Meanderings

Can I change one more thing?

2010-08-14T09:20:00.000-04:00

When the book is finally finished and off to the printer, two problems arise.

First, I convince myself it isn’t good enough. I don’t know if this is as much of a problem for authors who have publishers deciding when a book is ready, but as a self-published novelist, even one with a top notch editor and proofreader, people and things occur almost daily to erode my confidence. No one is shy about telling me what I should have, could have, and, if I had, would have done. So I bite my nails (well, I don’t do that actually, but you know what I mean) and wait for the sigh of disappointment from my fans. Will this be the book that disappoints them?

The second problem is that for the last year or so my subconscious has been kicking up these ideas, sometimes in the middle of the night, for improving the plot, or characters, or tension, or flow, or whatever. They don’t stop when the book is finished. So now, when I get a good idea, it pains me that it’s too late to incorporate it in the book. The only cure for this problem is to start the next book and plug away until my subconscious is diverted from the one I already put to bed.

So, Who more than Wished You Were Dead? is a done deal. On with Where Did You Meet Your Killer?

Living and Learning

2010-06-01T12:22:00.000-04:00

Traverse City, Michigan, is fortunate to be the home of Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). NMC hosts something called Life Academy providing education for members of the community not seeking degrees. Twice a year it holds a “Campus Day” with three sessions of classes for the senior community.

Now, I grew up in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, within 25 miles of Traverse City. After getting an Associate’s Degree from NMC, I left in 1961, at age nineteen, never expecting to return. Return I did, at age 63, in 2004 after losing my husband, because my mother was still here and needed someone to look after her. I soon decided that I needed to start a new series of mystery books where I now lived.

Always interested in widening my scope of knowledge, I have attended Life Academy classes and Campus Day regularly. This year, however, I decided to do something different for Campus Day. Instead of following my normal interests, I would take whatever sessions would increase my knowledge about this beautiful area, giving me fabric for my new series of books.

All I can say is WOW. The first session was “The North Country Trail – Your Adventure Starts Here”. The North Country Trail runs from New York to North Dakota, cutting right through my section of Michigan. Trail heads and accesses along the route allow for hikes of varying distances and varying degrees of difficulty. Now, I am way out of shape for hiking, but this is going to make me get back into it. Who knew that one of the few stands of old growth timber was located right here in Michigan, protected by its marshy location from both clear cutters and forest fires? This summer I am determined to see it for myself.

The second session was “Watershed Wisdom.” In addition to Schoolship educational endeavors, which include teaching excursions for fifth and sixth graders, high school students, and adults on the Grand Traverse Bay, we discussed invasive species like Groupies, Zebra Mussels, and Asian Carp in the Great Lakes and what we could do to protect our water from pollution. Oh, my, can I see heightened emotions around these issues in such an environmentally aware city leading to violence!

The third session, “Community Development in TC – What Does it Mean?” embarked on a subject many aspects of which are already causing angst and anger in our community. All the research in the world would not have given me the insights into the why and how of what the city is trying to do as this one class.

The lesson I learned is that to step outside my normal interest areas creates a life enriching environment in which to broaden my knowledge and excite brand new interest areas, whether I use the new knowledge in a book or not. I can hardly wait for the next Campus Day.

Where Did Marge Christensen's Talent Come From?

2010-05-24T15:09:00.000-04:00

Marge Christensen is a water color pencil artist. Why? I know next to nothing about water color pencil art.

When I first started the Marge Christensen Mystery Series, I was looking for something a little bit different. Cats and crafts and catering were well represented in the cozy mystery genre, and anyway, I wasn’t proficient enough in any of them to make it the “hook” for my series. As it turned out, having Marge be an artist was just right for the way the series developed. I have a feeling it was one of those areas where the characters told me what was true for them rather than the other way around.

