Thursday, March 31, 2011

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

The wonderful world of blogs

What blogs have you bookmarked and why?

For me it’s an interesting question. I’ve checked out Linda’s suggestions that run alongside this blog and found some I like and some I don’t and one I can’t read because it’s white print on a yellow back ground.

I suppose I have to ask why I read blogs? The primary reason is that I want to know more about writing and particularly e publishing. I was thinking that it would be lovely if a detail oriented person, not me as that isn’t one of my skills, organized blogs in categories with a brief blurb describing the blog’s raison d’etre and space for readers to comment? But given the number this would be a huge undertaking and the info would constantly change so I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Blogs fall into many categories. Some are for making contacts, getting your name and the cover of your latest book out there where readers will find you. Facebook and Twitter also provide platforms (the new buzzword) to do this. But you have to develop a routine for posting and tweeting frequently as they require regular input and monitoring to achieve your goal - to reach readers and motivate them to buy your book.

At a Left Coast Crime panel on the future of publishing I picked up new names to try and discovered Murder Must Advertise. It describes its purpose as “an email discussion list for every author who wonders about the best way to promote a new mystery.” I signed up. And now a day or so later I’m wondering if this was a good idea as a flood of emails is filling my mailbox. I’ll read some and see what I think.

And then I found another site,”The Writer’s Guide to E Publishing and signed up for that.

Once you find sites that are helpful it’s your job to winnow out the useful information and figure out what to do with it.

Dorothy L members often refer to interesting blogs. Today I found, Buried Under Books. The site is www.cncbooks.com/blog and there is a sidebar with many more useful blog sites as well as a list of authors who blog on the site including some very well known mystery writers. A daily quick zip through DL will yield more interesting sites.

The question is - what blogs have you found and how useful are they?




Joan Boswell is a member of the Ladies Killing Circle and co-edited four of their short story anthologies: Fit toDie, Bone Dance, Boomers Go Bad and Going Out With a Bang. Her three mysteries, Cut Off His Tale, Cut to the Quick and Cut and Run were published in 2005, 2007 and 2007. In 2000 she won the $10,000 Toronto Star’s short story contest. Joan lives in Toronto with three flat-coated retrievers.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Reflections of a retiring sales rep

I don’t feel one bit venerable, nor as old as someone might be who’s been in the same business as long as I have. But it was indeed 1974 when I stepped into Classics Bookstore in the Adelaide Centre in downtown Toronto for my first day working under a manager who also happened to be my older sister! I was sure it was just a Christmas season job. I was wrong – it was the first step in a 37-year career.

I had been connected to the world of books for years before Classics because my uncle was in the publishing business. During his tenure he and my aunt, characters both, had entertained dozens of authors including many of the grand dames of mystery – Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham. My aunt was an avid reader of their books. How well I remember her extensive library of mystery novels dating back to the thirties, each one with dates (sometimes as many as 4) pencilled on the frontispiece to indicate each time she had read it. That library, and my aunt’s expert guidance, was my first exposure to mysteries, beginning with A Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio Marsh. I was hooked, and forever in love with Roderick Alleyn. I have never stopped reading and loving the evolving genre since.

I left bookselling for in-house publishing and from there I moved to work as a Publishers Sales Rep where I was lucky enough to hook up with publishing dynamo Kim McArthur, first with Little, Brown Canada and then with McArthur & Company. Under Kim’s excellent leadership, many great Canadian, British and American mystery writers were introduced to Canadian readers and it was a career highlight that I was there to help make it happen.


There is nothing more gratifying than falling in love with a writer’s first book, then being able to convince your booksellers to take a chance on your recommendation. It is even better seeing it sell thanks to the bookseller’s efforts at hand-selling. I’m very proud to have been instrumental in my own small way in the success in Canada of an illustrious list of writers.

Our first and biggest success was Ian Rankin. There was a terrific sense of common purpose and excitement in the Little Brown Canadian sales force as we vowed to get Rankin discovered. Slowly and steadily, over several years and several titles, starting with Strip Jack, we persistently cajoled our booksellers to keep trying him. Rankin’s publisher, Orion, provided us with advance reading copies and multiples of his backlist titles so that we could salt them around to book buyers and their trusted customers. Word of mouth worked its magic and McArthur’s volume discounts helped to position titles prominently. Once we had a good base of readers and after Ian won his first CWA award for Black and Blue, Kim and her marketing team orchestrated a highly successful cross Canada publicity tour. It was very satisfying to see the sell-out crowd at the National Library when he came to Ottawa. We had done what we set out to do!

