Putting the YES back into writing

You have all seen it and heard it in your writing seminars and classes. Using negative phrasing can be a bad thing. Especially in fiction where you want to get your meaning across as easily as possible.

I kept thinking on this conundrum in writing and tried a bunch of ways of Google to find a site for you to do a little reading about it, but kept coming up with DOUBLE NEGATIVE in my results.

While DNs are a good offspring to this topic, it wasn’t what I intended exactly, so I stuck it into memory for a topic later on. I also was waylaid by these items of interest: Negative effects of hip-hop music, negative and positive effects of marijuana, and positive thinking, which I believe I have already discussed ad nauseam on this blog.

Anyway, go on out and check out the link and then, as they say down here in the south, y’all come back now ya hear?


negative phrasing link

Pen Names: An Illuminating Interview

Using a pen name can do strange things to a writer’s head, especially when the two of “you” write different types of books for different types of publishers.

S. W. Vaughn writes thrillers and male-male erotica for Loose Id and Lyrical Press.

Sonya Bateman writes urban fantasy for Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Vaughn and Bateman inhabit the same body. Sometimes, it just ain’t big enough for the both of them...

VAUGHN: Welcome, peeps and kiddies. Today, for some damn reason, we’re interviewing Sonya Bateman, author of Master of None and...*sneers* Author, huh? I guess you think you’re a big shot, don’t you?

BATEMAN: I’m only an author for interviews. The rest of the time, I’m a writer – I work for a living, same as everybody else.

VAUGHN: Really. Then why, oh great author, have I been doing all the work lately?

BATEMAN: Because I’m faster than you, and I met my deadlines first.

VAUGHN: If you hadn’t been hogging the brain for the past month, I would’ve been done weeks ago. I’ve got all the talent. You’re a sellout hack, and you just got lucky.

BATEMAN: Talent conducts itself professionally.

VAUGHN: Oh, so now I’m an it?

BATEMAN: Well, you do go by initials. You could be anything. Male, female, a thousand monkeys...

VAUGHN: Zip it, Bateman. We’re professionals, right? Back to the interview. *clears throat* So tell us, how does it feel to be panned by so many reviewers?

BATEMAN: *narrows eyes* I wouldn’t call it ‘many’. I’ve gotten a few bad reviews. Everyone does. Actually, most of my reviews have been positive.

VAUGHN: Yeah, but the bad ones are pretty awful, aren’t they? I mean, look at this: “Interesting ideas, people, but disappointingly badly written.” “I’m finding it hard to care about the main characters.” “Master of None is Bateman’s debut novel – and it shows.” “I’m not going to pick up the next in the series.”**

BATEMAN: Hey, you’re the one that won the Drama Queen Award. For a male character.

VAUGHN: You son of a... um, hey wait. I actually liked that review.

BATEMAN: You would.

VAUGHN: Fine, forget the reviews. Let’s talk sales, Little Miss Author. I know you check NovelRank just as much as me. Shall we review the stats for last month? Skin Deep, Vaughn: 34 copies. Heartsong, Vaughn: 28 copies. Master of None, Bateman: six copies.*** Wow. How do you do it? You must be an awesome writer. /sarcasm/

BATEMAN: I’ve got one word for you, Vaughn: distribution. It’s that magical thing that puts my book in stores, where it gets bought, so people don’t have to go to Amazon for a copy. You have your advantages, and I have mine. It balances.

VAUGHN: That’s more than one word. And if you want to talk hard numbers, let’s discuss these Bookscan figures you got last week. See here, that’s—

BATEMAN: You put that royalty statement down right now, you prying little—

LAST SHRED OF REMAINING SANITY: Ladies! Has it escaped your attention that you are, in fact, the same person?

VAUGHN: Who asked you to butt in? Get the fu—wait. She has a point. *pauses* Hey, Bateman. Wanna go grab a beer?

BATEMAN: Yeah. We’re outta here.

LAST SHRED OF REMAINING SANITY: *sighs* Some interview. Guess we’re not going to get booked on Oprah any time soon.

**Actual quotes from actual reviews of Master of None.

***Actual number of Amazon sales as tracked by NovelRank for all three available novels. Yeah, really. Six copies.

Arrive Late, Leave Early

© Leslie Wheeler 2010 all rights reserved

Arrive late, leave early? How rude! In real life it is considered the height of bad manners to arrive late at a party and leave early. Emily Post and her successors in the etiquette business would throw up their hands in horror. But this is one of the best writing tips I’ve ever received, especially when crafting a mystery.

“Arrive late, leave early” was also much needed advice, because I came to mystery writing from the long-winded school of fiction. Think Dickens’ novels and other lengthy tomes by Victorian authors that Henry James, no slouch himself with regard to word count, called “big baggy books.” I had even written one myself—an 800-page historical novel long on incident but short on plot that still fills a suitcase in my closet.

I turned to mystery writing, because I felt I needed the discipline of writing a tightly plotted book. But determined as I was to write “lean and mean,” my wordiness kept getting in the way. In my first mystery, MURDER AT PLIMOTH PLANTATION, I particularly struggled with a party scene, in which my protagonist, Miranda Lewis, meets a lot of people for the first time. No matter how much I trimmed this scene, the members of my writers’ critique group cried, “too long, too long!” Finally, one group member offered the “arrive late, leave early” dictum from his background as a screenwriter. Still, I balked. The advice went against both my tendency toward verbosity and my well-bred upbringing, where it was bad form not only to be tardy, but to “eat and run.”

Eventually, I got the message: If my critique group found the scene tedious, so would the agents and editors I hoped to attract. I began using the delete key more frequently. Out went the long drive to the party, with its detailed descriptions of geography and the weather, and a lengthy conversation between Miranda and her niece about the people Miranda is about to meet. Instead, Miranda arrives when the party is well underway, and gets to know the various guests by interacting with them in small groups, or one at a time. I also have a key player arrive even later than Miranda to delay their meeting and generate suspense about whether he’s coming at all. And, instead of describing everything that happens at the party, I focus on the highlights, and use a space break to cut from one important moment to the next. Needless to say, the revised scene does not end with long, drawn-out good-byes on the part of everyone present. Rather, one character whispers to another, “I could just kill him!” and we leapfrog to the next chapter.

