CRIME ON MY MIND

Writing in the zone....

Some days the words play a game of hide-and-seek in your brain. Especially when you're trying to write a sentence, much less a scene in a book. The paragraphs emerge on the screen in a piecemeal pattern and thank goodness, there's the opportunity to edit and revise. Several times.

Other times, it all flows. The writer is in that zone where lunch breaks are forgotten, even appointments, while the story takes over from reality. At the end of the scene, the page, the chapter...whatever, the writer emerges from the story and asks, 'what day is this'?

It happened to me earlier this week as I finished off another draft, I think #3, of book #2. I had been reading, editing and writing steadily for six hours and was so enveloped in the town of Ashton Corners, Alabama...and so wrapped up in the lives of my characters, it took several minutes to re-orient and remember what day and even, where I was. That's pure gold to a writer. Being able to write in the zone. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen frequently enough for my liking.

It's can be a similar experience for the reader, too. I have been so carried away to a fictional place with characters who seem like friends, that I lose all sense of time and place. Those are the books I treasure and keep on my shelf. Those are the authors I eagerly await another book from. And perhaps it's the waiting that adds to the experience. Like looking forward to the yearly summer vacation each year.

What book have you zoned out on recently?

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

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

The Learning Curve

Learning new skills invigorates and changes your perspective. Recently I took a week long ‘hooking’ course at Trent University. I learned a new vocabulary and new skills but more importantly I met interesting women, and one man, involved in this ancient craft. The youngest participants were in their thirties and the oldest was 97. Everyone expressed their pleasure at being there, at meeting old friends and welcomed those of us who were new. One legally blind 93 year old amazed us for she hooked within the pattern boundaries defined by masking tape a friend had painstakingly applied to the ongoing work.

If asked to characterize the group the words friendly, welcoming and non-competitive would come to mind.

Of course I purchased all the tools and am now guaranteed many hours of guilt free TV watching while I produce chair pads, a footstool cover and pillows. I’m pretty sure I’ll never make an enormous wall hanging or a rug as both require a degree of precision and exactness that I know I don’t possess.

Along with the lessons there was a display of hookers’ work. Some used purchased kits while others worked on original designs. The variety astounded me. In addition to this show of completed work on Thursday night we attended a ‘show and tell’ evening. Each participant displayed what they’d worked on during the week and talked about their reason for choosing that particular project.

The next morning, our teacher provided a list of web sites, books and magazines for us to turn to for information and inspiration. At home this week I checked out several sites. What joy and exuberance I found on some of them. They also had cross references that led to other interesting sites.

Over the years I’ve taken many courses some of which, like quilting, have led to lifelong obsessions. Others, like welding, proved interesting but didn’t change my

life. I do not have acetylene tanks tucked away ready to create garden sculptures from rusted iron. And, while I enjoyed a ‘using power tools’ course and did make a garden bench these skills are not ones I use. When I think back to the courses I’ve taken I marvel at the interests I’ve had but most of all I celebrate the urge that has made me want to learn new skills.

This past weekend PBS had a feature about achievers aged over ninety and, diverse though they were, each one had a zest for life and a determination to move on, to do things, to refuse to sit back and take it easy.

Shouldn’t writing be like that too? Shouldn’t we get on with it, embrace e books, try new topics and new ways of expressing ourselves? Do you agree that creating a book or a story should be fun and challenging?




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.

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Scottish mystery author Quintin Jardine celebrated a birthday last week (I won’t tell you which one) and one of the neat things on Facebook is that it automatically reminds you so you can send your friends a birthday greeting. I mentioned to Quintin that financial circumstances have caused me to no longer be able to travel anymore, especially to Bouchercon and as most of you know I ran two of these World Mystery Conventions in Toronto in 1992 and 2004.

He said that he no longer goes to Bouchercon himself anymore because most of the organizers don’t treat the authors with any respect. His actual words were:

“Your great gift as an organiser was to realise that without authors it wouldn’t exist, and that since most of us actually pay our own $199, we deserve a little respect. In my experience, that’s a minority view.”

