Tag Archive for: writing

Sharing Words + Evoking Emotions = Writer’s Joy

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by Debra H. Goldstein

Starving artists, writers, and other creators of the arts often share the sentiment that personal satisfaction is enough.  The claim is that it doesn’t matter whether or not an audience exists for the work.  As many writers explain, “I write because I have to.”  For those of you who feel that way, I tip my hat and salute you.  I am not as noble as you are.

I want an audience!  To me, a writer’s joy comes from sharing words that evoke an emotional response. Lest you think me selfish, understand the listener can be the universe of readers, a room of people, my neighbor’s pet dog, or my almost one-year-old granddaughter.  She thinks anything I write, as long as I read it with weird voices while making funny faces, is fantastic.

My Best Audience

Not all of my writing is fantastic.  A lot of my efforts aren’t even good.  Hopefully, I am the only audience for those pieces.  But, I want reaction to the ones I believe have some merit.  I want to know if I touch someone or if something in the piece doesn’t work.  Feedback is what gives me the tools to revise, to think deeper, and to grow my ability to write.

It’s truly a joy when my work hits a homerun, but as a writer I get joy even from a critique.  Perhaps I do write because I must or perhaps it simply is the way I share my feelings in a manner that connects to those around me.  What about you?

Readers Review!

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By Bethany Maines

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Help
a starving author – leave reviews for the books you read today!
There’s a lot of talk these days
about shopping local with the goal of supporting actual people instead of
massive corporations.  Well, you
can’t get much more small, local, and actual than author.  Reviews really do help authors. It’s
through reviews that their books percolate through the great Google and Amazon
algorithms and get recommended to other readers.  And new readers means new buyers, which translates directly
to an author’s pocket book.
That being said, I don’t often
leave reviews for books. An author, I know that harsh reviews can be
devastating to writers.  I also
think that after working on the craft of writing for more than a few years,
that I’m pickier than the average reader and that can make for some rather
negative reviews.  But since I
truly value an honest review I have adopted a “If I can’t say anything nice,
then I don’t say anything at all” policy when it comes to reviews.  Which means that my reviews on Goodreads are further
a part as my life becomes busier with less time for reading, and I find it
harder to find a book that I love with the same passion I did when I was
younger.  Hopefully, that means
that if you see a review from me, you’ll know that I truly enjoyed the
book. 
So keep on leaving reviews, try
not to be too mean, and definitely, definitely keep on reading. 
Bethany Maines is the author of
the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and
Facebook.

Juggling by Debra H. Goldstein

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I’m not a writer’s writer.  If I could claim that distinction, I would follow a schedule – perhaps coffee, exercise and writing before and after a short lunch until so many words or pages are completed.  I marvel at writers who live a pre-ordained lifestyle that produces a specified number of words or pages stopping only when “The End” is typed.  Me, I’m a juggler.

Jugglers balance balls, oranges, bowling pins, or whatever comes up in life in the air.  When we watch a juggler, we hold our breath hoping nothing breaks the cycle by falling.  Invariably, at some point, there is a miss, but the juggler grins or grimaces and tries again.

My writing is exactly like the juggler’s act.  Sometimes things go smoothly and the words flow in an easy timely manner, but more often, I add one more ball and my rhythm gets out of kilter.  This week was going to be simple:  two blogs to prepare, a rewrite of the book I am working on, a couple of contest entries if I had spare time, and the beginning of a two week online course with daily homework.  A piece of cake.  That is, until I lost a few hours to a medical appointment, an old friend called to catch up for an hour plus, my husband had the audacity to want to have dinner and conversation, all of the kids checked in, I had to spend hours on the computer and phone purchasing airline tickets for some upcoming trips and wrangling with the television, TV, and internet provider because my bill took a funny jump.  My goals for the week all came tumbling down.