Of course, “arrive late, leave early,” isn’t simply good advice for party scenes, but for all scenes. How many times have you been stuck in traffic and wished you could be airlifted to wherever you wanted and needed to be? It’s the same with readers. Some are content to skip the boring parts and move on to where the story picks up again, but others are likely to get bogged down and put the book aside. They need to be airlifted into the middle of each scene, and airlifted out again before their attention wanders. For this reason, I often begin a scene with a bit of dialogue or a physical action to give the reader the sense of “walking in” on characters having a private conversation or catching them in the act of doing something that maybe they shouldn’t. I also try to end each scene, leaving the reader up in the air, wondering what will happen next and eager to turn the page to find out. I don’t always succeed. Sometimes, I’ll write a scene and realize I need to cut the first ten sentences and the last two to achieve the effect I want.

Fast-forward a few years to the time I began the third book in my series, MURDER AT SPOUTERS POINT, due out in October, 2010. By then, the ALLE advice had become so ingrained that I no longer faced the prospect of writing a party scene with dread. I even figured out a way to incorporate into the scene the discomfort I and, I assume, others would feel in real life if we arrived late and left a party early.

In the novel, a good friend of Miranda’s has an off-stage exchange with her older brother. It upsets her so much that she goes into hiding just before the start of a party she and her boyfriend are hosting, so that her family and friends can get to know him better. While waiting for her friend to reappear, Miranda observes the boyfriend setting up for the party. He keeps glancing in her direction, obviously wondering where his girlfriend is. Time passes and the girlfriend’s family arrives, but is reluctant to go to the party without her. They wait and wait and Miranda feels “awkward in the extreme.” Finally, she persuades her friend to come out of seclusion and they all go to the party.

In the course of the party (broken up into two chapters), the awkwardness most of the guests feel increases until it comes to a head with the surprise announcement that the host and hostess are engaged. After a half-hearted toast, the hostess’s disapproving family departs abruptly. Miranda stays a while longer out of loyalty to her friend, but the tension is such that she soon makes tracks herself.

I hope others find this “arrive late, leave early” tip as useful as I have. Many thanks to the MB4 team for having me as a guest on your blog.

About the author:
An award-winning author of books about American history and biographies, Leslie Wheeler now writes the Miranda Lewis “living history” mystery series. Titles include: MURDER AT PLIMOTH PLANTATION, MURDER AT GETTYSBURG, and most recently, MURDER AT SPOUTERS POINT. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, serving as Speakers Bureau coordinator for the New England chapter. She has also begun a new career as a contributing editor of Level Best Books, which publishes annual anthologies of short crime fiction by New England authors. Leslie divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Berkshires.

Book Launches - some Novel Ideas

Carolyn Howard Johnson has long been a boon to the writing community. With her stable of books that showed us how to attack all aspects of writing with being "frugal" in mind, she's shared a great deal that has helped many writers along the way. 

Today I asked Carolyn to provide an article about book launch tips. I'm sure you'll find some ideas here that spark and motivate you - I sure did!

Whether you're launching a mystery or a romance, planning a party for an urban thriller or a how-to book, these tips will help you think outside the box. 

Because of this, I'm now planning to buy a bunch of green marbles to give out at my book launch for Healey's Cave, and maybe seek out some garden conventions to do some talks or book signings. You never know! And I wouldn't have thought about it unless I'd read her article. 

Enjoy! 

                                                                                                           - Aaron Paul Lazar

Target Your Audience and Get Paid for Your Book Launch

Copyright Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques and The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't

Book launches are the stuff dreams are made of.

I've had many and know by now that—like weddings—they can drain even an ample promotion budget. Still, they can be an excellent promotion device and the most fun part of writing a book next to writing it, so I'd never, ever suggest an author pass over a launch opportunity; I would suggest the launch should be designed to fit the situation and that an author can throw a good party and still be frugal.

Here are some general book launch situations that an author might find him or herself in:

Your book covers a niche that absolutely none of your friends, relatives, business associates, or former readers are interested in. If that is the case you must know that your book has an audience or you wouldn't have written it. That is the audience you invite—that particular category of people. Your launch becomes limited only to them. They are your target and this approach lets you choose the venue, the theme, the decorations and food—everything—that will make a hit with them. It's targeted marketing at its best.

This is the group I found myself in with the release of A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1441467246/ ). Oh, it would have been different had I published it a few years ago when I was still in retailing, but I'm afraid I've let my contacts dwindle and retailing has changed drastically in this market downturn eliminating many of my old retailing friends. In fact, that market downturn coupled with my continued love of the industry are my reasons for writing it.

This is my sixth book in nearly as many genres but this particular situation found me figuring out a new model for a launch. Because I was worried about the book's financial success (not what it can give to a reader or its quality—I have confidence in those things or I wouldn't have published it!), I am going to need to build a new audience. That means I need to stay on a budget. A tight budget.

I asked myself, what is the best way to do be Frugal, and it came to me as I was sitting by the fire in January, watching embers dwindle to mere sparks. Let someone pay me to do a launch.

Now, I'm lucky. I have already spoken widely in many venues and have rave endorsements to prove it. If you haven't, you can still use part of this idea as a model.

This is what I did. I got a speaking job at a national tradeshow of retailers and I used this book (plus past retailing experience) as an entrée. Yes, a paying job. I am not only going to speak, the show people are going to plop me onto the middle of their tradeshow floor to sign my book. They're also running an interview in the show's daily newspaper and ads in their directory because it's a great service for their buyers.

I'll also be able to sell A Retailer's Guide at the back of the room at the two seminars I will be doing. So, except for the cost of the books, this launch not only will cost me nothing but it is a win-win. It's a new model for retail shows (at least everyone thinks it is in spite of the fact there is nothing new in the world) and so the entire idea is getting lots of publicity for the show as well as for me.

But what if you think there is no equivalent to a tradeshow for your book or that you haven't the speaking credentials to do this. Well, think again. This is what you do:

1. Put on your thinking cap. There are all kinds of trade shows, trade magazines, publishers, etc. etc in this nation and this world. Reference librarians have magic thinking caps of their own. Ask one at your local library to help you. Think foundations, charities, grants, unions, business organizations, social organizations, national fraternities and more.

There has to be some angle in your book that is a match for some entity within these 50 states or beyond that would welcome something fresh and new for their audience. They need a value-added entity that will set them apart from their competitors. That something fresh and new to value-added is you.

2. Sell yourself. Use a great query letter and media kit that presents WOW! ways that business entity can benefit from what you offer. You may include a speech, workshop, or seminar in that pitch if you think it will strengthen your bid—or not.

3. Sell the way you can sell your appearance. You have been building a platform (that part of your experience that convinces editors, publishers, and agents of your following and your ability to promote), so now you'll tell this contact about your skills and credibility.

