Judith Post's Blog, page 34

Surviving the C-word

First off, we got lucky. My sister went in for a routine annual check-up. Since she’d had pre-cancer two year ago, her doctor ordered a C-scan just as routine. The scan came back with a blob near a lymph node and two dark spots on her lung. He was going to be on call and couldn’t see her for a week after that, so she chose to go in for a PET scan and then waited to see him until early this morning. She asked me to go with her, worried she’d fall apart if she heard bad news, so that I could ask questions and drive her home.

It’s been a miserable time while we waited. But when we went in this morning, good news! The blob is a benign cyst and the spots are nodules of some kind. We were elated, but by the time my sister left this morning, I was exhausted. My husband and I talked for a while, then I plopped my fanny in my writing chair to get some word count for the day. And I actually made some progress, but by late afternoon, I crashed.

The worry has worn me out. I haven’t slept very well. Neither has she. I’ve tried to do more with her….just in case. At two-thirty, I grabbed my blankie and took a nap. Tomorrow, I go to writers’ club, and I’ll probably be tired again. I thought I was coping well, and I was. But the effort took a toll.

I know it could have been a lot worse. We went through the whole chemo and radiation routine with my cousin who has cerebral palsy. My sister’s C-scan showed up in the exact same spots. I’m so glad the outcome is different! Cancer survivors are so brave. The people who support them are so wonderful. The people who treat them deserve praise.

HH’s best friend is in Indy right now, fighting blood cancer. My dad died of that. They took out his healthy white blood cells, then killed all of the ones that were left, and soon, they’ll inject his healthy white cells back in him. In the meantime, he has NO immune system. None. He’ll have to get all of his baby shots again for mumps, measles, whooping cough….you name it. He’s facing the whole ordeal with the most positive attitude I’ve ever seen. And hopefully, it will buy him another ten years of health.

My sister, HH’s friend, and I have stayed as positive as we can. But once their ordeals were over for the moment, I took a nap. Being positive made me tired. If I had a magic wand, I’d wish you all health, happiness, and writing success. But I only write about witches, and even with magic, they have struggles of their own. I write about murderers, but not about diseases. Those are almost scarier. But for the moment, my sister has a reprieve. Once I catch up on sleep, I’m going to enjoy that.

Three Act Structure: Act I

Awesome post on writing! Thought I’d share.

Story Empire

Hi, Gang. Craig with you again today. It occurred to me that I’ve mentioned Three Act Structure several times on this site, but never posted anything about it before. That ends today.

This is a great way of plotting your stories, but it’s so much more than that. It will keep you on point with word count, and make sure you have a structure others can follow when they read. I use it along with my storyboards. I may slip a comment about storyboards into this series, but they aren’t required for you to take tips and tricks away.

Act I Climax

Since there are three acts, I intend to have four posts. It makes more sense that way, and you’ll see why when we get to Act Two. Act One is 20-25% of your story. Act Two is 50% (Why the extra post), Act Three is 20-25% of your…

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Throwing SHADE at Your Sentences

Staci Troilo wrote a great post on writing technique for Story Empire, so I thought I’d share it with you:

Story Empire

Ciao, SEers! Yeah, I know “throwing shade” is an insult. I promise, that’s not what I mean. I just wanted to get your attention. Do I have it? Great!

When I was in school, we learned about the four types of sentences:

declarative (statement)interrogative (question)imperative (command)exclamative (exclamation/shout of surprise)

Our teachers told us we could remember these by the first letters of the words: DIIE, or the elongating the word “die” as a mnemonic device. I didn’t think a mnemonic device was necessary for four simple concepts, especially one that didn’t really work, but it made them happy, so whatever.

