Monday, September 30, 2013

Speaking to Book Clubs


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Friday I spoke to a book club in my hometown of Anderson, South Carolina.  It was a great group and a very well-established one—it had been founded in 1920.  My grandmother had been among the early members. 

In the past five years or so, I’ve spoken to a variety of different kinds of book clubs.  Some have been very casual with a loosely-organized program.  Some have been dressy, organized events.  Some have been at retirement homes.  Sometimes there’s even supper involved.  I’ve found that it’s good to know what to expect before you arrive.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Twitterific


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for bimonthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook

November 13-14:  Get Read – Marketing Strategies for Writers: Dan Blank’s We Grow Media is a  two-day online conference for authors looking for promotion strategies--and, ultimately, readers.  Speakers include Porter Anderson, Chuck Wendig, Dan Blank, Jane Friedman, Therese Walsh, and many others.  (I'm one of the scheduled speakers and am also am serving on the advisory board.)  More information about the conference and registration information can be found here.

4 Ways to Improve Your Writing: http://dld.bz/cPz2m @ava_jae
How to handle personal attacks on social media: http://dld.bz/cQtW4 @ellynangelotti

Friday, September 27, 2013

Writers and Their Reading


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Hi everyone.  Hope you all have a great weekend.  I've got a guest post today at the We Wanted to be Writers blog--they have an interesting feature called "Books by the Bed" and they asked me to contribute.
After reading some of the great entries from other writers, I wasn't really sure I even felt comfortable submitting a post! I had a feeling that when I explored my bedside table, it was going to be crammed-packed with Agatha Christies (yellowing paperbacks from the 80s that I still have) and a Kindle full of mysteries. As usual, everything was a blur when I tried to remember what I'd been reading in the last several months.  But when I took a look and reconstructed my purchases, borrows, library checkouts, and old favorites that I frequently peek at before sleeping, I realized that my reading is actually more varied than I give myself credit for. 

Pop over if you can and share what's on your bedside table (or what you've read in the past few months).

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Mystery with Spiritual Edge


by Stephen McCutchan, @stevemccutchan

A Good Mystery
A good mystery helps restore order and makes sense out of something that is unexplainable in our society. People do not like to live in a society that doesn't respond to logic. How do you protect yourself if there is not a logical explanation for what is happening? When we experience brokenness in our society, we need someone to fix what is broken and fill the hole in our universe that threatens the logic of our lives. The mystery can be personal, a mysterious death, or enter the area of thrillers with a threat to our whole society. A good mystery helps us make sense and restore order again.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Interviews--My Checklist for Skype Interviews, Podcasts, or Radio


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Although I don’t do a ton of interviews, I probably do a live or recorded interview every few months.  I especially like the recorded ones because I figure if I say something dumb, they can edit it all out and make me look as if I know what I’m talking about. :)
I’ve learned from my mistakes in the past with these things, too.  I think of my house as being a very quiet place, but apparently, judging from my interview experiences, there is actually plenty of noise pollution there.  The pets, for one.  My corgi will bark at the cats, at the doorbell, and sometimes when she wants to go outside.  The cats are male litter-mates and fight tooth and nail with each other.  Various appliances make buzzer-like alarms when they’re done running.  My UPS guy feels the need to hit the doorbell when he drops off a package (I do appreciate this, but it makes the aforementioned barking happen).

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Twitterific


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for bimonthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook

Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com

My tips for handling writing and life: http://dld.bz/cQncA @DIYMFA
What’s Important in the Man Booker Debate? http://dld.bz/cQn3H /@Porter_Anderson @nicksidwell @meandmybigmouth

Friday, September 20, 2013

More Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer and My Self-Publishing Discoveries

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig



On Monday’s post, I received a comment from Colleen…she was interested in hearing more about balancing or approaching life as a hybrid writer—someone who is both traditionally published and self-published.
She mentioned (and she’s right) that many self-pubbed/indie authors aren’t at all interested in being traditionally published.  She was curious about how I handle both worlds.
And…it’s interesting sometimes.  But for me, a job is a job. I have traditionally published series with readers who want more books, so I’m providing them more books.  I recently signed a contract with Penguin for more mysteries in the Southern Quilting series.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Past Imperfect


