Do you miss the little green marble?

Hi, folks!

Do you remember when we held a contest to name Healey's Cave? We had so much fun. I had originally entitled the first book in Moore Mysteries The Green Marble, because, after all, that little glowing piece of glass was the common feature that would tie all the books together. But my publisher opted for Healey's Cave, and I'm delighted to report that the title has done the book justice, it seems. We've been gathering awards this year like mad, and I'm just so happy to see that folks like the story. Here are some of the cool awards Healey's Cave has won:

WINNER 2012 EPIC Book Awards, BEST Paranormal *  WINNER 2011 Eric Hoffer BEST Book, COMMERCIAL FICTION * FINALIST Global eBook Awards 2011

If you miss that little green marble, now you can visit with it again in the sequel to Healey's Cave, Terror Comes Knocking. We also held a contest for this title, remember? I had originally entitled it One Potato, Blue Potato, because of an underlying theme that really matched the concept of potatoes not of the "usual" color. But my publisher wanted to focus on the idea that this story really was about terrorism hitting Sam Moore's little country village of Conaroga, NY, so we chose Terror Comes Knocking, thanks to reader Don Harman from Charlotte, NC.



The sequel is now out, and if you'd like to take a peek at it, here's an excerpt as well as a link to the audio book sample which will be out in a month or so.

SYNOPSIS:
 

Sam’s daughter Beth has been unreachable for several days. Something is seriously wrong, and the Moores don’t know where to turn for help. No ransom note arrives, no kidnapper calls. When Beth’s roommate Zafina Azziz – a woman who slinks around like an Egyptian princess-- arrives on their doorstep worried about Beth’s whereabouts, Sam realizes it’s time to call the FBI.

The Moores unravel with worry as the green marble, a talisman connected to Sam’s dead brother Billy, thrusts Sam between past and present. When Sam’s friend, Senator Bruce MacDonald, is tapped for the Presidential nomination, the town goes berserk preparing to welcome the sitting President to the opening of a new arts center. That’s when Sam uncovers the awful truth - someone is out to destroy the soon-to-visit President, and that someone is alive and well in East Goodland.

When he discovers a link between Beth and the terrorists, Sam dives head first into the melée to avert a calamity that could rival the 911 disaster.

***

Chapter One

Sam stood over his brother’s grave. A curious combination of sorrow and liberation flitted through him. Like a tapestry of death, its weave created patterns of loss and love that gutted his soul, twisting him inside.

The agony of grieving again for his little brother had hit him hard. Although he’d mourned in stages since Billy disappeared fifty years ago, he’d never had closure. Until now. A week ago, his three best childhood friends admitted to burying Billy’s body in the pool near Healey’s cave. When the boy had slipped from the crossing log and slammed his head in a lethal fall, they’d panicked, afraid of being charged with murder. Their childish fears escalated, and they’d pinned Billy beneath heavy stones, his eyes wide open and dulled, hair waving in the water, skin wrinkled like prunes.

Sam shook himself.

Stop it. Stop torturing yourself.

He glanced at his SUV sitting under the shade a hundred yards away, its four doors gaped open to provide relief from the heat. With her motorized scooter parked alongside, his wife of forty years, Rachel, perched sideways on the passenger seat, a cell phone clamped to her ear. Their grandson Evan rhythmically tossed and caught a softball nearby. They’d accompanied him to the gravesite and had left after his request for a few minutes alone.

To think. To stare at the earth. To remember that the physical markers of Billy’s young life were just that. Placeholders. Reminders. Cold ground and stone.

Someone else’s funeral on the nearby hill ended, and its mourners scattered like dandelion feathers in the wind. Sam watched them drift toward the parking lot for a moment, and turned back to the grave.

He fingered the green marble in his pocket and looked up to the cirrus clouds that stalled overhead. Chalk white against a steel gray sky, they paused in their frenetic journey as if trying to get his attention.

I know you’re not really in the ground, Billy. I know you’re up there.

