4/1/15 4/1/15

Are We Desensitizing People to Evil? / Steven James

Humanity has contended with evil since the beginning of time. Violence serves as its proof. Look at the Bible, it is filled with heinous acts from Cain’s killing of Abel to the crucifixion of Jesus, and still we are fascinated and even drawn to these manifestations. In this week’s guest blog, author Steven James explores whether we as writers desensitize readers to evil, or are we in fact sensitizing them? It’s an incredible perspective and one I haven’t thought about before. You decide.

Until next time, read like someone is burning the books!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Are We Desensitizing People to Evil?

By Steven James

Some people have asked if my novels, which most certainly contain violence, aren’t exacerbating the problem of evil in the world. In other words, am I desensitizing people even more to violence and perhaps even inciting it as people imitate what I write about?

I’ve thought about this a lot over the years as I’ve written my last ten suspense, crime and mystery novels.

First of all, I should say that I agree that our world is desensitized to violence. I believe this happens when evil is muted and sanitized (TV shows where people get shot, fall over, there’s no blood, no grief, no mourning), glamorized, or ignored.

So first, muting evil. Some books and television shows do this by diminishing the value of human life. A person will be killed and no one grieves. Cut to commercial. Come back and solve the crime. This isn’t real life. Death hurts because we are people of dignity and worth. Death matters because life matters.

But it isn’t just fiction that mutes or sanitizes evil. It also frequently happens in the media. Think of a news program: “A suicide bomber killed 62 in Iraq,” the television announcer rattles off as objectively as possible, and then moves on to the sports scores for the day.

When we hear that, do we weep? Do we mourn? No, because the horror of what’s happened is sanitized. Only when we see the screaming three-year-old children with shrapnel in their faces, the desperate widows, and the bodies in the street do we feel, do we recognize the impact of the violent, evil act.

Besides muting evil, some films, books and video games glamorize it. Think of a slasher movie: the most interesting person is the guy wielding the axe, slaughtering the teenagers on the campout. This desensitizes people to violence. And since we tend to emulate those we admire, I believe movies or books that glamorize or celebrate violence draw people toward it.

When I was writing my first thriller, The Pawn, I had a subplot that dealt with the Jonestown massacre in 1978 when Jim Jones and more than nine hundred of his followers killed themselves and each other.

While doing research I was able to talk with one of the three people still alive who had walked out of the compound that day and survived. He told me what it was like to have Jim Jones turn to him and say, “Would you do your son first?”

The man I was interviewing had a two-year-old boy there that day. That boy and his mother were both killed in the massacre.

And here’s what struck me: those men and women were no different from you or me—mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters who wanted to create a better life for themselves who came to the point of believing that the most loving thing they could do was to squirt cyanide down the throats of their babies.

Even today as I think about that conversation, a chill runs down my spine.

So the driving question for me as I wrote the book became, “What makes me different from those who do the unthinkable?” It’s not an easy question, and there isn’t a wide margin that separates our hearts from theirs.

In my books I want people to look with both eyes open at what our world is like, both the good and the evil. The violence in my books isn’t senseless; people’s lives are treated as precious. I want my readers to hurt when an innocent life is taken. The only way to do that is to let them see it on the page and then reflect on its meaning.

I think that an effective way of dissuading someone from doing something is to make them see it as deeply disturbing. And the only way to make people disturbed by evil is to show it to them for what it really is.

That’s what well-written fiction can do.

We become more sensitized to violence when it’s portrayed with honesty.

And one of the best places to do that is in crime fiction.

Steven James is the bestselling author of nine novels that have received wide critical acclaim from Publishers Weekly, New York Journal of Books, RT Book Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal and many others. He has won three Christy Awards for best suspense and was a finalist for an International Thriller Award for best original paperback. His psychological thriller The Bishop was named Suspense Magazine’s book of the year. He is also a contributing editor for Writer’s Digest and has taught writing and storytelling principles around the world. Publishers Weekly calls James “[A] master storyteller at the peak of his game.” Visit his website at stevenjames.net

Submit to our blog! (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)

3/31/15 3/31/15

Are We Desensitizing People to Evil? / Steven James

Are We Desensitizing People to Evil?By Steven JamesSome people have asked if my novels, which most certainly contain violence, aren’t exacerbating the problem of evil in the world. In other words, am I desensitizing people even more to violence and perhaps even inciting it as people imitate what I write about?I’ve thought about this a lot over the years as I’ve written my last ten suspense, crime and mystery novels.First of all, I should say that I agree that our world is desensitized to violence. I believe this happens when evil is muted and sanitized (TV shows where people get shot, fall over, there’s no blood, no grief, no mourning), glamorized, or ignored.So first, muting evil. Some books and television shows do this by diminishing the value of human life. A person will be killed and no one grieves. Cut to commercial. Come back and solve the crime. This isn’t real life. Death hurts because we are people of dignity and worth. Death matters because life matters.But it isn’t just fiction that mutes or sanitizes evil. It also frequently happens in the media. Think of a news program: “A suicide bomber killed 62 in Iraq,” the television announcer rattles off as objectively as possible, and then moves on to the sports scores for the day.When we hear that, do we weep? Do we mourn? No, because the horror of what’s happened is sanitized. Only when we see the screaming three-year-old children with shrapnel in their faces, the desperate widows, and the bodies in the street do we feel, do we recognize the impact of the violent, evil act.Besides muting evil, some films, books and video games glamorize it. Think of a slasher movie: the most interesting person is the guy wielding the axe, slaughtering the teenagers on the campout. This desensitizes people to violence. And since we tend to emulate those we admire, I believe movies or books that glamorize or celebrate violence draw people toward it.When I was writing my first thriller, The Pawn, I had a subplot that dealt with the Jonestown massacre in 1978 when Jim Jones and more than nine hundred of his followers killed themselves and each other.While doing research I was able to talk with one of the three people still alive who had walked out of the compound that day and survived. He told me what it was like to have Jim Jones turn to him and say, “Would you do your son first?”The man I was interviewing had a two-year-old boy there that day. That boy and his mother were both killed in the massacre.And here’s what struck me: those men and women were no different from you or me—mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters who wanted to create a better life for themselves who came to the point of believing that the most loving thing they could do was to squirt cyanide down the throats of their babies.

Even today as I think about that conversation, a chill runs down my spine.So the driving question for me as I wrote the book became, “What makes me different from those who do the unthinkable?” It’s not an easy question, and there isn’t a wide margin that separates our hearts from theirs.In my books I want people to look with both eyes open at what our world is like, both the good and the evil. The violence in my books isn’t senseless; people’s lives are treated as precious. I want my readers to hurt when an innocent life is taken. The only way to do that is to let them see it on the page and then reflect on its meaning.I think that an effective way of dissuading someone from doing something is to make them see it as deeply disturbing. And the only way to make people disturbed by evil is to show it to them for what it really is.That’s what well-written fiction can do.We become more sensitized to violence when it’s portrayed with honesty.And one of the best places to do that is in crime fiction.

Steven James is the bestselling author of nine novels that have received wide critical acclaim from Publishers Weekly, New York Journal of Books, RT Book Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal and many others. He has won three Christy Awards for best suspense and was a finalist for an International Thriller Award for best original paperback. His psychological thriller The Bishop was named Suspense Magazine’s book of the year. He is also a contributing editor for Writer's Digest and has taught writing and storytelling principles around the world. Publishers Weekly calls James “[A] master storyteller at the peak of his game.” Visit his website at stevenjames.net

Submit to our blog! (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)

3/31/15 3/31/15

Are We Desensitizing People to Evil? / Steven James

Steven James is the bestselling author of nine novels that have received wide critical acclaim from Publishers Weekly, New York Journal of Books, RT Book Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal and many others. He has won three Christy Awards for best suspense and was a finalist for an International Thriller Award for best original paperback. His psychological thriller The Bishop was named Suspense Magazine’s book of the year. He is also a contributing editor for Writer's Digest and has taught writing and storytelling principles around the world. Publishers Weekly calls James “[A] master storyteller at the peak of his game.” Visit his website at stevenjames.net

3/20/15 3/20/15

I've Got A Secret / Sandy Ward Bell

A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre, says author Sandy Ward Bell. In this week’s Killer Nashville blog, Sandy explains that creating obstacles for your characters is one thing, but developing underlying secret subplots can make a novel a page-turner.

Cheerio!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

I’ve Got a Secret

By Sandy Ward Bell

Whether you write romance or young adult or literary fiction, adding a bit of mystery to your story will improve your work. A mystery helps to move a story forward. Creating obstacles is one thing, but developing an underlying secret as a subplot can make your book a page-turner.

A budding romance is fun, but what if the protagonist’s best friend receives a ransom note for someone they don’t know? Now the love story will include an adventure. It comes down to questions without answers and our job as writers is to make those questions so fascinating the reader will fly through to the end to get the answers. Sometimes “will she get her man” is not enough.

When I took on the challenge of writing a modern version of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I wanted to stay true to her vision and respectful to her characters, knowing the best way to do that was to not deviate from her main themes. With that figured out, the next objective was to make my story as humorous and compelling as Austen’s. While I couldn’t use the delicate beauty of old English and the culture of ancient British estates, I could create a few extra characters with secrets that influenced the protagonist.

In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price doesn’t spend a lot of time with her father. So in Parked at the Mansfields’, I made the father of my main character, Franny Price (note the renaming), disappear without a clue. By giving my protagonist new challenges, it was easier to modernize the story as well as expand on character development. To surprise Austen fans (who know her stories by heart), I added a mystery: there is a key attached to a family secret and Aunt Wilma is going mad trying to find it, while Franny searches for her father. That was my way of twisting the story enough to make it an entertaining ride and strengthen the plot.

Go to your settings, if you are still stumped. Your main character is at a lake, surrounded by tall trees, contemplating if he should give his girl the engagement ring. But wait, there is a creepy sound coming from within the dark forest. He stands to investigate and a splash in the water causes him to jump. The unknown creature living in the lake will help him make his decision.

Another way to find a hidden mystery in your story is to ask why. Why does the protagonist drive a red car? Is it because that is the same kind of car his dead mother drove? Why does your main character like antiques? Is it because she’s looking for her childhood bookshelf that has a concealed compartment? Why does the Uncle always kiss the mailbox after retrieving his magazine subscriptions? Is it a sort of Morse code he uses to communicate with his neighbor? Never underestimate the power of “why.”

A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre. And you’ll have fun as a writer, too, tweaking your characters and storyline to offer readers a tale both enjoyable and unexpected.

Sandy Ward Bell grew up in upstate New York and had a successful career as a radio announcer and promotion director. After becoming a wife and mother, the art of storytelling became her new passion with the motto, “You can never be in too many book clubs.” Writing fiction became a natural next step. Her first novel, In Zoey’s Head, reflects her experience with the media and pop culture. Her second book, Parked at the Mansfields’, highlights her appreciation for Jane Austen’s timeless story. Throughout the years, she’s called Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home. Currently she lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband and a Westie. Visit sandywardbell.com for more updates on current and new work in progress.

3/20/15 3/20/15

I've Got A Secret / Sandy Ward Bell

I’ve Got a SecretBy Sandy Ward BellWhether you write romance or young adult or literary fiction, adding a bit of mystery to your story will improve your work. A mystery helps to move a story forward. Creating obstacles is one thing, but developing an underlying secret as a subplot can make your book a page-turner.A budding romance is fun, but what if the protagonist’s best friend receives a ransom note for someone they don’t know? Now the love story will include an adventure. It comes down to questions without answers and our job as writers is to make those questions so fascinating the reader will fly through to the end to get the answers. Sometimes “will she get her man” is not enough.When I took on the challenge of writing a modern version of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I wanted to stay true to her vision and respectful to her characters, knowing the best way to do that was to not deviate from her main themes. With that figured out, the next objective was to make my story as humorous and compelling as Austen’s. While I couldn’t use the delicate beauty of old English and the culture of ancient British estates, I could create a few extra characters with secrets that influenced the protagonist.In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price doesn’t spend a lot of time with her father. So in Parked at the Mansfields’, I made the father of my main character, Franny Price (note the renaming), disappear without a clue. By giving my protagonist new challenges, it was easier to modernize the story as well as expand on character development. To surprise Austen fans (who know her stories by heart), I added a mystery: there is a key attached to a family secret and Aunt Wilma is going mad trying to find it, while Franny searches for her father. That was my way of twisting the story enough to make it an entertaining ride and strengthen the plot.