Today, I think we all know those four sentence types about as well as we know our own names, without any memory tricks. (Especially ones that don’t quite work.) But I want to discuss five different sentence types that we use in our fiction, and I…

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Suggestions (because there are no rules)

Okay, the first thing to say is that every writer is different. What works for one person doesn’t work for the next one. But there are things that work more often than others. That still doesn’t mean they’ll be right for you. So here’s a list of suggestions for writers I’ve met recently:

Just Write. We all have to start somewhere, and the more you write, the better you’ll get. Usually. (Almost all the time). I wrote a few un-brilliant books before I started reading self-help “How To Sell Your Books” or “How To Be a Better Writer” books. My favorite is still Jack Bickham’s SCENE AND STRUCTURE. My second favorite’s Dwight Swain. I loved Stephen King’s book because…well, it sounded like Stephen King. I liked Elizabeth George’s book on writing for the same reason. I bought Donald Maas’s book on how to be a bestseller and agree with him. High stakes and emotional impact bring more readers. I’m glad I waited to read those books, though, and just wrote what I wanted for a while. I was all the better for it. Because if I hadn’t been struggling with how to organize a book, how to show not tell, how to balance everything etc., those books wouldn’t have resonated enough with me.

2. It’s easier if you know your genre. I stuck to the advice, Write What You Know. But not the way you think. I wrote mysteries because I READ a lot of mysteries. I’d read so many of them, I knew the structure, the rhythm, what was out there, what was selling at the moment. And I got wonderful rejection notes back from editors, telling me they liked my writing, they liked the story, but they couldn’t buy it. Because the market was glutted.

3. If you’re beating your head against a wall–STOP IT. And this is a VERY personal piece of advice. But I can tell you this from personal experience, not everything is about how well you write. If a market takes off, and every publisher wants one horror/cozy/thriller/sci-fi for their list, and you’re the next author who sends one in, your odds are good. If you’re the 50th author, good luck to you! You probably won’t sell. The market is GLUTTED. Every slot every editor has for that market is full. Try writing something else. Your odds will be better.

4. You can write more than one thing. Yes, your first love might be cat mysteries like Lillian Jackson Braun’s where Whiskers and Stripes talk to each other and figure out how to help their human. They’re fun. But if you write a good one that doesn’t sell (even though you get good feedback on it), and the next one doesn’t sell, and the one after that, maybe it’s time to change things up. Try to write something out of your comfort zone. And yes, you can. Just study it and know what works.

5. Advice is a wonderful thing. I still love to read writing blogs about what other writers do and what works for them, but not all of what they say is right for you. I have a fellow writer who’s a friend who takes EVERY piece of feedback or advice seriously. NOT a good idea. Every person likes different things. I could read the best noir anyone ever wrote and not like it. It’s not my thing if it’s too dark. I’m not a true P.I. fan either. So if I read a manuscript, my advice might actually make the story WORSE, not better. Feedback is just that. One person’s opinion. It took me a while to find critique partners who worked for me. The first time I gave my manuscript to someone, there was so much red ink, it looked like my manuscript had bled to death and died. I was ready to shoot my keyboard and give up UNTIL I realized that my critique partner wanted me to write exactly like she did. I loved her writing, but I’m not her. That’s not what feedback is for. It’s to make YOUR writing and voice shine. All feedback does is offer ideas about what worked and what didn’t work–for that person–in your manuscript. I mark what I liked and what I didn’t like so much, and know that the author might not pay any attention to me. And that’s the way it should be. BUT, if you show it to a few people, and they all have the same problem, then you might want to take a serious look at their comments and think about them. But even then, you have to do what’s right for you.

6. When I first started writing, people kept telling me to “just write the whole thing, whatever comes to you, and then go back to edit it. and do rewrites.” That does not work for me. I’m a lazy person by nature. Looking at a manuscript full of mistakes was too overwhelming. Once I started to edit as I go, my writing improved dramatically.

7. Don’t curl up and die when you get too many rejections. First, a rejection just means that an agent or editor can’t sell what you sent him. For many reasons. He might have sold three cozies in the last month and has hit up all the editors he knows that buy those. He hates children’s books and won’t like yours no matter how good it is. Your style of writing just doesn’t click with him. He’s waiting for a sci-fi novel about a paranoid android and your android’s too perky and self-confident. Writing and reading is SUBJECTIVE. Editors look for books that fill slots. When they get an urban fantasy, they want a book that follows the rules for the genre, but then add a new twist to it. Break the rules at your own peril. Ilona Andrews has written many blogs with great writing advice. She got more rejections than people would think when she started out. Here’s her blog on writing: https://www.ilona-andrews.com/category/writing/articles/