4. Once you've got this new model going, prove your value. Not only do what you said you would do for them, do more. An example is this article. It's another win-win-win! situation. I get to help authors with a new model for a launch; Marv Wilson gets to help his blog visitors by using my article. The National Stationery Show ® (http://www.nationalstationeryshow.com/)  gets some more publicity (there may be some retailers in Marv's group who need to know about that tradeshow and there may be some who aren't retailers willing to pass the information on about the Stationery Show and about my book!). 

The National Stationery Show benefits because they are providing unparalleled buyer education directly to their attendees and those attendees will go back to their hometowns, tell other retailers about the fantastic education program offered by this tradeshow that included perquisites for their attendees above and beyond the usual tradeshow experience.

You have now published so many books your friends, and relatives are all jaded by your publishing success. For them your launches now resemble the same-ish formal wedding your sister-in-law invited you to for all six of her marriages. In this case your launch should be directed at its target audience. Only you know who that audience is, but it is probably the loyal fans who have purchased your other books in a series or a specific genre (provided this one offers something new and exciting). For them you'll need to do something different. Launches are, after all, more about the guests and the author.

This is your first book; it interests a broad range or people and you want to give a bash for everyone. In a case like this, everyone you know will want to celebrate with you and you should give them a chance to do so.

You'll still want to select a fun theme based on the subject of your book, pick a venue that suits it, and on and on. I'm The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo ), so I must tell you to get a handle on expenses early or this could turn out to be as expensive as some of the most lavish weddings. If you don't care, have at it. Otherwise, plan a budget.

For my first book, a women's historical novel set in Utah in the 1950s, I decided I had some money to spend but I asked the Gene Autrey Museum of Western History in Griffith Park in Los Angeles if they'd let me use their theater. Because the book is based on the true stories of five generations of hardy Utah pioneers, they miraculously said, "Yes." I didn't pay for the venue but their bookstore sold the book and reaped the profit from that. Again, win-win.

I even chose little favors for attendees, something I don't usually recommend unless the author can find something both reasonably priced and suitable for the launch theme. I found thimbles with a picture of the state of Utah on them and bought them by the gross from a wholesaler. I put my aging (and needle-handy) mother to work making little felt pouches for them, my husband to work making little tags with a quotation from the book theme and hand-punching holes in the tags to tie onto the pouches. Yep. Frugal—but also different and suitable for the history-related party.

I did spend some on trays of mini sandwiches and other finger foods from Whole Foods. Not cheap, but certainly not an expensive caterer. I did tons of promotion and, because it was in a public place, many people I didn't know showed up. We had a guest book and my good friends—with very little arm twisting—volunteered to help guests sign the guest book for future mailing lists, serve the punch, and act as ushers. As I recall, the cost came to about $500. I'll never forget it.

The launch I recently did for Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers (http://budurl.com/Tweeting4Retailers) cost me nothing. In fact, the launch was profitable. I presented two seminars at the National Stationery Show at the Javits Center in New York. Trade shows like this are a bit like Book Expo America.  I found a wonderful sponsor for the book (Gift Shop magazine). The Stationery show offered me a spot on the trade show floor for a signing and publicized both the signing and the presentations. Again, everyone won. For the retailers attending the show, a book signing was an innovation. The National Stationery Show lead the industry in an innovation like that. We all learned from one another; we learned more about the possibilities of inter-industry networking. 

Don't you dare believe that no public place will want you. Charitable organizations, schools, and some businesses will be happy to trade for the publicity you'll give them and the profit they'll make on your book. If not, have it at home. My next launch (for a book of short stories called Harkening) was at my friend's home. She is herself an author (obviously sympathetic!)  and her sweet hospitality included inviting all her personal friends.

Another very low-cost kind of launch is to use the Web. Include a Twitter contest, blog tours, Facebook event and offer freebies. The Web is almost always one of the most frugal choices for any kind of promotion.

All my books have had a launch of sorts including my chapbooks of poetry and each was well worth the time and cost. Yours is, too. Choose wisely, and go for it!

***

Carolyn Howard-Johnson puts nearly three decades of retail experience plus oodles more in the fields of journalism, public relations, publishing, and marketing into this first in her new Survive and Thrive series of books. She consults in the three Ps: publishing, promotion, and publicity and is the author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and award-winning books of fiction and poetry.

Howard-Johnson founded and operated stores ranging from home décor to gifts to antiques and other collectibles. She owned and operated the souvenir shop at the world renowned Santa Anita Race Track. She has served on the boards of directors of the malls where her stores were located, of the boards of cooperative catalogs her stores utilized, and periodicals like Gift Beat. She also served on the California Gift Show board of directors. She puts this world of experience in retailing to work for you with this series of Survive and Thrive books and in private consultation sessions.

Howard-Johnson was named Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by members of the California Legislature. The American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) Impact Council also named her Woman of the Year and Pasadena Weekly honored her for literary activism. Her Web site is www.HowToDoItFrugally.com. A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions is also available as a Kindle book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0021AEXU0/ref=cm_pdp_arms_dp_1).

Today is "do" day

Have you ever been posting on a certain day and wonder what you were doing one year ago, two, five, twenty? Sometimes I do. Like here On that day I was trying to pave a path .

And then I remember that what has gone before has very little significance if I haven't moved forward. If I haven't learned something from the past.

One of my all-time favorite one-liners is,

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try." -- Jedi Master Yoda

And what do you think that means for you? For me it means to quit "trying" to write a book that will sell millions and just write. It means if you haven't learned to enjoy the process, why are you still doing it?

Sometimes things are meant to be for our enjoyment as well as our gain. For me, writing is like that. Sort of therapy for the weary mind of me. I can get lost in a book by reading, or writing, or dreaming. So why not?

I hope today, you go out and find your "do" place. Don't think about it. Do it. Not a TRY in the whole day. I hope you find what you seek from the experience too. Don't forget to enjoy the learning of it.

Meet Author Stephen Jay Schwartz

Please welcome Stephen Jay Schwartz, author of BEAT. Sit back and prepare to enjoy this insightful view into his writing journey. 

Schwartz grew up in New Mexico and traveled the Unites States extensively before settling down in Los Angeles. There he became the director of development for Wolfgang Petersen, helping develop films such as Outbreak and Air Force One. This is his second novel. For more information, please visit http://www.stephenjayschwartz.com/.

Q. When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

A. It’s funny, but I didn’t think I’d be a writer when I was growing up. And yet I always wrote. My first story was a little thing I did when I was eight years old called “Sammy the Dinosaur.” I typed it up with two pudgy fingers and my mom sent it to Readers Digest, where they promptly rejected it. When I got to high school I took English classes where the teachers showed us how to diagram sentences. That ended any ideas I had about being a writer. I figured it was all about diagramming sentences. So, by quitting, I was free to play around, to write whatever I wanted to write, to break the rules I never learned. And that, as Robert Frost said, has made all the difference.

