KN Magazine: Articles
Dying for Dinner: Peach Sangria and Masqueraded Chicken & Dumplings
Dying for Dinner
Congratulations! You survived the holiday season. This Thanksgiving, Aunt Grace shared her views on immigration, tax reform, and her opinion of Millennials (and what’s that trash they’re playing on the radio anyway?). Cousin Jim brought his new girlfriend to your house for Christmas, and they spent the entire dinner arguing on the front porch while your uncles finished off yet another bottle of booze. Hey, that’s family, right? But now that fiasco’s out of the way and you can finally get some much-deserved peace and quiet.
That’s where Killer Nashville comes in. Need to relax for a moment? Diane Kelly shares her recipe for a quick and simple sangria blend. Hungry and would rather do your taxes than be reduced to eating one more piece of ham or turkey? Cynthia Lott has a vegetarian “chicken” and dumplings recipe guaranteed to hit the spot.
Easy-Peasy Peach Sangria Recipe
By Diane Kelly
I fell in love with sangria after trying a fruity batch at a friend’s party. I decided to incorporate the drink into one of my books, and thus came Death, Taxes, and Peach Sangria, the fourth book in my Death and Taxes series. My heroine, IRS Special Agent Tara Holloway, treats herself to glass of the light, refreshing drink after a hard day’s work pursuing white-collar criminals funneling money to terrorists.
Ingredients:
1 bottle of your favorite white zinfandel wine
1 ½ cups peach schnapps
½ cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate
One peach, sliced
½ cup raspberries
1 small orange, sliced
1 ½ cups lemon-lime soda
Directions:
- Place fruit in a pitcher. Add wine, schnapps, and lemonade concentrate. Stir well. Refrigerate at least one hour.
- Add soda just before serving and stir again. Serve over ice, enjoy with friends, and forget your troubles!
Masqueraded “Chicken” & Dumplings
By Cynthia Lott
The recipe is something I pulled in bits and pieces from other places and made my own. I have been vegetarian for fifteen years and this recipe is a comfort food for those of us who don't eat chicken. The Irises is book 2 in my Southern Spectral Series.
For the Dumplings:
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick margarine
3/4-cup soy milk
For the soup:
1/2 stick margarine
1/2-cup onion, chopped
1/2-cup celery, chopped
1/2-cup flour
1/4 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
A dash of red pepper flakes or cayenne if you like it spicy
8 cups vegetable broth
2 medium carrots, diced
A package of fake chicken such as Morningstar, Gardein, Lightlife, or Beyond Meat Brands
1 bay leaf
Directions:
- Combine the dumpling dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix the margarine with the dry mixture until it becomes crumbly. Add the soymilk and stir until moistened.
- Knead the dough for thirty seconds on a floured surface. Roll to 1/8-inch thickness and cut into ½-inch squares. Set aside.
- Sauté margarine, onion, celery in a large saucepan until soft.
- Add the flour, salt, and pepper (and hot spices if you like) to make a thick paste. Slowly mix in the broth and bring to a boil.
- Add the carrots, fake chicken and bay leaf.
- Add the dumpling squares one at a time, stirring gently. Reduce heat. Simmer for around twenty minutes, stirring often.
Makes 6-8 servings.
A former Assistant Attorney General and tax advisor, Diane Kelly inadvertently worked with white-collar criminals. Lest she end up in jail, Diane decided self-employment was a good idea. Her fingers hit the keyboard and thus began her award-winning Death and Taxes romantic mystery series. A graduate of her hometown's Citizen Police Academy, Kelly also writes the hilarious K-9 cop Paw Enforcement series. Sign up for Diane’s newsletter at www.dianekelly.com. "Like" Diane on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dianekellybooks, and follow her on Twitter @dianekellybooks.
Cynthia Lott is a professional researcher/librarian and writer. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University and an MLS from University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Feathers is her debut paranormal thriller in The Southern Spectral Series, published by RiverRun Select. The second book, The Irises, was published in June of 2015.
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.
State of the Industry: Contract Decoding
So you’ve just finished your latest book and, boy, is it a good one. You’ve got characters who jump off the page, an engaging plot, and you’re certain if you could get Bill Shakespeare, Stephen King, and Hemingway in the same room, they’d sing your praises ‘til the cows came home (They were at the river. It was there.). It’s time your baby bird flew the coup and landed safely in the arms of a competent publisher. But where do you start?
In this first of three installments, Milt Toby explores the ins-and-outs of the standard publication processes. As an accomplished author and attorney, Toby is better equipped to be your guide than most.
Contract Decoding (Part 1 of 3)
By Milt Toby
Making sense of a publishing contract is not for the faint of heart. Faced with page after page of mind-numbing legalese, nearly always written by the publisher’s attorneys, authors sometimes give up midway through the process. They throw up their hands in despair and sign on the dotted line with minimal understanding of the long-term commitments they are making. This is a mistake, a serious one that often cannot be rectified. Publishing contracts set the parameters for what often will be a long-term relationship between parties that may have competing interests in their respective approaches to selling books.
“I didn’t read the contract”, or “I read it, but I didn’t understand it”, or “it doesn’t mean what I thought it did” are common arguments from authors who want to get out of a contract. These arguments hardly ever carry any weight in court, however. A contract with an author’s signature carries with it the strong presumption that the author read the contract, understood it, and approved the terms.
Authors’ questions should be answered and their concerns resolved before, rather than after, signing the contract. Deciphering all the language in a typical publishing contract is beyond the scope of this article. For the same reason, the article will be limited to so-called “traditional” publishing contracts. Self-publishing, whether print, or ebook, or a combination of the two, has its own set of issues, as do the pay-to-play arrangements in which the author pays at least a share of the publisher’s expenses associated with getting a book in print. Instead, the focus here will be on a few of the most important contract clauses. Coincidently, these issues also are the ones that frequently cause problems for authors, the first of which will be explored in this installment:
the rights being sold;
getting paid;
warranties and indemnification.
Competing Interests
Fundamental to evaluating a publishing contract is an understanding of the nature of the relationship between an author and a publisher. While it is tempting to view that relationship as a partnership—and in some sense that characterization is a fair one—a publishing contract represents the competing interests of the two parties. The best deal for a publisher is one that maximizes profits while limiting potential liability in case of a lawsuit. Authors want the same things, maximum profit and minimal liability.