Rankin was the beginning. Since that first outing I was involved in the Canadian success of such masterful writers as James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Brian Freeman, and Declan Hughes in each case starting with their debut efforts. I am especially thrilled to have been part of the “discovery” of our own home-grown star, Louise Penny.

There is no mystery to loving this business. It takes hard work and a love of books to end up as I have, with a load of fantastic memories. Of course, it helps to be blessed with having had such talented authors to sell and wonderful people to sell them to.


Bridget Barber has been a freelance sales representative with Hornblower Books in Ottawa since 1984 with 10 years in bookselling and publishing in Toronto before that. She was one of the first women in Canada to be hired as a sales representative in publishing, an industry that is now dominated by women at most levels. Although she is giving up the sales and the attendant travelling, she intends to stay connected to books by working part time in a local bookstore...back to her roots.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE


A Writing Jezebel

Like a girl playing the field, I’ve flirted with various writing genres, target age groups and formats. I’ve so far dodged the decision to marry one project to the exclusion of all others. It’s been a quest to discover if I’m the settling down kind or a gal who has to keep her options open.

The first book I wrote was a picture book about a flying rabbit. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but sadly, it never found a publisher. I went from there to writing four young adult mysteries – the Jennifer Bannon series – but I have to admit that I was never faithful. Between manuscripts, I wrote short stories for the adult audience and began dabbling in adult mystery novels.

Last fall, my first full-length adult murder mystery In Winter’s Grip hit the shelves. Even with this satisfying success, I turned back to the young adult genre, penning a story about a fifteen-year-old girl and her summer during the Vietnam era. Entitled Second Chances, this novel is due out from Dundurn next spring. This year, I also turned to Orca and wrote The Second Wife for their Rapid Reads series of high comprehension/low vocabulary books for adults with literacy problems or adults who would like a quick read.

The Second Wife
is being released this month. It is the story of forty-five year old Gwen Lake, a divorced desk cop with a boring job and an unfulfilling life. She sacrificed her own intelligence for nine-to-five security, believing her marriage to be enough – that is until her husband left her for another woman. When a murder hits close to home, it is the impetus that she needs to rise out of her lethargy. Gwen Lake as a character is someone I would like as a friend; she’s funny, loyal and creative. She’s proof that a middle-aged woman can find new challenges and find fulfillment even when the future looks bleak.

Currently, I am working on a full length adult mystery that I hope will become a series. Once again, I’ve fallen for my main characters and would like to spend some time with them, hopefully for a few years to come. I might even decide to settle down for a while. Perhaps it is time.

Seriously though, I believe each of these disparate projects have been part of my apprenticeship to becoming a better writer. I’ve learned from each manuscript and have been captivated by every story. Perhaps I’m a bit like Gwen Lake in this; when the chance to stretch my horizons arrives, I can’t resist the challenge.

Brenda Chapman is the Ottawa author of the Jennifer Bannon mystery series for young adults. Hiding in Hawk’s Creek, the second novel in the series, was shortlisted by the Canadian Association of Children’s Librarians for the 2006 Book of the Year for Children Award.

Brenda has also written several short stories that were published in an anthology (When Boomers Go Bad, RendezVous Crime 2004) and various magazines. In Winter’s Grip is Brenda’s first adult murder mystery. When not writing, Brenda works as a senior communications advisor in the federal government.



Monday, March 28, 2011

MAYHEM ON MONDAY

Technology?

Right now, you can keep it. From my point of view as a mystery writer, it’s a brave new world out there. Case in point: Today’s New York Times has a major feature on sexting. That’s right. Sex while texting. Or texting during sex perhaps. Not completely clear. All to say, be careful. You could end up part of an NYT article read by millions (not be mention those who received a FORWARD by your faithless recipient). Trust? It’s dead in the water.

Okay, I’m not 100 % sure that my friends are sexting, but they sure are worrying about the death of the print book and questioning if the world will shift to reading only e-books. Personally, as of today, I am worried if the world will be reading anything besides sexts. Pass the Scotch. Don’t make it virtual.

Now, where was I? Oh yes. Technology.

You see, I am trying to get my protagonist into a situation where she might be in danger. Yes. That’s right. Legitimately in danger. With no one knowing where she is. And that absolutely can’t be her fault. Women sleuths get lashed for going anywhere without armed friends, rampaging relatives, the police chief and the SWAT team being informed of their plans. But suppose there’s a good reason, something unexpected, say a burning requirement to meet with someone just a bit dangerous on hunch. Well, the sleuth can easily signal difficulties with a flip of the cell phone to save herself. Where’s the suspense in that? So, the author (that’s me) is always busily tossing the cell phone into the river or a ditch or a nearby trash can. Or locating increasingly rare dead zones. Now, with GPS in the phone, is that even enough? The dangerous location can be triangulated in a flash. It’s a pickle. Do you have to mail that phone to Katmandu? Will a dead zone be enough? For how long?

