Did You Know?

© Marta Stephens 2009 all rights reserved

Here’s something a friend shared with me today from the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Ever hear of the word, MacGuffin?

According the dictionary, it means: "An object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance."

Example Sentence
The missing document is the MacGuffin that sends the two spies off on an action-packed race around the world, but the real story centers on tension between the main characters.

Did you know?
The first person to use "MacGuffin" as a word for a plot device was Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from an old shaggy-dog story in which some passengers on a train interrogate a fellow passenger carrying a large, strange-looking package. The fellow says the package contains a "MacGuffin," which, he explains, is used to catch tigers in the Scottish Highlands. When the group protests that there are no tigers in the Highlands, the passenger replies, "Well, then, this must not be a MacGuffin."

Hitchcock apparently appreciated the way the mysterious package holds the audience’s attention and builds suspense. He recognized that an audience anticipating a solution to a mystery will continue to follow the story even if the initial interest-grabber turns out to be irrelevant.

About the author:
Marta Stephens writes crime mystery/suspense. Her books are available online at familiar shops such as all the Amazons, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, and Powells. Other locations include, but are not limited to those listed on her website.THE DEVIL CAN WAIT (2008)
Bronze Medal Finalist, 2009 IPPY AwardsTop Ten, 2008 Preditors and Editors Reader Poll (mystery)

SILENCED CRY (2007) Honorable Mention, 2008 New York Book FestivalTop Ten, 2007 Preditors and Editors Reader Poll (mystery)

Visit Sam Harper at http://www.samharpercrimescene.blogspot.com

Nathan Bransford's First Paragraph Contest

Once again, agent Nathan Bransford is holding a contest - The 3rd Sort-of-Annual Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge!

Sounds fun, right?

It's easy to enter. Take the first paragraph of your most exciting (unpublished) manuscript or WIP, head over to that there link up above, and paste it into the comments section.

Stolen directly from Nathan's blog, here's what the prizes are:

The GRAND PRIZE STUPENDOUSLY ULTIMATE WINNER will receive....

1) Their choice of a partial critique, query critique, or phone consultation

2) A very-sought-after galley of THE SECRET YEAR by Jennifer Hubbard, which will be published by Viking in January.

3) A signed THE SECRET YEAR bookmark

4) The envy of their rivals

5) The pride of a job well done

6) I think you get the picture

The STUPENDOUSLY ULTIMATE FINALISTS will receive....

a) Query critiques

b) A signed THE SECRET YEAR bookmark (assuming you live in a place that is reached in a reasonably affordable fashion by the postal service no offense forraners)

c) Pride. Lots of pride.

Nathan is judging the contest. The deadline for entries is Thursday at 4 p.m. Pacific time. Now, since Nathan is nearly as popular as Miss Snark (sorry, Nathan, I have to say nearly ... I can already feel the stiletto heel in my foot), there are already, as of this post, over 900 entries.

So hurry and get yours in! And good luck!

Meet Author Rebecca York

© Marta Stephens 2009 all rights reserved

I'm very pleased to introduce award winning author, Rebecca York to our Murder By 4 readers. Ms. York is a New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best-selling author. She has written over 125 books and has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times, her Peregrin Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series, and she is a two-time Rita Finalist.


MS: Please tell us a little about yourself, your books, and the journey that led you to write DRAGON MOON.

RY: I was a dyslexic kid destined for obscurity–not a writing career. But I’m nothing if not persistent, and the stories burning inside me began seeing print in the early 80's. My chief reading material when I was young was science fiction and fantasy. One book that stuck with me for years was DARKER THAN YOU THINK, by Jack Williamson, about a man discovering his werewolf powers. It made me want to BE a werewolf.

My first published novel was a kids’ science fiction story. Then the romance field heated up, and a friend asked if I wanted to write one. When I told her I’d never read a romance, she brought me shopping bags full of paperback romances. I LIKED them. I’d always loved reading about the development of a relationship between a man and a woman, and romances were all about that relationship. I wrote a few, but I want more plot with my stories. So I was one of the early modern writers of romantic suspense, starting with the Peregrine Connection series for Dell in 1986-87. In my first books for Harlequin Intrigue (in the early 90's), I started sneaking in paranormal elements. At first I wrote what I call “stealth paranormals,” because I had to hide the weird bits until well into the story. The reader didn’t know the hero was a space alien or a clone being trained for a suicide mission until she’d already gotten to know and like him.

As paranormal became more acceptable, I got more overt about using it. And I burned to write a werewolf book. But I kept thinking, “Who would buy that from me?” Finally, I HAD TO write KILLING MOON. That was my first single-title paranormal, and I’ve been deep into the weird ever since. DRAGON MOON is the latest example.

MS: Why this book? What prompted you to write it and what do you hope your readers will get out of it?

RY: To answer the last part first, I hope readers will get a satisfying, emotional read out of the story and will get involved with the relationship between my hero and heroine. Why DRAGON MOON? I got interested in dragons when I visited China. I also wrote a short story about a dragon-shifter and wanted to explore the subject more. The villain of DRAGON MOON is an evil dragon-shifter. But I’ve got a mostly “good” one too--Ramsey Gallagher, who plays a strong part in DRAGON MOON. I’m thrilled that my editor has let me tell his story in my next Berkley book.

MS: Tell us a bit about your protagonist.

RY: Talon Marshall is a member of my Marshall werewolf family. My first werewolf in KILLING MOON was Ross Marshall, a private detective who uses his wolf senses to solve crimes. Ross was unhappy that the men in his family were loners–each the alpha male in his own pack. He’s put a lot of effort into getting the Marshalls to work together. Even though Talon’s faced with a problem he can’t solve on his own, he has a hard time with the concept of werewolf cooperation. Throughout DRAGON MOON, he challenges Ross and the other Marshalls. He has a particularly hard time with Logan Marshall, who tends to be a hothead. But Talon will do anything to save the woman he loves, and that means working with the Marshall men and their lifemates, many of whom have paranormal powers.

