Judith Post's Blog, page 78

Why????

I couldn’t stand it–even though I’m in the middle of reading TROUBLE IN MUDBUG, by Jana DeLeon and really enjoying it–AND I downloaded Staci Troilo’s novel TORTURED SOUL to read next–I still HAD to buy the last Kate Daniel’s urban fantasy that just came out by Ilona Andrews.  If you’ve read my blog very long, you know how much I love that series.  Her new Legacy series, too.  I’ve bought EVERY book.  And I couldn’t wait, but I also couldn’t find it on the usual bookshelf at my local Barnes & Noble.  Why?  Because one of their helpful clerks explained that it was on the hardcover display and wouldn’t be out in paperback until a LONG time.  Now, I know I bought the previous one in paperback.  The memory is sketchy, though.  Kids were in and out of the house, staying, moving, staying a little more, and the joy of reading got a little chaotic.  But I’ve bought all of the other books in paperback.  And that’s where my sorry personal lament starts–  WHY??? Why a hardcover now?

It’s time to confess that I can be a little anal about my books.  And I should have seen this coming.  WAY back before the dawn of man, I bought every Martha Grimes’ novel and Elizabeth George novel when they came out.  And they both started in paperback and then, when they became bestselling authors, their books went to hardcover.  So did Patricia Briggs with her Mercy Thompson series.  And now, so is Ilona Andrews.  I don’t mind paying $22. for their books instead of $8.  I’m happy for all of them.  They’ve EARNED more money and recognition.

BUT–I keep all of my favorite authors’ books together on my bookshelves.  And call me a little controlling, but my rows of books look crooked when half or three-fourths of a shelf is paperback and the rest is hardcover.  It hurts my aesthetic balance.  At least, until I get used to it.  And to have an ENTIRE series in paperback with just the one, last book in hardcover?  It just looks whopper-jawed.  I’m so into this, that I’ve already decided that when the paperback version of MAGIC TRIUMPHS comes out, I’m buying it.  And putting it with my other paperbacks in the series.  And I’ll give my hardcover copy to my library and hopefully some other readers will enjoy it.  But until then, I have to be patient and wait.  Not my strong suit, but hey!  I don’t have any choice.

Do any of you have bookshelf issues?  In the large scheme of things, it’s a minor irritation, but what can I say?  I hope every book you read is a winner, and happy writing!

A First for me!

If you belong to Goodreads, my publisher–Kensington–is offering The Body in the Attic in a giveaway from Aug. 30-Sept. 13 and will give away 100 FREE e-copies to winners.  You can sign up here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/283871-the-body-in-the-attic

I’ve belonged to Goodreads for a long time.  I’ve even worked with the wonderful Tana from Making Connections and given away 10 free copies of my self-published urban fantasies before.  But I’ve never given away 100 copies.  And Kensington has never promoted my books this way before.  It’s a first for me, and I love it!  So, if you’re a member, and you like mysteries, I hope you give it a shot.  And good luck!

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Check this out!

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I met Staci Troilo on the Story Empire blog (https://storyempire.com/2017/07/12/8-steps-author-brand/) and through Mae Clair’s blog (https://maeclair.net/).  If you haven’t looked at their sites, I highly recommend each of them.  Staci edits as well as writes, and she gives good, solid advice and writers’ links–besides writing fabulous stories.  She has two that came out in August.

Tortured Soul is the last installment in her Medici Protectorate series and became available on Aug. 28.  She wrote a beautiful blog about it:

https://stacitroilo.wordpress.com/2018/08/21/ending-a-series-is-torture-tortured-soul-the-medici-protectorate-finale/#more-5881

Here’s a little teaser to whet your whistle:

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I love the purple on the cover!

 

Staci is doubly blessed (and doubly busy in August)  because using her pen name, Keira Beck, she wrote her Nightforce Security 1 novel that came out Aug. 1.  If you like romance, suspense, and plenty of twists and turns, you’ll want to check this out:

 

If you’d like a taste of the Nightforce Security guys before committing to the series, there’s a great promo going on at BookFunnel, where you can get an introductory story called One Ugly Mug. It’s free, and it’s not available anywhere else. You can find it by clicking this link.

You can find Staci on these sites:

Staci Troilo
Bestselling Author


Writer/Editor


Connect online:
Website | Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads | Social Media

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…and all that

Struggles, they say, make you stronger.  It’s true, I know.  When I was young, I didn’t have the experience to write some of the things I do today.  I could empathize with other peoples’ problems, but I’d been raised pretty sheltered with boringly typical growing up angsts.  Life took care of that in one way or another.  Bumps and bruises leave lasting internal marks.  They made me grow, so that the characters I write now have more depth.

