KILLER HOBBIES

This 'n' That

2009-12-02T07:04:00.003-05:00

The book is finished, hurrah! It was sent as a file to my publisher two days ago. Whew! I think it was probably the most difficult to write -- mostly because I couldn't figure out why it was being so reluctant to come out of my head. I like the characters, it was a good story. Maybe it wasn't thrilling enough -- no one was trying to murder my sleuth and there weren't any fistfights -- such things make the pages fly by. We'll see what my editor thinks in a few weeks.

This weekend my writers group is holding a retreat. Sometimes we go away, this time we're staying close to home. One of the two days it is being held in the Party Room of the building I live in. Our Christmas tree is up and there's a gas fireplace and a kitchen, so it'll be very nice and cozy. We start early in the morning, and everyone will get a chance to read several chapters of whatever we're working on instead of just one, the critiquing will be a little deeper, the shared meals will tie us even closer, and it will be a valuable as well as a pleasurable time. We do this twice a year. My writers group has improved my writing tremendously. All you writers out there: Do you have a group? Is it helpful to you?

For many years I collected the Fontanini Christmas pieces. It started as the basic Creche: Mary, Joseph, the Babe, an angel, a pair of shepherds. Then the Three Kings. Then: Bethelehem! The green grocer, the innkeeper, the rug seller, the goose girl, the excited old man with a lantern, street musicians, the carpenter and his apprentice, the man with a basket of cherries, the woman with a basket of olives, the baker, the children . . . I have over three hundred pieces, if you count the sheep, the ducks, and the chickens. And no room to display them. We moved into a smaller place two years ago, and even using all of the kitchen breakfast wasn't enough. I thought about selling the set on e-Bay, but got what I hope is a better idea. I'm donating it to my church. They are very interested (I don't think they realize how BIG this collection is yet), and want me to be in charge of setting it up and taking it down. So I would still get to play with it, would have room to display it, and would get to share it with people. The best of all possible worlds.

November in Review

2009-12-01T00:03:00.009-05:00

Today's blog: featuring selected photos from November, when it's finally livably cool in the Bay Area!

DOLLHOUSE
Every year I enlist a crew to help me build and furnish a dollhouse to donate to a local school raffle. Here's this year's offering: a Victorian. What I like best: the little windows actually go up and down. Also, the front door is very interesting and appealing.

FUNDRAISER AT OUR LOCAL B&N
You may already be aware of Barnes & Noble's book fairs -- nonprofits can apply to hold a bookfair during which a percentage of all sales go to the organization. In my case, it's the California Writers Club, Mt. Diablo Branch, and the money goes to support our branch's Young Writers Contest. The contest is for middle school children who take a workshop and then write pieces that qualify for cash prizes and a banquet in their honor.
If you'd like to help, you can go to the URL below and print out the voucher. Use it for any sales this week, at ANY B&N in the country -- you pay the same as you would as usual, but we get the percent if you hand over the voucher at the register. It's good till Friday, 12/4.

Below (besides me) are Barbara Bentley ("A Dance with the Devil," best selling true crime) and Lynn Goodwin ("You Want Me to Do What?" a book on journaling for caregivers) at our table. You can also check out our volunteer gift wrappers, writers Bill Stong and Fran Wojnar. Photos thanks to Barbara.

OR, you might want to think of contacting them and setting up your own bookfair, for a school or nonprofit.
http://www.mtdiablowriters.org/B&NVoucherNov2009.pdf

CARD PARTY
No, not that kind. I had a card-MAKING party at my house on a Sunday in November. Our instructor is an expert in stamping and in all things like brads, ribbons, punches, and glitter. We had a great time, putting together 12 cards each in 3 hours. It doesn't sound like a lot, but for beginners like me, it was a whirlwind afternoon!

SCHOOL
Nothing better than classes. Besides the ones I taught in November, I took two: a workshop on plotting the novel, with Janis Cook Newman, and one on magazine writing with Elizabeth Fishel and a panel of magazine writers. Both useful and motivating!

BOOK EVENTS
Lots of book events in November, including this one at the Livermore Public Library, with Ann Parker, Sophie Littlefield, and Juliet Blackwell.

On to December and more fun! What are you looking forward to?

Write What You Know

2009-11-29T18:00:00.000-05:00

New writers are often told: Write what you know. By doing so, you’ll gets the details right. The feel right. And you won’t have to spend all your time on research. Sounds like good advice ... until you actually get published. And then, if you’ve done your job well, people think that everything you wrote must have actually happened to you. So let me take this opportunity, dear readers, to remind you:

IT’S FICTION!

I write short stories. My first published story, in Chesapeake Crimes II, involved a woman who compulsively washed her hands because her mother had ingrained that behavior in her. After the story came out, my dad, who had lived with my mom and me all my life until I left for college—so he clearly should have known better—actually called me and said with concern in his voice, “Did Mommy really make you wash your hands all the time?”

IT’S FICTION!

My second short story, in Chesapeake Crimes 3, was about a woman who finally took revenge on her husband after a thirty-year-long abusive marriage. Have I ever been married? Nooo. Did that stop people I know from asking me, “Did that really happen to you?”

Oh my Lord. Fiction!

I guess I should be happy for the questions. It means that not only have people been reading my stories but that the stories feel so real that folks think I must be writing from firsthand knowledge. But I have to say, it gets a little disconcerting when your own family members think you’ve based unflattering characters on them.

My most recent story, “The Worst Noel,” appears in an anthology called The Gift of Murder. It’s about a woman, Gwen, who is the less-favored child in her family. Her older sister was always prettier, thinner, more popular. And no matter what she does, Gwen can’t seem to get anything right in her mother’s eyes. Then the holidays come, there’s a little too much family togetherness, and Gwen decides she’s had way more than enough. She takes matters into her own hands, and the ensuing Christmas Eve dinner will be one her family never forgets. It’s a fun story that plays upon the idea that the holidays are supposed to be magical, but for many people, they’re just one long nightmare to slog through.

So The Gift of Murder was published in October, and the questions and comments began. “Boy, you must really hate your sister.” And “Was your mother really like that?” My real sister is certain I based the horrible older sister on her. (I swear I didn’t.) My dad said he “recognized” the father in the tale.

Sigh. Oh well. At least I call fall back on that old saw: It’s fiction! (Even if I did base the story a little bit on personal experience.)

I hope your holidays are better than Gwen’s. And if you like short stories, or know others who do, I recommend you pick up a copy of The Gift of Murder for yourself, and several more for your friends and family as holiday gifts. Edited by John Floyd, it has 19 stories from some great authors. All involve crime at the holidays (so festive!). You can order it from your favorite indie bookstore, the major chains, and directly from the publisher via T he Gift of Murder. You can also get it on Kindle or via other digital means through The Digital Bookshop.

Still on the fence? Here’s the best part: The publisher, Wolfmont Press, is donating all the profits from the book to Toys for Tots. This is the fourth year Wolfmont is engaging in this charitable event. So picking up this book is like two gifts in one: You get to enjoy the book, and you get to help needy kids at the same time. And that, my friends, is not fiction.

As my gift to you, I’m going to raffle off one signed copy of The Gift of Murder. But it’s not quite that simple. To enter, you have to tell us an interesting or funny holiday story from your past. Everyone who comments with a story before midnight tonight (November 30th) will have their names thrown in a hat, and the winner will get the book. So here’s your chance: Write what you know!
* * *

Barb Goffman is an Agatha Award-nominated author who toils as a lawyer by day to pay the vet bills at night for her miracle dog, Scout. (He had cancer three times, but now he’s cured!) She grew up on Long Island but figures she must have been Southern in another life because half the voices she hears in her head—oops, sorry, half the characters she creates—are Southern. In addition to the short stories mentioned above, Barb will have a new story coming out this spring in the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’, a wonderful book with twenty tales of murder and revenge. Barb’s website is http://www.barbgoffman.com/.

News and Appearances

2009-11-29T00:01:00.001-05:00

All the Killer Hobbies Blog Sisters hope you enjoyed our Thanksgiving recipes, notes, and good wishes!

On December 7, we'll start our annual Last Minute Homemade Gifts parade. Be sure to join us for gifts you can create from your heart and hands without dipping too far into your wallet.

On December 14, we'll discuss Favorite Gifts for Crafters including a peek at gifts we could have lived without...

Monday’s author, Joanna Campbell Slan, is hoping to read some, write some, and buy mattresses for her second guest room today.

On November 13-15, she'll be appearing at Murder & Mayhem In Muskegan MI.