8. My last bit of advice is personal, because it’s what works for me. And I’m thinking about people who are gearing up for NaNoWriMo. Plan ahead. I’m a plotter. I write a brief paragraph for every chapter in my book to know what I want it to accomplish. I often end up with 40 -45 plot points. And those notes save me a LOT of time. I still let my characters go off track and surprise me AS LONG AS they keep to the basic plot points and don’t change them. NONE of my writing friends outline like I do, and they ALL write great books. But they all have some idea where each book is going before they start it. It saves them a lot of rewriting.. M.L. Rigdon/Julia Donner writes down four twists that will move her plots forward. As long as she hits those goalposts, she knows she’s on the right track. Her characters motivate her more than a plot does, so, like Mae Clair, she’s more of a plantser. https://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/2021/09/27/its-time-to-start-planning-for-november-nanowrimo/. Find what works for you, but know, pantsers usually have a lot of rewrites.

9. Trust yourself. Find what works for you and try it. If it doesn’t work, try something else. And have fun writing!

Isn’t that the way it goes?

I reached the one-fourth point on my Jazzi 8 pages. It feels good to be back with her working on houses and cooking Sunday meals while solving a murder. So, what did I think of today? A great subplot for a Karnie Cleaver mystery. Her brother, Porter, annoyed me so much in book one that I decided to mess with him a bit. Isn’t that how it usually goes? When I work on one book, the idea for another pops in my mind.

This time, the ideas came earlier than usual. Most of the time, they wait until I’m fussing because I’m in the middle of the muddle of my current book. They’re tempting then, not so enticing now while I’m still having fun writing the set-up and adding depth to suspects. I base the butcher shop Karnie works at on our local shop, though, with its loyal customers and helpful workers at the counter. So when I go to buy smoked pork chops or special cuts of meat, I think of her.

My critique partner and writer friend, M.L. Rigdon/Julia Donner, has bugged me (no, make that SUGGESTED) that I write the first chapter of a new book at the end of each book that I finish. A good idea. It gives a reader an idea of what’s coming next in the story lines. But, it’s forced me to think of the next book in the series before I finish the one I’m working on. And that’s made it so that I can load it on Scapple and start playing with ideas for it before I’m ever ready to write it. C.S. Boyack does that all the time with his storyboards: https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/?s=story+boards, and after reading his post about developing stories, I tried it and liked it.

Right now, I have a Scapple board for Karnie and Matt, one for Laurel and Nick from Posed in Death, one for Lux and Keon, and one for the next Jazzi. That should let my mind wander when it needs a break. And I shouldn’t run out of things to write for a long time. But for the moment, it’s back to The Body in the Buick. I like Vince, the victim, and I want his murderer brought to justice.

It Sucks to be an Ex

What goes in but doesn’t always come back out? Prisoners. In my Jazzi and Ansel cozy, The Body in the Apartment, I introduced Jarrett, a man who’s been in and out of prison and doesn’t want to return. He’s really trying to find a job, a place to live, and go straight, but most people don’t think an ex-con will stay an ex. That’s when Jerod’s dad, Eli, decides to give him a break and hires him to work in his garage.

In the book I’m working on now, Jarrett returns as a character. He’s still working as a mechanic for Eli, and he and Brianne are living rent-free in an apartment because he works as a part-time maintenance man, fixing whatever needs done there. She goes to school to become a hairdresser and he’s taking classes to get certified for working on foreign cars. All is going well for them until Vince, a mechanic Jarrett likes and respects, begins cheating customers to skim money. Jarrett catches him and warns him to stop or he’ll turn him in. Vince keeps doing it. Vince was nice to Jarrett when he first started working in the garage. He taught him the ropes, but Eli was even nicer to him, so Jarrett does what he doesn’t want to…and tells Eli what Vince is doing. Eli fires him, and two days later, Vince gets killed.

Jake, a fellow mechanic, immediately blames Jarrett. “Once a criminal, always a criminal.” But Eli wants to know the truth and asks Jazzi to ask around to see if she can learn anything. Everyone agrees that something big was bothering Vince or he’d have never cheated customers or stooped to stealing money from Eli. And everyone suspects the problem had something to do with Vince’s brother, Kevin. Kevin loses one job after another, always has money problems, and always turns to Vince for help. This time, helping his brother might have been the death of him.