Of course, that cell phone could get stolen. But it would have to leave the sleuth’s hand long enough to give that slippery thief a chance. Judging by the number of people I see talking on cells or texting at red lights or while driving (possibly even sexting), that’s not happening.

Then there are the social networks. The notion of the lone wolf protagonist against all odds, that’s so yesterday. First off all, her Facebook status will almost certainly read: Gone to confront murderer in graveyard at midnight. Miss you all!

Of course, the right kind of modern murderer could easily hack into her account and send all the helpful sidekicks to the wrong graveyard. Oh yes. Then we’re up the creek.

Plotting murder used to be so simple and satisfying. Now it’s like a full time job to stay ahead of the technobumps in the fictional road. Wait! Those two sentences are EXACTLY 140 characters including spaces and punctuation!!! A perfect tweet. Excuse me, I’ll be back.

Still here? Good. That’s another thing: technology and social networking bring new and multiple distractions. For instance, I can’t remember exactly what I was talking about. I’m a little out of it because I’m multitasking and downloading photos for another blog at the same time I’m writing this.

So I’ve hit a wall. And just for today, I am longing for bygone times. Forget technology. I’m off to read some Agatha Christie with classical music playing in the background. I’ll try not to think of what my friends are up to.

What about you? Did you update your status while reading this? Are you multitasking this very minute? Don’t be afraid to tell the truth. I’m in the other room, relaxing and reading. And what I don’t know won’t hurt me.


Mary Jane Maffini rides herd on three (soon to be three and a half) mystery series and a couple of dozen short stories. Her thirteenth mystery novel, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder (April 5, 2011), is brimming with names, no two the same.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

MYSTERY REVIEW

SHE DEMONS
by Donald J. Hauka
Dundurn Press


The incomparable Mister Jinnah is at it again. In She Demons, the second book in this imaginative series, ace crime reporter Hakeem Jinnah is pit against a cult--the Millenial Magic or MiMis -- and even worse, the Yaksha, a drug running killer organization from the U.S.

The first body is that of a cult "prophet", Thad whose be-headed body (albeit, the head is resting in place complete with signs carved on the cheeks) signal that sinister things are taking place in Vancouver. This is not news to Jinnah, who on the continual search for a page one story, is ready to tangle again with cult leader Lionel Simons, a shock-rocker star to whom Jinnah once had to print an apology, something he still smarts about.

The carving signals the first sign of the Yaksha across the border. But no one believes Jinnah. Not even his friend, police Sergeant Craig Graham whose career is threatened by this murder. He's out to do damage control, enlisting Jinnah.

Jinnah teams up with for Miss Wreck Beach beauty Jassy Singh, another person with reason to hate Jinnah for past stories. But they share a common goal -- to rescue another cult member, Andy Gill from deep within the clutches of the MiMis. It doesn't help that Andy is the son of an acquaintance and Jinnah has promised to find him.

Things get very dicey when Jinnah's own son, Saleem, gets cult-struck and starts attending raves and "meetings" at the drop-in centre. Jinnah's wife is non too pleased with him for trying to use Saleem for some recon on these outings.

It's all getting to be too much for the brash-mouthed, wise-cracking Jinnah and he truly believes it's the end when he's captured and ear-marked to be part of a mass cult murder.

This fast-moving plot takes the reader on a tour of Vancouver, from it's grungy under-belly to the classy West Vancouver mansions, with Jinnah in his Gucci loafers and his van, known as the "satellite-guided Love Machine". There's grit and violence along with humourous dialogue and memorable characters.

The first Jinnah, Mister Jinnah, was adapted for television, followed by another television adaption a couple of years later. No doubt, She Demons will soon be on the tube, too.


Linda Wiken

Friday, March 25, 2011

CRIME ON MY MIND

The neverending e-book story...

Speaking, or rather blogging as someone who has gone on record, many times, stating I'll never become an e-reader user, it's funny how I often return to this topic. Not that I'm planning to buy one...yet.

But as a writer, e-books are not to be ignored. Every day there's an announcement on Facebook or on a blog or digest from authors publishing an e-book. Many are new writers, what we would have called self-published at one point but I understand the term might better be Indie-published. Others are established authors who have dug back into their desk drawers for previously un-published stories or they have chosen to give new life to a book that's gone out-of-print. Vicki Delany springs to mind in this last category.

