rich woman if she survives the will’s six-month probate period.

She finds a target on her back when the judge’s estranged children return. They form an unholy alliance with a local muckraking journalist who specializes in making up the news. According to the judge’s will, if Jill dies, the family inherits.

Jill and her best friend, Angie Emerson, launch their own investigation determined to find the judge’s killer. In the meantime, Jill must run her first national juried exhibit, launch a new seniors group, and move the weavers guild into the art center. Easy peasy, right?

Susan Van Kirk is the president of the Guppy Chapter, the online chapter of Sisters in Crime, and a writer of cozy mysteries. She lives at the center of the universe—the Midwest—and writes during the ridiculously cold and icy winters. Why leave the house and break something? Van Kirk taught forty-four years in high school and college and raised three children. Now that the children are launched, she writes.

Her Endurance mysteries include Three May Keep a Secret, Marry in Haste, The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney, Death Takes No Bribes, and The Witch’s Child. She also wrote A Death at Tippitt Pond. Her latest Art Center Mysteries include Death in a Pale Hue and Death in a Bygone Hue from Level Best Books. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Website:  www.susanvankirk.com
FB  http://www.facebook.com/SusanVanKirkAuthor/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/susanivankirk/
Goodreads  www.goodreads.com/author/show/586.Susan_Vankirk

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