Tag Archive for: mystery

Deadlines

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By Kathryn Lane

I love
deadlines! They revitalize me. Twists and turns in my mystery novels become
more exciting once I’m approaching the deadline with my editor.

Not all
deadlines are equal. Some are important; others can be juggled. Then there are
deadlines I gleefully ignore.

At times, I
fantasize what would happen if I missed such and such important deadline. That activity
takes the form of various possible outcomes, as if I lived in a quantum world
where there’s an infinite number of possibilities.

Meeting a deadline!

And it
reminds me of a wonderful European film from 1998 titled, Run, Lola, Run.
An experimental film at the time, the lead character, Lola, needs to acquire
$100,000 deutschmarks in TWENTY minutes or her boyfriend will die. The film
gives three versions of what happens. Each version is predicated on the lapse
of a few seconds where random, unexpected events happen that impact Lola’s
ability to obtain the money. These random events change each one of the three
endings.

In the past
month, I’ve had the opportunity to think about random, unexpected things that
happen. Some are good, some not so good.

On the
return trip from the Killer Nashville International Mystery Writers’ Conference (which was wonderful) in late August, we experienced an unexpected event.

Driving through
Georgia, a speeding motorist hit us a few miles south of Atlanta. Fortunately,
everyone, including the motorist who hit us, walked away with only minor
bruises. A different story for the vehicles – both were totaled.

Random events,
good or bad, set off unexpected consequences, which ripple through already
planned events, like getting a manuscript finished for your editor.

Meeting manuscript deadlines!

As in the
three outcomes in Run, Lola, Run, my mind considered various
scenarios: If only we had not stopped for gas when we did, if only we had
started our journey a few minutes earlier (or later) that day, if only we had
been in a different lane. But we don’t live in a quantum world. Nor do we live
in a world where we can restart the day and get a different outcome.

Small, unplanned events can add spice to life.
Large ones, like car accidents, can create havoc on deadlines. C’est la vie.

Deadlines
are important to my characters too. It’s like they’re telling me “If you write it
this way, it will be better”. Or they will kick my butt, saying “Go this other
direction and get our story told”.

Maybe that’s
a little like the different outcomes in Run, Lola, Run. In novels, only the
author knows the various endings that could have taken place.

How do you
handle deadlines?  

***

Kathryn’s mysteries – The Nikki
Garcia Mystery series:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B08C7V2675/ref=dp_st_1942428944

 

Kathryn’s short story collection – Backyard
Volcano and Other Mysteries of the Heart

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Volcano-Other-Mysteries-Heart/dp/1943306044

 All available on Amazon

 Kathryn Lane started out as a starving
artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked
on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation.
After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery
and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels
in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

 

Recipes to Die For

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 By Mary Lee Ashford

What is it with food in mysteries? Or I should say, “What is it with culinary mysteries?” as that’s the proper term for the sub-genre. 
As a long time reader of culinary mysteries, from Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen books to Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy Bear catering stories there’s a wide variety. Some of the main character’s are great cooks like Hannah (current book Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder) and some are not. Such as our own Debra Goldstein’s Sarah Blair. Check out Debra’s latest Four Cuts Too Many!  
In my Sugar and Spice series, it’s sidekick Dixie that’s the blue-ribbon baker while my main character, Sugar’s expertise is on the business side of things as assembler of their community cookbooks. Though she likes to think she’s an expert taster as well. 
In my opinion the brilliant thing about food in mysteries is that food brings people together. We talk over coffee and pie, and gather around family dinner or community events. This creates all kinds of opportunities for sharing information (which can include a clue) or overhearing private exchanges (which can often point to a suspect). 
Food can also sometimes lead to conflict. Is there a secret family recipe? Is there an element of competition? In Game of Scones, the first book in the Sugar and Spice series, there’s a disagreement over who makes the best scones. And wouldn’t you know, there’s room for only one recipe in the town’s centennial celebration community cookbook. You can see where this is going, right? I won’t give too much away but very soon someone is missing and someone is dead. 
One of the fun things about culinary mysteries, at least for the author is the chance to try out new recipes. Game of Scones found me trying all kinds of different scone recipes. And with Risky Biscuits, you guessed it…  tons of biscuit recipes. Who knew there were so many? I have a  good friend who is an actual, honest-to-goodness blue-ribbon baker and I called upon her skills to perfect the biscuits and gravy recipe featured in the back of that book. Then came Quiche of Death which meant the testing various types of quiche. Check out my Pinterest boards for the books to find some of the recipes that were part of the research. 
About those recipes often featured in the back of the books. What are your thoughts on them? Do you check them out? Have you ever tried out a new recipe you found in the back of a culinary mystery? Did you find a new favorite? If so, please share! 
Currently Kensington Books is featuring Game of Scones for only $1.99 in all ebook platforms so if you have not yet read the first in the series, here’s your chance to take advantage of this great deal.  If you’ve already read the book, thank-you! If you’ve left a review, double thanks! I

