Kathy Lynn Emerson's Blog, page 75

Weekend Update: May 14-15, 2016

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Jessie Crockett (Monday), Bruce Coffin (Tuesday), Maureen Milliken (Wednesday), Lea Wait (Thursday), and Dick Cass (Friday).

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

From Kate Flora: We’re running another giveaway for the month of May, the winner to be chosen from those who comment on May posts here at Maine Crime Writers. The prize is a Poe tote bag containing books by some of our regular bloggers. All you have to do to enter is post a comment on any blog appearing in May. The April prize, a Nancy Drew tote bag with goodies and books, was won by “Gram.” Runner up was “Skye,” who won a jar of Stonewall Kitchen blueberry jam.

 

In other news, bestselling mystery writer Nevada Barr has set her newest Anna Pigeon novel, Boar Island, in Acadia National Park. Want to meet her? She will be making two appearances at Maine libraries. On Monday, May 23 at 6:30 PM she will be at Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor and on Tuesday, May 24 at 6:30 PM she will be the guest of Gray Public Library in Gray, Maine. The Gray event will be held at the Spring Meadow Golf Club. Tickets are free, but must be acquired in advance. For more information, call 657-4110.

Vaughn C. Hardacker’s novel, THE FISHERMAN, was selected as a finalist in the Crime Fiction Category of the 2016 Maine Literary Awards by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. The winners will be announced at the SPACE Gallery in Portland on May 26, 2016.

Maureen Milliken is traveling south of the border to participate in the Local Authors Fair at the Nevins Library in Methuen, Mass. The event is from 1-3 p.m. and there are a lot of cool authors to meet and get books signed by.

While Maureen isn’t a “local author” currently, she spent some of her formative newspaper reporter years in nearby Haverhill, where she worked at the Haverhill Gazette.

Please stop by and say hit to Maureen and the other authors!

 

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: mailto: kateflora@gmail.com

It’s Friday the 13th, and We’re Asking: What Scares You?

Maine Crime Writers here, celebrating Friday the 13th by sharing stories of the books, movies, and real life events that have scared us. It may not always be true, but one of the benefits of being a crime writer is that anything can be grist for the mill. It lets us turn life’s big scares into emotions we can tap for the page. So here, without further ado, our stories:

Kate Flora: Back when I was a kid, and going to the movies was a rare thing that involved driving all the way to Rockland, my brother got the bee in his bonnet that we should all go to see a movie called The House on Haunted Hill. Somehow, I was convinced that it would be funny. To find the money for tickets, we scoured old purses, went through coat pockets and even vacuumed registers to find lost coins. Then, money in hand, we went to the movies. It was NOT a funny movie. It was a terrifying movie. One of those Ten Little Indians sorts of films where everyone got killed off. I had nightmares for years and having entirely forgiven my brother John for suggesting it.

From Wikipedia: House on Haunted Hill is a 1959 American horror film. It was directed by William Castle, written by Robb White and stars Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren. He and his fourth wife, Annabelle, have invited five people to the house for a “haunted house” party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn $10,000. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson: The scariest movie from my childhood? The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad! I spent weeks looking over my shoulder, expecting to find the Cyclops behind me. They used pretty hokey special effects by today’s standards, but back then? Terrifying!

Maureen Milliken: When I was a preteen, my brother, sister and I took turns reading The Mystery of the Crimson Ghost by Phyllis A. Whitney to each other (was that weird, that we used sit around reading to each other? I don’t know). I don’t remember much about the book, except that there was a giant ghost dog that glowed crimson and it scared the hell out of me. I know there was a logical explanation for it at the end, but that image is the one thing I can remember — the unknown, unexplained and terrifying.