The cottonwood leaves rustled overhead, stirring in a breeze that came from out of nowhere.
Billy.

The marble warmed his fingers in response—his talisman, his connection with Billy’s spirit. He closed his hand around it so the people walking by wouldn’t see the glow of green blushing through his khakis.

The marble pulsed. Sam’s heart skipped a beat....

***

Read more here if you wish.;o)

Thanks for taking the time to read a little today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and if you read the above book(s), let me know what you think in the comments, below, okay?

Warmest wishes to all,

Aaron Lazar

www.lazarbooks.com

And the Tension Builds...Yawn

copyright 2012, Pat Bertram

Alfred Hitchcock is often referred to as the master of suspense, but I find some of his movies dreary. The tension rises at a leisurely pace and there is nothing to relieve the single grey note of suspense. By the time I am halfway through one of his films, I hope that everyone dies and gets it over with.

For me, the problem with these movies is that they have no sense of humor. A bit of comic relief would give the films color, would make the suspense more surprising by comparison and the revelations more shocking. Anyone who is familiar with color knows that this works. Yellow is brighter in the presence of purple, its direct opposite on the color wheel, than in the presence of any other color, and purple is more vibrant in the presence of yellow.

I am trying to cultivate humor so that I don’t turn out to be a single-grey-note writer. I’m not planning to add slapstick to an otherwise serious story; nor am I planning to use a lot of clever quips and one-liners. They get annoying after a while, and overshadow the plot. A touch of quiet humor works just as well and makes readers (or film watchers) let down their guard so they are more susceptible to deadly thrusts.

There are many ways of being humorous. One can juxtapose different character types as I did in Daughter Am I. I did not intend for the book to be humorous, but parts of it ended up that way because of Mary’s relationship with the old gangsters. The humor did not come from the age difference but from value differences. The old gangsters had no problem breaking the law, and Mary did.

One can also have a character say or do the opposite of what is expected. The classic Lou Grant remark from Mary Tyler Moore is a good example: “You’ve got spunk,” a pause, then, “I hate spunk.” Or one can have a character struggle to come up with a witty remark and finally come out with a simple “Hi.”

Humor does not come naturally to me, but then, even funny people have to work at it. Agents and editors have rejected me because they say they don’t fall in love with my characters. Maybe a bit of humor will make my characters more lovable. It will certainly make writing them more fun. At the very least, they (and my books) will not be colorless.

Pat Bertram

***

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Second Wind Publishing liked her style and published four of Bertram’s novels: Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and one non-fiction book, Grief: the Great Yearning.

What is that character doing?

I learned long ago that characters come on our writing page in their own little worlds, bee-bopping along without a care in the world, especially for us and our needs.

The characters of the imagined novel are unaware you are writing about them.

Does that surprise you? It shouldn't. And if it does, maybe that is why your characters don't work from your imagination to the page. Have you ever had a problem with a character behaving? That's because he or she doesn't know you are writing about them. In the character's mind, they are just living their life, and working through their trials and tribulations. As an author, it is our job to follow them around, notebook in hand, and write what we see them doing. The catch is, don't let them see YOU.

When a reader can follow the character around his or her world and not see YOU in the peripheral, you have done your job well. It's not an easy task. The people of our story are pretty sharp. If they see you peering in on them through the window of the place where they are lunching with a mystery person, they very well may escape through the back door. Or even worse, the mystery person will and you will learn nothing from either.

So, the next time you sit down to create a good scene with that paper person you have brought up from the creative side of your brain, give them a lot of leeway. Stay on their heels, but not too closely.

Happy Thursday, Murderers.

Making Your Novel Picks by Warren Adler

Hi, folks.

Today is Warren Adler day. We will feature this well-known author of books like WAR OF THE ROSES and RANDOM HEARTS on the first Friday of each month throughout 2012.

Please help me welcome this most generous bestselling author today to Murderby4. Warren, welcome and thanks for sharing your insight with our readers.

