Lise McClendon's Blog, page 16

Future of books

Recently my librarian and friend Bill Cochran asked me to contribute to a fundraising event. A series of small phrases, twitter-sized, would be in a bowl on tables and participants would draw out one for discussion. The “micro-flash” mini quote was to be about the future of books. Would they survive this technological disruption going on? What would books look like in 50 years or more?

I pondered this question. Books, in the scheme of human history, are a late-in-the-day phenomenon. A blip on the tail end of thousands of years. But story… Now story has existed since language developed. It is the *reason* language developed, to convey information that happened in the past, to transmit dangers to the present, to present unseen wonders from over the hill. It’s what makes us human, and makes us different from other species. Stories are a survival skill.

So stories will always be with us, in some form. The novel, a very long story, has an even shorter history than the book, just 300 years or so. It’s always changing, with the people it serves, writers and readers. Are you worried about the End of the Book? I’m not. Books and stories will be with as long as we can speak to each other.

For my micro-flash I adapted the longer tone poem I wrote about the mystery novel into a tiny package.  You can listen to Denice Stradling’s excellent narration of it. Close your eyes and let the idea of a book wash over you. In my little version it’s not just mysteries any more. It’s a grand, sweeping statement — in a micro-flash!  Feel free to share.

“A book is passion made tangible, the reins to a black and white horse. Ride the hills of the heart, no matter the form.” — Lise McClendon 

Tagged: books, poem, quotes, stories, story

The Tone Poem Rides Again

In 1996 the Left Coast Crime Convention — held annually somewhere in the Western US — was held in Boulder, Colorado. Perhaps due to that Party Feeling that comes over a person in the hometown of the U. of Colorado it was a blast. One of the highlights was a variety show by writers at the Boulderado Theater, organized by former TV producer & writer, Les Roberts. Through glitches and backstage jitters I was one of the participants, roping several guys to back me up. Bill Moody played his jazzy drums perfectly in time. John Harvey shook the tambourine with panache. And what did I do? I recited a poem I’d written, a tone poem like a beatnik in a ’50s coffeehouse would do. It’s called Rides a Black and White Horse and is an ode to the mystery novel, in all its curious, spooky, imaginative wonder.

John Harvey, Lise, Jerry Healy, Alan Russell

Now Denice Stradling, who narrated my novel, Blackbird Fly, has voiced the poem for everyone. Here it is. Enjoy– and send some love and help to Boulder and its environs. You will rebuild, Colorado.

The tattered remains of Summer

Or Why Writers Cook Like Mad People

Summer is almost over in the northern hemisphere. (Florida, stay tuned.) Crazy fall weather has commenced. Colorado is getting more than it deserves, again, and Montana, my home ground, has been battered by hail and thunderstorms. However we can all hope for a bit of Indian Summer, the nice sunny stuff after the cold or volatile stuff.

In our neck of the woods there is usually a lull before winter really kicks it up. Some sunshine, crisp air, mild temps, to make us appreciate the seasons. Because it’s also the back-to-school time, it creates a frisson in the blood, a spurt of energy, of making hay while the sun shines, and sometimes the urge for new shoes.

And for some of us it rekindles the need to cook, bake, and otherwise stack on the layers of adipose tissue before we not-quite-hibernate-but-absolutely-shiver-a-lot during the dark months. I’ve been noticing quite a few of my fellow writers like to cook. Like to talk food, ingredients, even use the “pie” word. I am with you, clansmen and clanswomen. We must feed the tribe. Recently my fellow Montanan, Name Your Link" target="_blank">Leslie Budewitz, published her first mystery, " target="_blank">Death al Dente. Which is not about dentists but about food, of course. Some other foodie mystery writers with new books out are Name Your Link" target="_blank">Diane Mott Davidson, " target="_blank">Laura Childs, " target="_blank">Joanne Fluke, Name Your Link" target="_blank">Lucy Burdette aka Roberta Isleib, " target="_blank">Julie Hyzy, and Name Your Link" target="_blank">more. Recipes often are included, and I have been known to try a few.