By the way, here’s a thought about Friday the 13th and writing: I don’t think one month has gone by since those young years that on the 13th of the month I haven’t thought of Pogo, my all-time favorite comic strip. On the 13th of the month, if it wasn’t a Friday, one of us kids would say “Friday the 13th comes on a (whatever the day is) this month.” I’m not superstitious at all, but that resonates with me, the idea that a small, innocuous thing can trigger such big feelings in people. It also always makes me think of  the other great line from Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” As a writer, I’m constantly absorbing impressions — seriously, I didn’t pick this, it picked me — and the things that trigger feelings in people, whether it’s Friday the 13th, Pogo,  a crimson dog ghost tend to form the bigger ideas that end up being the foundation of books.

I’ve realized that all the “big” things in my books — tone, voice, character — all come from these little snapshots in my head, many of which I’ve had for decades. Sorry if that’s all new-agey and navel-gazey, but I’ve got the third book forming (with number four elbowing in) and the process is all-consuming. In fact, it reminds me of another quote from Pogo: “We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.”

Bruce Robert Coffin: When I was twelve-years-old I read my first Stephen King novel, Salem’s Lot. Having been a fan of the supernatural genre, this was not my first foray into the world of literary macabre. It was however my first “adult” horror novel, as my prior reading was mainly limited to what readers of today might call young adult (YA) novels. I still remember the scary Bookland television commercial for the King novel, which usually ran just after dinner each night.

The story about a writer who revisits his boyhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine is filled with creepy characters, a haunted house, and vanishing townsfolk. If you like horror stories, this book is a must read. But be forewarned, lock all of your doors…

Chris Holm: Hmm. What to talk about? My first brush with grown-up horror? (Like Bruce’s, it was a Stephen King novel.) My all-time favorite horror movie? (John Carpenter’s The Thing, which may be my favorite movie period.) The time, when I was little, that I woke up to find myself covered in insects? (Yup, that actually happened. It inspired a lifelong phobia and a creepy scene in The Wrong Goodbye.)

Nah. Instead, I’ll highlight something new that scared the heck out of me: the indie horror movie Hush. It’s a gorgeously acted and directed movie about a deaf woman (and thriller writer!) who winds up terrorized by a would-be home invader. (Spoiler: she proves more resourceful than he bargained for.) Made on a shoestring by a husband and wife team (they co-wrote; she stars; he directs), it’s smart, scary, and satisfying from start to finish. It’s also streaming now on Netflix.

Brenda Buchanan:  I read Helter Skelter the first winter I lived in Maine. I was living in a cottage that creaked and groaned when the wind howled across the adjacent marsh. I started Vincent Bugliosi’s account of the investigation and trial of Charles Manson and his gang on the Friday of a long weekend when my housemate had gone off to Boston. Once I started reading I could not stop, even though it meant I slept with every light in the house blazing all three nights.  I’m not one bit ashamed to admit it, either.

Jessie Crockett: When I was about 10 I read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I had started it in the afternoon and couldn’t put it down. After I was supposed to be in bed that night I read it under the covers. Between the setting, the creepy use of a nusery rhyme and worrying about being caught for staying up past bedtime I was terrified. But I couldn’t stop reading. I guess that is why Christie is still a bestseller!

Barb Ross: When I was five or so, we had an older woman who babysat for us. A night owl even then, I’d go to bed and stay awake as long as I could, then wander back to the living room rubbing my eyes and whining, “I can’t sleep.” Once when I did that she was watching an episode of Perry Mason. It was about a little girl who comes to Perry’s office and says, “I want you to find out who I am.” Of course, he takes the case. She gets dolls at regular intervals from Switzerland, so Perry goes there to investigate. At the halfway point, a doll arrives at Perry’s hotel room with it’s neck broken clean in half and a note that says, “This can happen to little girls, too.” And then the stupid woman sent me to bed!! I never saw the resolution. I was terrified by this for years.

Readers, what scares you?

The Devil’s On His Way

Friday the 13th is nearly upon us. We’ve got a special group post lined up for tomorrow to celebrate, but — as a writer with a(n un)healthy fondness for the macabre — I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk a bit about superstition.