Aaron Lazar
www.lazarbooks.com

With all the traditional filtering systems of the past that help determine the quality of a book diminishing at an accelerating pace, I have been thinking a lot about how a serious writer of non-genre fiction, meaning novels and short stories, will gain a loyal audience.

By serious novels, I mean those stand alone novels that told stories about characters that offered insight into the human condition, and broadened our knowledge of the times we live in and the world around us, and introduced us to authors who thrilled us with the richness of their imagination and the skill of their prose.

Would we have discovered the works of authors like Hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, Maugham, O’Hara, Fitzgerald, Roth and many other modern masters if we had to come across them through the fragmentation and puzzling pathways of cyberspace? My references you will notice are personal and arbitrary. Undoubtedly, readers of my generation have their own personal favorites.

Academia, of course, was an essential part of the filtering system, but even academic picks are becoming fragmented in strange ways by the biases of the tenured and the lock step and untrustworthy uniformity of political opinion.

In the old filtering system professional book critics, publishers, librarians, politically neutral academics and respected authors would weigh in through newspapers, magazines and book clubs to offer their subjective assessments of the current crop of novels published by a finite number of publishers. Their judgments, of course, were always subjective, often biased one way or another, but they did reflect a more balanced view not based on any agenda, but their honest take on the value of the book. Not all books were “reviewed” but the process often came up with a consensus that helped the reader make an educated choice.

It was an imperfect system, but it did offer some semblance of logic and for years sustained that publishing area devoted to serious novels. The genre novel was considered outside the realm of serious recognition and never included on bestseller lists. Not that best seller lists, then and now, ever reflected quality literary output, but they did offer a path of recognition for the serious novelist that occasionally struck the gold of universal acceptance and acclaim.

Today the bestseller lists recognize the genre novel and have spawned an industry that, in many ways, has made it more and more difficult for the serious novelist to reach a wide public. Of course, one wonders if the bestseller lists are even relevant in these days of scattershot marketing in a landscape in which millions are self-publishing and using every ploy they can think of to gain recognition.

Marketing for authors has become an ever-widening cottage industry with entrepreneurs offering the promise of recognition for serious authors that rarely, if ever, attain their stated goals. Novelists today often pay for their reviews produced by self-appointed reviewers, and e-book sites offer review opportunities to readers to register their critiques of a writers work, a process frequently abused and unreliable.

There are, of course, serious writers out there both published by reputable publishers or by the authors themselves. Finding those novels worthy of one’s time and effort is becoming, to say the least, challenging. Reading a novel is a big commitment of time although the sampling process of purchasing is helpful but not conclusive.

One must remember that writers who write what they consider to be mainstream stand alone novels believe mightily in their talent and the integrity of their work. Why then devote so much time and effort to their production if they thought otherwise? Many of them think of themselves as unsung literary heroes and some very well may be.

As a dedicated reader of serious novels, at least by my own definition, I am finding it increasingly difficult to find the signposts and detours that will lead me to such work. Unfortunately there is no GPS system and I find I am still relying on what is left of the old filtering system to find my target reading. And I am often disappointed.

Then again there are always the classics. Time is the most reliable filter of all.


Warren Adler

www.warrenadler.com

***

Warren Adler is a world-renowned novelist, short story writer and playwright. His 32 novels and story collections have been translated into more than 25 languages and two of his novels, The War of the Roses with Michael Douglas and Random Hearts with Harrison Ford, have been made into enormously popular movies, shown continually throughout the world.

Today, when not writing, Mr. Adler lectures on creative writing, motion picture adaptation and the future of Electronic Books. He is the founder of the Jackson Hole Writer’s Conference and has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jackson Hole Public Library. He is married to the former Sonia Kline, a magazine editor. He has three sons, David, Jonathan and Michael and four grandchildren and lives in New York City.

Writer's block

The two words that terrorize someone with those publishing dreams so fragile and frail: writer's block.

But what exactly is this strange phenom that waylays the best minds in the business? Well, I recently read it is "the pause button on the controller of your mind" and that was about the most apt description I have read. I think it speaks to young writers of today in a way that old-fashioned ways won't.

