Kathy Lynn Emerson's Blog, page 23

A Writer’s Year

Hi folks–I’m on a February 1, double deadline, so today I’m rerunning an old favorite. See you next time. Barb

A Writer’s Year

By Noel Farquar, author of The Mean Streets and Fire Hydrants of Chicago, Ballou O’Brien Mystery#1

January: So full of happy expectations for the New Year. Must complete 85,000 word second-in-series mystery by November. First-in-series Amazon ranking currently 211,111 on the hardcover. Feeling optimistic. Only challenge to productivity is spouse who keeps coming into study and muttering about snow removal. Doesn’t she know I have a novel due? Word count so far: 7345. Onward!

February: Oh happy day! Publisher has dropped the price on my ebook to $1.99 for the month. Amazon ranking has zoomed up to 25,436 and I am Number One on the Amazon Bestseller List for Kindle ->Mystery, Thriller, Suspense -> Mystery -> Hardboiled ->Male PI ->Chicago Setting -> In the 1970s ->From Canine Point of View! Ahead of even Seymour Blatsky, the king of the subgenre. Gave in to urge to text Blatsky, “Suck it!” Let’s see him pretend he doesn’t know me at Bouchercon this year, even though we’ve been on the same panel four years running. No response so far. May have texted a few more times. Total Word count 10,712. Hard to write when you are checking Amazon ranking hourly. Also, spouse has been coming into study, dripping on carpet, and waving snow shovel in menacing manner. What does she want, some kind of credit? She lives here, too.

March: Alas, ebook price has returned to $12.38 and Blatsky has returned to the Number One slot at Kindle ->Mystery, Thriller, Suspense -> Mystery -> Hardboiled ->Male PI ->Chicago Setting -> In the 1970s ->From Canine Point of View. Curse you, Seymour Blatsky, undisputed owner of 1970s Chicago, as seen by a dog. BTW, he finally texted back. “Who is this?” As if he didn’t know. Can also report all that snow shoveling has made spouse eerily strong. Total Word Count 15,170.

April: The Amazon reviews have started rolling in from my former period of heavy sales. Tell me please, what do these mean?

[image error]Hated it. The dog had such a co-dependent personality. He should see a shrink, LOL. Will not read another.

[image error]Could not put it down. Best book I have ever read. Can’t wait for the next one!

[image error]Please stop sending me these surveys. As I’ve said, time and again, I’ll review the books if I want to.

[image error]He’s no Blatsky.

 

Total Word Count 18,756. Exhausted from hourly check for new Amazon reviews. Also, Goodreads.

May: Unexpected call from agent today. Forget, since we rarely talk on phone, how young she is. Anyway, news not good. She’s heard some rumors. Bad winds blowing. Any chance I can turn my second-in-series in early? I tell her this is “unlikely” (given that I only have 20,013 words–I do not tell her this). She says, the sooner I have it in and on the editorial calendar for next year, the better. Nuf said. I ask, given my February performance on Kindle ->Mystery, Thriller, Suspense -> Mystery -> Hardboiled ->Male PI ->Chicago Setting -> In the 1970s ->From Canine Point of View, am I not safe? She is unimpressed.

June: Book Jail. Spouse is leaving sandwiches outside study door and muttering things about a “summer vacation.” “Don’t you know I have a novel to write?” More muttering. Good news: Total Word Count 50,347.

July: Book Jail. No sandwiches. Perhaps spouse has gone on vacation of which she spoke? Have had many pleasant chats with pizza delivery kid. Total Word Count 75,236. We’re on our way, baby!

August: Another call from agent. Publisher has merged, or more accurately, “been absorbed.” New guidelines: will only publish authors who own Number One in their Amazon Bestseller List category, and since the merger “partner” publishes Blatsky, I am on the chopping block. My editor thinks I have a shot of hanging in if I shift my novel from Chicago 1970s to Seattle 1980s and switch out dog for cat. I protest, have never been to Seattle, don’t know anything about 1980s, and am allergic to cats. Agent’s response, “That’s what Google is for.” Total Word Count -25,567. Also, spouse has not returned.

September: Seattle in 1980s turns out to be fascinating time. Cats, though, are bastards. Doing my best to make this one likable. No chance he’ll be co-dependent, though, LOL! Total Word Count 85,974. First draft is done! Still no sign of spouse. Several items of furniture and electronics also missing.

October: Bouchercon. Once again I am on panel on 1970s Chicago from canine point of view with Blatsky. “Nice to meet you,” he sniffs when we are introduced. Nice to meet you! This is our fifth panel together. Of course, am wondering about the wisdom of paying all this money and flying all this way, especially on a deadline, to be on panel about 1970s Chicago with a dog, when my series is apparently now set in 1980s Seattle with cat. Ah, well. Total Word Count 86,456. Returned exhausted to find marital bed removed from home.

