KN Magazine: Articles
Dying for Dinner: Spinach Quiche and Florida Pie
Dying For Dinner
When newspaper columnist and critic Harriet van Horne said, “Cooking is like love: It should be entered into with abandon or not at all,” we have to agree. Otherwise, time in the kitchen is monotony, and who wants that? Here are a couple of recipes that are simple, yummy, and will leave plenty of time for writing.
Spinach Quiche
By Stacy Allen
In “Spark of Silver, Flash of Gold”, the second in my Riley Cooper Series
Ingredients:
3 cups raw spinach
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 medium white onion, finely chopped (can use ¼ c. shallots or 1 large leek, minced)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, muddled in a mortar and pestle
1 (9 inch) unbaked deep-dish piecrust
4 eggs, beaten (can use egg beaters if preferred)
16 oz heavy cream (can use light or even half and half if you prefer)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground white pepper
1 cup shredded provolone cheese
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the piecrust blind, and set aside to cool. (Blind baking simply means giving the empty crust a head start in the oven before filling it. Do not bake it until golden brown. It will continue to bake when you return it to the oven with the filling.)
2. Heat olive oil in a deep, French sauté pan or wok, and over medium heat sauté onion for a few minutes until tender. Mix in the spinach, and toss with two wooden spoons, for 1 to 2 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, and toss and sauté for another minute or two, until spinach is mostly wilted. Transfer to the piecrust.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and heavy cream. Pour over the spinach mixture in the piecrust. Season with salt and pepper. Top with Provolone.
Bake 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Maggie's Florida Pie (aka Orange Chocolate Coconut Pie)
By Kathleen Cosgrove
Maggie Finn craves pie, and her desires to get a slice are thwarted through most of Kathleen’s novel, “Entangled”. Here’s an excerpt: “A side dish of pretzels sat near me while I watched a documentary on the history of pie. I developed a craving for one and looked in my refrigerator in case there was some in the back I had forgotten. Since I couldn't remember purchasing any pie the entire time I lived here, not surprisingly, there was none to be found.”
Ingredients:
1 package Orange Jell-O mix
1 package Jell-O Coconut Cream pudding mix
1 package Jell-O Vanilla pudding mix
3-ounces semisweet chocolate morsels
¼-cup condensed milk
1 graham cracker pie shell
Cool Whip
Directions:
- First, make the filling by combining all the Jell-O mixes into two cups boiling water. Stir constantly until it boils again. Cool in the refrigerator for about two hours.
- While the filling is chilling, melt the chocolate morsels and mix with the condensed milk. Pour into the graham cracker pie shell.
- Pour in the orange filling and top with Cool Whip. (Optional: Mix 1 tbsp orange rum or Kahlua into the Cool Whip.)
- Garnish with orange rind around outer edges and chocolate morsels in center.
Stacy Allen holds an advanced open water diver certificate, with specialties in night, cave and wreck diving. She is also certified in enriched air nitrox. Her passion for adventure has taken her to five continents to explore over sixty countries. She is the author of “Expedition Indigo”, the first in a new series featuring Dr. Riley Cooper, an archaeology professor from Boston who goes to Italy with a team of researchers to find and excavate the Indigo, a cargo ship full of treasures that sank in the 800s off the coast of Italy.
Kathleen Cosgrove is a writer living in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, just a stone's throw from Nashville. Rubbing shoulders with some of the most creative and talented people on earth has nourished and helped her grow as a writer. She is best known for the unique voice she brings to all her writing. Her style of wit and humor along with snappy dialogue and offbeat characters has reviewers comparing her work to the likes of Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen. She can also be found on-stage in venues in and around Nashville reading her always funny and sometimes touching memoirs.
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.
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Being Your Own Boss Means Meeting Deadlines
By Tom Wood
Deadlines, deadlines, and more deadlines.
If you are a journalist thinking about self-publishing your Great American Novel, you know the word too well. But as Bachman-Turner Overdrive sang, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Or you’ve already self-published, so you probably know how the deadlines never cease even after the book comes out. Welcome to my world.
But if you’ve just recently retired, or been downsized, or are a stay-at-home mom or dad who always wanted to write a book and you decided to self-publish, know this:
You’re always on deadline.
Now you might not have an editor hovering over you, an agent sending URGENT emails or a publisher SCREAMING for the next chapters, but it doesn’t mean you can escape the pressures of deadlines.
In fact, self-imposed deadlines might be the hardest of all — precisely because only three people will push you to complete the book.
Me, myself and I.
You have to be a self-driven, disciplined, and motivated individual to finish that story you’ve always wanted to tell. If it never gets written, who’s going to know besides you and your closest friends?
Since I self-published “Vendetta Stone” in August 2013 and began doing speaking engagements and promotional events, many people have sadly expressed a desire to finish the book they started so many years ago. Why didn’t they complete the project? Mostly because life got in the way, or they got frustrated, or…
It’s not easy to find the time to write in a day full of work, chores, raising a family or whatever.
But I’ve met several practicing attorneys, doctors, and public relations specialists — married ones — who have found time to churn out a book. That’s discipline. They spend weekends on the road hawking books and speaking to groups just like the rest of us. That’s motivated.
And if you self-publish more than one book, you must set aside writing time each day while you are promoting events, calling bookstore owners, keeping track of sales, writing blogs, and doing everything else the job entails.
So pardon me if I cut this short.
I’m on deadline.
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”. In the last year, Tom has begun writing Western fiction short stories, two of which have been published by Western Trail Blazer. “Tennesseans West” is his next project with four other authors involved. 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 and he is working on the sequel.
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Mining the Gold of Silence
Sometimes a look can say it all. Sometimes there are no words to express a feeling. Author John Dobbyn reminds us in this essay that there are times when it’s best not to over explain and allow the reader to take control of the stories beautifully unfolding in their minds.
By John F. Dobbyn
Vital as it is for a mystery/thriller writer to have a way with words, an even greater gift is to have a way without words.
Words are necessary to erect the structure of character, setting, and plot. But if the writer trusts the reader, an even greater depth to the story can be achieved by leaving enough rooms vacant of furniture, or at least sparsely furnished, to allow, no, compel the reader to enter into the act of “furnishing” it with his/her own imagination.
The central character in my series of four, soon to be five, legal thriller novels published by Oceanview Publications is a 27-year old criminal trial lawyer who tells the stories in the first person. Throughout the series, I have shared with the reader the fact that Michael Knight is an inch or two over six feet. Beyond that, I have never given the reader one more detail of his physical appearance. And that has been deliberate.
By my telling the stories in the first person, I believe and hope that the readers live more personally through every terrorizing situation I inflict upon Michael. They experience Michael’s courage, as John Wayne defined courage, “being scared to death, but saddling up anyway”. They feel constricted by Michael’s sense of honor. He will bend, warp, and fracture the truth to survive a situation, or to gain the advantage over the “bad guys”, but he will walk into hell rather than break his word once given. They feel his profound admiration, if not hero-worship, for his aging senior partner, Lex Devlin, as it grows from one novel to the next into a mutual father/son love.
And along the way, almost without realizing it, the reader has filled in the most finite details of Michael’s physical appearance, from the color of his hair, the shape of his nose, the color of his eyes, to the cut of his physique.
I only know this because I have asked readers how they see him. The answers have been as detailed, and as different from each other, as anything I could have dreamed up. And what they are “seeing” is frequently a far cry from the Michael I visualize. And that’s the magic of silence. The reader has unknowingly entered into the creative process and given birth, at least in part, to a character of his/her own. I love when that happens. It gives the reader something of a personal stake in the outcome of the story, and that gives a greater depth to the satisfaction in the resolution.