The parties’ goals tend to be mutually exclusive, however, and authors must understand that a contract drafted by a publisher’s attorneys is going to reflect the publisher’s interests and not necessarily the interests of the author. There is nothing unethical about this. It is a fact of life that an attorney’s obligation when representing a client is to protect the client’s interest. It also is a fact of life that authors (or their agents if they are lucky enough to have one) must protect their own interests in contract negotiations. There are no contract police that swoop in to protect an author’s interests.
The first step is figuring out exactly what the contract language really means.
Rights and Wrongs
Two questions matter the most to an author evaluating a publishing contract:
First, who really owns the rights to the manuscript?
Second, which rights are being sold?
The answer to the first question is not as obvious as it might seem. The default rule pursuant to Section 201(a) of the Copyright Act is that authors start out owning all rights to their work, beginning the moment the work is fixed in some tangible form. Copyright ownership is important because it allows an author to make money, either through self-publishing or through selling the publication rights to someone else. Publishing contracts typically require an author to warrant (legalese for “promise”) that she is the copyright owner and that she has the legal right to transfer those rights—more about potentially troublesome warranties later.
There are important exceptions to the general rule of copyright ownership that affect an author’s ability to earn money from her writing, however, including works made for hire and works produced by two or more contributors.
Work Made for Hire
If you write a book or magazine article as part of your job duties, as a staff writer for example, the employer, not the writer, is the “author” for copyright purposes. In this situation, which seldom applies to authors of fiction, the employer is the “author” and is the owner of the copyright. This means that the author of a work for hire, the individual who actually put words to paper, has no rights in the book or article.
Work for hire arrangements are most common in the newspaper and magazine publishing world. Work for hire language might appear in a book contract as well, though, and should raise a serious warning flag for authors.
Before signing a work for hire agreement, an author should weigh the effect of the clause—no rights in the resulting work—against the money (including royalties, if applicable) being offered by the publisher. A general rule of thumb is that the more rights being transferred, the more the author should be paid. A work for hire contract, in which all rights belong to the publisher from the start, should command the highest payment of all.
A contract that requires the author to transfer all rights to the publisher takes a different route to achieve the same effect as a work for hire agreement: although the author owns the copyright initially, the author winds up with no rights to the book. Authors should be wary of contracts that call for a transfer of “all rights,” “all world rights,” or something similar.
A question that sometimes arises involves registration of the copyright in the book. The contract should specify that the publisher will register the copyright for the book in the author’s name. With work for hire and all rights agreements, however, the copyright will be registered in the publisher’s name.
Collaborative Works
A second exception that can hamper an author’s ability to transfer rights in a book to an interested publisher arises when there is more than one author. Ownership of the copyright in a “joint work” is shared by the contributing authors, and problems can result if one co-author wants to sign a publishing contract and the other co-author does not. In such a situation, one of the joint authors may not have legal authority to act unilaterally when negotiating a publishing contract.
Authors considering a joint writing project should have a written agreement setting out their respective rights in the resulting work.
The answer to the second question—which rights are being sold—is more straightforward: the rights being sold are those specifically identified in the publishing contract. Corresponding language stating that all rights not specifically identified in the contract remain with the author always should be included in the contract.
The primary right, the most important one to both authors and publishers, is the right to actually publish the book. Typical language is “the exclusive right to publish the book for the first time in an English-language version” or something similar. Open-ended language, such as simply the “right to publish the book” should be avoided.
Everything else is a “subsidiary right.” These include electronic rights, serialization, book club editions, foreign language translations, audio recordings, Braille/large type, and film/television/radio/stage rights. Publishers generally ask for all subsidiary rights as a matter of course, and for many authors this is not a bad idea. The party in the best position to exploit a particular subsidiary right is the party that should have it, and this often will be the publisher. If, on the other hand, an author has a relative or friend with a high-powered job in Hollywood, for example, the author might want to retain performance rights. Publishing contracts typically call for a 50%-50% split between author and publisher for income from the sale of subsidiary rights.
Lessons Learned
Beyond the right to publish the book, with appropriate limitations to that right, there is no “correct” answer to which rights an author should transfer to a publisher. That is a business decision and an author should consult with an attorney, her agent, or other advisors familiar with publishing contracts for advice on whether the proposed contract accomplishes what it is supposed to do to protect the author’s interests.
In our next edition, Milt will explore one of the more popular aspects of publishing: getting paid.
Milt Toby is an attorney and award-winning author of nonfiction. He joined the Board of Directors of the American Society of Journalists and Authors in July, after several years as Chair of the ASJA Contracts & Conflicts Committee. The information in this article is presented for educational purposes only and is neither legal advice nor a solicitation for clients. For more information about Milt’s books, visit his website at www.miltonctoby.com.
State of the Industry: Contract Decoding
So you’ve just finished your latest book and, boy, is it a good one. You’ve got characters who jump off the page, an engaging plot, and you’re certain if you could get Bill Shakespeare, Stephen King, and Hemingway in the same room, they’d sing your praises ‘til the cows came home (They were at the river. It was there.). It’s time your baby bird flew the coup and landed safely in the arms of a competent publisher. But where do you start?
In this first of three installments, Milt Toby explores the ins-and-outs of the standard publication processes. As an accomplished author and attorney, Toby is better equipped to be your guide than most.
Contract Decoding (Part 1 of 3)
By Milt Toby
Making sense of a publishing contract is not for the faint of heart. Faced with page after page of mind-numbing legalese, nearly always written by the publisher’s attorneys, authors sometimes give up midway through the process. They throw up their hands in despair and sign on the dotted line with minimal understanding of the long-term commitments they are making. This is a mistake, a serious one that often cannot be rectified. Publishing contracts set the parameters for what often will be a long-term relationship between parties that may have competing interests in their respective approaches to selling books.
“I didn’t read the contract”, or “I read it, but I didn’t understand it”, or “it doesn’t mean what I thought it did” are common arguments from authors who want to get out of a contract. These arguments hardly ever carry any weight in court, however. A contract with an author’s signature carries with it the strong presumption that the author read the contract, understood it, and approved the terms.
