KN Magazine: Articles

2/25/15 2/25/15

Writing a Cozy? Follow the Rules … And Mind Your Language / Author Penny Clover Petersen

Nancy Drew never cursed. She was always under duress in one manner or another, but she never let, even the occasional expletive, spill from her titian-colored head. In this week’s guest blog, author Penny Clover Petersen discusses what makes a cozy mystery, and the ongoing debate about the use of bad words.

Read like they are burning books!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Writing a Cozy? Follow the Rules … And Mind Your Language

By Penny Clover Petersen

I began my first novel when I was fifty-nine. Being an avid mystery lover, I had spent most of those fifty-nine years inventing puzzling scenarios for the most trivial occurrences and envisioning dark motives behind the most benign actions. Cookies for a teacher? They are no doubt laced with something in order to avoid the afternoon’s math test. A package delivered late? You know the mailman is up to something, but what?

Poison pen letters, tripping over bodies lying by the side of the road, murder, mayhem, blackmail, all of these fascinating ideas rolling around in my head had me wondering if I were to write a mystery, what would I write?

When the mood finally moved me to get to work I took to heart the adage “write what you know” and figured that I know family, cats and dogs, suburban living, and cozy mysteries. So I determined that a cozy mystery involving two sisters, a goofy mother, and a hormonally challenged dog was something I could achieve.

Now, writing cozies is a bit tricky. The rules are pretty well defined. The first two are actually almost carved in stone and I think that we must adhere to them if we want to call a mystery a cozy.

Number one is all violence will be off-stage. Cozy writers do not depict grizzly murders. Autopsies are avoided. We don’t have psychotic killers torturing hapless victims in gruesome detail. As with many cozy writers, my victims tend to be obnoxious people that no one much likes who are conked on the head and found by the side of the road.

Number two is, of course, sex. That, too, must be off-stage. There are no steamy love scenes, no kinky aberrations. If sex enters into the plot, it generally is glossed over with only the incidental reference to “incredibly tall, slim men with well-cut graying hair and eyes the color of smoky quartz under wire-rimmed glasses.” Perhaps adding “kind of bookish and sexy — quite the studly muffin.” If the studly muffin and the leading lady ever do get together, it is definitely behind closed doors!

Number three concerns foul language. Agatha Christie, the mother of the cozy, did not use any off-color language in her books. But neither did anyone else writing at that time. It wasn’t a part of the culture.

Today, I think this is one rule that can be tinkered with. I have spoken with a number of cozy writers and this is a stumbling block for many of us. We want our characters to be somewhat real and the use of “language” in society has certainly become looser. For instance, my own everyday speech is not chockfull of colorful invective, but I do occasionally throw out a word or two my mother would not approve.

So what is acceptable in a cozy written in 2015? Of the writers to whom I have spoken, many have main characters that use the S-word. Many feel a leading lady is allowed to say, “Oh Christ!” or the like. Damn, hell, and variations seem to be acceptable these days.

But what of, as they say, the F-bomb? Now I don’t advocate throwing it around like confetti, but I do feel there are appropriate times that it might be used. As my children could tell you, if they heard me scream f….., they would most certainly know that I am really, really mad or have gone completely around the bend. And I feel the same holds true in a cozy. A crazed killer saying, “Oh gosh, I think I have to kill you now,” does not have the dramatic effect as something much more strongly worded.

A friend and fellow author, Austin Camacho, suggests leaving the cursing to the peripheral characters — the crazies, the villains — and keeping the leading ladies ‘cozy’. I tend to agree with this point of view. But I think purists probably wouldn’t. And so the question is, just how much is too much — and is it still a cozy?

If you would like to read more about Penny Clover Petersen’s books please click here.

Penny Clover Petersen’s first Daisy&Rose mystery, Roses and Daisies and Death, Oh My was released in December 2013 by Intrigue Publishing. In addition to writing, Penny enjoys spending time with her family, refurbishing old furniture, collecting stories and recipes for the ‘family cookbook’, and savoring new cocktail recipes. She loves historic homes and is a docent at Riversdale Mansion in Riverdale, MD. Her second novel, Roses Are Dead, My Love, will be released April 2015. Penny is currently at work on her third Daisy&Rose mystery. Visit her website at http://pennypetersen.com/

(Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com or www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com)

2/18/15 2/18/15

Comedy That Kills / Author Diane Kelly

William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut knew the power of humor. It’s a great tool to leverage when writing. In this week’s blog, author Diane Kelly explains that humor is mighty: bringing levity to tense dramas, intensifying others, and even making characters appear more clever. Laugh on!

Happy Reading!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Comedy That Kills

By Diane Kelly

Murder and laughter might not seem to go hand in hand, but the contrast between humor and horror can take an ordinary book and amp it up to extraordinary. Humor techniques add tools to a writer’s toolbox, giving an author more flexibility and options as they develop their stories.

When I began writing, I knew only that I wanted to write about strong, feisty female lead characters that were matched with an equally strong male lead. I didn’t set out to write mysteries or funny books. It wasn’t until my third manuscript (the first that sold), that I realized romantic mystery was my genre and that my humorous voice would set my work apart. Once I realized this, I vowed to learn everything I could about writing comedy.

Perhaps the most surprising thing I learned is that there is a place for humor in every book. Whether it is infrequent touches of dark humor in a gritty thriller or laugh-out-loud moments in comedic crime capers like mine, humor has a home in every written work.

What can humor do for you? So many things.

First, humor can stretch a book’s emotional impact. Readers relate with characters and engage with a book via emotion. While many murder mysteries and thrillers set a reader’s heart to pumping and palms to sweating, not many give the reader the extra emotional hit of humor. Add a well-placed laugh or even just a note or two of clever irony to your stories and you’ll give the reader a broader emotional experience.

On a related note, humor can act as a breath of fresh air for a reader after an author has put them through the wringer. Too much nonstop tension can overwhelm a reader. A humorous passage placed after a particularly intense scene can give the reader some comic relief and allow them to better tolerate what will follow.

The flipside, of course, is that moments of levity can, by contrast, make dark moments appear even darker. For example, imagine a scene in which a character has been too busy for grocery shopping and is forced to improvise a dinner of Froot Loops floating in Tennessee whiskey. Funny, right? So when a machete-wielding psychopath appears in her kitchen, the contrast is even darker than it would have been had she been cooking a raw, bloody steak on the stove.

Humor is, at its core, a coping mechanism. Think about the things we find funny: bad relationships, poorly behaved children, financial instability, the loss of physical beauty, etc. All of these are negative things that people have to deal with. Rather than let these problems bring us down, finding the funny in them helps us conquer and control them. In a murder mystery, the characters — and vicariously, the readers — will likewise have to cope with negatives: Loss, Grief, Fear. If the character and reader can find some humor, they can better deal with the situations and emotions they must face.

Believe it or not, a sense of humor can make your characters seem clever. A well-worded, perceptive, or thought-provoking quip signifies intelligence. Think of your funniest friends. Chances are they are also among your smartest. If you want to amp up a character’s IQ, give him or her some funny lines to deliver. Moreover, most novels contain a cast of several characters. Put a few people together in real life and there is likely to be a cut-up among them. Such should be the same with a fictional group.

Humor intensifies a story. In a way, it acts like salt, elevating the flavor of a scene. Why? Because humor grabs a reader’s attention, and when a reader is paying attention they are more engaged and better absorb information.

A bit of warning. However you use this tool, do so with some caution. One person’s chuckle is another’s insult. Be careful what topics you approach with humor to avoid alienating readers.

Bottom line? Humor is an incredibly flexible tool. It can be dark or light, or any of the many shades in between. It can be used often to nail down the material, or it can be used sparingly when a screwdriver or buzz saw are more appropriate. But add some to your work and you’re guaranteed to like the results.

If you would like to read more about Diane Kelly’s books please click here.

A former state Assistant Attorney General and tax advisor, Diane Kelly inadvertently worked with white-collar criminals on multiple occasions. Lest she end up in an orange jumpsuit, Diane decided self-employment would be a good idea. Her fingers hit the keyboard and thus began her “Death and Taxes” romantic mystery series. A graduate of her hometown’s Citizen Police Academy, Diane Kelly also writes the hilarious K-9 cop “Paw Enforcement” series.

Diane’s books have been awarded the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award and a Reviewers Choice Award. Be the first to receive book news by signing up for Diane’s newsletter at www.dianekelly.com. “Like” Diane on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dianekellybooks, and follow her on Twitter @dianekellybooks.

2/11/15 2/11/15

The Junkman Cometh and Sometimes He Writeth / Author Guinotte Wise

Respect your readers, don’t cheat, cut when necessary, and by all means, keep going. I’ve never met this week’s guest blogger artist and author Guinotte Wise, but after reading this blog, I like him. A lot. Not only is he a good writer, he’s a heck of a welder. Nothing would make me happier than seeing a piece of his art and his collection of short stories sitting side-by-side on my office shelf. I’m a bit of a junkyard dog myself.

Happy Reading!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

The Junkman Cometh and Sometimes He Writeth

By Guinotte Wise

That third person, man, you can get away with anything. It is rumored that Guinotte Wise came within a hair of winning the coveted … The award-winning sculptor and writer has just written a screenplay that some say … The former adman, who during his career won enough chrome and lucite industry awards to make three Buicks …

Snap out of it, Wise. Okay. Junkyards. I’ve loved them since I was a speed-obsessed kid with ducktails, a loud Ford and a smart mouth. Row upon row of decaying cars, some no longer in production, baking, fading in the summer sun. Smells of solvents, grease, gasoline, burnt rubber, and those unidentifiable odors peculiar to junkyards drifting like the turkey buzzards in the cloudless Missouri sky. Maybe that’s why I started welding steel and writing stories. I inhaled that stuff and it made me odd. But it’s my odd and I like it fine.

I have my own junkyard now, and no beady-eyed, bearded old fart in overalls to follow me around, making sure I don’t pocket a carburetor float or a chrome nutcap.

And if, when I’m writing, I get stuck, I go weld. And vice versa. They’re both fugue activities when I’m holding my mouth right and the coffee isn’t burned.

I don’t just stick stuff together when I weld. I’m represented by some galleries, and have solo shows. I’m serious about the writing, too. It’s just that I do what I want. No formulas, no rules, other than this: If I make something and it’s for others, not just myself, respect those people, give them credit for having probably more operating brain cells than I do, and some taste.

I had a horse named Mighty Mouse who passed away this spring. He’s buried on the place. He was a superb athlete in his day and a legendary horseman in his 90’s said of him, “He never cheated me.” From this guy, it was high praise. I would like readers and art buyers to say the same of me, and more, if they’re not blessed with his laconicism. I’d like them to be pleased. Never cheated.

So junkyards and welding and plasma cutting are metaphorically handy in this blog, which is aimed at writers and readers. The junkyard of my mind is cluttered with rows and rows of materials, ready to form new combinations. I’m not being enigmatic when I say of writing, or welding, it happens in the process. I may start out to weld a horse, and a horse happens, but I have no idea what that horse will look like as I construct a frame, an armature, and begin to give it form.

I wrote a book that way, and my agent liked it. No publishers have clamored for it yet, but who knows. I was putting together sculptures for a show the first of this month, and one piece drew a puzzled look from my wife. She didn’t care for it. I have a lot of respect for her opinion, art-wise and lit-wise—she reads a lot, and makes exquisite jewelry—so I left that piece out for a while.

At the last minute, I took it to the gallery and during the show, I was told it was the favorite of some whose opinion I also respect. Go figure.

I think I’m saying here, when you get rejections, have enough faith in your piece to keep submitting it. Your work is not for everyone. If it is, well, maybe you’ll be a bestseller and more power to you. And if, in your reading, you’re fifty pages in and you hate what you’re reading, toss it. Give it to someone else and they may love it.