Guest Post by James Mullen
I’ve started to sketch out the plot for my second book.  The book is a police procedural based in Boston, and although I visit the area frequently, I haven’t lived there in over 20 years. Computer research and phone interviews are invaluable, you can’t beat putting your eyes on places – even if it’s just a validation of what’s perfectly remembered.  To be honest though, I went with the idea of visiting not the actual places I image as crime scenes, because I know them so well, but want to re-acquaint myself with the more peripheral areas of those scenes that could serve as description. 
I plan to have the opening crime scene take place at a downtown subway stop, or as we like to say in Boston, a “T” stop.  I’ve found most subway stations very linear and shaped like, well, the letter “T”;  ascending or descending stairs that pour out to a waiting horizontal platform in front of the rails.  Pretty straight forward, pretty simple.  Since I was planning a murder, I needed a place with more complication, more corners.  I need malevolence.
I remember a stop I used back in the mid-70s when I commuted from the Back Bay to downtown Boston.  The station always struck me as up to no good, and on nights I worked late, felt like I was descending into a film noir movie set.  Mack the Knife or Philip Marlowe could pop out of the shadows and stick a shiv or a gat in my back without warning.  The place defined grimy and dark.  The layout was more like the letter “Y”, but with intricate and shadowy angles.  Perfect!

So I had my hopes up when I went to re-visit the street-level environment surrounding the stop two weeks ago. I almost didn’t enter the stop itself since I knew the details were firmly embedded in my memory – even 40 years later.
Boston, back then, covered both sides of the social contract with its ridership.  The city wanted efficient use of its system, so made the environment extremely unpleasant; searing heat in any season; zero air exchange; squealing breaks on subways at all times; crowd movements resembling schools of fish in a Dixie cup; most overhead light bulbs broken – illumination being supplied by any natural light able to crawl on its hands and knees down the stairs and make it to the platform area on the first level.  Yes, the city made good on its promise that no matter what slings and arrows were suffered during a given workday by its citizens, they would take place in an environment much more pleasant than the station.
But look what I walked into?  As you can see from the recent photo; white tiles on the wall!  A wall, recently cleaned!  Posters, and get this, a mural on the back wall behind the escalators.  Art appreciation!  And the lights!  More than adequate ceiling fluorescents throughout. People holding hands!  I fully expected to see folks alight from arriving subway cars singing show tunes and then lining up for a dance routine.  How could my memory do this to me?  Or is it the city’s fault?
The second day I took a boat trip to another crime scene, Spectacle Island, in Boston Harbor.  Although I have never set foot on the island, it is one of many in Boston Harbor located on a well-used flight path to and from Logan Airport that I’ve flown numerous times.  If you look out a plane’s window enough, you get to know the landmarks and the approach well. As a precaution, I also checked maps on the internet prior to my trip and could see that the island’s view of the Boston skyline would be blocked by several others in the harbor; that fact being germane to an intended plot point of my story.  I give you Spectacle Island:
 


Lesser men would suffer boredom from being right all the time.  Me, I just take it in stride.



James Mullen currently lives in North Carolina.  His first novel, Ketchum and Cobb, can be purchased on Amazon.   
Website:  Grumpy Gets Better (jimamullen.blogspot.com) – things literary and not so much.
Also on Facebook and Goodreads. 

Monday, September 16, 2013

When Your Work in Progress Needs Early Revisions


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

As I mentioned last week, I recently turned in a teaser chapter and an outline to one of my Penguin editors.  This particular editor likes to see an outline before a book is written.
The deadline for the outline was actually Sept. 1.  The deadline for the book itself is January 1.  I have a self-pub project that I stopped working on to write this book, so I decided to go ahead and start writing the Penguin book while I waited for feedback on the outline.  There’s a bit of risk in doing so, since it means that I might need to make big changes on a work-in-progress.
And…I did end up needing to make those changes.  The editor liked the concept for the book, but thought the set-up in the first chapter was a bit too similar to the one in Knot What it Seams, which came out in February. 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Twitterific

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.
Sign up for our free newsletter for bimonthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook
Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com
 