Over Labor Day weekend I had a Girls Pool Party at home with two fabulous girlfriends. Much fun group cooking, champagne, limoncello, and floating around. I made this ice cream – recipe below. It made me think that writing is much like cooking: it takes practice, you don’t often get it right the first time, different flavors have to come together and mix perfectly, experimentation is great but be cautious, and when it’s good it’s satisfying and just undeniably right.

Happy Indian Summer, whenever it may come, dry, hazy, comfortable, and just right for the last spoonful of ice cream.

Dulce De Leche Ice Cream

You can find Dulce de Leche – caramelized milk – in a jar at gourmet delis and markets (try World Market.)

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 pound dulce de leche (from 1 cup to 1-2/3 cup)
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)
(This requires an ice cream maker.)

Bring milk and cream to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, then remove from heat and whisk in dulce de leche until dissolved (it will sink to the bottom and require mixing.) Add the vanilla bean and transfer to metal bowl. Chill the bowl by putting it in a bowl of ice and stirring occasionally until cold for 15 to 20 minutes.

Freeze mixture in ice cream maker until almost firm (according to mixer instructions this may take 1 -2 hours) add pecans and chocolate chips. Continue mixing for 5-10 minutes. Transfer to bowl, cover, and put in freezer to harden, at least an hour. Adapted from Epicurious.com.

Cook’s note: delish

Tagged: cooking, culinary mysteries, culinary novels, death al dente, diane mott davidson, dulce de leche, food mysteries, foodie mysteries, ice cream recipe, indian summer, mysteries, writing, writing and cooking

Belle Chasse, by William Lovejoy

I recently read and reviewed William Lovejoy’s mystery, Belle Chasse. I wanted to highlight it here, and elaborate a little. William and I are in a Crime Fiction group on LinkedIn but we don’t know each other.  However it was a delight to get to know somebody through their writing.

First, the official review:

 High octane adventure, August 26, 2013

By Lise McClendon (Bozeman, Montana)


This review is from: Belle Chasse (Kindle Edition)

Belle Chasse is a great read, an adventure on — and under — the high seas! I enjoyed the mystery so much, as William Lovejoy’s deft handling of point-of-view, between the NOLA cops looking for the perpetrator of a particularly gruesome murder and the ex-husband of the victim, kept the tension and suspense high. If you’ve ever wondered how undersea salvage works (and are unwilling to go down with Dirk Pitt) read Belle Chasse. Convincing scenes, well-drawn characters, and high drama with modern-day pirates… what could go wrong?

—————————————-

I really enjoyed this story. The main character is an ex-Navy SEAL who lives on an old riverboat, the Belle Chasse, moored at New Orleans. He owns a boat sales yard so there is much to do about boats, their sizes, classes, engine power, speeds, knots, and a whole lot of stuff I know nothing about. It was fun to learn, as always. I love learning new things while reading fiction.

The secondary central character is a police officer who is trying to solve the crime of the murder of the ex-SEAL’s ex-wife.  One of the problems for me was keeping these characters straight. The MC’s name is Kenney. Yet there is also a character named Kendall. This is one of those things that as a writer you don’t even notice. But you should. Nothing should impede the reader’s comprehension of who and what you’re talking about.

The cop is a great character, a female officer, twice-divorced, who lives for her work. Of course there is a little sexual tension between them, maybe a lot on her side. The only character I wished I knew better was the victim, the ex-wife. It’s difficult to flesh out (argh, sorry)  a victim who never is truly “alive” in any way in a mystery. How do you make the reader care for them, besides the horrible violence done against them? When the worm turns and she’s not who she seemed, how do we continue to care? It turns out Kenney didn’t know her as well as he thought he did. Not unusual in crime fiction. But I still would have liked a little deeper explanation into the person she is revealed to be in the end. I can’t help it — I’m a character nut! I love deep characterization, I admit it. Maybe a men’s adventure/mystery doesn’t warrant that sort of introspection or psychology. But I miss it anyway, that’s just me. Thanks for a great read, William.

