The Letter I’ll Never Forget

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Here it is again, a new year. A fresh start, and yet, a hint of gloom still permeates the air. We’ve all had to navigate through and adjust to new realities. How are you managing?

Whenever I’m struggling, I lean on the philosophy of someone I fell in love with years ago:

Vincent Van Gogh.

I was in my twenties and slightly adrift when I picked up Dear Theo, a compilation of Vincent’s letters to his brother. A few years earlier, I had visited the museum in Amsterdam dedicated to him. Though he wasn’t my favorite painter at the time, his spirit spoke to me through his art and grabbed onto something deep inside.

Van Gogh’s letters are an almost-daily account of his struggles. They vividly detail his miserable existence. Yet through it all, he kept working to be better.

The one I’ll never forget

A letter he wrote in 1884 has kept me going through rough moments in my personal and my writing life. Here’s a bit of it, lightly paraphrased and edited for brevity:

One mustn’t be afraid to do something wrong sometimes… You don’t know how paralyzing it is, the idiotic stare from a blank canvas that says you can’t do anything. Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas. But the blank canvas is afraid of the truly passionate painter who dares…

Life itself likewise turns toward us an infinitely idiotic and meaningless blank side. But however meaningless life appears, the person of faith, of energy, of warmth, doesn’t get discouraged. He steps in and builds up…

Substitute an author’s blank page for the painter’s canvas, and this is my daily inspiration.

Did you know that Vincent was also a book lover? Here’s this: It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at art. One should, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.

And this: So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me and reminded me that there are good things in the world.

And on another subject, this: A woman is not old so long as she loves and is loved.

Yes, he led a tragic, troubled life. Worse than most of us can imagine. But he never stopped wanting to capture truth and beauty in his art and his life.

Perhaps we all could take a lesson from Vincent, dare to face the blank canvas that is 2023, and choose to make this year into our own work of art.

Wishing you a year full of love and good health. And good books!

 

Gay Yellen writes the award-winning

Samantha Newman Mystery Series:

The Body Business, The Body Next Door,

and coming soon in 2023: Body in the News!

 

What’s in a Character Name?

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Dear  Stiletto Gang Readers: I am pleased today to welcome Author Annette Dashofy to The Stiletto Gang blog. I’ve beta read her Detective Honeywell series and all I can say is you’re in for a roller coaster ride treat!  ~ Donnell

Annette Dashofy

Most writers I know share one common problem. Character names. Not only do we need to create a name that feels “right” for that character, we need to make sure it doesn’t break any of the “rules.”

For instance, we shouldn’t have multiple characters with the same first initial. In the real world, you might have Sharon, Susie, Stephanie, and Sandra all in the same room and be able to tell them apart, no problem. But in a book, readers tend to see the first letter and skim over the rest, causing confusion. This is one of the things my critique buddies almost always catch. The guilty party then bangs our head against the table.

The dreaded duplicate first initial issue becomes even trickier when writing a series. I’ve had a character from an earlier book…one I never planned to have show up again…return and come into close and frequent contact with another character created in another earlier book…and they both have the same first initial. And since they’ve already been established in a published novel, I can’t change either name.

Adding to the befuddlement are town names. In my Zoe Chambers series, one of my regular secondary characters is Detective Wayne Baronick. Wayne works for the county police department, which is based in Brunswick. Yes, Baronick works in Brunswick.

Why did no one point this out to me before publication? Now I have to live with it.

But I’ve upped the ante with my new Detective Honeywell series, which is set in Erie, PA. One of the main characters is Emma Anderson, a recent transplant to the city. Yes, Emma now lives in Erie. This is bad enough, but Emma has a friend from back home, named Eric. (Do you see where this is going?) Eric is a very minor character in Where the Guilty Hide. He lives back in Emma’s hometown and only appears in phone calls and texts. As I created him, I had no plans to bring him back in future books. But I’m working on the second in the series, and Eric has insisted on becoming a bigger character. So now I have Emma and Eric in Erie.

Just shoot me now.

Another issue with character names crops up when the writer discovers the name we’ve chosen is already taken by some celebrity who may not appreciate a namesake who’s a crazed killer, even a fictional one. I do my best to Google the names I choose, especially for the despicable bad guys.

I don’t think there’s a name out there that hasn’t been used.