If you are having difficulty finding that perfect twist for your book, look first to your characters. Let’s imagine you already wrote an important scene with your protagonist and a co-worker eating at a restaurant while discussing their problems. But, did you, as the writer, notice a guy at the next table recording their conversation with his phone? Now you can imagine it, and add to the story that your co-worker is a tech-geek, and the intruder is his nemesis. Simply exaggerate a characteristic or profession and let your creative mind do the rest.Go to your settings, if you are still stumped. Your main character is at a lake, surrounded by tall trees, contemplating if he should give his girl the engagement ring. But wait, there is a creepy sound coming from within the dark forest. He stands to investigate and a splash in the water causes him to jump. The unknown creature living in the lake will help him make his decision.Another way to find a hidden mystery in your story is to ask why. Why does the protagonist drive a red car? Is it because that is the same kind of car his dead mother drove? Why does your main character like antiques? Is it because she’s looking for her childhood bookshelf that has a concealed compartment? Why does the Uncle always kiss the mailbox after retrieving his magazine subscriptions? Is it a sort of Morse code he uses to communicate with his neighbor? Never underestimate the power of “why.”A mysterious subplot is always intriguing, regardless of the genre. And you’ll have fun as a writer, too, tweaking your characters and storyline to offer readers a tale both enjoyable and unexpected.

Sandy Ward Bell grew up in upstate New York and had a successful career as a radio announcer and promotion director. After becoming a wife and mother, the art of storytelling became her new passion with the motto, “You can never be in too many book clubs.” Writing fiction became a natural next step. Her first novel, In Zoey's Head, reflects her experience with the media and pop culture. Her second book, Parked at the Mansfields’, highlights her appreciation for Jane Austen’s timeless story. Throughout the years, she’s called Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home. Currently she lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband and a Westie. Visit sandywardbell.com for more updates on current and new work in progress.

3/20/15 3/20/15

I've Got A Secret / Sandy Ward Bell

Sandy Ward Bell grew up in upstate New York and had a successful career as a radio announcer and promotion director. After becoming a wife and mother, the art of storytelling became her new passion with the motto, “You can never be in too many book clubs.” Writing fiction became a natural next step. Her first novel, In Zoey's Head, reflects her experience with the media and pop culture. Her second book, Parked at the Mansfields’, highlights her appreciation for Jane Austen’s timeless story. Throughout the years, she’s called Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania home. Currently she lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband and a Westie. Visit sandywardbell.com for more updates on current and new work in progress.

3/13/15 3/13/15

Take a Writing Turn: Be Yourself, Then Maybe Look West / Vonn McKee

Enjoy this article. Let us know if it makes you long westwardly. Better yet, let us know when you’ve climbed up on the horse.

Happy Reading!

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

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Take a Writing Turn: Be Yourself, Then Maybe Look West

By Vonn McKee

When I decided to become a writer, I did the thing that many prospective authors do. I googled “How to Become a Writer.” I was stunned at the avalanche of Internet article lists: “27 Tips for Becoming a Writer,” “365 Days to Becoming a Writer,” “The ONLY Thing You Need to Know to Become a Writer.” A quick visit to Amazon revealed enough “How to Become a Writer” books to fill a suburban library.

And here’s the surprise: most of them were written by authors I had never heard of. These guys were apparently selling more books to writers about being writers than they were to the actual reading public. What a brilliant scheme!

I confess that I did read some of these how-to’s. Often, the advice was conflicting from one book to the next. Some tips were downright bizarre: “Take a huge bowel movement every day. If your body doesn’t flow, then your brain won’t flow. Eat more fruit if you have to.”

Obviously, I couldn’t follow all of this advice or I would never get anything written. (For one thing, it’s really hard to balance a laptop when you’re on the privy.) There were, however, a couple of closely related truths that hit home. I’ll share them with you, along with the disclaimer that this really is NOT a “how to become a writer” blog.

Find your voice. This is harder than it sounds. It involves a lifetime of reading, and then discovering which styles of description, dialogue and characters touch off your inner tuning fork. It also involves a lot of writing — experimenting, failing, erasing, starting over, honing. Having a nice wall to stare at helps.

Find your market. Write books like ones you’ve read and could never forget. It’s the stuff of your algebra class daydreams, who are your “people”, and how many pairs of running shoes (or cowboy boots) do you own. It’s who you are. Maybe, it’s who you wish you could be. There are others out there like you — and you know how to talk to them.

Because of my particular path, I chose the Western genre. I’ve released some short stories and have a novel in the works. Apparently, I’m trendy; The New Yorker published Stephen King’s Western short story, A Death, just this week. Fans of his will recall his Western/horror/fantasy Dark Tower series, which King described as his “magnum opus.”

I wrote a mystery short story called Noah Rains with the classic “there’s something out there” theme. I’ll go ahead and tell you it isn’t a bloodthirsty alien. Horror is relative: a story about werewolves that simply gives you a start will scare my drawers off. And you may blanch at the sight of clowns after reading It, while I think they’re just weird old guys wearing too much makeup.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make: if mystery/crime/horror is your market, consider jumping genres to explore new audiences. In the Western vein, Craig Johnson’s Longmire crime novels (and the subsequent television series) feature a flawed sheriff who is battling depression, drug lords and other everyday villains, not to mention running for reelection. Psychological thriller fans need look no further than Cormac McMarthy’s Blood Meridian. (Has there ever been a better moniker than the kid’s earless traveling buddy, Louis Toadvine?)

So take your ghosts to, you know, ghost towns. Mark a crime scene in Arizona sand rather than on an urban sidewalk. Let your hellish demons possess a steam locomotive or a miner’s pack mule. The Old West was a magical, mysterious place –– and might be the perfect setting for your next story.

If you would like to read more about Vonn Mckee’s books please click here.

Vonn McKee jokes that she is descended from horse traders and southern belles. She spent summers visiting her father’s family, who raised cattle and broke horses. Inspired by seeing her grandfather stretched out on a sofa reading Zane Grey novels (some of which were passed down to her), she owned a complete Zane Grey set herself by age eighteen. After years of working at everything from a riverboat waitress to country singer to construction project manager, Vonn is incorporating her experiences — and some of the interesting characters she’s met— into stories of the old West. Vonn McKee’s short stories are available on Amazon and Smashwords.com. “The Songbird of Seville” was named a WWA Spur Award finalist for Best Short Fiction. Visit her website http://www.vonnmckee.com/

3/13/15 3/13/15

Take a Writing Turn: Be Yourself, Then Maybe Look West / Vonn McKee

Vonn McKee knows the kind of writers we are. She also knows ways we could be different. In this article, Vonn talks a little about her own journey and the two things she found most helpful in becoming a writer. And then she challenges us to maybe think outside the box to find something new for ourselves. She is also reigniting my desire to pull out those old Zane Greys I haven’t visited in a while.Enjoy this article. Let us know if it makes you long westwardly. Better yet, let us know when you’ve climbed up on the horse.Happy Reading!And until next time, read like someone is burning the books.Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Take a Writing Turn: Be Yourself, Then Maybe Look WestBy Vonn McKeeWhen I decided to become a writer, I did the thing that many prospective authors do. I googled “How to Become a Writer.” I was stunned at the avalanche of Internet article lists: “27 Tips for Becoming a Writer,” “365 Days to Becoming a Writer,” “The ONLY Thing You Need to Know to Become a Writer.” A quick visit to Amazon revealed enough “How to Become a Writer” books to fill a suburban library.And here’s the surprise: most of them were written by authors I had never heard of. These guys were apparently selling more books to writers about being writers than they were to the actual reading public. What a brilliant scheme!I confess that I did read some of these how-to’s. Often, the advice was conflicting from one book to the next. Some tips were downright bizarre: “Take a huge bowel movement every day. If your body doesn’t flow, then your brain won’t flow. Eat more fruit if you have to.”Obviously, I couldn’t follow all of this advice or I would never get anything written. (For one thing, it’s really hard to balance a laptop when you’re on the privy.) There were, however, a couple of closely related truths that hit home. I’ll share them with you, along with the disclaimer that this really is NOT a “how to become a writer” blog.Find your voice. This is harder than it sounds. It involves a lifetime of reading, and then discovering which styles of description, dialogue and characters touch off your inner tuning fork. It also involves a lot of writing — experimenting, failing, erasing, starting over, honing. Having a nice wall to stare at helps.Find your market. Write books like ones you’ve read and could never forget. It’s the stuff of your algebra class daydreams, who are your “people”, and how many pairs of running shoes (or cowboy boots) do you own. It’s who you are. Maybe, it’s who you wish you could be. There are others out there like you — and you know how to talk to them.Because of my particular path, I chose the Western genre. I’ve released some short stories and have a novel in the works. Apparently, I’m trendy; The New Yorker published Stephen King’s Western short story, A Death, just this week. Fans of his will recall his Western/horror/fantasy Dark Tower series, which King described as his “magnum opus.”

I’m not a big shoot-em-up, burn-em-out kind of writer. I favor the historical fiction angle and typically write about everyday characters rather than gun slinging superheroes. I’m not above throwing in some anomalies. For instance, a Spanish opera singer stuck in a Western town accidentally shoots the sheriff (but not the deputy) in The Songbird of Seville.I wrote a mystery short story called Noah Rains with the classic “there’s something out there” theme. I’ll go ahead and tell you it isn’t a bloodthirsty alien. Horror is relative: a story about werewolves that simply gives you a start will scare my drawers off. And you may blanch at the sight of clowns after reading It, while I think they’re just weird old guys wearing too much makeup.Here’s the point I’m trying to make: if mystery/crime/horror is your market, consider jumping genres to explore new audiences. In the Western vein, Craig Johnson’s Longmire crime novels (and the subsequent television series) feature a flawed sheriff who is battling depression, drug lords and other everyday villains, not to mention running for reelection. Psychological thriller fans need look no further than Cormac McMarthy’s Blood Meridian. (Has there ever been a better moniker than the kid’s earless traveling buddy, Louis Toadvine?)So take your ghosts to, you know, ghost towns. Mark a crime scene in Arizona sand rather than on an urban sidewalk. Let your hellish demons possess a steam locomotive or a miner’s pack mule. The Old West was a magical, mysterious place –– and might be the perfect setting for your next story.

If you would like to read more about Vonn Mckee's books please click here.Vonn McKee jokes that she is descended from horse traders and southern belles. She spent summers visiting her father's family, who raised cattle and broke horses. Inspired by seeing her grandfather stretched out on a sofa reading Zane Grey novels (some of which were passed down to her), she owned a complete Zane Grey set herself by age eighteen. After years of working at everything from a riverboat waitress to country singer to construction project manager, Vonn is incorporating her experiences — and some of the interesting characters she's met— into stories of the old West. Vonn McKee’s short stories are available on Amazon and Smashwords.com. "The Songbird of Seville" was named a WWA Spur Award finalist for Best Short Fiction. Visit her website http://www.vonnmckee.com/

3/13/15 3/13/15

Take a Writing Turn: Be Yourself, Then Maybe Look West / Vonn McKee

3/10/15 3/10/15

Genre Studies: Bad Girls

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

In the genre sense, “Bad Girls” is a psychological subgenre of the larger “Crime” masthead, which we discussed in the last issue.

BREAKING DOWN THE BAD GIRL STORY

I am writing my opinion here and it is not my objective to emasculate the guys, but if you feel that way, it could be that you especially should be en garde: there are women out there who are intent on doing you serious hurt!

Here’s the bottom line: men have been scared of seductive women since the beginning of time. Why? Because they recognize – even if only subconsciously – the ultimate power that can lead to their downfall. It is the weakness of the men who give women this power, not necessarily the strength of the women themselves. So you have two things going on here as a writer: the flawed male character with a weakness (usually the protagonist) and the opportunistic wiliness of the woman (maybe the antagonist – or this is how these roles are normally portrayed). Of course, to have a strong hero, you must have an equally – or more so – strong villain and, in fiction as in life, why not hit the man where he is most weak? Religion has ineffectively rallied against her since the beginning of time. Politics have tried to keep her down. Misogynist males have been no match. These women – and here I go maybe offending the women – are female vampires, whether or not the actual association is made. In the end, these girls are bloodsuckers of men. They are sensual, sexy, dangerous, manipulative, near unstoppable, and even cursed.

