MAYHEM ON MONDAY

Time off...or not!

It's a holiday today in Ontario -- Family Day. But for me it's a work day. Mainly because I didn't have time to write on the weekend, nor for a few days before that. Life happens, doesn't it?

However, I must admit the reason I'm posting this blog so late is a book. Unfortunately, not the one I'm writing. I made the mistake to opening a book called The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen, one I've had on the go for about a week and pick up whenever I take time out for tea. This morning, I opened it while enjoying my second espresso. My mistake because I couldn't put it down this time -- had to keep going to the end.

It's not a mystery, although there is a murder from the past that plays a role in bringing people together. It's a book about friendship. And, a book about Southern women. And men. I'm reading a lot of books set in the southern states these days, mainly to keep my head in that space for writing my own series. I'm enjoying it there, I must admit. It's a different culture in many aspects, with the ways of the past intermingling with today.

So, that's my holiday. Two hours this morning. Now, it's back to writing although I will have to make it short and get the house ready for my Book Club tonight. That's life again. But that's what I'm writing about...lives involved in a mystery. So, in a way it's research, isn't it? That puts my mind at ease.

How are you spending today?

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime
www.erikachase.com

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Reading while writing

Looking at my TBR pile of books always puts me in a good mood. I see an array of colourful spines with words such as Brad, Mistress, Poker, Janice, Trap and Liver to tempt me. Some will be read before others, of course. Especially those I’m planning to review on Mystery Maven Canada.

Others I’m saving for a chilly early evening read in front of the fireplace. And I know, unfortunately, there will be some that remain on the pile indefinitely, while new titles are added with a frightening frequency. That’s just the way it is. I love keeping that pile topped up. Well, it’s actually several piles located in many rooms of the house.

There’s the bedside stack that sits next to my clock/radio/CD player on the nightside table; the pile of books on the end table next to the sofa in the living room; the books in the TV room on the coffee table; and several towers of TBRs on the floor in my home office. Heartwarming!

I’m sure that many of you can relate to this need to have books at a ready to be read.

The question is, what do you read while you’re ensconced in a writing project? Do you read a mainstream novel while writing a mystery? Poetry, perhaps? Or maybe strictly non-fiction? If you’re writing thrillers, do you read cosies? Or if a cosy series is your bread-and-butter, do you read only police procedurals?

When I started taking writing seriously, meaning with applied deadlines and a goal of publication in this lifetime, I studiously avoided reading the type of mystery I wrote. I’d read that somewhere…authors worried about someone else’s style or maybe even plot points bleeding into their own stories. But I don’t believe that anymore.

For me, writing cosies, I find that a mixture works best. I need the variety of a good caper, a historical thriller, a police procedural or even a non-mystery will bring to my cosy-clogged mind. But I also thrive on reading within my sub-genre. Spending a half hour in some other fictional small Southern town, with a tightly-knit group of amateur sleuths solving the crime helps re-focus my brain and I find the writing flows more easily. I’m certain I don’t transplant those characters, that town, and particularly not that plot to my page. But it does help me “think lighter”, if that makes any sense. And I’m the first to admit that cosies generally are a lighter read. Not, a lesser read, I might add!

Besides, I need to keep on top of what the editors are choosing to publish. Am I moving in the right direction? And what readers will I find once I get there?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April 3, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime

MYSTERY MAVEN BLOG-OLIDAY

Happy Blog-oliday!

Mystery Maven is on a blog-oliday!

We'll all be back on Monday, August 29th...so please be sure to come back and read us then. Happy Canadian Crime reading to all!

Wait here's an update. MMC will return on Sept. 1st instead. Hope you'll all come back!