Tag Archive for: bethany maines

A Fun Interview with Bethany Maines

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Interview by Kathryn Lane

(Bethany
Maines is such a dynamic interviewee that I’ve kept the interview pretty much
as it happened. To edit would lose the spontaneity of her responses.)

Bethany, I’m amazed by your dexterity as
an author. You write in various genres, from crime fiction to mystery, to action adventure
to sci-fi. Do you move from one to the other to keep your stories flowing?

Growing up I
read mostly sci-fi/fantasy and mystery. I always assumed that if I wrote it
would be sci-fi/fantasy based, but as with most half-baked childhood notions, it
hasn’t turned out that way. Mystery/Adventure/Romance seems to be where I sit
most easily, and my occasional visits into sci-fi are usually with co-writers.

By the
time this interview is published on November 2, you will have launched your
mystery, Hardest Hit, the third book from your Deveraux Legacy series. Congratulations!

Share
with us what worked for the launch and what you’d do differently next time.

I can tell
you what doesn’t work. Accidentally scheduling the launch for nearly the same
time as a work conference is… not the best thing I’ve done lately. I work with
a marketing company; they give me lots of support, and I don’t think I could do
it another way considering my scheduling conflict. But other than that, my
number one tip, is plan ahead.

Moving to
your mystery/action adventure books, you have taken an innovative approach to
undercover work. Your protagonist, Nikki Lanier in the Carrie Mae series, is a
no-nonsense investigator who takes on drug smugglers and arms dealers.

How did
you get the idea for the Carrie Mae series?  

OK, true
story, I once received a cease-and-desist letter from Mary Kay corporate to not
mention Carrie Mae in the same breath as Mary Kay. Meanwhile, Mary Kay Ladies
love every book in that series. And they should because they gave me the idea. I
once had to pick up lipstick from my MK lady. She was at a meeting and invited
me to stop by. When I stepped into the Red Lion Inn… it was a packed ballroom!  They were recruiting new Mary Kay Ladies. On
stage, an imposing woman was laying down the MK rules like she was Patton in
pumps. And I thought… these ladies could take over the world and they’re
kind of scary. It’s probably a good thing there isn’t a militant wing of Mary
Kay. (Lightbulb!) Later I went out for drinks and told my girlfriends I had
a great idea for a book. They laughed, saying they loved the idea of Nikki and
her team.

Nikki and
her team set out to save the world from gangs, smugglers, and arms dealers, all
the while looking fabulous. You do mention, though, they try to remember clean
underwear! Is humor in your genes or do you work at it?

Surprise! It’s
nature AND nurture. My Dad is an excellent and humorous storyteller. In
childhood I watched him hone a story from one telling to the next. That method
of refining the funny until it’s the funniest is something that takes years to
perfect, but I feel that I got a leg up through proper parenting.

You write
several novels and novellas every year. Do you program your writing for the year
ahead and decide which series will get the bulk of your time? Or are you a
complete pantser that gets up in the morning and decides what you’ll work on
that day?

I used to
pants it. I loved the discovery and joy of finding out what happened. But
sadly, I don’t have the time anymore. Pantsing is joyful but inefficient, and
if I want to tell ALL THE STORIES… well, I need to plot. However, I do employ a
strategy of “cheat stories”. If one isn’t cooperating I go cheat on it with a
different story. That will teach it! 

I’m
intrigued by your sci-fi novellas, The Beast of Arsu being the latest. For the Galactic Dreams series, you write with two
other authors, Karen Harris Tully and J.M. Phillippe. Do the three of you get
together to discuss and plan the next collection of Galactic Dreams? 

Karen and
J.M. and I came up with a simple proposition (such innocent, foolish, past
selves): we would create a shared universe and spread the hard parts of world-building
around. Then we would each write stories within that universe. And, just to keep
it interesting, we would base our stories on fairy tales. Clearly none of us
had read fairy tales recently – they’re insane. None of us counted on the fact
that each of us would want to break the rules of the universe at some point, or
that we would have to keep track of all the weird words and technology we
invented. At this point, we have a massive spreadsheet and a five-page single-space
word doc on our universe. Fortunately, our friendship has survived the great
battle over whether or not to include the word OK in space. Surprisingly,
we were all 100% fine with bringing in Octopus aliens. We touch base multiple
times while writing our individual stories and use each other for research, as
sounding boards, and as spare memories. Then, at the end, we all read
everything for universe cohesion.