November: Received royalty check for period January-June. Apparently, number one spot on Kindle ->Mystery, Thriller, Suspense -> Mystery -> Hardboiled ->Male PI ->Chicago Setting -> In the 1970s ->From Canine Point of View not as lucrative as I’d hoped. Puts me in a bit of a jam as spouse has unaccountably stopped paying utility bills. In good news, will be sending The Grungy Streets and Sand Boxes of Seattle, Snuffles O’Brien Mystery#1 to editor tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

December: Another call from agent. The bad news, editor has been sacked. The good news, new editor loves manuscript and is prepared not only to publish but to offer additional two book deal if I can change story back to 1970s Chicago with dog, by first of the year. Can I! Have nothing but time on my hands now that I am burning remaining furniture for heat, recharging laptop in car, and typing by firelight. Feeling so lucky. God, I love this life!

Hope you had a great year, too. Happy Holidays to all, and Good Bless Us Everyone!

Recommendations by Jen

I thought it would be fun this month to do a round-up of some of the favorite things I’ve discovered in recent months, that I recommend to others. It started out with just books, but life these days seems to encompass a lot more than the written word. So, here are a few of my very favorite things right now. I’d love to hear your recommendations in the comments!

BOOKS

Since this is Maine Crime Writers, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention some of the favorite tomes on my shelf right now. Here are a few recent reads that I highly recommend:

NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS, by Maureen Milliken

No, I’m not just saying this because Maureen writes on this blog. I just finished this book, the second in Maureen’s Bernie O’Dea mystery series. I love it – love the characters, love the pacing, love the grit and the mood and the snark. If for some reason you are reading this blog post but have not yet read Maureen’s work, you should run right out and get yourself a copy. It isn’t for the faint of heart (in fact, the final climactic scene was so hardcore that it took me two tries to get through it), but if you don’t mind a little bit of intensity, you’ll be very glad you took the time to get to know these characters.

LONE WOLF, by Sara Driscoll

[image error]A stellar action thriller featuring FBI Special Agent Meg Jennings and her partner Hawk – a black Labrador search-and-rescue dog with some serious skills. Driscoll is the pen name of author Jen J. Danna, who writes the Abbott and Lowell forensic mystery series with her writing partner, Ann Vanderlaan (which I also recommend). One of Danna/Driscoll’s strengths is her commitment to research and attention to detail, something that really comes to the forefront in the new series. If you’re a fan of well-paced thrillers and/or search and rescue, this is a great read. The second in the series came out recently, and I’m hoping to get to that one very soon.

A TINE TO LIVE, A TINE TO DIE, by Edith Maxwell

Up until 2017 struck, I was never much of a cozy mystery fan. Then all hell broke loose on the political stage here in the U.S., and the last thing I wanted to read about was graphic murder – there’s enough violence and bloodshed on the nightly news to last a lifetime. So, I decided to give Edith Maxwell’s Local Foods Mystery series a try. There’s organic farming, wry humor, great food, a little bit of murder, not an ounce of gore, a dash of romance, plenty of intrigue, and some truly memorable characters. Lots of truly memorable characters, actually – I did have a tiny bit of trouble keeping track of them, but by the middle of the book they all began to feel like friends. Some of them sort of creepy friends, but friends all the same. If you’re looking for an escape from the cold hard world we live in now, this is a great place to start.

TV

Ben and I haven’t actually gotten up to speed with all the series the rest of the world is watching. We’ve never seen an episode of Game of Thrones; I watched part of the first episode of The Crown, but then Ben came home and he gets freaked out by dramas, so we turned the channel. It’s not that I couldn’t watch TV without him – it’s just that there are only so many hours in the day, and TV hours tend to be shared hours. So, here are three of the shows we’ve found oddly addictive recently.

KANTARO – THE SWEET-TOOTH SALARYMAN

Available on Netflix

[image error]We LOVE Kantaro. It’s Japanese dessert porn in which Kantaro, a salesman for a Japanese publisher, secretly sneaks decadent desserts while out on sales calls. This, of course, does not impact his job – it just makes him better at it, since he’s super-motivated to wrap up so he can dive into another ooey-gooey Japanese sweet-bean dessert thing. There’s some great, seriously over-the-top humor, and the actor who plays Kantaro – Matsuya Unoe – has an unforgettably orgasmic reaction to every sweet that passes his lips. The show is based on a popular Japanese manga character and thus is definitely a little unorthodox, but strangely addictive.