Frustrated, I prioritized.  1) Get homework for class done; 2) smile…this is a guest blogger week on “It’s Not Always a Mystery” and Paula Benson sent me a great piece for Monday, April 14, explaining “What the Bar Exam Taught Me About Writing” (why didn’t I think of that?); 3) Do more class homework; 4) rewrite two pages; 5) write my Stiletto Gang blog; and take a deep breath so that easing in a few extra balls marked as the distractions of life didn’t cause me to drop anything.  Will I finish all the words and pages I hoped for this week?  No.  The contest stuff may have to wait until closer to deadline, the book rewrite may take an extra week, but I’m sure managing to successfully keep a lot of balls in the air and I’m grateful for that.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Debra H. Goldstein is the author of 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue, a mystery set on the University of Michigan’s campus in the 1970’s.  Her most recent short stories, “Who Dat? Dat the Indian Chief!” and “Early Frost” can be found in the anthology Mardi Gras Murder (2014) and in The Birmingham Arts Journal (April 2014).  Contact Debra through her website www.DebraHGoldstein.com or through her personal blog, “It’s Not Always a Mystery,” http://debrahgoldstein.wordpress.com.

How Much Research?

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By Bethany Maines

So I was reading a book, which shall remain titleless to
protect the guilty, and the heroine tucked her revolver into the simple elastic
garter she was wearing under wedding dress, and I thought, “Well, that’s the
last straw.” I didn’t finish the book because I just couldn’t handle the
startling number inaccuracies that were in the first three chapters. I realize
that as a karate practioner and the sister of a certified gun enthusiast that
my opportunities for action scene research are rather broader than the average
writers, but the fact that this writer couldn’t even be bothered to test the
weight limits of an average wedding garter really bothered me.  The distance between research and creative
license is always a fine one. 
Researching until you can write an expert level on a subject results in
Michael Crichton style tomes.  And
I don’t know about you, but when I got to the “expert” section of those books,
I just skipped to the end.  It’s my
belief that there’s a level of detail that most readers don’t care about. Not
all readers of course; I’m sure there are a great many people that really care
about absolute accuracies of certain topics.  But in general, I think most readers just want a tale well
told with the fewest obvious blunders.  What do you think? What level of research and accuracy is
required from an author?
Bethany Maines is the author of
the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and
Facebook.

Group Disaster or Group Gold?

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by Bethany Maines

One of my latest writing projects
is writing a joint project with my writers group of three friends. I’ve met
several people who have done co-writing (the Stiletto Gang’s very own Evelyn
David, for instance), but as far as I can tell a group novel is either
extremely rare or just not done. 
As my group of friends struggled our way through the initial phases of
just how we were going to do this thing, I could definitely see why it was so
rare.  It’s hard.  We all have different interests,
different levels of time available, and different views of how work should
progress.
My initial instinct was to treat
the whole thing rather like one of my work projects.  So the first thing I did in this oh, so creative of projects
was to create a spreadsheet.  I
assigned jobs, estimated hours, traced what I thought was a likely work-flow,
and estimated costs.  Some of the
group were much relieved by this gridded representation of a future novel.  One of us was horrified.  It was if I had taken her writing
butterfly and shoved a pin through it. 
The idea of scheduling and circumscribing writing and creativity into
neat little boxes was repugnant to her. 
Not to mention the fact that it meant that one of her friends would now
be her “boss” – telling her when to get pages done and nagging her during what
she thought of as her escape.  And
then we started emailing each other about our concerns (most of us don’t live
next to each other) and it got even worse.  How could four people who are relatively competent at the
written word communicate so badly?  
I’m still not sure, but we managed it.  But things rebounded once we talked in person or on the
phone.  It’s amazing the amount of
difference that vocal inflections and facial expressions make.
So, here we are, on the verge of
starting our project – we’re still friends and we think we have a system and a
plot mapped out.  Now comes the
interesting part – the writing. 
I’ll keep you posted as to how this experiment goes!  With any luck we can churn out a
compelling mystery and still like each other at the end.

Bethany Maines is the author of
the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and
Facebook.