Writer's block has been said to be the worst malady a writer can face and it has been called complete and utter bunk with no truth in it. Guess that depends on which side of the writing life you are calling from.

I am a victim of something that kept me out of the writing chair for months at a time and so I believe it is a real condition. I believe it is a gap in the writing mind, something that keeps us from giving of ourselves to that one urge that we feel we "must" do.

Honestly, I believe it can start out as a trickle thing, that just taps your arm and says, "don't worry about writing tonight" or "go watch television tonight instead of writing, one night won't hurt". Don't be fooled. It is like that old commercial where a devil is on one shoulder and an angel on the other. One says you don't have to write EVERY day, and the other says if you don't write EVERY day you will never write.

My advice? Be careful who you listen to.

You have to have down time... you have to rest your mind. We have so much to fill it these days, you should take a break, for sanity's sake. But remember, it should be a planned break, not an improvised one. Plan one or two nights a week to indulge in games, or television, or reading or anything NOT WRITING. But then, when the day is gone, stroll right on over to the writing chair and get in it.

If you plan your breaks, you will never want for time away, and may really find that when you get back to writing, it is more fresh than before! But if you neglect to take breaks, as I did, you will find that one or two nights away from the writing will result in a week then two then ... well, you get the image.

Don't kill yourself, Murderers. Save it for your characters. How delicious!

Suspense, it's in the future

This past weekend, I went to visit my local Books a Million and while perusing the magazines came across the 101 Best Sites for Writers list in the May/June Writers Digest. As some of you know, Mb4 made it into that list once again. We thank you, our fans and followers, for supporting this blog and voting for us in all the ways you do. We always want to give you what you want so if there are suggestions on something you are not getting here, please leave us a comment and let us know. Keeping a blog going as long as we have done on this one-to coin a phrase-takes a village. So, since we are listed under thrillers/suspense, I thought I would make a few comments about why suspense is different than mystery. Well, for one thing, suspense is in the future and mystery in the past. What do you mean, you ask? It's elementary dear Murderer, elementary. For a suspense/ thriller to work the main thrust of the plot is something that hasn't happened yet. It's something that the reader is anticipating with sweating palms and racing heartbeat. The characters are working round the clock to keep something from occurring. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes it happens and they are forced to fix the situation, which can be another sort of fun read, my particular fav, a mystery. When the murder or high stress event happens in the first chapter and the characters are sent off trying to find the perp, well that my dears, is a mystery. My husband is a thriller junkie. He would rather watch the latest James Bond movie, or Mission Impossible movie than anything. I wonder, is thriller fever a man thing? Because my girlfriends and I would rather catch the latest Nicolas Sparks movie than suffer through another two hour harangue of blown up cars and high-risk theatrics. If you think it is a man thing, let me know. Maybe I will do a survey. Happy Thursday, Murderers.

Rejection! (Is your book REALLY that bad?)

copyright 2012 aaron lazar

Rejection. Oh, how it stings. Most of us have been through it during our lives seeking jobs, seeking love, seeking publication for our books.

Rejection hurts. It destroys our self-image (for a while, anyway.) And it tears at the thin fabric in which we cocoon our fragile writer's ego, protecting the inner belief that our work is valid.
 
A new writer recently emailed me after receiving a flurry of rejections from big agents. With a crushed spirit, she wrote:

"It makes no sense to me. If someone has written a book that is a good read, then why in the world would it not be recognized, published and read? The only answer that makes any sense is that it's not a particularly good read after all."

Alas, if it were only that simple. Let's step back and take a look at the situation.

You wrote a book. Your instincts tell you it's darned good. You envision an agent or publisher recognizing this and sweeping you up in their arms to share with the world. You dream of financial success, recognition, and that sweet validation that makes you feel you're a "real" writer.

That elusive dream haunts just about every new writer I've ever known. Then, after years of toiling, burning the midnight or early morning oil, sweating and suffering and bleeding onto the pages—most realize, in time, that they'd better not quit their day jobs.