TRAVEL MAN, WITH RICHARD AYOADE

Full episodes available on YouTube

[image error]We also love Richard Ayoade. As I’ve mentioned before, the bizarre, fraught political landscape has left me a little fried this year. As a result, Ben and I have gravitated to the seemingly endless supply of British game shows that seem to feature the same handful of actors and comedians. Richard Ayoade, who also starred in the sitcom The IT Crowd, is one of my favorites. He’s everything a British comedian/actor should be – dry, insecure, self-deprecating, neurotic. He’s also very pretty in a nerdy way, so the eye candy is a nice plus. In Travel Man, Ayoade and a guest celebrity spend forty-eight hours living the high life in a different city each week. It’s a quick watch that’s entertaining and informative, and is usually good for at least a good chuckle, if not an outright belly laugh.

PROJECT RUNWAY

Hulu

[image error]

Photo: Project Runway

Don’t judge me, man. I can’t explain what happened that made me love Project Runway quite so much, but it has definitely become one of my favorite parts of every evening. There’s drama, pretty clothes, and lots of backbiting and infighting that isn’t as interesting to me as what talented designers can make out of things like jelly beans and gummy sharks (really – that photo to the left is a jelly bean/gummy shark dress). Again, if you’re looking for a distraction and you don’t mind a little bit of bitchiness, you might give this a try.

PODCASTS

Podcasts have replaced music and audiobooks as my favorite thing to listen to when I’m on the road. Here are three weekly pods I don’t miss.

POD SAVE AMERICA

It’s unapologetically liberal, so if you’re not left-leaning, you’ll probably want to steer away from this one. Started by three former Obama speech writers, Pod Save America premiered shortly after Trump was elected. There’s some great humor, but also some fabulous political guests who provide insight on what’s happening in the American landscape right now. The show airs twice a week, and there are a bunch of spinoffs that I don’t listen to at this point because there’s only so much one can take in the world today, but Pod Save America is a mainstay for me.

THE CREATIVE PENN

Joanna Penn, a friend and editing client of mine, started The Creative Penn website a few years ago to help writers – both independent and traditionally published – navigate the complicated world of publishing today. Though she’s best known for her work with self-published authors, at this point the Creative Penn podcast seems to be as focused on craft as it is marketing and business. Joanna has a lovely, engaging way about her, and her insight into the publishing industry in addition to her thoughtful approach to the writing craft are well worth checking out.

THE ATLANTA MONSTER

[image error]

Photo: Atlanta Monster

This is a new podcast hosted by Payne Lindsey, examining the disappearance and subsequent murder of at least twenty-eight children and young adults in Atlanta between 1979 and 1981. Wayne Williams was arrested and convicted of the murders. In the Atlanta Monster, however, Lindsey makes a compelling argument for why things may not be so cut and dry. If you’re interested in true crime, this is a fascinating and timely podcast that’s got me completely hooked.

So, that’s it for this month for me. What about you? What are you reading, listening to, watching to alternately keep you informed and keep you sane in the world today?

Jen Blood is the USA Today-bestselling author of the Erin Solomon Mysteries and the Flint K-9 Search and Rescue Mysteries. Learn more at http://www.jenblood.com. 

Cold Days

Note from Lea Wait:  This blog was originally published on Maine Crime Writers five years ago, but given this winter’s temperatures (and my writing schedule) I thought it was time to repeat it.)

If you’re reading this blog, you probably know I live on the coast of Maine. You may not know I live in a house built in 1774. It has 6 fireplaces, which were the only heat sources in the house (other than one space heater) until my parents had a furnace installed in 1974. Classically for New England, what was the dooryard faces south, to get as much warmth as possible, and the fewest windows are on the north side.

[image error]

Snow, in front of the ell

Today only two of those fireplace flues can be used — one is lined and connected to the furnace, and one is for the wood stove my husband has in his studio. We can’t afford to bring the others “up to code” so they’d be safe to use today. Maybe someday.

In the meantime the furnace and woodstove do fine, even considering that temperatures here have been in the single digits (and below) off and on for the past couple of weeks. It’s a little early this season for temperatures to be that low, and they often make me think of the people who lived in this house in the past, and how cold they must have been in winters like this one.

No global warming broke bitter temperatures. The wide river across the street from our home, on which occasionally there are ice floes today, then froze solid. Snow fell more often, and lasted longer. Occupants of this house were lucky: it had glass windows — luxury items in 1774. To protect the rooms from winds off the river, all most folks could do was close their shutters. But then they’d also close off the light.[image error]

This house was not (and still is not) insulated. In the fall, home owners piled evergreen branches filled in with hay around their houses to catch the snow and act as a  layer of insulation around the walls.

Wells, which were outside until the 1830s or so, often froze, or at least the top few feet did. Snow was melted for water.

Clothes, that at least in the early years were made from wool spun and woven at home or linen

[image error]

View of house

imported from Europe, were limited, so in winter people wore almost all they had, and then wrapped blankets (also woven at home or on a neighbor’s loom) around themselves if they were sitting or lying down. They slept several people to a bed for warmth.