But the way is being led by American writers. For instance, well-known thriller writer Barry Eisler has had much press recently about his unprecedented refusal of a $500,000 contract with Random House (count the zeroes!!) and opted to publish his latest output as an e-book. Wow...gutsy or what! He's even cut loose from his agent.

I read a conversation between him and another US thriller writer with a long publishing record, Joe Konrath, who has been doing this for years now and wouldn't go back to traditional, or legacy publishing is the term they use.

These guys are making a good living from this. Their royalty percentage is much higher, which is a good start, although there is still a lot of work to be done in the percentages columns, according to them. The Lost Coast, a short story that Eisler recently published as an e-book, has brought him $1000 within a few weeks, that's after an initial outlay of $600 for design, cover, etc. And sales will continue growing.

What does this mean? To writers, it's all good news although I like the Delany approach. After finally finding an agent and publisher, I'm not about to ditch them. But then again, no one has offered me a $500,000 contract. In my dreams!

The traditional or legacy publishing market has gotten increasingly tougher to break into over the years but now it's a whole new playing field with a new rule book, too.

I'm still not going to run out and buy an e-reader. By the way, the March issue of Real Simple has a helpful column on e-reader eyestrain.

What about you -- is publishing an e-book in your future?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
Book Club Mysteries coming April 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime
Murder by the Book

Thursday, March 24, 2011

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

Ideas


People are always asking authors where they get their ideas. We are asked so
often some of us say we get them from a mail order house in Schenectady. We
can buy a small themed pack for $9.95, or the bigger random bundle, which ismore than twice the size, for $15.95. If we are near the end of the previous bundle, sometimes we can hang on until there is a two-for-one sale.

It's not true, of course, although many people believe it when told that.

People who wonder about the source of ideas imagine that an idea comes fully
formed, all the characters named, all the plot points laid out, all the
twists and surprises itemized. All we authors have to do is run some words
through the idea, and we're done.

Ideas are not like that at all. They arrive more like tiny fragments broken
off something bigger that has vanished. The fragment has a couple of nouns,
at most. Maybe the fragment contains a feeling or a snapshot of the interior
or a room. Maybe the idea just flashes past the car window.

It is up to the author to hang on to the idea before it escapes, and to
build it into something solid. It's not so much a building block as a chip
off the corner of a foundation stone with a tiny scrap of mortar clinging to
it.

Dozens of ideas may flit by in the course of a day. Not all of them are good
ideas, so the author has to learn how to recognise the worthwhile ideas and
let the rest drift by. Two authors may catch the same idea fragment, but
when they are done with it, they'll have two entirely different structures.

After twenty-five years of writing daily, I woke up one day to realize I had
no ideas. Not a one. This situation was not unexpected. I was embroiled in a
Series of Unfortunate Events, and emotional upheaval seems to burn ideas on
contact. I figured I would just wait it out, deal with the SofUE, and ideas
would come flitting around again.

Sadly, the SofUE have refused to resolve themselves. It's been three years,
and I still do not have a single idea to work with. Not even a wounded one.

So I guess that's it for me. Start the music. Cue the swan. Fade to black.


Vicki Cameron is the author of Clue Mysteries and More Clue Mysteries, each of the 15 short stories based on the board game Clue. Her young adult novel, Shillings, appeared in 2007. Her stories appear in the Ladies' Killing Circle anthology series and Storyteller Magazine. Her young adult novel, That Kind of Money, was nominated for an Edgar and an Arthur Ellis.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

WICKED WEDNESDAY

Music to write by.

I have to have music on all day. I awaken to the radio playing classical music, switch over to CBC Radio One for the local morning show until I start working, and then it's back to music. Fortunately, CBC Radio Two obliges me with 5 1/2 hours more of classical music. Then I usually switch to CDs.

However, when I'm deep into writing, I like something more in keeping with what's happening in my mind. I went through a Baroque period, which lasted quite a long time actually. Now days, since my mysteries are set in Alabama, I've made another switch.

I started by playing, over and over, the soundtrack from The Big Easy. Wrong state but it got me thinking southern, especially on cold northern winter days. I also found Quincy Jones to be a big help.

With this second book, I'm more into Aaron Copland. Today, I have Appalachian Spring in the background and then I'll move on to Rodeo.

Music moves me. It always has. It deeply affects my mood and is great for elevating it when I'm feeling down, consoling me in time of pain or grief, calming me before bedtime after a hyper evening, as well as hugging me in a cherished memory.