The plasma cutter. Great when I need it for making things fit. But I sure hate to look at a big piece and realize I made a major error by welding something that doesn’t belong. The cutter comes into play, and not in an enjoyable way. But very necessary if the final form is to be pleasing: to me, to the viewer. Guess where that not very slick allusion fits in the writing process. I hate to cut, steel sculpture or the printed word. But it sometimes needs to be done.

When the rejection comes and they say, as they so often do, “unfortunately your work wasn’t the right fit for this issue,” (I just picked that up word for word from a rejection I got minutes ago) it could mean just that, or it could mean why the hell are you sending us this crap. Or, heat it up and refashion it some. Or write something new altogether. Roam the junkyard. It’s there somewhere.

If you would like to read more about Guinotte Wise’s books please click here.

Guinotte Wise has been a creative director in advertising most of his working life. In his youth he put forth effort as a bull rider, ironworker, laborer, funeral home pickup person, bartender, truck driver, postal worker, icehouse worker, paving field engineer. A staid museum director called him raffish, which he enthusiastically embraced, (the observation, not the director). Of course, he took up writing fiction. He was the winner of the H. Palmer Hall Award for short story collection, “Night Train, Cold Beer,” earning a $1000 cash grant and publication of the book in 2013, Pecan Grove Press. His works have appeared in Crime Factory Review, Stymie, Telling Our Stories Press Anthology, Opium, Negative Suck, Newfound Journal, The MacGuffin, Weather-themed fiction anthology by Imagination and Place Press, Verdad, Stickman Review, Snark (Illusion), Atticus Review, Dark Matter Journal, Writers Tribe Review, LA, The Dying Goose, Amarillo Bay, HOOT, Santa Fe Writers Project, Prick of the Spindle, Gravel Literary Journal, and just had a story accepted in Best New Writers Anthology 2015. Wise is a sculptor, sometimes in welded steel, sometimes in words. Educated at Westminster College, University of Arkansas, Kansas City Art Institute. Tweet him @noirbut. Some work is at http://www.wisesculpture.com/

2/5/15 2/5/15

Genre Studies: Beginning With Crime

by Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

The crime genre is undoubtedly the core group of Killer Nashville. Within it are over 33 subgenres (depending upon who is counting; and in this case, me). Let’s take a vast look at what this category includes and suggest some books (or films for the visual) to get your taste buds tingling.

Beginning with Crime

CASE HISTORY: FIRST CRIME STORIES

No one knows when the first crime fiction appeared.

Steen Steensen Bleicher, Author of The Rector of Veilbye

Some say the first full crime fiction novel (based upon a true incident; but then, aren’t they all to some degree) was from a Danish writer named Steen Steensen Blicher called The Rector of Veilbye in 1829 (sorry, Poe fans).

Prior to this, there were shorter segments within larger works focusing on crime fiction or creative crime nonfiction; there was the Bible (stories I’m thinking of were probably written in 1440 B.C.) as well as plays (for example, wasn’t Shakespeare all about crimes?) and poetry (a Greek poet wrote “Where the 3 Roads Meet” where a god himself is murdered – can’t remember the author if indeed he is known).

Needless to say, crime fiction (or creative non-fiction depending upon the literality of Cain and Abel) has been with us indisputably for over 3,000 years at minimum in various forms. That’s a huge collective body of work.

BREAKING DOWN CRIME FICTION

Crime fiction is one of those genres that can cross several others and thus explains its mass appeal.

Since the moniker “crime fiction” is so vast, I won’t be as detailed as what is (or is not) contained in this general genre as I will be when discussing crime fiction in its various subgenre forms.

The main focus of crime fiction is that it fictionalizes crime. The subgenres such as detective, locked room, legal thriller, private eye, courtroom drama, police procedural, hard boiled, all come when the differentiation is made between the types of crimes, how they occurred, where they are explored, how they are investigated, and in what time of history or location the incidents happened. At focus, though, is the crime. We never lose sight of the crime.

Usually there is some sort of detection (though not always required, as we will see as we examine subgenres and points-of-view in future columns).

What IS always included are crimes, criminals, and (hopefully, depending upon the skill of the writer) the criminals’ motives.

Interestingly enough, the protagonist in crime fiction does not have to be the individual looking for answers; the story could be told from the point-of-view of the criminal instead.

THE FUTURE OF CRIME FICTION

With the imaginings of science fiction becoming the reality of today, the future of contemporary-based crime fiction is filled with technology. That’s the change from the Perry Mason days. Historical novels, of course, will continue as they are. But for those of you who write in the present day, remember that the focus of this genre is based upon crime, so put on your criminal mind. Based upon my conversations with forensic experts at Killer Nashville, I predict us seeing an increase in:Government and private (think insurance) data collection agencies using private information against the individual (NSA and NGI scare 1984 to death – Orville is rolling in his grave);

Religious-core crime (the rise of extremists everywhere, not just Muslims);
The expanded use of biometric identifiers (human body parts and fluids) in the detection of crimes;
Legal and court-room dramas where the focus is based totally upon forensic method over legal argument;
Cybercrime and computer crime (even crimes committed by computers with artificial intelligence, thus the recent warning from Bill Gates, et al.); and
Greater forensic applications in police procedural novels possibly shifting the protagonist from detective to forensic technician.

And, now, for the research (this is what I tell my family when I want to read or watch a movie).

EXAMPLES FOR EXPLORING THE CRIME GENRE ON YOUR OWN

The focus of this column is again not to tell you what to write. It is to get you to note things on your own from multiple genres that can bring freshness to your own plots. I don’t want to put you in a box; I want you to expand the box. But you can’t do that until you’ve truly explored the box as it currently exists; you can’t have a conversation until you have some knowledge from which to discuss. To get started, I’ve been thinking of some of the most impactful crime fiction films and novels.

Here’s an incomplete list, but it will surely give you something to work with as you explore the crime genre. These are in alphabetical order by title because I’m not sure one is better than another in a particular aspect. But all inclusively, these are some basics of the genre.

For films, I’ve included the director’s name and year in case there are multiple titles (I didn’t note the screenwriter simply because they are harder to search, not a deliberate oversight).

For books, I’ve included title and author.

For some, I’ve listed the book version and for others – maybe surprisingly – I’ve included only the film.

Regardless, you won’t waste time with any of these as you explore the genre of crime fiction and, as you read or view, you will note your own observations of what the genre is and the different flavors of each.

To writers I know and who are a part of the Killer Nashville family, if you do not see your book or film below, don’t fret. I may be saving it for a future column. Believe me, with over 408 book and media genres and subgenres, there is room for all.

A Coffin for Dimitrios / Eric Ambler
A Dark-Adapted Eye / Barbara Vine
A Rage in Harlem / Chester Himes
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman / P.D. James
Anatomy of a Murder / Robert Traver
Arthur & George / Julian Barnes
Beast in View / Margaret Millar
Blackbird / Tom Wright
Blanche on the Lam / Barbara Neely
Devil in a Blue Dress / Walter Mosley
Dust and Shadow / Lyndsay Faye
Eye of the Needle / Ken Follett
Fadeout / Joseph Hansen
From Russia, With Love / Ian Fleming
Gaudy Night / Dorothy L. Sayers
Hound of Baskervilles / Arthur Conan Doyle
I, The Jury / Mickey Spillane
Into the Woods / Tana French
LaBrava / Elmore Leonard
Laura / Vera Caspary
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow / Peter Hoeg
Murder on the Orient Express / Agatha Christie
Mystic River / Dennis Lehane
Ordinary Grace / William Kent Krueger
Painting Death / Tim Parks
Presumed Innocent / Scott Turow
Rebecca / Daphne du Maurier
Remember Me This Way / Sabine Durrant
River of Glass / Jaden Terrell
Sneaky People / Thomas Berger
The 39 Steps / John Buchan
The Alienist / Caleb Carr
The Big Sleep / Raymond Chandler
The Black Dahlia / James Ellroy
The Blue Hammer / Ross MacDonald
The Circular Staircase / Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Complete Auguste Dupin Stories / Edgar Allan Poe
The Day of the Jackal / Frederick Forsyth
The Daughter of Time / Josephine Tey
The Final Silence / Stuart Neville
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Stieg Larsson
The Intuitionist / Colson Whitehead
The Maltese Falcon / Dashiell Hammett
The Name of the Rose / Umberto Eco
The New York Trilogy / Paul Auster
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency / Alexander McCall Smith
The Postman Always Rings Twice / James M. Cain
The Secret Agent / Joseph Conrad
The Snowman / Jo Nesbo
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold / John le Carre
The Talented Mr. Ripley / Patricia Highsmith
The Third Man / Graham Greene
The Weight of Blood / Laura McHugh
The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union / Michael Chabon
True Confessions / John Gregory Dunne
When We Were Orphans / Kazuo Ishiguro
10 Rollington Place (John Fleischer, 1971)
A Cry in the Dark (Fred Schepisi, 1988)
American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007)
Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Bronson (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2008)
Bully (Larry Clark, 2001)
Carlito’s Way (Brian De Palma, 1993)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Chopper (Andrew Dominik, 2000)
City of God (Katia Lung / Fernando Meirelles, 2002)
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 1986)
Cache (Hidden) (Michael Haneke, 2005)
In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks, 1967)
L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)
La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)
Leon (The Professional) (Luc Besson, 1994)
Let Him Have It (Peter Medak, 1991)
Mesrine (Jean-Francois Richet, 2008)
Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003)
Ocean’s Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001)
Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990)
Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)
Seven (Se7en) (David Fincher, 1995)
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)
The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
The Onion Field (Harold Becker, 1979)
The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance, 2012)
The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973)
The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987)
The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)

Oh, I miss my days in the classroom. Thanks for the indulgence.

CLAY STAFFORD is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He has sold over 1.5 million hardcover copies of his children’s adaptations and has seen his film work distributed internationally in over 14 languages. Four of his five staged murder mysteries have had Los Angeles premieres. He has reviewed books, plays, and films, writes near-daily book reviews for the Killer Nashville Book of the Day, has been quoted on book jackets, and has edited several PBS companion books associated with national series. Publishers Weekly has named Stafford one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.” (PW 6/10/13). He is the founder of Killer Nashville (www.KillerNashville.com) and publisher of Killer Nashville Magazine (www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com). He has served on the board of numerous nonprofits. Clay has a B.A. and M.F.A. and has been a professor or lecturer to several major universities. His list of current projects includes the award-winning feature-length documentary “One Of The Miracles: The Inge Meyring Smith Story” (www.OneOfTheMiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” with fellow mystery writer Jeffery Deaver (www.JefferyDeaverXOmusic.com). Previously associated with Universal Studios and PBS, he is currently President / CEO of American Blackguard, Inc. (www.AmericanBlackguard.com), a publishing / film and television / music / entertainment company near Nashville, Tennessee. More information can be found at www.ClayStafford.com.

2/5/15 2/5/15

Genres 101: A Look at Genres

by Clay Stafford

I read one time that there are over 40,000 official job titles in the United States (all with a separate numerical governmental code). The way I see it, most people in their lives only explore 1-4 of these. That leaves a possible 39,999 wonderful careers completely unconsidered by most people. Can you imagine the number of unfulfilled lives of unhappy workers who might have found joy with just a little more exploration? The same can be true of writers.

I’m a firm believer that the quality of your writing is only 10% of the quality of what you read or view. I’m sure some will argue with that, but that’s my position. I read a lot. I review a lot. I talk to a lot of authors. And my general perception is that most writers are vastly unread and therefore not the writers that they could be. Some limit themselves to a particular genre and miss the color and spark that might arise from exploring different areas.

What I want to do in this series is to explore the twelve main genres that I have personally identified in literature (and film) and then explore the other 400 subgenres contained within those twelve. At heart, I’m an academic, and this is my categorization.