If every "good" book were accepted and published, we'd need a great deal more space to store and sell them. I've read that bookstores today stock only 2-3% of the published books in the world (physical books, not eBooks, of course.). Imagine all the "real" books that don't end up on their shelves? Now imagine all the good books that never get published. It's mind-boggling.

An enormous number of books are submitted annually to publishers, and only a relative handful of agents and editors scan through the 0.05% that are accepted for the slush pile. They often receive hundreds of submissions per day. Imagine reading 100 emails every single day from authors who want to be heard? It wouldn't be hard to feel jaded in short order.

Publishers and agents have cut down their staffs, because of the economy, and it's probably even harder for them to get through the slush piles now, with the fear of job loss if their next pick doesn't bring in some cash.
 
There are plenty of horrible books submitted each year, too. But there are also hundreds, if not thousands, of very good books out there. Yours may be one of them. (If it isn't, keep on working on your skills until it is.)

Are you in this boat? Have you had your books summarily dismissed by the powers that be, over and over again? Have you hired or courted superb writers to help you perfect your story? Have you scoured your book dozens of times for typos or inconsistencies? Have you researched the heck out of every point that needs confirmation? Have you assured that your dialog is crisp and believable? Have you hacked away at unnecessary adverbs and adjectives? Have you just plain told the story in the same voice you use to speak?

And has your book still been rejected?

If not, drop down on your knees and count your lucky stars, for you are among one of the very few who got picked up at the starting gate. If so, let me share something with you.

Rejections may have nothing to do with the quality or value of your book. Most often, they have to do with the market, and what's "hot" this season. It could be the mood of the agent or editor who's reading your stuff, or the fact that your book slides between genres. Maybe it features young adults, but doesn't follow someone's blueprint for what a YA book needs to contain. Maybe it's absolutely perfect for a publisher, but they've already filled the slot for your genre on their list this year. Maybe the first level editor falls in love with your book, but her boss doesn't. Or you get all the way to the top of this year's short list, only to be told you didn't make the cut.

Sound familiar?

 
If you don't get picked up in the first five years by high profile agents or publishers, I recommend seeking a high quality small press. It's not easy to get into their world, either. But you don't usually need an agent, and they can provide a nurturing home for you, as well as help you get your books out to the public.

And let me tell you friends, it's that public, those lovely readers, who will provide the validation you've sought for so long. When the first person (who isn't family or friends) comes up to you and gushes over your characters, or when you receive that unsolicited email from a stranger who NEEDS your next book or "they'll just die," or that lady who's been staring at you with stars in her eyes finally approaches you in the grocery store and says she wants to marry your lead character... that's when the validation just washes through your writer's soul. It's even better than the glowing reviews.

So, the publishing game is tough, but it's not hopeless. There is still a place for us in this intensely competitive world. Acceptance by a high profile firm does not necessarily equate to a good book, just as rejection doesn't always equate to a bad book. Just look at the bestsellers out there. Some are quite odious, filled with plot holes, flat characters, and poor editing.

So, why bother?

Even with staggering odds in today's market, every year several "newcomers" are "discovered" and offered lucrative contracts. It does happen. We hear about it all the time. The next "hot" book will be discovered any day now. And it could be yours.

My final bit of advice is this:

If you are a passionate writer, you need to keep writing, independent of what agent represents you, how many times your work has been rejected, what publisher has thumbed their nose at you, how many readers you have or don't have, how many books you have published or not published.

Okay. Group Hug.
 
Now, go out there and write like the wind!

On Being an Editor

Postnote: I fixed Nathan's link- it had an extra space - duh - **** When I first sat down to write out this blog post, I was totally unsure how to go about saying all the things I wanted to say. I know I want an editor. I know the work that I am tooling out right now is going to need one. I know how hard it is to find a good one, and how difficult it is as a creative person to find a good one and LISTEN to their sage advice. So, I am wandering all about the interwebs looking at this and that, playing on Stumbleupon while I think about this post, and end up on Twitter, and for some strange reason, (God, yes, it was divinely inspired) -- I found my old friend Nathan Bransford's blog. No, we are not friends in the real way, just, I love his blog and used to be a regular reader until my life became a serious dump and I had to go to the mountain and have a come to Jesus meeting with myself. In the interim, I lost touch with it.