Now here’s the good part. Most of the time, the female trickery is directed towards a man, but sometimes in the telling, another woman takes the fall. Psychological catfight! And don’t think the sensuality that leads to a man’s fall does not also work on a woman, though not to the physically sexual degree. For woman-to-woman, it is intimidation. It’s also interesting that, in the tragedy of these characters destroying each other’s lives, that some of these stories are designated as comedies rather than tragedies, because the truth of it outside the comedic element would be too much to bear.

There is a subgroup in “Bad Girls” known as “Femme Fatale.” I’m putting both of these in the same category because the femme fatale is just a certain – and certainly very popular for a time – version of the same thing. The motive is the same for each of these ladies, though the targets might be different. In the end, as your mother told you, there are the girls you marry, and then there are the girls you don’t bring home to meet the family (because you might be dead, for one).

Looking at femme fatales before we move on, a femme fatale is a (usually) attractive woman, especially one who will bring disaster upon any man who becomes involved with her. Femme fatale is a French phrase meaning, literally, “fatal woman.” In truth, haven’t we all dated a few of these? In America since the late 1800’s, we’ve called them vamps, interestingly short for vampire. Here we go back to the bloodsucking motif. These women – though not always of horror – are a succubus in their own ways. But no different than the men who are portrayed in other stories. These women, call them “Bad Girls” or “Femme Fatales,” will seek to win at all costs with morals ranging from villainous to simple ambivalence. In observing this type of woman, some have even gone so far as to call her “a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse” (Joris-Karl Huysmans).

I love Gothic as my readers know and there is a definite Gothic influence in the character, whether in the whole work or not. There may not be a castle, but many times the portrayal of the lass is one of foreign origin, if not physically, then psychologically. It’s an exotic temptation as though, if American, one might need to take a trip to England or Europe. The different culture, in this case mental culture, is a thematic temptation. And, of course, there are always the eyes, those windows of those evil seeking souls.

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Marquis de Sade felt that it wasn’t evil that occupied these women, but the best that women had to offer. That’s an interesting thought. Even today, there is a whole trash market with Girls Gone Wild; unfortunately for me, I guess I prefer my “Bad Girls” more in the form of Dolores Umbridge, which leads me to this: purists would probably like to keep the genre in the stereotype of a seductress in a trench coat (probably also in black-and-white), but women come in all shapes, sizes, and modes of criminality. To the purists, I’d have to say, watch noir to see your femme fatale; to the academic studying “Bad Girls,” a kaleidoscope of color is available as you’ll see in the lists of “Bad Girls” below.

For me, though, I’m going to take a risk and jump out of the stereotype. To write a “Bad Girl,” you don’t have to have a gun or murder; you have to have intent and great characterization. She doesn’t have to be an evil twin, or Humphrey Bogart’s ultimate undoing, or even a high-powered corporate bitch. All she needs is attitude. Writers need to know that. So bear with me as I’m going to diverge from the 1950’s noir bad girl and simply look at character. These women are strong and they are formidable in numerous settings. Put a gun in their hand and you have Mickey Spillane; put a box of baking soda in their hand, and you have Mommie Dearest. In the end, it is the same woman, different time, different channel. Regardless, we are mesmerized. We love to watch these women, for the same reason we like horror movies. We love to be seduced by these women because we are foolish enough to think that – while others have failed – we can control them. But how much of their actions or successes are our own hedonistic fault? Are they all not like poor Jessica Rabbit: “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”

CASE HISTORY: FIRST BAD GIRL OR FEMME FATALE STORIES

The “Bad Girl” is an archetype in worldwide literature. I first met the “Bad Girl” in the most likely place: church. For children who go to Sunday School – of which I am a proponent – they know the stories of the bad girls: Eve, Potiphar’s wife, Lot’s wife, the woman at the well, Delilah, Sapphira, Rahab, Michal, and – of course – Jezebel. But they also know of Solomon’s frisky young lady whose breasts are like young fawns. As a young boy, no one had to force me to read scripture.

From the first woman (Eve) forward, being a “Bad Girl” has been one of the oldest ways to get ahead. Following Eve came a whole slew of ambitious females: Sphinx (Greek, not Egyptian, 1600 BC), Delilah (Hebrew, 1075 BC), Daji (Chinese, brought down an empire, 1047 BC), Jezebel (Hebrew, 858 BC), the Homer’s Sirens, Scylla, Circe, Aphrodite, Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra (Greek, 850 BC Homer), Lilith (Hebrew, 600 BC), Mohini (Hindu, 450 BC), Euripides’ Medea (Greek, 440 BC), Cleopatra (Egypt, 45 BC), Salome (Hebrew, 26 AD), and Messalina (Roman, 35 AD). And they were not all fictional. Sappho (7th Century BC) was not only a poet, but a pretty bad girl herself. Needless to say, the “Bad Girl” is a classic.

When the Middle Ages came, they piously or comically focused on seductive women of ill-intent. By focusing, they did little to quell the personality type; in fact, like modern-day condemnations, it only added to the allure of the femme fatale. In the 1600s, Shakespeare (as did most of the poets) loved the duplicitous woman, but then, even now, who doesn’t? English literature began using the femme fatale to make social statements in the 1800s. And, of course, the femme fatale reigned as Queen in American hardboiled stories and noir films of the 1900s. All through time, it was the sexual attractiveness paired with the mental ingenuity that created the allure.

THE FUTURE OF BAD GIRL FICTION

“Bad Girl” fiction dominates film much more than it does literature. Why? Not sure. I would speculate it is because of the visual element and the demographic targets are usually male audiences. In literature, one needs to mentally create, to provide one’s own pictures. Visually, one just has to sit back and enjoy. This is why I personally think the subgenre rules more in film than it does in literature…but it doesn’t have to be that way.

A distinction between the femme fatale and the vamp is that the vamp goes straight for sexual advances while the femme fatale is more catlike using sensuality as the means to the end, not necessarily sex (or some symbolic metaphor). There is a hybrid forming in many YA films and stories of the two intermingling: female vampires who are, at the same time, femme fatales.

But in many ways because of the evolutionary view of women in the Western world, the “Bad Girl” is becoming more subtle on some sides and more bold on others. She is changing form, from sensuality of the body and cunning of the mind and expanding to a bit of male kick-ass never before allowed because – I think – society itself could not have previously endured it. By doing so, these “Bad Girls” are in ways becoming sexually homogeneous and embracing crimes normally committed by men in the past and this is possibly why we also see a greater plethora of them as protagonists (rather than antagonists or supportive roles) in the visual arts than we do in literature. Movies traditionally are made for young adult men. Explosions, pretty girls, wild women; all of these fit into that fractured male demographic. Part of the allure, too, is that the “Bad Girls” of today are not just directing their wiles against men, but also other women, society, and social issues. And they are not always working alone. Sometimes they move in packs like jackals.

EXAMPLES FOR EXPLORING THE BAD GIRL GENRE ON YOUR OWN

My objective is to look at works driven by the “Bad Girl” archetype. Sometimes I blur the lines between “Bad Girl” protagonists and plots dependent upon the “Bad Girl” character. I realize this, but I also know that these characters are a driving force within each of the stories listed and, if removed, the story would not be what it is. I often wonder, too, if in a different time and a different reader/viewer mindset would these “Bad Girls” not have taken a larger role.

I haven’t identified the “Bad Girl” in any of the below. I’m taking it as a given that you’ll figure that one out.

In the list of films, I have to say that these are not all necessarily good movies as a whole, but they are great movies for “Bad Girls” and many of the bad ones are even downright disturbing. In movies, sometimes even if there is a remake, I may include the older version (God forbid, even if in black-and-white) because it is – frankly – better acted, directed, and/or written. Caution: because we are looking at “Bad Girls,” it is inevitable that some of the women portrayed here are very bad; in the case of some of the movies, I wouldn’t look at the trailers unless you are alone, and certainly not at work.

I’ve expanded from my first column last month. I’ve included titles of books and films in a variety of settings because, as we know, quality is a subjective term and one may like their nasty sultry and sensual, while another might like it comedic because, in the spirit of Elmore Leonard, nothing says that crime cannot be funny. So I’ve included quite a few comedies for those of like mind. From your comments, too, and from previewing the excellent column written by teacher Tracy Spruce in this month’s Killer Nashville Magazine, I understand some of you are classical readers and viewers and some more contemporary, so I have included the dates for all (literature and film) so you can explore this subgenre within your own area of comfort and reference, finding books and films that work for you in the way that you easily think. Education should be enjoyable; I’ve tried to make it so. And, for further study for those writers who want to explore the genre in detail, I’ve included books I think might help you understand the progression of literary “Bad Girls” and femme fatales. Wade through. I’ve included something for everyone, regardless of your personal standards. But remember this: The “Bad Girl” does not have to be over-the-top. She can be subtle, as in many of the examples below. In fact, subtlety seems to have a way of destroying drop-by-drop hard, impenetrable surfaces that over-the-top does not.

All of these are here for us to read and study to make us better writers. From stealing puppies to seducing cops, here are my favorite “Bad Girls” in Literature, Film, Television, and Nonfiction Writer Studies:

A Touch of Death / Charles Williams, 1953
Beowulf / Anonymous, 700
The Bible / Various
The Big Sleep / Raymond Chandler, 1988
The Bride Wore Black / Cornell Woolrich, 1957
Carmilla / Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1871
Casino Royale / Ian Fleming, 1953
Cat’s Eye / Margaret Atwood, 1988
Christabel / Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1816
The Cocktail Waitress / James M. Cain, 2012
The Crucible / Arthur Miller, 1953
The Custom of the Country / Edith Wharton, 1910
The Day of the Locust / Nathanael West, 1939
Dolores Claiborne / Stephen King, 1992
Double Indemnity / James M. Cain, 1936
Dracula / Bram Stoker, 1897
Earth Spirit / Frank Wedekind, 1895
Earth’s Children Series / Jean M. Auel, 1980
Emma / Jane Austen, 1815
The Faerie Queene / Edmund Spenser, 1590
Farewell, My Lovely / Raymond Chandler, 1940
For Your Eyes Only / Ian Fleming, 1960
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang / Joyce Carol Oates, 1993
The Glass Menagerie / Tennessee Williams, 1945
Goldeneye / John Gardner, 1995
Gone Girl / Gillian Flynn, 2012
Gone with the Wind / Margaret Mitchell, 1936
Great Expectations / Charles Dickens, 1861
The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix / J. K. Rowling, 2003
His Dark Materials Series / Philip Pullman, 1995
The House of Mirth / Edith Wharton, 1905
I, the Jury / Mickey Spillane, 1947
Icebreaker / John Gardner, 1983
Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte, 1847
Juliette / Marquis de Sade, 1797
King Lear / William Shakespeare, 1605
Kiss Me Deadly / Mickey Spillane, 1952
La Belle Dame Sans Merci / John Keats, 1819
Lady Audley’s Secret / Mary Elizabeth Braddon, 1862
Lady Susan / Jane Austen, 1871
Les Liaisons Dangereuses / Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 1782
Licence to Kill / John Gardner, 1989
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe / C. S. Lewis, 1950
Little House on the Prairie Series / Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1932
Macbeth (The Tragedy of Macbeth) / William Shakespeare, 1606
Madame Bovary / Gustave Flaubert, 1856
The Maltese Falcon / Dashiell Hammett, 1930
Mildred Pierce / James M. Cain, 1941
Misery / Stephen King, 1987
The Monk / Matthew Gregory Lewis, 1795
Nana / Emile Zola, 1880
Nobody Lives Forever / John Gardner, 1986
The Odyssey / Homer, 800 BC
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest / Ken Kesey, 1962
Pandora’s Box / Frank Wedekind, 1904
The Postman Always Rings Twice / James M. Cain, 1934
Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen, 1813
Queenpin / Megan Abbott, 2007
Rebecca / Daphne du Maurier, 1938
Robbie’s Wife / Russell Hill, 2007
Salome / Oscar Wilde, 1891
Sense and Sensibility / Jane Austen, 1811
Single White Female / John Lutz, 1990
A Tale of Two Cities / Charles Dickens, 1859
Thunderball / Ian Fleming, 1961
You Only Live Twice / Ian Fleming, 1964
The Vampire Diaries Series / L. J. Smith, 2010
Vampire Hunter Series (early Anita Blake) / Laurell K. Hamilton, 1993
Vanity Fair / William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital / Lorrie Moore, 1994
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz / L. Frank Baum, 1900
Wuthering Heights / Emily Bronte, 1847
101 Dalmatians / Stephen Herek, 1996
9 To 5 / Colin Higgins, 1980
A Blueprint for Murder / Andrew Stone, 1953
A Fool There Was / Frank Powell, 1915
A Private Affair / Guillaume Nicloux, 2002
A Very Long Engagement / Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004
A Woman’s Face / George Cukor, 1941
Accomplice / Walter Colmes, 1946
Ace in the Hole / Billy Wilder, 1951
Addams Family Values / Barry Sonnenfeld, 1993
Allotment Wives / William Nigh, 1945
All About Eve / Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950
Angel Face / Otto Preminger, 1952
Another Man’s Poison / Irving Rapper, 1951
Apology for Murder / Sam Newfield, 1945
Bachelorette / Leslye Headland, 2012
Bad Teacher / Jake Kasdan, 2011
Basic Instinct / Paul Verhoeven, 1992
Bedevilled / Mitchell Leisen and Richard Thorpe, 1955
Beyond the Forest / King Vidor, 1949
The Big Heat / Fritz Lang, 1953
The Big Sleep / Howard Hawks, 1946
Black Widow / Vernon Sewell, 1951
Blade Runner / Ridley Scott, 1982
Blonde Ice / Jack Bernhard, 1948
Blood Money / Rowland Brown, 1933
Blue Velvet / David Lynch, 1986
Blues in the Night / Anatole Litvak, 1941
Body Heat / Lawrence Kasdan, 1981
Born to Be Bad / Lowell Sherman, 1934
Born to Be Bad / Nicholas Ray, 1950
Born to Kill / Robert Wise, 1947
Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion / Arthur Dreifuss, 1945
Bound / The Wachowski Brothers, 1996
The Bribe / Robert Z. Leonard, 1949
The Bride Wore Black / Francois Truffaut, 1968
Bridesmaids / Paul Feig, 2011
The Burglar / Paul Wendkos, 1957
Calling Dr. Death / Reginald Le Borg, 1943
The Come On / Russell Birdwell, 1956
Crack in the Mirror / Richard Fleischer, 1960
Crime of Passion / Gerd Oswald, 1957
The Crush / Alan Shapiro, 1993
D.O.A. / Rudolph Mate, 1950
Damage / Louis Malle, 1992
Dangerous Liaisons / Stephen Frears, 1988
Dead Reckoning / John Cromwell, 1947
Death Becomes Her / Robert Zemeckis, 1992
Decoy / Jack Bernhard, 1946
Delores Claiborne / Taylor Hackford, 1995
Detour / Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945
Devil in the Flesh / Steve Cohen, 1998
The Devil Wears Prada / David Frankel, 2006
Diabolique / H. G. Clouzot, 1955
Don’t Bother to Knock / Roy Baker, 1952
Double Cross / Albert Kelley, 1941
Double Indemnity / Billy Wilder, 1944
Dressed to Kill / Roy William Neill, 1946
Drop Dead Gorgeous / Michael Patrick Jann, 1999
Elevator to the Gallows / Louis Malle, 1958
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! / Russ Meyer, 1965
Female on the Beach / Joseph Pevney, 1955
Femme Fatale / Brian De Palma, 2002
Flaxy Martin / Richard Bare, 1949
Framed / Richard Wallace, 1947
For a Good Time, Call… / Jamie Travis, 2012
Foxes / Adrian Lyne, 1980
Foxfire / Annette Haywood-Carter, 1996
Gia / Michael Cristofer, 1998
Gilda / Charles Vidor, 1946
The Grifters / Stephen Frears, 1990
Gun Crazy / Joseph H. Lewis, 1950
Heathers / Michael Lehmann, 1988
High School Confidential! / Jack Arnold, 1958
The House of Yes / Mark Waters, 1997
The House on 56th Street / Robert Florey, 1933
The Houston Story / William Castle, 1956
Human Desire / Fritz Lang, 1954
I, the Jury / Harry Essex, 1953
The Ice Harvest / Harold Ramis, 2005
Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS / Don Edmonds, 1975
Jackie Brown / Quentin Tarantino, 1997
Jawbreaker / Darren Stein, 1999
Jennifer’s Body / Karyn Kusama, 2009
Kill Bill / Quentin Tarantino, 2003
The Killers / Robert Siodmak, 1946
The Killing / Stanley Kubrick, 1956
Kind Lady / John Sturges, 1951
Kiss Me Deadly / Robert Aldrich, 1955
Ladies They Talk About / Howard Bretherton and William Keighley, 1933
The Lady from Shanghai / Orson Welles, 1948
Lady Gangster / Florian Roberts (Robert Florey), 1942
Lady in the Lake / Robert Montgomery, 1947
The Last Seduction / John Dahl, 1994
Leave Her to Heaven / John M. Stahl, 1945
The Letter / William Wyler, 1940
Lust for Gold / S. Sylvan Simon and George Marshall, 1949
Macbeth / Justin Kurzel, 2015
Malice / Harold Becker, 1993
The Maltese Falcon / John Huston, 1941
The Man Who Cheated Himself / Felix E. Feist, 1950
Mean Girls / Mark Waters, 2004
Midnight in Paris / Woody Allen, 2011
Mildred Pierce / Michael Curtiz, 1945
Mini’s First Time / Nick Guthe, 2006
Misery / Rob Reiner, 1990
Mommie Dearest / Frank Perry, 1981
Moulin Rouge! / Baz Luhrmann, 2001
Murder, My Sweet / Edward Dmytryk, 1944
My Forbidden Past / Robert Stevenson, 1951
My Son Is Guilty / Charles Barton, 1939
Niagara / Henry Hathaway, 1953
Notes on a Scandal / Richard Eyre, 2006
Of Human Bondage / John Cromwell, 1934
On Dangerous Ground / Nicholas Ray and Ida Lupino, 1951
One Girl’s Confession / Hugo Haas, 1953
The Opposite of Sex / Don Roos, 1998
Original Sin / Michael Cristofer, 2001
Out of the Past / Jacques Tourneur, 1947
The Paperboy / Lee Daniels, 2012
The Paradine Case / Alfred Hitchcock, 1947
Pickup / Hugo Haas, 1951
Please Murder Me / Peter Godfrey, 1956
The Postman Always Rings Twice / Bob Rafelson, 1981
The Postman Always Rings Twice / Tay Garnett, 1946
Private Benjamin / Howard Zieff, 1980
Prizzi’s Honor / John Huston, 1985
Rebecca / Alfred Hitchcock, 1940
Red-Headed Woman / Jack Conway, 1932
The Revolt of Mamie Stover / Raoul Walsh, 1956
Romeo Is Bleeding / Peter Medak, 1993
Ruthless People / Jim Abrahams, et. al., 1986
The Saint Takes Over / Jack Hively, 1940
Scarlet Street / Fritz Lang, 1945
Serial Mom / John Waters, 1994
Set It Off / F. Gary Gray, 1996
She-Devil / Susan Seidelman, 1989
Shed No Tears / Jean Yarbrough, 1948
Showgirls / Paul Verhoeven, 1995
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For / Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, 2014
Single White Female / Barbet Schroeder, 1992
Song of the Thin Man / Edward Buzzell, 1947
Station West / Sidney Lanfield, 1948
Sudden Fear / David Miller, 1952
Tank Girl / Rachel Talalay, 1995
Tension / John Berry, 1949
Thelma & Louise / Ridley Scott, 1991
They Drive by Night / Raoul Walsh, 1940
Thirteen Women / George Archainbaud, 1932
To Die For / Gus Van Sant, 1995
Too Late for Tears / Byron Haskin, 1949
The Truth / Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960
Undertow / William Castle, 1949
The Unholy Wife / John Farrow, 1957
The Uninvited / Lewis Allen, 1944
Where Danger Lives / John Farrow, 1950
The Witches of Eastwick / George Miller, 1987
Working Girl / Mike Nichols, 1988
Young Adult / Jason Reitman, 2011
Young Man with a Horn / Michael Curtiz (1950)
American Gothic / Shaun Cassidy, CBS, 1995
Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Joss Whedon, WB, 1997
Desperate Housewives / Marc Cherry, ABC, 2004
Dollhouse / Joss Whedon, Fox, 2009
Farscape / Rockne S. O’Bannon, Nine Network, 1999
Las Vegas / Gary Scott Thompson, NBC, 2003
Orange is the New Black / Jenji Kohan, Netflix, 2013
The Pretender / Steven Long Mitchell, Craig W. Van Sickle, NBC, 1996
The Sarah Connor Chronicles / Josh Friedman, Fox, 2008
The Shadow Line / Hugo Blick, BBC Two, 2011
The Vampire Diaries / Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, The CW, 2009
Veronica Mars / Rob Thomas, UPN, 2004
Weeds / Jenji Kohan, Showtime, 2005
Dangerous Women: The Perils of Muses and Femmes Fatales / Laura Adler, Elisa Lecosse, 2010
Femme Fatale: Cinema’s Most Unforgettable Lethal Ladies / Dominique Mainon, James Ursini, 2009
The Femme Fatale in Victorian Literature: The Danger and the Sexual Threat / Jennifer Hedgecock, 2008
Femmes Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis / Mary Ann Doane, 1991
The Myth of Morgan la Fey / Kristina Perez, 2014
The Romantic Agony / Mario Praz, 1930

What titles did I miss? Let me know in the comments below so we can grow the reference material.

Stick with me on this series and explore these genres and subgenres with me each month and I guarantee you will find new and exciting elements to incorporate into your own writing.

3/9/15 3/9/15

Louisiana History as Backdrop for Debut Novel

By Maria Giordano,
Killer Nashville Staff

You could say that Mike Rubin was destined to become a writer. It was as “they” say in his blood. His mother was a short story writer, his father a federal judge whose opinions are still quoted today, and his wife has written numerous television scripts and has served as a developmental editor of nonfiction books.

A Louisiana native and full-time attorney, Mike had already penned over forty articles for periodicals, newspapers, and law reviews, and several non-fiction law books, before taking up historical fiction.

His debut novel, “The Cottoncrest Curse”, combines many of his talents in what he calls a legal thriller.

“Although I have written a number of legal books and articles, my wife, Ayan, and I developed the story and characters of “The Cottoncrest Curse” during our daily, early morning walks,” Mike said. “We wanted to create a tale that dealt with issues of family identity, truth, justice, race, and religion in the context of a compelling, page-turning thriller.”

The story deals with three major questions that can apply to anyone, he added.

“Can we ever really know the whole truth about our family history? If we learned the truth about our heritage, would it change our perception of others or ourselves? And, do we have a responsibility to tell the unvarnished truth if it would hurt some but help others?”

Cottoncrest is not a real plantation, but Rubin took care in creating the historical context surrounding the story because LSU Press, a university press that has a special concentration in southern history, published the book. His work was researched and vetted by historians for accuracy, he said.

He explained that his descriptions of plantation life, Civil War battles, how physicians cared for the wounded, the plight of both sharecroppers and former slaves, the details of raising sugar cane, the culture, the speech patterns, and the New Orleans locale are all historically accurate.

“Likewise, the historical events surrounding the famous separate-but-equal case of Plessy v. Ferguson, described in the novel, are true,” Mike said. “Attorney Louis Martinet, who is depicted in the novel, was a real person, a black lawyer succeeding in racist, post-Reconstruction Louisiana. It was Martinet who came up with the idea of creating a test case to vindicate the rights of former slaves under the 14th Amendment. Martinet had a great plan and solid legal theories, but unfortunately it took almost six decades before the United States Supreme Court came around to the views he had articulated in the 1890s and overruled Plessy with the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, which figures in the storyline as well.”

Steeped in his Louisiana history and legal know-how, Mike will be attending the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference for the first time. He looks forward to meeting with fans of thrillers, other writers, and making new friends.