About 1840 ships’ captain Enoch Chase bought this house. He was a widower with 8 children. He married again, a young woman named Sarah, who gave birth to 6 children. At one time, according to the local census, 19 people lived in this house, including 2 young women and one man who “helped out.” The house has 5 bedrooms, and, of course, had no indoor bathrooms in the mid-nineteenth century, although it did boast an “indoor” privy in a corner of the barn, which is attached to the house by a series of small rooms (for cooking, butchering, making butter, perhaps weaving) to the main house.

[image error]

Looking out a living room window

On cold days, as I walk through these rooms, which I now share only with my husband, I think of Enoch and Sarah and their children. I wonder who slept where, and which room was set aside for spinning and weaving. And which daughter (I’m sure there was at least one) scorched her skirt by standing too close to one of the fire

I think of Sarah, giving birth in this house. And of her (and Enoch and several of their children) dying here. I wonder what they thought of the Civil War. None of their sons enlisted, but most were at sea then, on clipper ships in the Pacific. One died there.

 

[image error]

Kitchen Fireplace

I write historical novels for children, and Sarah’s grandmother, who lived in this house in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, is in one of my books (Sally Clough, in Stopping to Home,) and one of Sarah’s uncles (Rev. Jonathan Adams) is in my Wintering Well.

I didn’t know any of them, but their footsteps are still here, and I remember them.

[image error]And on days like this, when the temperature is near zero, I wonder. How did they stay warm? And often I turn my thermostat down a degree or two. We keep it at sixty during the day.

Sarah and Enoch would have laughed at our being such wimps.

But I suspect they would have envied us.

Twitter
Facebook
Google





https://widgets.wp.com/likes/#blog_id=132776607&post_id=11723&origin=mainecrimewritersblog.wordpress.com&obj_id=132776607-11723-5a5a3ff3c76c9

Weekend Update: January 20-21, 2018

[image error]Next week at Maine Crime Writers, there will be a posts by Lea Wait (Monday), Jen Blood (Tuesday) , Barb Ross (Wednesday), Susan Vaughan (Thursday), and Kate Flora (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

 

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. Contact Kate Flora

HERE I GO AGAIN!

[image error]Vaughn Hardacker here: In January of every year I make a resolution that this year I’m going to keep a Journal–Riiight. I do okay for a week or two, but then wonder why I journal mundane stuff (my life is full of mundane stuff). For example, no one cares that I bought gasoline for my truck today–in fact, other than the financial impact, I don’t care. Still I try.

I recently read a blog on keeping a journal written by a freelance writer. The blog stated that this writer actually keeps five (5), that’s right, five journals they are:

A Primary Bullet Journal: Basically this is your brain committed to paper. In it you record (1) your thoughts, (2) your-to-do-lists, (3) your ideas, (4) your notes, and (6) your creativity.
A Blog-only Journal: this is a journal specifically related to blogging (the Primary Journal is a fun one, this one allows you to: (1) Map out monthly editorial calendars for each blog. (2) keep a one-page post tracker for an at-a-glance view of overall monthly blogging, (3) Map out blog business plans and development plans, (4) manage blog to-do lists.
A Standard Journal: This is one in which you record daily activities, both writing and non-writing related to include: (1) How you feel on any given day, (2) News, (3) politics, (4) Relationships. This is your place to say whatever you want or need to get out of your system.
A Dream Journal: This one is kept on your nightstand to allow you to record that great idea that came to you in a dream. You know that one that you recall as being great–only you can’t remember what it was.
Sketch Journal: Here’s where you can express your self in more creative ways

The last two are more about retention of dreams and daydreams, however the first three are important. They afford you a way of planning your activities and are relevant to writing and blogging.

This year I’ve made a concerted effort to do a Primary Bullet Journal and a Blog-only journal. One of my writing habits is that once I complete a project I’m tabula rasa (which is defined as: the mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state before receiving outside impressions ). Once I come up with a plot idea I can hammer away with a goal of 1,000 words per day. My greatest fear about this is that I may get so busy journaling that I won’t have time to write (I know that would be the case if I tried to keep five of them). In my next post, I’ll update everyone on how I’m doing.

Challenging Narrative Structure: Who’s Telling Your Story

 

In my experience, the hardest part about writing a novel is figuring out who is going to tell your story and what point of view will be used. Because I write stand alone novels, I have the freedom to change my narrative structures with each succeeding book. Depending on the type of novel you’re writing, POV becomes crucial to meet your plot’s obligation.

[image error]

I like first person because it allows me to create a character with a unique voice. Everything in the novel is seen through the lens of this first person character. Using this technique, I can make my character as bold and opinionated as possible, and my readers will know that they’ll be going on a wild ride through this character’s eyes. It’s fun because it gets readers inside the character’s head like a doppelgänger. The reader is presented with the same roadblocks and obstacles as the character, forcing them to decide if they’ll make the same decisions as the character. The only bad thing about this structure is that the reader is exposed to only one POV. A good writer, however, knows how to use dialogue to make the satellite characters come alive.