Now, Nathan used to be a literary agent, if you don't know him. He was with Curtis Brown for a long time. Now he is an author. And he has great info for me, and you, if you write. If you are a casual follower of this blog, more into mystery than writing, you might want to ignore this post. Otherwise, go to Nathan's blog and read the post entitled Ten Commandments for editing someone's work. It has some really insightful things in it. Things that we all as writers need to remember when we are editing someone's work, and what to remind our editors when they are editing ours. By the way, I think number two is the most critical, FYI. If we cannot see the author's vision (or they see ours) then it is a sure thing that whoever is doing the critique is going to miss a lot of the mark. Maybe the whole tamale. So, go and enjoy reading this awesome post on that blog. Yeah, today, I give you permission to leave Mb4 for greener pastures, but come on back tomorrow. Happy Thursday, Murderers.

Basic Tenets for Good Writing

copyright 2012, Pat Bertram

Opinion has supplanted intellect. There is no reason to learn the facts if an opinion is as acceptable as the truth. Nowhere is this as obvious as on the internet. Everything here is debatable: news stories, celebrity lifestyles, even encyclopedia entries.

When it comes to good writing, however, there are certain basics that are not debatable. Whether we are bloggers, content producers for various websites, novelists, these are all tenets we must heed:


1. Use dynamic verbs and concrete nouns, and keep adjectives and adverbs to a minimum. Watch for word qualifiers such as “a little,” “quite,” “somewhat.” They undermine our authority and make our writing seem indecisive.

2. Action first; reaction second. Cause first, effect second. “He finished smoking his cigar, then he aired out the room.” Not: “He aired out the room after he finished smoking his cigar.” When we don’t use the proper sequence, our writing seems unfocused.

3. Use active voice; too much use of passive makes our writing seem muffled.

4. Don’t be clever just for the sake of cleverness, don’t complicate the obvious, and don’t be unconventional for the sake of being exotic; ultimately, our readers will feel used or confused, and we will lose them.

5. Punctuation, spelling, and grammar do count. Content is important, but what good is all our wisdom if we come across as dolts?

6. Strive for clarity, economy, grace, and dignity. We can string words together, but without at least a couple of these elements, our writing will not be worth reading.

Pat Bertram

***

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Second Wind Publishing liked her style and published four of Bertram’s novels: Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and one non-fiction book, Grief: the Great Yearning.

Does Music Move Your Characters?

copyright 2012, aaron paul lazar

Yesterday I was listening to some audio book tracks from my newest Sam Moore Mystery, entitled TERROR COMES KNOCKING, freshly recorded by my actor/narrator, Mr. Robert King Ross. Mr. Ross is doing a wonderful job of representing Sam Moore in this book, and also has a great way with dialog. The audio book won't be available for a few months, but I'll post a link at the bottom so you can listen to this chapter if you wish.

As I drove home along 390 South, headed in the direction of home, it struck me that writing about a character listening to a singer, or playing a piano, or being engulfed in an opera can be quite challenging. I  love music (who doesn't?) and try extra hard to describe my own reactions to listening during some of these scenes. I also find that it can be an especially nice spot to insert a little poetry, for those of us who try not to be too flowery within the bulk of our prose, but who love describing flowers dripping down a stone wall or the heady scent of essential oils wafting through the air.

In chapter 20 in TERROR COMES KNOCKING, Sam's wife Rachel just received surgery for two dislocated and fractured shoulders. (that really happened to my wife, Dale, a few years back... long story!) The segment was short, describing their ride home from the hospital.

Let me know what you think of the musical aspect of this mini-scene - and see if you can tell what I was trying to emphasize by using it, as well. Sam reveals a lot about his marriage and life with inner thoughts, and I find passages like this help to clarify the character of ones characters!