Michael H. Rubin’s career has many facets. A full-time attorney who is Chair of the Appellate Practice Team of the multi-state law firm of McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC, with offices ranging from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast up the East Coast from Florida to Washington D.C. to New York, he’s also been a professional jazz pianist, performing in the New Orleans French Quarter as well as a radio and television announcer. A nationally-known public speaker and raconteur, he has given more than 400 presentations throughout the US, Canada, and England. A prolific writer, he has authored a number of non-fiction books covering a variety of legal issues as well as writing over 40 articles for professional journals and periodicals; his writings are used in law schools and have been cited as authoritative by state and federal courts. He’s been president of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the Bar Association of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and of the national American College of Real Estate Lawyers. His debut novel, The Cottoncrest Curse, published in September of 2014 by the LSU Press, has been praised by Publishers Weekly as a “gripping debut mystery,” by James Carville as a “powerful epic,” and by Sheldon Siegel, New York Times best-selling thriller writer, as “impeccably researched, deftly plotted, and flawlessly executed.”

3/9/15 3/9/15

Texas Roots Bear Terry Shames' Craddock Series

By Maria Giordano,
Killer Nashville Staff

Writing wasn’t on author Terry Shames’ mind when she was a child. When she was about 6-years-old and asked what she wanted to be when she grew up her first thought was to be a detective.

“I had been reading the Raggedy Ann and Andy adventure stories before I graduated to Nancy Drew,” said Shames, who has since received numerous awards for her writing. “The characters in these books were always finding clues, so I used to walk around looking for clues. A gum wrapper? A button? In my childhood imagination, I was sure that one day I would be called up to bring out those clues to solve a real, live mystery.”

Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Novel for her 2014 mystery-thriller A Killing At Cotton Hill, Shames has perhaps become a detective in an indirect way.

Shames says Killer Nashville provided a great boost for her writing career. Two years in a row, she was a finalist for the Claymore Award.

“Although I didn’t win, it gave me a lot of buzz and something for my agent to pass on to publishers considering my manuscripts.”

She is currently working on the fifth book in a series featuring the beloved Samuel Craddock, a country gentleman and the former police chief of the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas. The recurring character is loosely based on her grandfather, who did indeed live in Texas.

Shames described her grandfather as strong and sometimes brusque, but a person with whom she connected.

“When Samuel showed up in my book A Killing at Cotton Hill, I thought I was channeling my grandfather, and let him have his way,” Shames said.

“The bigger truth is that Samuel is not any one person. I think he reflects the best of the men I’ve been closest to—my grandfather, my father, my husband and my close friend Charlie, who died a year before I started writing the first book. I’m so happy that people love Samuel. As one of my neighbors said right after the first book came out, ‘Everyone needs someone like Samuel in their lives.’”

Growing up, Shames’ family would visit her grandparents in central Texas. They had a huge extended family that would meet there for holidays. All the cousins slept tumbled together on pallets made of quilts, she said. And, there was plenty of adventure together, from fort fights and wrestling matches to storytelling sessions.

“Even beyond this though, there is something about the smell of the air, the heat and humidity and the look of this area of Texas that has a deep hold on me,” said Shames, who now lives in California. “I hope it comes through in my books.”

Based on her following, those Texas roots are showing. She has quite a few fans in Texas, many of them her relatives, she laughs.

“The readings I do in Texas are very well attended. But I get a lot of fan mail from people who live in small towns all over the country, saying ‘You could be writing about my town,’” she added. “So, it isn’t Texas that draws readers so much as the small-town setting, and of course Samuel himself.”

Her fourth book, A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge, comes out April 7. Inspiration for this book comes directly from her past and based on a true story her mother told her that stuck in her mind for years. Reviews for this book can be found on GoodReads.com and Amazon, and a review for A Killing at Cotton Hill can be found in Killer Nashville’s “Past Books of the Day”.

3/9/15 3/9/15

Mind your Ps and Qs: Deni Dietz Discusses An Editor’s Perspective on the Art of Manuscript Submissions

By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff

To say Denise “Deni” Dietz loves to read is a major understatement. An avid reader since the third grade when she was caught reading her mother’s copy of Gone With The Wind, the experience only fueled her passion more. She was later caught red-handed, reading her father’s Perry Mason paperbacks.

All this early reading was an excellent foundation for a career as senior editor for Five Star Mysteries, an imprint of Gale, which is a part of Cengage Learning. They have hundreds of books in print in the Western, Romance, Mystery and Science Fiction and Fantasy genres.

Deni has been a mainstay of the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference since it’s beginning. Deni will be attending the 2015 writers conference, bringing with her a wealth of experience.

We catch up with Deni for a Q&A about her work. She also shares some laughable moments in working with writers. Word to the wise, writers should steer clear of landing on her “laugh out loud” list.

Q: Tell me about yourself and your work at Five Star?

A: I’m the Senior Editor for Five Star Mysteries. I’m also known as “the Slush Pile CEO.” I am called this because every submission is vetted by me. If a submission is too short, too long, wrong genre, sloppy presentation, it’s an automatic rejection. Many writers refuse to format or proof their manuscripts before submitting, and if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard “If it’s a good book, the editor will fix it,” I could retire. Not true!

Often I’ll do a 20, 30, even 100 page edit and ask for a rewrite if a new author is very close to publication. I find that most first-book authors tend to overwrite. Recently, I did a 100-page edit, deleting large chunks of extraneous information (a.k.a. “info dumps”) and asked for a rewrite on a novel called, Trojan Horse. The author, S. Lee Manning, trimmed approximately 37,000 words from the 119,800-word manuscript. I will be recommending that Five Star go to contract on her book. The edits are my way of paying it forward since I wouldn’t be published if so many people hadn’t helped me.

Q: How long have you been an editor?

A: I’ve been a free-lance editor for many, many years. I’m good at it because I’m somewhat of a chameleon and, just like a chameleon is able to change colors to suit its surroundings, I can make editorial changes in the “voice” of an author. Of course an author has to have a voice before Five Star can publish him or her.

Q: Tell me about Five Star.

A: In brief, Five Star likes to focus on library sales, which is why I acquire the crème de la crème. Library sales depend, for the most part, on reviews from a variety of publications such as Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and Kirkus. Nevertheless, Five Star Mysteries are also available at all major venues including online bookstores and brick-and-mortar bookstores. Our author-friendly contracts include a nice advance and generous royalties for hardcover, eBooks and large-print editions. Authors and/or literary agents may keep audio, softcover, foreign and film rights.

Q: What do you look for when considering manuscripts?

A: All genres and sub-genres of crime fiction, everything from hardboiled to amateur sleuth. I love history-mysteries and Science Fiction/Fantasy crossovers, and I’ll consider Young Adult novels if they are suitable for adults. The Book Thief and The Hunger Games are good examples. I look for characterization, story and pacing, in that order.

Sometimes, though, aspiring writers go too far. Here are some queries that illustrate what I sometimes confront.

First… the “perhaps you should consider spell-check” queries:

1.) I’ll even gaurantee that my novel would sell as much copies (if not more) than those previously published by your company. I will even buy a number of books myself.

2.) I am certain this novel has potential. it’s not just me that’s saying this, it’s a number of people who have got to read the novel for the first time who loved it to bits, including a mature profeesor in English, which had seen many manuscirpts and done tons of proof reading in his days.

3.) Where once her unyeilding selfishness is veiled by the customs of tradition, her determined hostile spirit is LAID BEAR in her northern prison.

Next, my favorite “couldn’t help LOL-ing” queries:

1.) What goes through your mind when you discover your father, who you thought was just a successful business man, turns out to be a major HEROINE dealer?

2.) The HEROIN is confronted with the decades old cold case.

3.) She was rumored to be the real HAIR to the kingdom.

4.) God wakes up with amnesia, to begin the discovery of who she is and what has happened only to stumble on an incredible truth that changes everything she thought she knew about herself. With slapstick humor and keen insight into the irony of her predicament, God pieces together the traces of her past, from her childhood when she believed she was a cat, to her psychiatric sessions with a mysterious Russian émigré. My book is the love child from Franz Kafka and Alain Robbe-Grillet and I’ve sent it to tens of publishers. Interested?

5.) May I submit for your consideration my first novel, a manuscript of 130,000 words. It is the story of an artist whose best friend is a giant walnut tree—to the humiliation of his progressively hostile daughter. Attempting to do the big leafy guy in with an ax, during a storm, she is crushed and killed under a fallen limb. Depressed and filled with guilt, the artist experiences a religious conversion and an unexpected relationship.

Third, “I hope you’ll read my manuscript despite my dumb query” query:

1.) I have turned down two offers to have my book published because I won’t do marketing.

2.) (The typo is his!) It would take me over 3 hours to re-format my manuscript per the subsmission guidelines. I am an attorney and that would be quite a chunk of my time, and my time is valuable.

3.) Please note that my book is NOT a “mystery.” It is researched historical fiction. Also the manuscript contains some “gaelic” spellings, not many, but those should not be put through a homogenizing process for mass appeal.

4.) The book covers middle age angst and naughty youth and needs to be pitched chameleon-like to varying readerships emphasizing what for each of them would be the particular selling points. The book would need to be perused by ultra busy people so the first few chapters have been written in a magazine style that allows it to be put down and picked up again. The cover of the book is probably the most significant selling item. This I believe should exude the idea of wealth and fame playing somewhat to the cliché’ of popular culture. In terms of the market it should sell for under five pounds, a price which the reading shopper would readily place in the shopping trolley as a non-extravagant purchase.

5.) (From a really moronic writer’s brief query-synopsis): He had to maintain what his boss considered to be a businesslike appearance for the sake of the law firm. And with a tight-fisted Jew for his boss Kevin knew better than to expect any other attitude.”

Next, the “I feel your angst, but…” queries:

1.) My book has never been published. I did send a query to Alicia Condon at Kensington Publishing and she rejected it because I kill off the heroine.

2.) (Writer’s response after I sent her formatting guidelines and asked for a one-page synopsis) Does this mean you are accepting my manuscript for publication once I fill out all these forms? I did send you a five-page synopsis. Do I need to redo my manuscript according to your guidelines? If so, fine, but I may need some time to do this since changing font sizes, margins, etc. may affect the layout of the book.

3.) Demi Deitz (note misspelling of first as well as last name!) I am unpublished but an ex newspaper feature writer, so while I have experience writing I am new as to how to get my book considered by a publisher. I have tried to get an agent but to no avail. My book is a Psychological novel. It is the story of a woman’s plunge into madness and is based largely on my mother’s very sad life. Right now I only have a hardcopy of my book, but if you are at all interested I will gladly put it into the computer, although this would take me some time.

4.) I expect you’ll turn this down, but I won’t take it personally.

5.) (I guess she’s never heard of the Harry Potter books, The Hunger Games, The Book Thief, et al) This is a just-under 16,000-word shirt-pocket version of a novel. Very handy for your readers to take on the subway, bus or to stick into their purse or knapsack. These days, kids like “small”. It intimidates them less!

6.) I hope you will read the entire manuscript since, in my own opinion, it starts very slowly and I have not yet, even after several re-writes, found a way to get around this. I have been told Part two is better than Part One.

7.) I have completed my first book. I am looking for a publisher and I am having trouble finding someone to take me seriously.

8.) If I format, I’ll have to proof the whole manuscript.

9.) **Please note** Writing is a recreational pass time, along with traveling and caring for elderly parents.

10.) Please let me know when we can meet. Next week would be ideal as I will be off my meds!

And finally, my favorite response to a rejection, I usually state why I’m turning the submission down, but this person has not: “Thanks for the quick clear reply. Good to hear from a human for a change.”

And my favorite laugh-out-loud synopsis: “Not to give too much away but the lead character goes from bottom to top to bottom again and it’s quite the rollercoaster ride along the way.

Besides being a well-respected editor, Deni Dietz is a best-selling author of the Diet Club Mysteries, in addition to Footprints in the Butter, co-starring Hitchcock the Dog, and a dozen other novels. As Mary Ellen Dennis, Dietz also penned Heaven’s Thunder, circa 1893 – 1923, with an emphasis on Colorado’s silent film industry, and The Landlord’s Black-eyed Daughter, a paranormal history-mystery-romance. Dietz’s Annie and the Grateful Dead was nominated for an Anthony in the short story category (Grateful Dead is a “pop culture cat” who foils a robbery and, at the same time, solves a murder).

3/9/15 3/9/15

February Photo Prompt Contest Winner

"Sunset at the Antenna Motel" by Jim Carls

The note laying under my door was simple: “Antenna Motel 8pm Monday.” That was the way distribution ops started, just a note to meet, no details leaked to someone who doesn’t show up, someone who finds he’s a “person of interest” in a room of stone-faced cops with some real info he can trade.