I’ve known a few people–only a VERY few–who sailed through life mostly unscathed.  They don’t carry the baggage most of us do.  Now, I’m not glorifyng misery.  If I’d have had a choice, I’d have passed on some of life’s more demanding moments.  I’d have gone to a beach and played in the sand instead.  But that’s not the way Life works.  You get what you get, and some people live through burdens that would flatten me, nightmare childhoods and traumas that scar.  More surprisingly, some people get multi doses of awful and still stay positive and generous.  I don’t think I got that gene.

I know there are times when you’re just emotionally wrung-out, too.  When you don’t have the energy to put words on paper.  All you can do is cope, the most you can manage is to endure.  I’ve watched friends go through grief or illnesses and their stories stop speaking to them.

Struggles with writing make us stronger writers, too.  Not that I’m a fan of rejection, but it comes with the territory, doesn’t it?  When I look back at some of my earlier efforts, I cringe.  What if someone had accepted them, published them?  Would I have tried as hard to improve?  Actually, some of those stories were published, and I shake my head when I read them.  What were the other manuscripts like in that slush pile if mine stood out?  I don’t want to think about it.

Having to change genres has improved my writing, too.  I didn’t think so at the time.  After my kazillionth rejection that said, “Love your writing, but NO ONE’s buying cozies now,” I told myself it was time to give up my dream of becoming my generation’s Agatha Christie and move on.  (I’ve always believed in aiming high and seeing where I ended up.  Sometimes, it’s a long fall:)  After cozies, I tried my hand at writing serial killers, but that market was glutted, too, at the time.  And then an editor asked if I’d try writing urban fantasies.  It took me a minute, but I learned to love writing those.  And they made me think about battles and building tension until the ultimate battle at the end of each book.  Then my agent asked me to try romances, and I reeled.  They seemed impossible to me, but I learned to love them too.  They made me think about smaller missteps that build tension and have an emotional impact.  And finally, my editor at Lyrical Underground asked if I’d like to try a cozy mystery for their line.  And I was back to writing mysteries again.  But I really believe that all the twists and turns have made me think about ALL of the elements that make a strong story, not just plotting.

I doubt that many of you who read this are whistling happy tunes and skipping through the park every day of your lives.  And I hope that when you look back, after the fact, that your trials and disappointments were worth it.  So just in case, hang in there, and happy writing!

Oops, I just found out . . .

My friend and fellow writer, M.L. Rigdon, is offering her fantasy, Prophecy Denied, for FREE from Aug. 23-27.  It’s the first novel in her first SEASONS OF TIME trilogy.  You might want to check it out!

The Body in the Attic–available on NetGalley

I just wanted to let everyone know that, if you’re a reviewer, my first mystery is available on NetGalley now.  Every writer begs for reviews of their book, so if you’re a cozy mystery lover, I’d appreciate it if you took the time to review mine.

Here’s the link:  https://www.netgalley.com/widget/155319/redeem/c4ae4938aa6673211891dc0bdf3f83473e97feb396deb51493d5b7981ffaeeef

 

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Family and Friends

My sister Patty called today and said she was running to KFC to grab a bucket of chicken and sides, and what if she brought them to our house for a late lunch?  The hub and I love fried chicken, but I never make it.  I make more chicken recipes than any woman should, but frying a whole, cut-up one always seems like a lot of work to me, so I avoid it.  Having a bucket of it delivered to my door, though?  That was sort of like having the heavens smile on me.  So, of course, I said yes.

My cousin, Jenny, lives with Patty and came, too.  Once we finally all got settled and dug into the food, the usual flow of conversation began.  There’s nothing like family to sort out recent happenings, old stories, and new gossip.  Family remembers the time Patty thought her hair was too greasy, so I washed it for her with Comet cleanser.  It took my mom a month to get all of the green powder gunk out of her hair.  That led to the time Patty wanted her hair teased for the biggest updo she’d ever had and went to the prom looking like the Bride of Frankenstein.  And then Patty remembered my false eyelash phase and the time I took them off and left them on the sink top and Mom thought they were a spider and flushed them down the toilet.

The hub and I have friends that go back years and years, too.   John and Scott buddied up in second grade and are still BFFs.  He’s known a lot of his friends since high school, and every time one of them marries, the wife becomes part of the “group.”  When all of us get together, the talk often goes back to the old days when the guys worked together at a little hamburger drive-in near Packard Park and the girls’ softball games.