To celebrate the deal, I’ll be doing a giveaway of a Game of Scones tshirt  Just leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing! I’ll draw a winner by midnight Friday and announce the winner on Saturday. Good luck! 

Mary Lee Ashford is a lifelong bibliophile, and avid reader, and supporter of public libraries.

In addition to writing the Sugar and Spice series for

Kensington Books, she also writes as half of the writing team of Sparkle Abbey, author of the national bestselling Pampered Pets mystery series from Bell Bridge Books.

Prior to publishing Mary Lee won first place in the Daphne du Maurier contest, sponsored by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA, and was a finalist in Murder in the Grove’s mystery contest, as well as Killer Nashville’s Claymore Dagger contest.

She is the founding president of Sisters in Crime – Iowa and a past board member of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest chapter, as well as a member of Novelists, Inc., Romance Writers of America, Kiss of Death the RWA Mystery Suspense chapter, Sisters in Crime, and the SinC internet group Guppies. She loves encouraging other writers and is a frequent presenter for writers’ groups.

Mary Lee has a passionate interest in creativity and teaches a university level course in Creative Management to MPA candidates, as well as presenting workshops and blogging about creativity.

She currently resides in the midwest with her husband, Tim and cat, Zoey. Her delights are reading and enjoying time her two sons and their lovely wives as well as her crazy awesome grandchildren.

Follow her on Facebook for morning coffee posts and Recipes to Die For: 

The Characters Who Break Our Hearts

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by Barbara Kyle



A recent fascinating post by Lois Winston on
this blog asked: “Are there
characters that you wish the author would kill off? Or characters you wish an
author hadn’t killed off?”

 

I thought
I’d dig deeper into Lois’s topic with another question: What
character’s death broke your heart?

 

I once asked that
of my Facebook friends and the replies were extraordinary. People recall with
vivid clarity how a fictional death left them feeling bereft.

 

Beth March in Little Women. Sydney
Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. Ned Stark in A Game of Thrones.
Charlotte, the valiant spider in Charlotte’s Web.

 

 
Pic: “Sydney Carton” painting by Ralph Bruce


Characters’ deaths that broke
my heart include Mariko in James Clavell’s Shogun, Robbie and Cecilia in Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Gus in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome
Dove.

 

                                  Pic: Yoko Shimada as “Mariko” in the 1980 TV series “Shogun.”

 

That affecting experience as a reader applies
with equal force to an author. Every time I’ve killed a beloved character in
one of my books, I wept. The poet Robert Frost said it eloquently: “No
tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” I must be shaken by a
character’s death myself if I am to render it faithfully to my readers.
  
Three kinds of characters’ deaths shatter us the
most:
 
1. The Innocent Friend

The most dangerous relationship a character can
have is being the best friend of the hero. If the hero has been reluctant to
accept his destiny, or his responsibilities, the death of his friend is often the
turning point that galvanizes him to take the next steps and the necessary
risks. By his friend’s death the hero is changed, made stronger, grows up.
 
2. The Victim of a Wicked World
 
When we shudder at Fantine’s death in Victor
Hugo’s Les Miserables we
shudder at the hellish poverty that killed her. In Atonement Robbie and Cecelia lose their lives pitifully in
the gruesome grind of war. In A Game of Thrones Ned Stark is executed in a naked political power
grab.
 