Though my work often dabbles in the supernatural, I’m something of a skeptic in real life. That’s what I tell myself, at least. But if you were to watch a Pats game with me, you’d come away with another impression entirely. If my cat’s on my lap when we find the endzone, she’s not allowed to leave. If we fumble while I’m drinking my beer, the remainder of it will sit untouched. And on the rare occasion the announcers deign to compliment our play, I knock wood in an effort to undo the jinx.

Do I really believe I’m impacting the game in any way? Nah. (Half the time, I’m not even watching live.) But on the other hand, why chance it?

Baby or savior? OR BABY SAVIOR?

The fact is, superstition’s baked into our DNA. Our brains are designed to recognize patterns, and evolution has selected for a hair trigger. If a warm wind’s blowing from the east and every animal in the forest is headed west, the caveman who fails to recognize a fire’s coming doesn’t last long enough to pass along his (blissfully carefree) genes. Wash, rinse, repeat… and a few thousand generations later, we’re seeing Jesus in old pictures and blaming bad days on the movements of the planets.

While I enjoy recreationally indulging my superstitious side*, I try not to let it alter my behavior in real life. I cultivate good writing habits, but push back whenever I sense they’re ossifying into rituals. I don’t buy into lucky hats or socks or pens or chairs, and I sure as hell don’t wait around for my muse. Writing isn’t magic. It isn’t luck. It’s work. (Fun work, but work nonetheless.) So, at every turn, I endeavor to treat it as such.

Although, okay, I’ll confess: if my prior day’s writing was like pulling teeth, I’ll usually swap out my coffee mug. That’s not superstition, though; it’s psychology. I’m making a symbolic change to my environment to signal to my subconscious that OH, WHO AM I KIDDING? OF COURSE IT’S SUPERSTITION.

So… where do you fall on the spectrum? Are you a believer or a skeptic? What silly writing rituals do you adhere to? IRRATIONAL MINDS WANT TO KNOW!

*If you’re fond of recreationally indulging your superstitious side, too, allow me to point you toward two of my current obsessions: TANIS and The Black Tapes. Both are podcasts produced by Pacific Northwest Stories. Both are free to download on iTunes. Both are works of fiction, although they work hard to sound as if they’re nonfiction (and do a remarkable job at it, too). The Black Tapes is best described as Serial meets The X-Files. TANIS is a little harder to pin down. But if, like me, you’re a fan of the creepy, the supernatural, the unexplained, give the first episode of each a try. (I listen while I run, but I’m told they’re also great for commutes.) My guess is, you’ll wind up hooked.

MAY FAVORITES NO MYSTERY

Susan Vaughan here. My dog Sasha insists on taking me for walks along our lane and on the woods path, showing me all the new growth and returning birds. So here are my faves, as we stroll along…

Dogtooth violets carpet the woods more than usual this May. Before other low-growing plants take over, they’re a bright yellow (not violet) reminder the sun is in the sky for longer each day. I nearly tripped a few times admiring the expanse of color.

Purple trilliums dot the woods floor here and there among the dogtooth violets and in one spot have taken over. The flower is also called wake-robin and stinking Benjamin, not a flattering name for a pretty blossom, but up close you can’t miss the nasty scent.

Our woods are home to a pair of barred owls. This morning the two of them perched silently in adjacent trees along the lane, apparently blasé about the crows flapping around and complaining about their presence. I can’t wait to see the owlets, decked out in fluffy feathers and learning to hunt frogs in the small pond. Sasha, of course, paid no attention to the activity in the trees. She was as usual nose to the ground.

Many songbirds have returned north to our feeder to join the chickadees and nuthatches—goldfinches, house finches, and others I’d need to study a bird book to name. But the king—or queen—of the woods is a woodpecker. I laugh along whenever I hear the loud ha-ha-ha-ha-ha echo through the trees. The pileated woodpecker is the largest North American woodpecker, about crow size, but its red crest and long tail feathers make it appear larger. It was the model for Woody the Woodpecker.