I’ve finished the first fourth of The Body in the Buick, and the set-up kept me thinking. Now I’m starting the second fourth, and Jazzi and Gaff start digging for answers. Lots more words to go!

Oh, forgot to say. Happy October!

Packing my Bags

I’m on a cyber journey to C.S. Boyack’s blog today. He invited me as a guest to promote my latest, Posed In Death. I’ve mentioned Craig off and on here. He writes speculative fiction I enjoy, especially his Lanternfish trilogy with Serang, a character who will stay with me a long time. At his place, I’m talking about why I decided to write something darker than a cozy. I mean, it’s not like I needed to start another series. I already have three mystery series I like to write, but…

I meant to get up earlier to share my guest post and give it a roaring start:) But our daughter stays at our place when she works as a traveling nurse in town. I don’t usually hear her come home, but she got off at 3:30 and walked in the door at 4:00 but couldn’t sleep. She was still awake at 7:00 and I heard her moving around in the kitchen so got up to check on her. (I know. She’s in her forties, but old habits die hard). Anyway, . two of her patients were sent to hospice last night (not Covid), and it made it hard for her to relax. I’m glad I got up. After she talked it out, she could go to sleep. I went back to bed, too. One of the joys of retirement:) So I got a late start for the day, but life happens. And I woke up to the fun of being Craig’s guest. Yay! I hope you check out his site and my guest post:

https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/2021/09/28/posed-in-death-by-judi-lynn-newbook/comment-page-1/#comment-60219

A Snippet

I thought I’d share a short scene from POSED IN DEATH. Laurel Reagan finds her friend Maxine’s body arranged like the other victims of the Midlife Murderer. She learns that Maxine went out to supper with a freelance reporter, Nick Menas, shortly before the night she was killed. When Nick calls her and asks to interview her, she only agrees because they’re meeting in a public place and she doesn’t fit the type the Midlife Murderer always chooses. Then she learns he had an alibi for the night Maxine died, so when he volunteers to team up with her to learn more about the case, she feels safe.

On the drive home, Nick said, “This has been a nice day.  Thank you.”

“I’ve enjoyed it, too.  I needed something to cheer me up after finding Maxine.”

He grimaced.  “I don’t know which is worse, losing my wife to a random shooter or having a friend murdered by a serial killer.”

“They’re both horrible, but I can do something about Maxine.  I want to find her killer.  I won’t have closure until whoever did it is behind bars and hopefully never free again.”

He glanced sideways at her as he drove.  “You sound determined.”

“I am.  I lost my husband to a heart attack.  Stuart had always had cardiac problems, so I knew I’d lose him someday going into the marriage, but still, it felt random.  It came sooner than we expected, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it.  Maxine’s death is different, though.  It shouldn’t have happened, and if I find out who did it, I can make sure no one else has to die that way.  I’m going to do all I can to help Ralph find who killed her.”

“Ralph is on the case?”

“Not officially, and he doesn’t want me involved.  He’s warned me away.”

“But you’re still going to pursue it?”

“Yes.”

Nick glanced at her again.  “You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”

“I doubt if I make a difference.  The cops have more resources than I do, but if I can help, I’m going to.”

His dark eyebrows dipped in a frown.  “I was a crime reporter before my wife died.  Then I needed a break from it.  It hit too close to home, but I’m getting tired of human-interest stories.  I’d love to write in-depth, serious pieces again.  Not the everyday drive-by shootings, but this case would interest me.  I could work with you.  If you want a partner, that is.”

Did she?  Could she trust this man?  She didn’t know much about him.  “You’d help me dig for information?”

“I used to be good at it.  My wife’s case was wrapped up before I even learned that she’d died.  It made me feel useless, and I hated it.  I’d be able to do something this time.  I’m going to be in town a while.  I want to write my section of the book here, then if I need more information, it will be easier to get.  But it would feel good to be able to make a difference about a death, you know?”

“I do.” She surprised herself by how much she could relate to him.  “And the truth is, I’d feel safer if someone went with me when I visited people I want to talk to.”

“Then I’m your guy.”  He gripped the steering wheel, his expression earnest.  “I pester people all the time who don’t want to talk to me.  Give me a call when you want to visit someone, and I’ll be there.”