Bethany, let me tell you, I’d
be lost in space if I could not use the word OK. One last question. If
you were not writing, what would you be doing?

I actually love
my day job of graphic design. If I weren’t writing I’d be getting to all of the
art projects that are languishing in my office that I swear I’m TOTALLY getting
to. Stop judging my art supply purchases!!

That was a fantastic interview, Bethany. Thank you!

Biography

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of
mystery, crime and romantic suspense novels, as well as many short stories.
When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her
black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the
computer working on her next novel. bethanymaines.com

Clues

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by Bethany Maines

Recently, I’ve been working on the sequel to my murder
mystery An Unseen Current.  While
thematically not that different from my other books (a young person struggles
with unusual circumstances while navigating the choppy waters of family, love,
and friends), mysteries bring a special level of challenge to the mix.  For one thing, people expect clues.  Oh, there’s a dead body?  Well, writer, where are the clues?  Chop, chop! Produce the clues!
However, it’s not just about clues; it’s about when to reveal
those clues.  Too early and readers are
bored because they already solved it. 
Too late and it seems like the author is cheating and wedging
information to justify who the killer is at the last second.  Then, even if the writer does pop a clue in
the right place, she can’t be too precious about it.  The author can’t present it on a silver
platter with a neon arrow stating: Clue Here!! 
To accomplish the correct where and when of clue placement requires a
stronger outline than other genres.  And
that means that I must do what every writer hates doing—not writing.
Outlining and the synopsis are vital to a successful book.  But they aren’t the FUN part of writing.  The fun part is churning out scenes and
spending time with the made up people who populate my brain.  Outlining requires problem solving and all
the leg work of deciding back stories and motivations and the literal who,
what, when, where and why of who was murdered. (It was Professor Plumb in the
Library with the Candlestick, in case you were wondering.)  But mostly it leaves me thinking: Are we
there yet? What about now?  Can I start
writing now?
Fortunately, the answer is getting closer to being yes.  So wish me luck as I work out the kinks of how the dead body
ended up behind a bar in Anacortes.

You never know what’s beneath the surface.
When Seattle native Tish Yearly finds herself
fired and evicted all in one afternoon, she knows she’s in deep water.
Unemployed and desperate, the 26 year old ex-actress heads for the one place
she knows she’ll be welcome – the house of her cantankerous ex-CIA agent
grandfather, Tobias Yearly, in the San Juan Islands. And when she discovers the
strangled corpse of Tobias’s best friend, she knows she’s in over her head.
Tish is thrown head-long into a mystery that pits her against a handsome but
straight-laced Sheriff’s Deputy, a group of eccentric and clannish local
residents, and a killer who knows the island far better than she does. Now Tish
must swim against the current, depending on her nearly forgotten acting skills
and her grandfather’s spy craft, to con a killer and keep them both alive.

***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Virtually IRL

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by Bethany Maines
I laughed when I read AB Plum’s recent post about unhooking
from the virtual world.  It has been a
long time since I didn’t enhance my RL (real life) experience with some sort of
virtual interaction.  Photos on Facebook,
the occasional witty comment on twitter, blogs and websites, they are all part
of my life. Partially this is simply a function of my life and jobs.  As a graphic designer and a writer, social
networking is part of the must do list.
As a designer, it’s important that I be able to design ads for Facebook and
other social media platforms and understand how the platforms function.  As a writer, it’s important that I use those
platforms to reach an audience.
Which is not to say that I’m an expert.  As a designer, I get to create content and
simply walk away.  The writer half of me
definitely has it harder.  I have to remember
to post (you wouldn’t think this was hard, but…), to come up with valuable and
interesting content, and then not waste all of my writing time on marketing and
social media.  On the other hand, for the
last six months I’ve been swinging very much the other way.  I have not been doing a lot of marketing.  I have in fact been writing.  A lot. 
A ton.  Lots of tons.  So much so that I’ve planned out my releases
for 2018 and 2019. 