Lastly, seeing my own shrubs and flowers bloom cheers me, especially after such a long, cold winter.That was it for this walk. Ready for a biscuit and a nap, Sasha led the way to the door.

*** A lucky May commenter will win a bag of Maine books. So come back often.

50 Shapes in Gray

Auntie Lisa and Piper admiring the big turtle.

John Clark sharing another great Maine resource with MCW readers. When my daughter Lisa who teaches in the Bronx and often comes to Maine when there’s a school vacation, put my granddaughter on the phone, Here’s what I heard. “Grandpa, will you come to see the beahs with me?”

Who can say no to that kind of request? Not I for sure. We headed to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray. It’s located at 56 Game Farm Road, not far from the Maine Turnpike.

Beth and daughter Sara had brought Piper there once before and the beahs (her pronunciation), made a big impression. At a little over two (her birthday is March 3rd) Piper has Grandpa’s eye for spotting wildlife and loves new adventures. While we visited the day following the late April snowstorm, the accumulation was receding quickly, making it easy to propel her stroller.

Hours are as follows. Open daily 9:30 am – 4:30 p.m. Visitors may stay until 6:00 p.m. Admission varies. Children under age 3 are free, ages 4 -12 are $5.50, ages 13 – 59 are $7.50, ages 60+ are $5.50 and groups of 15 or more are $3.50 per person. Season passes are available.

Wadda YOU lookin’ at?

We had full sunshine and almost no breeze during our three hour stroll around the park. In addition to the resident creatures, we were serenaded by at least two cardinals. We started with the bird enclosure where a very belligerent tom turkey gave us the hairy eyeball right under a sign warning visitors that ‘I bite.’ When I looked at the pen behind him which was separated by a wire fence, I could understand part of his frustration. Here he is with all this natural face paint and puffery, but not a hen in sight. What does he have as a neighbor? A cock pheasant with six hens to keep him happy. That kind of injustice would frustrate any guy. In addition to these, there are a bald and a golden eagle, a couple turkey vultures, a raven, several owls, peregrine falcons and a peacock.

Turkles is what we called them when I was Piper’s age.

Despite the chill (there was a skim of ice on the bog near the bears), as you can see from the accompanying picture, there are several types of turtles already active.

We know how awesome we are.

Next up was the fish hatchery that not only has a circular pool where at least a thousand 6-8” brook trout await freedom (however brief) in some nearby lake or stream, but a pretty fair number of mature brookies that live in a separate area and must give plenty of anglers pipe dreams as they swim slowly past the viewing area.

I don’t suppose you’re Christopher Robin by any chance?

Then it was on to the beahs and, while the darker of the two snoozed in a warm bed of mud, the lighter one was happy to milk the crowd for as much food as they were willing to buy with quarters. Not far from them resides a solitary coyote who never stopped pacing long enough for me to get a decent photo. The four moose nearby, had the opposite reaction. They remained lying down at the back of their fenced in area, content to snooze in the sun.

While not exactly native (it depends on who you ask), there is a mountain lion in residence with golden brown hair. Right next to him are a pair of Canada Lynx who are gray in color All three gave us a dismissive look and went back to sleep. Finding the two bobcats in their natural habitat across from them was a bit of a challenge, as they were cuddled together in a small depression. It wasn’t until their ears wiggled that we were able so spot them.

After a picnic lunch (there are plenty of benches and picnic tables available), we went to the last part of the trail where smaller animals and the resident deer herd reside. In addition to a porcupine, a fisher, an opossum and a skunk, there are two raccoons, one of which is albino, and a woodchuck who was still in hibernation. We counted six deer, one of which was also albino. There may have been more as they’re adept at blending in with the terrain.

I’m cooler than the fish.