In What Did You Do Before Dying?, Marge’s art started as a symbol of what she had given up when she married and had children. After the death of her husband, she began to reclaim her talent and to hope it might be a way to a new beginning. In the end, it was a unique aspect of her talent that helped bring some bad guys to justice. In Why Did You Die In the Park?, that talent led her to questions that would never otherwise have arisen. And by the time Who More Than Wanted You Dead? came about, she was beginning to depend on it to help discover who did the deed. Because, even if she couldn’t otherwise recall something she had seen, her fingers never forgot.

I only knew about water color pencil art as a serious art form because a sister-in-law, Phyllis, who unfortunately died young as a result of an auto accident, practiced it. She painted a picture as an anniversary gift for my husband and me which made me a believer in the medium at first glance. When I adopted that as Marge’s chosen art form (or she chose it for me) I figured it would be a sideline to the plot, a way to honor Phyllis. I wouldn’t have to know anything more about the art. When it became a central element in the series, I knew I was doomed to educate myself.

I purchased a kit for learning water color pencil art. Fine, as long as I was using its templates and following its instructions to the letter. Otherwise, my attempts looked more like something a first grader might do. Then I discovered some artists combined water color pencils with water color paints. That helped, but it wouldn’t make an artist out of me. I took a drawing class (all the painting classes were at bad times for me) from my local community college. The instructor convinced me that my college art teacher who, many years ago, had left me with the impression I couldn’t draw was all wet. But it didn’t make an artist out of me.

So I struggle along, trusting that Marge or Phyllis or whoever put this idea in my head will lead me when I have to deal with it. At a recent book presentation, someone asked if a person’s fingers could really draw something the person couldn’t otherwise remember. I had to tell the truth. I have no idea. But it seems to work for Marge.

My Writing Style

2010-05-17T18:25:00.000-04:00

I don’t outline. I try to outline, but it doesn’t seem to work. If I struggle to put together some kind of framework for the book, because that is what you’re supposed to do, it is either destroyed before I finish the first chapter or I am bogged down in fitting the action into the outline and the story doesn’t flow.

Sometimes I wonder if I write the first draft of the books at all or if someone else is channeling through me. The characters often go where they want to go, do what they want to do, and have conversations that seem to come out my fingertips without going through my brain. When they decide to take a break, I might as well put the book aside for a while. It’s time to blog or promote or do the dishes or something until they come back.

Some planning has to be done, however. For instance, it took so long to write the first two books in the Marge Christensen series that I need to fast forward in time between each subsequent one or continually write about the past. That involves knowing what has happened to the characters since the last book before starting the next one, while not skimming over anything the reader will want to be in on. And I normally have to decide who is going to get killed, and usually where, and sometimes how, though I often don’t know any of that or, especially, who did the deed until I’m well into the book.

The first draft of my books are always at least ten thousand words shorter than the shortest books in the mystery genre are supposed to be. That’s because my characters don’t always look around them. They miss clues, which I have to spell out for them. They don’t observe their surroundings, so I, not a visual person myself, have to try to make them clear for the reader. It’s up to me to polish words and sentences, make sure the plot hangs together, and to plug any loopholes. I usually go through three or four drafts before I feel the book works. But it is still too short.

After all of that, I do some word searches. Do you know how many times a person can use the word “then” or “and then” in telling a story? Too many! I find every one of them. Getting rid of them always leads to more active, vibrant language, which means telling what happened in the “then” space always adds good words to the book. Not like the word “just”, which mostly just (oops) gets deleted.

I’ve learned not to worry if the book is still somewhat short before going to the editor. Editors, because they come from a different perspective, have this way of spotting what you have missed. That’s why I have my books edited by two different people. Two different perspectives. The third book in the Marge Christensen series reached the desired length when I revised it after the first editing. That’s good, because one never knows if the second editor will want to take some stuff out!