Authors’ questions should be answered and their concerns resolved before, rather than after, signing the contract. Deciphering all the language in a typical publishing contract is beyond the scope of this article. For the same reason, the article will be limited to so-called “traditional” publishing contracts. Self-publishing, whether print, or ebook, or a combination of the two, has its own set of issues, as do the pay-to-play arrangements in which the author pays at least a share of the publisher’s expenses associated with getting a book in print. Instead, the focus here will be on a few of the most important contract clauses. Coincidently, these issues also are the ones that frequently cause problems for authors, the first of which will be explored in this installment:
the rights being sold;
getting paid;
warranties and indemnification.
Competing Interests
Fundamental to evaluating a publishing contract is an understanding of the nature of the relationship between an author and a publisher. While it is tempting to view that relationship as a partnership—and in some sense that characterization is a fair one—a publishing contract represents the competing interests of the two parties. The best deal for a publisher is one that maximizes profits while limiting potential liability in case of a lawsuit. Authors want the same things, maximum profit and minimal liability.
The parties’ goals tend to be mutually exclusive, however, and authors must understand that a contract drafted by a publisher’s attorneys is going to reflect the publisher’s interests and not necessarily the interests of the author. There is nothing unethical about this. It is a fact of life that an attorney’s obligation when representing a client is to protect the client’s interest. It also is a fact of life that authors (or their agents if they are lucky enough to have one) must protect their own interests in contract negotiations. There are no contract police that swoop in to protect an author’s interests.
The first step is figuring out exactly what the contract language really means.
Rights and Wrongs
Two questions matter the most to an author evaluating a publishing contract:
First, who really owns the rights to the manuscript?
Second, which rights are being sold?
The answer to the first question is not as obvious as it might seem. The default rule pursuant to Section 201(a) of the Copyright Act is that authors start out owning all rights to their work, beginning the moment the work is fixed in some tangible form. Copyright ownership is important because it allows an author to make money, either through self-publishing or through selling the publication rights to someone else. Publishing contracts typically require an author to warrant (legalese for “promise”) that she is the copyright owner and that she has the legal right to transfer those rights—more about potentially troublesome warranties later.
There are important exceptions to the general rule of copyright ownership that affect an author’s ability to earn money from her writing, however, including works made for hire and works produced by two or more contributors.
Work Made for Hire
If you write a book or magazine article as part of your job duties, as a staff writer for example, the employer, not the writer, is the “author” for copyright purposes. In this situation, which seldom applies to authors of fiction, the employer is the “author” and is the owner of the copyright. This means that the author of a work for hire, the individual who actually put words to paper, has no rights in the book or article.
Work for hire arrangements are most common in the newspaper and magazine publishing world. Work for hire language might appear in a book contract as well, though, and should raise a serious warning flag for authors.
Before signing a work for hire agreement, an author should weigh the effect of the clause—no rights in the resulting work—against the money (including royalties, if applicable) being offered by the publisher. A general rule of thumb is that the more rights being transferred, the more the author should be paid. A work for hire contract, in which all rights belong to the publisher from the start, should command the highest payment of all.
A contract that requires the author to transfer all rights to the publisher takes a different route to achieve the same effect as a work for hire agreement: although the author owns the copyright initially, the author winds up with no rights to the book. Authors should be wary of contracts that call for a transfer of “all rights,” “all world rights,” or something similar.
A question that sometimes arises involves registration of the copyright in the book. The contract should specify that the publisher will register the copyright for the book in the author’s name. With work for hire and all rights agreements, however, the copyright will be registered in the publisher’s name.
Collaborative Works
A second exception that can hamper an author’s ability to transfer rights in a book to an interested publisher arises when there is more than one author. Ownership of the copyright in a “joint work” is shared by the contributing authors, and problems can result if one co-author wants to sign a publishing contract and the other co-author does not. In such a situation, one of the joint authors may not have legal authority to act unilaterally when negotiating a publishing contract.
Authors considering a joint writing project should have a written agreement setting out their respective rights in the resulting work.
The answer to the second question—which rights are being sold—is more straightforward: the rights being sold are those specifically identified in the publishing contract. Corresponding language stating that all rights not specifically identified in the contract remain with the author always should be included in the contract.
The primary right, the most important one to both authors and publishers, is the right to actually publish the book. Typical language is “the exclusive right to publish the book for the first time in an English-language version” or something similar. Open-ended language, such as simply the “right to publish the book” should be avoided.
Everything else is a “subsidiary right.” These include electronic rights, serialization, book club editions, foreign language translations, audio recordings, Braille/large type, and film/television/radio/stage rights. Publishers generally ask for all subsidiary rights as a matter of course, and for many authors this is not a bad idea. The party in the best position to exploit a particular subsidiary right is the party that should have it, and this often will be the publisher. If, on the other hand, an author has a relative or friend with a high-powered job in Hollywood, for example, the author might want to retain performance rights. Publishing contracts typically call for a 50%-50% split between author and publisher for income from the sale of subsidiary rights.
Lessons Learned
Beyond the right to publish the book, with appropriate limitations to that right, there is no “correct” answer to which rights an author should transfer to a publisher. That is a business decision and an author should consult with an attorney, her agent, or other advisors familiar with publishing contracts for advice on whether the proposed contract accomplishes what it is supposed to do to protect the author’s interests.
In our next edition, Milt will explore one of the more popular aspects of publishing: getting paid.
Milt Toby is an attorney and award-winning author of nonfiction. He joined the Board of Directors of the American Society of Journalists and Authors in July, after several years as Chair of the ASJA Contracts & Conflicts Committee. The information in this article is presented for educational purposes only and is neither legal advice nor a solicitation for clients. For more information about Milt’s books, visit his website at www.miltonctoby.com.