Q. How would you describe the writing that you are doing?

A. Exploring.

Q. What motivated you to start writing in crime-thriller genre?

A. I didn’t know I’d be writing in a genre. I started off writing about a character and his psychology, and I wanted to put him in an impossible situation. A sex-addicted homicide detective chasing a sexual predator created the kind of dilemma that excited me, and that just naturally fell into the crime-thriller genre. I do love the pacing of a really good thriller, and I’m a fan of Hitchcock. Having been the director of development for Wolfgang Petersen, I was in a unique position to study the mechanics of thriller screenplays, which guided my efforts as an author.

Q. What would you say has influenced you the most?

A. Music. I’ve studied music since the fourth grade, when our teacher started a band at school and the kids were asked to bring whatever instruments their parents had at home. My dad had a clarinet, so that’s how I started. Clarinet was a bitch. And it wasn’t sexy. In high school I picked up the sax and suddenly I was in business. I played in the jazz band through high school and spent my first college year at the renowned jazz school at NTSU. At that point I realized that I really wanted to study film and writing. But music had made its mark, and I’m constantly aware and appreciative of the musicality of a sentence. I read my sentences aloud and hear the rhythm, syncopation, staccato and legato of every paragraph. A sentence is a series of vowels and consonants that forms rhythm. That rhythm can either be clunky or smooth. If you listen to recordings of Jack Kerouac reading from On the Road you can hear the musicality of his words. He writes like Charlie Parker plays. So, Jack Kerouac is an influence. My big influences are John Steinbeck, Kerouac, Chuck Palahniuk, Charles Bukowski, John Updike and Jim Thompson. Others on the list include John Fante, Walter Tevis, Katherine Ann Porter, and Amy Hempel.

Q. What are your main concerns as a writer? How do you deal with these concerns?

A. That’s a good question. In the things I write, as in the things I read, I’m interested in more than just a good story. Just because a story fits together well and provides an exciting ride doesn’t mean that it’s a contribution to our world. I like when a book makes me think about my life, makes me ponder the decisions I’ve made in my life. I like when a book challenges my convictions. In the same way, I like to challenge the convictions of others. How does one make a selfish, sex-addicted cop sympathetic? Well, he’s human, and he’s frail, and he’s hurting. Like all of us. None of us are perfect. So, should we judge him? Yes and no. Who is willing to throw the first stone? I like when readers tell me they are still thinking about my books weeks after they turned the last page.

Q. How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

A. My personal experiences have guided every step. Two major events in my life influenced my growth as a writer. The first was my father’s suicide, when I was twenty years old. I suddenly had things to say that were too important to be masked in poor writing. So my writing matured. Instantly. That was a major factor. The next big event was the discovery that I had a sex addiction. It almost destroyed my marriage, almost tore apart my family. Through marriage counseling and twelve-step meetings I managed to repair my life and Boulevard was the catharsis. My wife, incidentally, joined my process, and the book became the event that brought us together. She’s a brilliant story editor and an amazingly creative partner. So, the experience forced me to dig deep and write from my soul. It produced a writing that touched on universal themes, themes that speak to anyone who has ever doubted themselves or struggled in a marriage or with issues of addiction or compulsive behavior.

Q. What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?

A. Finding time to write every day. Finding ways to feed the family, keep a roof over our heads, and still produce a book a year.

Q. How do you deal with these challenges?

A. One day at a time.

Q. Does that mean you write everyday? How does each session start? How do you proceed? How, where and why does it end?

A. I work a day job, so I have to write evenings and weekends. There have been times in my life where I’ve written full-time, for a series of months or a year, and I’ve loved the experience. When I can, I write a twelve-hour day, which generally consists of three four-hour shifts. I still do that on weekends when I can. Otherwise, I go straight from the day job to a café and write from 6:30 pm to midnight. It’s hard to keep the continuity of the story going in my head with a schedule like that, so I outline my work carefully before getting into the writing. My writing day usually ends when I wake up at the café with keyboard impressions in my face.

Q. Stephen, this sounds all too familiar. :)  So, tell me what your latest book, BEAT is about and how long it took you to write it?

A. BEAT is the continuing story of LAPD Homicide Detective Hayden Glass. He was introduced in Boulevard as a sex-addicted cop chasing a serial sexual predator. Hayden’s vice is that he picks up prostitutes, goes to strip clubs and massage parlors. He’s in a Twelve Step program and he has a sponsor, so he’s trying to find some sobriety. But the chase takes him down some dark paths, and he slips. Ultimately, he beats the villain, but at a high personal cost. In BEAT, Hayden is on a leave of absence and, with time on his hands, he begins fiddling with Internet pornography, and his addiction evolves. He falls for a call girl he meets on-line and travels to San Francisco to have regularly scheduled visits with her. One day he arrives to find that she has run away from the club where she works. He’s concerned for her safety, so he tracks her down, intending on “saving” her. In the process, he inadvertently leads her pursuers to her doorstep, and she is kidnapped. He spends the rest of the novel trying to get her back, learning that others have a great interest in her as well. Hayden falls into a world of police corruption, FBI investigations, sexual-slavery and a brewing war between rival Russian mafias. All he wants is to save the girl, but through the course of the story he discovers that his motivation is not entirely altruistic. In the end he comes face-to-face with himself and his own intentions, and must make a critical decision.

I had one year to write BEAT, but I spent about six months doing research. I love, love, love research. I ended up delivering the book about five months late, so it took just under a year to write, balancing it with my day job, family commitments and the marketing I needed to do to get the word out on Boulevard.

Q. I thoroughly enjoy researching my work as well and to finish the book in less than a year is amazing!  Where and when was it published? How did you chose a publisher for the book? Why this publisher? What advantages and/or disadvantages has this presented? How are you dealing with these?

A. BEAT just came out – September 28, 2010. Boulevard was published exactly one year earlier, in September of 2009. I feel very fortunate to have been published by Forge Books, which is an imprint of Macmillan. They’ve done a great job of presenting my books to the market place. And I’ve loved working with my editor, Eric Raab. He gets my vision and he’s made some perceptive, inspired contributions to the process. He also suggested that I write a “Hayden short story” that we can give away for free to help introduce the Hayden series to people who might not readily read the thriller genre. The story is called “Crossing the Line,” and it takes us back to when Hayden was a young Vice cop, when he picked up a prostitute he was supposed to bust, then ended up “crossing the line.” It marks the moment his addiction first came to life.