I’m now trying to get a start on my fourth book in the Marge Christensen Mystery Series. I’m only doing this, you understand, because Marge let me know there was still more going on in her life. Because at the same time I’m trying to start a new series set in Michigan, where I now live. I might have given up on this idea, since Marge is so insistent that I pay attention to her, except that the characters have already taken over. They have let me know they have a story to tell, and I just (oops) have to get started and let them tell it.

Side Benefits of Doing Presentations

2010-04-28T15:28:00.001-04:00

Doing presentations often results in benefits that have nothing to do with selling books. Yesterday I had a presentation at a senior living facility (one of my favorite places to do presentations) on the other side of the state. Now, if you are familiar with Michigan, you know that there isn't all that much distance between lakes. Yet, though I grew up here and returned six years ago, I had never seen Lake Huron. Mention of Lake Huron didn't even make me think of Michigan. After all, I live in Traverse City, on Grand Traverse Bay, off Lake Michigan. Isn't that the garden spot of the state?

This is April, a month in Michigan when, if you don't like the weather, you often only have to wait five minutes. Even though we have had an unusual number of pleasant days in March and April, this one dawned especially bright and beautiful. I crossed the state praising God for the sun, the fresh air, the rolling hills and pine forests, for His whole creation.

I stopped at a city park on Tawas Bay, off Lake Huron, before going to the signing. When I mentioned this, the activities director there suggested I stop at the local state park, directly on the lake, before heading home. Another lady said I might want to drive home a different way, north along the lake before heading west. I did both. It made the trip a little longer (about two and a half hours going, almost four hours returning) but I enjoyed every minute of it. Even if I never get across the state again, I'll remember there is another side, and that beauty hugs Michigan between two awesome bodies of water.

I did sell a few books at this presentation, but even if I hadn't sold a single one the trip would have been well worth my time.

Book Dilemma

2010-04-22T12:14:00.005-04:00

In his later years, my father lived in a split level house. On the lower lever he had a bedroom with office alcove and a recreation room. Covering the walls, on shelves he had made, were books. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall, books. Now, I don't know if he read all those books, except for the Zane Gray and possibly the books about WWII, in which he lost two brothers. I don't know where he got all those books. All I know is that he loved books: loved to be surrounded by them, to see them, to smell them.

My husband was not a reader. He read what was requried for instruction, and to research companies for investment in their stocks. Much of that reading he did at the library. He believed in libraries. He might purchase a book if it would be useful to return to again and again over time or if he wanted to share it with others. He did not believe in purchasing books for pleasure reading which then took up room in your house and which you would never read again. Unfortunately, for me he was right about the never read again part. I rarely go back to a book after I've read it, no matter how good it was.

Now that I'm a widow, and a writer, I find my relationship with books somewhat conflicted. I write book for pleasure reading that the reader is not apt to read again in the future. Nevertheless, I would like very much for people to purchase my books, and that has made me feel guilty about not purchasing more of other people's books. But I'm a voracious reader and have become a dyed in the wool library user. Besides, I've moved enough times that I can see the folly of acquiring a huge library of my own.

Of course, I try to support my fellow local authors by purchasing their books at signings and presentations. I have to go into bookstores, with their shelves full of temptation, when I have my own signings, too. I think of my shelves at home, rapidly filling. I think of all those books in the library I still haven't read. But I rarely leave the store without spending more than I made.

Can it be that long?

2010-04-16T17:48:00.003-04:00

Can it really be six months since the last time I posted to my blog? I didn't mean for it to happen. Life got in the way, I guess.

I do have difficulty with blogging, however. While some people seem to be able to pick up on whatever is going on around them and expound on it, I have to think about it first. After I've thought about it for a while, I don't think I have anything new to say about it. And some people are confident enough of their ideas to instruct and correct others. I hesitate to express my own opinion, and when I do I sometimes get shot down by those who know how it should be done.

I'm going to loosen up, though. When I am mulling over a sticky or interesting problem in writing or in life, I'm going to try to mull it over with printed words. And when I have something put together, I'm going to post it on my blog before I can change my mind about it. I think. We'll see.