Honestly, I had big plans to avoid all these pitfalls when I started writing the Detective Honeywell mysteries. Take Matthias Honeywell and Emma Anderson for example. Emma Anderson was my maternal grandmother. I always loved her name. And I don’t believe any of her heirs will sue me for using it.

Emma (the character) has a sister named Nell Anderson. Nell was Grandma Emma’s nickname. (Her middle name was Nelena.) So, I got two characters from one grandparent.

But where on earth did Matthias Honeywell come from, you ask?

A few years ago, I fell into the trap of signing up for Ancestry and was immediately hooked. As I researched my family tree, I discovered Matthias Honeywell was my five-times great-grandfather, who served in the Revolutionary War. Being a war hero was cool enough, but the name? Matthias Honeywell? I knew immediately I had to use it!

Even as unique as it is, I still managed to write myself into a first-initial corner. Matthias’s partner in the Major Crimes Unit is Detective Cassie MALONE.

Matthias and Malone.

I give up.

Fellow writers, do you have character name horror stories you could share? And readers, do these things trip you up when you’re immersed in a novel? (If so, I’m deeply sorry.)

About the Book: On the shore of Lake Erie, Pennsylvania, a body lays half hidden, the waves slowly moving it with the rising tide…

In the early morning mist, freelance photographer Emma Anderson takes pictures of the rocky coastline. She moved to Erie to escape a past that haunts her but the last thing she expects to capture is a dead body.

Erie City Police Detective Matthias Honeywell has been investigating a spate of home invasions but when one of the robbery victims turns up dead, his case evolves into homicide. Emma’s first encounter with Detective Honeywell leaves her shaken when he reminds her of her ex-fiancé-turned-stalker. Matthias misinterprets Emma’s anxiety and suspects she knows more than she’s letting on.

With the threat of another murder and no obvious leads, will Emma and Matthias overcome their mutual distrust and work together to capture a killer?

About the Author: USA Today bestseller Annette Dashofy is the author of over a dozen novels including the five-time Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic-turned-coroner in rural Pennsylvania. Her standalone novel, Death By Equine is the 2021 winner of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for excellence in thoroughbred racing literature. Where the Guilty Hide (One More Chapter/HarperCollins UK, January 20, 2023) is the first in her new Detective Honeywell series set on the shores of Lake Erie.

 

 

They Can’t All Be Red Herrings, Right?

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By Lois Winston

I’m currently writing my 12th Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. This one is tentatively titled A Crafty Collage of Crime. As some of you may remember, I moved from New Jersey to Tennessee a year and a half ago. Since then, many people have asked if Anastasia will eventually make the move south. My answer is an emphatic, “No!” Anastasia is a diehard Jersey Girl and will remain firmly planted in the Garden State.

However, I have decided that in this book, Anastasia and Zack will take a trip to Middle Tennessee wine country. Yes, there are wineries in Tennessee. Who knew? Certainly not me until I moved here, but it turns out that there were quite a few wineries in the area before Prohibition, and after Prohibition ended, the wine industry slowly began to revitalize. It’s now once again thriving.

Anastasia and Zack find themselves in Tennessee because Zack has accepted an assignment to photograph the local wineries for a spread in a national wine publication. Anastasia travels to Tennessee with him. Of course, she immediately discovers a dead body. (Doesn’t she always?)

Now, here’s my dilemma: I have a basic plot and characters fleshed out, but I have so many potential suspects, that I’m finding it difficult to choose which will be the killer. Any one of them would work. I’m thinking I may have to write the book several ways, with a different killer for each version, before I settle on the real killer. That’s a lot of extra work. So I’m hoping that as I continue to work on chapters, the killer will eventually reveal himself to me.

If you’re a reader, have you ever read a mystery where you thought one of the other characters should have been the killer? If you’re an author, do you always know right away who your killer will be, or does the killer sometimes change as you write the book?

Death by Killer Mop Doll, the second book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is now available as an audiobook through Audible, iTunes, and Amazon. If you’d like a chance to win a promo code for a free download, post a comment.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

A New Anthology by the Bethlehem Writers Group: An Element of Mystery

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by Paula Gail Benson

The Bethlehem Writers Group holds a special place in my heart. My first short story appeared in its online publication, the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable. At that time, the monthly Roundtable was a nonpaying market, but I remember how thrilled I was to be selected as the February featured story and asked to write a top ten list for the issue. I compiled my favorite romantic musicals, including Sound of Music, 1776 (remember the songs between John and Abigail Adams), La Cage aux Folles, Bye, Bye Birdie, and Hello Dolly!