In painting other characters, I tend to be more generous with the details of their appearance, but again, not without a disciplined infusion of silence. Rather than giving in to the temptation to describe them elaborately, I use a few brush strokes to paint their most prominent, defining physical features, much like a caricaturist doing a sketch.
Given these few descriptive hints, it is amazing how each reader will draw on the character’s personality traits, as suggested by what the character does and says, to “see” a fully formed image. And that image, unique to each reader, is the personal investment that draws the reader more deeply into my fictional world.
The silence technique works with plot as well as character. I have nothing against an author’s spewing blood in living color across the pages. Some writers have an almost poetic knack for describing raw violence in wrenching terms. It’s not for me. I don’t do it. I prefer to use a disciplined silence to invite readers to infuse out of their imaginations whatever degree of blood, pain, and gore suits their sensibilities.
In the fourth novel in the Michael Knight/Lex Devlin series, “Deadly Diamonds”, there is a scene in which Michel accompanies a former IRA soldier, accomplished in martial arts, to a bar in one of Boston’s dicier sections. Michael needs to confront one of six gang members in the bar and live through it. His comrade tells Michael to wait outside while he “cleans house”.
I keep the reader outside the bar with Michael. The only details I give of what is taking place inside the bar are the sounds Michael hears of smashing bottles, fractured pool cues, impacting fists, and dropping bodies. I never describe the violence visually, but the reader “sees” it in whatever images are conjured in the reader’s individual imagination. Again, probably without realizing it, the reader is drawn into an active partnership in the storytelling. It is like the difference between watching a crime show on television, with all the details presented visually to the passive viewer, and listening to one on the radio, with all of the action and characters played out on the screen of the listener’s own imagination. Somehow, I’ve always preferred the latter for absorbing storytelling.
As for setting, is anything more disconcerting than having the author of a thriller break the flow of the action and suspend the suspense for a cadenza on the charm of the surrounding countryside? Television shows do it constantly for commercials, but that’s to pay the bills.
Here again, silence is not only golden, it is welcome. If anything unique about the particular landscape or cityscape has a bearing on the plot or level of suspense, all to the good. I’ll go for it, but only with enough of the impressionist’s spare brushstrokes to trigger the creative glands of the reader to fill in the details. Even as to my beloved Boston, I have to squelch the desire to give the reader a travelogue at the expense of the suspense.
Ah, but to say it is one thing. To do it in the heat of novel writing is another. I had the good fortune to be tipped off to the technique by two of the best editors I have ever experienced. The first was the former elder stateswoman of St Martin’s Press, God rest her worthy soul. I sent the manuscript to her and received it back within three weeks. Her comment was, “It is twenty thousand words too long. And I say that without reading a single word of it.”
I recovered from that shocker and sent it to my current editor through three novels and counting, the most perceptive and insightful editor I’ve ever known, Pat Gussin of Oceanview Publications. The second shock was when Pat said, without hearing of the previous comment, “We’ll take it – if you can eliminate twenty thousand words.”
My wife, Lois, (my in-home editor) and I set about scanning every phrase of the novel and slicing out everything that was not essential to building suspense. It was like removing my kidneys, my liver, and several other vital organs to see my best and cutest and funniest lines lying gasping on the floor. But it worked. The novel had leanness, a cogency of flow, a sustaining of tension that it never had before.
I’ve carried that lesson in discipline through the next three novels until it is now second nature. And I sense that the storytelling is so much the better for it.
It’s like the sculptor who was asked how he fashioned a perfect likeness of his subject, Harry. He said, “I just take a block of marble and knock off everything that isn’t Harry.” The trick is to do the same with the essence of a story.
Perhaps the first teacher of us all in this art was the “master of lean” Ernest Hemingway. Without knowing it at the time, I think that aspect of his uniqueness was what drew me instinctively to his writing style. If you want to see this technique in its ultimate degree, try any novel by the powerful Irish novelist, Ken Bruen.
Like all writing techniques, if this use of silence can be done, it can be overdone or underdone. It requires practice, experimentation, and fine-tuning. The instrument the writer is learning to play is the imagination of a hypothetical reader. And that is truly a challenge. But once it becomes instinctive to the writer, silence can be at least as effective as words.
John F. Dobbyn is an American mystery writer and Professor of Law at the Villanova University School of Law. As a mystery writer, he is best known for his stories set in Boston and featuring the lawyers Lex Devlin and Michael Knight. He is the author of four novels, including "Black Diamond" and “Deadly Diamonds”, and he is currently working on a fifth, “Deadly Odds”. www.johndobbyn.com
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Tabloid Truth is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction / R.G. Belsky
Books Burned by Kim Kardashian’s Love Child!
The tabloids in the grocery checkout lines often distract me. The headlines scream of aliens conferring with well-known celebrities. The British monarchy holding regular séances. And most of the time, I’m left wondering who are these people and why do I care? But the British monarchy holding séances, those always get me, as does “Headless Body in Topless Bar.” Like a Sidney Poitier movie, Guess Who’s Writing This Week’s Blog? None other than one of my favorite tabloid editor/writers (and writer of the quoted headline), R. G. Belsky, whose new novel The Kennedy Connection received rave reviews from our Killer Nashville book reviewer. In this blog, Belsky addresses a number of things including why life sometimes would never be believed in fiction. So true.
Until next time, read like someone is burning the books, because somewhere and in some headline, a Kardashian may be doing just that. Truth is stranger than fiction.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Tabloid Truth is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction
By R.G. Belsky
I’ve covered a lot of big crime stories during my time as a tabloid journalist. O.J. Son of Sam. Amy Fischer. JonBenet Ramsey. I was even a part of creating the most famous tabloid crime headline ever: Headless Body in Topless Bar.
So what’s the biggest difference I’ve found between true-life crime and writing mystery novels?
Well, as a mystery author, I get to break the one rule a journalist always has to follow – I don’t have to stick to the facts.
For example, my thriller The Kennedy Connection – the first in a series featuring newspaper reporter Gil Malloy – is about the greatest unsolved murder case of our time: the JFK assassination.
There is no way as a journalist I could answer all the questions that still remain — more than a half century later — about what really happened that day in Dallas.
But in my novel, I create a character who claims he’s the son of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald to help Gil Malloy “solve” the crime. I also provide an alibi for Oswald at the time of President Kennedy’s murder that proves he couldn’t have done it. And I even come up with a witness — two of them, actually — whose testimony might have gotten Oswald cleared if he hadn’t been shot by Jack Ruby.
Yep, making up the facts sure can make a crime story more interesting, huh?
Well, sometimes…
The truth is there have been an awful lot of real life crime stories I’ve covered over the years that have contained more twists and sensational angles than myself (or any mystery author) could ever possibly come up with on our best day.
Take the O.J. Simpson case. It started with the ex-wife of a beloved superstar athlete and entertainment figure found murdered. (Yes, O.J. really was once beloved by the American public.) Then came the Bronco chase on LA freeways that captivated a nation; the Trial of the Century with the “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” glove and all the rest; plus, Kato Kaelin, Johnnie Cochrane and the other unforgettable characters we met on what turned out to be must-watch TV viewing for the next year. I mean what fiction writer could have ever imagined a story like that?
Same thing with Son of Sam. Think about this crazy plot: A loner postal worker — rejected by women and believing he‘s getting orders to kill them from a dog — goes on a legendary New York City murder spree that became known as the Summer of Sam. He taunts police with notes to the press; terrorizes the entire city for more than a year; and becomes the most famous serial killer of all time. Then he finally gets caught because of a simple parking ticket. Most editors I know would reject that idea out of hand as implausible if I ever pitched it for a mystery novel.
Probably the strangest crime story I ever worked on was the “Headless Body in Topless Bar” headline. I was city editor of the New York Post when a holdup man for some reason decided to kill and cut off the head of the owner of a Queens bar. My job was to confirm it was a topless bar so we could use that memorable headline. I managed to get a reporter to do that, and just like that, tabloid history was made.