Finally Finished -- With Draft One (and a dozen)

2009-09-04T14:56:00.003-04:00

Whew! It took me forever to figure out "whodunit" in my third Marge Christensen Mystery (Who more than Wished You Were Dead?) -- I was three quarters of the way through before Marge discovered who the culprit was, and then I couldn't figure out how she was going to prove it. Every time Marge hit me over the head with an answer, I had to go back to the beginning again to make sure everything hung together.

I keep thinking I'll be smarter on my next book. I'll plan my characters, outline my plot, and know how Marge is getting from here to there. That way I can write straight through one draft before going back and revising. That's the way you're supposed to do it, isn't it?

But then again maybe not. Who's to say that if I plan it all out and know where I want to end up, Marge won't disagree and, in addition to reworking what is already written, I also have to revamp all my carefully laid plans to get where she decides I should go.

Critiques From Competitions

2009-08-21T19:57:00.002-04:00

During my unpublished years, I often sent off the required number of pages of my manuscripts for competitions. I’ll probably do it again, in the hope that some judge will see wonderful things in my work and offer me the world. I guess it’s my answer to lottery tickets. I like to enter the competitions where they give feedback from the reviewers whether you won or not. I keep thinking those people must be wiser than I and if I follow their advice it will lead to someone offering me the world. These competitions sometimes give critiques by two different reviewers. The hope, I guess, is if you get two similar opinions you might be willing to put aside your ego and follow them to better writing.
The problem for me is that invariably, when I receive critiques from two reviewers, one loves the work and the other hates it. Sometimes for exactly the same reasons. But if I enter a competition where I get feedback from only one reviewer, that reviewer rarely likes my work. So I wonder: did I get the wrong reviewer?

Of course, I love the one that loves me. I think: that person understands me and what I’m trying to do. I bask in the glow of approval and wish the other opinion would go away.

Then I take a look at the other opinion. As with my editor, once I’ve finished whining about how misunderstood I am, I begin to look for what that person didn’t like and why. And that can be far more instructive, because, while I don’t have to agree with what the reviewer thinks I should do, I have to see why the criticism was made. Often, the same as with disagreements with my editor, I find that there is a third and better way altogether to handle the situation.

I do have a problem, however, with the reviewer who asserted that I should make my 47 year old protagonist younger – say mid-thirties – and maybe without the encumbrance of grown children – and maybe a boyfriend instead of a husband died in the previous book --so that she could have a romantic interest. Excuse me? Just how old was this reviewer?

Love Those Independent Bookstores

2009-07-23T15:39:00.001-04:00

McClean and Eakins in Petoskey, Michigan not only advertised my appearance for a signing, they personally informed their mystery loving customers ahead of time and on the day of the signing that I would be there and they had already sold two of Why Did You Die In the Park? before my appearance. They steered browsing customers to my table to hear about my books. And they were just plain welcoming and supportive to me as the author.

The Seattle Mystery Bookshop allowed me to host my “Tea and Conversation” West Coast Book Launch even though I am an unknown, self-published author. This bookstore puts out a monthly list of store best-sellers, and my two books came in 5th and 9th among trade paperbacks the month of the book launch – a little extra punch for those looking for a good book.

Park Place Books in Kirkland, Washington, took four of each of my books on consignment sight unseen, because I was a local author when I wrote them.

And Horizon Books in Traverse City, Petoskey, and Cadillac, Michigan have allowed multiple signings for me as a local author, and they keep a stock of my signed book, as well as other local author’s books, on the shelves.

These are not the only independent bookstores that have allowed me to have signings, but these are examples of the kind of “above and beyond” treatment that motivates authors like me to steer as much business as possible their way. Remember to support your local independent bookstore!