Running a convention for 1-2,000 people isn’t rocket science. It isn’t even re-inventing the wheel. It’s also not a walk in the park either. OK, no more clichés. What a chairman needs is to surround himself with is about six really smart people willing to work WAY harder than he is prepared to. Each member of this “executive committee” will handle individual departments: programming the panels, autographing room, social events and banquet, booksellers’ room, liaison with the media and registration (now done on-line).

Each of these people in turn recruit people to populate their own sub-committees, people they have to get along with not you. You have contact only with the sub-committee chairs, (the executive committee) and the chain of communication goes both up and down. The main thing that a chairman has to realize is that these conventions run on several different levels all at the same time.

The authors are the stars of the show and they are there not only to participate on panels, sign books and generally ‘be’, they also like to socialize with other authors, meet publishers and their reps, talk to their agents or look for another one and get interviewed by the media. In short, it’s a working convention for the authors and while most of them pay their own expenses through their “company” like James Lee Burke Enterprises” or whatever, some authors get part or all of their expenses reimbursed by their publisher as part of that author’s promotional budget for the year. Agents are looking for new authors. Publishers too. Booksellers are getting books signed and then hopefully sold. The media are scurrying around cornering authors for interviews. All of these people use Bouchercon and other large conventions as working events.

Only the ‘general attendees’, the readers and fans treat Bouchercon as social events only. They are there to listen to panels, get autographs, buy books and generally enjoy the city they’re in, meet with other friends and fans and yet, organizers seem to think that they are the most important part of the convention. While without attendees Bouchercon and other conventions wouldn’t exist, the key to everybody is the author.

Without the authors there are no books, no publishers, no agents and the media are interviewing each other. So while current economic situations prevent the conventions from picking up the author’s costs, the very least they can do is to give the authors, especially those authors who have considerable backlist, the respect they are due.


Al Navis is the owner of Handy Book in Toronto for the past 28 years, a used and out-of-print independent bookstore. He was chairman and host of Bouchercon: The World Mystery Convention in 1992 and 2004. He has also been on and off Toronto radio for over 30 years. Books are his business and first passion. Other passions are most sports (except basketball), most music (except C&W and rap) and radio. More recently he has gotten back into editing and writing as well as appraising book collections for insurance or for loss.

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

How organic do you want your characters to be?

If someone had asked me that a year ago, I would have answered quickly: As organic

as possible. I want to work with real people moving through my fictional pages.

Now, though, I'm not as sure.

Writing my first novel, Dead Politician Society, my characters were easy to control. They were not layered deeply with complexity like John Irving's or John Le Carre's characters, but I was fine with that; they suited the story. These men and women did exactly as they were told; they stayed well inside the lines of the plot I wanted them to fit into. As a result, I think this book works as a fun, light, logic puzzle.

Writing my second novel, Death Plays Poker, I wanted to continue the series but get deeper with my characters. So I spent more time getting to know the players before thrusting a plot upon them. They struggled a bit – I had to change the plot a few times to accommodate their quirks – but it was nothing I couldn't stay on top of. This book took more work, but I like the way it continues from the first one – a bit deeper, a bit darker, but still fun and light and logical.

So naturally I wanted to push even harder for the third book (still untitled, though it's due at the end of the summer). I wanted to challenge myself to get closer to the writers I most admire (like Irving and Le Carre) for how deeply real their characters can be.

But you know the problem with real people? They don't obey commands so well. These new characters don't seem to care that they're in a series that has to continue to be fun and fast to satisfy readers who enjoyed the first two books. They would rather smoke pot and philosophize than jump into their snowboarding gear and cause havoc and red herrings. But they can't be as dark and brooding as they like. They have to crack jokes and be devious and entertain their audience.

So the question that arises is: Am I pushing the walls of the genre too far out? When you're writing fast-paced crime fiction, how organic do you want your characters to be? Maybe James Bond is flat for a reason – his stories are damn entertaining, and he satisfies his audience time after time. Or is there a way I can keep my characters alive and figure out how to work a tight plot around them anyway?