In addition to all the animals, there is a visitor center where you can press feet, hooves and cl;aws into sand to see what fresh tracks look like, as well as read up on interesting facts about Maine wildlife and touch various hides and pelts. It’s a fine place for you to take friends and relatives from away as well as introduce the next generation to the part of Maine so many are getting away from. Here’s the website where you can find out more. http://www.maine.gov/ifw/education/wildlifepark/

Happy Reading

Dorothy Cannell: Had a marvelous time at the Malice convention in Bethesda; the feeling is always one of attending a family reunion with only the lovable relatives present. This one was extra special because Katherine Hall Page received the Lifetime Achievement Award. So well deserved. Returned home to contend with the mystery of why it always takes five times as long to unpack as it does to pack for the trip. My husband Julian attests there is nothing to ponder in this regard, the blame goes to all the books that climbed unnoticed into our luggage. Not true! The problem is the clothes have married (or lived in sin) and produced offspring in celebration of being freed from the closet where they huddle most of the year living lives of quiet desperation.

Okay, I protesteth too much. Within seconds of arrival at the hotel and registering I invariably make a beeline for the book room in search of out of print or hard to find books by mystery writers who weren’t Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers but were popular and admired during their time. My excuse for exercising this passion if that my current series is “period” fiction (which makes me a period piece given that I was born in 1943), but I’d wallow in them even if I were doing science fiction set in 4016. Oh, for that world without the advanced forensics that can make it implausible for amateur sleuths with nothing going for them beyond a long poky nose that can penetrate keyholes to solve a case awash in blood stains, fibers, etc., to solve the case before the police snap their fingers and with a wretched smirk cry “got him or her.” Oh, for the world where the protagonist can be out on a fog shrouded moor miles from the nearest farmhouse where the sound of crunching bracken imparts the unpleasant information that the murder is only yards away. In my view cell phones have a lot to answer for in spoiling sport for the writer.

Here are some of this years’ Malice finds, purchased with a multitude of thanks to The Book House and Scene of the Crime Books:

Smoke without Fire – Elizabeth Ferrars.

Answer Came Their None – Elizabeth Ferrars

Exit Murderer – Sara Woods

Murder Out Of Tune – Sara Woods

Where Old Bones Lie – Ann Granger

Death among the Dons – Janet Neel

Night at the Vulcan – Ngaio Marsh

Clutch of Constables – Ngaio Marsh

Gideon’s Risk – J. J. Marric

Cast For Death – Margaret Yorke

The Red Box – Rex Stout

Poison in Jest – John Dickson Carr

That’s about a quarter of my purchases. I remember when used book stores became popular and the concerns of some of us in the mystery field that they would cost us in royalties, but I’ve come to believe they provide a hunting ground for readers who may go on to buy our paperback, or even hardcovers. I also like to imagine maybe twenty or even thirty years from now when my name has long faded that someone will pick up one of my books and with luck I’ll join the ranks of the above mentioned. Should I be so lucky!

All the best,

Dorothy

 

Weekend Update: May 7-8, 2016

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Dorothy Cannell (Monday), John Clark (Tuesday), Susan Vaughan (Wednesday), and Chris Holm (Thursday). And for Friday the Thirteenth, something a little spooky.

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

Vaughn C. Hardacker will be appearing at the Aroostook Artisans Craft Fair from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on May 7, 2016

NEWS FLASH! The list of Anthony Award finalists (presented at Bouchercon in September) is out and our own Chris Holm is a nominee for Best Novel for The Killing Kind. Yay, Chris!

Kaitlyn Dunnett has just been interviewed by Savvy Scottie Magazine, thanks to interest in The Scottie Barked at Midnight. The interview will be in the next issue.

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: mailto: kateflora@gmail.com

Whew!

Hi, Barb here.

You may have noticed my absence from the blog recently. I have been working on this:

There comes a time in a writer’s life when the book has to be the highest priority.