MS: Please share with our readers a little about the plot, the characters, and the setting of your novel.

RY: The heroine of DRAGON MOON, Kenna, is a slave from my alternate universe, sent here to help Vandar, her ruthless dragon-shifter master, invade our world. She meets werewolf Talon Marshall, is drawn to him, and desperately wants to tell him the secret she’s been commanded to hide. But every time she tries to reveal her plight, excruciating pains stab into her head. Even as Kenna and Talon fall in love, he knows he can’t trust her. And she struggles to break through the barriers that control her mind. It’s classic romantic suspense, with the paranormal twists that add so much to the book for me. I love writing stories about men and women falling in love against a background of suspense and danger, so I always have a fast-paced plot with plenty of frightening incidents that my hero and heroine must deal with. But the most important thing about any plot element is how it affects the hero and heroine emotionally. Like when Talon comes home from a wilderness expedition to find Kenna attacking a man who came to Talon’s lodge to burn it down. Or when Kenna’s programming forces her to rob a nearby house, and Talon watches her in wolf form. Knowing she’s a thief sends him off on a near disastrous course.

I set many of my stories in Maryland, but it’s getting a little crowded for my werewolves here. So Talon lives in rural Pennsylvania. My Marshall men tend to live in the woods, where they can change to wolf form and run free when they feel restless or need some fresh deer meat. That brings up an important point about my werewolves. They’re always struggling with the savage impulses that are part of their genetic makeup.

MS: After 125 books, what challenges do you see ahead of you?

RY: Well, one good thing about being a writer is that you don’t get pushed out just because you’ve been around for a while. I’ve got plenty of ideas churning in my head, books I want to write. I’m always trying to improve my writing and make my books better. The story I’m writing now is a sequel to DRAGON MOON. The hero is Ramsey Gallagher, a powerful dragon-shifter, whom the reader meets in DRAGON MOON. But in his battle with Vandar, he loses many of his powers. Now he’s on a quest to get them back–and to find out who he is.

MS: How much and/or what kind of research went into writing DRAGON MOON?

RY: The good thing about writing fantasy is that you can make a lot of it up. But I did considerable research on dragons for DRAGON MOON. There’s also a sequence where Talon takes a group of men on a wilderness expedition. I had to research his route and also the wildlife they’d see on the trip. I also had to research the area of Colorado where Ramsey lives.

MS: DRAGON MOON is the 9th book in your Moon Series. What sparked your interest to write this series?

RY: As I explained earlier, it all started years ago when I read DARKER THAN YOU THINK, by Jack Williamson. I was fifteen and an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy. But that book really spoke to me. Maybe it was that universal teen angst. There were aspects of my life that I hated, and I wanted to be somewhere else. Imagining myself a werewolf sure beat my high school feelings of inferiority–in and out of the classroom.

Years later, I saw a review of THE WOLF’S HOUR, by Robert McCammon, in the Washington Post. I wanted to read that book, so I ran out to Waldenbooks and bought it. Another peak reading experience for me. I LOVED the werewolf hero. By that time I was already writing romantic suspense, but few publishers were buying paranormal. Still, I kept thinking about a werewolf hero. At the same time, I kept thinking, “who would buy that kind of book from me?” For four or five years, I talked about a book with a werewolf PI who used his wolf senses to solve crimes. Finally a friend said, “Either stop talking about that story or write it.”

Although I came up with an outline, I knew I could never sell the book on a proposal, so I wrote KILLING MOON while I was writing Harlequin Intrigues. In the middle of the book, my agent retired, and I had to find a new agent. I told myself it had to be someone who would love my werewolf story. Luckily for me, I found him.

Berkley was just starting a “dark paranormal line.” My new agent sold KILLING MOON to Berkley, who promptly closed all their “lines.” But they made my story a launch book for their new Sensation imprint. I didn’t actually know I was going to be writing a series. But Berkley wanted more books, and I was happy to give them more.

The first books were fairly conventional, except for the werewolf heroes. But lately they’ve acquired more “out there” elements, like my alternate universe that runs parallel to this one. I’ve had a hero who was a ghost (GHOST MOON) and a heroine who’s the reincarnation of an ancient goddess (ETERNAL MOON.)

MS: You also have a series of paranormal suspense and romantic thrillers. What defines each series and what inspired you to develop them?

RY: In addition to Berkley, I write for Harlequin Intrigue, where I have a long-running 43 Light Street series. I love the idea of developing a cast of characters. Each hero and heroine get their own story. Then they come back in later books. Readers can find out what they’ve been doing, and these characters add to the richness of the stories. I do something similar with the werewolf books. Once a hero and heroine have appeared, they come back in later books. In the Moon books, the werewolves define the series. In the Intrigues, I started with a group of people who all worked at 43 Light Street (a made-up street number) near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Many of the characters had offices there. Now, many of them work for the Light Street Detective Agency or for Randolph Security, which is their brother organization. (Cam Randolph and Jo O’Malley, who owns the detective agency, are married. Cam’s an inventor and runs a research facility in Western Maryland.)

MS: What do you find the most difficult part of writing and what do you do to overcome it?

RY: The hardest part for me is facing a blank screen. I force myself to get the text down so I can start editing it. I love going back over what I’ve written and improving it.

MS: You’ve been writing for over 20 years. How do you balance your time between writing and doing the other things in life you enjoy?

RY: When I’m writing, I try to write ten pages a day. This is a pretty good pace and allows me some free time. My husband loves to travel, so we often go off to interesting locations. For example, we’re just back from a fabulous trip to Peru, much of it for research for Ramsey’s book. I also love going to a luxury hotel and being pampered for a week. I get my ten pages done in the morning. Then we go out and play. At home, we try to see my daughter, son-in-law and the grandkids at least once a week. And we do lots of things like go to the opera, the symphony and plays (some put on by local companies and others with national casts of Broadway plays and musicals that come to the Kennedy Center or the Hippodrome in Baltimore. We also go out to dinner a lot with friends.