What are you reading– and what can you recommend?

Tagged: book reviews, books, Dirk Pitt, e-books, ebooks, fiction, Lovejoy, mystery, riverboat, writetip, writing

Writing Rules from Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard 1925 – 2013

Much has been made of Elmore Leonard’s writing rules over the years. His passing this week, at 87 years young, was a sad event for all readers. His output was slowing but he was still writing, still making us laugh, still showing us how to do it right. His rules, below, don’t necessarily apply to every writer. He followed them, for sure, leaving out all that crap the reader skips. That rule, #10, is his most famous and encapsulates all the others. Some his own exceptions to his rules are discussed here.

So goodbye corporeal Dutch, but long live Elmore Leonard the amazing author who showed how it was done for so many years, and will live on as long as great stories are told. (I shook his hand once at a convention but only because the person who was supposed to shake his hand had to find a napkin first! Hey, opportunities sometimes knock only once. And sorry about that exclamation point.)

Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing:

1. Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues.

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…he admonished gravely.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

Here’s a link to his long and loving obituary in The Guardian. And another in The New York Times.

Tagged: elmore leonard, literature, regional dialect, rules of writing, writing

Back to School, Baby

Is it just me or is this time of year, when the heat has lost its allure and the asphalt turns soft, remind anyone else of back to school time? Pencils, notebooks, new velvet oxfords, pants that aren’t too short, skirts that aren’t short enough?

Something about late summer triggers dreams of new beginnings, starting with the wardrobe. Yes, I want new clothes. No, I have no school to wear them to, nor do I need anything besides my ratty bathrobe and my bunny slippers to wear to work. The joys of being a writer: no one knows how big a slob you are. (Try to clean up for the public, please!) Still, I adore new school clothes, useless for their purpose that they are. I love sweaters, for instance. And once upon a time, tights that matched the sweater. And cute oxfords even though I did NOT go to Catholic school! Here are this fall’s “school” shoes, hot out of the shipping box.

Sorry, these are mine!

We had to wear saddle shoes in high school for pep club, with culottes. Sort of ugh. (Does pep club even exist anymore? Or saddle shoes? Or culottes? Good riddance to them all.) And when I was little we always got velveteen oxfords in black for winter and red or navy keds in summer. Little variation on that theme. I do remember the revelation I had when someone, my mother or older sister, told me to match my anklets with my outfit. Lightbulb moment!

The new school year meant new beginnings. I went to four different junior highs within three school years so keeping an upbeat attitude was helpful in meeting new people. By the fourth one I was skipping the sidewalks the first day singing, “Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.” Really. I made two friends from my neighborhood that day and they are still my friends.

Maybe that’s why I wrote the piece about Friends and Sidekicks over Auntie M Writes Blog this week. Friends are so important in life. Their meaning can’t be overestimated. I often write about solitary people whose relationships are strained or broken. That’s part of life too but because it’s fiction it’s highlighted as ‘striving for connection.’

I’ve noticed my heroines are often doing that, striving. Merle Bennett (Blackbird Fly) has lost her husband and his betrayals just keep on coming, making her question her worth. Cody Byrne in PLAN X has also lost a loved one, is estranged from her father, keeps her mother on a pedestal, and is having a ‘man problem.’ (I do like to pile on the troubles, don’t I?) For me fiction is about plot, yes, what happens to the character. But it is also, mostly, about what happens inside a character, how she figures out the world and her part in it, how she changes her stance, softening her pride, embracing her need for love and intimacy, even while she’s sometimes quite a bad ass.

Speaking of which, my son and daughter-in-law recently had their DNA tested by 23 and Me. Very interesting stuff, have you done it? I think I’m going to do it next. Somewhere in the results my son told me they said: “Your ancestors were all bad asses or you wouldn’t be here today.”