On November 18, at noon, Joanna'll be teaching a mini-album class at the Washington County Free Library, 100 S. Potomac Street, Hagerstown MD. Call 301-739-3250 x 186 for details.

You can always follow Joanna's appearances by logging onto http://www.booktour.com/ Put "Joanna Slan" in the SEARCH box.

Tuesday’s author, Camille Minichino (Margaret Grace) has finished a dollhouse for donation to a local school raffle. Watch for a photo on Tuesday!

Wednesday's author, Monica Ferris, tells us that next Saturday she will be speaking at the Public Library in Ortonville, MN, from 1 to 3 pm. Her books will be offered for sale, too.

On June 12 and 13 she will be at a grand quilt show in Duluth. The show, Great Lake, Great Quilts, is sponsored by Minnesota Quilts, Inc., and will take place at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center (DECC) located right down on the harbor. Lessons, exhibits, merchants -- and our own Monica, signing books!

On October 3 Monica will be debuting the thirteenth Betsy Devonshire needlework mystery at "Gaylaxicon," a science-fiction convention in St. Louis Park (a suburb of Minneapolis). Details to follow.

Thursday's author, Linda O. Johnston is busy being ordered around by her dogs, but reports these special appearances: On Saturday, October 17, Linda will be on a panel at the Bonita Branch of the San Diego Library on Chick Lit, at 2 PM

On Sunday, October 18, she'll be at the Los Angeles Romance Authors Book Fair at noon, at the Barnes & Noble at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Hayvenhurst in the San Fernando Valley.Please go see her!

Friday's author, Terri Thayer, is probably quilting.

Saturday's author, Betty Hechtman, is busy writing and crocheting.

Visit us every Sunday for updates and news. For specifics or to contact any individual author, click on our personal websites listed in the sidebar. Thanks for stopping by--and be sure to sign up to follow us as we have all sorts of fun adventures planned for the future!

Hold the Turkey

2009-11-28T03:18:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving with it nickname of Turkey Day isn’t exactly my best holiday since I’m a vegetarian. I’ve been a one for twenty-five years and no one else in my family is a vegetarian, so long ago we realized that going to a restaurant was the best option.

The first question people usually ask is what I eat. The answer is simple. I eat everything except meat, fish or fowl. And no I’m not a bean freak or a tofu nut. I don’t worry about what I’m going to eat either. It does turn out that Thanksgiving is usually carbs on parade for me. Salad and vegetables seem to get short shift on holiday dinners.

One year we went to a restaurant that had a vegetarian option. It was located in Topanga Canyon and the outdoor tables were built into a hillside overlooking a creek. Very picturesque, but very small portions. My son ate his turkey dinner and then ate most of my not turkey dinner. I’m still hearing about that Thanksgiving.

Lately we’ve been going to a place at the beach. Yesterday they offered a buffet with turkey, shrimp, fish ham and roast beef, along with stuffing, rice, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, and caesar salad. Like I said, my dinner ends up being a carb fiesta. But who cares. The company was good and watching the sun sink into the ocean was serene. I had a great view of Catalina and was on the lookout for dolphins swimming by. I didn’t see any this time, but there were lots of pelicans swooping into the water picking up their dinner. The window next to me was open and I thought one of the sea gulls was going to step in and join us.

We took Malibu Canyon to get there. It goes from through open meadows dotted with California oaks and then between tall rocky mountains before the ocean opens in front of you. It was dark and mysterious on the way back.

I don’t have a favorite Thanksgiving recipe to share, but then by now everybody is probably fooded out anyway. Christmas/Hanukkah are my favorite food holiday. They're about cookies, holiday bread, donuts and potato pancakes with a yule log cake thrown in. If we share Christmas recipes, I'll have one to share for sure.

Leftovers

2009-11-27T00:23:00.003-05:00

Let's face it. The best thing about Thanksgiving dinner is leftovers. Everything tastes better the second day (or the second dinner on the same day). On Friday, I'm usually content to eat the entire meal again. Isn't this why microwaves were invented? Saturday, a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce is sublime. By Sunday night though, the turkey is looking dried out and picked over, the stuffing is all gone, and the gravy looks like something you'd spread on tile to set it.

Time for my favorite recipe: Turkey Croquettes. When I was first introduced to them as a young married by my mother in law, my first reaction was EWWWW. Why would anyone eat little balls of turkey? But they soon become another reason to roast a turkey.

Especially when I eliminated the frying. Here you go. Give them a try.

Turkey Croquettes

3T flour

1/3 c butter

1 c milk

salt and pepper

2 c chopped turkey

1 T parsley

1/4 c of chopped onion

bread crumbs

egg

Make a white sauce by whisking together the melted butter and flour over med heat and gradually adding the milk, stirring until thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the turkey, parsley and onion.

Chill. Form balls of the croquette mixture and bread. Dip into egg, then bread again. You can chill again at this point.

Bake for 20 minutes at a 375 degree oven. Enjoy.

Croquettes usually signal the end of the turkey. Time for looking forward to the Christmas bird.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday season with plenty of leftovers.

Quiet Holiday

2009-11-26T01:05:00.001-05:00

This is the first Thanksgiving I can remember being so quiet. We’ve usually had both of our sons around, or at least one. But our older son is now married and lives in Chicago. He and his wife will be visiting us in December (yay!) but not for Thanksgiving this year. Our younger son is traveling out of the country. So, it’s just my husband and me as far as family goes. And the dogs, of course, but they don’t get to join in the turkey dinner fun with us--just puppy snacks.

We enjoy celebrating with other people, though, so we’ve invited our next door neighbor, who had been considering plans out of town but decided to join us instead. He’s more of a gourmet cook than I and he’s bringing some stuff. I’ll stick to basics.

I’m going to be the first Killer Hobbyist to break with this week’s traditions. No recipe from me--sorry! As I said, I stick with basics, especially with so few to cook for, so I’m not pulling out my old favorite formulas, even to pass them along.

Anyone else having as quiet a holiday as I am? I wish you all a very happy one!

Thanksgiving Memories

2009-11-25T06:41:00.003-05:00

I am the oldest of six children, so my memories of Thanksgiving tend to be jumbles of noise and children, both from when I and my siblings were youngsters and later, when they brought their own youngsters to the feast. The sheer exuberance of those times are golden sparkles in my memory. I remember one time going to Marshall, Illinois, to have Thanksgiving with Aunt Mamie, Uncle Paul, and a set of aunts, uncle and cousins, some of whom I had never met. There must have been forty people in that house! I remember it because I got to sit at the grown ups' table, a gratifying experience, even if most of the talk was about crops and canning -- they were mostly farmers on that side of the family.

But there is one exception to those times. I was working a killer job, full of stress, and trying to go to college in the evenings as well. Thanksgiving came on the horizon and suddenly I couldn’t face the racket. I begged off and spent the day alone in my apartment half a state away from my sister Therese’s house, where the others gathered. It seemed everyone else in the building had a home to go to for their feast, so it was really quiet. I had somewhere found a half of a turkey breast, so I roasted that, and made a salad and baked a single potato. I found a great old movie on television and watched that. I read a favorite book. I was so grateful for the peace and quiet, I felt no guilt at staying away from the home gathering, and returned to work refreshed and renewed. It was and remains one of my favorite Thanksgiving memories.

This year I am celebrating Thanksgiving twice. Once today, a day early, and again tomorrow, on the actual day. The early Thanksgiving started some years back when a dear friend of mine and my husband’s complained to us that he had to go home to his raucous family, at that time full of ructions and quarrels, for Thanksgiving dinner. He asked us what we were doing, and I said I was roasting the smallest turkey I could find (we LOVE leftovers!), then lighting a fire in the fireplace and settling down with favorite books. He said immediately, “Can I come?” We changed our plans to celebrate Thanksgiving a day early so he could store up the peace and quiet before facing the noisy Thanksgiving. He liked it so much that we continued the custom even after his family stopped marking the holiday by shouting at one another across the dinner table. One year my sister-in-law called to ask if we were holding early Thanksgiving and asked if she could come. She had been caught in the middle of one of those family quarrels whose terms seemed to be, “If she’s coming, then I’m not cooking.” All Margaret wanted was a slice of turkey. We told her she was welcome. After a hiatus of several years, we’re doing it again -- we agreed to do it before we got the invitation to a regular Thanksgiving meal with my husband’s family.

This year we’ll have three guests, all seeking something quiet. We’re in our new place and we don’t have a fireplace. But I bought one of those imitation wood-burning stoves with the fake fire for my office and I may haul it out into the living room to create a little nostalgia.