Featured Poetry: "Do not stare blankly at that rabbit hole"
By Tim J. Conroy
Do not stare blankly at that rabbit hole
Our minds should muse and blaze at end of day
Read, read against the sucking of the soul
All children at first brush know ads are trolls
Because the screen has plated sad clichés
Do not stare blankly at that rabbit hole
Good beings, remote control, novels unsold
These lives might have rose with a Hemingway
Read, read against the sucking of the soul
Wild folk who played and sang the rock n roll
Staged the obituary of their day
Do not stare blankly at that rabbit hole
Weaker ones, too dull, working rigmarole
Eyes reflect a dead character at play
Do not stare blankly at that rabbit hole
So you, old friend, kindle a vital scroll
Draft, plot, type with your heartbeat, tear away
Do not stare blankly at that rabbit hole
Read, read against the sucking of the soul
Stacking Your Positivity Deck: Ten Tips For Finishing Your Mystery / Bryan E. Robinson
We all need a healthy dose of reality. But what happens when the cold, hard facts of disappointment and failure start to overshadow the moments of happiness and victory? Can you make your own silver linings? This week’s guest blogger, author, professor, and psychotherapist Bryan Robinson, has known considerable success, but even his past triumphs and accolades weren’t enough to defeat debilitating self-doubt. He had to develop an entirely new set of tactics to get him through, and he’s here to teach you how to soldier on.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Stacking Your Positivity Deck:
Ten Tips For Finishing Your Mystery
By Bryan E. Robinson
When you started writing on a regular basis, did you think being an author would answer all your prayers, and you’d live happily ever after? Did you dream your book would be on bookstore shelves beside Lee Child, James Patterson, or Heather Graham? That it would hit number one on the bestsellers list and garner all the literary awards? That Steven Spielberg would beat down your door to sign your screenplay?
I did.
Were you perplexed to discover that nightmares come with the territory? Did an agent’s bludgeoning rejection, a publisher’s blast of disparagement, blistering reviews, no-shows at bookstore signings, deadline pressures, agonizing writer’s block, zero award nominations, and your own seismic rumble of self-doubt besiege you? And are you still waiting for Hollywood to call?
I am.
After dashed dreams, do you still love to write? If you have ink in your blood like me, you have to write. That’s what successful writers do. We persevere through literary storms, albeit bruised, bereft, and beleaguered. I’ve seen them: writers frazzled from publishing’s frenetic pace, spirits dead from unfulfilled hopes and stressful career demands. Empty shells, comatose, like zombies moving among the living.
I was one of them.
In the still and lonely hours before dawn, I plopped into the armchair, elbows digging into the knees of my ripped jeans. I dropped my head into my hands, grabbed a fistful of hair, and wept. That’s right. This grown man cried. After finishing my best mystery yet, or so I had thought, an editor I’d hired tore the plot to shreds. Rewrite after rewrite, dead-end after dead-end, confusion and frustration mired me. I wailed at the clock and shook my fist at the heavens, cursing, slamming things. Still, at every turn, I met one roadblock after another. Distraught, I didn’t know what else to do.
But cry.
Keep in mind, this wasn’t my first book. I had written thirty-five nonfiction and fiction books, tons of magazine and journal articles, blogs, and book chapters. I even won a few writing awards along the way. But I had never encountered that degree of writer’s hell. Those of us who are aspiring scribes know the publishing world is brutal—full of meteoric challenges, constant negativity, major setbacks, and devastating letdowns. Agents say the number one key to writing success—even more important than good writing—is perseverance, dogged determination in the face of disappointment.
One cruel fact of becoming a published author is that the mind’s negativity has a longer shelf life than positivity. I’ll bet you remember where you were on 9/11 but not the following week. Scientists say the brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones to keep us out of harm’s way. It takes three positive thoughts to offset one negative thought. No wonder it’s difficult to remain hopeful and persevere in a publishing career bombarded with the same bad-news bias that keeps us safe.
But here’s the good news: Grass grows through concrete. When negativity strikes, you can bounce back by overriding your negative knee-jerk reactions and stacking your positivity deck. You can underestimate writing threats and overestimate writing possibilities with the same tried-and-true tips that have helped me navigate the ups-and-downs of a tumultuous publishing world, break free from the clutches of writing woes, and finish that murder mystery from hell:
1. Focus on the upside of downside situations. “I’ve hit a wall with my novel’s ending” becomes “Other than the ending, I’ve completed my novel and gotten promising feedback.”
2. Pinpoint opportunities contained in negative writing events. Ask, “How can I make this situation work to my advantage? Can I find something positive in it? What can I manage or overcome in this instance?”
3. Frame setbacks as lessons to learn, not failures to endure. Ask what you can learn from difficult writing outcomes and use them as stepping-stones, instead of roadblocks.
4. Broaden your scope. Look beyond rejection, put on your wide-angle lens, and let your love of writing steer you beyond the gloom.
5. Be chancy. Take small risks in new situations instead of predicting negative outcomes before giving them a try. “If I agree to be on a panel at Killer Nashville, I might fall flat on my face” becomes “If I participate on a panel, I might get to network with other writers and promote my murder mystery.”
6. Avoid blowing situations out of proportion. Don’t let one negative experience rule your whole life pattern: “I didn’t sell my novel, so now I’ll never be a published author” becomes “I didn’t sell the novel, but there are many more pathways to getting it published.”
7. Focus on the solution, not the problem. You’ll feel more empowered to cope with writing’s curveballs when you step away from the problem and brainstorm a wide range of possibilities.
8. Practice positive self-talk. After big writing letdowns, underscore your triumphs and high-five your “tallcomings” instead of bludgeoning yourself with your “shortcomings.”
9. Hang out with positive people. Optimism is contagious. When you surround yourself with optimistic people, positivity rubs off.
10. Strive to see the fresh starts contained in your losses. Every time you get up just one more time than you fall, your perseverance increases the likelihood of propelling your mystery to the top of the charts.
Bryan E. Robinson is a novelist, psychotherapist, and Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has authored thirty-five nonfiction books that have been translated into thirteen languages. His debut novel, Limestone Gumption: A Brad Pope and Sisterfriends Mystery won multiple awards, and his work has been featured on every major television network. He maintains a private clinical practice in Asheville, North Carolina, and resides in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He has completed the sequel to Limestone Gumption, She’ll Be KILLING Round the Mountain, and is working on the third installment, Michael Row the BODY Ashore. Visit his website: www.bryanrobinsonnovels.com or email him at info@bryanrobinsonnovels.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Stacking Your Positivity Deck: Ten Tips For Finishing Your Mystery / Bryan E. Robinson
We all need a healthy dose of reality. But what happens when the cold, hard facts of disappointment and failure start to overshadow the moments of happiness and victory? Can you make your own silver linings? This week’s guest blogger, author, professor, and psychotherapist Bryan Robinson, has known considerable success, but even his past triumphs and accolades weren’t enough to defeat debilitating self-doubt. He had to develop an entirely new set of tactics to get him through, and he’s here to teach you how to soldier on.Happy reading!
Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Stacking Your Positivity Deck:
Ten Tips For Finishing Your Mystery
By Bryan E. Robinson
When you started writing on a regular basis, did you think being an author would answer all your prayers, and you’d live happily ever after? Did you dream your book would be on bookstore shelves beside Lee Child, James Patterson, or Heather Graham? That it would hit number one on the bestsellers list and garner all the literary awards? That Steven Spielberg would beat down your door to sign your screenplay?
I did.
Were you perplexed to discover that nightmares come with the territory? Did an agent’s bludgeoning rejection, a publisher’s blast of disparagement, blistering reviews, no-shows at bookstore signings, deadline pressures, agonizing writer’s block, zero award nominations, and your own seismic rumble of self-doubt besiege you? And are you still waiting for Hollywood to call?
I am.
After dashed dreams, do you still love to write? If you have ink in your blood like me, you have to write. That’s what successful writers do. We persevere through literary storms, albeit bruised, bereft, and beleaguered. I’ve seen them: writers frazzled from publishing’s frenetic pace, spirits dead from unfulfilled hopes and stressful career demands. Empty shells, comatose, like zombies moving among the living.
I was one of them.
In the still and lonely hours before dawn, I plopped into the armchair, elbows digging into the knees of my ripped jeans. I dropped my head into my hands, grabbed a fistful of hair, and wept. That’s right. This grown man cried. After finishing my best mystery yet, or so I had thought, an editor I’d hired tore the plot to shreds. Rewrite after rewrite, dead-end after dead-end, confusion and frustration mired me. I wailed at the clock and shook my fist at the heavens, cursing, slamming things. Still, at every turn, I met one roadblock after another. Distraught, I didn’t know what else to do.
But cry.
Keep in mind, this wasn’t my first book. I had written thirty-five nonfiction and fiction books, tons of magazine and journal articles, blogs, and book chapters. I even won a few writing awards along the way. But I had never encountered that degree of writer’s hell. Those of us who are aspiring scribes know the publishing world is brutal—full of meteoric challenges, constant negativity, major setbacks, and devastating letdowns. Agents say the number one key to writing success—even more important than good writing—is perseverance, dogged determination in the face of disappointment.
One cruel fact of becoming a published author is that the mind’s negativity has a longer shelf life than positivity. I’ll bet you remember where you were on 9/11 but not the following week. Scientists say the brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones to keep us out of harm’s way. It takes three positive thoughts to offset one negative thought. No wonder it’s difficult to remain hopeful and persevere in a publishing career bombarded with the same bad-news bias that keeps us safe.
But here’s the good news: Grass grows through concrete. When negativity strikes, you can bounce back by overriding your negative knee-jerk reactions and stacking your positivity deck. You can underestimate writing threats and overestimate writing possibilities with the same tried-and-true tips that have helped me navigate the ups-and-downs of a tumultuous publishing world, break free from the clutches of writing woes, and finish that murder mystery from hell:
1. Focus on the upside of downside situations. “I’ve hit a wall with my novel’s ending” becomes “Other than the ending, I’ve completed my novel and gotten promising feedback.”
2. Pinpoint opportunities contained in negative writing events. Ask, “How can I make this situation work to my advantage? Can I find something positive in it? What can I manage or overcome in this instance?”
3. Frame setbacks as lessons to learn, not failures to endure. Ask what you can learn from difficult writing outcomes and use them as stepping-stones, instead of roadblocks.
4. Broaden your scope. Look beyond rejection, put on your wide-angle lens, and let your love of writing steer you beyond the gloom.
5. Be chancy. Take small risks in new situations instead of predicting negative outcomes before giving them a try. “If I agree to be on a panel at Killer Nashville, I might fall flat on my face” becomes “If I participate on a panel, I might get to network with other writers and promote my murder mystery.”
6. Avoid blowing situations out of proportion. Don’t let one negative experience rule your whole life pattern: “I didn’t sell my novel, so now I’ll never be a published author” becomes “I didn’t sell the novel, but there are many more pathways to getting it published.”
7. Focus on the solution, not the problem. You’ll feel more empowered to cope with writing’s curveballs when you step away from the problem and brainstorm a wide range of possibilities.
8. Practice positive self-talk. After big writing letdowns, underscore your triumphs and high-five your “tallcomings” instead of bludgeoning yourself with your “shortcomings.”
9. Hang out with positive people. Optimism is contagious. When you surround yourself with optimistic people, positivity rubs off.
10. Strive to see the fresh starts contained in your losses. Every time you get up just one more time than you fall, your perseverance increases the likelihood of propelling your mystery to the top of the charts.
Bryan E. Robinson is a novelist, psychotherapist, and Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has authored thirty-five nonfiction books that have been translated into thirteen languages. His debut novel, Limestone Gumption: A Brad Pope and Sisterfriends Mystery won multiple awards, and his work has been featured on every major television network. He maintains a private clinical practice in Asheville, North Carolina, and resides in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He has completed the sequel to Limestone Gumption, She’ll Be KILLING Round the Mountain, and is working on the third installment, Michael Row the BODY Ashore. Visit his website: www.bryanrobinsonnovels.com or email him at info@bryanrobinsonnovels.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Stacking Your Positivity Deck: Ten Tips For Finishing Your Mystery / Bryan E. Robinson
We all need a healthy dose of reality. But what happens when the cold, hard facts of disappointment and failure start to overshadow the moments of happiness and victory? Can you make your own silver linings? This week’s guest blogger, author, professor, and psychotherapist Bryan Robinson, has known considerable success, but even his past triumphs and accolades weren’t enough to defeat debilitating self-doubt. He had to develop an entirely new set of tactics to get him through, and he’s here to teach you how to soldier on.Happy reading!
Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Stacking Your Positivity Deck:
Ten Tips For Finishing Your Mystery
By Bryan E. Robinson
When you started writing on a regular basis, did you think being an author would answer all your prayers, and you’d live happily ever after? Did you dream your book would be on bookstore shelves beside Lee Child, James Patterson, or Heather Graham? That it would hit number one on the bestsellers list and garner all the literary awards? That Steven Spielberg would beat down your door to sign your screenplay?