As many know, I’ve reviewed books for years. I probably read more than 400 titles a year. There is much that is rehashed, addressing tired subjects. Readers can be selective in their reading and can fish with a hook for the kinds of books they like; writers cannot and must use a net, casting deeply into many unexplored and dark waters. My hope is through genre exploration and the discovery of new elements the column will serve to inspire something fresh and unique, maybe even in your own writing.

This column will succinctly detail where a particular genre began (if we can pin-point that), what makes the genre distinctive, and – should I be inspired – what I see from my position at Killer Nashville to be the future of the genre itself. The goal is not to tell you what to write; the goal is to share with you some representative great works that others have written. From that, each of you will get your own ideas of how you might push the limits of your own genre by borrowing technique from others.

I also ask you to share additional titles and points-of-view that I might have missed or did not list because of space. Share with other readers here in your comments. Get your other writer or reader friends involved. In the end, I hope to learn as much from all of you as you could ever learn from me.

Take the plunge with me. Over those mountains are many lands you may exploit.

CLAY STAFFORD is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He has sold over 1.5 million hardcover copies of his children’s adaptations and has seen his film work distributed internationally in over 14 languages. Four of his five staged murder mysteries have had Los Angeles premieres. He has reviewed books, plays, and films, writes near-daily book reviews for the Killer Nashville Book of the Day, has been quoted on book jackets, and has edited several PBS companion books associated with national series. Publishers Weekly has named Stafford one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.” (PW 6/10/13). He is the founder of Killer Nashville (www.KillerNashville.com) and Killer Nashville Magazine (www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com). He has served on the board of numerous nonprofits. Clay has a B.A. and M.F.A. and has been a professor or lecturer to several major universities. His list of current projects includes the award-winning feature-length documentary “One Of The Miracles: The Inge Meyring Smith Story” (www.OneOfTheMiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” with fellow mystery writer Jeffery Deaver (www.JefferyDeaverXOmusic.com). Previously associated with Universal Studios and PBS, he is currently President / CEO of American Blackguard, Inc. (www.AmericanBlackguard.com), a publishing / film and television / music / entertainment company near Nashville, Tennessee. More information can be found at www.ClayStafford.com.

2/4/15 2/4/15

A Cozy, Little Success Story 33 Years in the Making / Author Rosalyn Ramage

Sometimes an idea needs time to mature, or in the case of this week’s guest blogger Rosalyn Ramage, the idea needs to find a genre. I think most authors would agree that stories have to come out one way or another. How they are received is another matter. Ramage explains how her latest book took 33 years to see the light of day.

Happy Reading!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

A Cozy, Little Success Story 33 Years in the Making

By Rosalyn Ramage

It’s a done deal! Millicent’s Tower, Five Star Publishing, 2014. Mission accomplished! But wait a minute, I thought as I sat gazing at the book in front of me. Where did you come from, Millicent? Where have you been? What took you so long to get here? Memories began to flutter in . . .

The year was 1980. I had just received my college degree at Belmont College as an older student with children at home. During that time I had been fortunate enough to do some freelance writing, including the publication of two books of children’s poetry. I was on a roll!

Then, in 1981 our family went on vacation to Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, just across the causeway from Lubec, Maine. We were there for a month, and while there, I wrote a book!

Actually, the main plot of the book had been floating around in my head for a while. I had had situations and characters in mind, but no specific names. As we had embarked on the trip, one of our pastimes was to create names for characters that would be in my book. We named them for places and signs that we saw along the way (like Moose when we saw a “Moose crossing” sign).

I had taken my manual typewriter and a ream of paper with me. My writing space was a small room at the back of the cottage with a fantastic view of Passamaquoddy Bay, looking toward Lubec. It was in that setting that Who? came into being. What, you might ask, is Who? That was the title I first gave my book. I called it Who? . . . as in “whodunit.”

Believe it or not, I accomplished my goal and returned to Nashville with a three-ring binder filled with pages for my book. After sharing it with friends and relatives, I met a literary agent who took a look at it. He reviewed the manuscript and returned it to me, saying, “I like the book, but, quite frankly, I don’t quite know what to do with it. It is family-centered, with children, but with adult topics and situations, like . . . dead bodies and . . . ‘language.’ ” He wished me well. All of this was in 1981.

My reaction to this rejection was to take it to my office, put it on a shelf, and forget about it. Life went on.

Then, 29 years after I had given up on my novel, my oldest grandson, who was in college, brought up the topic of Who? He said, “I’ve always heard people talk about Who? But I’ve never seen it myself. Could I read it sometime?”

Hmmmm. Let me see now. Just where had I dumped that dusty, musty manuscript so many years ago? Ah, yes. Here it is. I pulled it out, dusted it off, began to read … and I liked it. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much, I retyped it, added more characters and material, extended the storyline, and dared to ask for a critique at a conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in the fall of 2011.

The gist of what my critiquer said was that she “really liked the story, but didn’t quite know what to do with it.” Sound familiar? It really wasn’t a hard-core adult book, she said, but it certainly wasn’t a children’s book. Young adult? Maybe.

And then she said the magical words: “I think what you have here is a cozy mystery.”

“A what?”

“A cozy mystery,” she said. Hmmm.

In my quick research on cozy mysteries, I found that my book had all of the attributes of a cozy mystery.

I was intrigued. So intrigued, in fact, that I signed up to go to another conference known as Killer Nashville, an annual conference geared especially for writers or would-be writers of various kinds of thrillers, mysteries and suspense.

Long story short, I decided to “pitch” my manuscript and, to my surprise, was asked by an editor at Five Star Publishing to submit my full manuscript for review. After a bit more preening, I submitted Who?, which, by now, had been renamed Millicent’s Tower.

And, in January 2013, I was informed by the editors at Five Star that they would take pleasure in publishing my book.

A long journey for a cozy mystery? You bet. But one I have enjoyed creating at every uncertain step of the way. I sincerely hope other writers will find my story encouraging as they pursue the journey for themselves.

If you would like to read more about Rosalyn Ramage’s books please click here.

Rosalyn Ramage is the author of two books of children’s poetry entitled A BOOK FOR ALL SEASONS and A BOOK ABOUT PEOPLE. She is also the author of three middle grade mysteries entitled The TRACKS, The GRAVEYARD, and The WINDMILL. She is a retired elementary school teacher who enjoys writing poems and stories for readers of all ages…just for the fun of it! MILLICENT’S TOWER is her first book for a more mature audience. She and her husband Don split their time between their farm in Kentucky and their home in Nashville, Tennessee. She invites you to visit her website at rosalynrikelramage.weebly.com.

2/4/15 2/4/15

Ask Clay: Incorporating Yourself as an Author

Clay Stafford, founder Killer Nashville and CEO of American Blackguard Inc., is regularly asked a range questions from writing to publishing to marketing. And, they’re always good questions, he says. But often he feels he is unable to fully answer due to time constraints. Writing as a business is important stuff and demands reflection. In our Ask Clay column, he will share more than 30 years of experience in what he knows about the writing business.

Incorporating Yourself as an Author

I’m an author and I’m thinking about incorporating. Do you think this is a good idea?
– Chris J., Crofton, MD

Chris, that’s a great question, but I’m not sure I can give you a complete answer here. I do not give legal or accounting advice, nor do I want you to accept my word on this subject, but I’ll try to point you in the best direction. I’m afraid it depends upon the writer. It depends upon the state in which you live. And it depends upon exactly what you plan to do with the incorporation.

In my own personal journey, I started out writing just as “Clay Stafford.” It was my name and I was happy to see my by-line. Itemized expenses went to my Schedule A, income was reported as personal, liability was my own or the companies that I wrote for, depending.

When I was sixteen, I formed my first “real” company to produce local television and radio programs for a #106 radio and #86 television market demographic town. Even then I didn’t incorporate, but I did change the name of my operations to a DBA (doing business as): The Clay Stafford Company. My writing copyrights still went to Clay Stafford as did my by-lines, as did 100% of the liability, but since I had formally filed a license for a DBA, I was able to move my expenses over to a Schedule C, which allowed me to deduct more than I could have deducted under Schedule A. Plus, it told the world I was a serious writer: I had a license. Benefit: Bottom line. Forming a DBA is something I personally would consider for all full-time to part-time writers who are consistently selling work and showing a profit. You can do this yourself by simply contacting your respective Secretary of State.

In 2002, The Clay Stafford Company changed its name to American Blackguard, Inc. We were expanding into a full media company, increasing revenue, we had numerous projects in the works, and because we were hiring employees and working with numerous media projects, liability was increased and a need to streamline resources yet create separate accounting systems was required. At that point, both attorneys and accountants advised the change to a corporation rather than a DBA. The Corporation is an entity unto itself. It files its own income taxes and makes it’s own business payments. If the stockholders and Board of Directors agree, it will continue long after my death and projects and revenue will still be recognized for my heirs in the future. I agreed to work for American Blackguard as an employee. Benefit to me personally: no business expenses, I get paid as an employee, and American Blackguard, Inc. pays or deducts all taxes, keeps up with various projects, owns sub-companies, and assumes the liability for problems not knowingly or maliciously committed on my part as an employee.

Does this process work well for everyone? The answer is a resounding “no.” Only a tax and legal professional can give advice on your particular circumstance. I can tell you that I know several writers who copyright under a corporation and many more who copyright under their name.

Here’s something to consider, though. In normal circumstances, people who form corporations do so to protect themselves from liability and to create tax advantage. In my case, we did it to create clean bookkeeping (nothing professional gets commingled with anything personal).

What you do not want to do – as someone who will probably own 100% of your corporation – is to allow anyone to be able to “pierce the corporate veil” of your organization. Writers have to worry about commingling finances. They also have to worry about libel and slander. If anyone can sue you and determine that anything you did and / or wrote was coming from you personally rather than from the corporation, the veil has been pierced. If you use a company credit card to buy groceries one day because you forgot your personal card, there is the implication that the corporation is only an extension of you and can be pierced. There has to be a firm, huge black line between business and personal. And something to point out: no matter what your organizational structure (individual, self-employed, DBA, or corporation), slander is slander and libel is libel. Nothing protects a writer from falsehoods or misrepresentation, either real or interpreted.

The other thing to concern yourself with is expenses and taxation. A business requires additional accounting and tax expense. When a corporation is formed, it must pay certain business taxes, not only for its existence, but also matching taxes for employees, of which the writer is now one. So you have to determine is it cost effective to have such a structure? Do the expenses one is allowed to deduct compensate for the loss of income paid to additional taxes? A way to consider reducing those additional tax burdens is to form an S Corp, which allows pass-through of funds, thus reducing some tax burden, but this is to be countered with the more advantageous tax structure, deduction structure, and parent ownership structure of sub-companies contained within a C Corp. As stressed before, these concerns should be discussed with your accountant or attorney before jumping into either arrangement. And please, do not start a company using some form from the Internet. A discussion of your particular circumstances with knowledgeable accountants or attorneys is well worth the investment.

In examining why you are looking at your writing business structure, whatever you decide to do, don’t try to cheat the government. I’ve been subjected over the years to rogue attorneys who try to sell do-it-yourself legal packages designed to protect my assets and allow me to forgo any taxes to the government. Too good to be true? They are. A few years ago, the most audited group of individuals by the IRS were the clergy, followed in a close second by entertainers and writers. Whether this is still true is irrelevant to the point. You are in a profession where lunches and supplies could be questionable. Always, always, take the conservative fiscal perspective.

I’ve given a long response, Chris, and I feel I have written much to not answer your question at all, but hopefully this has given you something to think about. Consult with your attorney or accountant who specializes in entertainment / intellectual property (your real estate attorney or income tax prep accountant will have no clue – even if they say they do). Then, and only then, decide your current path, or prepare your options for the future when certain financial or career personal benchmarks are achieved.