One dish I’m serving is Aunt Velva’s Bean Salad, which I only make twice a year because it’s so fattening.

Two cans of dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
One small onion, chopped
Four or five little sweet gherkins, sliced into rounds
Two hard boiled eggs, chopped

Mix these ingredients in a bowl and make the dressing:

One-quarter cup cider vinegar
One-half cup sugar
One cup sour cream

Blend well and pour over the bean mixture. Stir. This tastes especially good if you make it the day before and let it marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Have a Happy, Joyous Thanksgiving

Home -- or not -- for the holidays

2009-11-24T00:01:00.001-05:00

My favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the group around the table. For one reason or another many people don't make it "home" for this holiday and for us that often means an eclectic group of people, not just family, come together. One of our friends who moved into a new house is hosting this year, so my husband and I and my in-law family will join her and other friends to help "bless the house."

The only rule every year: whoever shows up must contribute to the pile of Christmas presents we wrap and send off to those with less to be thankful for -- one year it's through a church facility, another year a disenfranchised family; this year a woman's shelter. Last year a college student in our family drew the name of a teenager in a struggling family. With her presents, she included a note inviting the girl to visit her college for a day. The girl took her up on the offer and a new, unlikely friendship was born, to the enrichment of both young women.

While most of us wrap presents, the cook is arranging our feast!
As I confessed yesterday on Joanna's blog, I'm kitchen challenged and can't turn out anything complicated. Here are two day-care level recipes. I'll take these to share and hope there's someone like Joanna at the dinner!

The irony is that both recipes were given to me by my cousin, who could make a 20-step recipe without breaking stress level #1.

CRANBERRY SQUARES
2 eggs
 1 cup sugar
 1 cup flour
 1/3 cup melted butter
1 1/4 cup fresh whole cranberries
 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Mix everything together. Batter will be sticky. Spread in greased baking dish, 8- or 9-inches. Bake in 350 oven for about 30 minutes, until golden brown. Tester should come out clean.

CRANBERRY CHUTNEY
2 cups sugar
1 bag. fresh cranberries
1 cup whole raisins
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups pineapple tidbits
Mix everything except pineapple. Cook to boiling, then simmer 20 minutes. Add pineapple tidbits. Remove from heat and refrigerate when cool.

If anyone has a one bowl, one stir recipe, please share it!
Happy Thanksgiving!

One Prayer of Gratitude and Two Recipes

2009-11-22T21:00:00.001-05:00

# #

Here is my favorite quotation about gratitude. It's by Meister Eckhart:
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

I am grateful for so much and for so many people in my life. Most especially, I'm grateful for my family. The photo above is of my grand-nephew, Skyler. Babies are a constant wonderment. This little guy has awesome power because he can always make people smile!

# #

You know, when we focus on what we have, not what we want, our eyes open to our good fortune. Behavioral scientists have discovered that people overestimate the amount of happiness aquisition of any "thing" will bring them. So we move through life relentlessly trying to possess this and that, hoping we'll find elusive joy...and it's only that: elusive.

I once heard a motivational speaker tell a story about a man and his wife who had struggled to build a beautiful house on a farm. They lived there for years in contentment until a tornado destroyed the building. In the aftermath, the man and his wife walked the site, viewing the destruction. The woman was crying but the man was smiling. She asked him, "What's wrong with you? Don't you care that we've lost all this?" And he said, "I'm gladder than sadder. Gladder that I had the years of enjoyment than sadder for my loss."

This Thanksgiving, I will try to be gladder than sadder. I've lost my mother this year, and we sold the house where we raised our son. But I'm gladder that I was by my mother's side when she needed me, gladder that my sisters and I could pull together and lean on each other, gladder that I have good memories and a strong family--and as for the house? A house is just an edifice for storing good memories. I have a new home, and with every day I add a new memory to my mental album.

# #

Meanwhile, here are a couple of recipes to share--and I hope some of you will send in your recipes as well! We had such a great response last week to our Writing Clinic that all of us plan to do it again soon. So, stay tuned!

Apple Tarte Tatin

I actually attended a Cordon Bleu class when we lived in England. I kept waiting for one of the chefs to come toss me out! But no one did, so I took a lot of notes. I've made this, and it's a glorious desert. When you tell people it came from the famous Cordon Bleu, their eyes light up!

1 sheet 8 x 8 inch puff pastry thawed or pie crust rolled flat

8 apples

2 T. fresh lemon juice

1 T. butter

1 T. sugar (or more. More sugar is always better, IMHO)

4 T. water

For topping--

4 oz. sugar

2 T. butter

Roll the pastry to 1/4 inch thick.

Peel, core the apples, slice into quarters or so, toss in a bowl with lemon juice.

Place 1 T. sugar in cast iron skillet, pour in sugar in an even layer. Put on stove at medium heat. Don't touch until this turns golden brown, then stire in butter and pour all into an 8" round baking pan. Place apples tightly in pan. Brush with melted 4 0z. butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Remove from oven. Place puff pastry on top and tuck in around. Cook another 30 minutes. Allow to cool to room temp. Run a knife around the outside. Flip onto serving plate. Serve with ice cream.

# #

Persian Spaghetti

Tired of turkey? Or do you need a pre-holiday meal for your guests? This is an excellent way to stretch a small amount of meat. Don't let the spices scare you. The finished mix is a wonderful savory meal. A college friend who married a man from Iran dreamed this up. I find it a lovely comfort food when the cold weather approaches.

one box of spaghetti (whole wheat)

1/2 pound of hamburger

1/2 large onion

2 cloves garlic

one small can sliced mushrooms

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. tumeric

3 pinches of nutmeg

1 can of tomato paste

butter or margarine

Start water boiling for spaghetti. (I like the whole wheat pasta because it's more chewy.)

Put in pasta when water is boiling. You can try 1/2 a box and later up the amount of pasta if you wish. (It depends on the amount of "sauce" pasta ratio you prefer!)

Meanwhile, brown 1/2 pound of hamburger with 1/2 chopped large onion and drain. Add one clove of garlic, crushed, if desired. (You can do without the garlic if you're a vampire.) Add one drained small can of sliced mushrooms, if desired. Add 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. turmeric and three pinches of nutmeg. Stir in one small can of tomato paste. Mix together well. Add the hamburger and tomato paste "sauce" to the drained pasta. You want to try to coat the pasta with the mixture, but the mixture will be dry as opposed to wet sauces. Serve in a bowl with a heaping tsp. of butter on top. (Or more butter!) Yum.

Setting

2009-11-21T01:44:00.003-05:00

I’m ending the week of writer’s information by writing about setting. Setting is where your story takes place. The where. The best way for me to write about setting is to talk about how I used setting in A Stitch in Crime which comes out in February.

In this installment of the crochet mysteries, the group has gone on a retreat on the tip of the Monterey Peninsula at a place called Asilomar Conference Center. I personally love Asilomar and have been there numerous times, but went again while I was working on the book. Not that I really need an excuse to go to that area. Just writing about it now makes me want to pack my bag.

Asilomar is somewhere between a camp and a resort. It was originally built as a YWCA camp and designed by Julia Morgan who also designed Hearst Castle. The original buildings were built between 1913 and 1928. They are Arts and Crafts style which means lots of weathered wood shingles and stone from the area. Between the buildings the grounds have been left wild. The tall scrawny Monterey pines are native in a only two other areas outside the Monterey Peninsula. Fallen trees are left where ever they land. The other trees I associate with the place are the Monterey Cypress. The have gnarled trunks and the constant wind makes their foliage grow horizontally. To me they look like old men running away with their hair blowing in the breeze.

I had my characters stay in a building called Lodge which was built around 1917. I’ve stayed there myself and the accommodations are spartan. There are no phones or televisions, but the building has a common living room with a fireplace that’s usually going.

The beach is a short walk away and a lot of the action in the book takes place there. The sand is silky soft and very white and comes from the wave abrasion of local granodiorite rocks. The waves are rough and the water actually is sea foam green.

Food is served in a dining hall which was a great way to get all my characters together. There is an outdoor spot with fire pit where my characters met to roast marshmallows.

In addition to going to Asilomar, I bought books on the area and collected all kinds of printed material. I wanted to be able to mention the names of things, along with describing them. I ended up with much more information than I needed and had to cut out some sections that seemed to much like a travelogue.

There is a brooding moodiness from all those dark buildings and the almost constant fog that works nice with a murder. I blew in more fog for the story than I’ve ever seen there, but then it is fiction. I also played up the sense of isolation since Asilomar is literally located on the end of the continent.