3. The Self-Sacrificing Hero
 
When Mariko, the courageous noblewomen in Shogun, goes to Osaka Castle to obtain the release of
innocent hostages, she knows she is going to her death. She sacrifices her life
to save Lord Toranaga from his enemies, and restore peace.
 
In A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton takes his awe-inspiring walk to the
guillotine with selfless resolve, sacrificing his life so that Lucie, the woman
he loves, can be reunited with her husband.
 
These are deaths of valor – to me the most
poignant of all – in which the character accepts death as the price of
saving someone they love. That’s powerful stuff. What reader is not moved to
ask in admiration: Could I do the same?

 

And, speaking of killing . . . 

 

I hope you’ll enjoy my new
video: “What Makes a Killer Mystery?” in which I
outline the essential elements of the genre and show interviews with five
acclaimed mystery writers, including Denise Mina and John LeCarré (below).  Watch the video here.

 

 

___________________________________________________________

 

Barbara Kyle is the author of the bestselling
Thornleigh Saga series of historical novels and of
acclaimed thrillers. Her latest novel of suspense is The Man from Spirit Creek. Over half a million
copies of her books have been sold. Barbara has taught
hundreds of writers in her online Masterclasses and many have become
award-winning authors. Visit Barbara at https://www.barbarakyle.com/ 

 
 

We Have an Author Down!

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 by The Stiletto Gang

Our beloved gang member C.P. Perkins is under the weather and unable to come to the computer today.  We wish her the speediest of recoveries.  For the curing of sickly authors, the Stiletto Gang recommends picking up one of their books and/or leaving a review on your favorite site.  And of course, today we’re recommending Cathy’s latest release.

The Body in Beaver Pond

Even an event planner doesn’t plan on murder!

Keri Isles desperately needs to sell the Christmas Tree farm her cheating, jerk of an ex-husband convinced his buddy, the judge, to saddle her with in the divorce settlement. Stuck in the Cascade Mountains, she’s lost her Seattle-based event planner job and local job prospects are as scarce as internet service. When she finds the arrogant professor in charge of the nearby archeology dig floating face-down in her beaver pond, unloading the property becomes secondary to staying out of prison.

A savvy—and scheming—attorney may be able to keep her head above water, but the personal price of his retainer may be too high. It’s up to Keri to use her mad networking skills and deploy a team of archaeology students, a bad boy photographer, and assorted eccentric neighbors to find the killer and clear her name.

Buy Now: Amazon

My Lifelong Passion for Horseracing

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Hi everyone, today I’m pleased to give up my blog date to introduce you to a special friend of mine. Annette Dashofy and I have been online critique partners, beta readers and personal friends since I’m thinking 2003. She’s an amazing human being who likes horses, cats, and squirrels — sometimes I fear more than she likes people. Seriously, she’s a great human, which is why I’m giving her the floor to talk about her lifelong passion for horseracing and a great novel I highly recommend. Please welcome Annette Dashofy.   ~Donnell Ann Bell 

Author Annette Dashofy

When you ask a group of mystery authors who they read when they were kids, the majority will offer answers like Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown. While I may have read a few of the Nancy Drews, my passion rested elsewhere. I read every book Walter Farley wrote. Multiple times. I loved both The Black Stallion and The Island Stallion series.  

Yes, there was a movie. [https://youtu.be/kGp9u56FJKs]

The books are better although the movie was quite good.

Farley’s books played a huge role in my passion for horses. Long before I
owned a real one, I had a barn full of pretend ones. 



The horses were pretend. The barn was real, but the only livestock it
housed was cattle.


I “rode” my pretend horses, being the rider from the waist up and the
horse from the waist down. I galloped around the farm and sometimes around
imaginary racetracks. I had an equally horse-crazy, Walter Farley-reading
friend who shared my rider/horse fantasies. We’d hold “match races” for our
horses. Mine usually lost.  


My love of horseracing may have started with and been fueled by Alec and
The Black from the Farley books, but the real thing quickly drew me in. Back
then, the only races broadcast on television were the Triple Crown races: the
Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. 