To answer that, I look at fast-paced crime fiction writers I admire:

Jonathan Kellerman: He gets up close and personal with his characters, and his psychology background shows as he finds ways to layer his characters in very few words. I find myself deeply involved in his stories – they feel real and alive and I can't not turn the pages. His plots are tight, fast, and original each time. (Impressive, because the guy churns out a lot of books.) He can do what I'm aiming to.

Lisa Brackmann: I'm only halfway through Rock Paper Tiger, but from page one, I could feel energy. The story moves fast – she pulls us running along with the protagonist and it's really hard to set the book down. And the characters are even deeper than Kellerman's. I feel like I could meet Ellie for coffee in Beijing and we'd have a million things to talk about. I feel like I could turn on my computer and jump into the online game she's playing. The book is also really fun. I laugh out loud at least three times per page. Lisa can also do what I'm aiming for with this book.

Hilary Davidson: While I wouldn't call The Damage Done fast, because it feels so fluid reading it, the plot moves at a clipping pace and a lot happens. At the same time, I feel like I could meet Lily, drink some wine, and learn from her. That's right: learn from a fictional character. So Hilary can do this, too.

Conclusion: Organic characters can be corralled into a tight, fun, fast plot. I don't have to change genres, and I don't have to turn Clare into James Bond.

So I'll keep wrestling. Maybe I'll miss my deadline, if my characters won't obediently fall into line by the end of the summer. Or maybe I won't achieve that balance with this particular book. But I think it's worth the fight to keep pushing this series in the direction I'd like to

Robin Spano is the author of Dead Politician Society, the first book in a series about a young, hot-blooded undercover cop. This is the closest she will ever come to realizing her childhood dream of being one of Charlie's Angels. She lives in Lions Bay, BC.

MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

Canada Day weekend in my opinion is meant for intense reading in a lawn chair with occasional breaks for socializing, munching on summer foods and watching fireworks. So this weekend was perfect because I decided to open Blink and Caution, by Tim Wynne-Jones. I have always enjoyed Tim’s work. I think he’s a writer for all ages.

Blink and Caution is apparently a young adult novel, but this fairly old adult couldn’t put it down. Blink is sixteen and living on the street to avoid his vicious stepfather and hopeless mother. His current scam scrounging leftover room service breakfasts in an upscale hotel takes a bizarre and dangerous turn when he witnesses three thugs apparently trashing a hotel room. A little fast action nets him a room key, a pile of cash and a Blackberry. Soon the news is full of the kidnapping of Jack Niven, CEO of a controversial mining company embroiled in a legal wrangle with native protestors over a proposed project. Only Blink knows that Jack Niven walked out of that hotel very much in charge of the situation and the thugs. Blink’s response to the frantic calls from Niven’s daughter pulls him into a situation beyond his control.

Caution, on the run from an unthinkable action in her past, is filled with self-loathing and on her own, a girl with courage and edge, streetwise with some surprising skills. She is desperate to escape from her sadistic drug-dealing boyfriend, Merlin, who seems to be able to follow her anywhere. Perhaps in retrospect, Merlin was not the right guy to steal money from. Caution has every reason to get out of Toronto.

When their paths cross (as we know they will) they are drawn into dangerous physical and emotional territory with only each other to rely on. That’s tough when trust doesn’t come easy. Blink and Caution is a satisfying and readable adventure with characters worth caring about. It’s a compelling story, well written. I loved it.

One of the things I value about mysteries is their ability to change the way you view the world. You’ll never look at street kids the same way after this. Too bad all their stories don’t all play out like Blink’s and Caution’s.

For more on multi-award-winning author Tim Wynne-Jones, check out www.timwynne-jones.com


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, which hit the bookshelves this spring, is brimming with names, no two the same.

MYSTERY REVIEW

DIRE THREADS
by Janet Bolin
Berkley Prime Crime

The really neat thing about writing fiction is that you get to make it all up! You can create the ideal village, the perfect job, a great bunch of pals, cute pets,
and a main character who gets to do the things you might want to do and has some of the physical attributes you might long for and of course, has that sexy bit of romance going on in her life.

I'll just bet Janet Bolin had a blast writing Dire Threads!