I did.
Were you perplexed to discover that nightmares come with the territory? Did an agent’s bludgeoning rejection, a publisher’s blast of disparagement, blistering reviews, no-shows at bookstore signings, deadline pressures, agonizing writer’s block, zero award nominations, and your own seismic rumble of self-doubt besiege you? And are you still waiting for Hollywood to call?
I am.
After dashed dreams, do you still love to write? If you have ink in your blood like me, you have to write. That’s what successful writers do. We persevere through literary storms, albeit bruised, bereft, and beleaguered. I’ve seen them: writers frazzled from publishing’s frenetic pace, spirits dead from unfulfilled hopes and stressful career demands. Empty shells, comatose, like zombies moving among the living.
I was one of them.
In the still and lonely hours before dawn, I plopped into the armchair, elbows digging into the knees of my ripped jeans. I dropped my head into my hands, grabbed a fistful of hair, and wept. That’s right. This grown man cried. After finishing my best mystery yet, or so I had thought, an editor I’d hired tore the plot to shreds. Rewrite after rewrite, dead-end after dead-end, confusion and frustration mired me. I wailed at the clock and shook my fist at the heavens, cursing, slamming things. Still, at every turn, I met one roadblock after another. Distraught, I didn’t know what else to do.
But cry.
Keep in mind, this wasn’t my first book. I had written thirty-five nonfiction and fiction books, tons of magazine and journal articles, blogs, and book chapters. I even won a few writing awards along the way. But I had never encountered that degree of writer’s hell. Those of us who are aspiring scribes know the publishing world is brutal—full of meteoric challenges, constant negativity, major setbacks, and devastating letdowns. Agents say the number one key to writing success—even more important than good writing—is perseverance, dogged determination in the face of disappointment.
One cruel fact of becoming a published author is that the mind’s negativity has a longer shelf life than positivity. I’ll bet you remember where you were on 9/11 but not the following week. Scientists say the brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones to keep us out of harm’s way. It takes three positive thoughts to offset one negative thought. No wonder it’s difficult to remain hopeful and persevere in a publishing career bombarded with the same bad-news bias that keeps us safe.
But here’s the good news: Grass grows through concrete. When negativity strikes, you can bounce back by overriding your negative knee-jerk reactions and stacking your positivity deck. You can underestimate writing threats and overestimate writing possibilities with the same tried-and-true tips that have helped me navigate the ups-and-downs of a tumultuous publishing world, break free from the clutches of writing woes, and finish that murder mystery from hell:
1. Focus on the upside of downside situations. “I’ve hit a wall with my novel’s ending” becomes “Other than the ending, I’ve completed my novel and gotten promising feedback.”
2. Pinpoint opportunities contained in negative writing events. Ask, “How can I make this situation work to my advantage? Can I find something positive in it? What can I manage or overcome in this instance?”
3. Frame setbacks as lessons to learn, not failures to endure. Ask what you can learn from difficult writing outcomes and use them as stepping-stones, instead of roadblocks.
4. Broaden your scope. Look beyond rejection, put on your wide-angle lens, and let your love of writing steer you beyond the gloom.
5. Be chancy. Take small risks in new situations instead of predicting negative outcomes before giving them a try. “If I agree to be on a panel at Killer Nashville, I might fall flat on my face” becomes “If I participate on a panel, I might get to network with other writers and promote my murder mystery.”
6. Avoid blowing situations out of proportion. Don’t let one negative experience rule your whole life pattern: “I didn’t sell my novel, so now I’ll never be a published author” becomes “I didn’t sell the novel, but there are many more pathways to getting it published.”
7. Focus on the solution, not the problem. You’ll feel more empowered to cope with writing’s curveballs when you step away from the problem and brainstorm a wide range of possibilities.
8. Practice positive self-talk. After big writing letdowns, underscore your triumphs and high-five your “tallcomings” instead of bludgeoning yourself with your “shortcomings.”
9. Hang out with positive people. Optimism is contagious. When you surround yourself with optimistic people, positivity rubs off.
10. Strive to see the fresh starts contained in your losses. Every time you get up just one more time than you fall, your perseverance increases the likelihood of propelling your mystery to the top of the charts.
Bryan E. Robinson is a novelist, psychotherapist, and Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has authored thirty-five nonfiction books that have been translated into thirteen languages. His debut novel, Limestone Gumption: A Brad Pope and Sisterfriends Mystery won multiple awards, and his work has been featured on every major television network. He maintains a private clinical practice in Asheville, North Carolina, and resides in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He has completed the sequel to Limestone Gumption, She’ll Be KILLING Round the Mountain, and is working on the third installment, Michael Row the BODY Ashore. Visit his website: www.bryanrobinsonnovels.com or email him at info@bryanrobinsonnovels.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
The First American Bestseller / Fedora Amis
It’s easy to lose track of our literary heritage in the mad scramble for the next big mystery/thriller genre hit. But if you’re running low on inspiration, and you’re exhausted from scouring Publisher’s Weekly for the latest market trends, then you might want to follow the advice of this week’s guest blogger, mystery author and aficionado Fedora Amis, and turn your attention to the greats of detective fiction past.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
The First American Bestseller
by Fedora Amis
I love to play dress up. I caught the costume bug when I was in first grade. I wore a cowboy hat and a toy gun when I sang “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” with the cutest little blond cowboy in my school. Naturally, when I heard that Sisters in Crime (I’m president of the Greater St. Louis Chapter) was holding a costume contest, I was all agog to don Victorian duds and play a pivotal character in the history of mystery.
Here’s a quiz for you. Who wrote the first American full-length detective novel?
Betcha don’t know its title—The Leavenworth Case. Betcha didn’t know this 1878 mystery was the first true American bestseller. Betcha didn’t know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame was a devotee of this writer. Betcha think it was a man. But no—the first American detective story novelist was a woman: Anna Katherine Green.
What a pity we’ve forgotten our roots! I took SinC’s costume contest as an opportunity to remind mystery lovers that we owe a debt to the mother of the detective novel. I wore a long black skirt and bodice with just a dollop of gold to appear as the well-to-do nosy spinster from Gramercy Park, Miss Amelia Butterworth.