MS: What impact would you say completing DRAGON MOON has had on you personally and on your writing?

RY: With each book, I strive to strike out into new territory, and DRAGON MOON continues that. But it’s also given me Ramsey Gallagher, a character I find fascinating. I’m having a great time writing more about him now. His book is called DAY OF THE DRAGON, although that title might change.

MS: Who has been the greatest influence on you with respect to encouraging you to write and become a published author?

RY: My husband has given me the greatest encouragement. He’s always believed that I could be a writer, even when the odds seemed so stacked against me. He’s always there to proofread what I write. And he talks me down when I get discouraged.

MS: With respect to your writing, please give us some insight into your writing process. In other words, did you outline the chapters? Did you think about the plot for a while before writing it? What steps did you take before you wrote the first sentence?

RY: I’ve learned my craft from reading authors I admire , by studying movie techniques, and by figuring out what works or falls flat. Then I go back to my own stories. Every book I write begins with what I’d call a “cool idea.”

For DRAGON MOON, the germ of the book comes from the idea: What if a frightening dragon- shifter monster from my parallel universe planned to invade our world? What if he sent a spy here–and she had to figure out how to free herself from his hold on her?

I always get as much of the story down in outline form as I can before I start to write. And I try to develop plot and character together–because they are so intertwined. The characters must fit into the plot, and the plot must keep the reader interested and illuminate the characters.

I always plan to start with a gripping first scene that will plunge the reader into the action. In DRAGON MOON, Vandar, my dragon-shifter monster, flies over his domain, lands and gathers his slaves so he can execute one of them by drinking his blood. Then he thinks about his current project–invading our world and how he’s going to accomplish it.

When I write the first few chapters of my book, I get to know my characters. Although I have an outline, I’m free to abandon any part of it if I think of something better. As I said, I try to write ten pages a day. I always start the next day by editing what I wrote the day before, which gets me back into the story. I try to write fast. Then I spend a lot of time editing my manuscript. Each book I write gets edited on the screen at least once. Then I edit two to four times on paper. I also try to write fast to give myself time to put the book away for a few weeks or months. When I get it out again, it’s like someone else wrote it, and I can be very objective about what works and what doesn’t.

MS: What's next for Rebecca York?

RY: I’m currently writing Ramsey Gallagher’s story. And I’ve finished a proposal for another Harlequin Intrigue.

MS: Any words of wisdom and advice to aspiring writers?

RY: Don’t think that because you’ve written something, it’s set in stone. Be prepared to revise and improve your work. Shoot for the best markets first. Don’t try “easier” publishers until you’ve struck out with the bigger ones.

About the author:

Ms. York is a New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best-selling and award-winning author, Rebecca has written over 115 books. Her KILLING MOON was a launch title for Berkley’s Sensation imprint in June 2003. Five more books in the series have followed.

Rebecca has authored or co-authored over 65 romantic thrillers, many for Harlequin Intrigue's very popular 43 Light Street series, set in Baltimore, and many with paranormal elements. Her next Intrigue is SOLDIER CAGED, July 2008. Her many awards include two Rita finalist books. She has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times: for Series Romantic Suspense and for Series Romantic Mystery. And her Peregrine Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series.
She and her husband live in Columbia, Maryland. They have two grown children, Elissa (a librarian) and Ethan (a Foreign Service Officer), and two grandsons, Jesse and Leo. Rebecca holds a B. A. in American Thought and Civilization from The George Washington University and an M. A. in American Studies from The University of Maryland. She heads the Columbia Writers Workshop. She is profiled in Who's Who in America, Contemporary Authors, and Who's Who of American Women.

What Scares You?

copyright 2011, aaron paul lazar

As an author I'm often asked, "Where do you get your ideas?"

It's one of my favorite subjects, so if you decide to ask me on our next exchange, pull out a chair and settle in. It's hard for me to stop talking about it once I start.

In recent articles, I've mentioned how life in general (news, friends, movies, etc) can inspire story lines. Today I'd like to discuss how my fears drive my plots.

Allow me to open up right from the beginning and tell you what scares the hell out of me.

1) Losing my wife, daughters, grandkids, or other family members (including pets)

2) Being caught in a fire (hey, I didn't say my fears were original, did I?)

3) Drowning

4) Heights

5) Bad guys

6) Plane crashes (if I'm inside)

7) Tornadoes

8) Floods (and a subsequent drowning)

9) Snakes. (shudder)

10) Being in a bad accident in a massive snow storm

11) Falling under the ice and not being able to get out

12) Geez! Isn't 11 enough?

As I analyze this long list of fears, I realize I've used those themes over and over again in my fourteen books. Those twists on all the themes have given my characters fits on a number of occasions. In Double Forte', Gus nearly drowns, his daughter is threatened, his grandson disappears, and he goes off the road with said grandson in the vehicle in a bad snow storm. Uh huh. Looks at all those fears!

In Upstaged, Gus has to deal with a big snake, he's terrorized by a psychotic maniac, and his fiancee's beloved dog is kidnapped.

Mazurka opens with a near plane crash, Gus and Camille are hunted by Nazis, abandoned unground in the Parisian Catacombs, almost drowned when their car plunges into an alpine lake, and are imprisoned during a fierce fire. Oh yeah, Mazurka hit a lot of them.

In Tremolo: cry of the loon, we do the handcuffed-to-a-bed-in-a-roaring-fire bit, the being-attacked-underwater-and-almost-drowning-bit, and also have Gus misunderstand and think his mother died. Phew. That was a bad one, too.