It can also be inspiring. I had no idea earlier this morning what I'd write for this blog, until Copland came on. Aha! A blog about music and its many powers. As such, it's one of the many elements in my writing. Along with the research, the plot, the characters, the setting, the dialogue...there's music.

Is it a part of your writing or do you prefer silence?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
Book Club Mysteries coming April 2012, from Berkley Prime Crime
Murder By the Book

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

WICKED WEDNESDAY

Music to write by.

I have to have music on all day. I awaken to the radio playing classical music, switch over to CBC Radio One for the local morning show until I start working, and then it's back to music. Fortunately, CBC Radio Two obliges me with 5 1/2 hours more of classical music. Then I usually switch to CDs.

However, when I'm deep into writing, I like something more in keeping with what's happening in my mind. I went through a Baroque period, which lasted quite a long time actually. Now days, since my mysteries are set in Alabama, I've made another switch.

I started by playing, over and over, the soundtrack from The Big Easy. Wrong state but it got me thinking southern, especially on cold northern winter days. I also found Quincy Jones to be a big help.

With this second book, I'm more into Aaron Copland. Today, I have Appalachian Spring in the background and then I'll move on to Rodeo.

Music moves me. It always has. It deeply affects my mood and is great for elevating it when I'm feeling down, consoling me in time of pain or grief, calming me before bedtime after a hyper evening, as well as hugging me in a cherished memory.

It can also be inspiring. I had no idea earlier this morning what I'd write for this blog, until Copland came on. Aha! A blog about music and its many powers. As such, it's one of the many elements in my writing. Along with the research, the plot, the characters, the setting, the dialogue...there's music.

Is it a part of your writing or do you prefer silence?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
Book Club Mysteries coming April 2012, from Berkley Prime Crime
Murder By the Book

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Characters

Good or bad, love ‘em or hate ’em, we can’t write mysteries without creating good characters. For me, choosing great character names is (second to the plot) what I enjoy most about the whole writing process.

We’re not working with a screenplay for movies or TV, so we don’t have actors to pronounce a name for us. It’s essential to me that the reader be able to pronounce the names I put in print. Fred is simple, Fredricka is probably a woman, while Friedrich is kinda like “fried rich.” Let’s be honest, you’ve all read a book with strange-sounding names. So I say all names out loud, sometimes I try them out on friends.

But that’s basic. The real challenge is to find fascinating names that are also pronounceable to readers. Fred, Barbara, Louise, common-place names always sound so . . . so common-place. I admit to a bit of bias in favor of the exotic, but I’m not able to create exotic names without a lot of help.

Movies remain a great source. When the credits roll at the beginning (or these days, at the end), I’m agog at the myriad possibilities that scroll before me. Some of my best character names come from combinations of first and last names.

It’s a challenge to take a foreign name and weave it into my novels, which are set in the southwest US. I admit it’s easier to blend them in because of the wide range of nationalities out here: Mexico is just 60 miles to the south, I’m surrounded by at least five native American nations. But that’s my locale; yours is undoubtably also culturally rich. Try adding a character with an exotic name in your next book.

I’m influenced by simple sources. Like roadside signs. Once, passing a dirt road named Chavez Siding, I instantly realized I had a name for a bad, bad character: Chavez Sliding. Watching people at an airport, I look for distinguishing marks - this led to another bad man named Charley Thumb. I’ve also taken names off old billboards.

Finally, I decide that somewhere in every book I’ll have at least one definitely foreign character. In these cases, where I’ve already “built” a character, I need the name before I can send the book off to my editor. In Ransom My Soul, novel #8, I have a group of criminals from the Ukraine; this started out simply because my GI doctor is Borys, a Ukrainian. The assistant US attorney became Quong Ma, a Vietnamese, a name taken from a newspaper article.

I realize all this sounds a bit over-the-top. Perhaps. But the long slogslogslog of writing a novel over months and months takes a bit of fancy to keep me interested in certain characters.

Who knows, some day I may “borrow” one of your character names because it sounds wonderful.


David Cole is overcoming five years of procrastinations and is finally attacking his eighth novel, Ransom My Soul - a somewhat bleak novel of home invasions, drug cartels and human smuggling in southern Arizona, tempered (hopefully) with a fine romance and love story. David's short story, JaneJohnDoe.com, is featured in Indian Country Noir (Akashic Press); he's also working on several non-fiction books about law enforcement, including The Blue Ceiling, a compilation of personal stories about women in law enforcement.