Amy Fischer. Jon Benet Ramsey. Casey Anthony. Amanda Knox. Jodi Arias. All of these real life crime stories and so many more have come right out of real life headlines without any need for us to make up the bizarre details.
So while I — and other mystery writers — continue to push our imaginations to the limit in order to dream up astonishing make-believe stuff to keep readers riveted to our books…well, sometimes it’s just hard to beat the actual facts.
One of the finest mystery novels ever was “Eight Million Ways to Die” by Lawrence Block. It’s a top-notch tale, which helped Block to fame as a Grand Master in the mystery genre. But maybe the biggest strength of that book — the theme upon which the title is based — is the crazy way people can be murdered in New York City, all of which were culled from the New York tabloids.
And why not?
Because if you’re looking for something even stranger than fiction, there’s no better pace to look than the world of real-life tabloid news.
Now that’s the truth!
R.G. Belsky has been the metropolitan editor of the New York Post, news editor of Star magazine, managing editor of the New York Daily News and – most recently – was managing editor of NBCNews.com. His new Gil Malloy mystery novel, Shooting for the Stars, is inspired in part by some real life famous celebrity murders – but is mostly fiction. It will be published on August 14 by Atria. Visit his website at www.rgbelsky.com
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Meaghan Hill, and publisher Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Tabloid Truth is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction / R.G. Belsky
Books Burned by Kim Kardashian’s Love Child!
The tabloids in the grocery checkout lines often distract me. The headlines scream of aliens conferring with well-known celebrities. The British monarchy holding regular séances. And most of the time, I’m left wondering who are these people and why do I care? But the British monarchy holding séances, those always get me, as does “Headless Body in Topless Bar.” Like a Sidney Poitier movie, Guess Who’s Writing This Week’s Blog? None other than one of my favorite tabloid editor/writers (and writer of the quoted headline), R. G. Belsky, whose new novel The Kennedy Connection
Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Tabloid Truth is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction
By R.G. Belsky
I’ve covered a lot of big crime stories during my time as a tabloid journalist. O.J. Son of Sam. Amy Fischer. JonBenet Ramsey. I was even a part of creating the most famous tabloid crime headline ever: Headless Body in Topless Bar.
So what’s the biggest difference I’ve found between true-life crime and writing mystery novels?
Well, as a mystery author, I get to break the one rule a journalist always has to follow – I don’t have to stick to the facts.
For example, my thriller The Kennedy Connection
There is no way as a journalist I could answer all the questions that still remain — more than a half century later — about what really happened that day in Dallas.
But in my novel, I create a character who claims he’s the son of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald to help Gil Malloy “solve” the crime. I also provide an alibi for Oswald at the time of President Kennedy’s murder that proves he couldn’t have done it. And I even come up with a witness — two of them, actually — whose testimony might have gotten Oswald cleared if he hadn’t been shot by Jack Ruby.
Yep, making up the facts sure can make a crime story more interesting, huh?
Well, sometimes…
The truth is there have been an awful lot of real life crime stories I’ve covered over the years that have contained more twists and sensational angles than myself (or any mystery author) could ever possibly come up with on our best day.
Take the O.J. Simpson case. It started with the ex-wife of a beloved superstar athlete and entertainment figure found murdered. (Yes, O.J. really was once beloved by the American public.) Then came the Bronco chase on LA freeways that captivated a nation; the Trial of the Century with the “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” glove and all the rest; plus, Kato Kaelin, Johnnie Cochrane and the other unforgettable characters we met on what turned out to be must-watch TV viewing for the next year. I mean what fiction writer could have ever imagined a story like that?
Same thing with Son of Sam. Think about this crazy plot: A loner postal worker — rejected by women and believing he‘s getting orders to kill them from a dog — goes on a legendary New York City murder spree that became known as the Summer of Sam. He taunts police with notes to the press; terrorizes the entire city for more than a year; and becomes the most famous serial killer of all time. Then he finally gets caught because of a simple parking ticket. Most editors I know would reject that idea out of hand as implausible if I ever pitched it for a mystery novel.
Probably the strangest crime story I ever worked on was the “Headless Body in Topless Bar” headline. I was city editor of the New York Post when a holdup man for some reason decided to kill and cut off the head of the owner of a Queens bar. My job was to confirm it was a topless bar so we could use that memorable headline. I managed to get a reporter to do that, and just like that, tabloid history was made.
Amy Fischer. Jon Benet Ramsey. Casey Anthony. Amanda Knox. Jodi Arias. All of these real life crime stories and so many more have come right out of real life headlines without any need for us to make up the bizarre details.
So while I — and other mystery writers — continue to push our imaginations to the limit in order to dream up astonishing make-believe stuff to keep readers riveted to our books…well, sometimes it’s just hard to beat the actual facts.
One of the finest mystery novels ever was “Eight Million Ways to Die” by Lawrence Block. It’s a top-notch tale, which helped Block to fame as a Grand Master in the mystery genre. But maybe the biggest strength of that book — the theme upon which the title is based — is the crazy way people can be murdered in New York City, all of which were culled from the New York tabloids.
And why not?
Because if you’re looking for something even stranger than fiction, there’s no better pace to look than the world of real-life tabloid news.
Now that’s the truth!
R.G. Belsky has been the metropolitan editor of the New York Post, news editor of Star magazine, managing editor of the New York Daily News and – most recently – was managing editor of NBCNews.com. His new Gil Malloy mystery novel, Shooting for the Stars
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Meaghan Hill, and publisher Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Tabloid Truth is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction / R.G. Belsky
Books Burned by Kim Kardashian’s Love Child!
The tabloids in the grocery checkout lines often distract me. The headlines scream of aliens conferring with well-known celebrities. The British monarchy holding regular séances. And most of the time, I’m left wondering who are these people and why do I care? But the British monarchy holding séances, those always get me, as does “Headless Body in Topless Bar.” Like a Sidney Poitier movie, Guess Who’s Writing This Week’s Blog? None other than one of my favorite tabloid editor/writers (and writer of the quoted headline), R. G. Belsky, whose new novel The Kennedy Connection
Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Tabloid Truth is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction
By R.G. Belsky
I’ve covered a lot of big crime stories during my time as a tabloid journalist. O.J. Son of Sam. Amy Fischer. JonBenet Ramsey. I was even a part of creating the most famous tabloid crime headline ever: Headless Body in Topless Bar.
So what’s the biggest difference I’ve found between true-life crime and writing mystery novels?
Well, as a mystery author, I get to break the one rule a journalist always has to follow – I don’t have to stick to the facts.
For example, my thriller The Kennedy Connection
There is no way as a journalist I could answer all the questions that still remain — more than a half century later — about what really happened that day in Dallas.
But in my novel, I create a character who claims he’s the son of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald to help Gil Malloy “solve” the crime. I also provide an alibi for Oswald at the time of President Kennedy’s murder that proves he couldn’t have done it. And I even come up with a witness — two of them, actually — whose testimony might have gotten Oswald cleared if he hadn’t been shot by Jack Ruby.
Yep, making up the facts sure can make a crime story more interesting, huh?
Well, sometimes…
The truth is there have been an awful lot of real life crime stories I’ve covered over the years that have contained more twists and sensational angles than myself (or any mystery author) could ever possibly come up with on our best day.
Take the O.J. Simpson case. It started with the ex-wife of a beloved superstar athlete and entertainment figure found murdered. (Yes, O.J. really was once beloved by the American public.) Then came the Bronco chase on LA freeways that captivated a nation; the Trial of the Century with the “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” glove and all the rest; plus, Kato Kaelin, Johnnie Cochrane and the other unforgettable characters we met on what turned out to be must-watch TV viewing for the next year. I mean what fiction writer could have ever imagined a story like that?