So I won't go through Firesong, which includes many of the above as well, but believe me, fears are intertwined in all the books. And facing those fears by writing about them is good therapy. It's also a good way to get your readers' hearts pumping, for you can be assured that many of your fears are shared by them.

So, writers. What scares you?

***

See a complete list of my books.

BOOK PROMOTION THAT WORKS FOR ME

© Marilyn Meredith 2009 all rights reserved

Being published by a small, independent press means that I have to do most of my own promotion. This is the plan I use for each book that comes out with some variation.

When I know approximately when my book will be out I always plan a book launch, usually in my hometown. My most elaborate one was held at a bed-and-breakfast in a town where about half the book took place. For $25 people who bought their tickets in advance were served a nice luncheon, received a copy of my book which I signed and talked about. I’ve had launches in gift and coffee shops, at our local Inn and the recreation center. My launch for my latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, DISPEL THE MIST, was held in a bakery. I bought cookies from the bakery to serve. They’ve asked me to return when I have another book to launch.

Of course I always purchase business cards with the cover of the book and all the necessary information on them to hand out wherever I go. Sometimes I get postcards too.

I have a website and the latest book cover is always the most prominent. I have a blurb about each book, a link to the publisher, and the first chapter available to read. http://fictionforyou.com/ . I try to blog everyday, http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/, and I write about a lot of things besides whatever book I happen to be promoting. I also blog every Tuesday at http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com/, which displays my book covers and my upcoming appearances.

Once I received books, I sent requests for reviews to people who have reviewed previous Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries. I also offered to give away five free books to the first people who contacted me from DorothyL. I sent out ten books.

Once the reviews come in, I put them on my blog and my website and let my publisher know too.

I’m on Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites. I’ve made lots of new friends and it’s a great way to keep in contact.

When I appeared at the library to talk about the inspiration for DISPEL THE MIST one of my Twitter friends I’d never met showed up with his wife, so don’t let anyone tell you social networking doesn’t work.

For my local appearances, I always give a book to each of the newspapers and write up the copy I’d like for them to put in—usually they put exactly what I’ve written. I had a bonus this year when the paper sent a reporter and photographer to cover the event at the library and the article was on the front page. The next day I received a call from the local rotary club asking me to come and give a talk to them.

I do well at book festivals, especially if I have the opportunity to speak, craft fairs, and similar venues. I’m going to several this year. For the second year, I’ll have a table at our local Art Gallery for their Christmas sale. The trick to selling books at these venues is to make eye contact with people and talk to them. I’ve seen authors sit behind their table and play with a computer or even read a book—and they complained afterward about not selling much. Usually I do quite well because I speak to everyone. What’s the point of going if you aren’t going to try to meet new people and interest them in your books?

Having a book club discuss your books is always a great opportunity.

Mystery cons and writers conferences are always fun and a good way to introduce yourself to new readers. I’ve decided this coming year to only do the smaller cons where I know I can be on a panel or give a presentation. I’m going to Epicon http://www.epicauthors.com/ (the con for electronically published writers and publishers since all my books are e-books as well as trade paperbacks), Mayhem in the Midlands and Public Safety Writers Association http://www.publicsafetywriter.com/, which is for anyone writing fiction or non-fiction about any of the public safety fields.

My one exception to sticking to small conferences will be Bouchercon 2010 because it’s being held in San Francisco and I can get there on the train.

I always take advantage of other opportunities to sell books—this year I’m having a signing at our family reunion. The reunion is being held in a hotel in a small town and I’ve invited anyone who lives near to come too.

As you can tell, with the exception of the cons, I do most of my promoting fairly close to home. That’s what works for me and perhaps it might give you an idea you haven’t thought of before.

About the author:

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over twenty-five published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Dispel the Mist from Mundania Press. Under the name of F. M. Meredith she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series. No Sanctuary is the newest from Oak Tree Press.

She is a member of EPIC, four chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, WOK, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She was an instructor for Writer’s Digest School for ten years, served as an instructor at the Maui Writer’s Retreat and many other writer’s conferences. She makes her home in Springville CA, much like Bear Creek where Deputy Tempe Crabtree lives. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com

Welcome to writing season

What is it about this time of year, when the leaves begin to show off all their glorious colors, football is the most talked about sport, and the air chills to the most tolerable temperatures since spring, that makes us want to write long and often?

And cook?

At least that is how it is for me. I love fall the best of all the seasons.

I can whip up a batch of something yummy to eat, and while it cooks, get in my writing chair with a football game drumming in the background, and write like a maniac. I think it is my upbringing.

When I was a kid, we would be outside until dark all summer long, and when the seasons changed to fall, homework would draw us in along with the shorter daylight. We would sit in front of the tube, watch games and movies, and eat good food while doing homework.

It was a routine that was infinitely comforting and memorable and the desire to go back there and “git ‘er done” returns every year. That’s probably why I have pulled out the Crockpot and started buying food to fill it with.

This will continue, of course, all the way through to Thanksgiving when I will finally get it out of my system and refuse to cook again until Easter. Grateful for the change in venue, I will move my writing desk away from the kitchen and spend more time dusting off the page than dusting on the flour.

I hope you are getting out and enjoying this season as much as you can and write! Write like the wind!

And Some Prima Donnas Are Writers

Writers can get a little defensive about their work. This is normal. Editors expect some form of resistance during the dreaded revision process, and as long as the writer is willing to cooperate and consider, and explain why they disagree with certain edits in reasonable, logical and not-crazy ways, they are usually willing to let a writer turn down some of their suggestions.

You could be one of those writers that editors are happy to work with, and therefore end up with a stronger finished product at the end of revisions. Or, you could be this guy:

Chaps,

I am mightily pissed off. I have addressed this to Owen, Amanda and Ben because I don’t know who i am supposed to be pissed off with (i’m assuming owen, but i filed to amanda and ben so it’s only fair), and also to Tony, who wasn’t here – if he had been I’m guessing it wouldn’t have happened.