***

excerpt from Chapter 20, TERROR COMES KNOCKING


Rachel closed her eyes. “How about some music? I just want to rest and listen to something nice.”

Sam nodded and leaned forward to switch on the CD player. Ella Fitzgerald was in the number one slot of his six-CD device, singing from "The Best of the Songbooks". He selected track three and prepared to be transported.

Her velvet cream voice prowled over him, enveloping him with its sensual tones. He went limp inside and let the notes glissade, massaging his soul in sugary splendor.

He and Rachel had danced to these tunes in their youth. They’d seen Ella several times as teenagers. In ‘62, they’d seen her twice. His collection was extensive. He owned every song ever recorded by the jazz queen, including early works from her first recordings. The music trickled over him like soft rain falling on petals…molasses poured over pancakes. It reminded him of days gone by, particularly nights gone by. With Rachel. In their most intimate moments.

She remembered, too. She opened her eyes for a minute and slid a sideways glance at her husband. “You’re remembering, aren’t you, Sammy?”

Sam grinned, slow and lazy. He hadn’t felt like this in a long time. “Yeah… What times we had, hey, darlin’?”

He dropped his hand from the wheel and touched her knee. The hospital gown had ridden up mid-thigh.

She laughed out loud. “Now don’t get any ideas, you devil.”

Sam shot a glance at her. The bittersweet knowledge of their life together now hit him hard. They hadn’t made love in years, probably wouldn’t, either. He had to make do with memories. Wonderful, passionate, amazing memories. He saw her in that light now, with her long dark hair rippling over her creamy white shoulders, her dark eyes smoldering, her fluttery fingers touching him in that way…

“Sorry, Rach. Can’t help it. You still drive me wild.”

Her eyes puddled, full of the stark knowledge that Sam accepted with equanimity. He exchanged smiles with her, patting her again. “We were blessed, weren’t we?”

She nodded. He plucked a Kleenex out of the dispenser and leaned over to dab her cheeks.

***

Here's another scene from the next book in the series, book #3 in Moore Mysteries, entitled FOR KEEPS (June 2012). In this case Rachel is trying to get Sam to open up to a new style of music, quite unlike his favorite, Ms. Fitzgerald. I also use my books to cross pollinate between my own series (see reference to Gus LeGarde's radio show in Sam Moore's book) and to give free plugs to writer friends whose books I want to promote!

In this segment, Sam has just come in from an unsettled meeting with the local coroner, who seems to have a crush on him.

***

from chapter 11, FOR KEEPS:

“How’d it go, sweetie?”

 a

Sam slumped against the doorframe. “Pretty much like you said it would. But it’s still damned uncomfortable.”

  a

“Oh, poor baby,” she said, patting the sofa beside her. “Come listen with me. Japanese Melodies, by Camille Saint-Saëns. They’re so pretty.”

  a

Reluctantly, Sam shuffled to the couch and dropped beside Rachel. “Okay. Maybe for a little while.” Sam’s usual tastes ran to Ella Fitzgerald’s crooning and Duke Ellington’s band. But he tried to maintain an open mind as he slid close to her and slipped an arm around her shoulders. She snuggled into him and closed her eyes.

The cello and piano duet invaded the room, soothing and saddening Sam at the same time. The music glided into his heart, plucked at his emotions, and tantalized him. The piece Professor LeGarde analyzed was particularly evocative, with searing melodies that sounded mildly Japanese and Spanish at the same time. Sam imagined a Japanese tea garden with a flamenco dancer poised on an ornate bridge. The next time he saw Gus in Wegmans, he’d have to thank him.

When it was over, Rachel clicked off the radio with the remote and sighed, almost as if she were about to burst into tears. They sat for a few minutes in silence.

He finally broke the spell. “Wow. You were right.”

***

Okay, it goes on from there, of course, to pick up on the original thread of the chapter. 