Since that time (2013) and that story (“Nectar of the Gods”), I had two additional featured stories in the Roundtable, “Long in the Tooth,” which received third place in the 2013 short story contest (that year judged by Hank Phillippi Ryan) and later was reprinted in the Bethlehem Writers Group’s winter anthology, Let it Snow, and “Cosway’s Confidence,” which placed second in the 2020 short story contest. My tale of interspecies mediation, “Apple’s Lure,” appeared in the 2014 July-August issue.

During pandemic times, the Group began meeting by Zoom. I felt privileged when along with Debra H. Goldstein I was asked to join.

This year, Debra’s “Death in the Hand of the Tongue” and my “Sense Memory” appear in the Group’s An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Intrigue. The anthology contains twenty-three stories, all by Group members except for the two by contest winners: “Good Cop/Bad Cop” by Trey Dowell (the 2021 short story winner, judged by Charlaine Harris) and “The Tabac Man” by Eleanor Ingbretson (the 2022 short story winner, judged by Kate Carlisle). Members of the Group whose stories appear in the volume are Courtney Annicchiarico, Jeff Baird, Peter J Barbour, A. E. Decker, Marianne H. Donley, Ralph Hieb, D.T. Krippene, Jerry McFadden, Emily P. W. Murphy, Christopher D. Ochs, Dianna Sinovic, Kidd Wadsworth, Paul Weidknecht, and Carol L. Wright.

While many of the stories involve crimes, the required element was mystery, so some focus on puzzles rather than unsolved offenses. With expert editing and selection of cover design by Marianne H. Donley and Carol L. Wright, the anthology was released in September and is a perfect gift for the holidays. By purchasing An Element of Mystery, you’ll be helping to support a Group that is developing and supporting writers. Please give it your consideration.

Always the Season for Kindness

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By Saralyn Richard

Photo courtesy of Jasper Garratt and Unsplash Free Photos

When I was an English I teacher, I assigned my students a “Day of Kindness” paper, based on the Shirley Jackson short story, “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts.” The resulting papers and speeches led to a powerful discussion of good and evil, and how doing good deeds made the world a better place, even for the giving party.

That same concept of good vs. evil is basic to most mystery novels, including the Detective Parrott mysteries. Parrott, like most real-life law enforcement officers I know, chose the profession because he wanted to seek truths, right wrongs, administer justice, and bring a measure of peace and closure to victims and their families.

Sometimes his is a thankless job. The person most grateful for Parrott’s solving a crime might be the deceased victim. But Parrott finds satisfaction in his role, whether he is turning up evidence to prove someone’s guilt or someone’s innocence. In either case, he is protecting the community.

Parrott can be tough when he needs to, but underneath it all, he’s a kind and caring human being. Over and over again, readers see the kindness and compassion he shows to his wife, his mother, his boss, and even his suspects.

Fortunately, we don’t have to be detectives to follow Parrott’s example. We can show kindness at this season, and in every season. Anyone who’d like some fresh ideas for acts of kindness to perform might check out this list.

If you’re inspired to do a good deed by this blogpost, I’ll ask you, as I asked my students, what did you do, whom did you help, what reaction did you receive, and how did the experience make you feel? I hope you agree—it’s always the season for kindness.

Saralyn Richard writes the Detective Parrott Mystery Series, two standalone mysteries, and a children’s book narrated by her Old English sheepdog, Nana. To learn more about her, click here.

Growing as a Writer: My Trek Down Memory Lane

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Author Donnell Ann Bell

By: Donnell Ann Bell

Years ago, when I left my newspaper job and turned to fiction, I was forced to become educated in a short amount of time. I also can assure you during that period, the self-assured nonfiction writer was humbled (Please note:  I’m already pretty humble!).

WHAT I LEARNED:

There is a huge difference between fiction and nonfiction.

In journalism we’re taught not to editorialize, even when we are outraged, the topic turns personal, or we are particularly moved. While in fiction, we’re encouraged to do the opposite. Develop interesting characters, express their points of view, and show emotion on the page. Whether you’re writing science fiction, historical, fantasy, mystery, romance, the list goes on, in fiction, if your reader can’t relate to your character (or to put it bluntly—couldn’t care less), you’ve lost your reader.