The use of the second person POV is rarely used. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny was probably the most recent successful novel using this structure. You are literally the character. An example of this would be, “You walk into the bar and see the dame. She’s more beautiful than you ever expected. You pull up next to her and tell her she’s beautiful. She replies by slapping you in the face.” Writing in this style is not recommended for most writers for a variety of reasons. First off, it’s somewhat limiting, although like anything else, I’m wagering that a clever author might reinvent this POV. The biggest reason not to write this way is because most readers, agents, and editors hate it. But if you think you’re game, I say go for it. I’m always looking to read books with fresh narrative takes.

Okay, the classic model is third person POV. Today, most agents and editors want close person POV. That means you’re telling the story from the character’s viewpoint. This way a writer can tell a story from the minds of a few different character’s’ perspectives. This is the standard model for most novels these days. Back in the day, ominiscient third person POV was a popular technique, but it has since fallen out of favor. Basically, the author is telling the story from a distance, as if he or she is all knowing. I find this type of storytelling too intrusive and less emotional.

But here’s where things get tricky—and fun! Two of my favorite books use a first person POV and then have the narrator segue into the 3rd person POV of the character’s they are observing. The first book is & Sons by David Gilbert and the other is London Fields by the brilliantly talented Martin Amis. This technique is very difficult, as the POV transitions can be confusing if not done properly. But it allows the 1st person POV to utilize a unique voice while at the same time using 3rd person to allow the reader to experience many different unique perspectives.

Many authors use multiple 1st person POV. This is an effective technique because it allows strong voices to coincide with multiple viewpoints. However, this technique is tricky. If not done properly, it can make the novel seem jarring, schizophrenic, and too confusing. Done well, it’s fantastic fun and very riveting. In my upcoming novel, The Neighbor, I used the two alternating first person perspectives of husband and wife, similar to the best selling novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Then there’s using the conventional third person POV interspersed with 1st person POV, like I’m doing in the current novel I’m working on. It can be an effective tool when you want that 1st person voice to interrupt the narrative with commentary designed to jar the reader out the narrative trance. I found using this structure to be daring and a lot of fun, especially since my 1st person interrupter is such an evil witch.

One of my favorite books this year was reading Marie Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette, which is coming out as a movie this spring. Semple brilliantly uses emails, personal messages, letters, and social media to tell a hilarious and riveting story of a brilliant but reclusive architect who’s gone missing. I could not put this book down and was amazed at how this author could weave together such an amazing tale using a unique and creative approach to narrative,

I absolutely loved You by Caroline Kepnes. Her literate but sociopathic antihero serial killer uses the term ‘you’ in a highly unconventional way. Reading the novel, it’s almost as if Joe, the 1st person narrator, is speaking directly to the woman of his dreams. It’s creepy, addictive, and doesn’t end well for You. But you’ll find yourself laughing at Joe’s perspective, and at the same feel horrified at yourself for laughing at such evil. The good news: You is set to become a Lifetime drama this spring.

Of course everyone will be drawn to the structures they are used to reading and enjoying. If I’ve missed any other techniques, please let me know. Some readers are plenty happy with the traditional approaches and traditional mystery set ups. If you’re an adventurist reader like I am, take a chance on some of these clever writers who see fit to challenge the status quo. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised

 

Sometimes it’s just bett-ah to stay away from Maine accents. Ayuh.

I saw an article recently in the Bangor Daily News catching people up on what movies are being made out of Stephen King books.

As much as I’m a huge fan, every time I think of Stephen King-book-based movies, I cringe. All I can think of is decades of tortured attempts to do a Maine accent.

[image error]

Make a citizen’s arrest! Tom Bosley, as Amos Tupper on “Murder, She Wrote,” GUILTY! of bad “Maine” accent.

It doesn’t end with those – they’re just the most public. It’s also “Murder She Wrote.” Angela Lansbury just spoke her usual lovely way, but Tom Bosley, as Amos Tupper, well, if the Peppridge Farm guy and, I don’t know, someone with a really bad Maine accent, had a baby, it would sound like him. Once it grew up.

[image error]

“Empire Falls”: Shot in Maine, check! Paul Newman, check! Ed Harris, check! Bad Maine accents, MAKE IT STOP!

Richard Russo is one of my favorite writers. But when I tried to rewatch “Empire Falls” recently to enjoy the Waterville and Skowhegan locales, ugh. I like Ed Harris. I love Paul Newman, who’s enjoyable even when crusty and bearded. But I couldn’t watch. I had to make it stop. I think I got through about 20 minutes. Could not take the bad attempts at Maine accents. (No great loss, it’s not even close to being my favorite Russo book).