I don’t really like people tinkering with my copy for the sake of tinkering. I do not enjoy the suggestion that you have a better ear or eye for how I want my words to read than I do. Owen, we discussed your turning three of my long sentences into six short ones in a single piece, and how that wasn’t going to happen anymore, so I’m really hoping it wasn’t you that f**ed up my review on saturday.

It was the final sentence. Final sentences are very, very important. A piece builds to them, they are the little jingle that the reader takes with him into the weekend.

I wrote: “I can’t think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of rosé and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for a nosh.”

It appeared as: “I can’t think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of rosé and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for nosh.”

There is no length issue. This is someone thinking “I’ll just remove this indefinite article because Coren is an illiterate c**t and i know best”.

Well, you f**ing don’t.

This was shit, shit sub-editing for three reasons.

1) ‘Nosh’, as I’m sure you fluent Yiddish speakers know, is a noun formed from a bastardisation of the German ‘naschen’. It is a verb, and can be construed into two distinct nouns. One, ‘nosh’, means simply ‘food’. You have decided that this is what i meant and removed the ‘a’. I am insulted enough that you think you have a better ear for English than me. But a better ear for Yiddish? I doubt it. Because the other noun, ‘nosh’ means “a session of eating” – in this sense you might think of its dual valency as being similar to that of ’scoff’. you can go for a scoff. or you can buy some scoff. the sentence you left me with is shit, and is not what i meant. Why would you change a sentnece aso that it meant something i didn’t mean? I don’t know, but you risk doing it every time you change something. And the way you avoid this kind of f**k up is by not changing a word of my copy without asking me, okay? it’s easy. Not. A. Word. Ever.

Click here to read the rest of the rant (yes, he keeps going) - via Emails From Crazy People

The Mystery of the Ride

© Gary Morgenstein 2009 all rights reserved

Now this sounds odd coming from someone who writes thrillers, but I am deeply impressed by writers who plan everything out. Index cards, Microsoft word folders, Twitter files, things attached to computers blinking various colors like an alien spacecraft containing who knows what sort of wonderful elaborate plotting techniques. That Chapter 2 sigh feeds into a bent fork in Chapter 8 into the shocker in Chapter 19. Argh, how do you guys do that?????

Then there's me. When I began Jesse's Girl, all I really knew was that it would be about a troubled father-son relationship opening with the midnight call to the widowed main character, Teddy Mentor, from the Montana wilderness drug treatment program where he'd sent his son Jesse by escort two weeks ago. I knew the conversation would tell Teddy his adopted son had run away and they had no idea where he'd gone, but he shouldn't worry.

Course not, what father would worry about a teen with substance abuse issues gone missing far away from Brooklyn?

Everything else was a surprise. A minor character became integral to the plot, a love interest for Teddy. A murder materialized and I said, oh, so that’s my plot, is it? The few preconceived notions I had quickly vanished. From chapter to chapter and sometimes scene to scene, I was in someone else's hands. Which of course were my hands, but they belonged to another.

How is this possible, I ask everyone out there who has ever written a mystery or a thriller? Am I alone in strapping myself into the Starship Morgenstein, requesting warp speed with little idea about what galaxy I’ll end up in? Especially with mysteries and thrillers and all the intricate plotting required, how do all/any/some of you know what you are doing ahead of time? Do you find it ever interferes with the creativity? Am I the only one using shredded notes and post-its? (which I lose anyway).

And this isn't only with Jesse's Girl, which had the fumes of fatherhood (anyone out there who has a teenager will know what I mean and those whose kids aren't teens yet, lay in some good Scotch). When I wrote my political baseball thriller Take Me Out to the Ballgame, all I knew was that the chapters would be divided by half-innings (Top of the First, Bottom of the Third). I had a vague idea how it would end (which I changed). Nothing more.

It could be that I’m a disorganized person who sees the world visually enhanced by dialogue and, without writing, would be on very strong meds.

I guess I am still a child about writing. I was eight years old when I wrote my first short story about a fictional shortstop for the Yankees (I grew up in the Bronx, hence the accent). I like the mystery of writing. I like the unexpected. I like being propped up in bed like Proust (except for the laptop, iPod and rock music) and letting me take over me. Opening those windows into myself but making them intelligible because at the end of the day, it is our readers who matter. Without them we are the proverbial fallen tree in the forest.

About the author:

In addition to Jesse’s Girl, Gary Morgenstein’s most recent novels, both available exclusively on Amazon.com, are the political baseball thriller Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the romantic triangle Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman. His chillingly prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at a recent New York Fringe Festival. A PR consultant for Syfy Channel, he lives in Brooklyn, New York, with lots of books and rock and roll CDs. You can visit him at www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Morgenstein/1011217889 or at http://redroom.com/member/garymorg.

Forbidden Words

copyright 2009, Aaron Paul Lazar

One of the most surprising “rules” I learned in my early writing days was the realization that there is a phantom list of “forbidden” words that writers should try to avoid.

Don’t misunderstand; these aren’t lewd words, or sacrilegious words. Instead, they’re everyday words that we use in speech.

When I discovered this, I began to shake in my proverbial writing boots. Would I reveal my novice status by inadvertently using these forbidden words in my writing? How many more unacceptable words are out there? How long would my own list become? Would I become so tongue-tied that I’d never be able to write again?

I never saw a compilation of these suspect words in print. Nor did I discover a secret website where they existed. Instead, I compiled the list, one by one, with the help of writing mentors and critics.

Has it happened to you yet?

At first, you may experience an online frown when someone spots the word “suddenly” in an excerpt you posted. There may be a hint of sneering involved. Or perhaps you enter a writing contest, and someone with very little tact and a hint of glee points out your “as” affliction.

It can be paralyzing.

Every time you use a gerund in your prose, does your heart beat wildly? Do you worry and think, “Does this belong here? Does it make my work sound amateurish?”