Q. What do you think sets this book apart from the other works you have written?

A. I’ve mostly written screenplays, so simply writing a novel sets it apart from my previous work. Screenplays are a great foundation for writing novels, since screenplays are basically 110 pages of pure, tightly written plot, with a well-defined three-act structure. It made it an easy transition, in some ways. I didn’t have to wonder if I’d ever finish the book, since I’ve managed to finish about ten feature screenplays already. But I’ve never written anything as dark as Boulevard and Beat, and its been fun exploring the gritty crevices my characters inhabit.

Q. In what way is it similar?

A. It’s similar in that all of my writing emphasizes character and character growth. Character comes before plot. Plot cannot exist without character to inhabit it. That character can either be well-defined or poorly-defined, but the story doesn’t exist without a protagonist. I strive to reveal character through the dilemma my protagonist faces. I like putting him to the test. Will he run or will he fight? Will he sacrifice himself for others? And why would he do that? Is it because he values the lives of others, or is it because he has no value for himself?

Q. What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

A. Writing that first novel to the best of my ability. And seeing that now, after so, so many years, the best of my ability is good enough.

Q. How did you get there?

A. By paying attention to the writing. By falling in love with the process, the hard work. By reading other great writers and letting their voices and their styles influence me, while at the same time developing a voice of my own.

Q. Words of wisdom to aspiring writers?

A. It’s about the book. It’s not about the genre or the marketing or being famous or making money. It’s about the craft. Read, read, read. Never quit. If you aren’t good enough to get published now, you’ll be good enough later. As long as your mind is open to growth and constructive criticism. It’s a long battle—it can last a lifetime. But there’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing your book on a shelf, or listening to someone talk passionately about the characters that had, at one time, existed only in your head. And…explore.

When Somebody Says It Better

Fall might be the busiest time for querying. With the end of summer, people get ambitious, and there's that burst of energy that comes with knowing that soon, we'll all be hibernating under fifty billion feet of snow...

Oh, wait. Y'all won't be - that's just me, not-so-proud resident of the Farmer's Almanac Worst Weather City in America for 2010. Huzzah.

Anyway! There's a lot of queries going out, and coming back, right now. I wanted to say something about dealing with rejections, but I found someone who said it better.

So go forth and read Tahereh's post on the 10 Phases of Rejection. Because it. is. awesome.

And happy querying!

Meet Todd Ritter, author of Death Notice

REWRITE, REJECT, REPEAT
By Todd Ritter

My agent probably won’t like learning this, but she wasn’t the first person I queried. Nor was she the second, third, fourth … well, you get the idea. Before my agent (whom I adore completely, by the way) said yes to DEATH NOTICE, my debut mystery, more than a hundred others had already told me no.

Nope, that’s not a typo, nor is it an exaggeration. I queried and was turned down by seemingly every agent in the business. I kept track of them on a spreadsheet that listed who asked for partials, who requested full manuscripts and who immediately sent out those thanks-but-no-thanks letters that all aspiring writers loathe. By the time I got my agent, the tally was something along the lines of twelve partials, five fulls and a gazillion rejections.

That spreadsheet is long gone. It was a tragic victim of the great computer crash of ’09. But sometimes I wish I could take a look and see all those rejections I received on the lengthy and intimidating road to publication. So how did I do it? How, after more than a hundred proverbial doors slammed in my face, did I get one agent to say yes, who then put my manuscript in the hands of an editor at St. Martin’s Minotaur who also said yes?

The answer is easy, but the task was hard.

I rewrote.

A lot.

I rewrote from start to finish so many times that I lost count. (I didn’t have a spreadsheet for rewrites. That’s the short slide to madness, my friends.) Many agents were kind enough to offer their input. One said DEATH NOTICE needed another 20,000 words. Another said it could be chopped by 15,000. I tried my best to heed their advice and follow their instructions. Subplots came and went. Characters were added. Others were cut. Some of them were killed, reborn, then killed again. It was enough to make a budding mystery writer want to give up.

And after two years of rewriting (Again, that’s not a typo) I truly was ready to call it quits. I had already formulated Plan B, which was to write something far different from DEATH NOTICE, and Plan C, which amounted to not writing anything ever again and being miserable. It didn’t matter that I was basically admitting defeat. I was tired of trying to fix something that I didn’t think was broken in the first place. It came down to two choices — throw up my hands and move on or forge ahead like a stubborn idiot who had nothing to lose.

In the end, stubbornness won out. I knew I had a great idea. I knew I could write well. Most important, I knew that if I gave up, I might regret it for the rest of my life. I was willing to risk more rejection, but not regrets.

So I rewrote DEATH NOTICE again.

It got rejected.

I rewrote it again.

It got rejected.

I rewrote it some more until, low and behold, I got an agent! Who, of course, made me rewrite it again. Twice. But this time I had guidance, a gentle but persistent voice that helped me see what was wrong and how I could fix it. In the end, the hard work paid off. I have a mystery that I’m incredibly proud of. I can officially call myself an author. I can hold my book in my hands, see my name on the cover, read sentences that I wrote and rewrote and rewrote again.

Of course, having that “Official Author” designation means others who want to join the club ask me for advice. I don’t have much to give. I’m just a newbie, after all, unleashing my first mystery onto the world and hoping people enjoy it. But whenever someone asks, “How do I get published?” I have the answer. Well, the answer that worked for me. It consists of four simple words.

Don’t give up. Ever.



Todd Ritter is an author and editor. His first mystery, DEATH NOTICE, is being released this month by St. Martin’s Minotaur. Visit him online at www.toddritteronline.com.

Motivation

copyright Aaron Paul Lazar 2010

What motivates you to write?

Is it a yearning to connect with humankind? To share your cherished visions with readers? To breach that lonely cold gap stretching between souls? To reach into someone’s heart, and really, truly make a difference?

Or do you simply write for yourself? Do you need to control a parallel universe that performs at your command, whose heroes are vivid and alive in your brain, and whose villains bow to your will? Is your own life so out of control that this writing thing, this whirling, compelling, demanding art form does wonders as a coping strategy?

Maybe you don’t care if your books ever get published; you just need to satisfy that inner drive to write. It itches until you scratch it, lures you like a lover, and enslaves you like a drug. And it’s very unforgiving. If you don’t get your daily fix, you get grumpy. Supremely grumpy.

Some write to purge demons from a childhood trauma, or to escape painful reality. Others create romantic relationships that fill emptiness in their own life, or invent critters to help heal the ache after losing a beloved pet. Some imagine bizarre aliens in a world so unlike ours that tantalizing characters and stories are born into new galaxies. And there are those who create scenes with characters strangely like their dear departed grandparents.