20 Something

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by Bethany Maines

One of my friends recently
complained that during an after work outing some twenty-something co-workers
wanted to go to a popular (aka crowded bar) and once there had wanted to leave
again (for another popular bar) because someone’s crush was present, but it was
all an “awkward love triangle!” Having had just about enough of that nonsense,
my friend co-opted the group and went to a less crowded bar where everyone
could hear each other AND sit down at the same time. Her conclusion?  “Man, is it nice to no longer be in my
twenties!” 
The thought made me laugh because
I could not agree more, but I do remember the angst of turning 29 and realizing
that all marketing was no longer going to be aimed at me!  If movies, music, and all popular culture
is no longer aimed at me how can I possibly validate my self-worth?  Oh wait, that’s right; I was never that
cool to begin with.  This was
probably strongly correlated to the high premium I placed on sleep.  If I wasn’t going to get at least 8
hours of sleep then the night-club we were going to had better dang well be
AWESOME, or it just wasn’t worth it. 
On the other hand, it does make
writing younger characters problematical. How do I realistically write a
twenty-something when I find all that gadding about just a little bit
silly?  Yes, that’s how old I am –
I use the word “gad”.  Well of
course, I could try using my imagination (What? A writer using their
imagination? P’shaw!).  Aging does
make me worry about the authentic feel of characters I never used to worry about.  Actually, aging makes me worry about
plenty of things that I never used to worry about.  Like, drinking out of a hose; when I was 10 we did this all
the time.  It never used to cross
my mind that it could have something wrong with it.  But maybe the ignorance of youth is double-edged sword.  Perhaps I will later get hose cancer
and perhaps the twenty-something characters I wrote in my twenties weren’t all
that great.  Or perhaps I should
just stop worrying and write with the same gusto that I did in the twenties,
trusting that it will all work out, and then go drink out of the hose, because
really it’s the same water that goes into my kitchen faucet, and the hoses
under the sink are made of rubber too and honestly it’s not going to matter any
more or less than the donut I might be having for dessert.

Bethany Maines is the author of
the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and
Facebook.

It’s Alllllivvvvvve!!

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by Bethany Maines

It’s here! It’s here!  Tales From the City of Destiny is
finally available for purchase! 
After what seems like months of writing, proofing, and review it
actually exists as a really, real book. Does this feeling ever get old?  I don’t think so. Last year, this
project was just an idea, barely an idea even, and here it is as a physical
object that anyone can hold.

As a graphic designer I marvel at
this phenomenon every time something I’ve dreamed up comes off the press. From
invitations to signs everything looks slightly different in real life than when
I began the creation process. Some things look better, some things are disappointing and some
things are neither bad or good ­– just different. And while every single time
it’s still cool that something I dreamed up is now a real physical object, the
dissonance between idea and reality no longer surprises me.
Except when it comes to my
books.  Somehow the process of
turning a word document that barely contains my invisible friends into an
actual book is… amazing. And I hope all of you will purchase your own copy and
enjoy reading about my invisible friends as much as I have enjoyed writing
about them.

Bethany Maines is the author of
the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and
Facebook.

Putting on the Sequel Panties

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by Bethany Maines

As my writing goal for this year, I am determined to get my
third book in the Carrie Mae series fully outlined and at least one draft
done.  Carrie Mae (for those who
haven’t picked up Bulletproof Mascara or Compact with the Devil) is the at home
make-up sales company that is a front for an international, all-female,
espionage organization.  And my
heroine Nikki Lanier is one of their top agents.  My original plan for the series involves 5 books, but life
(marriage, new business, new baby, changing book deals) has managed to delay my
production speed. I made this goal in January and as of Sunday had made zero
progress toward that goal.  Every
time I went to open up my notes I got pissy and decided to do something
else.  It got so bad, that I
actually did the dishes one day instead of working on my outline. If you knew
me at all that’s like saying I decided to have root canal instead of going on
vacation.