Same thing with Son of Sam. Think about this crazy plot: A loner postal worker — rejected by women and believing he‘s getting orders to kill them from a dog — goes on a legendary New York City murder spree that became known as the Summer of Sam. He taunts police with notes to the press; terrorizes the entire city for more than a year; and becomes the most famous serial killer of all time. Then he finally gets caught because of a simple parking ticket. Most editors I know would reject that idea out of hand as implausible if I ever pitched it for a mystery novel.
Probably the strangest crime story I ever worked on was the “Headless Body in Topless Bar” headline. I was city editor of the New York Post when a holdup man for some reason decided to kill and cut off the head of the owner of a Queens bar. My job was to confirm it was a topless bar so we could use that memorable headline. I managed to get a reporter to do that, and just like that, tabloid history was made.
Amy Fischer. Jon Benet Ramsey. Casey Anthony. Amanda Knox. Jodi Arias. All of these real life crime stories and so many more have come right out of real life headlines without any need for us to make up the bizarre details.
So while I — and other mystery writers — continue to push our imaginations to the limit in order to dream up astonishing make-believe stuff to keep readers riveted to our books…well, sometimes it’s just hard to beat the actual facts.
One of the finest mystery novels ever was “Eight Million Ways to Die” by Lawrence Block. It’s a top-notch tale, which helped Block to fame as a Grand Master in the mystery genre. But maybe the biggest strength of that book — the theme upon which the title is based — is the crazy way people can be murdered in New York City, all of which were culled from the New York tabloids.
And why not?
Because if you’re looking for something even stranger than fiction, there’s no better pace to look than the world of real-life tabloid news.
Now that’s the truth!
R.G. Belsky has been the metropolitan editor of the New York Post, news editor of Star magazine, managing editor of the New York Daily News and – most recently – was managing editor of NBCNews.com. His new Gil Malloy mystery novel, Shooting for the Stars
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Meaghan Hill, and publisher Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Sensory Memory Adds Grist to Your Story / Kelly Saderholm
The best authors in history make readers imagine, believe, and feel they are living and breathing within a story. But to achieve this harmony of sights, sounds, and smells in words, a writer must draw on an understanding or an experience that makes it real.
In this week’s blog, author Kelly Saderholm talks about “sensory memory” and its importance in telling stories that pop. I’m a believer. Sensory memory field trips really can make a difference. Let me know if they make a difference in your writing, as well.
Happy Reading! And until next time, read like someone is burning the books!
Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Sensory Memory Adds Grist to Your Story
By Kelly Saderholm
A few years ago at Killer Nashville, I had a conversation with Jeffery Deaver, who knows a thing or two about research. Using the analogy of an iceberg, he said most of the research he did never made an appearance on the page, but it formed a solid base of knowledge to support that little bit that did show up. This is true. Readers do not want a dissertation in the middle of their story, but they do get irate with Writers Who Did Not Do The Research. This takes quite a bit more effort than to just Google a subject.
Athletes and dancers talk about “muscle memory”. Fiction writers develop and draw on “sensory memory”. There is still a need for research, but it is a different kind of research than facts and figures of a research paper. A writer has to research sensory aspects, especially for place: what does it look or sound like? How does it smell, taste? In addition to acquiring facts, when writing, an author would do well to take a sensory field trip.
The James Rice Grist Mill at Norris Dam State Park
Source: tnstateparks.com
I’m currently writing a novel in which a gristmill makes an early and important appearance. When I began the project, all I knew about gristmills was a wheel went round and round and somehow produced flour or meal. That’s all most people care to know, but this scene with the gristmill will set the tone for the whole book, and I need the readers to know that I know what I’m talking about. So I started researching gristmills online, and I even found a publication about them. Handy research tip: any topic you can think of has a society, or some sort of following. Those followers will produce journals, newsletters, websites, etc., and they love to talk about their subject. I also had the good fortune to meet a gristmill keeper, who told all sorts of great stories.
But even after all this, my scene still felt flat. I felt that it lacked . . . something. I had all this great information, lots of research about gristmills, but the scene just needed something else. Happily, there is a (sometimes) still-working gristmill in Norris Dam State Park in Tennessee, which I visited.
I learned things on a sensory level that I could not learn from reading the Journal of American Gristmill keepers. For example, how very clear and cold the water of a mountain stream is; how slick (almost slimy) the wooden sluice is from generations of water flowing through; the splashing of the water escaping from the buckets of the wheel; the crunchy (and somewhat disturbing) sound of grain being milled and the meal dust and grit in the air.
You can do this for your own research. I even incorporated research into trips I was planning to take. For this subject, I looked for other parks or museums in the area, whether there are entrance fees, and what were their hours. The Lenoir Museum, next to the mill, for example is free, but closed throughout the winter months, and even some days in summer. Close by, the much larger Museum of Appalachia (a Smithsonian affiliate) is open year-round, but it has a fee. For almost any museum, if you contact the staff ahead of time, as I did, and let them know what you are interested in, they can suggest or even arrange a special tour for you. Very often, museums have demonstrations and you can find out exactly the info you need; in my case, how corn is turned into meal, and then baked in a wood-stove or fireplace.
Doing Your Research Can Pay Off
Museums may also have archives, databases, artifacts that are not on display, but may be available for study for a researcher. Check these out in advance. Also visit the gift shops for specialty books, maps, CDs, postcards, and other objects for later inspiration. I picked up a bag of stone-ground meal, a cushion made from an old flour sack, some books, and lots of postcards.
In my original scene, characters drove to the mill on a road. They met with the keeper, he gave them information, and they went on their way. The scene now has a treacherous, twisty road; the gritty grinding adds an ominous touch when the grizzled old keeper tells a gruesome tale. The information they want is peppered with bits of folklore. He leads them along a slippery, mossy path to his house, now furnished with objects I saw in the museums. It is all much more interesting now, and yet there is no more factual information in the revised scene than there was in the first. My sensory memory field trip made this scene “pop” and also gave me sensory material to work with for the rest of the novel.
Kelly Saderholm has written, blogged and lectured about aspects of the mystery novel. She has moderated panels and presented papers at literary conferences, on both the Mystery Novel and Urban Fantasy. She is currently shifting from writing about mystery fiction to writing actual mystery fiction and is working on a novel, as well as a non-fiction book dealing with Folklore in the American South. She is a recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant. She lives in South Central Kentucky with her family and two feline office assistants.
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Sensory Memory Adds Grist to Your Story / Kelly Saderholm
The best authors in history make readers imagine, believe, and feel they are living and breathing within a story. But to achieve this harmony of sights, sounds, and smells in words, a writer must draw on an understanding or an experience that makes it real.In this week’s blog, author Kelly Saderholm talks about “sensory memory” and its importance in telling stories that pop. I’m a believer. Sensory memory field trips really can make a difference. Let me know if they make a difference in your writing, as well.Happy Reading! And until next time, read like someone is burning the books!Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Sensory Memory Adds Grist to Your Story
By Kelly Saderholm
A few years ago at Killer Nashville, I had a conversation with Jeffery Deaver, who knows a thing or two about research. Using the analogy of an iceberg, he said most of the research he did never made an appearance on the page, but it formed a solid base of knowledge to support that little bit that did show up. This is true. Readers do not want a dissertation in the middle of their story, but they do get irate with Writers Who Did Not Do The Research. This takes quite a bit more effort than to just Google a subject.
Athletes and dancers talk about “muscle memory”. Fiction writers develop and draw on “sensory memory”. There is still a need for research, but it is a different kind of research than facts and figures of a research paper. A writer has to research sensory aspects, especially for place: what does it look or sound like? How does it smell, taste? In addition to acquiring facts, when writing, an author would do well to take a sensory field trip.