Writing can be comforting, thrilling, romantic, and scary.

But under no circumstances should you write simply to sell a book. That kind of motivation will only disappoint you, and writing for money is often a surefire way to guarantee disappointment. Instead, write from your heart. Write to soothe your spirit. Write to instill order in a chaotic world. Write to entertain, to create twisted plots that electrify or shock. But don’t write just to sell. Because in the end, you may be selling your writer’s soul.

Let’s say you’ve written your heart out. You’ve pumped out a few great books. Suddenly you go dry. What motivates you now?

Look around you. The world is crammed with topics. Watch your favorite movies. Dissect them, list the ideas that stir your imagination, and make an inventory of your favorite themes. Is it unrequited love? Time travel? Gentle giants falsely accused? Delicious twists that shock and surprise? Spunky lady cops who save the day? Heroic animals? Fantastical fairies? Gritty city secrets?

Keep your ears open. Listen to news stories. The often unfathomable, sometimes horrific accounts will stir your creative juices. Imagine a twist on them. Then twist it again and change its literary color or scent. Don’t worry if it’s been done before. Just put your mark on it and write it with passion.

Tune in to real life dramas at work, church, or school. Think about your friend whose wife died from a rare complication of a cardiac virus, your cousin who suffers from depression, your daughter whose college boyfriend from Albania is suddenly deported. Real life is fertile and rich. It’s full of angst, splendor, terror, and adventure. It offers a mosaic of ideas, and waits for you to pluck your new favorites to mix and match into a dynamic storyline.

Last of all: read, particularly from your genre. Read incessantly. Read in the grocery store line. Read at the doctors. Read at the Laundromat. Read while you wait for the kids after soccer practice. Read before you go to sleep at night. It’s not only the best way to charge up your imagination. Sitting at the virtual feet of the masters of the craft is the best way to learn to write.

Life is full of material. Sometimes the hardest part is choosing your themes. Pick a few, and toss them around to coat them with new variations. Make your time traveler a dog, instead of a boy. Put an alien in your tear jerker romance. Create cute little cockroaches instead of bunnies in your children’s book. Or stick to cliché themes, but shake your own writer’s salt on it. Mix up your hat full of ideas and see what falls out.

It’s all up to you. Now go get ‘em.


***

Aaron Paul Lazar





 

 

LEGARDE MYSTERIES

DOUBLE FORTE' (2004)

UPSTAGED (2005)

TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON (2007)

MAZURKA (2009)

FIRESONG (2011)


MOORE MYSTERIES

HEALEY'S CAVE (2010)

ONE POTATO, BLUE POTATO (2011)

FOR KEEPS (2012)

Preditors&Editors Top 10 Finalist * Yolanda Renee's Top Ten Books 2008 * MYSHELF Top Ten Reads 2008 * Writers' Digest Top 101 Website Award 2009 & 2010

Grandma Ruth

© J. D. Webb 2010 all rights reserved

One of the absolute joys of being an author is the opportunity to bring back a loved one who has passed on. Grandma Ruth is one of those characters. She’s a smart wisecracking, eighty-two-year-old who happens to be having illicit sex with a male inmate, as she calls them, of the Sweet Bliss Assisted living facility.

I patterned her after my maternal grandmother who passed away in 1987. I still miss her and I delighted in placing her in a prominent role in a short story called Credible Witness. Now, I think the real Grandma Ruth would probably have smacked me for even thinking she would indulge in unmarried sex, but I believe if she’d had the opportunity, she would have done it. She was at once blunt and kind. Always ready with a comeback or a sharp reprimand where needed.

When I was a youngster, Grandma Ruth lived across the street. She was there providing help when my mom was shuttled off to the hospital, a regular occurrence. I was seldom scared when this happened because Grandma Ruth made me feel everything would work out okay.

The quirky thing about our family was that mom and Grandma Ruth had a running feud going. Sort of like the truce between North and South Korea. They spoke enough to be civil, no deep conversations or obvious friendliness. I don’t remember them ever hugging. But we weren’t a hugging family. To the grandchildren, Grandma Ruth was a saint. That may have been part of the problem. She loved to spoil us. Nothing major such as a bike, or a Red Rider BB gun. I hinted big time for the BB gun. Undoubtedly, my mother would have thrown it in the garbage. She wanted us to keep both eyes.

The majority of spoiling was more like with sugar sandwiches (a piece of white bread slathered with butter then smothered with real sugar) and lemonade, lovingly squeezed. She also put up jams and jellies and was a great cook, something my mom had trouble with. She was often too sick to cook and had never mastered it like Grandma Ruth.

It was wonderful to put her personality into my story. She felt alive again and almost close enough to hug. It also helped get over a bout of what do I write next. So when you’re stuck and have nowhere to go with your writing, insert a favorite remembered character of your own. It’ll definitely pick up your day – and your writing.

About the author: 
 

After a Fortune 500 company purge eliminated J. D. Webb's position he spent eleven years as a cobbler and boot salesman, considering that a promotion. He had always written, whether short stories, or business documents and reports, but never had the chance to pen a novel. A business downturn left him with the opportunity to become a full-time author. In 2002 he wrote his first novel and has had four books published.
 
The latest, SMUDGE, released by L & L Dreamspell this July is the story of a small-town paralegal who wipes a smudge off her ATM screen one night and it's blood.



Other books and writings by J. D. Webb:
Shepherd's Pie (Golden Wings Award Winner)
Moon Over Chicago (2008 Eppie finalist)
Her Name Is Mommy (Now Available)
Smudge(available now at http://www.l&ldreamspell.com/ )
Stuck In Valhalla (available at Sniplits)

Advice everyone needs

I was sitting here wondering what to write about when it practically fell into my lap. It came in the form of Writer's digest and as they are are besties with the 101 Best Site awards that we are so honored to be gifted with, I guess it is okay to promote them a little.

So here is the link to a little bitty bit of advice we could all use and reuse.
WD Article on things to remember before you submit

As for me, at the moment, I am elbow deep in my WIP and photography. This week I hope to make a print of an interesting shot I have to enter in a contest about "reflection". I will save the info about it and the photo until after next week's contest. Maybe if I will I will have to brag to you a little :) in my next week's post. If I lose, well, I guess it will be what I think I did wrong.

In the meanwhile, remember that if you listen to the advice of people like the article writer above, you may increase your chances of being published just a little. And for me, a little could be a lot, and who couldn't use the tilting in the right direction?