I wonder if my ancestors liked shoes as much as I do. Probably. They had to kick their way into the future somehow.

Tagged: 23 and Me, ancestors, back to school, bunny slippers, pep club, saddle shoes, school clothes, school shoes, upbeat attitude, writers, writing

The Power of the Sidekick: Lise McClendon

Reblogged from Auntiemwrites's Weblog:

 Please welcome guest Lise McClendon and her thoughts on the power of the sidekick in books.

 Do you have friends? Of course you do. Friendships make everyday life, which often ranges from routine to downright dull, more fun, more manageable, and more understandable. Even more than family, friends are there for you, to laugh and cry and buy you cake. …

Read more… 773 more words

I'm blogging today over at Marni Graff's Auntie M Writes. Friends, sidekicks, and the power of relationships in fiction and life.

Ever wonder why authors self-publish?

Harper Collins [News Corp] shows its investors where the $$ comes from: authors

And why traditional publishers love hardcovers, at – gulp – $27.99? The royalty schedule really hasn’t changed much over the years for print books. But e-books, despite the big lawsuit about price-fixing, is a brave new world where publishers give authors half, or less than half, of the 70% profit they are making. Profit without any production costs incurred apparently.

Some say (over at Porter Anderson’s post at Writer Unboxed) that few writers “earn out” so it’s academic. Earning out means making enough royalties to go over your advance on royalties you got at publication. But if you got a higher, more equitable royalty from e-book sales you would earn out faster, of course. And advances being so low for so many traditionally published authors, many will earn out especially given the long life of the e-book. It will never go out of print like the hardcover and even the paperback.

Interesting glimpse into a publisher’s accounting sheet.

So when was the last time you bought a hardcover for $27.99? I just bought Karen Joy Fowler’s “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.” I met up with her again at the Jackson Hole Writers Conference and wanted a signed copy. On the other hand I spent $14.99 on Kate Atkinson’s latest, “Life After Life,” as a Kindle book. Switch-hitter, that’s me.

Tagged: e-bookse, hardcovers, Harper Collins, investors, Karen Joy Fowler, Kate Atkinson, News Corp, paperbacks, publishing, self-publishing

Penguin Random House Merger Helps Author Solutions Exploit Writers

Reblogged from David Gaughran:

Penguin and Random House officially merged on July 1 creating the largest trade publisher in the world. This merger has given fresh impetus to one of their subsidiaries to scam unsuspecting writers - Author Solutions, the largest vanity press in the world.

One of my blog readers, who will remain nameless, has forwarded me emails from an AuthorHouse sales rep touting that company as the "self-publishing wing" of Penguin Random House (AuthorHouse is one of the many brands of Author Solutions, a tangled web which is deconstructed…

Read more… 1,459 more words

At the Jackson Hole Writers Conference I talked a little about all the scams out there to avoid in vanity publishing. SO many, mostly connected to Author Solutions, whether they mention it or not. David Gaughran lays it all out for you here. Be careful out there.

Goodreads Giveaway

Sign up to win one of the copies of my new Rory Tate thriller, PLAN X, to be given away over at Goodreads! Just under two weeks left to enter, don’t delay! [Contest ends July 25.] You might win a paperback copy worth a whopping $14.99! You belong to Goodreads, don’t you? So much great reading over there, if you don’t, you should.

ENTER THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY HERE

New review says: “I almost missed my flight because of this book–and I was sitting in the airport. Former Army bomb scene investigator and Montana police officer Cody Byrne embarks on an escapade that reaches from a lethal explosion in a Montana State University biology lab to the venerated halls of Oxford. In a race to stop a vengeful murderer, Byrne must confront not only the PTSD that lingers from her Iraq War days, she is forced to take on the heavies at MI5 and a tangle of family secrets. Read Plan X and let author Rory Tate lead you on a thrilling adventure.”

Tagged: free, free book, giveaway, goodreads, mi5, montana police, Plan X, Rory Tate, thriller, win a book