Monday, March 21, 2011

MAYHEM ON MONDAY


Still no answers to the big question ….

One week out and I am still in pursuit of the perfect author’s outfit. I checked with a few more friends to see if they might have the answer. I went a bit further this time as well as checking the Ottawa contingent. Brenda Chapman has a day job in the federal government job and has to be creative about when she’ll write mysteries and what she’ll wear. Read on:

“I usually work in the evenings after dinner during the week. On the weekends, I start in the morning and work off and on all day. Sometimes, I find myself typing away at 10 o'clock at night. I usually work in jeans, a couple of sweaters and running shoes. Sometimes, I write in my pajamas and housecoat (as I am now) if I am up early on the weekend.”

A couple of sweaters? Must be cool. No wonder I got shivers reading Brenda’s new book.

Maybe Sue Pike’s house is a bit warmer. Let’s hope. “I do what writing I do in the afternoons as I go to aquafit most mornings.”

Aquafit! Water! Warm! But … “By the time I sit down at my laptop I'm showered and dressed to kill. Black tights, turtleneck and a bulky sweater. It is Ottawa in winter, after all. My friend Tinka gave me a Navajo talisman that I put on the desk beside the computer. It's supposed to call out the muse. Sometimes it works.”

Fine, Sue. But what about the summer? To my surprise, she admitted to wearing … “as little as I can get away with. Just my underwear if it's very warm. I write in a small cabin by a lake, as you know, and unexpected visitors are as rare as blue mockingbirds in those woods.”

Well, who knew?

Meanwhile, in what she calls Canada’s Caribbean, Lou Allin is … “wearing yoga pants, which can do double duty if necessary, like going outside to get wood. A Hawaiian volcano t shirt, sox, and cozy leopard bedroom slippers with rubber bottoms, also useful for going out for wood.”

Sounds very colourful, but, you know, not all that warm if you have to keep going out for wood.

Worried, I checked out my friend Hannah Dennison in LA. I was in for a shock. “I am happiest writing in my pajamas with fingerless gloves and thick fuzzy socks. And when it's cold, I'll add a scarf.”

Wow. She’s a pretty glamorous gal, but she’s so cold that her words are blue! And fingerless gloves. Hmmm.

I thought it wise to check with one of the guys too. Maybe he’d have a more dashing 007 thing going. Here’s C.B. Forrest (Chris to his Mom). Judge for yourself: “Well, MJ, you know the "B" in CB Forrest stands for Buck-Naked.”

I seem to remember this issue from a liar’s panel, so I’m not completely convinced. Read on: “My favorite writing shirt is a faded navy blue cord job with the elbows almost worn out and half the buttons are gone. My wife keeps trying to throw it out, but I always come back with "this is my writing shirt" and give her a look that suggests she's obviously insane. Like a superstitious baseball player wearing the same pair of underwear every game of the playoffs, I guess I just don't want to tempt the fates.”

Now that we’re on to underwear (again!), it’s time for me to accept it. We’re not such a fancy lot, but my friend sure turn out some terrifically readable stories in their PJ’s, slipper, skivvies, fingerless gloves, Hawaiian gear, old shirts, and yoga pants. I guess I don’t need to worry too much about getting the best gear. I should just stay in the chair and try to write the best book I can.

You might not agree. If you don’t, do you have any fashion advice for these authors? Or me?



Mary Jane Maffini rides herd on three (soon to be three and a half) mystery series and a couple of dozen short stories. Her thirteenth mystery novel, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder (April 5, 2011), is brimming with names, no two the same.

Friday, March 18, 2011

CRIME ON MY MIND

Twitter, tweeting, and am I just a twit?

I started twittering this week. Seriously. I had jumped in last year sometime on somebody's advice and had one brilliant tweet, something about my cats and Garrison Keillor. And that was it. I discovered over time that I had followers. But, did I follow them back? Did I look for people to follow? Did I tweet again? The answer is no. I did nothing. Not a very good twit!

In the past couple of weeks I've been part on an on-line workshop, part of a writing group I belong to, and we've been led through the basics of tweeting. Things like selecting the proper name. If you're a writer, you want to be found. This is part of your marketing tool. So why use something cute? Better to use your name. Hence, I'm @erika_chase.

How to find followers and twits, sorry, people you want to follow is also part of the plan. There are a lot of fascinating people using this social networking and many have tweets you'll want to read. Some may not. And, there are a lot of people who you want to get the message out to, that you're a writer, this is what you're writing, this is why you'll like it.