When I start a new book (like I am now), once I have the hook and the big question the plot hangs on, I usually write a chapter to see and hear my characters, and then I make character wheels to flesh them out.  And one of the first things on each character wheel is the character’s family.  What was the mom’s name?  What does she look like?  Did she work?  What job?  What kind of personality did she have?  Any habits?  Did she and the character get along?  Any special memories?

My mom was a wonderful cook, but she always shooed us out of the kitchen, so when I married my hub, I had no idea how to boil a potato, let alone brown a pork chop.  I’m always jealous of my friends who learned special family recipes by cooking with their mom or grandma while they were growing up.

I repeat the same questions for my character’s dad, any brothers and sisters, and any relatives that influenced him/her.  Did the son tinker with cars in his dad’s garage?  My dad raised chickens, and it was my job to gather the eggs and feed them every morning.  My mom hated the sound of the recorder when I had to learn to play it in school and made me practice it in the chicken coop.  Luckily, the chickens weren’t music critiques and seemed to enjoy it.  Often, once I see my character through his family’s eyes and how he sees them, it helps me understand what motivates him and why.

After I scribble out his family background, then I work on his education.  Did he graduate high school?  College?  Trade school?  Did he like school or loathe it?  My grandson had serious ADD/ADHD and school was an every day torment for him.  Was my character popular or a loner?  And what did he do once he grew up?  Escape as fast as he could or stick close to home?  Then I scribble out where he lives and what kind of vehicle he drives.  And finally, I list two friends and how he gets along with them.  Are they old friends or new?  Did he lose any old friends and how?  Any romantic interests presently or in the past?  And then I list someone he doesn’t like and it’s mutual–an antagonist (in his life) or a villain.  By the time I finish all of those, I have a pretty good feel for my character and what shaped him.

If it’s true that no one goes unscathed by family (for better or worse) and friends are the family we choose, there’s a lot of rich history and drama, along with memories, before a character steps onto our pages.

Wherever you are on whatever project you’re working on now, happy writing!

 

Weddings

I’ve attended two weddings recently.  Both of them were wonderful, luminous affairs filled with family and good friends.  The brides wore dazzling gowns, the grooms and attendants looked stunning.  The dazzle quotients were high.

Jazzi and Ansel finally tie the knot in my third mystery, but not in so spectacular a fashion.  They decide to be married by a justice of the peace in their new home and host the reception there.  Their house is made for entertaining, and Jazzi loves to cook, so the food’s wonderful and there’s plenty of room to dance.  Jazzi chooses a mid-calf dress, though.  And it’s more of a low-key event.

When John and I got married, we drove to our retired minister’s house with a few close friends and our families.  We lucked out.  Reverend Souda lived in a southern style home with soaring white columns.  His study was filled with bookcases and displays from the many places he’d traveled to.  A large pond with a pontoon was on his property, and swans followed the boat as it circled the shore.  Peacocks strolled the grounds, and Reverend Souda gave me a bouquet of their tail feathers.  We have wonderful memories of that day.  John had only been out of the army, alive and home after Vietnam, for three days, so the reception was simple.  My mom made mounds of sandwiches and treats, and we had a cake.

Jazzi doesn’t do pomp and fuss any better than I do, but Ansel is more of a romantic–like John.  So the party is a to-do, but on a smaller scale.  And it felt right for them.  I put weddings in a few of my romances, too, but I have to admit, just like in real life, I’ve avoided anything with grandeur.  My friends’ weddings were events to remember.  They did them right.  It took a lot of thought and work.  I’m not good at that–even in my stories.

Hope you have plenty to celebrate with your writing–even if it’s new pages.  Enjoy August, and happy writing!

 

More Than Friends

Mary Lou explained how I feel about Scribes, my writing group, much more eloquently than I ever could. And she happens to be an absolutely wonderful writer herself.

historyfanforever

Just finished another exquisite blog post by Rachel R. Roberts, author, playwright, educator, and essayist. Poignacy and nostalgia embue every sentence. There is an elegance to her writing stemming from her personality, as lilting and gentle as her voice. I hear her as I read, the syrup-smooth glide of her southern cadence. The prose is so lyric and grammar always perfect. I can see her blushing as she reads this, her head slightly turned away with modesty that is natural and unaffected. I’ve always admired that in certain women, specifically those who are sincere with that response. I have none of that and often feel like a clod when in the company of Rachel, the epitome of  the gracious, southern lady. Her writing has the same even grace, while layered with so much left unwritten and yet clearly stated. I feel so lucky to hear her comments when she can…

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Just Keep Writing

I’ve been reading a wider variety of authors than usual this summer.  And each one of them has a unique voice and writing style.  It’s always tempting for me to read Ilona Andrews and think I wish I could write like that–so many great fight scenes and such fun snark.  I just finished Patricia Briggs’s SILENCE FALLEN and drooled over her smooth, layered prose with all sorts of fae and folklore seamlessly stirred into the mix.  I recently read Mae Clair’s Cusp of Night and admired her poetic language and intriguing research.