It’s almost impossible to avoid the words on the list. You can’t completely eliminate them. And it’s especially true with dialogue. You want your characters to sound as natural as possible.

Following is a list of some words to consider:

1) “To be” verbs.

This case is one of the hardest to learn, and you’ll find many examples of it not being in best sellers and classic literature. However, as a rule of thumb, instead of:

“Tony’s hair was black and curly, and it was dripping with water. He was lunging at Tiramisu and his head was like a battering ram.”

You might consider:

“Tony’s curly black hair dripped with water, obscuring his vision. In spite of this, he lunged at Tiramisu using his head like a battering ram.”

In general, it’s best not to describe a character’s appearance with “was” or “were” type words. Try to sneak in these descriptions in a more innovative fashion. However, and there always will be exceptions to these cases, using “to be” forms to describe people is very natural in patterns of speech. You want to strive to make your writing sound natural, but not amateurish. There’s the balance we all need to seek!

2) “Down” and “Up”

“Horatio sat down at the kitchen table and stared down at the eggs on his plate.”

May sound better this way:

“Horatio sat at the kitchen table and stared at the congealed eggs on his plate.”

This rule of thumb is almost universally applicable. In America, we use “up,” all the time in natural conversation.

“Bubba ate up all of Cat’s French Fries.”

“Nancy stared up at the ceiling, searching for the right word.”

“Sonya ripped up Veronica’s report card and jumped overboard.”

Most of those “ups” could be eliminated without loss of understanding. The sentences would read smoother. Be careful not to cut them in your characters’ dialogue, however. You don’t want them to sound stilted. It’s perfectly okay to use common phrases such as:

“Margaret, get down here! Your toast is up.”

3) Minimizing gerunds, or “ing” verbs.

One of the first pieces of advice I received as a new writer was to avoid the use of gerunds and “ing” verbs. “It’s much stronger,” I was told, “to use the simple past tense, or ‘ed’ verbs.” So, like a good student, I went through my first four books and scoured them for “ing”s. I was merciless. Barely an “ing” survived.

A few years later, I realized I went too far. The words sounded robotic, stilted. I needed some of those “ing” verbs to vary the rhythm of the sentences, to make them sound more natural. So, with diligence, I returned to my growing list of novels and revamped them.

Keep in mind it’s always better to write, “Mabel watched the plane land,” than “Mabel was watching the plane land.”

Examine verbs ending in “ing,” especially in conjunction with “was” and “were.” Sprinkle them into your prose to vary the rhythm, but avoid cases like “I was watching the birds while drumming my fingers on the table.” You might consider breaking it up. “Watching the birds, I drummed my fingers on the table.” Or: “I watched the birds and drummed my fingers on the table.”

4) Using “had” in flashbacks or past perfect applications

Most of us learned the proper way to conjugate verbs and use tenses, such as the past perfect. When something happens in the past, like a flashback in one of your stories, it’s taking place before the current action, which is already in the past tense. Therefore, the flashback needs to be cast into the past perfect, using the word “had.”

Right?

Not always. It is grammatically correct to write the following paragraph when referring to a recap of an event in your story:

“A pang of sorrow hit me. I thought back to the dreadful day two years ago when I’d lost him. He’d fought the cancer as bravely as he’d stood up to the Germans on D Day in Normandy. Just before we’d learned the dreaded disease had returned to claim him, we’d shared one final, peaceful day of fishing on Hemlock Lake.”

However, it could read smoother like this:

“A pang of sorrow hit me. I thought back to the dreadful time two years ago when I lost him. He’d fought the cancer as bravely as he stood up to the Germans on D Day in Normandy. Just before we learned the dreaded disease had returned to claim him, we shared one final, peaceful day of fishing on Hemlock Lake.”

Can you see how a few well-placed “hads” retain the meaning of the memory, but don’t bog it down? Of course, there’s always the opposite viewpoint. My editor added in a number of “hads” in my current manuscript for because I’d gone too far. So there’s a lesson to be learned in over-applying one’s new skills.

Don’t pepper your back stories with “hads,” and use contractions to make your writing sound more natural.

5) Remove unnecessary adverbs and instead, use stronger verbs.

After I read Stephen King’s, “On Writing” (highly recommended) I realized I’d been overusing adverbs. The great adverb purge followed. I became an adverb Nazi. No “ly’s” would sully my prose! I’d search for the choicest verbs. They’d glow from my pages because of their utter perfection.

After this phase, I backed off a bit, allowing a few adverbs here and there. Sometimes, it just sounds better with them, doesn’t it? It’s all a matter of balance.

It’s always better, however, to change sentences like “Judy looked sullenly at me” to “Judy glowered at me.”

6) “Then”

In my first novels, my characters were always doing something, “then” going onto the next action. I preferred it over joining the phrases with “and.” It seemed to fit better and also sounded more natural.

Several years ago, while participating in an online writers’ critique forum, I was surprised to learn when the host editors spotted the word “then” in submitted manuscripts, they immediately pronounced it amateurish and went on to the next piece in the slush pile.

Still aching to learn the “rules” that would graduate me to “professional writer status,” I dutifully reduced the instances of “then” from my current work in progress. It seems to have made them read more smoothly. See which you prefer:

“Inspector Barnaby ordered the suspect to halt, then read him his rights.”

“Inspector Barnaby ordered the suspect to halt and read him his rights.”

7) Eliminate the extraneous “the”

When the word “the” precedes a noun that could stand alone, it is superfluous.

“The guilt rode heavily on my shoulders, slicing through my self confidence.”

Consider:

“Guilt rode heavily on my shoulders, slicing through my self-confidence.”

8) Minimize contiguous prepositions

In speech, we commonly use words like “over” and “back” in series.

“Mary threw the ball back over to Tom.”