I could go on and on. If you’re a Mainer (no, folks from away, we rarely, and I never, call ourselves Maine-iacs) you probably have your favorite most hated attempt at Maine accents on the big or little screen.

When I first auditioned narrators for the audio versions of my books, I made it clear I didn’t want the person to do much Maine accenting, even though my books take place in Franklin county. I think the way I worded it was that I wanted the person to sound like “a trusted friend telling a story,” or something like that.

It’s not that I didn’t trust a narrator to do a decent accent. Okay, that may have been part of it, since I’m hard pressed to hear one by a non-Mainer that sounds genuine. There’s a lot more to it than dropping the Rs. But it had more to do with a bunch of other things.

When I listen to an audio book, I know it’s not a play. I don’t expect the dialogue to sound like lines being read, I expect the narrator to be telling me a story. Reading me a book. If I wanted it to be a play, I would have written a play.

So, when a review of an audio version of one of my books said that my awesome narrator, Trudi Knoedler should “brush up on her Maine accent,” I take the blame. Though I don’t feel there’s really any reason to blame anyone. I told her explicitly not to do Maine accents. I don’t write the characters speaking dialect – a huge distraction for readers – and I feel accents when listening to a book are equally distracting.

[image error]

The documentary “Knee Deep.” Real Maine, accents and all.

That said, before I knew about that (unjustified) criticism, I’d already determined to send Trudi a DVD of the wonderful documentary “Knee Deep,” by Michael Chandler and Sheila Canavan. The documentary, like my Bernie O’Dea mystery series, takes place in Franklin County. It’s a real slice of Maine (while the narrator says at the beginning it’s a Maine even most in the state don’t know, I strenuously beg to differ). I wanted her to hear bonafide western Maine accents (not to be confused with Downeast accents), just so she can get a little flavor into the third book. The fire chief, a minor character in the first book, Cold Hard News, and who didn’t appear in the second, No News is Bad News, plays a significant part in the third, Bad News Travels Fast. He grew up on a Farmington-area dairy farm, just like the main character in “Knee Deep.” (If you’re interested in watching it, by the way, it’s hard to find unless buy it from the website, kneedeepthedoc.com. Or you can just borrow my copy. Or Trudi’s, if you live in California).

That’s not to say I’ve changed my mind on the Maine accents at all. But one thing I never considered until Trudi started narrating my books is that professional narrators try to give each voice a “voice.” Gee, just like authors do! Trudi is a master at it, but I don’t do her any favors with my Dickensian bent toward having a lot of characters (yes, I know, I’ll say it for you, it’s the only thing Charles Dickens and I have in common).

The documentary is a tool, because someone in California is going to be hard-pressed to find a bonafide western Maine accent. Anywhere.

Does that mean I’m giving in on the accents? No, it doesn’t. I still want to the books to sound like a trusted friend is telling a story. But if I can help another artist do her job better, then I’m going to do it.

Now if we could just get the world to pronounce Bangor correctly…

Ayuh.

The Pleasures and Perils of Sustaining a Long(ish)-Running Series

[image error]Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, author of the recently published X Marks the Scot, number eleven in the Liss MacCrimmon series. The first Liss MacCrimmon mystery, Kilt Dead, came out in August 2007. Once a series has been around for over ten years, and is still being published (my current contract covers #12 and #13), it can probably be considered long-running, but only if you don’t compare it to, say, J.D. Robb’s “In Death” series, which numbers forty-six to date and has more in the pipeline. Still, considering the number of mystery series that never get past the first two or three books, Liss’s adventures aren’t doing too badly.

[image error]And that, gentle readers, brings me to the topic of this blog. Having books in a series published at regular intervals by a traditional, advance-and-royalty-paying publisher is what passes for job security in the writing biz. I am extremely lucky (and grateful) to be in that situation. Along the way, I’ve learned a thing or two, observations I thought I’d share here at Maine Crime Writers.

 

[image error]With the second Liss MacCrimmon mystery, Scone Cold Dead, I confirmed something I’d begun to suspect when I was writing my previous long-running series, the historical Face Down Mysteries. That series, featuring sixteenth-century herbalist Susanna Appleton, consists of ten novels and a collection of short stories and then some of those characters reappeared in my three-book spin-off series, the Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries. In each series, and in my Diana Spaulding 1888 Quartet, which was intended to be a limited series of four books, book two was a real challenge to whip into shape.

[image error]I have a feeling the second book in any series almost always is. Writers usually have to put a great deal of time and effort into writing the first one, and into pitching the series idea to agents and publishers. I’m talking years here, unless Lady Luck puts in a fortuitous appearance. Then lightning strikes, a multi-book contract is signed, and suddenly there’s a deadline to “do the same thing again, only different.” You’d think that would be easy. It isn’t. The time limit alone works against creativity, and this time around the writer isn’t just sitting alone in the proverbial attic (or coffee house). There’s input from an editor, and possibly from an agent. And if the first book is already out, there are readers offering their opinions about things like the protagonist’s likeability. Both well-intentioned feedback and negative reviews can be hard to handle. Both can produce feelings of insecurity and self-doubt, and make the writer second-guess every decision about plot or character development.