Having worked in film, television, radio, and publishing as both a buyer and a seller, Clay Stafford is happy to take your questions regarding the publishing / entertainment industry.

Clay Stafford has had an eclectic career. Not only did he found Killer Nashville in 2006, but he has also been an industry executive (PBS, Universal Studios, others), author (over 1.5 million copies of his books in print), a filmmaker (work in 14 languages), university professor (several universities including University of Miami and University of Tennessee), and a much-sought-after public speaker (U.S. Department of Defense, Miami International Press Club, more).

2/3/15 2/3/15

Arthur Author February 2015

2/2/15 2/2/15

From Stuntman to Literary Agent

By Maria Giordano,
Killer Nashville Staff

Preparations for Killer Nashville 2015 have been in full swing pretty much since the close of our 2014 conference. It is as it should be as we enter into our 10th year of operation. We’ve got a lot of planning to do.

That’s why we’re delighted to announce the upcoming attendance of agent Alec Shane. A junior agent with Writers House Literary Agency in New York City, Alec will be appearing on panels, serving in agent / editor roundtables, and will generally be available throughout the conference to hear your pitch. He’s actively looking for new clients just like YOU.

“Having attended Thrillerfest, Sleuthfest, and CrimeBake in the past, I have heard many wonderful things about Killer Nashville from my colleagues and am hoping that I might be able to attend,” Alec said in an email.

We said, “Come on down,” in our best Hee-Haw voice.

Alec majored in English at Brown University, a degree he explained that he put to immediate use by moving to Los Angeles after graduation to become a professional stunt man.

After realizing he preferred books to breakaway glass, he moved to New York City in 2008 to pursue a career in publishing. Alec quickly found a home at Writers House Literary Agency, one of the largest literary agencies in the world.

He works under Jodi Reamer and Amy Berkower on a large number of Young Adult and Adult titles.

Alec is now aggressively building his own list and is always looking for great mysteries and thrillers, as well as horror, historical fiction, and YA/middle grade books geared towards boys. On the nonfiction side, Alec would love to see humor, biography, history (particularly military history), true crime, “guy” reads, and all things sports.

Genres he prefers include: mystery, thriller, horror, literary fiction, historical fiction, noir, biography, military history, true crime, sports, action/adventure, dark fiction, and humor.

2/2/15 2/2/15

Tweeting Like a Bird

By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff

When I first encountered Twitter, I veered onto the twitter-sphere highway flush with skepticism. I posted a link here, a witty comment there. I connected with a few people and discovered that the whole endeavor was a bit of a time-suck and abandoned it with flair.

I mean, 140 characters or less? Pshaw!

But times have changed, or better said, I have changed my thinking since.

It happened when, as a reporter for a local newspaper, I was following an accident that occurred on a major thoroughfare near my office. Right away, people I knew, law enforcement officers and other reporters were sharing real-time posts. It was that friendly, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, to other folks in the Twitter-sphere area not to drive towards what was a major traffic jam.

It was good advice, and I learned an important lesson. When I tweeted, people followed to learn what I learned, and I followed back to learn what they learned. It was like peanut butter and jelly. I became better connected to a different kind of community and I gained followers. Before too long, I was getting more information from Tweets than actual phone conversations. Strange, I know.

All kinds of writers need Twitter. Besides the fact that it is a fun puzzle to unlock – try dropping a heavy concept in 140 characters – it’s a great way to reach likeminded people, other writers, authors, agents, and publishers. It also provides a simple, easy way to promote.

Courtney Seiter, Content Crafter for Bufferapp.com, explained it like this, “Publishers want someone who is willing to work with them and carry a bit of the weight when it comes to book publicity, and Twitter is one of the easiest ways to create or tap into a community that’s interested in what you have to say as a writer.”

Courtney said that she had recently spoken with a writer that told her that a publisher asked about her Twitter following.

A decent-sized and relatively engaged Twitter following provides a bit of social proof to a publisher, she added. “It’s also awesome for fans of your work to feel the personal connection to a writer that Twitter provides.”

But Twitter is an interesting animal. You want to grow your followers and it’s not always the easiest thing to do. Here are some ideas:

Start with people you know. Then, branch out, follow other writers you may have heard of and, of course, businesses in the writing and publishing community. You’ll find that others will follow you back. Twitter offers up columns of folks to follow as well.
Give people a taste of who you are. “I just ate a sandwich” might work for Chef Mario Batali, but not for everyone. Stick to what you know. Offer links to your work. Share your latest success.
Keep your posts tasteful. Remember, you are building awareness around your name and your work.
Most importantly? Have a little fun.

Co-Pilot Family posted a tweet recently that said “You’ve gotta dance like nobody’s watching, but post like somebody is.”

Start with people you know. Then, branch out, follow other writers you may have heard of and, of course, businesses in the writing and publishing community. You’ll find that others will follow you back. Twitter offers up columns of folks to follow as well.
Give people a taste of who you are. “I just ate a sandwich” might work for Chef Mario Batali, but not for everyone. Stick to what you know. Offer links to your work. Share your latest success.
Keep your posts tasteful. Remember, you are building awareness around your name and your work.
Most importantly? Have a little fun.

Co-Pilot Family posted a tweet recently that said “You’ve gotta dance like nobody’s watching, but post like somebody is.”Follow us on Twitter. (@KillerNashville) We will even follow back!

1/30/15 1/30/15

Publishing Optimism Reigns: The PW Interview

By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff

Not all the numbers are in yet for 2014, but all points indicate that it was a good year for the publishing industry.

In short, print sales appear to be coming back from their downward spiral when eBooks exploded onto the market in 2010-2011, says Jim Milliot, editorial director of Publishers Weekly.

“There are a lot of reasons to keep bookstores in business,” Milliot said. PW is a weekly news magazine focused on the international book publishing business.

“Nobody wants Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million to go out of business. Both companies have talked about a good holiday season.”

And how did digital books do? Milliot says eBooks enjoyed slight growth, but preliminary numbers are viewed as being roughly flat, which seems to be the same as compared to revenue numbers for eBooks in 2013.

It appears with the advent of digital books that publishing – particularly in relation to print sales – continues to stabilize. Specifically in the mystery genre, the category is considered solid and is also the most digital-friendly, Milliot said. About 20 to 30 percent of sales of mystery books are digital, he added.

Last year, children’s books, including Young Adult literature, did very well. Some of the titles that fared well include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth, and the Frozen franchise, all of which had accompanying film releases. Ten to 12 titles associated with the video game, Minecraft, also did really well.

“Things are more optimistic than it’s been since the recession,” Milliot said. “Print is here to stay, for now.”

This is to not say that the industry isn’t adapting to digital; however, where bookstores were once crazed and fearful about the advent of electronic reading, there seems to be less urgency now, Milliot said.

Many have taken a strategic approach and have incorporated the medium as just another platform.

“(eBooks) certainly were disruptive, and will be going forward, but not in the same way,” Milliot said. “People seem to be experimenting with ways to deliver content.”

1/30/15 1/30/15

The Writer's Life: Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel

As Killer Nashville Special Projects Coordinator, Beth Terrell has worked with many writers. She has calculated from their successes; she has avoided pitfalls by observing their failures. And through this association and her own tenacity, Beth Terrell (writing as Jaden Terrell) has also become a Killer Nashville success story, a story that is well deserved, and a story for which we at Killer Nashville are ecstatic. We could not be prouder.

Now, Beth is passing what she has learned to you.

In this monthly column, Beth will share her journey while also referencing the paths of different writers who have come into our Killer Nashville family. It is a journey worth learning from and it will save years – maybe decades – if you will only follow her along. From writing to promoting, a writer’s job never ends.

Where is the best place to start this series? At the beginning: with The Idea.

The Writer's Life Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel
By Beth Terrell

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL?

So, you want to write a novel? Specifically, you want to write a mystery, thriller, or other type if crime fiction. Maybe you've always dreamed of being a writer. Maybe you've pursued other dreams and are just now coming to the realization that writing a book is something you'd really like to do.

Good for you!

Most people secretly dream of writing a book; yet, most never even finish a first draft.

This series of upcoming articles is designed to take you from the seed of an idea through your first draft, the revision process, publishing, and marketing your novel. I’m not going to tell you the “right” way to write a book. There is no one right way, only the way that works for you. But I can show you one way to write a novel, and then help you tailor it to your individual needs.

Somerset Maugham said, "There are three rules for writing a great novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are." So you won’t find any ironclad rules here, only processes that can help you clarify your ideas and organize them into a coherent, and eventually, a polished story.

Much of the process involves asking yourself questions.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW RIGHT NOW?

The first one is, what do you already know about your book? Maybe you already have a main character. Maybe you know you want to write a cozy, a thriller, or police procedural. Maybe you already have a plot sketched out, or maybe you just have an image, like the one of a little girl in muddy underpants that gave birth to William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.

However much or little you know about your book, you’ll answer subsequent questions within the context of what you’ve already decided. If you make a choice that doesn’t mesh with your previous decisions, you’ll either need to change one or more of your earlier choices, or figure out a way to make the incompatibility work in your favor.

Let’s say you want to write a gritty, high-tech thriller with lots of violence and explosions. A frail, near-sighted beekeeper with sciatica whose hobby is stamp-collecting and who is so technologically challenged he doesn’t even own a computer or a cell phone would be an unlikely protagonist.

But what if you’re married to both these ideas?

First, you’ll need to give your beekeeper a reason to get involved in your thriller plot (maybe he saw something he shouldn’t), a motivation to continue (now his life or the life of a loved one is in danger), and a believable means of overcoming his physical limitations (perhaps with the help of a secondary character who does possess the necessary skills). He should find a way to use his knowledge of bees, stamps, or sciatica to overcome or outwit the villains. He’ll need to have strengths he never knew he possessed. And the reader will need to see a hint of those strengths early in the story.

You can write a great book by going against expectations, but you have to do some work to make it believable.

What questions you ask yourself and the order in which you ask them depends on what you already know about your story, but since we have to start somewhere, let’s start at the very beginning: what kind of book do you want to write?

WRITE WHAT YOU READ

There’s a good chance the book you should write is like the ones you like to read. If you love romantic suspense, that might be a good genre for you to start with. If you despise romantic novels, but think you could just dash one off and make a bushel of money because they sell like hotcakes, maybe you should consider another genre. It's almost impossible to write well in a genre for which you feel contempt; readers who love the genre will sense your disdain and resent it. (Bigfoot porn seems to be an exception to this rule. You might be able to haul in a boatload with money with some dashed-off Bigfoot porn.)

There are no bad genres. The best of any genre is just as literary as the best literary novel. Think The Big Sleep, In Cold Blood, and To Kill a Mockingbird. These are considered great literature, but what are they, if not crime novels?

Pick a genre or subgenre you like and feel comfortable writing in, and don’t worry about whether it’s “literary” or not. It should be the kind you like to read, but also one you can write knowledgeably about—or one that you can (and want to) research well enough to write knowledgeably about.

Sometimes the amount or kind of research you're willing and able to do influences your decision about what book to write. Maybe you like books set in ancient Egypt, but you know nothing about ancient Egypt and don't particularly want to do the intensive study it would take to find out. Then by all means, keep reading mysteries set in ancient Egypt, but choose something different to write about.

But what if you're not even sure if you're writing a detective novel, a police procedural, or a novel with an amateur sleuth? What if you're not sure what kind of book you're most drawn to? Or what if you're an eclectic reader and love all sorts of books?

Let's try an exercise.

GET OUT A PAPER AND PEN

Write down the titles of your ten favorite crime novels. Ask yourself what you like about each one and what they have in common. Do you see any patterns?