The first winner I
remember was a Venezuelan longshot by the name of Canonero II who came from
behind to win the Derby in 1971. Experts deemed the victory a fluke. He proved
them wrong by also winning the Preakness. Bitten by the Triple Crown bug at the
age of 11, my heart broke when he came up short, finishing fourth in the
Belmont. 

Two years later, a horse by the name of Secretariat won all three Triple
Crown races, the first to do so in twenty-five years. My love of the sport was
solidified. Watching the videos of Secretariat, especially his Belmont win,
still takes my breath away. 


Okay, we sold him when he was a yearling, so I never got to ride him, but
he was black and he was male, so that counts.


Fast forward again to 2021. Medina Spirit, a moderate longshot, won the
Kentucky Derby on May 1. The second leg of the Triple Crown is this Saturday,
May 15. Will Medina Spirit claim the second leg as well? If so, horseracing fans
worldwide, myself included, will be in a frenzy leading into the first Saturday
in June.


And I have the book I started in 2005 finally coming out tomorrow. The
fact that the cover is reminiscent of several of Farley’s books is total
coincidence. The fact that I’m releasing it in the middle of the Triple Crown races
is not.


Death by Equine is set in the world of Thoroughbred racing,
although far from Churchill Downs, Pimlico, or Belmont.


About Death by Equine:  Veterinarian
Jessie Cameron agrees to fill in for her mentor, Doc Lewis, at Riverview
Racetrack so he can take a long-overdue vacation. When he’s tragically killed
by one of his equine patients the night before he’s supposed to leave, Jessie
quickly suspects the death is anything but accidental. Her search for the truth
is thwarted by everyone from well-meaning friends to the police, including her
soon-to-be-ex-husband. Undaunted, she discovers layers of illegal activities
and deceit being perpetrated by the man she thought of as a father figure,
creating a growing list of suspects with reason to want Doc dead. Too late, she
realizes that her dogged quest for the truth has put her in the crosshairs of a
devious killer desperate to silence her. Permanently.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YH164YW

About the Author:  Annette Dashofy is the USA
Today best-selling author of the multi–Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers
mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s
tight-knit Vance Township. Her latest release, a standalone, is Death by
Equine, about a veterinarian at a second-rate thoroughbred racetrack
seeking the truth about her mentor’s mysterious death. She and her husband live
on ten acres of what was her grandfather’s dairy farm in southwestern
Pennsylvania with their very spoiled cat, Kensi. https://www.annettedashofy.com/

 

 

 

 

 

I Dream in Science Fiction!

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By Kathryn Lane

Fiction
writers take ideas from everywhere, the reason a saying says, “Be careful what
you say around me – I’m a fiction writer.” To prove the point, I’ll paraphrase one of T.S. Eliot’s
quotes: “Good writers borrow; great writers steal.”

Dreams
offer me a favorite reservoir of ideas to borrow. I dream in full technicolor,
and in Spanish and English. Several short stories have come directly from stuff
obtained during my REM sleep.

However,
I was shocked when I had a science fiction dream, complete with language from
an Orwellian future. I read sci-fi, but I’ve never attempted to write it. I do
not have the grasp of physics, astrophysics, astronomy, chemistry, and artificial
intelligence to write convincing sci-fi, so I limit myself to simply reading
it.

Years
ago, I’d read a lot of Ray Bradbury, who said, “Anything you dream is fiction,
and anything you accomplish is science; therefore, the whole history of
humankind is nothing but science fiction.”

Now back to my sci-fi
dream. I was at a
party, complete with fireworks, set in futuristic surroundings. An older couple
left the party and drove away in a self-driving car. In the amorphous
environment of dreaming, I was concerned about them so I called to make sure
they were okay.

I heard an automated voice inform me
through my implanted earphone that “Public driver 00Z1921 was detained by a
squadron of public protectors for bypassing the self-driving controls of
00Z1921’s auto.”

“What’s
the accusation,” I asked.

“Reckless
speeding and endangering the disciples,” the automated voice responded. The voice further instructed me to
locate 00Z1921 at the hostile crisis center.