Writing the third book in a series is definitely easier. Not easy, you understand, but much less of a slog.

[image error]With book four in the Liss MacCrimmon series, The Corpse Wore Tartan, I ran into a different of problem. Even though I’d made character sheets, and maps of my fictional town of Moosetookalook, Maine, and had floor plans of Liss’s house, Dan’s house, and the hotel where many scenes take place, I’d neglected to make note of some of the details I’d put in books one through three. I had to go back and reread my own books to remember what I’d already set up . . . because readers who discover a series new to them tend to read straight through the books that are available. Believe me when I say that no contradiction goes unnoticed! I’m better at keeping track these days, but there are still things I should write down and don’t. Finding them again later is a royal pain.

[image error]A chronology is a good idea too. I have one for Liss’s world that includes birth dates for all the continuing characters, when they graduated from high school and college, how long they held certain jobs in the past, and when they first appeared in Moosetookalook, among other details in their lives. It’s surprising how often knowing how old a character is in relation to the other characters turns out to be significant.

I’ve learned the hard way, too, that I need to keep the calendar in mind when I write each new book. I never say what year it is, but I know, and I use a calendar for that year to make sure I keep the days straight. Holidays can really mess things up. What if you need to check public records and the town office is closed? And you can’t really ignore the big ones like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the 4th of July. Then, too, if I’m writing about Maine in the winter, I’d better know the times of sunrise and sunset for my location.

[image error]Of course some of these observations apply to writing any book, not necessarily one in a long-running series. One situation, however, usually takes awhile to surface. For me, it was at book ten, Kilt at the Highland Games. Here’s a sad truth: after you’ve written a bunch of books about the same characters in the same setting, you start to worry about running out of fresh ideas. I was afraid of repeating myself. The “same only different” isn’t the same as the “same-old same-old.” I started Liss’s tenth adventure with a fire in downtown Moosetookalook. The devil on my shoulder was urging me to burn down the whole damn town. Fortunately, I didn’t listen, but I did give serious consideration to ending the series at book ten.

[image error]With that thought in mind, I spent considerable time working on a proposal for a new series, one with a sleuth closer to my own age. I wrote it in first person instead of the third person point of view I used for the Liss MacCrimmon books. I set it not in Maine, but in a fictional village in rural New York state a lot like the one I grew up in. By the time it was far enough along for my agent to pitch to the editor I’d been working with at Kensington, I’d had a real break from Liss and her friends, and when that editor indicated that he was interested in the new series but would also like to see more Liss MacCrimmons, I realized (with some surprise) that I actually had a fresh idea for a new one, an idea that eventually turned into X Marks the Scot.

My biggest piece of advice for any writer who fears a long-running series may be running out of steam is really pretty simple. Take a break. Write something different. Let your subconscious worry about breathing new life into the characters and events in book eleven, or twelve, or even forty-seven.

[image error]

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett is the author of more than fifty-five traditionally published books written under several names. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Currently she writes the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries and the “Deadly Edits” series (Crime & Punctuation—2018) as Kaitlyn and the historical Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries (Murder in a Cornish Alehouse) as Kathy. The latter series is a spin-off from her earlier “Face Down” mysteries and is set in Elizabethan England. Her most recent collection of short stories is Different Times, Different Crimes. Her websites are www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com and she maintains a website about women who lived in England between 1485 and 1603 at A Who’s Who of Tudor Women.

 

Strange Days (Doors Optional)

John Clark starting 2018 with a look at four recently published young adult titles. I’ll venture to say that YA authors are pushing the envelope further than most other genres…So far and so fast that Nancy Drew would probably need a week on the psych ward if she picked up almost anything good these days. That’s not a bad thing. Having such a vast array of good reading at my fingertips sure helps when the snowplow weasels in Hartland seem determined to fill in our driveway right after we’ve cleared it, sometimes three times in the same day.

[image error]

Everless, a first book by Sara Holland. Harper Teen, 2018 ISBN: 9780062653659. Jules Ember is a survivor in a fantasy world where the haves live long, thanks to an alchemical discovery ages ago. Blood, drawn from people and mixed with iron, can transfer time from one person to another. The village where she and her sickly father live is mostly peopled by the poor who are obligated to pay for food and lodging with their time-blood. When the weather is decent, Jules can hunt for enough so they get by, but it’s now winter and they’re two months behind on payments. Desperate to save her father, she signs on to be a servant at Everless, the estate where she and her father lived when she was a small child. Roan, younger son of the family is marrying the queen’s adopted daughter and boys and girls can earn a year’s worth of time blood coins in a month if selected to work during the festivities.