Oh and by the way, did I tell you that A Will to Love is going to be out in PRINT soon??? Amazon, here I come!

Happy Thursday y'all!

Self-Editing Revisited

© Marta Stephens 2010 all rights reserved

Rules can be broken only after you’ve learned them.

12 points to remember on self-editing:

1. Don’t describe every detail about a character in the first paragraph. Allow the reader to engage his or her imagination and get to know them a little bit at a time. When we meet someone, we don’t learn everything about them in the first hour. Similarly, the character should come to life gradually through dialogue, actions, reactions, and through the eyes and words of the other characters.


2. For a tense scene that needs to show urgency use short, abrupt sentences. Don’t kill the suspense with flowery prose, exposition, or excessive internal dialogue.


3. Pace it. Dialogue speeds the prose. After a fast-paced section, slow things down and give the reader a breather through some carefully written narrative. Narration can be used as a transitional tool to get the reader from one scene to the next or when the prose needs to slow down. However, if not done correctly, the writer will risk turning the narration into information dump sites in which the he or she tells the reader all he or she needs to know. If the narration describes an important turn of events, convert it into a scene between characters. Remember that dialogue is far more interesting and engages the reader’s emotions rather than the intellect.

4. Show don’t tell. Two of my favorite quotes to drive this home are:
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." Chekhov
"Don't tell me about the tragedies of war; show me the child's shoe discarded by the side of the road." author unknown

Need I say more?


5. Don’t let the characters’ dialogue turn into exposition; when a character speaks for the sake of informing the reader.

6. Separate one character’s words and actions from another character through paragraph breaks. No exceptions.

7. Dialogue attribution—stick to “said” written after the proper noun or pronoun. If the character is excited, show it through his or her words and actions, not the attribution.

8. Replace tags with beats as an alternate way to vary the dialogue and show action. “Tom where’s Hank?” She lowered her gaze to the dark red stain sprayed across the front of his shirt. “Oh my God, Tom. How could you?”


9. Look for repetition of words or information to avoid redundancy. If you’ve communicated the information well, once should be enough. When the reader needs to be reminded of an event that happened several chapters before, find a fresh way to relay the information.


10. Some adverbs are necessary, but a try to get rid of attribute adverbs, “ly” words as much as possible. They tell the reader how the character said something rather than show. Replace them with action verb. Instead of: “He angrily punched the pillow.” Try: “He slammed a fist into the pillow.”

11. Avoid “ing” words. Make it active. Instead of: “He was walking to the store.” Try: “He walked to the store.”

12. Know when to end your chapter. You’ve written a great chapter, you’ve come up with a fantastic twist for a page-turning ending. You’re certain it will shove the reader to the edge of the chair while he or she turns the page. Don’t ruin the suspense by writing two or three more paragraphs explaining how the character feels. The reader doesn’t need, or care at this point, what the character does next. If you have to explain it, rewrite it.

A brief thought about critiques:  Writing is an on-going learning process and the critique is an excellent way for an author to know if he or she is on track. Don’t accept rude or cruel comments, but to expect anything less than an honest, straightforward, and constructive critique, is a waste of everyone’s time.

Experience has changed my attitude toward and expectations of a critique. Initially, I looked to others for encouragement. Now I question the light critique that doesn’t catch inconsistencies, point out technical problems, or question a character’s motives. I’m no less sensitive or thicker-skinned than I was before. A harsh critique can still be as painful as a swift kick in the shins, but my focus is on pushing my writing to the next level. Although the occasional pat on the back feels great, an honest critique is the only way to advance the skill.


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, www.martastephens-author.com.


THE DEVIL CAN WAIT (2008), Bronze Medal Finalist, 2009 IPPY Awards, Top Ten, 2008 Preditors and Editors Reader Poll (mystery).

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

Personal site: www.martastephens-author.com
Personal blog: http://mstephens-musings.blogspot.com 

"Life's too Uncertain, Eat your Dessert First"

More Cliches to Avoid

Every writer knows that one should avoid cliches like the plague (ha - see what I did there?). We often end up working hard to keep those pesky familiar phrases from creeping into our work. It's easy to let them slip in, because they're almost unconsciously present. We know them like the back of our hands. (Yep, I went there again.)

But now it seems we also have to avoid cliched author photos, as categorized and exemplified in this article from Flavorwire. Who knew?

Would you consider circulating a wacky, interesting, or different author photo? If you could have any pose and backdrop you wanted, what would you choose?

Killer Recipies

© Susan Whitfield 2010 all rights reserved

Susan Whitfield is the author of The Logan Hunter Mystery series.  Having published Genesis Beach, Just North of Luck, and Hell Swamp, she is currently working on Gator Creek. Whitfield is published by L&L Dreamspell and lives in North Carolina.

When I started my blog, http://www.susanwhitfield.blogspot.com/ in 2009, I didn’t want people to become nauseous over blatant promotion of my Logan Hunter Mystery series so I seldom posted anything at all. Soon other bloggers began to invite me over to their blogs for interviews about my Logan Hunter Mystery series. Murder By 4 was one of them. This pleased me, and I decided that I’d reciprocate.

I started interviewing a multitude of writers and other industry experts. For several months I was inundated with appreciative authors, and I absolutely loved doing it. I still interview authors but not 30 in thirty days as I did then. I also wanted to continue to find ways to promote other writers as much as they promote me. You know, scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

That’s the rationale behind the cookbook, KILLER RECIPES. I have a friend who writes cookbooks with a twist—something I never expected to do. However, the idea to compile recipes from mystery writers across the country and give them some free promotion would not go away, so I asked other writers if they’d submit recipes for a cookbook with proceeds going to cancer research, not into my own personal pocket. Over sixty writers signed up, including Marta Stephens and Kim Smith.



Many writers who submitted recipes were either cancer survivors or have been profoundly touched by this horrible disease. I only wish I’d had enough room to tell each one’s story as well. My grandson, Caleb, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was only two-years-old. I am thrilled to say that Caleb is now 10-years-old and cancer-free, thanks to research and a team of incredible doctors. I dedicated this cookbook to him and all other victims of cancer. It is not, however, a low-fat cookbook, and even though the title sounds ominous, we’re just having a little fun. We renamed recipes to fit the murder mystery theme. For example my peanut brittle recipe is now “Brittle Bones”, and Marta Stephens submitted “Flamed Indian Fried Cabbage”, which my husband thinks is wonderful. Kim Smith sent “Riveting Garlic Bread”.