So Monday night I gave myself a stern little talking to and
opened my notes.  I can’t imagine
going through someone else’s writing notes and attempting to make sense out of
them. Going through my own notes is like trying to track an elusive animal
through the underbrush.  I followed
the traces of my own thoughts and began to realize that I was further along than
I remembered.  My outline was more
complete and my research was fairly cohesive.  But just as I remembered what I’d been planning to write, I
also remembered why I stopped. 
The first problem I had was that my plot involves pot
smuggling on the Canadian border and Washington State just legalized plot.  Thanks a lot Washington.  Thanks for deciding that if the medical
research indicates that pot isn’t all that dangerous maybe we should stop
spending money on prosecuting people and also try to make money off of it.  Or in other words, thanks for making my
writing life more difficult.
The second problem was more emotional. As I had been working
through the plot I came into a strategy conflict with my writer’s group.  They thought the novel was a too much
of a leap ahead in my story arcs and wanted at least one short story before the
book to fill the gap. I wasn’t convinced they were right and, even worse, I
wasn’t convinced they were wrong. 
The more we discussed the matter, the less certain I became.  And of course the more uncertain I was,
the more grumpy I became about the whole project.  So then I put it aside to “think” about it.  Which is writer code “I give up.”
But now I’m back, dang it.  I refuse to give up on my characters! I will revisit the
advice from my writer’s group.  I
will put on my big girl panties and make some decisions.  Because if I can’t dictate what my
fictional characters are going to do with their lives then I’m not much of a
writer now am I?
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and
Facebook.

Untitled Post

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If you read my post from a few weeks ago you’ll know that I
was anxiously awaiting the ARC of my next book.  It was so close to perfect.  So close, but not actually perfect.  The inside looks great, but there was a
tiny little printing error on the cover and the top of the letters that made up
title were chopped off!  Sigh. But
what’s bad for me could be good for you! 
Leave a comment here or on Facebook for a chance to win this slightly
not right advance copy of Tales From the City of Destiny.  I will select one commenter at random
and announce it on the Stiletto Gang Facebook page tomorrow!

In other, non-book related news, the Seahawks won their game
and are headed for the Super Bowl. Now maybe you don’t care, but I live in
Tacoma, which is 45 minutes from Seattle and EVERYONE cares.  Although apparently, in the rest of the
country, they only care that Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman was, to put it
in the vernacular, kind of a dick to another player and then shot his mouth off
on national TV.  I’m not sure where
you come down on the unsportsman like conduct issue, but I come down on the
side of not giving a crap. Sure, I disapprove. His behavior violated the prime directive of proper societal
behavior, also known as the Golden Rule, also known as “Don’t be a dick.”  But considering that there are people
out there suffering from actual problems, whether or not Richard Sherman’s
behavior is a sign of the coming apocalypse (hint: it isn’t) does not occupy a
great deal of my brain space. But you know the part of my brain it does
occupy?  The part that thinks,
“That’s an interesting character. An hour after losing his temper he’s joking
and charming in a custom cut suit and a bow tie (because bow ties are cool).  Where can I use that?  I’m not sure I’m comfortable writing
someone like that.  Maybe that’s
why I should write someone like that.” 
Which is how I came to the conclusion that I should write
someone like Richard Sherman – brash, excitable, charming, angry, and talented.
Because half of writing is about challenging my skills. Not just the mechanics
of how to construct a more elegant sentence, but how to build realistic
characters that aren’t like me. Staying in the safe zone with my characters and
my emotions means that my books will become flat and repetitive. If I’m not
looking to understand other types of people – Richard Sherman or anyone else
that’s different from me – then how can my writing grow?

Bethany Maines is the author of
the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and
Facebook.

Listening to the Sound of Words and the Voice of Characters

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Listening to the Sound of Words and the Voice of Characters
by Debra H. Goldstein

I like to talk to myself.  Not quietly in my mind, but out loud. My children cringe and fear the worst when they hear me. Joel ignores my occasional mutterings grateful they aren’t honey do directives.  I have no idea what someone watching a security camera filming an elevator or hallway thinks – especially when the words relate to murder or another heinous crime.  The fact is that as a writer, I need to hear the sound of words.