To stress my point, as a new fiction writer, I once entered a contest in which New York Times Bestselling Author Suzanne Brockmann was my judge. She scribbled on my entry the following words, and trust me, she got her point across. “You write well BUT HOW DO THEY FEEL?”

There’s this thing called genre

Quite soon after I switched to fiction, I was told I should join a local writing group. To become a member, however, I would need to join the parent organization Romance Writers of America®. Both organizations during my tenure were stellar, and I credit both with my early fiction education. During my time with Pikes Peak Romance Writers, I attended something known as Open Critique (an avenue provided to writers not in a person’s regular critique group to provide fresh insight.) Here, I discovered another anomaly about fiction.

Fiction is broken into genres. To complicate matters, subgenres are often attached to the genre, oftentimes subs attached to the subgenres! On one Sunday afternoon, I submitted my perfectly written chapters, waited for the accolades, only to be met by the confused faces of my peers. “Why is this person skulking about? Who is he, and why should we care?” the OC leader demanded.

“I’m writing a mystery,” I stammered. “I can’t tell you that yet.”

That’s when I learned I was surrounded by romance writers who didn’t read my favorite genre. Further, they obviously couldn’t relate to what I was writing. One by one, in a chorus of agreement, members of the critique group asked me to explain upfront what my character was up to. Hardly conducive to my mystery plot. Imagine in The Cask of Amontillado, if Montressor had to reveal his plans for Fortunato in Chapter One. Edgar Allan Poe’s distinguished career would have been short lived, indeed!

Fortunately, I found a romantic suspense chapter in RWA® and remained in that group for many years.

But then I learned . . . .

Genres and subgenres evolve.

Much like society, authors change their mores and preferences. Romantic Suspense, which I enjoyed writing (and still do), began heating up the pages. Readers obviously adored the added sizzle, and publishers and their marketing departments noticed. Management conveyed those statistics to their editors. Editors spoke to the agents, and naturally my agent listened closely.

She asked me to spice up my unpublished novel, which back then was winning awards. The unpublished title was Walk Away Joe, and as an aspiring author who wanted to sell, I did my best.  Unfortunately, I found I didn’t enjoy writing hot and steamy; I preferred suspense. Don’t get me wrong, if my book called for a sex scene, I was all in. I just didn’t enjoy writing copious amounts of it. Further I don’t do gratuitous anything—whether it be violence or sex.

Around this time, my agent and I parted ways. By then, my second unpublished novel, DEADLY RECALL Deadly Recall | Romantic Suspense Thriller | Author Donnell Ann Bell, finaled in a major contest, and I queried BelleBooks, who is my publisher to this day. Pat Van Wie bought the book and would become my first editor. Still, in my editorial letter she told me to get rid of so much sex. We’re buying you because of your suspense. Not very flattering about the added sex scenes I’d worked hard to include. But truth be told, I was vastly relieved.

Walk Away Joe became THE PAST CAME HUNTING. It still includes a couple of sex scenes, and the chapters are loaded with romance and sexual tension. In my opinion, though, I left the critical scenes that belong in the book.

Years have passed since my debut book was published, but it remains one of my most popular books. And . . .  as it turns out my publisher has put it on sale for .99, but the sale ends tomorrow, November 15! So, if you’re interested, grab yours quick!

These days I belong to Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. My editor is Debra Dixon, one very smart woman and the touted expert on Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. I write task force suspense and single title romantic suspense and my learning trek continues every day.  https://www.donnellannbell.com

As I close out this blog, I’m curious about my fellow Stiletto Gang authors and others who may be weighing in. Was your journey anywhere close to mine? What early lesson(s) did you take away that led to what you write today? In other words, how have you grown as a writer?

Till next time!

 

Mystery! Suspense! Thriller!

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When I pitched my first book to a publisher, I described it as a mystery. “Tell me about it,” said the acquisitions editor. After hearing the the storyline, she asked to see the full manuscript and gave me her card.

 Glancing at the card, I noticed that the publisher she represented specialized in romance novels. I repeated that the book I had written was a mystery.

“Sounds like romance is a substantial part of it,” she countered. “Send the manuscript and let us decide.”