I tried to include the smell of the place which is a combination of smoke from the fireplaces mixed with a strong pine scent and the damp ocean air.

And after all my work the Berkley art department did a great job of capturing the setting on the cover.

Getting the Most from a Critique Group

2009-11-19T23:34:00.000-05:00

Becky Levine is the author of The Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide, coming from Writer's Digest Books in January. You can read more about Becky at her website, www.beckylevine.com.

Obviously, I’m a big believer in the benefits of a critique group. I think a strong group can be one of the biggest gifts you can give to your writing life. This kind of group does not, however, appear out of the blue like magic. Like everything else in life, you’ll need to put some work into it.

There are basically three stages of a critique group:
Finding or starting a group
Learning to critique and to critique together
Growing a group that evolves to support each member’s shifting needs

When you set out to find or start a group, you should identify your own goals first. Are you a mystery writer? Do you want to critique only with writers working in your genre, or are you open to hearing from anyone who works with words? Do you want to work with an online group, or in-person with people who live nearby? And where are you on your writing path—just starting out or with publication directly in your sights? Think about all these things. The bottom line with a critique group is trust and that indefinable “match”, but knowing what you want for your writing will get you closer to finding the right group.

Once you start critiquing, take the time to help each other learn the skills of reading deeply, exploring and explaining your reactions to a story, and delivering a critique in a respectful, helpful manner. Work also, on how to receive a critique—how to really listen to the feedback, give yourself time to process it and see how it may fit into your story. Don’t dismiss the time and energy a critique partner has put into their comments, and ask questions if something isn’t clear. Talk out any problems that come up—you’ve come together to help each other with your writing, and pushing negative feelings down just makes them come back up later...bigger than they were before.

As your group critiques together over time, whether a few months or a few years, be flexible. Everybody’s writing path takes them in a different direction, often one the author didn’t even see coming. If you all came together to work on cozies, someone may shift to police procedurals or decide to dip into a noir series. Two of you may stay content to submit a chapter or two a month; one of you may want to hand their book over in big chunks, even ask the rest of you to read the full manuscript. You’ll want to set aside time for brainstorming, and you can help each other with query letters when the time comes that you’re submitting to agents. When you first start out, you can’t see where your critique group will go. Stay open to changes, accommodate each other’s need whenever you can, and watch the group grow. You’ll be thrilled with where it will take you all.

With care, work, and—yes, a little luck—you can become part of a critique group that teaches you writing and revision skills, supports and motivates you through the ups and downs of the writing life, and that helps you move constantly forward on your own writing path. Is this kind of group worth that work?

Beyond a doubt.

Lesson Four - Point of View

2009-11-19T00:53:00.001-05:00

I chose this topic since I’m now writing concurrently in two points of view--first person for my cozy mysteries, and third person for my Silhouette Nocturnes.

Let me step back and explain point of view, just in case you don’t know or need a refresher. (And that sentence somewhat involves second person, BTW!)

What is Point of View

Point of view (POV) refers to the perspective from which a particular story is being told.

There are generally three main types of POV:

- First person, where the story is told in the narrator’s POV - “I” and “me.”

- Second person, which is told with reference to “you” - “You went to the door and opened it, and then you looked outside.”

- Third person, in which the story is told by the characters being referred to as “he” or “she.” The best third person stories (in my opinion) are generally those where the reader still gets inside the POV character’s thoughts, although there are also “omniscient” or “authorial” subcategories of POV where the reader simply watches a scene as it’s told by the author.

And of course there are combinations of the above, especially in today’s stories where so many of the old rules have often been tossed out. It used to be a no-no to change types of POV in the same book, but not any more. You can do a chapter in first person, then switch to third in the next, then back again.

How Do You Choose Point of View?

Sometimes, depending on the genre in which you’re writing, you don’t have a choice. It’s a standard, and if you’re not comfortable with it, try writing something else.

For example, I write dark and sexy paranormal romances for Silhouette Nocturne. Because they are romances, I need to get into the heads of both the hero and heroine and let the readers know what each is thinking--the attraction, their conflict, how they both deal with the issues in the book. That only works well in third person.

I also write cozy mysteries. My Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries are in Kendra’s POV, and they’re written in first person. She pretty much told me, when I started the series, that she preferred it that way. Mysteries, though--whether cozy or not--can be either first or third person, whichever seems to work best for your story.

And that’s the key in most genres: whichever seems to work best for your story.

I’ve started writing a thriller, and they work best in third person, as do most suspense stories. Getting into the bad guys’ heads along with the protagonists’, and other characters’, is a great way of ramping up the suspense.

Right now, I’m working on my first story in the spin-off from my Kendra books, another cozy mystery series about Lauren Vancouver, pet rescuer. She’s introduced in HOWL DEADLY, the Kendra book that’s about to be published, in December of this year. She has a legal issue that Kendra helps to resolve. We meet her through Kendra’s POV, since Kendra books are always in first person. And when I started getting to know Lauren better while I began writing her first book, she, too, insisted that her stories be told in first person! She’s a very different character from Kendra, though. It’s been interesting writing about what “I” did, but in an entirely different voice.

How Do You Use Point of View?

Again, it’s whatever works best for you and your story.

It’s pretty simple when you’re in first person. You’re always in your protagonist’s head, and therefore constantly describe what “I’m” doing.

Third person can be a little more complicated, especially when you have more than one POV character. The main thing, if there are two or more POV characters, is to be clear about whose head you’re in. That’s not to say you can’t switch POVs within one scene, but you don’t want the reader to think you’re in the heroine’s thoughts and then all of a sudden realize they’re the hero’s --likewise, the protagonist’s versus the villain’s. You can handle that the easy way by saying something like “she thought” but that gets old after a while. Instead, you can you’re your writing more interesting by starting a paragraph by, for example, describing something the character is doing to establish whose view you’re in.

But if you do this--watch out for the dreaded head-hopping! Switching each paragraph in a scene to another character’s POV, or even doing it within the same paragraph, can get confusing to readers and could even lead them to tossing your book across the room... assuming your editor even lets it stand.

What works best for me is to change scenes, or even chapters, when I’m moving from one person’s third person POV to another. It’s clear that way, and I don’t have to worry about including a lot of signals about whose thoughts I’m in--just at the beginning of the scene.

Your POV

So... what are your thoughts on POV? I’ve given you mine. And the readers of this blog posting will also be interested...

How to Plot a Mystery

2009-11-18T06:18:00.003-05:00

Before I begin pontificating on how to plot a good mystery, I want to throw out this terrific warning. Go here and learn why getting into writing professionally may not be the best idea you ever had: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/11/09/writers-and-financial-woes-whats-going-on/

1. Think "What if . . . " What if you were watching TV some evening and your phone rings. Answering it with a mumble, you hear, "The blow will be in the green suitcase arriving on Flight 340 tomorrow at five." (What if you knew that “blow” is slang for powder cocaine?) What if a third grader overheard a teacher talking about murdering someone? What if you saw your best friend walk up to a squad car and hand the officer a large amount of cash? Every story has its origins in "What if . . . " You might also call this origin your SCENARIO. Catch the news, listen to gossip, read a sports magazine, watch a Discovery or Learning channel program with that in mind, and pretty soon you’ll have, like me, a criminal mind.

2. When you start to actually sit down to write your story, begin at the end. Nearly all mystery stories have a point near the end when the sleuth says, "Let me explain." He or she then reviews briefly what has been going on all along, concluding by unveiling the guilty party. Even if you do not plan to have a scene like this, you must have the solution as clear in your head as if you will. People studying to be police detectives are taught that in order to solve a crime you must answer, Who? What? Why? When? Where? and How? You should know the answers to these questions before writing your story. If you know where you’re going, it’s easier to get there.

3. Naturally, all this planning will invent the clues that will lead to the catching of your culprit. If you’re writing a “Play Fair” mystery, in which you will give your readers the opportunity to solve the mystery ahead of the sleuth, try breaking the clues into fragments dropped IN THE WRONG ORDER throughout the story. It can be clever to put your main clue in first, before your readers have your characters sorted out. (Make sure your clues are the sort your detective can discover and interpret. If the solution relies on esoteric knowledge about medicine, make your heroine a doctor. If the clues involve fingerprints, blood analysis, and the like, better make her a cop with access to a forensics expert. Or a forensics expert – but this will call for a LOT of research. If the clues involve the nuances of human behavior, don't make him a nerd or misanthropist, unless you also plan some major changes in his attitude.) Find some solid lead that points to a suspect (not the perpetrator) to drop in with calculated carelessness. Invent a clue that absolutely clears him/her -- and either mix it with a seemingly more important bit of information, or put it in BEFORE the clue that points. It is great fun to cause your reader to be certain Ingrid did it, when all the time it was the grandfather. BUT, the reader shouldn't feel cheated; she should say at the end, "Darn, I missed that clue, and it was right there in front of me." Read Agatha Christie to discover a mistress at this game.