It had to be one of Oggy’s jobs, though, because there is no Antenna Motel. Me and Oggy Peters used that for the old Hatchie Motel, on the Memphis side of Brownsville near Stanton, when we were kids throwing papers full of news instead of meth.

I pulled into the lot off Highway 70 at five til. The thick, hot air tried to push me back into the cool of the car. That’s summer in Tennessee. Distant crickets chorused approval.

The motel sign looked old and industrial against the sky. In the 60’s, with business getting sucked down SR 222 to the new interstate, the owners tried to pull in Jackson and Memphis stations with a new antenna stuck on top of it. Now the name “Hatchie” was long gone, along with any business that didn’t come from pimps and pushers — but the only sign they needed was “Motel.”

The place was just a single row of rooms. I walked around to the blank wall at the back. The crickets seemed to start screaming louder, and the county cruiser sitting there told me who the person of interest was tonight.

3/9/15 3/9/15

Killer Cocktails: Passion's Blush

This month’s exclusive Killer Nashville Killer Cocktail: Passion's Blush

Crimes of passion are as old as time. Look to the Bible and you will find the twisted tale of King David and his love for Bathsheba. He sent her husband to war to face certain death to be with her. How about the Greeks? They offered many cautionary tales, including the story of Clytemnestra who took an ax to Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter and later bringing home the lovely Cassandra. Even Shakespeare gave a nod to deadly love when Othello smothers Desdemona because he believes she cheated on him.

Passion is a beautiful thing until it turns ugly, and countless novels have borrowed from this ancient theme.

Mark “Spaz” Morris, professional drink slinger, parlayed this literary-themed drink around artisanal Haitian liqueur and soaked hibiscus flowers. The flavors are as sumptuous as a passionate kiss with a hint of mystery. A “Passion’s Blush” is that moment before the crime is committed.

Sip this lovely creation while reading a good book.

Passion's Blush

Ingredients:

1 Wild Hibiscus flower soaked in syrup

1 ounce Sorel, Haitian Hibiscus Liqueur

Top off with your favorite Sparkling Wine

Directions:

1. In a champagne flute or glass, drop a single hibiscus flower in the bottom of the glass.

2. Gently pour Sorel liqueur on top of the flower.

3. Top it all off with a sparkling wine, or champagne. Spaz used an inexpensive cava, Jaume Serra Cristalino. Proseco and champagne will also do the trick.

4. Optional: Add the hibiscus flower's syrup to sweeten the taste. (We liked it dry - no syrup.)

Cheers!

Send us pictures and comments of you and Killer Nashville’s Passion’s Blush. 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 in biker bars to 4-fork-setting restaurants. 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, Tennessee. Check out the store: www.reddogwineandspirits.com.

3/9/15 3/9/15

Under the Microscope with D.P. Lyle: Time of Death Part 1

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

This is the second installment in a three-part series by physician, author, former Killer Nashville Guest of Honor Dr. D.P. Lyle. Through the imagined lens of a coroner, he shares critical information about the business of death and the elements of a great investigation.

The Coroner’s Most Important Determinations: Part 2
By D.P. Lyle

In the first part of this series I discussed the critical determination of the Cause and Manner of Death, and what gets the authorities’ attention. Now let’s take a look into the all-important Time of Death.

Time of Death: Part 1

One of the most important determinations made by the Medical Examiner (ME) is the time of death. This alone can exonerate or focus suspicion on a suspect. It can substantiate or refute witness and suspect statements. It can literally make or break the case.

The timing of death is both an art and a science and requires that the ME use several techniques and observations to make his estimate. The sooner after death the body is examined, the more accurate this estimate will be. The changes that a body undergoes after death occur in widely variable ways and with unpredictable timeframes. There is no single factor that will accurately indicate the time of death. It is always a best guess.

To help with his estimation, the ME employs various observations and tests. These include:

Body Temperature
Rigor Mortis
Livor Mortis (Lividity)
Degree of Putrefaction
Stomach Contents

Corneal Cloudiness
Vitreous Potassium Level
Insect Activity
Scene Markers

Let’s look at each of the techniques.

Body Temperature: Normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. After death, the body loses or gains heat progressively until it equilibrates with that of the surrounding medium. Under normal circumstances a corpse will lose body heat at a rate of approximately 1.5 degree/hour. This means that a corpse with a core temperature of 92 degrees has been dead about 4 or 5 hours. Sounds simple enough. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that straightforward. The 1.5-degree-per-hour factor varies, depending upon the environment surrounding the body, the size of the corpse, clothing, and other factors. For example, a body in a temperate room will lose heat much more slowly than will one in an icy, flowing stream. A body in a hot environment such as an enclosed garage in Phoenix in August where the ambient temperature could be 125 degrees or more will actually gain heat. The key is that the corpse will lose or gain heat until it reaches equilibrium with its environment. Once the body reaches ambient temperature, this factor is no longer useful.

Rigor Mortis: Rigor mortis is the stiffening of a corpse after death and is due to chemical reactions that take place within the muscle cells after death. This chemical reaction is the loss of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from the muscles. ATP serves as energy for muscular activity and without it our muscles could not contract. The presence and stability of ATP depends upon a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients, which are lost with the cessation of cardiac activity that occurs at death. When the ATP levels fall, the muscles contract and stiffen, producing the rigidity of rigor.

This rigidity is first detectable in the small muscles of the face, neck, and hands and then progresses to the larger muscles. The rigor begins in about 2 hours and the entire process takes about 12 hours at which time the body is completely stiff. This is called the rigid stage and tends to remain so for another 12 hours. The process then reverses itself with rigidity being lost in the same fashion, beginning with the small muscles and progressing to the larger ones. This process requires another 12 or so hours. The muscles are now flaccid (relaxed) and this is termed the flaccid stage of rigor mortis.

A good general rule is 12-12-12. Under normal conditions, rigor begins in about 2 hours, maximizes at about 12 hours, remains unchanged for 12 hours (rigor stage), and resolves over the next 12 hours (flaccid stage). So, rigor is only useful in the first 36 hours or so after death.

This rule assumes “normal” circumstances. If the death was associated with violent activity such as drowning of the victim fighting or running for his life, then the ATP can be consumed during these activities and rigor can appear much more quickly, even sometimes almost instantly at death---a condition often termed cadaveric spasm. In a drowning, the rigor might be universal while in the fleeing victim it might be confined to the legs, the body part doing the work and depleting its ATP supply prior to death.

Also, cold conditions might delay rigor while warmer ones can hasten it. See? It’s not that simple.

Livor Mortis: Lividity is a purplish hue of the tissues and is caused by the stagnation of blood in the vessels that occurs after the heart stops beating. Gravity then causes the stagnant blood to settle into the dependent (lower) areas of the body. This means that a supine corpse will develop lividity along the back and buttocks. It typically appears between 30 minutes and 2 hours after death and reaches its maximum by 8 to 12 hours. Initially, rolling the body to a different position can shift this discoloration, but by 6 to 8 hours, it becomes fixed. This means that rolling the body to another position will not result in a shifting of the discoloration. The reason is that after about 6 to 8 hours the blood vessels in the area begin to breakdown and the blood seeps from the vessels and stains the surrounding tissues. As opposed to the blood that remains within the vascular system, this blood in the tissue is fixed in position. The ME can use shifting and fixed lividity to estimate time of death and to determine if the body has been moved or repositioned, something the dead do not do without assistance.

As with rigor, the onset and the fixing of lividity is often slowed in a cold environment and quickened in a warmer one.

Next time, we will look at the other factors listed above that the ME uses to estimate the time of death.

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.

3/9/15 3/9/15

Dying for Dinner: Lazy Day Ribs and Steak Tartare

Dying For Dinner

Executive chef and co-owner of The Meat Hook, Tom Mylan told television personality Andrew Zimmerman that he feels like a lot of people are “food zombies.” They don’t really care about what they are eating.“Just buy microwave stuff if you don’t care about food, or stop being a food zombie and start paying attention,” he said in an interview with Zimmerman. “Learn how to cook. It’s like men not knowing how to tie a tie. If you don’t know how to cook, you’re losing at life.”We couldn’t agree more. That’s why this month’s Dying for Dinner is all about meat - our homage to Mylan’s Brooklyn-based sustainable butcher shop. By the way, Mylan’s book, The Meat Hook Meat Book, is a fascinating journey to understanding butchering.

Colonel Crowe’s Steak Tartare

By Don WinstonColonel Crowe likes his meat the way he likes his Union Club politics: raw and spicy. He invites you to join his dinner table for a stimulating round of club gossip and camaraderie with an occasionally murderous nightcap.3 medium oil-packed anchovy fillets (optional, adjust salt if added), rinsed and minced2 teaspoons brined capers, drained and rinsed3 teaspoons Dijon mustard2 large egg yolks10 ounces USDA prime beef tenderloin, cut into small dice, covered, and refrigerated2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley leaves4 teaspoons olive oil3 dashes hot sauce (such as Tabasco)4 dashes Worcestershire sauce3/4 teaspoon crushed chili flakes (optional)Salt and pepperCombine anchovies (if using), capers, and mustard in a nonreactive bowl. Using a fork or the back of a spoon, mash ingredients until evenly combined; mix in egg yolks.Use a rubber spatula to fold remaining ingredients into mustard mixture until thoroughly combined. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.Serve immediately with toast points or French fries.

Lazy Day Ribs

By Terry OdellTerry’s favorite, easy and yummy crock-pot recipe debut’s in the third installment of her Mapleton mysteries, Deadly Puzzles. This recipe is as easy as 1-2-3, and it will give writers time to write, but she warns the tantalizing aroma is distracting.1 large package of any kind of ribs. I've used short ribs, country style ribs, baby back ribs, both beef and pork.1 large onion, sliced1 large bottle of barbeque sauce.Put everything in the crock pot. Add enough water to cover (pour it into the bbq sauce bottle to get out every last drop of sauce). Cook on low all day or until the meat is tender.

Don Winson grew up in Nashville and graduated from Princeton University. He has written three stand-alone thrillers, his latest two novels, The Union Club and The Gristmill Playhouse: A Nightmare in Three Acts were published in 2014.

Terry Odell lives in Colorado and her published works include the Pine Hills Police Series, the Blackthorne, Inc. series, the Mapleton Mystery series, and the romantic suspense novel, What's in a Name?

Deadly Puzzles, the third book in the Mapleton series, was published in April of 2014.

These recipes are so good they 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.

3/9/15 3/9/15

The Writer's Life: Your Protagonist

Beth Terrell wears many hats, and wears them, oh, so well. Besides being a darn good ballroom dancer, she is a successfully published author and serves as Killer Nashville’s Special Projects Coordinator. She also has a passion for helping beginning writers.

In her monthly column, Beth shares her journey while 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 follow along.

Last month, Beth, who writes novels under the name Jaden Terrell, got you to dip your big toe into the world of writing with her piece about growing ideas to become stories. This month it’s all about the main character and the questions you must ask yourself when you create that special someone.

Your Protagonist
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Can you imagine Miss Marple slugging it out with a hopped-up pimp in a shadowy alley that smells of urine and rotting garbage? Can you imagine Mike Hammer sipping tea in a parson's parlor, quietly ruminating about the psychological foibles of a small-town microcosm of society?

Well, maybe you can—writers live on imagination—but the image doesn't hold up over the long haul. Poor Miss Marple would end up with a cut throat or a broken hip, and Mike Hammer would punch out the parson, and the balance of the universe would be restored. The characters must be true to the story—and vice versa.

The most important character in your novel is your protagonist. Why? Because, while the antagonist’s actions may drive the story, it’s the protagonist your readers are going to be invested in, the one they have to care enough about to follow for the duration of a book, or (in the case of a series) several books. In a crime novel, your protagonist is generally the one who solves the mystery or foils the villain’s diabolical plans. If you already know what kind of book you're writing, you already know a few things about the main character.

If you know you’re writing a cozy mystery set in a small New England town, you can already rule out a few characteristics. Since this subgenre typically features an amateur sleuth, you know your character isn’t a police officer or other law enforcement official. She’s not foul-mouthed or brutal. She’s curious enough and courageous enough (even if she doesn’t know it) to try to solve a crime that most people would leave to the police.