Let's say you have on your list: Janet Evanovitch, Parnell Hall, Donna Andrews, and Agatha Christie. You might be more comfortable writing a cozy mystery, possibly humorous with little graphic sex or violence, because those are the kinds of books you like to read.

But imagine you have on your list: John Sandford, John Connolly, Thomas Harris, and James Lee Burke. There's a good chance you’re going to want to write a darker, grittier story.

What if you have an equal mix of both? Then you might feel comfortable writing several different kinds of books, and other concerns, such as characters and theme (which we’ll address later in this series), will help you decide what kind of book you should write now.

My list included writers from both of the above lists, but more from the second. I noticed that my favorite books had a serious tone and complex characters I wanted to re-visit: Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware, William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor, Robert Crais’ Joe Pike and Elvis Cole. I may not remember the plot of A is for Alibi, but I do remember that Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone was orphaned at a young age and was raised by her aunt, that she likes small, enclosed spaces, and that she was once married to a gorgeous but irresponsible musician. I read Grafton's books because I like Kinsey. I read Janet Evanovitch's books, even though they’re lighter than I usually read, because I like Stephanie Plum. (Joe Morelli and Ranger have nothing to do with it. No, really... )

What this tells me is that I like books with multi-dimensional characters with deep connections and relationships. Based on my reading habits, this is what I would expect to enjoy writing, and if you look at my Jared McKean series, it turned out to be true. Jared has complex relationships with his brother, his ex-wife, his ex-wife's new husband, and his roommate (a gay man with AIDS). These relationships drive the story and provide a unifying thread through all the books in the series.

SERIES OR STAND-ALONE?

Another question to consider is whether your novel is part of a series or a stand-alone. If you plan to kill off your protagonist, you're probably not writing a series, unless your genre is paranormal.

A stand-alone novel has a story arc, in which the protagonist changes or grows in some way over the course of the story. You’re writing about the single most life-changing event in your character’s life. When it’s over, life goes on in an ordinary way, though his or her circumstances or perceptions may have changed considerably.

A series character might (and should) also undergo changes, but within a single book, these changes may be relatively small. Instead, although each book stands alone, there’s a greater story arc that covers the entire series. Think of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder. While Scudder reacts to the events of each book, the major changes of his life take place over the course of the series. He acknowledges his alcoholism, joins AA, and learns to control his urge to drink. He dates a series of women, falls in love with a former prostitute, marries her, and begins to reconcile (after a fashion) with the adult sons of his first marriage. If all that happened in a single book, where would he have left to go?

SERIES OR STANDALONE?

If you envision a series, your main character needs to be a multi-faceted character with enough complications and entanglements to sustain a reader's interest for the long haul. If your series contains twenty-six novels (A is for Alibi to Z is for...Ziggurat?), your character had better be up to the task.

In a series, it's especially important that your protagonist is someone you like well enough to invest a hefty chunk of time with. If you don't enjoy your character’s company, how can you expect anyone else to? And what if you should be fortunate enough to write a bestseller? With a million readers clamoring for more, will you like this character enough to live with him or her for a decade or longer?

Again, look to your reading habits. Do you like to follow a favorite character through a series of books? Or do you prefer a stand-alone novel, where you meet a character for the first and last time in a single, self-contained story?

YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE YOUR MIND

Think about it.

Make your list.

It doesn't have to be ten writers. It could be two. It could be twenty.

As long as it helps you understand something about what draws you to a story--and what keeps you coming back for more--it's fine.

And remember, nothing is carved in stone. You can always change your mind later, if a better idea comes to you.

That’s the beauty of writing.

See you next month.

Jaden Terrell (Beth Terrell) is a Shamus Award finalist, a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries (a collection of writing exercises by Tarcher/Penguin), and the author of the Jared McKean private detective novels Racing The Devil, A Cup Full of Midnight, and River of Glass. Terrell is the special programs coordinator for the Killer Nashville conference and the winner of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA). A former special education teacher, Terrell is now a writing coach and developmental editor whose leisure activities include ballroom dancing and equine massage therapy. www.jadenterrell.com.

1/30/15 1/30/15

Otto Penzler: Four Decades of Rockin’ the Mystery World

By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff

In the world of mystery writing, Otto Penzler is one of those legendary rock stars.

No, crowds are not chanting his name and throwing their underwear on stage. Still, Otto appears to receive a similar kind of reverence, mostly among other writers. Voices fade away and eyes grow wide when they speak of the owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and the publisher of some of the most well-known writers in the world.

Penzler, one writer said, is a major influencer in the publishing world and is responsible since 1975 for mainstreaming the mystery-writing genre in America. He has published such best-selling mystery and crime authors as Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, P.D. James, Ed McBain, Ross Macdonald, Mickey Spillane, and Donald Westlake. The Mysterious Press still publishes today as an imprint of Grove / Atlantic.

But it all started fairly innocently to hear Penzler talk. He arrived in New York in the 1970s as an English major fresh from the University of Michigan. He had been reading some of the greats in college, but needed a break. “I wanted to read something light and more fun, not so challenging,” he said.

So, he turned to mysteries and discovered writers who were every bit as talented and complex as the ones he had learned about in college, including Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Agatha Christie, to name a few.

Out of this experience grew a love of mystery fiction so deep, he founded a mystery store devoted to the genre, and developed the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, a book he co-authored with Chris Steinbrunner, and for which he won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1977.

Success with both enterprises found him in the business full-time and instrumental in the careers of many authors such as Donald Westlake and Ellis Peters. He also continues to edit and write.

Penzler has edited more than seventy anthologies of crime fiction, both of reprints and newly commissioned stories, including the prestigious Best American Mystery Stories of the Year. His 2012 title, In Pursuit of Spenser, was nominated for yet another Edgar Award.

Penzler says pivotal moments in his own career were 1) unlocking his appreciation for mystery fiction and 2) having access to an entire building on 56th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to grow his enterprise. Another highlight was signing James Ellroy early in his career, he said.

A fast-talking sophisticate, Penzler continues to helm his specialty store now located in downtown Tribecca. As a credit to him, when times changed, so did he. When digital books looked like a train that wouldn’t stop, Penzler adapted. “It looked scary for a while, but then I started with the E-books. I wish I could tell the future.”

Upcoming major projects Penzler is working on include Jack of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates, works by Johan Katzenbach and Thomas Perry, and the continued growth of The Mysterious Press.

According to the Mysterious Bookshop website, Mysterious Press exists in three forms: MysteriousPress.com, The Mysterious Press at Grove / Atlantic, and The Mysterious Press at HighBridge Audio.

The following can be read at www.mysteriousbookshop.com:

MysteriousPress.com

Working in conjunction with Open Road Integrated Media, MysteriousPress.com is converting previously-published works to eBook formats from notable authors like James Ellroy, Donald Westlake, Ross Thomas, Brian Garfield, and Christianna Brand, among others. The press is also publishing original novels by previously published authors and talented newcomers, some of which are available as print editions.

The Mysterious Press at Grove / Atlantic

This press, an imprint of Grove / Atlantic, features new releases from such Edgar Award–winning authors as Thomas H. Cook, Andrew Klavan, and Thomas Perry.

The Mysterious Press at HighBridge Audio

HighBridge Audio, a leading publisher of spoken word audio, is producing audio books of Mysterious Press’s books, from both the Grove / Atlantic and MysteriousPress.com lines.

1/30/15 1/30/15

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Four Plots, One Great Story

by Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

For the first issue of the Killer Nashville Magazine, we could think of none better for our cover story than Hank Phillippi Ryan. I was thrilled with the opportunity to interview Hank, being a fan of hers for over 6 years now. Hank started out of the gate in 2007 with her first published novel, Prime Time, winning the Agatha award. Add her on-air investigative reporter’s list of successes: she’s won 32 Emmys, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards, and dozens of other honors for her groundbreaking journalism for Boston’s NBC affiliate. In the literary world, she has been nominated and/or won every major mystery literary award including being a finalist this last year for Killer Nashville’s very own Silver Falchion Award.

So, Hank, you’ve won both Emmys for investigative reporting and national book awards for fiction, which interest came first? Reporting or fiction writing?

Oh, impossible. It’s fun to think about, because who knows how our brains work, and who can ever really understand why we’re doing what we’re doing—or how it will turn out?

When I was a little girl, if I asked my mother another of what I’m sure she considered my endless questions, she’d say to me: “I’m not going to tell you. Go and find out.”

So—a little kid asking questions means they’re curious about the world, right? Is that from an interest in reporting, or storytelling? Or is that essentially the same mental process?

I’ve always loved mysteries—as a little girl, my sister and I would read up in the hayloft of our barn, and I fell in love with Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew and Hercule Poirot. We all did, right? But was it the tracking down clues and following leads and solving puzzles that I loved? Or the words and the creativity and the story telling? It’s the same, right?

And as I grew up, each career was a natural outcome. It just took me until I was 23 to become a reporter. And 65 to become a crime fiction author!

The reason I just fell over in my chair: there is no way you are 65 or anywhere near it. What makes your books stand out is the depth within the character’s setting. You use your fiction to highlight social issues. How do you keep the issues from becoming too heavy-handed within the storytelling?

Well, thank you! But I don’t think of it that way. Just as with television reporting, it’s all about telling a good story. It has to matter, people have to care, viewers have to learn something new, and come away from it with a different way of looking at the world. And it has to be entertaining, right?

Same with my books.

Books are about the real world, and what’s going on in the real world. And why we care about it. Ripped from the headlines? Adultery, political corruption, adoption scams, mortgage fraud, the housing crisis—and in the new WHAT YOU SEE (Forge, October 2015), surveillance and privacy.

Every day as I write, I ask myself—sometimes out loud!—“Why do I care?”

So because Jane and Jake are real people handling situations that could really happen, it’s all about how they deal with that reality. And we can ask ourselves—what would we do? And since we love Jake and Jane, and we understand the mysteries they are trying to solve, we care. The “social issue” is just one of the puzzle pieces—it’s the people that matter.

You’ve written several series with distinct characters. How does one decide to write a series and how far ahead do you need to plan as the writer?

Plan? Ahead? Cue the crazed laughter.

My first series grew out of my love for television and the voice of protagonist Charlotte McNally. She still talks to me. But when I had the idea for THE OTHER WOMAN, I knew that story was too big, too textured, to be carried by the first-person voice of Charlotte. It needed multiple points of view. So out of that came Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan. And they’re a series—Charlotte is, too—because we care about their lives, and we’re eager to find out what happens next.

If there is any planning, it comes from the juggling of keeping the books fast-paced and suspenseful and giving them a big fat satisfying ending, but still with some things left unresolved in the characters’ lives. If the book ends with the happily married couple flying off into the sunset, that’s an end-end, right? If there’s a sinister figure watching them as they speed away, or if the bride is having second thoughts, or if the husband will be unemployed when they get home, that’s a series. So the juggle is to get to the end without finishing everything. And the bigger juggle is that I have no idea.

How do you juggle your life: writing, reporting, book tours? You must be exhausted.

Oh, well, sometimes, yeah. But there is so much fuel in the wonderful responses, and the terrific audiences, and the friendship of readers and writers, and the joy of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am very lucky, and that goes a long way to erasing exhaustion. That and under-eye concealer.

And your family life?

My husband (a criminal defense attorney who is also juggling big cases and life-and-death situations—but in real life!) is very patient. And we eat a lot of carry-out salmon from Whole Foods.

What is the craziest interaction you’ve ever had with a fan?

No idea…let me think about this.

Attendees could not praise you enough when you were at Killer Nashville this past year for the Sisters in Crime special event.

Aw, thank you. It was a real joy, and some of the manuscripts I read were fabulous.

Who have been your mentors and/or the teachers who have influenced you the most?