Amelia is a keen observer who understands why humans do what they do. She can get more answers with tea and cakes than a whole police station full of detectives. She loves disguises and keeps snooping around until she can fit all clues into a satisfying solution. Of course, because she’s an old maid and a female, authorities dismiss her as a pest. In truth, her very lack of gravitas gives her the best kind of cover for undercover work. Does this description sound like Miss Jane Marple, and many others since?
Anna Katherine Green is seldom read today. After all, she had to follow the conventions of Victorian prose. Her writing is geared for an audience with superior education, money for books, and leisure time without the constant access to entertainment we have today. Even so, Green’s plots are clever and she knew how to write chilling dialogue. We can learn a lesson from this little sample from the mad villain in her 1898 novel Lost Man’s Lane.
“Well, my pretty one,”—his voice grown suddenly wheedling, his face a study of mingled passions,—“we will see about that. Come just a step nearer, Lucetta. I want to see if you are really the little girl I used to dandle on my knee.”
What could be creepier than honeyed words laid over a tone of menace?
Edgar Allen Poe wrote the first detective story, but honors for the first full-length detective novel go to a Frenchman, Emile Gaboriau (L’Affaire Lerouge, 1866). Just two years later, Englishman Wilkie Collins published The Moonstone, a work praised by T.S. Eliot as “the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe.” With her 1878 novel, Anna Katherine Green was not only the first American to write a detective novel; she was the first woman on planet earth.
As mystery writers, I hope we never lose sight of our literary heritage. I urge everyone to follow the example of those who have gone before. They were innovators. They boldly steered storytelling somewhere new. Besides the example they set, our mystery ancestors teach us how to write better.
A writer who spends a little time with Dorothy L. Sayers can’t help learning how to add humor to mystery. Reading Josephine Tey will surely sharpen a writer’s wits. An author inclined to tell too much too soon should study the way Agatha Christie unravels clues and reveals characters little by little. Time with the greats is time well spent.
George Santayana said, “Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” That’s a great warning for mankind, and good advice to writers. Look to those who came before—read and learn.
Fedora Amis has won numerous awards including Outstanding Teacher of Speech in Missouri, membership in three halls of fame—state and national speech organizations and her own high school alma mater. Her non-fiction publications include books on speaking and logic, and articles for educational magazines. She won the Mayhaven Fiction Award for her Victorian whodunit, Jack the Ripper in St. Louis, and performs as real historical people and imagined characters from the 1800s. Fedora loves live theater, travel, plants, and cooking. She has one son, Skimmer, who partners Fedora in writing science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. “Why do I write? I love words—always have—reading them, writing them. I even like looking them up in the dictionary.”
Don’t miss her new historical mystery, Mayhem at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, coming from Five Star in February 2016. Visit Fedora’s website at www.Fedoraamis.com and follow her on Facebook at Fedoraamisauthor, and on Twitter @fedorandskimmer.
(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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
The First American Bestseller / Fedora Amis
It’s easy to lose track of our literary heritage in the mad scramble for the next big mystery/thriller genre hit. But if you’re running low on inspiration, and you’re exhausted from scouring Publisher’s Weekly for the latest market trends, then you might want to follow the advice of this week’s guest blogger, mystery author and aficionado Fedora Amis, and turn your attention to the greats of detective fiction past.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
The First American Bestseller
by Fedora Amis
I love to play dress up. I caught the costume bug when I was in first grade. I wore a cowboy hat and a toy gun when I sang “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” with the cutest little blond cowboy in my school. Naturally, when I heard that Sisters in Crime (I’m president of the Greater St. Louis Chapter) was holding a costume contest, I was all agog to don Victorian duds and play a pivotal character in the history of mystery.
Here’s a quiz for you. Who wrote the first American full-length detective novel?
Betcha don’t know its title—The Leavenworth Case. Betcha didn’t know this 1878 mystery was the first true American bestseller. Betcha didn’t know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame was a devotee of this writer. Betcha think it was a man. But no—the first American detective story novelist was a woman: Anna Katherine Green.
What a pity we’ve forgotten our roots! I took SinC’s costume contest as an opportunity to remind mystery lovers that we owe a debt to the mother of the detective novel. I wore a long black skirt and bodice with just a dollop of gold to appear as the well-to-do nosy spinster from Gramercy Park, Miss Amelia Butterworth.
Amelia is a keen observer who understands why humans do what they do. She can get more answers with tea and cakes than a whole police station full of detectives. She loves disguises and keeps snooping around until she can fit all clues into a satisfying solution. Of course, because she’s an old maid and a female, authorities dismiss her as a pest. In truth, her very lack of gravitas gives her the best kind of cover for undercover work. Does this description sound like Miss Jane Marple, and many others since?
Anna Katherine Green is seldom read today. After all, she had to follow the conventions of Victorian prose. Her writing is geared for an audience with superior education, money for books, and leisure time without the constant access to entertainment we have today. Even so, Green’s plots are clever and she knew how to write chilling dialogue. We can learn a lesson from this little sample from the mad villain in her 1898 novel Lost Man’s Lane.
“Well, my pretty one,”—his voice grown suddenly wheedling, his face a study of mingled passions,—“we will see about that. Come just a step nearer, Lucetta. I want to see if you are really the little girl I used to dandle on my knee.”
What could be creepier than honeyed words laid over a tone of menace?
Edgar Allen Poe wrote the first detective story, but honors for the first full-length detective novel go to a Frenchman, Emile Gaboriau (L’Affaire Lerouge, 1866). Just two years later, Englishman Wilkie Collins published The Moonstone, a work praised by T.S. Eliot as “the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe.” With her 1878 novel, Anna Katherine Green was not only the first American to write a detective novel; she was the first woman on planet earth.
As mystery writers, I hope we never lose sight of our literary heritage. I urge everyone to follow the example of those who have gone before. They were innovators. They boldly steered storytelling somewhere new. Besides the example they set, our mystery ancestors teach us how to write better.
A writer who spends a little time with Dorothy L. Sayers can’t help learning how to add humor to mystery. Reading Josephine Tey will surely sharpen a writer’s wits. An author inclined to tell too much too soon should study the way Agatha Christie unravels clues and reveals characters little by little. Time with the greats is time well spent.