Remember to keep the tone of the book in mind. In a cozy, the protagonist will have flaws and a history, but her baggage can’t be too heavy. She might bite her nails, but she’s probably not addicted to heroin. She might have a strained relationship with her mother, but she probably wasn’t locked in a closet for days and then beaten with coat hangers.

On the other hand, if you’re writing a gritty psychological thriller, you need a character with the skills to defeat a cunning and dangerous killer. Her background and emotional life may be darker and more complex.

You’ll notice that each choice you make narrows your future choices. If your character is a tightrope walker, he's unlikely to also be clumsy—or if he is, you’ll need to explain why he chose such an unlikely profession and how he manages to both keep his job and avoid being splattered all over ring three. By eliminating choices or making (and explaining) unlikely ones, you begin to get a clearer picture of your character. Later, this will help you with plotting.

Ready? Let’s get started.

THE BASICS

First, is the character male or female? What does he or she look like? Some writers choose to leave the character’s appearance vague so the reader can create the character in his or her own image, but even if you choose not to put these details on the page, you should know them yourself. Why? Because how we look affects how people respond to us. It affects how we perceive ourselves and what we expect from other people.

A prime example of this is Jack Reacher. Jack’s sheer physical size is the first thing people notice about him. It gives him an advantage in some situations, a disadvantage in others. It influences his tactical decision-making. A short, small-boned man, even one with the same level of skill and training, would approach the same situations in a very different way.

Imagine two women in a café. Emma is tall and slender. She is, and always has been, beautiful in all the ways our society defines beauty. She’s wearing an expensive dress and expensive jewelry, and her makeup is flawless. Sybil is plain-featured with acne-pitted skin, lank shapeless hair, Coke-bottle glasses, and wears a worn sweatsuit stretched tightly over rolls of fat. How do the servers and the other customers respond to each woman? How does each one carry herself? What body language does each woman use as she interacts with a man she finds attractive or a surly salesperson at a high-end boutique?

Now imagine a third woman. Let’s call her Claire. By all objective standards, she’s beautiful. She could be a super model. But she was a plain, awkward teenager whose parents belittled her and whose classmates teased her about her appearance. The world sees her as an Emma, but inside, she still sees herself as a Sybil. Can you see how that self-image will affect all of her interactions and relationships?

Ask yourself these questions: Is your character attractive or plain? Is he physically strong? Fast? Fit? Is he generally healthy? How does he dress? Is he well groomed, and to what degree? Growing up, was he the kid picked last on the playground, or was he the captain of the team? Is his self-image in line with the way others see him? How does this affect his relationships with others?

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That may be true, but your character’s name will create an image in your readers’ minds. You’ll be living with it for a long time, so choose well.

Sometimes a name will just come to you. Sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn’t, skim a few baby name books or browse through the phone book. If you use the phone book, remember to mix and match. If you name your hard-drinking, chauvinistic detective Hubert Saltzwanger, and there is a real Hubert Saltzwanger in your town, you're just asking for problems. Better go with Hubert Fizbing or Alex (or Andrea) Saltzwanger.

Listen to how the name sounds. Does it fit the character and the tone of the book? Hubert Saltzwanger, for instance, is a name better suited to the hero of a humorous novel than a serious one. If you choose it for the hero of a serious political thriller, is your reason for choosing it important enough to offset the jarring or incongruous image it creates in readers’ minds?

PROFESSION

Many of your character’s skills are dictated by (or reflected in) his or her profession. In a thriller or harder-edged mystery, you might choose a professional investigator (perhaps a police officer, federal agent, private detective, or corporate spy) or someone who works in a technological field.

In a cozy or traditional mystery, you’re more likely to need an amateur sleuth. Cozy novels have been written about herbalists, cheese makers, chefs, and quilters, among other things. Lisa Wysocky’s award-winning novels feature a horse trainer. Nancy Cohen writes a successful series about a hair stylist.

Does your protagonist even have a profession? Maybe she's homeless and unemployed. Maybe she's an independently wealthy dilettante. If she's an amateur sleuth, how does she keep getting involved with these murder investigations? And what is it about her that makes her want to?

How did your character choose her profession? How does she feel about her job? What does she love about it? What would she change about it if she could? What’s her relationship with her supervisors? Is she a rule-follower or a maverick? Is she respected in her field? Is she a loner, or does she prefer to work with a team?

If she’s working in a male-dominated profession, what challenges does she face? How does she handle them? How about if he’s a man working in a field that is typically considered feminine?

HOBBIES, INTERESTS, AND SPECIAL ABILITIES

What are his hobbies and interests? Might any of these be useful in solving a mystery? For example, if he's an expert in beadwork, might he notice if a supposedly wealthy suspect is wearing a necklace made of cheap imitation glass beads, rather than the expensive crystal beads one would expect? If he's a hunter, might he be able to read tracks?

Does she carry a gun? Does she study martial arts? Is she an expert with a bow? Does she despise firearms and refuse to carry one? How will she defend herself? One of my characters, Kit Cohen, has never used a weapon and never wants to. When a fight erupts and her date is being strangled, she breaks up the fight by dumping a pitcher of ice water down the aggressor's collar.

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

How about family? Is he married? Divorced? Widowed? If he's divorced, what kind of relationship does he have with his ex-wife? Why did they divorce? If he's married, what is his relationship with his wife like? Is it comfortable, tempestuous, or strained? If it's a troubled marriage, how did it get that way? How does he deal with it? How does she? Are there children? And what is his relationship with them? Is he a serial monogamist, a playboy, or is he celibate? Or gay? If he's single, is he in a serious relationship, or is he looking for one, or does he play the field and like it that way?

Are his parents living? What’s his relationship with them? How about siblings? How many? How well do they get along? What patterns carry over from their childhoods?

Does he have a best friend? Who does he confide in? Does he have a rival? An enemy? What if the rival is also a close family member or friend—someone the character loves?

Does he have pets? If not, why not? If he does have pets, what are they, and why did he choose them?

BACKGROUND AND ENVIRONMENT

Where does she live? What city and state? Does she have her own house? Rent an apartment? Sleep on her mother’s couch? Is she a neatnik, a slob, or something in between? Are her living quarters lush or spare? What kind of security precautions does she take?

Does the story take place near her home? If not, where does it take place and how does she come to be there?

Where did she grow up? Did she stay near home, or home, or did she get as far as away as she could? Why?

LOOKING FOR PATTERNS

Are you beginning to see any patterns? What are this character’s strengths? What are his flaws or weaknesses? Does he have a support network? If so, who are they? If not, why not? How does he interact with other people? Is he charming and personable, or is he a curmudgeon? Is this a façade or a true reflection of his personality?

Do you feel like you're getting to know this person? Keep asking yourself questions until you understand your character. You can make up your own questions or pick and choose from other sources. Most bookstores carry "All about me" books, books full of questions about a person's history, likes, dislikes, etc. These are excellent sources for character development. You don't have to answer every question, just choose those that resonate with you—those that spark ideas about your character.

You can answer the questions in either first or third person. For example, if the question is, "What was your worst birthday experience?" you might write, "On Ronald's fourteenth birthday, the head cheerleader, on whom he had a huge crush, sent him a perfumed note asking him to meet her behind the bleachers, and when he got there, the entire cheerleading squad was there laughing at him."

Or you might say, "In the ninth grade, I had this huge crush on the head cheerleader. Her name was Allison. Allison Linley. On my fourteenth birthday, as we were leaving homeroom, she slipped a note into my sweaty palm. The note smelled like flowers. 'Meet me behind the bleachers after fourth period,' it said. I couldn't believe it. I practically floated down to the football field that afternoon. Never mind that I'd be late for Mrs. Pinchley's Algebra class and would probably have to write 'I will not skip class' nine thousand times. I was in love. When I got there, she was standing beside the concession stand. The rest of the cheerleading squad was gathered around her, and they were all laughing and pointing at me. 'Oh, Ronald,' Allison said. 'You're such a dork.' I've never asked a woman out that I didn't think about that day and break out in a cold sweat."

You’ll discover other things about the character as your story progresses, so leave yourself room for surprises. A long-lost cousin? A secret sibling? Time will tell.

And remember, if you come up with an idea you love that doesn’t fit what you’ve already chosen, you can backtrack and bring your previous answers into line with your new vision of your character. Some things are bound to change as your story grows, but the better you know your character before you begin, the easier you may find it to step into his skin and see the story through his eyes.

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.

3/9/15 3/9/15

From the Classroom: I'm A Teacher

Writers owe a debt to teachers, particularly those who teach reading and writing. Their efforts mold the minds of readers and writers of tomorrow. With any luck, the students of today will be those who purchase or write books in the future.

“From the Classroom” is a column written by real teachers, written for the rest of us.

I’m A Teacher
By Tracy Spruce

Whenever I’m asked what I do for a living I always simply reply, “I’m a teacher.”

Historically, this has proven an insufficient answer because there’s always the follow-up, “Oh really? What do you teach?” Then, my inner smartass responds, because I know that the inquirer wants to know which subject, hence the “what.” My annoying habit is to say, “I teach 10th graders.” Before the third question comes I always toss in, for the sake of my fellow human, “I teach reading and writing. I teach 10th graders more about reading and writing.”

I’ve been in public school classrooms for 18 years now. This school year is my first in a high school, having taught my first 17 in middle school, mostly 8th grade. And it has always been true for me that I must remember from day-to-day, school year to school year, that I teach young adult readers and writers first, and English second. And, everything we do in my classroom is done to help the student be a more powerful reader and writer. But let me tell you, it’s a can of beans, and the richest, most beautiful, real, gut-wrenching work I can do.

When I first started teaching in 1997, I was fueled with knowledge fresh from my Bachelor of Arts in English degree. I tried to teach Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour to 6th graders. I was hell-bent on marching them through literary movements and tried to show the connection between art, architecture, and literature by using photocopies of a Manet painting and a gothic chapel and for a “hands on” activity kids cut up the copies and created a new mosaic of an image. It was my attempt to teach some sort of lesson on deconstruction or postmodernism. The kids had fun with the scissors and glue, but jeez, what was I doing?

I’m a fortunate creature in that it didn’t take me long, the end of my first year in that middle school, to come to the realization that I really didn’t know what I was doing. And it was a student that showed me the way. I recommended a book to a student after talking with him a bit, Geraldo, an incredibly smart and thoughtful young man who was also in constant trouble (there was as stink bomb debacle and something about marijuana). He left with the book, Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez, stuck in his back pocket. The book was a newly published young adult novel about a young Latino man trying to make it in his neighborhood and make the right decisions for himself and his family. It seemed like a novel that Geraldo might connect with and find himself “into.”

Within the next days Geraldo was placed in in-school suspension, for some offense I can’t remember, but I do recall sending an assignment for him while he was on lockdown to write about the book in some way. Who knows what I assigned to him really, but what I got back floored me. He didn’t write about the book. He wrote about himself. He wrote a micro-memoir about getting caught for petty crimes in his neighborhood and at school, and how he wanted to turn his life around.

As I read Geraldo’s notebook entry I noticed something about his writing. He used this beautiful repetition and ended the piece with this fairly long, stringy, and lovely sentence. I grabbed my copy of Parrot in the Oven and realized that what Geraldo was doing was using Parrot in the Oven as his mentor. He wasn’t copying or plagiarizing, he was inspired and learning craft moves from a text he was engaged in reading. He was learning to write about his own life by reading the work of a writer whom he loved. His sentences mimicked the flow and intensity of Victor Martinez’s writing. And he was given the time and the space to do it at school, albeit in a less than ideal situation.

It was around this same time that my teacher friend and mentor, Kenan Rote, recommended that I read Randy Bomer’s Time for Meaning, a professional text about the teaching of literacy in the secondary classroom. This experience with Geraldo, my inability to stop reading, highlighting, underlining, and scrawling, “Yes!” in the margin of Randy’s book, and countless conversations with smart, inquisitive, teachers cemented what has become my non-negotiable, or standard, as a reading and writing teacher: choice. Students must have choice in their literacy lives and education and a good teacher doesn’t bring the content of the curriculum, the students do.