My high school English teacher, Tom Thornburg (hi, Mr. Thornburg! He lives in Montana now) taught me be to be analytical, and critical, and careful. And to revere Shakespeare, which I still do. Hunter Thompson, who I worked with when I was at Rolling Stone magazine, taught me (among other things, like how to inhale lighter fluid and breathe fire) to go for it, and not be afraid to take writing risks. A news director named Jim Thistle—who taught me how to ask questions, and then one more, and then one more. Oh, gosh, so many. Sue Grafton, certainly.

You live such a varied life. Where do your ideas come from?

There’s a question that some authors loathe...but I love. And that is: where do your stories come from? Some authors answer with caustic throwaways—Schenectady, says one very famous guy. The grocery, says another.

But I think “where do your stories come from” is fascinating.

And as for Truth Be Told, I can tell you exactly where it came from.

It’s a puzzle of four parts.

The first? My husband is a criminal defense attorney. When we first met, I asked: Have you ever had a murder case where the defendant was convicted, but you still thought they were innocent?" His eyes softened a bit, and then he said: “Yes.” The man was charged with murder in the death of a young woman—the prosecution said he had lured her to a forest, and tied her to a tree.

The first time Jonathan represented the man, the case ended in an overturned conviction. The state brought the charges again, and again Jonathan represented him, and again, overturned conviction.

The state brought the charges again, and again Jonathan represented him, and again, a hung jury.

The state brought the charges again, and the defendant—well, let’s just say he decided he wanted to handle the case his own way this time. Jonathan disagreed. The man got a different lawyer. He was convicted, and is still in prison.

Jonathan told me he still, to this day, thinks the man is innocent.

Hmmm. Idea.

Another puzzle piece? Another of Jonathan’s cases. A man in prison, incarcerated with a life sentence for shaking a baby to death, recently confessed to a cold-case murder. It’s very unlikely that he actually did it—so why would he confess?

Hmmm. Idea.

Another puzzle piece. I have done several stories about mortgage fraud, and foreclosure fraud. And here in Massachusetts, three new laws were passed as a result of our Emmy winning series on manipulation and deception in the banking and mortgage world. We got peoples homes out of foreclosure! And millions of dollars in refunds and restitution. So, that’s great.

But one day, my photographer and I were shooting video of an eviction. I can confess to you --there’s a lot of that going on here today! --we didn’t know who the owner of the home was that day. We were simply getting pictures of an eviction to illustrate the dire consequences of when someone is unlucky, or misled, or has a catastrophe of ad disaster, or makes a mistake. It is devastating.

At one point, a deputy came to the front door of the almost-empty house. I remember he was silhouetted in the door, his entire body the shape of unhappiness and confusion. Head hanging, his outstretched arms one each side of the open door, as if having to hold himself up.

What as making him so upset, I wondered?

I said to my photographer—who is used to my musings—“What if they found a dead body in there?”

And then I realized what that would mean. The deputies had been in that home clearing it out, cleaning it up, yanking out the possessions and throwing them away.

What if, I thought, the law enforcement officers themselves had ruined a crime scene? Obliterated the evidence, trampled on everything, wiped the place clean? And then…

Oh. The cops ruined their own crime scene!

Hmmmm. Idea.

I also thought about the people who had been evicted from those homes. People who’d gotten mortgages from banks with lots of money, but who through some failure of their lives, some catastrophe or disaster, some wrong decision or bad luck had not been able to keep up the payments. Wouldn’t there be something that could have ben done to prevent that? If a banker-type really cared about their customers, wouldn’t there be something that could be done to keep people out of foreclosure?

Hmmmm. Idea.

And finally, I was sitting at the computer in my TV station office, writing a story, and thinking about why I do what I do as a reporter. It’s making history, I decided. It’s creating the record of what happened in our lives, the comings and goings, that issues and the solutions, the documentation of how we live. And people believe it, right? What’s on TV and in the newspapers becomes a resource by which all is remembered and relied on.

And then I thought—what if some reporter decided not to tell the truth? Not big discoverable lie, but simply—little things. A sound bite, a reaction, a quote. Who would know? What difference might that make? And what would happen when the truth was finally told?

Hmmm. Idea.

And in the way we all do as authors, by spinning and polishing and twisting and turning, and shooting it full of a lot of adrenaline and a little romance, I got the key elements of Truth Be Told:

A mortgage banker turned Robin Hood decides to manipulate bank records to keep people out of foreclosure, a murder victim is found in a foreclosed home, a man confesses to the unsolved Lilac Sunday murder, and a reporter makes stuff up.

And when it all comes together in the end: Truth Be Told.

If I wanted to read one book on how to be a writer, what book would I read?

Wow, impossible.

A how-to book wouldn’t do it, you know?

There are a lot out there.

There are terrific ones—On Writing by Stephen King. Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. But “how-to” can’t teach you “how” to write if you’re not a reader. Shakespeare for storytelling, Edith Wharton. Hunter Thompson. Stephen King. Tom Wolfe. Even reading bad stuff can make you better, right, if you think about why it’s bad.

I try to write the kind of book I’d like to read. And that’s how I know when my revision is compete—there’s a moment, in every book, where I forget I wrote it. I’m simply reading the story. And then I think—wow, it’s a book. I’m done.

A great list of people to study from, but Hank, I think you left one out: Hank Phillippi Ryan, right up there with the best writers on the planet. Check out Hank’s body of work…and learn from the best.

Thanks, Hank, for being with us! For more on Hank, visit her at www.hankphillippiryan.com.

Until next month, read like someone is burning the books.

Clay Stafford,
Founder / Killer Nashville

Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker (www.ClayStafford.com) and founder of Killer Nashville (www.killernashville.com). In addition to selling over 1.5 million copies of his own books, Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” (www.oneofthemiracles.com) and writing the music CD “XO” with Kathryn Dance / Lincoln Rhymes author Jeffery Deaver (www.jefferdeaverxomusic.com). He is currently writing a film script based on Peter Straub’s “Pork Pie Hat” for American Blackguard Entertainment (www.americanblackguard.com).

Truth Be Told

Families unfairly evicted from their suburban homes, dead bodies found in vacant houses, and a shocking confession in a notorious cold case! Top-notch reporter Jane Ryland digs up the truth on these heartbreaking stories—and discovers a big-bucks scheme and the surprising players who will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep their goals a secret. Financial scheming, the power of money, our primal need for home and family and love. What happens when what you believe is true turns out to be a lie?

HankPhillippiRyan.com, on Twitter @HankPRyan and Facebook at HankPhillippiRyanAuthorPage.

1/29/15 1/29/15

Dying for Dinner: Flo's Perfect Irish Manhattan & Kay's Killer Chili

Dying For Dinner

Pioneer foodie James Beard once said food is our common ground, a universal experience. We agree. Food not only unites, but also motivates and inspires. Just ask Killer Nashville conference attendee Margaret Fenton who sold her manuscript over drinks at the bar one year. We want to create that kind of positive and heart-warming foodie community with you. So as you discuss character arcs, murder suspects, and autopsy reports, enjoy a drink from Murder She Wrote’s Renee Paley-Bain while smelling Nashville author Kay Elam’s chili in the crockpot. As we say here in the South, “Mmmm, Mmmm, that’s good.”

Flo’s Perfect Irish Manhattan

By Renee Paley-BainRobert “Don’t call me Bobby” Brixton is the protagonist in Margaret Truman’s recent Capital Crime Series novels, Undiplomatic Murder and Internship in Murder, by Donald Bain. While Robert drinks martinis (always made with gin), he’s not above altering cocktail recipes for his lady friend Flo Combes. Renee says a Perfect Irish Manhattan is lighter than one made with Rye and less sweet than one made with bourbon.In a shaker filled with ice, combine the following:3-ounces Jameson’s Irish Whiskey½-ounce each Sweet Vermouth and Dry VermouthDash of Angostura bittersStir well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with either a maraschino cherry or twist of lemon.

Killer Chili

By Kay ElamKay’s chili is a staple in her home during the chilly months of winter. It’s easy to make, and the smell is heavenly. Simmering in the crockpot for an all-day feast, it’s equally great for watching football games or stimulating the brain to write that bestseller.2 tablespoons of oil1 tablespoon of dried or refrigerated, minced garlic Chili 1 yellow onion chopped3 stalks celery chopped1 green pepper chopped1-1/2 pounds ground chuck1 teaspoon salt Chili ½ teaspoon pepper¼ cup chili powder½ cup cumin power1 8-ounce can tomato sauce1 16-ounce can tomatoes1 16-ounce can kidney beansPinch of sugarSaute’ garlic, onions, green pepper, celery and garlic in oil until slightly browned. Drain. Add ground chuck and seasonings. Break up meat and cook until browned. Drain again. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, kidney beans and sugar. Cover and reduce heat. Add water if it’s too thick. Serve with cheese, sour cream, Fritos, and / or corn muffins.

It’s so good, it should be a crime. If you concoct either of these great recipes, let us know what you think and send us a picture. We may include it here with a link to your website.What are you cooking? Submit your favorite recipes. They can be based on your favorite literary character, your Aunt Clara’s, or some amalgamation of ingredients you’ve discovered that makes life worth living (nothing with arsenic seasoning, please). Make sure to include your contact information and explanation of the origin of the recipe. Send your submissions (to which you avow in a court of law that you have all rights to and are granting the nonexclusive rights to Killer Nashville to use in any form and at any time) with subject line “Dying For Dinner” to contact@KillerNashville.com.

1/28/15 1/28/15

Thrills and Chills: Teaching the Art of Suspense Writing to Kids / Author Kimberly Dana

There is a line in the rock opera “Evita” where the narrator Che’ says with equal parts accusation and admiration, “Get them while they’re young, Evita. Get them while they’re young,” which is to say grow your ranks. In this week’s guest blog, author Kimberly Dana isn’t building a dictatorship; she’s growing young minds to become book lovers and writers with the art of suspense. I was fascinated with her technique…and learned a great deal myself.

Read like they are burning books!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Thrills and Chills:

Teaching the Art of Suspense Writing to Kids

By Kimberly Dana

Kids adore the adrenaline rush, so it is no surprise they have an innate attraction to the genre of suspense. The feelings of tension, uncertainty, doubt and apprehension all parallel the angst of adolescence, resulting in a familiar emotional connection. Additionally, the physiological response of the pounding beating heart, the spine-prickling shivers, and mind-buzzing thoughts serve up an intoxicating thrill ride kids thrive on.

Consequently, it makes perfect sense that kids make amazing suspense writers — if given the proper tools.

What are the benefits of teaching suspense writing to kids?

1) Adults want to be glued to the page and kids are no exception — only “the hook” is even more critical in their techno world of iPad, iPod, and iPhone instant gratification (Clearly, this is what the “i” must stand for)! So as teachers, we have our work cut out for us; however, if boredom is the archenemy of a love for literacy, then suspense is the antidote. Suspenseful stories have universal appeal and can magically pique the interest of even the most reluctant of readers, jarring them awake from their ill-fated K-12 “School-is-boring. Reading is stupid” stupor. A story whereby an ordinary person is thrown into extraordinary circumstances is irresistible. Throw in a ticking clock and a spooky setting, and you just made Jaded Johnny a lifetime reader. Talk about a best practices with synergistic effects!

2) To strengthen our resolve in making book buffs out of reluctant readers, suspenseful stories contain rich literary elements including dark, villainous characters; mysterious motifs of staircases, woods, graveyards, shadows, and confined spaces; and, thought-provoking thematic subjects, such as perception versus reality, good over evil, and isolation and imprisonment. Suspense stories are not only an entertaining vehicle, they surreptitiously breed critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills from students whom are not otherwise be engaged.