Her father forbids her to go, but her desperation to keep him alive is stronger. After getting selected and joining the cadre, Jules begins to realize that not everything is as she remembered before she and her dad were banished. Flashbacks, a gradual series of discoveries, her realization that Roan’s older brother Liam isn’t the evil person she remembers, coupled with an earth shattering discovery related to a book from her childhood and legends surrounding an alchemist and sorcerer whose feuding supposedly altered their world ages ago, make this a total page turner. It ends in a satisfying way, with a strong hint at a sequel. It there is one, I will order it the moment I can.

[image error]

Next is What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold, Carolrhoda Lab. 2017 ISBN: 9781512410242. First off, this author isn’t afraid to take fiction to risky places. Burning, published in 2013, is one of those books that gets stuck in your head and stays there for a long time. As for this one, the first sentence on the flyleaf says it all. “This is NOT a story of sugar and spice and everything nice.” Instead, it’s a story about a girl whose mother told her while they were folding laundry, that there was no such thing as unconditional love. Nina Faye was fourteen when that conversation took place and it rumbles about in her head throughout this story.

Told in alternating moments past and present, it’s Nina’s journey to figure out whether what Mom said was true. Her breakup with her boyfriend with whom she was willing to do pretty much anything sexual (although her inability to have an orgasm while they were intimate seemed to play a role in their breakup), is followed by her discovery that she’s pregnant. How she deals with that decision and the accompanying emotional consequences are pretty strong emotionally. There’s also her volunteering at an animal shelter where dogs and cats who overstay are euthanized. Her reason for getting placed there also factors into her emotional baggage, as does her growing awareness of just how empty her parents’ marriage has become. Think of it as an X-rated literary version of Ladybird. Not for the sexually squeamish, but a darn fine read.

[image error]

That Inevitable Victorian Thing is by E.K. Johnston, Dutton, 2017. ISBN: 9781101994979. She’s written several others and my favorite is Exit, Pursued By A Bear. Her latest is quite imaginative, taking place in an alt-history. In it, the British Empire still reigns supreme, the United States is in complete disarray, akin to what the South was like following the Civil War, and young ladies all look forward to their coming out parties. Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess. She’s also Black and Chinese, thanks to an emphasis on genetic matching to encourage healthy offspring. Her godfather, the Archbishop of Canterbury, (the Church of England has done some serious mellowing in this story and is the kind of organization where Father Guido Sarducci would feel right at home.) oversees a worldwide computer network where young people get a complete genetic profile that includes DNA and suggested matching profiles from all over the world as a chip that downloads on their computer.

Victoria has been given one summer of freedom before she must get serious about her responsibilities. She travels to Toronto where a month long series of coming out parties are happening. She’s staying with Elizabeth, outgoing daughter of her father’s friend. While there, she meets Helena, daughter of a world famous geneticist. Helena is less wealthy and much quieter, hoping to get her long time best friend August to ask her to marry him. However, the best laid plans often go awry. Disturbing news about her genetic codes forces Helena to rethink everything, her growing friendship with Victoria-Margaret, coupled with August’s shame, when his father discovers how he’s dealt with a threat to their shipping empire, bonds the three of them together in a surprising way that allows each to have at least part of the life they so badly want. Unique and a very interesting read.

[image error]

The fourth book, Unearthed is by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (The YA equivalent of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs) Disney-Hyperion (January 9, 2018) ISBN: 9781484758052. Like their Starbound Trilogy, this is a finely crafted blend of science fiction, mystery and romance. It opens on an alien world where a vanished race sent Earth a cryptic message. The first humans to land were so eager to explore the biggest temple, most were destroyed on live feed video when they triggered a trap. Jules Addison and Mia Radcliffe couldn’t be more different, but the two teens share a desperate need to get past the puzzle traps left by the aliens. It’s a true page turner that ends with a huge WHAT!?!

Weekend Update: January 13-14, 2018

[image error]Next week at Maine Crime Writers, there will be a posts by John Clark (Monday), Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Tuesday) , Maureen Milliken (Wednesday), Joe Souza (Thursday), and Vaughn Hardacker (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

[image error]

Bruce Robert Coffin will have a busy week. On Wednesday the 17th Bruce will appear with fellow Maine mystery writer Jim Hayman at the Lithgow Library in Augusta. The event will start at 6 pm (snow date, if needed, will be the following Wednesday).

On Thursday, January 18th Bruce will be at the North Gorham Public Library at 7 pm.

On Sunday, January 21 Bruce will be featured at Casco Public Library’s Soup and Suspense. The event will run from 1 pm to 2:30 pm. FMI contact the Casco Public Library at 627-4541.

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. Contact Kate Flora