4. Having all this sorted out and written down, go to the beginning and invent a "Grabber." You want an opening sentence that will draw your reader immediately into the story, or is so strange that more of the story simply has to be read. For example, "It was all Tom's fault; he's the one who brought an elephant to church." (For a “white elephant sale” he brings a white plaster elephant as his contribution.)

5. There can be any number of people mentioned in your story ("a cast of thousands" if you like) but your reader should be required to keep track of the names and actions of no more than seven characters. (You will need a victim, a detective, and least two suspects, so add new characters carefully.) Do not name them Don, Dan, Dave, Doug, Sue, Sandi, and Sally; name them Gloria, Herman, Ingrid, Jessye, Marvel-Ann, Pedro, and Desktop.

6. Keep the story moving, keep the reader guessing what will happen next, then toss in an ending that makes him laugh or feel surprised. But remember, the ending has to fit the story; don't cheat by making the perpetrator someone you introduce on the next to last page. On the other hand, some kinds of sleight of hand in short stories can be okay. For example: A little boy overhears a teacher saying something on the phone that seems to mean the teacher did something illegal. The teacher sees him listening and orders him to stay after school. The boy is so scared he appears sick, so another teacher sends him to the nurse, who decides to call his mother. The mother goes to talk to his teacher, who rises in confusion and stammers out something indicating he is guilty of a serious crime. Why? Because the boy's mother came straight from her job to pick up her son -- and she's a police officer! (See how the surprise comes because you don't know the mother is a cop until the very end? The boy in the story knows, and the nurse who called her knows. The trick here is to keep the reader from knowing until after the teacher has blurted something incriminating.) NOTE: this is not a play-fair mystery, but it's cute – and salable.

7. The hardest part of writing a story is the middle. New and young authors especially have trouble with this. They find (surprise!) it is actually work to write this part. They get discouraged and quit. Or they try to be clever and avoid the work by writing the beginning and then the end. This, unfortunately, leaves the reader with nothing to do -- such as get to know the characters, or solve the crime themselves. But the middle is where the story happens, so spend time on it. Why does your hero stick with it when all he gets is frustration? (Maybe the police think your hero murdered his wife, and the only way he can clear himself is to find out who really did it.) What do the cops think of his doing his own investigating? What does he think of doing it? How does he figure out where to begin? And what does he find out? Something shocking right away, so he -- and the reader -- understand he is right to start digging. Maybe he finds evidence in her checkbook of large, unexplained, regular payments -- was she being blackmailed? Maybe he comes across some dark secret from her past he uncovers when he is packing away her things: a baby, a stint at Betty Ford. Who had motive? Opportunity? Provide a lot of information -- too much. Is the fact that Jessye called in sick Monday a clue? Does the fact that Marvel-Ann came over to borrow a cup of flour on Wednesday when Ingrid says she bought a five-pound sack on Tuesday afternoon a clue or just a piece of information? Or is Ingrid lying? Where did Pedro get the money to bail out Herman? Does Desktop wear second-hand clothes because he likes them or because he can't afford to shop at Wal-Mart? Have fun, but remember, everything in the middle should move the story toward the solution.

8. Try to think what you would do in the same situation your put your characters in. And what your sister, or father, or Aunt Sarah would do. (Like dialing 911!) That way, your characters should behave like real people, and your story is easy for your reader to believe.

9. Trite but true: write what you know. But if you don't know, go find out! It is accuracy of detail that creates and sustains suspension of disbelief, and this goes double for mysteries, where "a fact that ain't so" is a clue. (Example: If a character tells the sleuth that she saw someone screwing a barrel-shaped thing onto the end of a six-shooter before firing it, and that’s why no one heard the shot, she’s lying. Silencers work poorly on revolvers.) Writers are researching all the time. They read everything. Some are adventurous, they explore, stretch, challenge themselves. Writers are curious; they never know what little detail will prove helpful next time they are building a plot.

10. Study the kind of stories you want to write. Read them several times. Try catching a favorite author as he or she lays down the plot, describes characters, slips clues in. You might even try writing a sample story in his style.

11. Keep Writing! The writer finds it both a love and an obsession, because only love (or obsession) will keep her sitting for hours and hours at her desk. If it is right for you, you will discover no pleasure in the world like that of getting lost in a world of your own making. You will come to care desperately about your hero, and wish him well even when you are putting him in a situation that will test him to the limit; you will find yourself angry at the villain, laughing when your hero is made ridiculous, smiling through your tears at a happy ending. (If this isn't happening, re-write until it does!)

12. Don't be discouraged by rejection slips; every writer gets them, even successful ones. Persevere: One day, possibly when you least expect it, you will get the immensely flattering news that a publisher wants to pay you for your story!

Although the rules set forth above are true and correct, so was Mr. Maugham when he said, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Please don't forget that.

Lesson Two: Writing a Scene

2009-11-17T00:01:00.005-05:00

Camille Minichino/Margaret Grace here, joining the week long online writing clinic with a piece on writing a scene.

As a beginning writer, my biggest challenge was how to construct a scene. I'd read many books on writing, heard many lectures. They told me WHAT to do: make sure your character has a need or desire that propels the scene; provide conflict; give details using all the senses; use plot points for escalating action. And do it all well. But I never heard or read HOW to do it.

I owe the following HOW TO to Mr. Zachariou, (if you're out there in blogspace, Thank You!) a writing teacher who finally gave me an answer I could relate to.

Here's how it works.

There are six elements to a good scene. Or, there may be 118, which is the current number of elements in the periodic table. No one really knows, in either case. If you're old enough, this will remind you of those books and articles in the seventies when we were led to believe that there were four rules for a happy marriage, five steps to better skin, seven wardrobe basics, and so on.

In the same way, six is not a magic number, but let's just say that it's very handy to think of a scene in terms of six basic elements:

1. Action — from a simple movement like taking a seat, to leaping tall buildings
2. Dialogue — words spoken aloud, even to one's self
3. Physical description of setting — details about the environment, space/time; mood; weather
4. Physical description of characters — status details such as facial expressions, clothing, distinguishing features and appearance
5. Internal thoughts — "quoting" what the character is thinking
6. Physiological sensations — reactions not visible to others: clenched teeth, tensed muscles, upset stomach

You notice that good stories don't have page upon page of uninterrupted dialogue, or of any other element for that matter. So what's the order of the elements that makes a scene read smoothly?

It's as easy as 2-1-2-4-3-5-6-2-1.
As an example here's a short scene. I've put in the numbers so you can see that it follows the pattern.

Thanksgiving Dinner

(2) "You promised you'd never do that," I said. (1) I pushed my dinner plate away from me and folded my arms.
(2) "I had no choice," my father said. "We needed food." (4) He wore his faded flannel shirt tucked in to his baggy pants, a pained expression on his face.
(3) A brisk fall wind blew in through the flimsy window frames of the old house, sending a chill through the tiny dining area. The others at the table were silent.
(5) No one else cares, I thought. (6) I held back tears but I couldn't stop the awful churning in my stomach.
(2) "He was our friend," I said.
(1) I got up from the table and left my family to eat the turkey we once called Tom.

I hope you get the idea. In this piece I've given nearly equal weight to all the elements and followed the pattern rigidly.

Of course for your story, you'll decide which element is most important to carry the point of the scene. Sometimes you'll want a few lines of uninterrupted dialogue. If you're writing an action scene, you might have no dialogue at all for a page or so. Overall, however, you need all the elements to carry the scene.

If you're having trouble pacing the elements of a scene, try this! One side benefit is that you'll be able to easily identify your own strengths and weaknesses. Does the dialogue flow? Do you have trouble coming up with something more interesting than an upset stomach (I do!)? Work on the elements that give you the most trouble.

Post a scene here and I'll put your name in a drawing for a special (inanimate) Thanksgiving treat!

Lesson One: Character

2009-11-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our week long Online Writing Clinic!
I was delighted to choose “Character” as my topic. To my mind, character is the most important aspect of writing any book. Sure, plots matter, but if you ask most people to recap Gone with the Wind, they’ll wind up referencing the characters, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler. Recently, in an online a discussion group, one of the participants noted that she would read a certain series even if “nothing happened because I enjoy the characters so much.”
So how do we go about creating characters that engender such interest?