3) Finally, suspenseful stories empower kids by unmasking the cerebral tools and coping skills needed in order to tackle life’s enigmas. Through exposure to mysterious worlds of dark characters and thematic messages, kids learn to revere intelligence, sagacity, and fearlessness. Kids love to “get deep” as they debate and argue over the finer points of plot. Insulated by a safe, voyeuristic lens, kids can safely unravel intricate storylines as they earnestly judge the innocent versus the guilty, thereby refining their own sense of morality. What’s more, suspenseful stories generate rich discussion in literary analysis and are a perfect springboard for developing kids’ own unique writing craft and style.

So how do we teach suspense? The first thing we have to teach kids is what suspense is: A state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen as opposed to what suspense is not: Suspense is not horror. The two are easily confused so when I introduce the concept, I always translate it into kid-speak. I tell my students, “Suspense is not Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers. It is much more refined than blood and gore. And therefore, even more terrifying.”

“What is the difference?” they ask with bated breath.

“It’s simple,” I tell them. “Horror shows. Suspense implies. And then I dim the lights, set match to a votive candle, and read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” And when the narrator tears up the planks and proclaims, “Villains…dissemble no more! I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!” — I look out into their shiny eyes, burning brightly and begging for more. So later that week we read suspense-riddled tomes, such as “The Monkey’s Paw,” “Lamb to the Slaughter,” and “The Lottery.”

Once my students are feeling creatively juiced with sordid secrets, villainous vendettas, gothic graveyards, and are up to the task of writing their own stories, it is my modus operandi to get them past “It was a dark and stormy night..."

This is, of course, how most kids will begin their suspense story. Not that there is anything wrong with dark and stormy nights. Dark and stormy nights are a perfect setting when building a backdrop for suspense. But in the interest of avoiding clichés, I front-load my kid writers to a special acronymic formula for “writhe-in-your-seat-worthy” suspense writing: G.E.M. — Gothicism, Expansion of Time, and Magic of Three.

GOTHICISM: All suspense stories should express an element of the gothic genre, such as the supernatural; an eerie, mysterious setting; emotion over passion; or distinctive characters who are lonely, isolated, and/or oppressed. Throw in a tyrannical villain, a vendetta, or an illicit love affair — you've got Goth gold! Why Gothicism? It explores the tragic themes of life and the darker side of human nature. What’s more, kids innately are attracted to it. Just ask Stephenie Meyer.

EXPANDING TIME: Next, I introduce the art of expanding time using foreshadowing, flashback, and implementing “well, um...maybe…let me see” dialogue.” Expanding time allows the writer to twist, turn, and tangle up the plot. “Tease your audience,” I tell my students. “Pile on the problems and trap your protagonist with a ticking clock. Every second counts with suspense!” There is an old writing adage that says to write slow scenes fast and fast scenes slow. By delaying the big reveal, we build tension and punch up the plot.

MAGIC OF THREE: Finally, the Magic of Three comes into play. The Magic of Three is a writer's trick where a series of three hints lead to a major discovery. During the first hint, the protagonist detects something is amiss. The second hint sparks a more intense reaction, but nothing is discovered — yet. And then — BANG! The third hint leads to a discovery or revelation. During the big reveal, I teach kids to use and manipulate red flags and phrases, such as Suddenly, Without warning, In a blink of an eye, Instantly, A moment later, Like a shot, To my shock, and To my horror.

Teaching suspense writing to kids breeds amazing results. Once they learn to tantalize their audience through the craft of anticipation with G.E.M., they recognize the power behind suspense and why audiences are drawn to the genre. More importantly, they appreciate suspense for what it is...the secret sauce of writing.

“So go mine your story, and find your G.E.M.,” I tell my students. “The clock is ticking...”

If you would like to read more about Kimberly Dana's books please click here.

Featured on NBC’s More at Midday and The Tennessean as a middle school tween expert, Kimberly Dana is a multi-award-winning young adult and children's author. She is published by the National Council of Teachers of English, Parenthood, Your Teen, About Families, SI Parent, Sonoma Family Life, and the recipient of several writing honors from Writers Digest, Reader Views, the Pacific Northwest Writer Association, and various international book festivals. Other affiliations include the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and EPIC, the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition, where she serves as a judge for the annual eBook competition. Kimberly’s most recent books include her YA thriller, Cheerage Fearage, middle grade novel Lucy and CeCee’s How to Survive (and Thrive) in Middle School, Pretty Dolls, voted Best Children’s Book of the Year by Reader Views and Character Building Counts, and Buon Appetito, a children’s picture book that celebrates diversity and the English Language Learner published by Schoolwide Inc. Kimberly has been endorsed by Common Core News and a featured presenter at the Southern Festival of Books, The Carnegie Writers Group, Killer Nashville Writers Conference, and schools nationwide. A lover of photography and experimental cooking, Kimberly lives in Nashville with her husband and spoiled Shih Tzu. Visit her website at http://kimberlydana.blogspot.com

1/26/15 1/26/15

Under the Microscope with D.P. Lyle: Cause and Manner of Death

Welcome to “Under the Microscope,” Killer Nashville’s very own exclusive Forensics Corner. We hope to unearth, demystify, and in general, bring you interesting, factual information about the world of forensics from experts in various fields. From dead bodies, to suspicious substances, to computers seemingly with a mind of their own, this column will explore the at-first possibly macabre, gory, and unexplainable and then explicate the truth in scientific terms for writer’s to use at their will.

For the next three issues, physician, author, former Killer Nashville Guest of Honor, and one of the nicest guys on the planet Dr. D.P. Lyle, will share critical information about the business of death and the elements of a great investigation.

Cause and Manner of Death
By D.P. Lyle

WHAT GETS THE AUTHORITY’S ATTENTION?

In this three part series I will discuss two of the most critical determinations that the coroner or medical examiner must make in any potential homicide: The Cause and Manner of Death and The Time of Death. Whether an investigation is begun or not depends on the former. If the manner of death is natural, no criminal investigation will follow. The same is true of most cases of suicide or accidental death. But if the medical examiner determines that the manner of death is homicidal, then the investigative folks go to work.

Time of death is critical in that it is the linchpin of the crime timeline and can support or refute witness and suspect statements and explode alibis. It is the ticking clock around which all else revolves.

DETERMINING CAUSE AND MANNER OF DEATH

In any potentially criminal death, the coroner or Medical Examiner (ME) is asked to answer three basic questions: How did the person die? Why did the person die? When did this person die? In forensic terms, these are the cause, manner, and time of death, respectively.

People die every minute of every day, but only a very few of these attract the attention of the medico-legal investigative system. To the forensic professional it is the cause and manner of these deaths that are of paramount importance.

The cause of death is why the individual died. A heart attack, pneumonia, a gunshot wound, drowning, or traumatic brain injury from an automobile accident or a fall from a high building are causes of death. They are the diseases or injuries that caused death. This is fairly straightforward and, in most cases, easy for the coroner to determine.

The manner of death is a bit trickier. It can be defined as the root cause of the sequence of events that lead to death. In other words, how and why did these events take place? Who initiated the events and with what intention? Was the death caused by the victim, another person, an unfortunate occurrence, or Mother Nature?

THE 5 MANNERS OF DEATH

The five manners of death:

Natural: Death from natural disease processes. Heart attacks, cancers, pneumonias, and strokes are common natural causes of death. This is by far the largest category of death that the coroner sees.

Accidental: Death from an unplanned and unforeseeable sequence of events. Falls, automobile accidents, and electrocutions are examples.

Suicidal: Death by the person’s own hand. Intentional self-inflicted gunshots, drug overdoses, or self-hangings are included here.

Homicidal: Death by the hand of another.

Undetermined or Unclassified: Used when the coroner can’t accurately determine the manner of death.

These classifications are critically important since the official manner of death will determine what follows. In natural, accidental, and suicidal deaths, the police are rarely involved. Perhaps in the case of an industrial accident or if an insurance policy won’t pay in the case of a suicidal death, the police might be called in to investigate the situation further. But, in the end, if the coroner decides that the death falls into one of these categories, the police will not open a true investigation. In fact, in most such cases, they legally can’t do much.

But, if the coroner concludes that the manner of death is homicidal, or if he is unsure, the entire spectrum of police investigative techniques might be employed. Or not. Police investigations get corrupted, botched, or simply ignored for various reasons. This is fertile soil for the crime writer.

What about this undetermined category? Can’t the coroner always uncover the manner of death? Unfortunately no. Real life is often untidy.

CASE STUDY: ENTER THE AUTHOR

Let’s say a known drug addict is found dead in an alley with a needle in his arm and the coroner finds that the cause of death is a heroin overdose. What would be the manner of death? We can rule out natural since a heroin overdose is not a natural event. If the victim accidentally gave himself too large a dose, then the manner of his death would be an accidental overdose. Happens all too often. Or what if he has had enough of his miserable existence, no family, no friends, no future, and decides to inject himself with a massive dose? Here we have a suicide. But, what if the user is a snitch and his dealer knows about it. What if the next dime bag he gets is 90% heroin and not the typical 15%. He’s not a chemist. He only knows to cook up a certain amount and inject it. Here, the dose would be six times his usual. Roll the credits.

Heroin is a narcotic with very powerful sedative and what we call Central Nervous System (CNS) depressive effects. This means it will put you to sleep and suppress your drive to breathe. Too much and you will quickly lapse into a coma, stop breathing, and die from asphyxia.

At autopsy the coroner would see a dead guy with a boatload of heroin in his system and conclude that the cause of death was a heroin overdose. But, that’s all he could say. The manner of death would depend on who gave him the heroin and for what purpose. That’s where police investigation comes in. The results of this investigation will then guide the coroner in his determination of the manner of death.

This where storytelling enters the picture. Your sleuth will give the coroner the information he needs to make the correct call.

In the next column, I will discuss various observations and tests that medical examiners use to determine time of death. Among those tests and observations are checking the victim’s body temperature, the contents of their stomachs, rigor mortis and insect activity.

D. P. Lyle is the Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Silver Award winning and Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Scribe, and USA Best Book Award nominated author of many non-fiction books (Murder & Mayhem; Forensics For Dummies; Forensics & Fiction; More Forensics & Fiction; Howdunnit: Forensics; and ABA Fundamentals: Understanding Forensic Science) as well as numerous works of fiction, including the Samantha Cody thriller series (Devil’s Playground, Double Blind, and Original Sin); the Dub Walker Thriller series (Stress Fracture; Hot Lights, Cold Steel, and Run To Ground); and the Royal Pains media tie-in novels (Royal Pains: First, Do No Harm and Royal Pains: Sick Rich). His essay on Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island appears in Thrillers: 100 Must Readsand his short story “Even Steven” in ITW’s anthology Thriller 3: Love Is Murder.

Along with Jan Burke, he is the co-host of Crime and Science Radio. He has worked with many novelists and with the writers of popular television shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Peacemakers, Cold Case, House, Medium, Women’s Murder Club, 1-800-Missing, The Glades, and Pretty Little Liars.

Visit D.P. Lyle's: Website | Blog | Crime and Science Radio

D.P. Lyle has become a regular feature at Killer Nashville. Join us and learn more.

1/26/15 1/26/15

Killer Cocktails: Fahrenheit 151º

This month’s exclusive Killer Nashville Killer Cocktail: Fahrenheit 151º

The crazy thing about Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is its continued eerie relevance.

Published in 1953, the dystopian novel about a future American society where books are banned and burned, feels creepy and unrealistic, until you realize that people today plug up their ears and stare at inanities on electronic screens much like the main character’s wife.

Perhaps there are no mass book burnings per se, but there is certainly a form of censorship that exists, and of course there is apathy.

When we approached Mark “Spaz” Morris, professional drink-slinger, about creating Killer Nashville’s own brand of cocktails developed around literary themes, Spaz’s mind went straight to Bradbury’s McCarthy era award-winner. Equal parts merry prankster and a lover of words, the book clearly made a long-lasting impact on him.