So, stay tuned for tons of updates later this summer.  Crime, sci-fi, a touch of fairy tales, and of
course more than a little bit of romance are heading your way.  And strangely, I can’t wait to start
marketing ALL of it.  If you want to get
in on early give-aways (print and digital!) and announcements, join my mailing
list at: bethanymaines.com/contact
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Fairy Tale Ending

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by Bethany Maines

I have a co-project coming up revolving around sci-fi fairy tales. I think this is a great idea.  Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding the right fairy tale or even pieces of a fairy tale I want to use.  So I sat down with a compendium of Hans Christian Anderson and gave it a flip through to see if it would spark anything.  It did. 
Rage.
From the obtuse, dense writing that wandered around with no particular plot and introduced characters that were totally pointless, to the fact that half of the stories either revolve around cutting bits of a girl off or expounding on how the suffering of these peope was deserved because they weren’t Christian enough, the whole thing made me want to throw the book against the wall. 
And even in the stories where the girl wins out and doesn’t end up dismembered the author seems to go out of his way to note that she’s a bit selfish and not overly bright.  All of which ended in my poor husband having to listen to a rant about the Princess and the Pea, Victorians and how Republicans seem to think ovaries are a pre-existing condition.  That last one may not have been entirely related, but it wasn’t that far removed.  Kissing cousins at the very minimum.
Anyway, I’m not sure what my sci-fi fairy tale will be, but I think it will involve blood. Blood of the sanctimonious spilled in copious ways. Hans Christian Anderson has sealed your fate fairy tale characters.  Your time is coming.
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Production for Use

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by Bethany Maines

In the movie His Girl Friday (Cary Grant & Rosalind
Russell), a light hearted screwball comedy that centers around a newspaper
editor and his ex-wife/top reporter as they attempt to get the big story and he
attempts to prevent her from marrying someone else. Under the froth, romance,
laughs and lightning fast dialogue the plot also deals with a poor schlub who
shot a cop and is getting the death penalty mostly due to politics and in spite
of the fact that he’s not really dealing with a full deck.  In the movie, Rosalind Russell interviews the
schlub and asks him what crack-pots he was listening to in the park while he
was whiling away his unemployed time.  The
soapbox ranter he listened to the most, the one the made the most sense was a
man who talked about “production for use.”
That phrase crops up for me time and time again as a
philosophical touchpoint.  When I’m
writing I will periodically ask myself, what use is this scene?  What has it been produced for?  Is the way in which I have presented the scene—from
POV, to word choice, to start and finish points—the best, most useful way, to
achieve the goal?  If the action of the
characters is correct, then are the emotions within the scene hitting the right
notes?  Often times as writers will get
bogged down in telling who went where when and we forget to also incorporate the
emotion, the driving force that pushes the character into action.  The same can also be true in reverse.  I have spent whole pages blithering on about
a character’s feelings (Reminder to self: No one gives a crap.  It’s boring. 
Stop doing that.) and forgotten to advance the plot at all.  And then, even if the emotions and the
actions are right, is everything told in the right words—is the style of the
telling the best way to tell it?
This level of thinking is difficult because it forces me to
objectively look at the story and check in on the individual elements of style,
tone, and content.  And generally, for me,
that can only be done after I have completed a draft and I’m working in the
editorial phase.  If that all sounds like
a lot of work, then you’re correct, but I like to think my readers appreciate
it.  After all I put a lot of work into producing
a book for the use of readers to enjoy.
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Reading vs. Writing

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by Bethany Maines

On Monday night fellow Stiletto
author J.M. Phillippe (visiting from Brooklyn) and I attended the local open
mic night from Creative Colloquy.  The
evening celebrated Creative Colloquy’s third anniversary and featured the
Washington State poet laureate Dr. Tod Marshall. Creative Colloquy’s mission is
to connect writers with their community and celebrate their works. And in
keeping with that mission, Dr. Marshall reminded us in the audience to both
battle for the arts and to rejoice in our creative communities. 
As with every time I
go to a reading event I’m struck by what different skills reading and writing
are. It’s difficult to differentiate the presentation from the work being
presented. For every rushed reading, there’s one that gives space for the
audience to savor the moment. For every mumbled poem, there’s one that echoes
from the rafters.  For every awkward and
misplaced laugh in the middle of a story, there’s one that ought to be a comedy
special.  Delivery, timing, and pronunciation,
all take a reading from blah to amazing. 
Or at least important enough to make people stop talking to their
friends at the table.  Are the amazing
readings better?  Or just benefitting
from better delivery?
It makes me wonder: what
could I be doing to present my own work better in live readings? Should we authors all be forced
to take public speaking classes? Improv classes? Should we be forced to listen
to recordings of ourselves (God nooooooooooo!!!)?  Is there a secret trick that I could be
using?  What if I just I hire an actor to
read for me?  In all probability I shall
simply have to rely on the very exclusive, top secret trick of practice and
repetition.  As long as no one makes me
watch a recording of it, that will probably be fine.