I’m currently writing a novel in which a gristmill makes an early and important appearance. When I began the project, all I knew about gristmills was a wheel went round and round and somehow produced flour or meal. That’s all most people care to know, but this scene with the gristmill will set the tone for the whole book, and I need the readers to know that I know what I’m talking about. So I started researching gristmills online, and I even found a publication about them. Handy research tip: any topic you can think of has a society, or some sort of following. Those followers will produce journals, newsletters, websites, etc., and they love to talk about their subject. I also had the good fortune to meet a gristmill keeper, who told all sorts of great stories.
The James Rice Grist Mill at
Norris Dam State Park
Source: tnstateparks.com
But even after all this, my scene still felt flat. I felt that it lacked . . . something. I had all this great information, lots of research about gristmills, but the scene just needed something else. Happily, there is a (sometimes) still-working gristmill in Norris Dam State Park in Tennessee, which I visited.
I learned things on a sensory level that I could not learn from reading the Journal of American Gristmill keepers. For example, how very clear and cold the water of a mountain stream is; how slick (almost slimy) the wooden sluice is from generations of water flowing through; the splashing of the water escaping from the buckets of the wheel; the crunchy (and somewhat disturbing) sound of grain being milled and the meal dust and grit in the air.
You can do this for your own research. I even incorporated research into trips I was planning to take. For this subject, I looked for other parks or museums in the area, whether there are entrance fees, and what were their hours. The Lenoir Museum, next to the mill, for example is free, but closed throughout the winter months, and even some days in summer. Close by, the much larger Museum of Appalachia (a Smithsonian affiliate) is open year-round, but it has a fee. For almost any museum, if you contact the staff ahead of time, as I did, and let them know what you are interested in, they can suggest or even arrange a special tour for you. Very often, museums have demonstrations and you can find out exactly the info you need; in my case, how corn is turned into meal, and then baked in a wood-stove or fireplace.
Doing Your Research Can Pay Off
Museums may also have archives, databases, artifacts that are not on display, but may be available for study for a researcher. Check these out in advance. Also visit the gift shops for specialty books, maps, CDs, postcards, and other objects for later inspiration. I picked up a bag of stone-ground meal, a cushion made from an old flour sack, some books, and lots of postcards.
In my original scene, characters drove to the mill on a road. They met with the keeper, he gave them information, and they went on their way. The scene now has a treacherous, twisty road; the gritty grinding adds an ominous touch when the grizzled old keeper tells a gruesome tale. The information they want is peppered with bits of folklore. He leads them along a slippery, mossy path to his house, now furnished with objects I saw in the museums. It is all much more interesting now, and yet there is no more factual information in the revised scene than there was in the first. My sensory memory field trip made this scene “pop” and also gave me sensory material to work with for the rest of the novel.
Kelly Saderholm has written, blogged and lectured about aspects of the mystery novel. She has moderated panels and presented papers at literary conferences, on both the Mystery Novel and Urban Fantasy. She is currently shifting from writing about mystery fiction to writing actual mystery fiction and is working on a novel, as well as a non-fiction book dealing with Folklore in the American South. She is a recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant. She lives in South Central Kentucky with her family and two feline office assistants.
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Sensory Memory Adds Grist to Your Story / Kelly Saderholm
The best authors in history make readers imagine, believe, and feel they are living and breathing within a story. But to achieve this harmony of sights, sounds, and smells in words, a writer must draw on an understanding or an experience that makes it real.In this week’s blog, author Kelly Saderholm talks about “sensory memory” and its importance in telling stories that pop. I’m a believer. Sensory memory field trips really can make a difference. Let me know if they make a difference in your writing, as well.Happy Reading! And until next time, read like someone is burning the books!Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Sensory Memory Adds Grist to Your Story
By Kelly Saderholm
A few years ago at Killer Nashville, I had a conversation with Jeffery Deaver, who knows a thing or two about research. Using the analogy of an iceberg, he said most of the research he did never made an appearance on the page, but it formed a solid base of knowledge to support that little bit that did show up. This is true. Readers do not want a dissertation in the middle of their story, but they do get irate with Writers Who Did Not Do The Research. This takes quite a bit more effort than to just Google a subject.
Athletes and dancers talk about “muscle memory”. Fiction writers develop and draw on “sensory memory”. There is still a need for research, but it is a different kind of research than facts and figures of a research paper. A writer has to research sensory aspects, especially for place: what does it look or sound like? How does it smell, taste? In addition to acquiring facts, when writing, an author would do well to take a sensory field trip.
I’m currently writing a novel in which a gristmill makes an early and important appearance. When I began the project, all I knew about gristmills was a wheel went round and round and somehow produced flour or meal. That’s all most people care to know, but this scene with the gristmill will set the tone for the whole book, and I need the readers to know that I know what I’m talking about. So I started researching gristmills online, and I even found a publication about them. Handy research tip: any topic you can think of has a society, or some sort of following. Those followers will produce journals, newsletters, websites, etc., and they love to talk about their subject. I also had the good fortune to meet a gristmill keeper, who told all sorts of great stories.
The James Rice Grist Mill at
Norris Dam State Park
Source: tnstateparks.com
But even after all this, my scene still felt flat. I felt that it lacked . . . something. I had all this great information, lots of research about gristmills, but the scene just needed something else. Happily, there is a (sometimes) still-working gristmill in Norris Dam State Park in Tennessee, which I visited.
I learned things on a sensory level that I could not learn from reading the Journal of American Gristmill keepers. For example, how very clear and cold the water of a mountain stream is; how slick (almost slimy) the wooden sluice is from generations of water flowing through; the splashing of the water escaping from the buckets of the wheel; the crunchy (and somewhat disturbing) sound of grain being milled and the meal dust and grit in the air.
You can do this for your own research. I even incorporated research into trips I was planning to take. For this subject, I looked for other parks or museums in the area, whether there are entrance fees, and what were their hours. The Lenoir Museum, next to the mill, for example is free, but closed throughout the winter months, and even some days in summer. Close by, the much larger Museum of Appalachia (a Smithsonian affiliate) is open year-round, but it has a fee. For almost any museum, if you contact the staff ahead of time, as I did, and let them know what you are interested in, they can suggest or even arrange a special tour for you. Very often, museums have demonstrations and you can find out exactly the info you need; in my case, how corn is turned into meal, and then baked in a wood-stove or fireplace.
Doing Your Research Can Pay Off
Museums may also have archives, databases, artifacts that are not on display, but may be available for study for a researcher. Check these out in advance. Also visit the gift shops for specialty books, maps, CDs, postcards, and other objects for later inspiration. I picked up a bag of stone-ground meal, a cushion made from an old flour sack, some books, and lots of postcards.
In my original scene, characters drove to the mill on a road. They met with the keeper, he gave them information, and they went on their way. The scene now has a treacherous, twisty road; the gritty grinding adds an ominous touch when the grizzled old keeper tells a gruesome tale. The information they want is peppered with bits of folklore. He leads them along a slippery, mossy path to his house, now furnished with objects I saw in the museums. It is all much more interesting now, and yet there is no more factual information in the revised scene than there was in the first. My sensory memory field trip made this scene “pop” and also gave me sensory material to work with for the rest of the novel.
Kelly Saderholm has written, blogged and lectured about aspects of the mystery novel. She has moderated panels and presented papers at literary conferences, on both the Mystery Novel and Urban Fantasy. She is currently shifting from writing about mystery fiction to writing actual mystery fiction and is working on a novel, as well as a non-fiction book dealing with Folklore in the American South. She is a recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant. She lives in South Central Kentucky with her family and two feline office assistants.