I haven’t heard from my editor yet if he likes it, but I do like this tale of Busman’s Harbor, Maine in the off-off-off season. Almost all of our regular cast have fled town. Julia’s hunkered down with her mother, waiting out the snow and the power outages, when a mysterious package arrives…

Iced Under, the 5th Maine Clambake Mystery, is coming December 27, 2016 and is available for pre-order on Amazon for mass market paperback and ebook. Audiobook and large print editions are coming, but I don’t have a release date for those yet.

Now I just have to help get Crime Bake registration open and do a few small projects and my daughter gets married in Portland, Maine on May 21. Then it will be back to our regularly scheduled programming!

“Leaving on a Jet Plane”–Flying out of Portland

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, just back from my annual trek to Malice Domestic and down with a post-conference head cold that may affect how coherent this post is.

One thing stands out when I fly these days—flying isn’t as much fun as it used to be. For one thing, even the shortest trip kills the entire day. Wilton, Maine to Bethesda, Maryland? A little over an hour and a half in the car to arrive at the Portland International Jetport two hours ahead of the flight. A delay of half an hour. Then about an hour and a half in the air followed by an unknown amount of time on the runway at Reagan and waiting at baggage claim followed by nearly another hour in a cab in rush hour traffic. No wonder I’m worn out before I even get to the hotel!

Once upon a time, a trip like this was much more relaxed. Before security became so tight, prohibiting anyone who didn’t have a boarding pass from the gate area, Sandy and I used to arrive at the airport, check me in and check my luggage, and then go upstairs to a lovely restaurant with views of the runway and have a nice meal together while waiting for my flight to be called. That hasn’t been possible for a long time now.

In those days, Portland News had a store that anyone could access, before you went into the gate area. In addition to newspapers and sundries, they had lots of books by local authors. I was even part of a display there once.

In more recent memory, the Portland Jetport had a business center in the gate area. There were desks with sound baffles where I could go and work on a manuscript while waiting for my plane to board. Plugs for laptops. A printer was available. Not high tech by today’s standards, but away from the bustle and confusion of the waiting area. I was often the only one using the area, which probably explains why they did away with it in favor of adding more seating space to the Shipyard Restaurant.

The latest upgrade (and I use the term loosely) put in three kinds of chairs in the waiting area: a few wooden rocking chairs, I suppose for local color; massage chairs, for which you have to insert a dollar; and chairs that are ergonomically correct if you want to lean back a bit and read a book or people-watch, but which don’t work at all well if you’re trying to type. Flat surface for your laptop or tablet? Forget about it.

Back in those “good old days” flights were rarely cancelled even if they were only half full. I can remember having two empty seats next to me and being able to curl up and take a nap while flying. There was more knee room, too. The airlines offered freebies, everything from food to playing cards, and supplied an assortment of current magazines to read. Their routes were more convenient, too. Delta used to go through Cincinnati when you were flying from one coast to the other. Now everything goes through Atlanta. Excuse me? Hundreds of miles south when I want to go due west? What kind of sense does that make? And don’t try to get from Portland (or Bangor) to Boston these days. Where once several airlines ran regular flights between those points, now there are none.

I could go on. I’d rather ask readers to share their pet peeves, and ask a question: does free WiFi in most airports even come close to making up for all the creature comforts we’ve lost?

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett is the author of over fifty books written under several names. She won the Agatha Award in 2008 for best mystery nonfiction for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2014 in the best mystery short story category for “The Blessing Witch.” Currently she writes the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries (The Scottie Barked at Midnight) as Kaitlyn and the historical Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries (Murder in the Merchant’s Hall) as Kathy. The latter series is a spin-off from her earlier “Face Down” series and is set in Elizabethan England. Her websites are www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com

Let’s talk about sex. Or not. Should writers go there?

Sex. Kind of surprising how much the topic comes up when talking about mystery writing. Or maybe not surprising. I was an English major, and, as all you fellow English majors know, everything is about sex.