Blatant, isn't it? Well, so is the business of writing. If you have a book to sell, you're going to have to take an active role in doing so. The cover won't do it all. Neither will your publisher, although they'll certainly give you a good start on it. With Twitter, there's the potential to reach more readers, faster than by any other means. Not that they'll all read your tweet. Nor will all of those who do, rush out and buy your book. But if you find a small percentage of new readers in doing this, it's well worth it.

Unfortunately, you'll never know the success of Twitter if this is the main reason you're using it. But if you look at it as another means to catch quick glimpses of the world, of what's happening, what's on people's minds, and who wants to connect... you'll find it invaluable. And fun. The trick is, give yourself a time limit otherwise, like Facebook, you may spend most of your time on-line rather than writing.

Of course, you could look at tweeting as your morning warm-up, getting the fingers and brain all set to tackle that manuscript once again.

If you're tweeting, what do you think? If not, why not?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
Book Club Mysteries coming April, 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime
Murder By the Book

Thursday, March 17, 2011

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

Pet Peeves

I don't know about you but starting a book that has a dog on the cover or in the title always gives me pause. I want to know beforehand that any pets in the book will be properly taken care of. Now I understand that there are times when animals get hurt in novels. Sometimes a dog's or cat's death is an important part of the plot and although I try to pass over that part as quickly as possible it's not the thing that really bothers me. What I can't stand is willful neglect.

It happens more often than it should. I remember reading a crime novel in which the protagonist took his dog for a midnight walk during which some events happened that moved the plot forward and sent the sleuth haring off to Vegas for four days. Wait a minute, I wanted to shout at him. What about the dog? The last we saw of the poor pooch was on that ill-fated walk. The author simply forgot all about him once he'd served his purpose of digging up the weapon.

This kind of thing makes me crazy and therefore I was somewhat hesitant to start Kate Atkinson's most recent novel, Started Early, Took my Dog. Was it going to end up as started early, forgot all about my dog? No. As it turned out, I needn't have worried. After a madcap scene in which an abused border terrier is rescued, the series sleuth turns out to be an admirable dog owner and the pooch turns out to be a great companion and foil for the hapless Jackson Brodie. Kate Atkinson is one of the funniest and most creative crime novelists writing today and this book is terrific.

Now, I have to confess to a little mistreatment in my own story in the January issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The protagonist hates animals and goes to no end of trouble trying to kill her son's dog. A couple of my dog-walking friends took me to task over this and I had to explain that the animal is really the heroine of the tale. She not only survives but turns the tables on the dog-hater.

Believe me, I love dogs. I've rarely been without one since I was a kid. And the authors in whose books I know I can lose myself safely are all dog owners. In Mary Jane Maffini's Charlotte Adams novels Truffles and Sweet Marie are alter egos for her own Lily and Daisy. Charlotte nips home between bouts of sleuthing and decluttering to feed and walk them and is even undertaking therapy training with them. I'm told Joan Boswell who has three retrievers of her own is introducing a new puppy in her next book. If Hollis's care of McTee is any example, both dogs will be walked and fed regularly and I'll be able to abandon myself to the plot. Similarly Barbara Fradkin's fictional dog is as well treated as her own pair of Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers. Indeed the majority of authors I read do attend to the needs of their pets. It's the odd one that abandons them for days on end that bothers me.

Have you got a pet peeve?


Sue Pike has published a couple of dozen stories and won several awards including an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Crime Story. Her latest, Where the Snow Lay Dinted will appear in the January issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Sue and her husband and an opinionated Australian Shepherd named Cooper spend the winter months in Ottawa and the rest of the time at a mysterious cottage on the Rideau Lakes.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

WICKED WEDNESDAYS


And now, for the good stuff...

Yesterday, feeling more under the weather than today, I blogged about the disadvantages of being a writer. Things like, not have paid sick days and such. And, that guilt thing about not writing even when ill.

Today, starting to feel better, I'm thinking about the good stuff. Like: not having to go out in the freezing rain in the morning; being able to slop around in totally unattractive, comfortable clothes while writing (see Mary Jane Maffini's blog last Monday); being there when the mail arrives, just in case that advance is in it; enjoying the company of cats, dogs and other small creatures while puzzling over plot points; being your own boss (sort of).

And then there are the post-publication joys: the media splurge, the adulation, the throngs of fans lined up at a signing, and the money! Oh, come on now -- don't tell me it's not true!

How about the satisfaction of having written and published a book? I'm working to that point but I have lots of friends who've already been there and are still writing, so it must be good.