It’s easy: Make your characters distinctive.

Think of the folks who inhabited Gilligan’s Island: The Skipper, the Professor, Mary Ann, Gilligan, Ginger, and the Howells. We can easily conjure up all of them in our minds. Each person looked different, dressed differently, spoke differently, reacted differently to situations, caused different reactions from other people, and displayed different preferences. That mix of clashing and coinciding personalities provided the series with most of its humor, its situations, and its drama.

Let’s take each of those qualities in turn:

* Look Differently—Sure, we all have stereotypes in our heads. You don’t want to cast against type unless you can explain that disparity. For example, by her own reckoning Bella in Twilight isn’t beautiful or graceful, and these things don’t matter because something indefinable about her makes her scent irresistible to the vampires. (I think Edward says, “You are my own personal brand of heroin,” or something like that.) So, by working against one stereotype, but including another stereotype, Stephenie Meyer created an interesting and memorable heroine. (Not HEROIN!)
If you are going to rely solely on a stereotype, you run the risk of the reader tuning your character out. Stereotypes, while useful, are also predictable. So mix it up. Work against type. For example, in the movie Fargo, the policewoman vomits at the crime scene. Is it because she’s a woman and she’s grossed out? No, it’s because she’s pregnant and has morning sickness, a wholly unexpected juxtaposition.
Can a character be a stereotype and still be interesting? Yes, but the writer must consciously work for this to happen. For example, in an upcoming Kiki Lowenstein book, readers will meet Sharona, a young woman who is so attractive that the others nickname her “The Centerfold.” How do I make Sharona interesting? I contrast her with Kiki, who is slightly overweight. I also play up our natural antipathy to anyone who is “perfect.” When Sharona overhears someone calling her “The Centerfold,” she laughs. Since we might expect someone so lovely to be heavily invested in her looks—and since Sharona doesn’t take herself too seriously—the reader sees Sharona as a multi-dimensional character.

* Dress Differently—Show me a character in Levi jeans and a white tee shirt, and I’ll have one impression of him. Dress that man in an Armani suit, a bespoke shirt, and an Hermes tie, and I’ll have a wholly different one. But, if the same character wears both outfits, I’ll have yet ANOTHER impression of his personality. Do clothes make the man? I dunno, but I’m sure they do make the character!
Notice the impact that brand names had on my descriptions. Companies pay a lot of money to train us to call up certain images when we encounter their brands. A brand is actually a shorthand notation for an experience or an expectation. So I’m all for writers using brands to help define their characters. However, it sure can be tricky.
Let me explain: Recently I judged a contest for romance writers. Almost every author tried to throw in a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. One came up with a wholly unexpected brand, Fluevog. Okay, maybe I’m out of the loop. I’d never heard of Fluevog. I stopped reading to look them up. Checking up on the brand derailed my reading.
Not good.
There’s a scene in the movie Punchline where Tom Hanks helps Sally Field with her comedy routine. He explains how one reference is too obscure to be funny and with a slight change to make the reference more universally understood, he dramatically improves one of her jokes.
That’s the line we writers must always walk. Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik have become overused, thanks to Sex in the City and its ilk. But Fluevog might be too unusual for most readers. Remember: Anything that takes the reader out of the story is a situation devoutly to be avoided.

* Speak Differently—There’s so much we can do with this! I used to write speeches for the corporate executives of Diamond-Star Motors. To be successful at this, I had to learn to hear each man’s voice ringing in my head. One was Cuban, one was from Detroit, one was Canadian, and one was Japanese. Were they all different? Yes. Their vocabularies, their diction, their references, and their personalities all combined to make each man unique.
Writers can (and should) explore several levels of speech patterns.
Level One: Will your character use slang? Only speak with 3-syllable words? Throw in foreign phrases? Stutter? Use contractions? (Many non-native English speakers never use contractions.) Construct his sentences awkwardly? Toss in malapropisms? Use substandard English? Have an accent? Peter Abrahams told me that in one book, his character always spoke Latinate. That meant that the character’s vocabulary sprang from words with Latin origins. So, Peter’s character might suggest that problems have an “amicable resolution,” that the size of a tablecloth should be “calculated at its circumference,” and that before “matriculating” a person must “prepare” for the real world.
Level Two: Some researchers divide people into “Ask Assertive” and “Tell Assertive” speakers. “Ask Assertive” folks tend to make everything into a question. For example, they say, “Isn’t it a nice day?” Whereas “Tell Assertive” only talk in statements. By contrast, they would say, “It’s a nice day!”
Level Three: Visual people versus audio relaters versus “feelers.” These people all rely on different senses to communicate. So, the visual people say, “I see what you mean.” The audio people say, “I hear you.” And the “feelers” say, “I feel your pain.”
Here’s my litmus test: If dialogue among characters could be easily switched around from one person’s mouth to another’s, I haven’t made the dialogue distinctive.

* React Differently to Situations—Last night we watched House. How Dr. Gregory House reacts to a patient dying is distinctly different than how his oncologist friend Dr. James Wilson reacts which is in turn different than hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy reacts. House is more fascinated by the process, by the disease, and by the puzzle. Dr. Wilson is a compassionate man who cares deeply about his patients, and the suffering they are enduring. Dr. Cuddy sees the potential liability, the impact on the hospital and her role as administrator.
You can tell me that your character is one sort of person or another, but “seeing” his/her reaction to situations allows the reader to experience the character more viscerally. For example, when we see Scarlett react to Rhett’s eavesdropping by throwing a vase at him, we learn volumes about her personality.
Conversely, we also need to see other people react to our characters. Psychologists often discuss the disparity between our perception of ourselves and the way other see us. The wider the gap, the more problematic. Obviously, if I see myself as jovial and others see me as hysterical, or if I see myself as concerned and others see me as intrusive, conflicts will arise.

* Displaying Different Preferences—If I love the opera and my spouse loves country western music, or if I hate big cities and my partner wants to live in Manhattan, we have differing preferences.
Recently, an erudite friend shocked me by admitting that she doesn’t have a passport, and she never wants to travel out of the country. This was totally at odds with other aspects of her personality. She’s an early adopter, a curious and gregarious young woman. Someday I hope to follow up on our conversation and discover why she feels the way she does.
Different preferences set people apart. As in the case with my friend, when a preference seems at odds with other aspects of a personality, we are reminded that none of us is simplistic. We are all multi-faceted, complex individuals. We are different and distinct from one another.

And there's more...

Of course, there’s more to developing a distinctive character. I haven’t even touched upon other aspects that I enjoy playing with in my god-like role of author, such as personal habits, world view, backstory, education, and flaws. But I think I’ve probably gone on long enough.
Any questions?

Book Covers

2009-11-14T01:21:00.004-05:00

I wrote a few weeks ago that I had finished the first draft of Book 5 in the crochet mysteries. Now I'm rewriting and the days are flipping by in an alarmingly fast rate. I more or less figured how many pages a day I would have to rewrite to finish it by my December 1 deadline, but that was supposing nothing else interferred. Does that ever happen?

So, last week I got an email from my editor. She knew the manuscript wasn't due yet, but she'd just gotten word they wanted to have a cover meeting for it. Did I have any ideas for a cover and could I send fifty to seventy-fives pages of the manuscript so they could see the flow of the story.

I have loved all of my covers and the art people have really been able to create what I had pictured when I was writing, but they have always had the whole manuscript. I wanted to do whatever I could to help them with the cover for Book 5 which might be Hooked on the Holidays or A Holiday Yarn. In the past I have sent them pictures from books or magazines to give them an idea what some of the crocheted items in the books look like. This time the afghan that is a major clue only existed in my head. There was no time to make the whole thing, so I made up one square of it and sent them a photo.

Crocheted snowflakes are mentioned a lot, too. I am still in the process of creating the pattern for a snowflake that will be included in the book, but had the snowflake I put in my blog a while back. I sent a photo of it.

The other pattern in the book is going to be for a vampire scarf. The bookstore where Molly Pink works is hosting the midnight launch of the new book in a super popular series about a vampire who crochets (it's helped him deal with his lust for blood). One of the Tarzana Hookers comes up with the idea for the scarf. As she says, everything about it says vampire. It's black and white. The black is for the vampire's favorite color of clothes, the white for his pale skin. The half double crochet stitches look like fangs and the edging has a fang like look, too. And the scarlet tassel -- well, that's pretty obvious. A scarf winds around the neck and what body area is more appealing to a vampire? I sent a photo of it, too.