Spaz’s creation is considered a flaming shot and it is the first in a series of original cocktails we recommend along with a good book. This drink is a lot easier to make than it first appears. Don’t be scared. Have fun. And, if you haven’t read Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, it’s high time you did.

Fahrenheit 151

Ingredients:

1 ounce Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire

½-ounce Bacardi 151

1 bottle chilled hard cider

A pint glass

A skinny shot glass

A lighter or matches

Directions:

1. Prepare the shot by pouring the Tennessee Fire first, leaving enough room for Bacardi 151º.

2. Gently layer the Bacardi 151º on top of the Tennessee Fire and let it settle.

3. Pour the chilled hard cider into the pint glass about half-full.

4. Light the Bacardi 151º on fire. It will produce a lovely blue flame. (DO NOT touch the fire and DO NOT blow it out.)

5. Drop the flaming shot glass into the pint glass from where the shot glass touches the cider.

Drink up!

All products used in the making of Killer Nashville cocktails are readily available at your local liquor store.

Cheers! Send us pictures and comments of you and Killer Nashville’s Fahrenheit 151. We’ll share them here along with a link back to you!

About Spaz:

Spaz started in the restaurant/bar business back in 1984 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when he was a student at Louisiana State University. Instead of becoming a chemical engineer, he became a social legend instead, he says jokingly. He later transferred to Knoxville, Tennessee, and received a Bachelor’s in marketing from the University of Tennessee in 1989. He has worked the gamut in the bar and restaurant industry from biker bars to 4-fork setting restaurants and has had a passion for the craft ever since. An avid traveler, he has lived in 13 states and visited 40, so far. He enjoys reading sci-fi and sci-fantasy books. He currently holds court at Red Dog Wine and Spirits in Franklin, Tenn. Check out the store: www.reddogwineandspirits.com.

1/26/15 1/26/15

Live from the United Kingdom: Huge in Poland

Live from the U.K.

From across the pond, we would like to introduce Christi Daugherty, our U.K. foreign correspondent and an expat author living in England. Daugherty has been a writer for many years, launching into Young Adult fiction with her popular Night School series. As a way of introduction, she tells about – not an American in Paris – but an American writer in jolly ol’ England and how it feels to sell books in countries where you do not live and in languages you do not speak. Join her for a truly unexplainable European reality in publishing.

Huge in Poland

Funny things happen when you emigrate.

I left America to have an adventure. I wanted to see more of the world. Experience life as an expat.

I accepted a job in London writing and editing for a travel guide publisher, thoroughly expecting to last a year, get homesick, and head back to sunny, decadent New Orleans.

It never happened.

Fifteen years later, I’m married to a Brit, and living in a town with an honest-to-god castle smack-dab in the middle.

I went through some serious culture clash moments in the first couple of years, but now this just feels like home. I don’t notice double-decker buses. I know a Yorkshire accent from a Cornish drawl. I complain quietly about late trains and never, ever talk to anyone on the Tube.

Basically, I’ve gone native.

Probably because of all that, when I sat down to write a novel, the first question that popped into my mind was, ‘Who am I writing this for?’

At first, I just assumed I’d write about American teens. After all, I was once an American teen. Besides, Twilight hadn’t been out all that long at the time and the U.S. young adult book market was soaring.

I’d wanted to write a spy drama, and I came up with the idea of making it about young people – the children of elite politicians and CEOs. I wanted to look at the cynical, dangerous world of power through their eyes. Setting it in Washington, DC or New York just seemed logical.

The only problem was, no matter what I did, that book wouldn’t write. The voices in my head remained stubbornly British. In desperation, I relocated the setting to the U.K.

After that, I finished the first draft in five months.

I refused to consider what would happen with the manuscript until I finished it. I didn’t research agents or publishers, I just wrote the thing. So it was only when I’d completed the first draft that I learned exactly how tiny the U.K. book market is; and that the U.K. young adult market is miniscule. Advances are often £5,000 or less. That’s $7,000 for a book that takes a year to get published.

Worse, it is famously difficult to sell British books to American publishers. Don’t ask me why. I have no idea. British writers fret about it constantly.

Luckily for me, and undoubtedly because of my background, the voice of my story is mid-Atlantic, with a mixture of English and American slang. That’s generally how British teens talk anyway, to be fair. They say ‘Whatever’ and ‘Awesome’ and ‘Get OUT’ just like American kids, with added ‘Bollocks’ and ‘Blimey’.

I tried to strike that balance. And, at its heart, Night School is about the corrosive effects of power and the damage we do when we lie. I hoped those universal themes would resonate with readers beyond the UK.

The first publisher to sign my book was Little Brown, U.K. Within a few months, I’d sold translation rights in 22 countries. A small, feisty digital U.S. publisher, Bookouture, bought the U.S. rights.

I soon learned, though, that getting a book deal is no guarantee of success. When you cash the advance check, not one buyer has purchased a copy of your book in a shop. You can still tank. It’s kind of terrifying.

In fact, it’s impossible to predict where your book will succeed internationally. The Night School series is most popular in Germany, Israel, and Poland – in all three of those countries it has been a No. 1 or No. 2 bestseller. The series has also been in the Top 10 in France and Latin America.

The books have sold steadily in Britain and America, but not nearly well enough to reach those kinds of heights.

Basically, I’ve had to get used to the disembodying experience of selling books mostly in countries where I do not live.

Of course, it hasn’t all been good times. In three countries Night School has been dropped by the publishers entirely. (I’m looking at you, Portugal, Hungary, and Estonia.) So I’ve learned what it’s like to get that kind of news, too.

I couldn’t tell you why the book did well in one country or badly in another. A lot of it comes down to how cleverly the publisher publicises it. In others, it’s simply a matter of getting the timing right. Beyond that, I’m convinced it’s pure luck.

There’s no question that modern publishing is a rollercoaster ride for everyone. As an author, you have little control over what happens to your work.

When you’re on a rollercoaster, there’s only one thing to do: Hold on tight. And enjoy the ride.

A former crime reporter, political writer, and investigative journalist, CJ Daugherty has also worked, at times, for the British government. She is originally from Texas and attended Texas A&M University. She now lives with her husband in the south of England. Night School is the first in a five-part Young Adult series with an accompanying web series. Her books have been translated into 21 languages.

1/21/15 1/21/15

Natural Born Writers, Ready Made Stories: Writing and the Law / Author Robert Rotstein

The legal system abounds with conflict, quirky characters, mystery, and moral ambiguity. This is why writers tend to draw often and steadily from this familiar well, says author Robert Rotstein. This week’s guest blogger, Rotstein spells out why writers, many of them lawyers, find inspiration at the courthouse.

Happy Reading! And until next time, read like someone is burning the books.

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Natural Born Writers, Ready Made Stories:

Writing and the Law

By Robert Rotstein

Stories about the legal system abound and have for centuries. There are novels, some of them classic works of literature, like Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, Herman Melville’s Billy Budd the Sailor, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, and Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. There are great movies, like 12 Angry Men, The Verdict, Philadelphia, and A Few Good Men. And there are the long-running TV shows: Perry Mason, L.A. Law, Law & Order, The Good Wife.

Not only do authors write about the law, but many lawyers have become authors. Henry Fielding, Wallace Stevens, and Franz Kafka had legal backgrounds, as do thriller writers Grisham, Turow, Steve Berry, and Lisa Scottoline, among many others. I’ve written two legal novels and still practice law full time.

If you accept the stereotypes, writers and lawyers are nothing alike. Attorneys are supposedly combative, social, linear thinkers. Writers are imaginative, introspective loners. So why are fiction writers fascinated with the legal system? And why have so many lawyers become successful writers? I believe it’s because lawsuits are real-life dramas.

The most basic piece of advice that aspiring writers hear at workshops in seminars is that the story has to create conflict. Lawsuits are all about conflict. The legal system is set up that way—it’s an adversarial system, and where there are adversaries, there are stories. Take the most basic slip-and-fall lawsuit. The plaintiff says he fell on a banana peel in the supermarket-produce section. The store manager says they’d swept the area two minutes earlier. A video from the security camera shows a shadowy, unidentified figure, taking something out of her pocket and dropping it in the area where the slip and fall occurred. Even with those sparse facts, you have the germ of a story. In a sense, lawyers are trained to become storytellers. (And I don’t mean to add the misguided stereotype that attorneys make things up; often, there really are two sides to the story.) Conversely, the law provides raw material for the writer, automatically creating conflict. Lawsuits also create mystery, because the facts are almost always ambiguous—an automatic whodunit.

There’s another reason why writers are drawn to the law and lawyers are drawn to writing—as author-lawyer Daco Auffenorde has pointed out, lawsuits have a classic three-act structure. http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2014/04/22/daco-romance-authors-lawyers/8013569/. The attorney files a complaint and learns about the witnesses (characters) (Act I); conducts depositions and fact investigations, where confrontation occurs (Act II); and resolves the conflict at a trial (Act III). In a sense, trial lawyers live out a drama each time they handle a case. And authors of legal drama have a ready-made structure just waiting to be molded into a novel.

While it’s not the most pleasant part of the job, attorneys also have to become conspiracy theorists. They make judgments about their own client, about the other side, and about the third-party witnesses. Lawyers must ask questions like, “Who’s lying?”

“Who’s self-motivated?” “Who’s ethical?” “Is he nervous?” “Will the jury think her arrogant?” In other words, the lawyer, like the writer, engages in character studies, and the legal system provides ready-made characters for the writer. In my own recent novel, Reckless Disregard, my lead character, attorney Parker Stern, represents a video-game designer known to the world only as Poniard, who’s becomes a defendant in a libel action after accusing a movie mogul of kidnapping an actress twenty-five years prior. Poniard will only communicate with Parker through e-mail, which makes the attorney’s usual “character study” of his client impossible. And this inability to evaluate his own client leads Parker into great danger.

Lastly, our adversarial system of justice assumes that there’s a right side and a wrong side, and where there’s “right and wrong,” there’s a moral judgment to be made. Writers thrive on raising moral questions. Melville’s Billy Budd shows how earthly justice and divine morality sometimes conflict. To Kill A Mockingbird explores personal courage in the face of violent racism. The never-ending lawsuit in Dickens’s Bleak House casts an unjust legal system as the novel’s antagonist.

So lawsuits have all the attributes of a good story—conflict, characters, mystery, and moral ambiguity. That’s why the legal system has provided grist for fiction and why so many lawyers are equipped to become authors.

At least, that’s this lawyer’s story.

If you would like to read more about Robert Rotstein’s books please click here.

Robert Rotstein is a writer and attorney who’s represented many celebrities and all the major motion picture studios. He’s the author of Reckless Disregard (Seventh Street Books, June 3, 2014) about Parker Stern, an L.A.-based attorney, who takes on a dangerous case for a mysterious video game designer against a powerful movie mogul. Reckless Disregard has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist. His debut novel, Corrupt Practices (Seventh Street Books), was published in 2013.

Visit his website at robertrotstein.com

(Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com)

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KN Magazine: Articles

Beginning with Crime

Crime Genre Novels

Crime Genre Films

by Clay Stafford

Incorporating Yourself as an Author

The Writer's Life Coming Up with the Idea for Your NovelBy Beth Terrell

MysteriousPress.com

The Mysterious Press at Grove / Atlantic

The Mysterious Press at HighBridge Audio

Truth Be Told

Dying For Dinner

Flo’s Perfect Irish Manhattan

Killer Chili

Cause and Manner of DeathBy D.P. Lyle

Fahrenheit 151

Live from the U.K.

Huge in Poland

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

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The Writer's Life Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel
By Beth Terrell

Cause and Manner of Death
By D.P. Lyle