What do you think? Any pleasures to add to this list?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
Book Club Mysteries coming April, 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime
Murder By the Book

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE


Writing woes...

This will be short. Because I'm sick.

Gone are the days when I would phone in sick, either unable to physically do the trek and/or worried about spreading germs. These days, the trek is to my office just down the hall and the germs get spread to my cats, like it or not.

But, because I'm a writer, I feel the call of duty or perhaps the guilt, and turn on the computer, hoping to write this blog and also, at least a couple chapters of my book, before crawling back to bed. That's what we do.

As I said, this will be short. Because I'm heading back to bed. The chapters, possibly one, will be done this afternoon.

But I'm wondering, what are the downsides of being a writer? Have you come across any?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
Book Club Mysteries coming April 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime
Murder By the Book

Monday, March 14, 2011

MAYHEM ON MONDAY

You’re wearing what????

After fretting about dressing my characters last week, I turned my attention to myself. What was I going to wear for heaven’s sake? It was fine for Charlotte Adams to have her trendy shoes and the others to have whatever you might call their outfits. But what about the author? For years I worked in my pyjamas first thing every morning, but recently, mornings have been taken up with promotion, writing biz and, um, blogs. So I have switched to afternoon. So what should be my writer’s uniform in that case? I tried asking my writer friends the tough questions and got a number of answers, many of them revealing. Psychologically at least.

Of course, I started with my Canadian friends, figuring they’d have the same climate issues as I do.

I was pretty certain that Joan Boswell would be the first one up every morning so I started with her. Sure enough. Joan confessed: “Since I have to get up and walk my dogs every morning I get dressed but sweats and a t-shirt with a polar fleece vest work well. And I always wear makeup; always have even when heading for the delivery room.”

Is it my imagination or are there many many story possibilities buried in that? She always looks good. I’ll say that about her. She didn’t mention colour-coordinated or Chico’s, but I know better.

Linda Wiken (AKA Erika Chase) is up pretty early too. Apparently, it’s cold in her house (despite warm bodied cats). Her teeth seem to chatter as she filled me in: “Usually, during these cold, wintry days I'm wearing warm sweatpants, a turtleneck T & one or 2 fleece tops -- if it's 2, the top one is a vest & when I get to that stage I realize it's time to bump up the thermostat. And always earrings!”

Well, she’s sure been productive lately working on her second mystery book club novel. I am putting that down to the earrings. Unless it’s two (!) fleece tops.

Vicki Delaney has a uniform, no matter what (almost). I was thinking maybe she’d have a hat like Constable Molly Smith, but no. She states categorically, “I am always in my pyjamas. Flannel in the winter, cotton in the summer. Always pyjamas, never a nightgown. The only exception is if I am expecting someone like a workman, and then I'll put on something respectable.* Even in the summer when outside on the deck - it's the PJs.”

* Note to readers: respectable is not defined. Hmm.

“My sweats, exactly what Meg wears when she's at home,” says Robin (R.J. Harlick)who is outdoorsy like her protagonist. Of course, as she has a new puppy, I am not sure how much writing is getting done. Whatever is, will be all about the comfort level. Although she denies any makeup use, she admits to wearing earrings too. They are slightly offset by the fluffy slippers, but altogether an authorial look.

“Cold feet, no ideas,” says Barbara Fradkin. “I am also a PJs and dressing gown plus fuzzy slippers person. The fleece slippers are essential. If I am writing in the evening, I have to be in comfy clothes like a baggy sweatshirt and pants, soft on the skin, no constricting belts, shoes, etc. It looks like hell, so I'm always terrified someone will drop by.”

I was toying with the idea of paying some handsome fellow to ring Barb’s doorbell this evening, just for the hell of it, but my good angel wouldn’t let me.

Pressed to reveal more (so to speak) and talk about her warm weather and cottage gear, Barb issued the following terse statement: “Hah! That depends on the weather. You're angling for bikini, or maybe even naked, aren't you? All these polar fleeces and baggy sweats just don't liven up the page. On the dock in spring and fall, I've been known to wear my ski jacket, tuque and gloves. In summer... the less the better. I did try naked once, but it didn't produce my best work. Had to keep looking up every time I heard the growl of a fishing boat.”

This made my day and I am sure it will make yours too. No photo was included. I still haven’t figured out to wear while writing in the afternoon.

In the meantime, what do you wear when you are at work? What do you wish you could wear?



Mary Jane Maffini rides herd on three (soon to be three and a half) mystery series and a couple of dozen short stories. Her thirteenth mystery novel, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder (April 5, 2011), is brimming with names, no two the same.