A free directory of cover designers, formatters, freelance editors, and more: http://bit.ly/nolbXq
26 Minority Screenwriters to Inspire You: http://dld.bz/cPeaz @amandapendo
20 Tips for Writing Picture Books: http://dld.bz/cPea3

Friday, September 13, 2013

Writing Setting and Other Description—Getting Past the “Who Cares?” Aspect


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I dislike writing setting and description, but I used to absolutely despise it.  I’ve got plenty of now-published manuscripts in my Word archives with helpful editorial direction on them: “Elizabeth, could you share with us what this car looks like?  I can’t really picture it.”
Each time, of course, I added the description in for my editor.  There are readers who really enjoy description, I know.  I’ve just never been one of them. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

5 Things About Book Publishing I Wish I Knew Then


 Guest Post by Deborah Sharp


First, I must recognize Mystery Writing is Murder as the fantastic resource it is for me, and for countless others. Much thanks to Elizabeth for her fantastic blog, and for inviting me to guest post today.  

This month marks the publication of the fifth book in my Mace Bauer Mystery Series. It seems a good time to pause to look back at what I didn't know when I started out.  Here are 5 Things About Book Publishing I Wish I Knew Then:  

Monday, September 9, 2013

Primary Sources


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Last December I was at a Christmas drop-in and was hanging out near the back of the room…my favorite haunt at social events.  This spot is even better if there is wine near the back of the room, which was the case for this party.
I’m sure I’m the despair of many a poor hostess, but this one was doing a great job trying to engage me.  “Let me introduce you to my friend," she said.  She brought me over to a gentleman who was also standing in the back of a room, this one the kitchen.  “Elizabeth is a mystery writer,” she said with a smile.  Of course I winced at being outed as a writer—you just never know how that’s going to go. And the hostess continued, “Elizabeth, my friend is a botanist.”

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Twitterific


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.
Sign up for our free newsletter for bimonthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook
Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com

A writer's experiences with audiobooks (ACX) for her self-pubbed works: http://dld.bz/cPcjq and http://dld.bz/cPcjr @authorterryo

Conflicting story goals: http://dld.bz/cPcrB @JulieMusil

Friday, September 6, 2013

Helpful Links for Writers

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I wanted to share some sites that I’ve found really helpful lately.  I’m always looking for ways to save time using apps and, so frequently, I seem to end up with exactly the opposite—sites that take too long to set up, are unwieldy, or that are total time sucks.
But these sites get special recognition from me today because they’ve helped me out. I’m in favor of anything that saves me even a few minutes of time. These sites are all free.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Thoughts on Teaser Chapters


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I had a deadline Sunday that I met just in the nick of time. :)  It was a deadline for a teaser chapter—the first chapter in my current WIP that will go into the back of the December Penguin release.
I realized that I treat teaser chapters differently, depending on the situation.  I actually sweated a bit over this one, which was probably why I ran so close to deadline.  That’s because my editor asked for this chapter (with a September 1 deadline) before I actually started writing the book or even the outline.  That means that I wrote the chapter with an eye for marketing.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Help With Dialogue Tags


Guest Post by Jack Smith


Dialogue Tags
What about “he said”/”she said”—do you need them?  Or perhaps the character’s name instead of the pronoun?  How much of either is needed?  How much is too much?  Like everything else in creative writing, no rules here.  Only what works.  And you can think of this matter in at least two ways: clarity and style—or both.
Take a look at this passage from Raymond Carver’s “What’s in Alaska?”  Do we need the dialogue tags?
“I don’t know.  Something Mary said,” Helen said.
“What did I say?” Mary said.
“I can’t remember,” Helen said.
“We have to go,” Jack said.
“So long,” Carl said.  “Take it easy.”

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Twitterific


by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It's the search engine for writers.
Sign up for our free newsletter for bimonthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook

Mike Fleming and writing coach James Scott Bell are offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at Knockout Novel.com
 
8 online writing communities: http://dld.bz/cMUCn @SMisDynamite
Business of Screenwriting: The Niceties – Manners Matter: http://dld.bz/cNcF3 @scriptmag
Seven Deadly Sins Of Novel Writing: http://dld.bz/cNcFC @angelaackerman