Willow Vanderling is the owner of a new embroidery store in the village of Elderberry Bay, also known as Threadville. That says a lot right there. Imagine this woman in her late twenties (maybe, we don't know for sure), who escaped the pressures of a high-powered city job, and also the wrath of her ex-boss who she helped put in jail. This is a woman to be reckoned with! She joins her former co-worker and friend in the crafty little village, where most of the stores share a common theme -- well Threadville says it all.

That's the first hook. If you're into any of these dandy crafts, you'll love the notion of this village, along with all the stitching details. Plus, there's an original machine embroidery project tucked in at the back of the book.

The setting is idyllic -- on a Pennsylvania shoreline with the requisite beach within walking distance. A newly-renovated store with an attached basement apartment, also newly renovated and a cute little cottage out back, ideal for renting out. Or finding clues to the murderer's identity. Oh, didn't I mention -- a murder does take place in this sublime locale. And it's Willow's new nemesis -- the zoning commissioner who had dire plans for her Blueberry Cottage. That would give Willow the ideal motive for killing him.

She's not one to go down without a fight, though and she's aided in her sleuthing by her best friend, Haylee and an odd assortment of women, aptly named The Three Weird Mothers. I can picture Bolin laughing out loud as she clothed these women and tangled them up in the plot to prove Willow's innocence. You will have to read the book to enjoy the full effect of her descriptions!

What's a cosy mystery without a touch of romance? And who better to supply it than the delicious renovator. But there's just the hint of the unknown about him, which means Willow has to include him on her list of suspects. But her dogs love him! Tally-Ho and Sally-Forth. Her recently-rescued one-year old pups. The perfect addition to any embroidery shop.

Dire Threads has everything a cosy lover wants in a read! A craftily clever
mystery, an engaging amateur sleuth who leaves you wanting more, a cast of memorable secondary characters, the dogs, the tips and of course...a really fun read.

This is the first book in the Threadville mystery series by Ontario writer Janet
Bolin. Hopefully, we're in for a lot more embroidery projects and adventures!

CRIME ON MY MIND

Hanging out with some cool Canadians...

Happy Canada Day!

What a gloriously sunny day it is, although the humidex may get bit too high later today, for my tastes anyway. Which is part of the reason I won't be joining in the William & Kate lovefest at the Hill. But mostly, it's because of the hordes, already assembling in the early hours.

I'm delighted the Royal newlyweds are celebrating our national holiday with us, here in the capital. But I think I'll stay at home, in my shaded backyard, with some cool Canadians. Reading, that is.

Besides celebrating our nation's birthday, we should also celebrate the wealth of criminally-minded writers that call Canada home. Not only do we have the numbers, we have the talent! And the variety. You can wile away the humid afternoon in quaint but slightly sinister Three Pines, Quebec. Or in Halifax, Victoria or Algonquin Bay. And of course, Ottawa!

You can get some great tips on organizing your home, mixing an alcoholic beverage, or take in a bit of history about Victorian Toronto. Canadian authors will also transport you to Easter Island, Costa Rica or Dublin.

Spend some time with Gail Bowen, Barbara Fradkin, C.B. Forrest, Lou Allin, Joan Boswell, Garry Ryan, R.J. Harlick, Anthony Bidulka, Mary Jane Maffini, Vicki Delany, Kay Stewart, Robin Spano, Pam Callow, D.J. McIntosh, Giles Blunt, Phyllis Smallman, Brenda Chapman, Peter Robinson, John Moss, Tom Heneghan, John Brady, Thomas Rendell Curran, Janet Bolin, William Deverell, The Ladies' Killing Circle, Suzanne Kingsmill, Hilary MacLeod, Donald Hauka...the list goes on and on. I knew I shouldn't start naming names -- I would certainly end up leaving out some very important Canadian mystery authors. No disrespect meant & in no way does that mean they're not on the 'A' list of crime reading. But you can fill in the blanks with your own personal favourites.

The point is...we have some terrific mystery and crime authors and we should wave the flag when it comes to their books. So, Happy Canada Day and Happy Reading!

To find out more about Cool Canadian Crime, visit the Crime Writers of Canada website, http://www.crimewriterscanada.com


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