New Book

2009-03-09T14:19:00.002-04:00

I'm trying hard to do a better job of promoting the second book in the Marge Christensen Mystery Series. Since the first book came out I've learned a lot. But, readers like to read series in the order they were written, and those who first read this book and like it are already going to have the first two out of order. When the third one comes out I need to figure out some way to make sure people know it is preceded by two others, so they can get those first. That sounds a little circular, doesn't it??

Just got my first blurb back and it looks like the reader liked the book. She's one of the first "mystery reader" types to do a first read, so it means something if she likes it when she has read many other mystery authors. Word of mouth is more important for a self published author than one with the distribution power of a publisher behind the book, so I hope this round of ARC readings -- about ten times as many as I did with the first book -- will spread that circle.

But I still have to take the time to learn how to use the internet to sell my books. And I have to get them on Kindle. But thats a project for a couple months down the road, at least.

All this left brain activity does nothing to help me keep going on the third book!

2009-02-19T16:42:00.003-05:00

I am by nature shy and withdrawn, so, when I did my first book signing, I was nervous and tense. I couldn't imagine speaking up and trying to draw those passing customers over my way; they were obviously busy with something else.

But the refrain of a song kept running through my head: "Feel the fear and do it anyway." I took it as my motto. Before I knew it, I was greeting everyone who walked in with a smile, and asking everyone who looked at me if I could tell them about my book. Some smiled back and said no. Some stopped. Some listened. Sometimes they talked (not always about my book). Sometimes they bought a book, sometimes they didn't.

But suddenly I was leaving booksignings feeling good, whether I sold any books or not. And I started looking forward to the next the same way I look forward to social events.

Bring them on!

Where Have I Been?

2009-02-14T17:15:00.002-05:00

Anyone who by chance is trying to follow my blog undoubtedly wonders where I've been for the last three months. Wondering what to write on my blog, that's where. I can't pretend to be expert enough to teach any aspect of writing or publishing or blogging. And some of the instructions I've read about blogging tell me that I have to have a "theme" or something readers of the blog come to expect so they won't be disappointed and stop reading. Well, sorry folks, I've given up on coming up with that. I'm going back to "Meandering" about anything and everything; then maybe I'll get something of interest in here every now and then. Lately all the buzz is telling me that now I need to "twitter". One more thing to worry about! Oh, my.

Self Publishing 2

2008-10-31T13:44:00.002-04:00

It took me a while to get back to this, partly because the Sisters in Crime e-mail list addressed self publishing this last week. Mostly in negative way, I might add. I certainly do not sell my books door to door, as one person said would be the only way I could sell them. And I have had several book signings and presentations, in bookstores and libraries, which a couple people said was impossible for a self-publisher.

If you are going to self publish you have to take care of the things you would expect a publisher to do for you. One of those is to make sure you have a quality, thoroughly edited product. In addition to my critique group and numerous friends, I have two editors in whom I put great trust: Roberta Jean Bryant, author of books on writing and my critique group mentor from Seattle, and Mary Jo Zazueta of Traverse City. Mary Jo, with her imprint To the Point Solutions, made it possible for me to self-publish. She not only did a final edit on my book, she took care of all the nuts and bolts of getting ISBN numbers and getting the book listed in the Library of Congress. She handled cover design and interior design, with MY approval. With a publisher you are lucky if you get any choice in these. She found three printers to print the book and I chose among them. Again, a control only available with self-publishing. In other words, she handled all the details I didn’t know how to or didn't want to handle, but I had the final word on everything that was done with my book. Of course, that cost me money, but I gained a lot for what I spent.

So, what about after the book is published? Doesn’t a publisher do promotion and get your book out there in a way you couldn’t do on your own?

Yes and no.

Writers, even when published by major publishers, are expected to do more and more of their own promotion. The publisher does, however, have a reputation that makes it possible to get reviewed and listed in areas the self published have to struggle to break into.