Testing dialogue or narrative works best for me if I can listen to the words.  Giving them vocal life allows me to feel the pace of a scene and the true voice of each character.  Often I realize that what is blocking the flow of the piece is that in trying to push the story, I overwrote it with words the characters never would have chosen to utter when expressing themselves.  The story only works when I respond to the awkwardness of my crafted sentences.

Many writers don’t have to talk aloud.  Instead, they hear voices in their heads. One of my first guest bloggers on my personal blog, “It’s Not Always a Mystery,” Lois Winston, author of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, described the phenomenon of “Those Voices in My Head” in February 2012. (http://debrahgoldstein.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/guest-blog-those-voices-in-my-head-by-lois-winston/ )  Lois explained that the voices belong to her characters. Her voices are not content to sit back and let her write their stories.  Instead, they argue plot lines, characterization, voice, and pace with her.  They often refuse to let the story proceed until she accedes to their demands. Time has taught her that the way the voices in her head want a book to be written is always correct.  Her newest book, Decoupage can be Deadly, is a perfect example of  combining polished writing skills with listening to the voices in her head to produce a delightful final product.

Linda Rodriguez, author of Every Last Secret, Every Broken Trust and Every Hidden Fear, has a similar involvement with her characters.  She recently blogged about how they speak to her and insist on having lives of their own, but she implied that what the characters say are extensions of her subconscious experiences and reading that she had failed to consciously pull together.  The impact of these subliminal messages barging into her consciousness is what works to makes half-Cherokee Marquitta “Skeet” Bannion and the other characters in Linda’s books so real. (https://www.thestilettogang.com/ – December 6, 2013) The result is that when one reads any of the books that feature “Skeet” Bannion, one immediately feels a kinship with “Skeet,” her family, friends and enemies. 
 
A third group of writers don’t talk out loud or hear voices.  Their story stumbling blocks are resolved while sleeping.  The loose ends of their stories come together in action sequences during their dreams.

Whether words are spoken aloud, voices are heard, or acted out during rem sleep, it is immaterial how subconscious story truth is reached.  The key is for a writer to recognize and accept the message. No matter how skilled a writer is, continually trying to push a round-pegged story into a square hole never produces a quality work product.  Being open to the sound of words and the thoughts characters speak can make the difference between writing that ends up in the drawer versus a book or story that is successful.  As a writer, what method do you use to find the true path a project is meant to take?
                                                                           ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Decoupage Can Be Deadly is the fourth book in Lois Winston’s Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series.  In Decoupage Can Be Deadly, Anastasia and her fellow American Woman editors are steaming mad when minutes before the opening of a consumer show, they discover half their booth usurped by Bling!, their publisher’s newest magazine. CEO Alfred Gruenwald is sporting new arm candy—rapper-turned-entrepreneur and Bling! executive editor, the first-name-only Philomena. During the consumer show, Gruenwald’s wife serves Philomena with an alienation of affection lawsuit, but Philomena doesn’t live long enough to make an appearance in court. She’s found dead days later, stuffed in the shipping case that held Anastasia’s decoupage crafts. When Gruenwald makes cash-strapped Anastasia an offer she can’t refuse, she wonders, does he really want to find Philomena’s killer or is he harboring a hidden agenda?
                                                                             ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In Every Broken Trust by Linda Rodriguez, life has settled into routine for half-Cherokee Marquitta “Skeet” Bannion now that she’s gained custody of fifteen-year-old Brian Jameson and shares care for her stroke-impaired father with her ex-husband—until the past reaches out to destroy everything she holds dear.

A party to celebrate the arrival in Brewster, Missouri, of George Melvin, a Kansas City politician accompanied by his troubled teenage daughter, wealthy wife, even wealthier backer, and mysterious employee, rapidly turns into disaster when Skeet’s best friend, Karen Wise, stumbles on a body in Chouteau University’s storage caves and is attacked herself.  Not knowing who she can trust as she finds friends and neighbors in Brewster keeping secrets from her, Skeet struggles against the clock to solve a series of linked murders stretching into the past before she loses Brian forever and her best friend winds up in jail—or dead.