Long story short, her company published The Body Business as a Romantic Suspense novel. Thus began my initiation into the wacky world of genre madness and the marketing issues that plagued the book for the duration of the publishing contract.

Fast forward to the day the contract ended. At last, I had more control over how, when, and where the book was advertised.

Thankfully, the new edition took off and led to the launch of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series. As published authors know, trying to slide your novel into the perfect preset niche that book retailers and other marketers require can be daunting. My books tend to cross genres, so picking a single category was like aiming a fistful of darts at one teeny tiny target and hoping the right dart would hit the bullseye.

Mystery? Thriller? Suspense? Which one suits the stories best?

Here’s a simple way to differentiate them according to best-selling, multi-award winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan: “I always think a mystery is ‘who-done-it?’ A thriller is ‘stop it before it happens again.’ And suspense is ‘what’s going on here?’”

These simple guidelines help me define the books in my series, even though each one fits into a different category.

Reviewers describe The Body Business as a “roller-coaster ride” and a “page-turner.” In other words, it reads like a thriller. As for The Body Next Door, some reviewers have called it a cozy. Like a cozy, there’s humor and a quirky character or two, but the absence of cats, crafts, or a charming village could risk the wrath of traditional cozy fans. It’s also been described as “full of suspense,” which is how I wrote it, straight-up.

Romance runs through the series as a subplot, due to my fiercely independent-minded main character, who continues to deflect the happy-ever-after ending romance readers crave. The romance continues into the next book, but the main plot is a true who-done-it.

To label a book as a mystery, suspense novel, or thriller is purely a marketing game. What an author really cares about is that people enjoy reading it. When our readers share a book they really like with their friends, they can describe it however they want.

Readers, do you rely on a bookseller’s categories to choose a book?

Writers, have you struggled with labels, too? Tell us about it.

Gay Yellen is the award-winning author of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series, including The Body Business, The Body Next Door, and the upcoming Body in the News.

 

Reinventing the Wheel

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For my fifth Nikki Garcia mystery, Nikki’s brother, Andy, is introduced as a character. He’d been mentioned in a couple of earlier Nikki novels, but this is his debut as a living, breathing character. Andy is a sleep researcher, studying the deep-winter sleep of black bears, and torpor, shorter periods of hibernation, in squirrels and chipmunks. In other words, it’s a subplot on mammal hibernation.

In the novel, Andy hypothesizes that our ancient ancestors, being mammals like bears, slept through the winters to lower their metabolism and conserve energy. He figured that if he were a barefoot Neanderthal, he’d find a cozy cave to curl up in, maybe even next to a family of bears. After all, the Pleistocene era, or last ice age, ended 11,700 years ago. It lasted for 2.6 million ultra-frigid years.

If human ancestors, Andy theorizes, could wake up in springtime, they would find that ice on rivers and streams had melted for easy consumption, berries were available on bushes for families to feast on, and the weather was far more tolerable on their feet.

I felt like a scientist! I’d discovered a theory for Andy to work on. Up to that point, I had not researched hibernation in humans, current or ancient.

I did a bit of research and guess what? I’d reinvented the wheel. In fact, an article in New Scientist described researchers working on ways to place astronauts into hibernation while they are flying to Mars and beyond. Space travel would be so much cheaper and easier if energy, food, water, and boredom could be conserved through deep sleep for long-distance space travelers.

Scientists based their true-life studies of futuristic hibernation on findings in the bones of early humans in northern Spain that showed inconsistent bone growth throughout the year. The skeletons of bears show the same inconsistency due to their hibernation.

Now I must re-focus and re-write Andy’s work. He’s still going to be a sleep researcher because he’s motivated by his wife’s sleepwalking.

I’ve just started this new Nikki mystery and I’m already loving it. Also, it’s set in the mountains of northern New Mexico, where Andy finds lots of bears sleeping in caves.

***

I might fly to Mars if I could sleep most of the way!

Kathryn Lane writes mystery and suspense novels and draws deeply from her experiences growing up in a small town in Mexico as well as her work and travel in over ninety countries around the globe. Her award-winning Nikki Garcia Mystery Series features a strong female protagonist whose private investigative work often takes her to foreign countries.

Photo Credits:

Reinvent the Wheel – Pinterest

Sleeping Bear – Atapuerca article, La Vanguardia

Neanderthal – Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann, Creative Commons

European Space Agency astronaut sleeping in Bag – European Space Agency