I hired a publicist from Gaylord, Michigan, Denise Glesser of Progressive Book Publishing. She works a couple hours a week to get me book signings in book stores, spots at book fairs, gets my name out to book clubs and libraries and all the other avenues of promoting my book, and does a lot of the internet stuff I’m not up to yet. In other words, I am self-published but at both ends of the “publishing” part I hired expertise to make sure my book was a good a quality and as “out there” as books published by big companies as I could make it.

Some say self publishing is the wave of the future. I don’t know. Traditional publishers are under the gun and have made it difficult for writers to break in, but to self publish in a way that puts out a quality product that is visible to the market costs money. I wanted to be published and see if I could build a readership. If my books are good enough, I think I can do it. The final answer will come from readers – like you.

Self Publishing

2008-10-21T19:15:00.002-04:00

Self-Publishing:

Vanity Publishing?

What a negative term!

No, I’m not self-publishing because I have an inflated opinion of my work. I like my book, and I hear other people saying they like my book, but years of ingrained self-doubt makes me wonder if I can really write a book that is good enough to be published.

I am sixty something. I believe in my work and know given enough time I would find a publisher for it, but I don’t have forever to find out. And, fortunately for me, I can afford to spend the money up front to self publish. Yes, it does cost money up front. BUT, in return, I have complete control over my book. No one can sell rights without my okay, or own my copyright, or control what is happening with my book unless I let them. I don't have to worry about my publisher being taken over by another publisher and what will happen to my rights. I am hearing enough horror stories lately to make me believe I have done the right thing by self-publishing.

However, don't go into self-publishing with a blindfold on. Unless you are willing to spend the money and take the time to be sure you have a quality product to hit the market, and the follow-up to get it noticed by the market, self-publishing may not be for you.

My next blog will address these issues.

Cozy Mysteries -- My Way

2008-10-03T17:15:00.002-04:00

One of the reasons I write "cozy" mysteries is because, when I started, I couldn't find enough of them to read. Since then I joined Sisters in Crime and discovered a lot more of them. If I'd joined sooner I might never have felt compelled to write them!

To me, a cozy means a book without gore, without murders happening "on the page", without hard core detective or police characters, without anxiety raising terror, and without graphic sex scenes. A "whodunit" that involves everyday people not involved in a professional way with crime, who happen (or snoop) their way into the action and discover a talent for ferreting out the truth. None of the discussions I've seen about what constitutes a "cozy" mystery limits them this much, but that's my view.

One of the best comments I received about What Did You Do Before Dying? (after the ones about it being a "page turner") was that, even though it is not a YA novel by any stretch, the reader felt free to hand it on to his 16 year old granddaughter without worrying about her reading something inappropriate. That may not be a criteria for a cozy mystery, but to me it comes close.

Remember the Slower Is Better Blog?

2008-09-15T21:06:00.003-04:00

I started writing when I was 8 years old, but with school and then working never had the energy to do it seriously. So, thirty years later, when my husband’s job took me across the country from Philadelphia to Seattle, I told him I was going to write for five years and if I still hadn’t made any money I’d go back to work. I joined a writer’s critique group and spent four of those years trying to write short stories. Didn’t happen.

Then I started something I soon realized was going to cover three generations. I knew I had started a novel, but I didn’t believe I had the perseverance to write a novel – that’s why I was trying to write short stories. To my amazement, I completed the book.

While the book was reviewed by a couple of agents, its real value was that it showed I could do it. I could keep going until it was finished. I could rewrite and correct and still stay involved with the work. I loved it and wanted to do more, but my five years was up. I got a job.

Five years later I had a short break between jobs and decided to write as much as I could while job hunting. Something fun. I’m a puzzle doer, and I like to read mysteries, especially cozy mystery series. So What Did You Do Before Dying? was born.