Still dreaming, I arrived at the center and found the small
self-driving car surrounded by ten hostile-looking storm trooper types.

Then I woke up! Unfortunately,
the dream ended before I learned the outcome of poor old 00Z1921.

Guess I’ve been reading too many futuristic articles
on the speeding up of technological advances resulting from our lockdown, and
those ideas zoomed me into a future time zone!

Or
maybe, as Ray Bradbury might have said, we are all living in a science
fictional world.

***

Do you dream in technicolor?
Do you have dreams set in a sci-fi future?

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving
artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked
on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation.
After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery
and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels
in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/

The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series: eBook Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZNF17G

Photo Credits:

Fireworks: “Looks like the Sky will
bleed with Colors tonight. Wishing everyone a wonderful evening of fun &
excitement!” by williamcho –
licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Waymo
self-driving car front view by Grendelkhan – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Storm
Trooper at Oxford by Sheng P. – licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Kathryn’s books – designs by Bobbye
Marrs

The Benefits of Podcasts by Kathleen Kaska

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Two years ago, I was asked to host a
podcast for a local business. Excited to take on something new, I prepared by joining
Toastmasters to improve my speaking skills, signing up for a one-day class to
learn the mechanics of podcasting, and taking a Creative Life class on
conducting podcast interviews. Always a big fan of NPR’s This American Life, I was happily surprised when that class was being
taught by Alex Blumberg, NPR’s producer and the show’s interviewer. Just like his broadcasts, he had me
hanging on every word. Saying his lessons were invaluable is an understatement.

 

Using what I learned, we recorded
and aired our first two episodes. One listener commented that they sounded like
NPR interviews. When I heard that, I knew that class had been worth it. Then we
got COVID-ed (metaphorically) while I was in the process of interviewing my
third guest, so the company pulled the plug on the podcasts. Needless to say, I
was disappointed because I loved being a podcast host. Even though that project
fell through, the lessons I learned about podcasting benefited me also as an
interviewee. Since many writers use this medium to promote their books,
learning the nuances of podcast interviews is just as valuable to podcast guests.

Here are
some tips:

1. Be
authentic. Don’t be afraid to look like an idiot. Laugh at yourself.

2. Pause before
punch lines, emotional moments, and important revelations.

3. As
interviewer, don’t ask yes-and-no type questions. Instead, ask questions that delve
into the subject. For example:

“Tell me
about the day you realized . . .”

“What
were the steps that got you there?”

“How did
that, or they, make you feel?”

And my
favorite question-preface (used when the interviewee is not sure how to
proceed, is hesitant, or unsure of what to reveal): “I noticed in your voice .
. .”

4.
Interview people with direct experience, rather than “experts.” It’s more
interesting to interview the passenger of a plane that’s been hijacked than the
airline’s official.

5. Once
you’ve chosen your topic and who you want to interview, create a two-statement
hook to grab your listeners’ attention. Example: “This is a story about a
family who sold everything to buy a boat and sail around the world. Then the
father, “abandoned ship,” returned home, and left the mother and three children
to fend for themselves.

6.
Conduct a short pre-interview to get to know your interviewee and decide on a
course of action.

Keeping this in mind, as
interviewee, rather than giving synopses of all your books, talk about an
interesting story behind the reason you write, how you developed your
characters, or why you chose your setting. Your listeners are more likely to
stay engaged until the end. And by discussing the interview ahead of time and
giving thought to what you want to cover, you will help the podcast host move
the interview in the direction you want to go.

 

Here are two podcasters I highly
recommend: Laurel McHargue’s Alligator Preserve Podcast ( https://leadvillelaurel.com/). Laurel has hosted me twice, on February 18, 2021, and on
February 10, 2019. The links to each follow. Take a look and see how I improved
in the second interview, which occurred after taking Blumberg’s class. You
don’t even have to watch the entire interview to notice the change.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wkqtbNjBDcM

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf1MpsDeh60

Also,
there’s Linda McHenry’s The Writer’s Voice: (https://lindamchenry.com/the-writers-voice-podcast/).