Even though it's doubtful, the vampire scarf will be on the cover of the book, my editor said she really likes it. I do, too.

AS my blog sisters have been mentioning, next week we're all writing on craft. Just to give a heads up, I'm going to be writing on setting.

Spectrum

2009-11-12T22:17:00.003-05:00

I spent the last week in the company of some of my favorite people - writers and quilters. The first half was spent in Seattle at the Donald Maass class, The Fire in Fiction. Lucky me, I went straight from there to Asilomar and quilt retreat with ten wonderful folks. Plenty of fun, inspiration and work.

Donald Maass had invited author Nancy Pickard to join him on the first day of class. Maass dissected her book, the Virgin of Small Plains and Nancy talked about her writing methods. She also talked about the career of a writer, something of great interest to me. She has written a nonfiction book called The 7 Steps on a Writer's Path. In it, she and her co author, Lynn Lott, describe the stages a writer will go through. I found it all quite useful, but one thing Nancy said struck me.

She talked about how as a writer (or quilter or artist of any kind), you will always be on a spectrum. You're not as good as you will be at your craft, not as bad as you were when you started out. The key is to remember that and not fall into the trap of comparing yourself with others who have more experience than you do.

This is what causes paralysis. Comparing your writing to John Steinbeck or your quilting ability to Paula Nadelstern when you're a novice will not inspire you, it'll keep you from moving forward. Comparisons to others will stunt your growth.

At the quilt retreat, I was with quilters of all range of experience. A couple of us have been quilting for more than 25 years, but others have started more recently. Some come with a passel of sewing experience, some started with a baby quilt. Some are confident in their abilities, others not so much. But we work together, we share ideas and tips and we all learn from one another. The experience is all the more richer for having a varied group.

Nancy reminded me that I'm not the same writer I was a few years ago, and with conscious effort, continual learning and interest, I can and will get better.

Bookmarks

2009-11-12T00:23:00.001-05:00

Right now, I’m waiting for the bookmarks for HOWL DEADLY to be finished at the printer’s. HOWL DEADLY is the eighth in my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series, and it will be a December release.

I’ve been doing bookmarks since the series started, and I love ‘em! I always feature the cover of the latest Kendra book, and I’ve been absolutely delighted with each of the covers. I use the bookmarks to introduce the next book and to show what stories have already been published. I leave some at book stores and libraries and wherever else seems to make sense at the time. I give them to readers, book store personnel, other writers, people I interview for research, friends, total strangers, whoever. My bookmarks tell people who I am, as well as who Kendra is.

I’ve also been pleased this year to give out bookmarks created and provided by Harlequin for Silhouette Nocturnes. Since like all series romance Nocturnes are available in bookstores only during the month of publication, I haven’t done my own because of the timing. But since this is Harlequin’s 60th birthday, they’ve put together bookmarks that promote a series on one side, and offer free downloads of stories on the other.

And I’m also happy now to be passing out KillerHobbies bookmarks, designed and obtained by my fellow blogger Joanna Campbell Slan and first distributed at Bouchercon, which I unfortunately didn’t attend this year.

BTW, I’m also proud of my fellow bloggers and their ingenuity. Next week, we’ll each be giving a lesson on some aspect of writing. Mine is on point of view. This blog entry is, obviously, in first person.

On the other hand, the wonderful, modest author Linda O. Johnston will be blogging about point of view in her writing next week. Stay tuned!

Back to my original subject and point of view. Bookmarks--I love them all!

In fact, I do a lot of traveling for fun, and I also collect bookmarks representative of all the places I’ve visited.

Since the Kendra books started being published, I’ve seen occasional blog posts and comments on groups to which I belong that criticize promotional bookmarks--for whatever reason. None of them have made sense to me.

Oh, and by the way, I do use bookmarks when I read. Although I admit that, occasionally, I slip in a notecard, or the library’s printout of borrowed books, or a grocery receipt...

How about you? Do you like bookmarks? Do you like to receive any that are distributed by an author, often as BSP (blatant self promotion)?

Random Thoughts

2009-11-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

I’ve played golf twice in the past week, the last time just yesterday. The weather in this part of Minnesota has been amazing for November, after a cold and rainy October -- it’s as if the two months traded places. My game is improving, not a lot or quickly, but noticeably. My drives go farther down the fairway and sometimes my putting is quite satisfactory. Yesterday, however, there was a definite trend into slices -- the ball goes off to the right. (To the left is a hook.) Frustrating.

One thing golf does is take one’s mind off writing. It does mine, anyhow. I’m having a tough time with this one section of Buttons and Bones and it’s great to be able to escape it now and again. Problem is, once back home, there the problem is, big as ever. But it’s fixable. It’s got to be, I don’t have time to tear the whole book down and start over. I have a feeling that pretty soon I’ll be struggling with it and it will just detangle itself and knit together like a good, obedient story and I’ll wonder later what the problem was. I’ve had that experience before, thank God, and hope to have it again -- soon.

I’ve started getting some kind notes from fans about Blackwork. It’s heartening to an author to get a note praising her work. This is not a hint I’d like some more, but encouragement to any of you who like a particular book to say so in writing. Many, if not most, authors have a web site with a “contact me” button on it. If not, write care of the publisher -- publishers forward these fan letters to their authors. You can get the address of the publisher from the library or on the Internet. Brighten someone’s day, okay?

The holiday season is upon us and for those who think they might have trouble getting in the mood, there is a new book called “101 Ways to Keep the Spirit of Santa Alive.” It’s by a friend of mine, John Hagerman, and it’s not a kiddie book, but a parents’, godparents’, grandparents’, aunt-and-uncles’ book. It tells the origin of Santa Claus, how Santa is named and described in other countries, and offers a great many suggestions for things to do with children to make the season more real, more wholesome, and more satisfying. It’s published by The Inspired Elf, a very small press.

Later this week I have to get out my killer Christmas wreath, which is about four feet in diameter, and pull off all of last year’s lights and decorations and put it back together again. I bought the thing at Sam’s Club about four or five years ago as the Christmas season was winding down. Got a heck of a buy on it and it sure looks snazzy hanging from our balcony, but somehow the lights, bows and artificial fruit get all droopy and tangled and burned out from just being stored and need renewing. I have a friend who is going to come over and we’ll spend a couple of hours getting it all prepped for the season coming up. I felt kind of odd doing the work this early, until I saw that two or three houses right in the neighborhood already have their Christmas lights out and turned on. The other houses still have their Jack o’lanterns on their front porches! My wreath isn’t going out until Thanksgiving -- and I can remember my mother complaining about Christmas advertising starting right after Thanksgiving. Now it starts right after Halloween. I know it’s important to merchants to extend the season, but the result is that by the time Christmas actually gets here, a lot of us are heartily sick of it. Of course, by Christmas, I should be well into plotting the next Betsy Devonshire novel -- and I think I’ll set it around Easter . . .

Next week we -- the Killer Hobbies Crew -- are going to publish a series of helpful (we hope) articles on writing. I’ve got the one on Plotting. I believe I’ve already published something on that topic, but it won’t hurt to give it some daylight again. I’ve seen a preview of Joanna Campbell Slan’s item on Character, and it’s really good, very helpful, whether you’re a beginner or deeply experienced. I know I learned something from it. So please stay tuned.

Let the decorating begin

2009-11-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

Today we are joined by cozy mystery author Gayle Trent, whose latest book DEAD PAN has just been released from Bell Bridge Books. DEAD PAN is the second book in the Daphne Martin Cake Decorating Mystery Series. Gayle is here to help us decorate our holiday cakes.

To learn more about Gayle and her cake decorating mystery series, visit her at http://www.gayletrent.com. If you Twitter, be sure to enter her Twitter contest to win a copy of DEAD PAN, a copy of MURDER TAKES THE CAKE and a red Murder Takes the Cake apron. E-mail Gayle for more information at gayle@gayletrent.com.

And now -- Gayle!

Can you believe it’s that time again? I looked at the calendar the other day and could hardly believe it was November already. So, of course, I started thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. As the author of a cake decorating mystery series, people expect me to know how to decorate beautiful cakes. Unfortunately, knowing how and being able to actually do something are often two separate things entirely! Fortunately, you don’t have to be a professional to make a beautiful, elegant dessert you’ll be proud to tell your guests, “I made it myself.”