A worry niggled.  “This isn’t just about getting a scoop on who the Midlife Murderer is, is it?”

He pressed his lips in a grim line.  “Will that be a deal breaker?  I have to admit that’s part of it.  I’m sort of using you to get a toe in the door.  I want you to know that.  But we’ll still find Maxine’s killer.  And part of this, for me, is finding closure after my wife was killed.”

That was part of what was driving her, too.  She decided to find out how serious he was.  “I’m going to make a casserole to take to Maxine’s husband tomorrow.  I think he’s a worthless human being, but I want to see what he has to say about Maxine.  Want to come?”

“You’re still okay with me tagging along?”

“Why not?  I’d like to see the Midlife Murderer behind bars, too.”

“When should I pick you up?”

…..And that’s how Laurel and Nick become a team.

Good Luck, POSED IN DEATH

I didn’t think my agent would like my latest book, and I was right. She passed on it. It’s a thriller, but it doesn’t follow the rules. It has “nice” moments in it, too. It’s not relentlessly building tension. It doesn’t fit the mold.

Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes, I like a well-written thriller, but I like cozies more. Sneaking some cozy into a thriller muddled the mix, but it’s what I wanted to do. So I did. And I was pretty sure that was going to mean I’d have to self-publish it. And I was right.

I respect the need for rules in writing. When a reader picks up a thriller, that’s what they want to read. To sell, the writer has to deliver whatever he labeled his manuscript and make it his own AND write it as well or better than the writers who are already selling in that genre. It surprised me when an editor told me that. Until then, I thought I was competing with new writers in the field, but when I thought about it, I was competing for a space in that genre against everyone who was writing it. That’s not a bad thing. It just means that my work had to be as good as theirs without mimicking it.

For Posed In Death, I knew I wanted to write a mystery/thriller. Sometimes, in an expanding market, a writer can bend the rules and still sell. In a tight market, it’s trickier. That means editors will probably turn down your work, but that doesn’t mean that readers won’t like it. Readers are more willing to blend genres. They don’t have to stick a title in a category to market it and make it sell. Anyway, I wanted to write something darker than a cozy, and I can now share POSED IN DEATH. If you try it, I hope you like it.

Oldies but Goodies

My critique partner and writer friend, M.L. Rigdon/Julia Donner, has mentioned a few times now that she’d like to find books with older heroines. She was ready to read a romance that featured someone who wasn’t in her twenties or thirties, and to that end, she decided to write about an older heroine herself. She’s working on a Regency with a duchess who lost her husband to the French guillotine and fled to England to raise her son. In an earlier book, that son is grown and married. In the current book, the duchess prefers to stay in the country but comes to London as a favor to a friend, and–since it’s a romance–is pursued by a widower who finds her maturity refreshing. Maturity can be refreshing, darn it.

In POSED IN DEATH, the thriller I wrote, my protagonist, Laurel, is fifty-seven, and her romantic interest, Nick, is fifty-four. Laurel’s husband died of a heart attack, and Nick’s wife was killed in a random shooting. They’re both empty-nesters. Their children have grown and have lives of their own, and their kids want them to be happy. When Nick and Laurel team up to find how the Midlife Murderer chooses his victims and why, they encourage them to date again, to try new things. They’ve each had successes and failures. Laurel is way past menopause. She has to hit the gym to keep in shape. So does Nick. They know what they want…or don’t want. It was interesting to write their journey.

I’ve just started reading a new mystery, CRIME AND PUNCTUATION, by Kaitlyn Dunnett, and her main character is even older. Mikki Lincoln’s a retired widower who taught language arts and now makes extra money editing for writers. She’s over sixty-five and has to wear eye glasses and hearing aids. Her friends have health and eye problems, too, but they’re active and sharp witted. It lends a different flavor to the mystery to have a character who’s lived long enough to have an attitude and whose friend has to use a wheelchair on “bad” days and a scooter on worse ones. .

Good writing means creating interesting characters, and anyone of any age can qualify. But it’s nice to find some variety, to read about some older protagonists. I’m enjoying it.. Do you have any favorite heroes or heroines who are past their prime?