You can find my interview (Episode 36, on January 27, 2021)
by clicking on “Listen to All Episodes.”  

 

Awarding-winner
author Kathleen Kaska writes mysteries, mysteries trivia, nonfiction, blogs,
stage plays, travel articles, essays, and poems. Her latest release, The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book, was reissued by Rowman and Littlefield (Lyons
Press). Kathleen writes the Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series and the Kate Caraway
Animal-Rights Mystery Series. Her first two Lockhart mysteries, Murder at the Arlington and Murder
at the Luther, were selected as
bonus-books for the Pulpwood Queen Book Group, the country’s largest book group.

When she is not writing, she spends much of her time with
her husband traveling the back roads and byways around the country, looking for
new venues for her mysteries and bird watching along the Texas coast and
beyond. Her passion for birds led to the publication The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert
Porter Allen Story (University
Press of Florida). Her collection of blog posts for Cave Art Press was
published under the title, Do
You Have a Catharsis Handy? Five-Minute Writing Tips. Catharsis was the winner of the Chanticleer
International Book Award in the nonfiction Instruction and Insights category.

Website     Twitter

 

Facebook    Good Reads 

 

 

Behind

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 by Bethany Maines

 

As I write this, I am very far behind on writing my fourth
book in the San
Juan Island Mystery series. I have a title, a nice first chapter, and half an
outline.  Which is at least half a draft
short of where I wanted to be at this time. 
And in other news, there’s a pandemic and my child just started back to
school, but for some reason school doesn’t start until 9:45.  Why this is I have yet to determine, but it
delays the start of my work day by a significant chunk of time.  I would love to say that those two events are
causally related, but they’re really more corollaries. They are linked and
related through the reality in which we wade, but, as much as I would like to,
I can’t actually say that my school districts scattershot, indecipherable
response to the pandemic is actually to blame for not sticking to my schedule.  I may be able to blame the pandemic itself,
which has sent me head long into escapist fun writing and sees me closing in on
finishing a trilogy of paranormal romances, but I think, in the interests of
truthfulness, that’s as far as I can pass the blame.

Me trying to escape the pandemic through writing.

But as school starts back up there is a lot of twittering
about the kids being behind. Or not being behind. Or being able to catch up no
problem!  To which I say… yeeeeeah?  Maybe. 
The truth is that private schools have been in person and in session for
much of this time.  So if you could
afford private school, which generally means that your kid (who was already looking
at better outcomes than a public school kid) is, in fact, ahead.  Yes, the public school kids will bounce back
and they’re already in similar boats to each other, but let’s just say that
some kids have better rowers on their team than others.  Yes, everything will work out in the end, but
the rah-rah “no one is behind” cheer strikes me as particularly delusional when
I can point to a whole contingent of children who are receiving a better
education due to finances. The pandemic has distinctly widened the gulf between
the haves and have-nots. 

But back to me.  Am I
behind?  My deadlines are relatively
self-imposed.  I can flex them.  Is it sooooo bad to be running late?  Maybe if I type for two days straight I can
catch up?  If I can learn anything from
the school debacle, it’s that no, probably sprinting to catch up is not the
way.  Writing consistently is probably a
better way to get quality work.  But
having already not done that, it’s probably best to go the public school route and
tell myself that I’m not behind and that everything will work out in the end.

***

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mysteries, San Juan Islands Mysteries, The Deveraux Legacy Series, and numerous
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. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Gay Yellen: A Writer’s Thanksgiving

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The twining path…


Like a double helix, a writer’s journey can follow a twisty trail. One strand—the rational, professional one—involves studying the works of others, honing your own craft, unlocking a door to publishing, and eventually (hopefully) connecting with readers.

The second strand can be an emotional mind-trip filled with unsettling questions. Is my work good enough? Why is that writer so successful? How can I be successful, too?

This emotional trip is the tricky one. It’s easy to find lists of writers deemed better or more successful by certain measures. What should matter to a writer is how they respond to such information. With admiration… or envy? 