Instead, try this:

“Mary threw the ball to Tom,” or “Mary returned the ball with a vengeance.”

Avoid sentences like “The boy ran over to the counter,” or “I trotted back along the trail.”

9) Avoid using “that” (except in dialogue).

We use “that” as a connecting word far too often, and we don’t need it! I’ve already removed a number of “that’s from this chapter. It really does smooth out the prose.

“The President discovered that his agent was a spy.”

Instead:

“The President discovered his agent was a spy.”

10) “Suddenly”

I used “suddenly” interchangeably with “without warning,” “instantly,” or “in seconds,” yet was chastised for its use in a forum run by agents. I’m still confused about the legitimacy of this one. A good friend whose manuscript is currently being scoured by her editor said she’d removed all of the “suddenly’s,” only to have her editor put them back in. It’s not always cut and dry.

11) “Very” and “Just”

Two words we use a great deal in conversations are “very” and “just.” Try not to use them in prose. Find a better descriptor.

“The giant was very tall,” works better as “The giant towered over us.”

“Mary just barely fit into the dress,” can be improved as: “Mary barely fit into the dress.”

12) “Because”

This word can be used sparingly, but not in the following way:

“She craved the hamburger because she was hungry.” Find another construction to show how hungry she was, such as a growling stomach or feeling of faintness.

The following example of “because” works:

“Because of his history, he avoided the cops.”

You may find more words to add to your list. But if you’re totally confused by now, join the club. This whole game of “rules” can be daunting, and frequently the “experts” don’t agree on their usage.

Don’t be too concerned if any or all of the “forbidden” words pepper your prose. Take heart. You will find every single example of “what not to do” in the classics and best sellers. Our advice? Don’t go crazy each time you learn a new “forbidden” word. Simply do the best you can, write from your heart, and try to tighten your prose without squelching your own style.

***

This year is the 10th anniversary of the founding of Twilight Times Books (1999) and
the 5th year since we went to print (2004). Those are significant milestones.

In celebration, Twilight Times Books will have a print book sale from Oct. 1st to
Nov. 15th. Most titles will be offered to the general public at a 10 - 30% discount.
http://twilighttimesbooks.com/print_books101509sale.html

For a limited time, and while quantities last, we are offering a 30% - 50% discount
on selected titles.
http://twilighttimesbooks.com/print_books101509special.html

(one of the deals is: Buy Mazurka for $15.15 and get Tremolo for $10.15 (a 40% discount))

Interview with author G. M. Malliet

Our guest today, G. M. Malliet, is the author of DEATH OF A COZY WRITER - Agatha Award Winner; Anthony and Macavity Nominee for Best First Novel; Left Coast Crime Nominee for Best Police Procedural; David Nominee for Best Novel. IPPY Award Silver Medalist (Mystery/Suspense/ Thriller) and was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Books of 2008. It’s my pleasure to welcome Ms. Malliet and to introduce her to our Murder By 4 readers.

MS: As a mystery author myself, I know how excited you must be to share the news about DEATH OF A COZY WRITER with our readers so let's start by asking you to tell us a little about yourself and your writing journey.

GM: May I first congratulate you on being a 2009 IPPY finalist, and also congratulate the writers of your blog for being honored by Writer's Digest! That is extremely impressive, as there is so much competition out there. Not unlike trying to get published (notice that smooth segue)?

My writing journey was beset with setbacks, delays, and rejections over a period of years. Sometimes agents would reject DEATH OF A COZY WRITER twice, either because I’d forget and submit twice by accident, or because they wanted to make sure the book stayed darn well rejected, I’m not sure. However, COZY WRITER, eventually published by a small press (Midnight Ink), went on to win the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and has been nominated for several other awards, most currently the Anthony and Macavity. This is my way of saying do NOT let anyone get you down if you’ve written a book you believe, with all your heart, has an audience. If you’re delusional, that’s one thing, but loving your chosen genre is another.

MS: Thank you! So let's talk about DEATH OF A COZY WRITER. Why this book? What prompted you to write it and what do you hope your readers will get out of it?

GM: I wrote the kind of book I like to read—the books from the Golden Age of mysteries, especially Agatha Christie’s. I hope to entertain readers and I really have no loftier goal than that.

MS: Please tell us a bit about your protagonist, Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just.

GM: St. Just is simply a decent, incorruptible, smart, and caring cop who wants to see justice done. He really has few quirks to speak of, apart from not suffering fools gladly.

MS: I’ve read several of the reviews posted on your website. Nearly all compare your writing to several of our favorite authors like Christie, Sayers, and Allingham to name a few. Publishers Weekly describes your writing as, “… stylish English detective work.” Another reviewer wrote, “Although G.M. Malliet has written a book reminiscent of Dame Agatha Christie’s mysteries, Death of a Cozy Writer has a decidedly modern feel to it.” How do you feel about these comparisons and what challenges do you face in maintaining your style of writing?

GM: I admire all the writers mentioned, but to be compared with Dame Agatha is more than I could ever have hoped for. I don’t think her ability to keep us guessing has ever been surpassed.

MS: Please share with our readers a little about the plot, the characters, the setting, of your novel.

GM: The cozy writer of the title is a successful author but a horrible, selfish man who delights in tormenting his grown children, all of whom are hugely dysfunctional and/or unpleasant people as a result of his mistreatment. He especially likes to change his will, to keep them all on their toes. Then he announces he is going to remarry, and changes his will one time too often…

MS: How much and/or what kind of research went into writing this book?

GM: I’ve always been a fan of stately homes and castles, so research consisted largely of pawing through the household collection of coffee table books on the subject. Apart from that, as an American writing mainly about the British, I have to remember to write “mobile” rather than “cell phone”—things like that. I lived in England for several years, travel there often, and am an unapologetic Anglophile, all of which helps.

MS: What do you find the most difficult part of writing and what do you do to overcome it?