***

Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Long and Short of It

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by Bethany Maines

I watched Buffy the Vampire
Slayer when it was first on television. It was the first time I’d watched a
show that combined the episodic weekly tale with a long-form, season long story
arc. Whether or not you enjoy fantasy and teenagers killing things, the inclusion
of a “big bad” (Buffy slang for the seasons main villain) made Buffy
a tremendous innovator on TV.  

It was an innovation that impressed, and continues to impress, me. The ability of the writers to maintain the critical pacing of the weeks
mystery, while at the same time building a seasonal arc that culminates at the
right point is a difficult writing feat. Most stories require that a character
to fulfill a certain role to advance the story. But with multiple stories
playing out at the same time the characters actions must serve several
different purposes at once. Accomplishing these goals at all, let alone well,
is something I aspire to. And while I have experimented with this type of
writing before in my Tales from the City of Destiny, I have never tried to do a
true over-arcing long form story across multiple novels. That is until now.
Starting last December, I have gone headlong into plotting
and writing a new five book crime series. I’ll be excited when I can finally
share more details about the series. But until then, I’m asking for inspiration
to help keep my creative juices flowing. What TV shows do you love that combine
short and long form elements and crime or action?
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Resolution Failure

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by Bethany Maines

I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions.
Resolutions always seem to be negative statements.  They pit the resolver against something.  I resolve to lose weight, spend less, give up
every fun thing ever, etc.
I much prefer to make goals. Goals take aim and move toward
a change. I want to write more, be more healthy, learn French, wake up
later.  I don’t think that last one’s
going to happen, but it’s more of a lifelong goal.
And then there’s the artificial time construct of the New
Year’s that tricks people into waiting to start a change until January first
actually rolls on the calendar.  Of
course, if I were resolving to do something horrible, I’d put it off as long as
possible too.  But if I want to change my
life for the better, then why would I wait? Now is always the perfect time to
start.
Which is not to say that the turn of the year doesn’t cause
me to reflect and take stock of how things are and how I would like them to go.
Like a lot of people, I like to assess, predict, and then I make goals.  At the end of December, I jotted down some
notes, made some plans and felt good about myself.  I’m usually pretty good at sticking to my
plans and I didn’t expect this year to be any different.  But then I didn’t expect to be struck by
inspiration that would send me furiously typing down the rabbit hole of a new
story.
And now here it is the end of January and I feel like one of
those people who’ve managed to blow up their diet and their resolution two
weeks after starting.  I mean, I feel
guilty about not sticking to the plan, but not really that bad as a shove another
chapter in.  In fact, that chapter was
delicious and really would it really hurt if I had another? 
I can always get back on the plan later, right?
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

I Swear…

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by Bethany Maines

The title of today’s blog is not facetious.  I do swear. 
Kind of a lot.
I try not to in public. 
Much like public displays of affection, I find it inelegant to be
assaulted by profanity that I’m not participating in.  I think keeping a lid on my foul mouthed habit
is only polite and try to reserve it for private situations and friends who
have known me long enough to not take offense. 
As a result, a few of my acquaintances have been surprised to find
themselves on the receiving end of a periodic f-bomb.  (Yes, I’m the person who should receive this paperweight
as a gift.) In the past curbing my tongue has not particularly onerous, but
since my child has moved into speaking and comprehending, you know, actual
words, life as a purveyor of profanity has become more difficult.  Now I can’t even swear in my own home?!  Word swaps and humming the Star Spangled
Banner do not really help.  (Son of a
goat monkey, keeping my swearing on the inside is hard!)
In most of my books, I’ve minimized the swearing to a solid “hell”
or “damn” because well, my grandmother likes to read my books.   But recently, I’ve begun working on a story
that moves my swearing habit to the forefront. 
Rather than really “messing some stuff up”, I am straight  “f***ing some s*** up” for a change.  And ooooh, does it feel good.  Ah profanity, how dost though trip lightly
off my off my keyboard and onto the page?  Very lightly indeed. 
Many comments on profanity seem to insist that profanity is
the crutch of mind unable to think of something else to say.  I completely disagree.  To correctly use profanity one must have an
understanding of language that allows you to use the f-word as a verb, a noun,
and an adjective. (Yes, it really can – see examples here). 

Will my completed manuscript stay chock full of profane
goodness?  I don’t know, but I’m sure as f*** interested to find out.
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.