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
True Crime to Cozies – A Happier Ending / Phyllis Gobbell
The demands of fiction writing and true crime writing have some similarities, says author Phyllis Gobbel. But there are also differences. In this week’s guest blog, Gobbell shares her journey from writing about cold cases to fictional mysteries.
Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
True Crime to Cozies – A Happier Ending
By Phyllis Gobbell
I never planned to be a true crime writer, but two Nashville cold cases—one solved after ten years, the other after thirty-three years—drew me to the genre.
I was fortunate to co-write with Mike Glasgow on "An Unfinished Canvas"and Doug Jones on "A Season of Darkness". Both writers were attorneys skilled in wading through the investigative processes and legal proceedings. My interest lay in the personal stories. I don’t recall any disagreements about who would write what. We passed drafts back and forth, checked and re-checked each other, and commiserated when we had to cut, which we did—a lot.
All in all, the collaborative experience was great, and telling the tragic stories of the murders of Janet March and Marcia Trimble, and how their killers were brought to justice, was gratifying in a way that no other writing has been for me.
But now I’ve turned from true crime to fictional crime—and not just mysteries, but traditional mysteries—cozies, if you will! In "Pursuit in Provence", an American woman travels abroad, and murder and mayhem happen all around her. The next book is set in Ireland. It’s a leap from true crime, but the genres have more in common than one might think. And both have their upsides and downsides.
Fiction demands its own kind of research, but my amateur sleuth doesn’t have to know much about weapons or forensics. I admit I was ready for a break from the meticulous research that goes into a true crime book. Describing the street scene from a sidewalk café on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence beats squinting at microfiche articles from the old “Nashville Banner”any day. Taking photos from the magnificent Cliffs of Moher so I’ll get it right when I use the site in a big scene is a lot more fun than taking notes in the courtroom as witnesses give their testimonies.
But there is that “truth is stranger than fiction” element. Sure, I like to think that my mysteries have some exciting twists and turns, but I didn’t have to imagine the series of events that Perry March initiated from his cell in the Metro-Davidson County Jail. The plot was just there. The irony was just there. Perry conspiring with a street kid to murder Janet March’s parents, promising a safe haven with his father, Arthur, in Mexico. The kid conspiring with police, who deport Arthur and offer him a deal. Guess who winds up testifying against his own son in the Janet March murder trial? I couldn’t have made that up.
The characters are just there in a true crime. The writer’s challenge is to faithfully portray the real people. Virginia Trimble is one of those memorable people, and I won’t forget how it felt to write about the evening she realized Marcia was missing, the Easter Sunday that police found Marcia’s body, and the moment during the murder trial that she identified the blue-checked blouse Marcia was wearing when she left their house for the last time.
With true crime, the writer is obligated to tell what really happened, not what should have happened, or what actually might seem more plausible than the real thing. Writing fiction, I get to create my own characters, develop their flaws and eccentricities, put them in messy situations and see what happens. I can change what happens if I choose. Fiction, well written, embodies its own truths, but that’s another blog.
I like suspense, danger, and surprise, but my mysteries are never too sad. Readers have asked me, “Was writing true crime just too sad?” Yes, the stories were heartbreaking. But I had followed these Nashville cases through the years, and after the murder trials and convictions, there was something satisfying about putting the stories to paper.
Closure, I suppose, is the word. I haven’t turned from true crime to traditional mysteries because writing about real-life murders is sad. I told the stories I wanted to tell. Now I’m writing the kind of stories I’ve always loved to read. The kind I curl up with at bedtime, knowing I won’t have bad dreams, knowing the protagonist will find her way out of whatever trouble she’s in, the kind where you don’t just get closure. You get a happy ending.
Phyllis Gobbell is author of a mystery series that will debut with "Pursuit in Provence" (A Jordan Mayfair Mystery), Spring 2015. She has co-authored two true-crime books based on high-profile murders in Nashville: "An Unfinished Canvas: A True Story of Love, Family, and Murder in Nashville"with Michael Glasgow (the Janet March case), and "A Season of Darkness"with Doug Jones (the Marcia Trimble case). Her narrative “Lost Innocence” was published in the anthology, "Masters of True Crime". She has received awards in both fiction and nonfiction, including Tennessee’s individual Artist Literary Award. An associate professor of English at Nashville State Community College, she teaches writing and literature. Visit her website at www.phyllisgobbell.com
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
True Crime to Cozies – A Happier Ending / Phyllis Gobbell
The demands of fiction writing and true crime writing have some similarities, says author Phyllis Gobbel. But there are also differences. In this week’s guest blog, Gobbell shares her journey from writing about cold cases to fictional mysteries.Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
True Crime to Cozies – A Happier Ending
By Phyllis Gobbell
I never planned to be a true crime writer, but two Nashville cold cases—one solved after ten years, the other after thirty-three years—drew me to the genre.
I was fortunate to co-write with Mike Glasgow on "An Unfinished Canvas" and Doug Jones on "A Season of Darkness"
All in all, the collaborative experience was great, and telling the tragic stories of the murders of Janet March and Marcia Trimble, and how their killers were brought to justice, was gratifying in a way that no other writing has been for me.
But now I’ve turned from true crime to fictional crime—and not just mysteries, but traditional mysteries—cozies, if you will! In "Pursuit in Provence", an American woman travels abroad, and murder and mayhem happen all around her. The next book is set in Ireland. It’s a leap from true crime, but the genres have more in common than one might think. And both have their upsides and downsides.
Fiction demands its own kind of research, but my amateur sleuth doesn’t have to know much about weapons or forensics. I admit I was ready for a break from the meticulous research that goes into a true crime book. Describing the street scene from a sidewalk café on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence beats squinting at microfiche articles from the old “Nashville Banner” any day. Taking photos from the magnificent Cliffs of Moher so I’ll get it right when I use the site in a big scene is a lot more fun than taking notes in the courtroom as witnesses give their testimonies.
But there is that “truth is stranger than fiction” element. Sure, I like to think that my mysteries have some exciting twists and turns, but I didn’t have to imagine the series of events that Perry March initiated from his cell in the Metro-Davidson County Jail. The plot was just there. The irony was just there. Perry conspiring with a street kid to murder Janet March’s parents, promising a safe haven with his father, Arthur, in Mexico. The kid conspiring with police, who deport Arthur and offer him a deal. Guess who winds up testifying against his own son in the Janet March murder trial? I couldn’t have made that up.
The characters are just there in a true crime. The writer’s challenge is to faithfully portray the real people. Virginia Trimble is one of those memorable people, and I won’t forget how it felt to write about the evening she realized Marcia was missing, the Easter Sunday that police found Marcia’s body, and the moment during the murder trial that she identified the blue-checked blouse Marcia was wearing when she left their house for the last time.
With true crime, the writer is obligated to tell what really happened, not what should have happened, or what actually might seem more plausible than the real thing. Writing fiction, I get to create my own characters, develop their flaws and eccentricities, put them in messy situations and see what happens. I can change what happens if I choose. Fiction, well written, embodies its own truths, but that’s another blog.
I like suspense, danger, and surprise, but my mysteries are never too sad. Readers have asked me, “Was writing true crime just too sad?” Yes, the stories were heartbreaking. But I had followed these Nashville cases through the years, and after the murder trials and convictions, there was something satisfying about putting the stories to paper.
Closure, I suppose, is the word. I haven’t turned from true crime to traditional mysteries because writing about real-life murders is sad. I told the stories I wanted to tell. Now I’m writing the kind of stories I’ve always loved to read. The kind I curl up with at bedtime, knowing I won’t have bad dreams, knowing the protagonist will find her way out of whatever trouble she’s in, the kind where you don’t just get closure. You get a happy ending.