The purpose of KILLER RECIPES is to raise money for research and simultaneously give writers a little free promotion. Under each recipe I listed the contributing author, book titles, and web sites. We plan to sell these books wherever we do signings—fairs, festivals, Relay For Life events, wineries, you name it. Some folks are collaborating on signings in their part of the country and asking local book and gift shops to carry a few copies. Someone came up with the idea of serving a couple of recipes at signings. I haven’t done that yet, but I plan on it. Many are blogging and promoting it online and everywhere they can. I have huge posters of the book cover if anyone wants some. I’d be glad to ship them right out for your use. Café Press also has shirts and other items with the cover and the skeleton chef on them. I have to give credit to Linda Houle of Dreamspell for those designs. The skeleton is hilarious!

The book is available online and at your favorite local stores. If they don’t have it in stock, they can order it for you. It’s also in ebook and Kindle format. We’re hoping folks will buy plenty of copies of KILLER RECIPES to give as gifts and join our efforts.

KILLER RECIPES print ISBN 978-1-60318-350-5 $13.95
KILLER RECIPES ebook ISBN 978-1-60318-351-2 $5.99



Contact www.Administrator@lldreamspell.com for bulk copies and free shipping.



Marta, thank you so much for helping to promote KILLER RECIPES and my other books. I wish you and the other Murder By 4 writers much success!

Book Review: A Stranger Like You, by Elizabeth Brundage; review by Aaron Paul Lazar

Title:  A Stranger Like You

Author:  Elizabeth Brundage

Publisher: Viking Adult (August 5, 2010)

Genre: Literary Mystery/Thriller, 272 pages

Publisher's Address: Penguin Group USA, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014

ISBN number:  9780670022007

Price: $25.95 (hardcover)

Publisher website address: www.penguin.com

Author’s personal website: www.elizabethbrundrage.com

***

Hugh Waters: Bad marriage. Boring life. Bottled dreams, now smashed. Big problem.

Denny Rios: Unloved child. Unraveling psyche. Unsung hero.

Hedda Chase: Privileged. Powerful. Professional. Pitiful.

When Hugh Waters, insurance agent, takes a screenwriting class and miraculously sells his salacious thriller to Hollywood, his drab and unhappy life takes on sudden meaning. But when a Hollywood executive dies, the successor, Ivy Leaguer Hedda Chase, denounces the script as chauvinistic and unbelievable, resulting in a cancelled contract for Hugh.

Hugh snaps, flies to LA, and stalks Hedda with a vague plan to convince her she’s wrong about his story. Instead, with no qualms and with the calculating, level-headed insanity of a true sociopath, he submits her to the same quandary the character in his film endures, to prove that his plot is plausible. Hedda is locked in the trunk of her vintage BMW and abandoned at the airport, keys dangling in the ignition.

On another path, Iraq war veteran Denny Rios, pushed and berated by a group of decadent soldiers, was forced to half-heartedly join in the horrific rape of a young Iraqi girl when on duty overseas. Haunted by the experience, sickened by guilt, never free of the girl’s face in his nightmares, Denny flees when the cops approach his aunt and uncle’s home and steals the car with Hedda still bound and gagged in the trunk.

I know, it’s an intriguing plot. But it’s not the storyline that captivated me in this novel. It’s more the Dostoevsky-like telling of the tale.

Although A Stranger Like You is billed as a mystery/thriller, I’d prefer to see it classified as literary psychological fiction. The “literary” tag comes from the pure poetry that infiltrates Brundage’s well-written prose.

As a boy, he’d gone to the Jersey shore in summertime, but this was the Pacific. There was something about this ocean. In the distance, the air looked brown, like an old-fashioned sepia print, the water copper in the sunlight. The sea was calm, the air smelled of fish. Savage birds dove and fought.

Here’s another passage:

They would smoke pot and make love, her skin the impenitent green of old bay leaves, her nipples like the smudged rubber thimbles of a bookkeeper, and then she’d make him tea with mint that she grew on her windowsill. Compared to his wife, Jolene was easily satisfied, uninhibited about her nakedness, her smells, her moody breath. She moved with the unhindered heft of a wrestler…

Brundage showcases very long and winding passages that contain little dialog or action, aside from the running stream-of-consciousness thoughts of each character. Layered over and between each other, these passages of inner thoughts, often told in present tense, second person, lend kaleidoscopic views to the story, hopping back and forth through time and focusing on the unique angle seen by each character. It’s the use of second person (“you” POV) that brings the intimacy to these segments.

Death is something you fear, and you can never gauge its proximity. Sometimes you sense it encroaching upon you like some thief in the night, looking into your windows. Sometimes you lay in bed, brittle, waiting for evil to find you. Images sprawl through your mind, arbitrary scraps of terror that have become all too ordinary. To some degree, you have been nurtured on fear.

Here’s another:

Maybe you are just tired after the long flight, but you feel conspicuous, profoundly aware of your middle class American roots, drawing attention to yourself as only an American can, in your schlumpy sweat suit, your clunky bag of indispensables (vitamins, pills, and medications for any possible problem, dental floss, makeup, Tampax, Nikes, your favorite Patagonia cap), and the way you move, with carbonated overflow, in comparison to the serene aerodynamics of the locals. As a female, you are sensitive to the feverish curiosity of strangers. Their eyes coat your body like paint.

Of course, there’s suspense that draws the reader to the finale. We need to know what happens to Hedda Chase, locked in the trunk of that blue BMW. But it’s the intense character profiles and the disturbing intimate lives we glimpse through Brundage’s unique approach that were most riveting.

Following are some favorite lines from A Stranger Like You:

He didn’t tell them the stars were like the teeth of the dead.

***

He carried the stories around in his pockets, in his fists, like stones.

***

Doubt is your compass.

***

…Sunrise like the smeared rouge on a whore.

***

A bruise floats over his eye like a jellyfish.

Brundage digs deep inside her characters’ heads. In addition to the primary characters above, we peek inside the lives of a disillusioned screenwriter (Tom Foster), an escaped and ill-fated Iraqi student (Fatima), and a young homeless waif of a girl (Daisy). All of Brundage’s well-rounded characters play to an unusual backdrop of a seedy vision of Hollywood interwoven with images of the war in Iraq, told through Denny’s thoughts.

This is not a fast read. It’s not a Patterson, or Hoag, or a quick thrill ride that you’ll devour in one sitting. It’s a study in human nature, and you’ll have to work your way through it. But I guarantee, you’ll enjoy the ride. The characters–all who move masterfully through their arcs of development–will haunt you long after you finish A Stranger Like You.

***

Aaron Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. The author of LeGarde Mysteries and Moore Mysteries 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. Watch for his upcoming release, FIRESONG, coming in 2011.