As most readers who enjoy mysteries know, there are different sub-genres and they have different approaches to sex. Cozy mysteries, those of the no violence onscreen, small-town, cute characters and frequent cats, may allude to it, but that’s all. The less cozy the mystery, the more likely there is to be sex. Hard-boiled? Often hard core.

At least that’s the general idea.

No News is Bad News has a scene with sex in it, but is it a sex scene?

But no writer — of mysteries or anything else — should take including sex or not including it lightly. My impression from much of what I read in current fiction, both mysteries and other genres, is that the writer gives less thought to the sex scenes than any other scene in the book. That’s a mistake.

I’ll say right now that you won’t read a graphic sex scene in any of my mystery novels. Sorry to disappoint. I’m not a prude. I feel like I have to say that because I want you to understand that the lack of graphic sex in my books is not a moral decision, it’s a writing decision.

I can write a bang-up XXX sex scene. Just so you know. Someday I’ll reveal my secret erotica pen name and you can go on the Internet and check for yourself. Am I kidding? Maybe. Maybe not.

But in a lot of books I find graphic sex…distracting.

It’s pretty simple: Everyone has different tastes, a different idea of what’s hot or exciting. Readers also have their own ideas about who the characters are. If I as a writer start getting down to the nitty-gritty, I take a big chance that readers who have different sensibilities, who see the characters their own way rather than mine, will suddenly be jolted out of the dream world I worked so hard to put them in and back into cold reality and the knowledge they’re simply reading words that someone else put down on a page.

Does that make sense?

Look at it this way: I don’t do into a lot of detail describing my characters. I give a hint here or there, but I let readers form their own pictures based on what the characters say and do. I find that readers have much more finely drawn ideas of what the characters in my books book like when it’s left to their imaginations.

That same philosophy guides my attitude toward writing a sex scene. Writers work hard — or should — to make sure every line of dialogue a character speaks, every decision each character makes, is true to that character. Those are the specifics I deal with as a writer. It’s more difficult to do, though, when sex is introduced. It’s a third character and one most readers have very specific ideas about and the delicate balance that’s been developed in the book can very easily be thrown off. Some writers are great at it. I prefer to let those reading my book use the same imagination they’ve been using all along to fill in the blanks.

This isn’t to say that my characters don’t do it. In fact, there’s a sex scene in the first chapter of No News is Bad News, the book I just finished. The scene isn’t gratuitous, it has a role in the plot as well as contributes to some character development. I’m not going to spoil it, but I will say the point isn’t to get anyone worked up. An early reader of the scene, in another iteration a few years ago, told me it wasn’t sexy enough and my protagonist’s reactions weren’t very romantic. Good! That’s just what I was aiming for.

In fact, I don’t think of it as a sex scene at all, but more of a scene with sex in it.

As the book went through several revisions, the scene moved closer to the beginning until I got concerned about it being “too soon.” Would readers who haven’t read the first book in the series, Cold Hard News, be uncomfortable with people they’re just meeting taking their clothes off?

But then I reminded myself that it’s not a sex scene. It’s a scene with sex. Actually, it’s a post-sex scene and then a little later there’s a remembering what led up to it sex scene. Does that sound like a lot of sex? It’s only as much as you make it.

My philosophy about sex scenes isn’t an absolute for all writers. I’ve read scenes that are red hot and a great addition to a story. I’ve read others that are such clunkers that it left a bad taste for the rest of the book.

Like everything that goes into crafting a book, a writer has to think about it. How will it fit with what’s going on in the book? Will it be an uncomfortable distraction? Like all the other scenes, does it move the plot or character development along?

The only real advice about putting a sex scene in a book that is true for every writer is to make sure it works.

Maureen Milliken is the author of the Bernie O’Dea mystery series. The second in the series, No News is Bad News, is due out in July. The first, Cold Hard News, was published last year. Follow her on Twitter: @mmilliken47, on Facebook at Maureen Milliken mysteries, and check out her website and sign up for email updates, at maureenmilliken.com.