About a third of the way through I got another job and the book went into a drawer (figuratively speaking, since I work on a computer). A little over ten years later I retired (early, so I’d have years left to write). I started spending four hours a day writing. It was heaven. I finished the first draft of the book and starting a second one. This writing was FUN! I sent What Did You Do Before Dying? to the leader of my old writer’s group. I sent her the first chapter of the second book in the series, too.

She said to throw out What Did You Do Before Dying? and start with the second one. I was crushed.

I kept working on the second one, trying to figure out how I was going to introduce the important parts of the first one as flashback. It didn’t work. Somehow, I had to make the first one good enough. So I tucked away the second book and went back to the first.

Then my husband was diagnosed with stage four terminal cancer. The next four years my writing tapered off until it was nonexistent, though I did send out What Did You Do Before Dying? to several agents and publishers with no success. When my husband was gone, I moved back to Traverse City, Michigan, to be near my aging mother. I had a hard time finding the motivation and energy to write again. I joined a writer’s group at the local library. Then I attended the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Conference and, in particular, a session called Writing the Breakout Novel by agent Donald Maass. It was like opening a door. I knew that his techniques were the keys to improving What Did You Do Before Dying?

When I had spent as much time as I could on that, I returned it to the drawer and went back to the second book. I told myself that if I had three books completed publishers might take me seriously. They like mysteries and romances in series. Besides, I didn’t have the heart to start sending it out again and face all those rejection slips.

Then Mary Jo Zazueta talked to my writer’s group about how she helped people self-publish. I knew that was frowned upon by the publishing world, but decided I didn’t care. I wanted my book out there right now. After all, I’m not getting any younger.

I pulled What Did You Do Before Dying? out of the drawer and reread it to decide how much more work it needed. Wow! I liked it. I asked Jean Bryant to read the book again. One of the blurbs on the back cover is her reaction.

So, how long did it take? About 23 years. But you won’t have to wait that long for the next one. Why Did You Die In the Park? is due out early 2009, and Who Wanted You Dead the Most? Will follow on its heels.

September 11, 2001

2008-09-11T09:22:00.001-04:00

Horror
Followed by confusion
And anguish.
Why?

Why does any mother’s child
Nurture so much hatred
And inflame so much anger
To justify
Such violence
Against another mother’s child?

I don’t understand.
I don’t understand.

Why does the hatred spread
Through a society
So that young children
Dance in the street
At the news
That some mothers’ children
Have died a fiery
Painful
Violent death?

Some mothers’ children
Who are not so different
From their own mothers’ children
After all.

Now
Vengeance is in the air.
How dare they?
How dare the likes of them
Think they can
Attack the likes of us?
How dare they do it?
We must strike back.
We must teach them a lesson.

Their mothers
Must suffer
As our mothers
Have suffered.

Find someone like them
To make suffer.

Hatred grows
As violence begets violence
And our hearts cry
For the pain
And the suffering
Of those against whom violence
Is perpetrated
And
For the pain
And the suffering
Of those
Who perpetrate it.

So, How Do You Do This Again?

2008-09-05T18:08:00.002-04:00

I have so much to learn about blogging, and CrimeSpace friends, and social sites. I know that learning new things – any new things -- is good. I take classes and practice ways to learn new things all the time. But with this stuff I get so anxious because I can’t seem to figure out how it all works. I don’t know how to connect with others, so I feel lost, writing a blog in a vacuum. It makes me sympathize with my mother and mother-in-law, and wonder how they’ve handled all the changes they’ve seen in their lifetimes.

Especially my mother-in-law, Biji. Biji comes from a rural village in India, from an ultra conservative family, where the girls were never allowed to leave the walled compound of the extended family home. An aunt who married into the family and had some education took it upon herself to teach the girls the alphabet and start them with reading and writing. That was it until she married at age sixteen, when her husband continued teaching her to read and write Hindi.