Phyllis Gobbell is author of a mystery series that will debut with "Pursuit in Provence" (A Jordan Mayfair Mystery)
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
True Crime to Cozies – A Happier Ending / Phyllis Gobbell
The demands of fiction writing and true crime writing have some similarities, says author Phyllis Gobbel. But there are also differences. In this week’s guest blog, Gobbell shares her journey from writing about cold cases to fictional mysteries.Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
True Crime to Cozies – A Happier Ending
By Phyllis Gobbell
I never planned to be a true crime writer, but two Nashville cold cases—one solved after ten years, the other after thirty-three years—drew me to the genre.
I was fortunate to co-write with Mike Glasgow on "An Unfinished Canvas" and Doug Jones on "A Season of Darkness"
All in all, the collaborative experience was great, and telling the tragic stories of the murders of Janet March and Marcia Trimble, and how their killers were brought to justice, was gratifying in a way that no other writing has been for me.
But now I’ve turned from true crime to fictional crime—and not just mysteries, but traditional mysteries—cozies, if you will! In "Pursuit in Provence", an American woman travels abroad, and murder and mayhem happen all around her. The next book is set in Ireland. It’s a leap from true crime, but the genres have more in common than one might think. And both have their upsides and downsides.
Fiction demands its own kind of research, but my amateur sleuth doesn’t have to know much about weapons or forensics. I admit I was ready for a break from the meticulous research that goes into a true crime book. Describing the street scene from a sidewalk café on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence beats squinting at microfiche articles from the old “Nashville Banner” any day. Taking photos from the magnificent Cliffs of Moher so I’ll get it right when I use the site in a big scene is a lot more fun than taking notes in the courtroom as witnesses give their testimonies.
But there is that “truth is stranger than fiction” element. Sure, I like to think that my mysteries have some exciting twists and turns, but I didn’t have to imagine the series of events that Perry March initiated from his cell in the Metro-Davidson County Jail. The plot was just there. The irony was just there. Perry conspiring with a street kid to murder Janet March’s parents, promising a safe haven with his father, Arthur, in Mexico. The kid conspiring with police, who deport Arthur and offer him a deal. Guess who winds up testifying against his own son in the Janet March murder trial? I couldn’t have made that up.
The characters are just there in a true crime. The writer’s challenge is to faithfully portray the real people. Virginia Trimble is one of those memorable people, and I won’t forget how it felt to write about the evening she realized Marcia was missing, the Easter Sunday that police found Marcia’s body, and the moment during the murder trial that she identified the blue-checked blouse Marcia was wearing when she left their house for the last time.
With true crime, the writer is obligated to tell what really happened, not what should have happened, or what actually might seem more plausible than the real thing. Writing fiction, I get to create my own characters, develop their flaws and eccentricities, put them in messy situations and see what happens. I can change what happens if I choose. Fiction, well written, embodies its own truths, but that’s another blog.
I like suspense, danger, and surprise, but my mysteries are never too sad. Readers have asked me, “Was writing true crime just too sad?” Yes, the stories were heartbreaking. But I had followed these Nashville cases through the years, and after the murder trials and convictions, there was something satisfying about putting the stories to paper.
Closure, I suppose, is the word. I haven’t turned from true crime to traditional mysteries because writing about real-life murders is sad. I told the stories I wanted to tell. Now I’m writing the kind of stories I’ve always loved to read. The kind I curl up with at bedtime, knowing I won’t have bad dreams, knowing the protagonist will find her way out of whatever trouble she’s in, the kind where you don’t just get closure. You get a happy ending.
Phyllis Gobbell is author of a mystery series that will debut with "Pursuit in Provence" (A Jordan Mayfair Mystery)
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Who Me? Self-Published? / Shannon Brown
It seems there are many paths to publishing. Self-published author Shannon Brown shows how she became the parent of her “paperbound child” after much time and research. The information she shares is just as beneficial for the traditionally published as it is for the author who must wear many hats. Read and learn from her experience.
And until next time, read like someone is burning the books!
Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Who Me? Self-Published?
By Shannon Brown
When I decided to self-publish, I did it knowing my book would have to be the same quality as one from a major publisher in order for it to be well received by major reviewers, librarians, and me. Self-published books carry a stigma of low quality, and I didn’t want any part of that. Every step of the book from writing to editing to the cover to the interior was important. Each step had to be perfect before going to the next step.
Before I move on, I want to give a plug for editing. I hope everyone knows they need to hire an editor. I’ve written more than 600 articles and that taught me that everyone makes mistakes. I knew I needed a pro to help with my editing. One tip: pay a potential editor to do a few pages or a chapter before going forward to make sure their style is your style. Then you won’t get really frustrated and have to pay a second editor like I did.
Knowledge is Power
A cozy mystery has a different style of cover than a medical thriller or a middle grade mystery—ages 8-12—like my book. As a journalist I’m used to doing extensive research so I began there.
My favorite self-publishing design site is Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer. He has excellent articles about self-publishing and his monthly e-book cover Design Awards give details for why a cover worked and looked professional—or didn’t work and looked self-published.
I also went to bookstores and studied first the cover of the books, then on later visits, the interior. Research taught me that books have a specific format and when that’s ignored, it no longer looks professional. For example, a book begins with a half title page, then a full title page with the copyright information on the reverse (known as title verso). Not placing your copyright on the title verso announces it is self-published in flashing neon lights. (Yes, I’ve seen that done.)
Cover Charge
Covers for my genre are still usually hand illustrated with few exceptions. When I searched for a cover, I began with illustrators, but the cost chased me away. Instead, I did a photo shoot with two girls that looked like my characters, but didn’t like the resulting cover. Then I had an artist I know do some sketches, but the girls he drew looked like they wanted to kick some serious butt and that didn’t fit with my fun but suspenseful concept.
I ended going back to an illustrator I’d found months before and rejected because of the cost. The cover gets a positive response from everyone and helps open doors. (It isn’t about the money you spend on the cover though; I have a friend with stunning book covers who’s found someone to do it on the cheap.) I also wanted to have a line drawing at the beginning of each chapter. When I ended up with 27 chapters, that idea was nixed due to cost. I used a swirl that related to the cover instead.
Inside Job
Books for kids need to be in print and also available as an ebook. I wanted a book interior that could hold its own with the big boys. If you’re thinking that you don’t plan to do print so it doesn’t matter, go to the “look inside” feature on Amazon to see the difference in an ebook by a major publisher and one that isn’t. Some of the formatting carries over from the print book to the ebook. I also wanted that. (Yeah, I’m pretty high maintenance.)
I’d spent enough on the cover that I felt I couldn’t hire someone to do the interior. Since I have a fair amount of experience with computers including building some websites, but would in no way call myself an expert, I decided to try doing it myself. I knew I had to use a professional level program like InDesign or Quark and chose InDesign because it seemed to be the best for making an ePub file for my e-book later. InDesign had a huge learning curve. (I mean huge.) I went step-by-step using a Lynda video tutorial, and I can’t say enough good things about their videos. Would I recommend that everyone do their own interior? No. It’s doable but I’ll gladly pay someone to do it when I feel like I can.
I have a copy of my book sitting on my desk right now. I’m the proud parent looking at my paperbound child, and I’m happy with it. Of course, I discovered the real work begins upon publication.
Award-winning journalist Shannon Brown had the idea for a mystery for kids—a briefcase full of feathers—pop into her mind while driving on a busy freeway. "The Feather Chase", the first book in the Crime-Solving Cousins Mystery series, was published in 2014. After writing more than 600 articles about almost every imaginable subject including opera, Daniel Boone, and her specialty of jewelry, Shannon switched her focus to marketing her book and writing the next book in the series. Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, she now calls Nashville home. Visit her website at cousinsmystery.com
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Who Me? Self-Published? / Shannon Brown
It seems there are many paths to publishing. Self-published author Shannon Brown shows how she became the parent of her “paperbound child” after much time and research. The information she shares is just as beneficial for the traditionally published as it is for the author who must wear many hats. Read and learn from her experience.And until next time, read like someone is burning the books!Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Who Me? Self-Published?