Over the last 18 years in the classroom, from 6th grader Geraldo to my current 10th graders, I realize that my bottom-lines have never changed. In fact, I’ve become fiercely protective of them as I’ve navigated curriculum changes from the state, hung out in debates over national standards and the common core, and survived initiative after initiative and program after program as tides change and big business education moves in and out of a school. I’ve taught in 5 schools in two districts: the largest district in the state of Texas and one of the smaller ones. I’ve participated in countless hours of professional development and I still stand firm and strong on these few principles:

Students need and deserve choice in their reading and writing education;
I can’t teach young people anything about reading and writing if they’re not engaged in the act and practice of reading and writing; and
Writers become better writers by studying and reading the works of those that inspire them.

I am spinning wheels made of worksheets that crumple and go nowhere if I forget these ideals.

And I have found that these basic principles will swallow up any new-fangled hot trend, or recently purchased program in education. My students and I can navigate our way through whatever is considered the new “best practice” if we keep practicing at our best. I’ve worked with some of the most gifted, fierce, intelligent, dedicated, and yes, tired and frustrated teachers and mentors over the years who have helped me forge my beliefs. And the students. I’ve learned more from them than any course, book, professional training, or workshop. I’ve worked alongside young people who have the most privileged lives, two professional parents at home encouraging them and providing them with the best of life, and ones who are facing the most dire and tragic of situations including gang violence, incarceration of a parent (or themselves), death of a sibling, teen pregnancy and any other myriad of social issues. Every one of these young adults brings their life with them into the classroom and I feel like the best part of my work is teaching them to use it when they stand at a bookshelf searching for the their next, just-right book. Or when they open their notebook and start an entry, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about…”

Am I teaching my state’s curriculum? What are my students’ test scores going to be like in this high-stakes testing culture if they aren’t being marched through a prescribed curriculum? Is my class “rigorous” enough if young adults are getting to make decisions about what they read instead of everyone being forced to read the same text, in the same way, at the same pace, and glean the same ideas from it? If we’re all writing, say poetry, or speeches perhaps, is it possible for us to study one or two common texts together for a short time to ask ourselves, “What are the qualities and features of this genre and how do writers craft it in powerful ways?” and then send young writers off in search of texts in the genre that they can relate to and think to themselves, “I want to write like that!”

My litmus test for anything we do in the classroom is the idea that we do the work of real readers and real writers. In fact, we read a class agreement every day at the beginning of class – an agreement that I co-authored with a group of students at Jane Long Middle School in Houston.

The agreement remains an ideal and “pie in the sky” document for my students and me and has for almost a decade now. It begins, “We have a balance of freedom and responsibility, independence and community, choice and challenge. We are up to big work and we are proud,” and ends with the statement, “We imagine what is possible for ourselves and our community and we act in order to live into those possibilities. We think big and we live big.” The crux of the agreement is that we do the work of real readers and real writers. And so any strategy I teach, any activity we do, any project or type of writing we craft has to pass that test.

Is it something I would do as a reader or writer?
Is it something readers and writers in the community and world actually do? If not, it probably doesn’t belong in the classroom. And if it is, I should teach it explicitly and teach it well.

So I ask myself about my own literacy life and I study others’. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a novel, one that charged my heart with words and fire, one that wrecked my soul and thinking, one that left me sick to my stomach with loss and grief and then thought to myself, “Hey, I really feel like writing a summary of this book to prove to everyone that I read it.” Or, “I really need a shoebox so that I can now create a diorama of a scene from this book.” What are the authentic acts that a reader performs after reading a book that’s impacted them? The acts are as varied as the books on a shelf or the readers in a bookstore:

Readers are dying to talk about the book they just finished with someone else who has read it.
Readers set up little scenes before, during, and after reading—with their book, their beverage of choice, or set the book on their legs and take pictures and post them on Instagram or Facebook, and start a thread of conversation inviting others into their reading lives or to recommend the book to their fellow readers.
They log onto Goodreads or Amazon and rate the book with stars and write a review.
They write about it in a reading journal – exploring all of their feelings and thoughts about it, not really worried about whether what they’re writing is “right” or following the format of a 5-paragraph essay or “book report.”
They immediately go out in search of other books by the author or maybe even get a little stalker-like and start a surveillance of the author’s website, social media page, look for pictures of them, friend them on Facebook or write to them about how the book changed their life.
They collect their favorite quotes from the book and try writing sentences like the writer – imitating the style and diction. Or they make memes of the quotes and post them to their Tumblr or Pinterest pages.
And sometimes, they sit with a finished book in their heart and head for days or weeks even, unable to start the next book because they’re not ready to leave behind the characters and scenes quite yet.

And what about writing? What do real writers do in their lives that makes them powerful, effective masters of craft? How do poets, novelists, journalists, speechwriters, memoirists, essayists work? Do they keep a writer’s notebook and if so what kinds of entries do they collect in order to eventually turn their thinking into a piece of published writing? How do these writers know how to write in a particular genre?

I think, just like my student Geraldo, it starts with a genuine desire to study the thing, whatever the thing is and adding the thought, “I want to write like that.” Then using the text as a mentor to ask more questions, like, “Hey writer, how did you do that?” And not being able to have the writer answer back, studying the text for it’s organization, it’s beauty or pain, it’s sentence structure and diction, and continuing to ask questions like, “I wonder why the writer decided to make it like that?” Maybe a teacher could come up with a similar list for the work of real writers:

Writers make time for their writing. They sit every day with pen and paper or open their laptop and they just write and think and observe and wonder.
Writers use their lives, their anger and upset, their joy and ecstasy, memories and current situations as the fuel for their words.
Many writers keep notebooks and they collect artifacts and “stuff” from their lives, clippings and snippets, photos and drawings.
Writers make lists, they rant and rave, they collect favorite quotes and words, they write messy, they make plans and outlines, they rewrite and revise.
And sometimes, writers sit and stare and think and don’t get a word on the page because they are lost in thought or stuck or exhausted.

I have learned that I can absolutely allow all of these acts into the classroom and even explicitly teach these practices as lessons in a unit of study. I can filter state mandated curriculum through a lens of authenticity and choice and keep engagement high. And I can celebrate the moments in my classroom that might otherwise seem like failures or challenges, such as the two young ladies who almost came to blows over a book because one walked into the classroom and announced the ending to the book that the other was reading.

I can respond to the young man who tells me early in the school year, “I hate reading and I’m not gonna do it,” by apologizing for the fact that books and reading have let him down and asking him to try and remember that last book that wasn’t like that for him. I like the times when I’m worried about a student over the weekend because on Friday she told me she has a crush on one of the male characters in her book and I know that he’s going to die before the end of the story. I like when kids are mad when I don’t have the next book in the series they’re reading. Or when, like the other day, one of my sophomores was working on his speech persuading black men that have good jobs to give back to their community by mentoring young boys, he throws down his pen and says, “Why am I doing this it’s not going to make a difference!” And listening as another student talks to him about how it’s important that he write it and that he’s going to get to send his speech to people who might really listen to his ideas. And, my pregnant student who writes me a letter letting me know that she still hasn’t told her grandfather, that she misses her mother, and signs it “#I’mallalone.”

My students’ stories and their lives as readers and writers matter. Their struggles and celebrations are significant, and the making for great literature. This school year has been one of the toughest for me. Mostly because I’ve moved to a high school and two of the classes I’m teaching are filled with students who have experienced reading and writing as doors slammed in their faces. They equate reading and writing with standardized tests that they’ve historically struggled with and failed. And, they are two years older than most of the students I’ve worked with in the past, and they are developmentally angry with me just because I’m a teacher.

It’s taken a lot longer to gain trust this year. It’s February, and I’m still having conversations where I’m saying, “Yes, you should write about that! Your position about half school day/half work day for students who have jobs would make a great topic for a speech,” and having them look at me with squinted eyes and pursed lips, finally sighing and saying, “Whatever.”

But last week Erick and Alejandro did draft a speech together, using Henry Rollin’s “Letter to a Young American” as their mentor text, and using persuasive techniques to help craft an argument to the school district that once students reach the working age of 16 they should be allowed to opt-out of electives in order to work and help provide for their families. They’ve sold me! But now they have to revise their draft, polish it up and get it ready to be performed. All of which is covered in the State of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills – but Alejandro and Erick don’t care about that.

Tracy Spruce is an 18-year veteran English teacher, wife, and mother of three living in Austin. She was a middle school teacher and staff developer for the Houston Independent School District for 13 years and is currently teaching 10th grade at Del Valle High School in the Del Valle Independent School District, in Austin, Texas. She is a poet and expert thrifter, constantly searching for discarded treasures. Photos and her poetry can be found on Instagram at tracytrix_atx.

3/9/15 3/9/15

To Self Publish? Steering Clear of the Slush Pile

By Tom Wood

When Clay Stafford asked me to write about self-publishing for his new Killer Nashville Magazine, my first thought was:

“Really? Why me?” They probably ought to be talking to English author Sheila Rodgers, who writes under the pen name Rachel Abbott. Her three self-published eBooks—“Only the Innocent” and two sequels—have a combined one million sales, according to a story recently published in the Sunday Times.

I’m guesstimating that I am about three zeroes behind in total sales across all platforms for my self-published debut novel Vendetta Stone, a fictional, true-crime thriller.

It has been a whirlwind 18 months since Vendetta Stone was published in August 2013 and I still consider myself a novice at all this. There have been a lot of successes, a few failures—and one very big learning curve.

And that’s why I agreed to write this. It has indeed been a non-stop adventure, one I love—even though I probably work harder at it than I ever did in my 36 years as a sports writer and copy editor at The Tennessean, Nashville’s morning newspaper.

Maybe the journey I’ve embarked on will inspire you, or at least warn you, for what lies ahead.

I’ll explore each of these in detail in upcoming Killer Nashville blogs, but here’s kind of an overview about why I chose to self-publish instead of choosing the traditional route.

After getting the idea for my novel in 2008, I wrote a first draft over the next year, began attending Killer Nashville in 2009 and pitched it over the next three years, as it underwent multiple rewrites—and rejections.

At the 2012 conference, it was suggested to me that I connect with a local editor and give it a hard edit before submitting for consideration. I took that advice and was so happy with the results that I decided it was time to get it on shelves, five years after starting this project. I’d taken an early retirement offer at the newspaper, allowing me the necessary time to devote to complete the project.

The final editing process took about three months, then I spent several months doing all the formatting—I chose to publish through CreateSpace—and hiring someone to do the cover. I saved a lot of money going this route and it allowed me creative control over the process.

And much like Jackson Stone, the protagonist of Vendetta Stone, it put the target squarely on my back. If I was going to succeed—or fail—as an author, it was all on my shoulders.

When I decided to go down this road, I decided that I wanted to be taken seriously as any high-profile author in the genre. I wanted Vendetta Stone to stand up to the same scrutiny, to be of the same high quality, to be considered as much a work of art as anything written by Michael Connelly, Robert Dugoni, Lee Childs, John Grisham, Stephen King or any other author you can name. After all, I am on the same shelves with all of them, competing for the same sales.

If you’re going to aim, aim high. So that was the goal. I think I have succeeded in many ways, not so much in others.

Whatever success I have enjoyed has been the result of my own determined publicity efforts. One of the great highlights of 2014 was being able to discuss my book on A Word on Words With John Seigenthaler before he died last July. John was publisher and editor at The Tennessean when I started there in 1976 and he did the public television show for four decades, interviewing local and national authors and promoting literature. To honor him, in 2014, Killer Nashville created the John Seigenthaler Legends Award. I will forever treasure that opportunity.

I have spoken to library groups and book clubs, participated in and hosted festival appearances and minor events across the South, traveled across three states, talked to numerous bookstore operators and owners of non-traditional venues about carrying my book. I’ve tried to think outside the box and my book is available in several restaurants and even a grocery store.

My approach is that all anybody can say is ‘no thanks.’ I have a pretty thick skin.

One thing surprising to me is that a lot of the ‘no thanks’ responses came from some independent bookstores. I expected that from chains, but not Indies. They hate Amazon and will not carry anything published by CreateSpace. I understand and sympathize with that point of view, but totally disagree.

Not carrying my book is hurting me. And readers. Not Amazon, certainly not them. Sigh. But I’ll press onward and continue to swim against the current.

The Sheila Rodgers Success Story inspires me.

A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, Filtered through Time and conducting an interview with Stephen King for Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series Nashville. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. Vendetta Stone is his first novel.

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