Thanks for stopping by today, and if you have time, let me know what you think of this topic in the comment section, below. 

Here's a link to some sample audio book chapters from this book, and if you'd like to read an excerpt, you can do so at my lazarbooks website, here.

Remember, if you love to write... write like the wind!

Aaron Paul Lazar

lazarbooks.com

Creativity and Noise

Recently, I heard on a program how in today's technologically advanced world, we do not go about much any longer without noise. That's right. Noise. We are wakened by an alarm clock, we turn on the television for the morning news, (or computer- complete with video)- some of us, mostly kids go to the computer and tune into YouTube or an online radio. We get in our cars and turn on the radio, or some other form of music. And then we go to jobs where we listen all day long to phones ringing, printers printing, and all manner of office noise. After work, we go home to watch more television, movies, or video games and we literally have no moments of silence at all until we are trying to go to sleep, but some of us are now using machines to pour out nature sounds to "soothe" us into slumber. What?? That's not so bad, you say? Well, consider this: creativity thrives in silence. As writers, we should crave it in order to allow our minds to send us those valuable ideas not to mention the conversations that we are missing out on. You know, the ones that once tweaked the Muse into creating a WHOLE book from? Being "plugged in" has its benefits, sure, but being "unplugged" is totally important too. So I challenge you to try silence for a few hours each day. Find time to visit with your Muse and let him/her tell you what is on their mind. Happy Thursday, Murderers.

Writing From a Woman's POV

copyright 2012, Aaron Paul Lazar

I’ve written ten LeGarde Mysteries and three Moore Mysteries from a guy’s point of view.

It was easy, really. Because both Gus LeGarde and Sam Moore share many qualities with me. Sure, they have their own personalities and possess unique strengths and weaknesses, but I didn’t have to stretch to imagine Gus’s passion for Camille, or Sam Moore’s sensual memories about his wife in the early years before she got MS. It was easy to picture these charming women characters. Longing for them came naturally, and I pretty much used the feelings I’ve had all my life for my wife, Dale, who happens to have resembled these ladies at various points in her life.

But when I decided to challenge myself and start my new Tall Pines series from a woman’s point of view, I hadn’t thought about the sexual aspect of the job. No, I hadn’t thought how it would sound when I read the book aloud to audiences (like I do today), telling them to picture me female, five-nine, with dark hair to my shoulders and talking through my protagonist’s voice about how luscious her man looked in his open-fronted shirt.

At first it was a bit uncomfortable. But once I let myself become caught up in the story, it worked out just fine and my audience didn’t seem to doubt my masculine tendencies. LOL.
Marcella Hollister is a fun character to write. She’s healthy, for the most part, but haunted by her infertility. I needed to get inside the head of a woman who yearned for children, but would never have one of her own. This wasn’t familiar territory to me, so I had to imagine the feelings, probably basing most of my perceptions on my wife’s Lifetime movies and Joan Hall Hovey suspense novels.

Marcella doesn’t hide her unabashed affection and attraction to her half-Seneca Indian husband. She pictures him in full Indian attire, atop a big pinto horse, gazing over the horizon with his arms outstretched to the Great Spirit.

She’s someone who physical needs are quite foreign to me. But I’m proud to say that after living with my wife, mother-in-law, three daughters, and watching a million chick flicks with them over the years, I’ve had some of my fans tell me I’ve nailed the woman’s point of view.

Whether you’re a model citizen writing from a killer’s point of view, a woman writing from a man’s point of view, or a man writing from a giraffe’s point of view, all it takes is years of keen observational skills and plenty of conversations with the person who’s head you’re getting inside. Unless he happens to be a giraffe, of course.


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Aaron Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. An award-winning, bestselling Kindle author of three addictive mystery series, Aaron enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous gardens, and chase bad guys. Visit his website at http://www.lazarbooks.com and watch for his upcoming Twilight Times Books releases, FOR KEEPS (JUNE 2012), DON’T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU (MAY 2012), and the author’s preferred edition of UPSTAGED (JULY 2012).