GM: You don’t really want to get me started on this subject, do you? I will seize on any distraction at all, anything whatsoever, to avoid writing. A pulled thread on my sweater, for example, might occupy me for hours until it’s repaired or the sweater destroyed. I have yet to overcome this tendency to waste time in foolish ways. I guess at some point I just get fed up even with myself and say, “For heaven’s sake, will you just write something today?” I also like to sneak up on the actual writing by writing scenes out of order—just little things or bits of action as they occur to me. If I thought of the process as starting from a blank Page One, I would completely freeze up.

MS: I had to smile at your response only because you could have written this about me or several other fellow writers. How do you balance your time to make time for writing?

GM: See the above! I promise myself I will sit at my desk for “X” hours a day, five or six days a week. How I spend my time there, as I’ve mentioned, is highly questionable. But even I get so bored that writing looks good in comparison with sitting about sharpening pencils or compulsively looking to see what’s going on over at Facebook.

MS: What impact would you say completing DEATH OF A COZY WRITER has had on you personally and on your writing?

GM: In terms of making me realize that I can complete a book, it has helped only a little: I am still afraid every time. It has affected people around me when they’re told I’m a published author, though. They sort of look at me expectantly, as if I’m going to whip out a notebook right there and then and scribble out a poem by way of demonstration, or quote Cicero at them. Because I write purportedly humorous books, I think there is also an expectation I might launch into some sort of comic standup routine. But the truth is any “funny bits” generally arrive only after hours of thinking and shifting words around on a page. We are in a very strange business in terms of people’s perceptions.

MS: I couldn't agree with you more on people's perceptions. Who then has been the greatest influence on you with respect to encouraging you to write and become a published author?

GM: My high school and college teachers. God bless them all—too many to name.

MS: With respect to your writing, please give us some insight into your writing process. In other words, did you outline the chapters? Did you think about the plot for a while before writing it? What steps did you take before you wrote the first sentence?

GM: I imagine a few characters, and from their quirks, attitudes, and fears comes the plot. I don’t tend to write the first sentence or chapter first, or even until I’m a good way into writing other parts of the story. As I’ve mentioned, I approach writing in a sideways, crab-like fashion, trying to kid myself that I’m not actually writing, just making notes.

MS: What are you working on now? What's next?

GM: The second St. Just book came out in July (DEATH AND THE LIT CHICK), and the third will be out in January 2010 (DEATH AT THE ALMA MATER). I am working on a new series set in England that features an amateur sleuth.

MS: Any words of wisdom and advice to aspiring writers?

GM: Just the bit about not giving up. If I had been younger, I think I might have given up on St. Just after a few rejections—not just because rejection feels bad, but because you start thinking this whole business is just too hard and frustrating to deal with. But I’d read enough mysteries and had participated in enough industry events, Listserves, and so on, to believe strongly that my type of traditional mystery had a fairly large audience—those readers were out there somewhere, enough of them to make publishing a “Golden Age”-type mystery worth a publisher’s while. It helps to be stubborn, but it really helps to know the books you yourself love to read.


About the author:

G.M. Malliet is a former journalist and copywriter. Winner of the Agatha Award for DEATH OF A COZY WRITER, which initially won the Malice Domestic grant, Malliet attended Oxford University and holds a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge, the setting for the St. Just mysteries. The Agatha Award honors books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie.Death of a Cozy Writer was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Books of 2008. It has been nominated for the Anthony Award and the Macavity Award (best first novel), the 2009 Left Coast Crime/Hawaii Five-O Award (best police procedural), and has been awarded a Silver Medal IPPY (best mystery/suspense/thriller). It has also been nominated for a David Award for Best Mystery Novel.The second book in the St. Just series is DEATH AND THE LIT CHICK (April 2009), which received a starred review from both Publishers Weekly and the American Library Association's Booklist. Malliet and her husband live in Virginia.

Writer's Websites, do you have what it takes?

Compliments of the NY Times, here are the bestsellers in paperback mass-market fiction as of Tuesday September 29, 2009.

Top 5 at a Glance
1. SCARPETTA, by Patricia Cornwell
2. DIVINE JUSTICE, by David Baldacci
3. EXTREME MEASURES, by Vince Flynn
4. 92 PACIFIC BOULEVARD, by Debbie Macomber
5. THE BRASS VERDICT, by Michael Connelly


Why am I listing them? To illustrate the information about what famous writers are doing for a website these days.

Patricia Cornwell’s site has lots of goodies to make it interactive and interesting, including photos, videos, and links.

David Baldacci’s site has lots of tabs and RSS feeds to keep the reader clicking.

Vince Flynn’s site is all about his latest book, what the critics are saying and well, mostly about HIM, his charities, etc.

Debbie Macomber’s site is designed with the reader in mind. Just see how many times the word reader appears!

Michael Connelly’s site is a good mix of things, but to be honest, compared to the rest of them, his site is a bit vanilla.

So what does one need to put on a writer’s website to be successful? I think it is pretty clear. You need to have interactive things like photos and videos, easy navigational items like tabs and RSS feeds,and information about your latest works, reviews, and items of interest about YOU. It doesn’t hurt to have a reader’s corner, either.

Have you gone out and researched other writer’s websites? You should! It is a fun and educational way to learn the items that others are using to get the word out about their work. And in case I haven’t said so in a while, if you are shopping a book out there, GET A WEBSITE!!!! It is never to early to have one!!

And speaking of websites... I have updated mine AGAIN. This time I am trying out Wordpress templates as a format. Give it a go and tell me what you think... THE SITE (and no, I don't have all the bells and whistles yet, but I hope to soon.) The good thing about wordpress is that it is widget friendly. And oh yeah. I am such a widget-head!

Kim Smith is the author of the Shannon Wallace Mysteries, and several contemporary romances. She is also the hostess of the wildly popular radio show Introducing WRITERS! on Blog Talk Radio.