Author-envy can eat a writer alive and stifle creativity. On the other hand, clear-eyed respect for another’s success may lead to the discovery of what it takes to improve. Heartfelt admiration—and gratitude—can move us closer to our own dreams.

What makes writers so special?

When I became a full-time author, I was overjoyed to find the camaraderie and the willingness to help one another that thrives in abundance in the writing community. It feels like family here.

Successful writers form personal bonds, share professional tips, read and critique each other’s books, and genuinely root for one another. The Stiletto Gang is an example.

Here, authors come together to trade insights, bits of book news, and offer glimpses into our personal lives, as well as our professional wins and woes. And we introduce our own followers to the rest of authors in the Gang. Countless other bloggers do the same in other spaces.

It’s hard to find a profession that embodies such an open and welcoming ethos. Can you name another enterprise whose members so willingly share their secret sauce with the competition?
Gratitude.

I deeply appreciate my writing community, from the veterans who teach to the newbies who are eager to learn. I’m grateful to the people who manage our writers’ groups and who continue to support their members.

This year, when Thanksgiving celebrations may not be like those we know, there’s all the more reason to appreciate the things that continue to sustain us. So, here’s a huge thank-you to writers everywhere who generously share their knowledge and platforms and public spaces with colleagues.
And special thanks to readers…

Dear readers, please know that you are the most important part of our community. Thank you for reading our books, for leaving your reviews on our book sales sites, and for recommending them to your friends. We could not keep our writing spirits up without you. You brighten our lives.

What about you? What are you thankful for this year?

Gay Yellen was a magazine and book editor before she began the award-winning Samantha Newman Mystery Series, which includes The Body Business and The Body Next Door. Book #3 in the series is slated for release in 2021.


Gay would love to hear from you, here, on Facebook, or at her website, GayYellen.com.


Mystery and Romance Authors – How Many Books Should You Publish?

/in /by

 

Antique Underwood Typewriter and Calla Lilies

Social media has swept instant and fleeting tidings over
us – the expectation of continuous news snippets. I wondered how this impacts the work of authors. In doing research, I found
an interesting quote from Donna Tartt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The
Goldfinch:

“There’s
an expectation these days that novels – like any other consumer product –
should be made on a production line, with one dropping from the conveyor belt
every couple of years.”

Every couple of years? I was astounded. Quite a few authors, including New York
Times bestselling ones produce at least one book a year, such as Stephen King, Danielle
Steel, Harlan Coben, and Jeffery Deaver. I also know writers who publish four
books a year – and happen to be USA Today bestselling authors. Probably none of
the ones I’m thinking of will be honored with a Pulitzer, but they are
satisfying their fan base by penning multiple novels per year.

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Antique Printing Press

It gives the aphorism “publish or perish” a whole new
meaning. The impact on genre authors to keep
publishing new books increases
their fan base, improves their rankings on Amazon, and sustains their
visibility among readers within their genres.

Yet The Goldfinch author takes ten years
(that’s right – a full decade!) to write a novel. A literary genius, Tartt has
fans across the globe. Plus, she’s backed by big publishing houses and their
gargantuan budgets, here and abroad.

Most of us who write genre would “perish” if we only produced
one novel every ten years.

Selling novels boils down to two basic issues:

A. Storytelling ─ writing a compelling and fascinating
story.

B. Markets ─ how these “consumer products” that Tartt
mentions are advertised and distributed.

In 2018, more than 1.6 million books (both print and eBook
with registered ISBNs) were published in the US alone. You can dismiss a
portion of these as coming from aspiring writers or people doing a memoir for
family purposes. But the point is made ─ the diversity of choices for readers
contributes to the difficulty new authors encounter when trying to distinguish themselves
in a crowded market.

Despite the intense competition, I would not for a minute give
up my writing! It’s the most satisfying, and craziest, endeavor I’ve ever done.

Care to
share how you distinguish your novels in the crowded market?

***

Photo
credits: Kathryn Lane for Antique Underwood Standard Typewriter, Printed page
flying off antique printing press; Bobbye Marrs for Nikki Garcia Trilogy

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a
living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in
international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two
decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and
suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels
in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/