I could go on and on.  I love Julia Donner’s Regencies for her mastery of words and dry humor and wit.  I’ve just started reading Ruth Ware’s The Death of Mrs. Westaway, and her writing has a strong literary flavor.  It’s easy to think all of these authors decided to become writers, sat down at their computers, and voila!–their words flowed just as they do now.  But I doubt that’s true.  And it made me think.  How do we become the writers we are today?

I know for a fact that my writing developed because I let myself fail…over and over again.  And I just kept writing.  And the “just keep writing” is the most important part of the whole equation, in my opinion.  So, here are some ideas–and these are off the top of my head, so take them for what they’re worth–on how to become a better writer.

 FINISH your work.  Make it the best you can at that point, but finish it.  And then move on to the next project.   You learn from each story, each book, you finish.  I started by writing short stories.   There’s not much of a market for them anymore, but I learned a lot from them.  Mostly, for me, I learned that I write better when I know the end of a story.  I can’t tell you how many times I got an idea that got me all excited, started to write it, and then found out it didn’t go anywhere.  I ended up with pages of words that didn’t add up to anything.  Even in a short story, unless it’s flash fiction or super short that builds to a punch line type ending, in a regular short story, you still need a set-up, a middle, and an end.  If I didn’t know where the story was going, my middle became a morass of fancy words that sank under their own weight to an unsatisfying ending.
Learn from your mistakes.  In each book that I wrote back then, I concentrated on something different that I wanted to improve on.  My first book GOURMET KILLINGS (which had many flaws but a small east coast publisher bought it anyway–and thankfully no one can find it now), I concentrated on plotting.  And yes, I wrote mysteries with food in them way back then.  I used the old style printer paper for that book–the type where all the pages connected with punctured breaks that you had to tear apart–and used one sheet for each chapter of the book.  I listed what the protagonist was doing, what the antagonists were doing, and what the goal of each chapter was, along with the weather and time it took place in the story.  A tedious task, but it helped me hold everything together in my head and see how all the pieces worked to answer the book’s big question.  (I never said I was a fast learner.  I had to see how everything fit together to see how my book would flow).  I got the plotting pretty good in that novel, but I wasn’t happy with my pacing.  I thought the middle sagged too much, so for book two, that’s what I worked on.  I used a calendar to keep track of events and characters in that book.  For book three, I focused on developing characters.  I wanted to show more emotion, more internal dialogue.  DON’T DO WHAT I DID.  I can be a bit anal at times, but DO look at your work and ask yourself how you can make it even better.
Read how experts get everything right.  A lightbulb went off over my head when I read Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure.  Then I went on to read Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer.  For a long time, I made a point of reading two books on writing a year, just to jostle me into thinking about technique.  Now, there are great blogs on writing I follow.  Because I still want to keep improving.
Read authors you admire and learn from them.  How does Ilona Andrews build up tension so that the LAST battle in the book has more import than the earlier battles the heroes fight?  How do your favorite romance writers keep you turning the page?  What makes X’s writing appeal to you more than Y’s?
Rewrites are your friend.  No one writes a masterpiece in one go.  (Okay, if someone does, I already don’t like them).  Show your work to someone you trust–someone who doesn’t ravage your writing ego but can still suggest places you need to improve on.  I rewrite as I go, but many of my friends can’t do that.  They end up doing endless rewrites and never finish the book.  Most of them write with their editor turned off and then, when the book’s finished, dig deep into their story to make it better.  I have little patience, and I know myself.  I won’t take the time to do the rewrites I should if I have to face the entire manuscript.  Find what works for you.
Be true to yourself.  There’s already a Patricia Briggs and an Elizabeth George.  But no one writes the way YOU do.  Learn from the best, but then be YOUR OWN best.

And happy writing!

P.S.  A fellow writer friend of mine, who teaches writing and is a master of noir, has written a memoir available on pre-order.  He specializes in crime fiction because when he was young, he was usually on the wrong side of the law.

http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/2018/08/preordering-available-for-adrenaline.html?spref=tw