In the late sixties, when I met and married her oldest son, even urban India was still considered by some Indian economists to be fifty years behind the U.S. economically and industrially (It has certainly done a good bit of catching up since then). So imagine this woman moving from such a secluded upbringing, to marrying a man in public service with the social obligations that involves, to living with a son in the even more advanced University Professor’s life after her husband died, and eventually with other sons in the modern day United States. She is totally at a loss as to how I used the computer to get Indian food delivered to my house in Traverse City, Michigan, where she is visiting me. Probably as lost as I am about how to get my blog connected with other blogs.

One big difference: While she has made strides the size of which few of us will ever need, she does seem to have reached her satiation point. I’m not there yet. I WILL figure it out eventually. If you’ve asked me to be a “friend”, be patient. Allow me a few anxiety attacks and a little more time and soon I’ll be wondering what I was so worked up about.

My Book Titles

2008-08-23T17:45:00.004-04:00

The editor working with What Did You Do Before Dying? suggested I change the title. Titles these days are short and sweet, and definitely not questions. I said no, that was the only title that would work for this book but she was free to make suggestions for the second one, whose working title was April's Fool. Nothing satisfied me, however, until I had a brainstorm -- an absolutely unique idea. ALL my titles in this series would be questions and they would follow the journalistic who, what, why, where, and when. The title for book two became Why Did You Die In the Park? Clever, huh?

I thought so, until a slow book signing day at Clues Unlimited in Tucson. I wandered over to the new arrivals section and found a book whose title was a question: What Are You Wearing to Die? Not only a question, but a clever one that tickled me. And it was also written by a woman whose first name was Patricia. So, what if someone read that book and didn't like it? Would they ever pick up one of mine? They might not remember last names and think it was the same person. I'd better buy it and read it and find out how much trouble I was in. (Does anyone else have the problem of spending more than they make at book signings?)

Horrors! This book was good. In fact, it was the kind of book that made me start writing traditional mysteries -- I couldn't find enough of them to read. I liked it so much that when I found one in my local Horizon's Bookstore in Traverse City, MI, I bought it, too. How can you resist titles like Guess Who's Coming to Die?, Did You Declare the Corpse? and MORE. AND I discovered with a little reasearch that Patricia Sprinkle had been a successful author for some time and I just hadn't yet discovered her and devoured her every word. Who was I to think I could compete with her?

And now that's the problem. What if someone picks up one of my books because they remember reading a good book with a question for a title and an author whose first name is Patricia. Will they be disappointed?

Just An Observation

2008-08-15T14:49:00.003-04:00

I do a lot of driving in Michigan for book signings and family visits. I always kept my speed within five to eight miles of the speed limit (depending on what that speed limit was -- it is 70 on expressways in Michigan).

Then the price of gas skyrocketed.
Then I read that every additional five miles per hour increases gas use by 15%.
Then my pastor reminded us that environmental responsibility is one of our Christian duties.

Now my cruise control sits on the speed limit. I don't notice that I've been late for anything, or even that it took me appreciably longer to get anywhere.

I drove across the Mackinac Bridge for the first time last Spring. Due to construction, only one lane of traffic moved in each direction. The speed limit for loaded trucks on the Bridge is twenty miles an hour -- otherwise it is forty five. I found myself about four cars behind a loaded truck, going 20 miles an hour, on a glorious sunny day, with a view that wouldn't quit. Without that loaded truck I would have felt pressured to drive forty five -- and what I would have missed!

Sometimes slower is better.

Like my writing, maybe? More about that later.

Me? A Blogger?

2008-08-13T17:10:00.003-04:00

They told me I had to do it, so here I am। As soon as my fingers hit the keys on my computer, I thought I probably belong here -- a place where I can let them fly, roam where they will, not to be reined in by plot or character or that dreaded word, "saleability".
I'll be telling a little about me as I get my act together (if?), and a little about my writing world and how it has meandered through the years, and hopefully a little about some of my readers (if?) as they come aboard।
If you read this before I finish getting my act together (which could be a long time in the future) let me know what you think about my current meanderings.