Artificial flowers (fresh, too, but check to make sure they aren’t poisonous), ribbon, strands of pearls or beads (from your local hobby shop) and fruit can all make beautiful decorations for your cakes. One simple decorating technique – the Swiss dot—can add an additional touch of elegance to your cake.

Note: If you’re using flowers, ribbon or other inedible decorations, be sure and wash them in hot water and let them dry thoroughly before using them on your cake. I like to wash inedible decorations in a salad spinner.

First, crumb coat your cake. A crumb coat is the first coat of icing put on your cake. That way, if you have crumbs in your cake icing, it won’t matter because you’ll be putting a second layer of icing over the first. Let the cake set for 15-20 minutes between coats of icing.

After applying the second coat of icing to your cake, smooth the cake with a spatula. Then place a small round tip (number 4 or smaller) in a decorator bag and fill the bag halfway with white frosting. Pipe small dots on the sides and top of the cake. The lighter the pressure, the smaller the dots. If your dots have peaks, smooth them with your fingertip dipped in cornstarch.

Use pearls, beads, Jordan almonds or ribbon to create a bottom border for your cake. Then, if using artificial flowers, pipe a mound of icing in the middle of your cake. Arrange the flowers in the mound. This makes the flowers stand up better and also facilitates removal with a spatula before serving.

If using fruit, arrange it artistically on the top of your cake. Some suggestions: kiwi, banana, apple, pineapple, strawberries, grapes. Be sure to dust fruit with sugar before putting it on the cake to prevent it from turning brown.

Use your ribbon to make small bows to go on the sides of your cake or to be draped down the sides from the top of the cake like fondant bows. If you’re using flowers, make sure your ribbon is in a complimentary color.

How you display your cake is another important part of its appearance. Gold or silver foil doilies on a cake plate are always a good touch for the holidays.

How Do You Grow Your Series?

2009-11-08T20:09:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, I attended my first meeting of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Donna Andrews was kind enough to drive, and she brought along her neighbor, the superb Barb Goffman, Program Chair for Malice. We picked up Sandra Parshall en route.

I’m thrilled to belong to a chapter with so many multi-published authors. There’s so much to learn from them. For example, chapter member Marcia Talley (the national president of Sisters in Crime) spoke at the meeting about her most recent novel Without a Grave. She decided on the setting in the Bahamas and her protagonist’s temporary job (communicating with the other islanders by radio) as a way to avoid the dreaded “Cabot Cove Syndrome.” That’s author-speak for the unfortunate fact that anyone who lived within spitting distance of Jessica Fletcher always wound up dead!

That made me think about Kiki Lowenstein, and the deaths/crimes in my novels. I’ve spent a good part of today, Sunday, thinking how I can artfully manage to have people die—and to have Kiki care about these deaths—without knocking off everyone in her immediate zip code. In part, we authors have a contract with our readers. You KNOW we’re going to bump people off. It’s our job. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be thoughtful about who, what, when, where and why.

After the meeting, we were getting on the elevator, and Donna said something about a scene and how it occurred to her. That scene set the direction for the book she just turned in. “So that’s how you work?” I asked. “You get flashes of insight?”

“Sometimes.”

I turned to Sandra Parshall and asked her how she works. Sandra says she sits down to write and sees what she gets. Her process is more organic.

All this was wonderful, powerful stuff to consider. After all, Sandra and Donna have both won Agatha Awards. Marcia has been an Agatha Award nominee and received the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Contemporary Mystery.

My editor told me last week that Midnight Ink is interested in more Kiki Lowenstein books, and I’m the type of writer who likes to work ahead. (I’m 47,000 words into Book #4 and it isn’t due until March 2010.) So, while I have a character arc (a trajectory of personal growth) for Kiki, today was a day for thinking ahead to future books.

But this morning, I just couldn’t get my brain to function. Finally, seeing what a lovely fall day it was, I took the dogs for a long walk to the local dog park. After being jumped on by a pit bull, my head cleared. (Maybe a Chihauhau would have had the same effect. Who knows? I guess I owe that pit bull a debt of gratitude.)

How do I plan my books?

I start with what I know. I know where I think each important character is heading in his/her life. I know what special events/places/activities in St. Louis I want to feature. I have a file of interesting “stuff.” I have ideas about why people would kill each other.

And I also consider the timing issue. I want each book to move Kiki and her daughter Anya’s lives along…slowly. I put that all in my mental hopper.

By the time I turned the key in the lock of the front door, I was ready to write.

Halloween Report

2009-11-07T00:38:00.001-05:00

Another Halloween is over. Once again, I was the sole door answerer. This year I was smart and during the prime tricker treating time, had a stool by the door. At first it seemed like there were fewer tricker treaters out, but I think they just got a late start. The street out front got so clogged with people you couldn’t see across it. And groups of five and ten at a time started showing up.

I was interested to see what the costumes would be this year. I’d heard Michael Jackson costumes were supposed to be a big deal. I only saw two kids dressed up as him. I thought there would be lots of vampires considering how popular everything vampire is. I also thought I’d see some Twilight characters. No Bellas and the three vampires that came to the door were closer to Bela Lugosi than Robert Pattinson.

Some costumes never seem to go out of style. I gave candy to quite a few Dorothy’s from the wizard of Oz. I don’t recall one Harry Potter showing up. There were quite a few lady bugs and kids in black with scream masks.

Some of the trick or treaters really pushed it age wise. Three boys who were way taller than me and probably over the border line of their mid teens showed up as Jesus, a rabbi and Barack Obama. The Obama said he’d say something clever, but he didn’t have his teleprompter. I think the gray haired man in scrubs was over seventy, but that didn’t stop him from coming to the door twice and on the second trip, he kept shaking his bag(it was a white garbage bag) wanting more candy after I’d give him a candy bar.

Quite a few people claimed to be gathering candy for someone at home. True, or were they just adults looking for some candy?

Around nine, it seemed to die down and I thought it was over, but a herd of little girls rang the bell. Their parents were in a car at the curb and driving them from house to house.

I have to say all the costumes were way above the cheesy kind we used to get at the dime store in a box. You put them over your clothes and they tied across the back. I think I went as a hobo a lot because all you had to do was wear old clothes. But then that’s ancient history, I guess.

In the end we went through four huge bags of candy and even though I didn’t keep tabs on exactly how many, I figured we had well over 300 hundred trick or treaters. I still don’t get what was up with the old guy in the green scrubs.

No blog

2009-11-06T21:37:00.002-05:00

Sorry folks. I didn't really forget to blog. I forgot what day it was.

I'm at a writing class weekend with Donald Maass, author of the Fire in Fiction and Writing the Breakout Novel. Yesterday we had a session with author Nancy Pickard. Her latest book is The Virgin of Small Plains. A good read. We spent a lot of time dissecting the book and she talked about her process. Endlessly fascinating to us authors. The finale of the day was watching Donald Maass and Nancy Pickard brainstorm her next book. Wonderful to see the sausage being made.

Today was the first of a two class with Donald Maass. He asks us a lot of questions and we write most of the day. It's great fun and makes for some wonderful writing.

So sorry. I missed you all today.

Travel Fun

2009-11-05T01:10:00.001-05:00

So where was I a couple of weeks ago when I panicked about the possibility that my younger Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Mystie had disappeared while I was traveling?

New York, New York!

It was a great trip, one we attempt to do annually. Our excuse is to go to the Baron Funds Annual Meeting. We don’t own a lot of their mutual funds, but enough to get an invitation to their free event. Of course we have to pay to be in the area, but it’s worth it to see the surprise entertainment as well as hear talks from CEOs of some of the companies in which the Baron Funds have substantial investments. The surprise entertainment this year was Carole King at lunchtime, and Rod Stewart in the afternoon. Lots of fun!

Even better for me was the opportunity to meet with both of my editors, at Harlequin and at Berkley. It’s always wonderful to see them--and even better that the ideas I pitched to them were met with lots of interest!

By the way, my story in my last week’s blog about worrying whether Mystie slipped out of the house wasn’t the only scare in the family. My mother-in-law’s cat B.D., who’d gone outside in really windy weather when everyone left the house for a while, didn’t show up for dinner that night. My M-I-L looked all over, inside and out. I didn’t want to say anything, but with all the missing cats around our area--and coyote sightings--I feared the worst had also occurred in Ohio... until B.D. decided she was ready to reappear. She had somehow sneaked back in and hidden in a room upstairs where my M-I-L had looked for her with no luck. Not till B.D. chose to let everyone know she was fine!

Do you know of any sneaky kitties or doggies? And what excuses do you use to travel?