By Shannon Brown
When I decided to self-publish, I did it knowing my book would have to be the same quality as one from a major publisher in order for it to be well received by major reviewers, librarians, and me. Self-published books carry a stigma of low quality, and I didn’t want any part of that. Every step of the book from writing to editing to the cover to the interior was important. Each step had to be perfect before going to the next step.
Before I move on, I want to give a plug for editing. I hope everyone knows they need to hire an editor. I’ve written more than 600 articles and that taught me that everyone makes mistakes. I knew I needed a pro to help with my editing. One tip: pay a potential editor to do a few pages or a chapter before going forward to make sure their style is your style. Then you won’t get really frustrated and have to pay a second editor like I did.
Knowledge is Power
A cozy mystery has a different style of cover than a medical thriller or a middle grade mystery—ages 8-12—like my book. As a journalist I’m used to doing extensive research so I began there.
My favorite self-publishing design site is Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer. He has excellent articles about self-publishing and his monthly e-book cover Design Awards give details for why a cover worked and looked professional—or didn’t work and looked self-published.
I also went to bookstores and studied first the cover of the books, then on later visits, the interior. Research taught me that books have a specific format and when that’s ignored, it no longer looks professional. For example, a book begins with a half title page, then a full title page with the copyright information on the reverse (known as title verso). Not placing your copyright on the title verso announces it is self-published in flashing neon lights. (Yes, I’ve seen that done.)
Cover Charge
Covers for my genre are still usually hand illustrated with few exceptions. When I searched for a cover, I began with illustrators, but the cost chased me away. Instead, I did a photo shoot with two girls that looked like my characters, but didn’t like the resulting cover. Then I had an artist I know do some sketches, but the girls he drew looked like they wanted to kick some serious butt and that didn’t fit with my fun but suspenseful concept.
I ended going back to an illustrator I’d found months before and rejected because of the cost. The cover gets a positive response from everyone and helps open doors. (It isn’t about the money you spend on the cover though; I have a friend with stunning book covers who’s found someone to do it on the cheap.) I also wanted to have a line drawing at the beginning of each chapter. When I ended up with 27 chapters, that idea was nixed due to cost. I used a swirl that related to the cover instead.
View on Amazon.com
Inside Job
Books for kids need to be in print and also available as an ebook. I wanted a book interior that could hold its own with the big boys. If you’re thinking that you don’t plan to do print so it doesn’t matter, go to the “look inside” feature on Amazon to see the difference in an ebook by a major publisher and one that isn’t. Some of the formatting carries over from the print book to the ebook. I also wanted that. (Yeah, I’m pretty high maintenance.)
I’d spent enough on the cover that I felt I couldn’t hire someone to do the interior. Since I have a fair amount of experience with computers including building some websites, but would in no way call myself an expert, I decided to try doing it myself. I knew I had to use a professional level program like InDesign or Quark and chose InDesign because it seemed to be the best for making an ePub file for my e-book later. InDesign had a huge learning curve. (I mean huge.) I went step-by-step using a Lynda video tutorial, and I can’t say enough good things about their videos. Would I recommend that everyone do their own interior? No. It’s doable but I’ll gladly pay someone to do it when I feel like I can.
I have a copy of my book sitting on my desk right now. I’m the proud parent looking at my paperbound child, and I’m happy with it. Of course, I discovered the real work begins upon publication.
Award-winning journalist Shannon Brown had the idea for a mystery for kids—a briefcase full of feathers—pop into her mind while driving on a busy freeway. "The Feather Chase
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Who Me? Self-Published? / Shannon Brown
It seems there are many paths to publishing. Self-published author Shannon Brown shows how she became the parent of her “paperbound child” after much time and research. The information she shares is just as beneficial for the traditionally published as it is for the author who must wear many hats. Read and learn from her experience.And until next time, read like someone is burning the books!Clay Stafford,Founder Killer Nashville,Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
Who Me? Self-Published?
By Shannon Brown
When I decided to self-publish, I did it knowing my book would have to be the same quality as one from a major publisher in order for it to be well received by major reviewers, librarians, and me. Self-published books carry a stigma of low quality, and I didn’t want any part of that. Every step of the book from writing to editing to the cover to the interior was important. Each step had to be perfect before going to the next step.
Before I move on, I want to give a plug for editing. I hope everyone knows they need to hire an editor. I’ve written more than 600 articles and that taught me that everyone makes mistakes. I knew I needed a pro to help with my editing. One tip: pay a potential editor to do a few pages or a chapter before going forward to make sure their style is your style. Then you won’t get really frustrated and have to pay a second editor like I did.
Knowledge is Power
A cozy mystery has a different style of cover than a medical thriller or a middle grade mystery—ages 8-12—like my book. As a journalist I’m used to doing extensive research so I began there.
My favorite self-publishing design site is Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer. He has excellent articles about self-publishing and his monthly e-book cover Design Awards give details for why a cover worked and looked professional—or didn’t work and looked self-published.
I also went to bookstores and studied first the cover of the books, then on later visits, the interior. Research taught me that books have a specific format and when that’s ignored, it no longer looks professional. For example, a book begins with a half title page, then a full title page with the copyright information on the reverse (known as title verso). Not placing your copyright on the title verso announces it is self-published in flashing neon lights. (Yes, I’ve seen that done.)
Cover Charge
Covers for my genre are still usually hand illustrated with few exceptions. When I searched for a cover, I began with illustrators, but the cost chased me away. Instead, I did a photo shoot with two girls that looked like my characters, but didn’t like the resulting cover. Then I had an artist I know do some sketches, but the girls he drew looked like they wanted to kick some serious butt and that didn’t fit with my fun but suspenseful concept.
I ended going back to an illustrator I’d found months before and rejected because of the cost. The cover gets a positive response from everyone and helps open doors. (It isn’t about the money you spend on the cover though; I have a friend with stunning book covers who’s found someone to do it on the cheap.) I also wanted to have a line drawing at the beginning of each chapter. When I ended up with 27 chapters, that idea was nixed due to cost. I used a swirl that related to the cover instead.
View on Amazon.com
Inside Job
Books for kids need to be in print and also available as an ebook. I wanted a book interior that could hold its own with the big boys. If you’re thinking that you don’t plan to do print so it doesn’t matter, go to the “look inside” feature on Amazon to see the difference in an ebook by a major publisher and one that isn’t. Some of the formatting carries over from the print book to the ebook. I also wanted that. (Yeah, I’m pretty high maintenance.)
I’d spent enough on the cover that I felt I couldn’t hire someone to do the interior. Since I have a fair amount of experience with computers including building some websites, but would in no way call myself an expert, I decided to try doing it myself. I knew I had to use a professional level program like InDesign or Quark and chose InDesign because it seemed to be the best for making an ePub file for my e-book later. InDesign had a huge learning curve. (I mean huge.) I went step-by-step using a Lynda video tutorial, and I can’t say enough good things about their videos. Would I recommend that everyone do their own interior? No. It’s doable but I’ll gladly pay someone to do it when I feel like I can.
I have a copy of my book sitting on my desk right now. I’m the proud parent looking at my paperbound child, and I’m happy with it. Of course, I discovered the real work begins upon publication.
Award-winning journalist Shannon Brown had the idea for a mystery for kids—a briefcase full of feathers—pop into her mind while driving on a busy freeway. "The Feather Chase
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)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
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)
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 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)
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 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)
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.
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.
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)
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 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.
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)
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