George Santayana said, “Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” That’s a great warning for mankind, and good advice to writers. Look to those who came before—read and learn.
Fedora Amis has won numerous awards including Outstanding Teacher of Speech in Missouri, membership in three halls of fame—state and national speech organizations and her own high school alma mater. Her non-fiction publications include books on speaking and logic, and articles for educational magazines. She won the Mayhaven Fiction Award for her Victorian whodunit, Jack the Ripper in St. Louis, and performs as real historical people and imagined characters from the 1800s. Fedora loves live theater, travel, plants, and cooking. She has one son, Skimmer, who partners Fedora in writing science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. “Why do I write? I love words—always have—reading them, writing them. I even like looking them up in the dictionary.”
Don’t miss her new historical mystery, Mayhem at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, coming from Five Star in February 2016. Visit Fedora’s website at www.Fedoraamis.com and follow her on Facebook at Fedoraamisauthor, and on Twitter @fedorandskimmer.
(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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
The First American Bestseller / Fedora Amis
It’s easy to lose track of our literary heritage in the mad scramble for the next big mystery/thriller genre hit. But if you’re running low on inspiration, and you’re exhausted from scouring Publisher’s Weekly for the latest market trends, then you might want to follow the advice of this week’s guest blogger, mystery author and aficionado Fedora Amis, and turn your attention to the greats of detective fiction past.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
The First American Bestseller
by Fedora Amis
I love to play dress up. I caught the costume bug when I was in first grade. I wore a cowboy hat and a toy gun when I sang “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” with the cutest little blond cowboy in my school. Naturally, when I heard that Sisters in Crime (I’m president of the Greater St. Louis Chapter) was holding a costume contest, I was all agog to don Victorian duds and play a pivotal character in the history of mystery.
Here’s a quiz for you. Who wrote the first American full-length detective novel?
Betcha don’t know its title—The Leavenworth Case. Betcha didn’t know this 1878 mystery was the first true American bestseller. Betcha didn’t know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame was a devotee of this writer. Betcha think it was a man. But no—the first American detective story novelist was a woman: Anna Katherine Green.
What a pity we’ve forgotten our roots! I took SinC’s costume contest as an opportunity to remind mystery lovers that we owe a debt to the mother of the detective novel. I wore a long black skirt and bodice with just a dollop of gold to appear as the well-to-do nosy spinster from Gramercy Park, Miss Amelia Butterworth.
Amelia is a keen observer who understands why humans do what they do. She can get more answers with tea and cakes than a whole police station full of detectives. She loves disguises and keeps snooping around until she can fit all clues into a satisfying solution. Of course, because she’s an old maid and a female, authorities dismiss her as a pest. In truth, her very lack of gravitas gives her the best kind of cover for undercover work. Does this description sound like Miss Jane Marple, and many others since?
Anna Katherine Green is seldom read today. After all, she had to follow the conventions of Victorian prose. Her writing is geared for an audience with superior education, money for books, and leisure time without the constant access to entertainment we have today. Even so, Green’s plots are clever and she knew how to write chilling dialogue. We can learn a lesson from this little sample from the mad villain in her 1898 novel Lost Man’s Lane.
“Well, my pretty one,”—his voice grown suddenly wheedling, his face a study of mingled passions,—“we will see about that. Come just a step nearer, Lucetta. I want to see if you are really the little girl I used to dandle on my knee.”
What could be creepier than honeyed words laid over a tone of menace?
Edgar Allen Poe wrote the first detective story, but honors for the first full-length detective novel go to a Frenchman, Emile Gaboriau (L’Affaire Lerouge, 1866). Just two years later, Englishman Wilkie Collins published The Moonstone, a work praised by T.S. Eliot as “the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe.” With her 1878 novel, Anna Katherine Green was not only the first American to write a detective novel; she was the first woman on planet earth.
As mystery writers, I hope we never lose sight of our literary heritage. I urge everyone to follow the example of those who have gone before. They were innovators. They boldly steered storytelling somewhere new. Besides the example they set, our mystery ancestors teach us how to write better.
A writer who spends a little time with Dorothy L. Sayers can’t help learning how to add humor to mystery. Reading Josephine Tey will surely sharpen a writer’s wits. An author inclined to tell too much too soon should study the way Agatha Christie unravels clues and reveals characters little by little. Time with the greats is time well spent.
George Santayana said, “Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” That’s a great warning for mankind, and good advice to writers. Look to those who came before—read and learn.
Fedora Amis has won numerous awards including Outstanding Teacher of Speech in Missouri, membership in three halls of fame—state and national speech organizations and her own high school alma mater. Her non-fiction publications include books on speaking and logic, and articles for educational magazines. She won the Mayhaven Fiction Award for her Victorian whodunit, Jack the Ripper in St. Louis, and performs as real historical people and imagined characters from the 1800s. Fedora loves live theater, travel, plants, and cooking. She has one son, Skimmer, who partners Fedora in writing science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. “Why do I write? I love words—always have—reading them, writing them. I even like looking them up in the dictionary.”
Don’t miss her new historical mystery, Mayhem at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, coming from Five Star in February 2016. Visit Fedora’s website at www.Fedoraamis.com and follow her on Facebook at Fedoraamisauthor, and on Twitter @fedorandskimmer.
(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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
See the Author? BE the Author / D. Alan Lewis
As much as we hate being judged by our covers, unfortunately that’s the name of the game in marketing. Book displays, business cards, and professional attire go a long way in gaining respect from potential customers at signing and selling events. This week’s guest blogger, fantasy author D. Alan Lewis, offers advice on the promotional power of looking the part.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
See the Author? BE the Author
By D. Alan Lewis
At a recent book signing/selling event, a gentleman approached my table and struck up a conversation. There were several authors including myself at the event, all of us lumped together in a section of the room with our wares on display. Each had a small table with a variety of books, running the gamut of genres.
The man walked down the row, looking but not stopping until he stepped up to the last table, mine. He started picking up bookmarks and cards, asking questions, and finally made a purchase. As I handed him his change, I mentioned a book by one of the other authors but he only shrugged, smiled, and informed me that my books were the only ones he’d consider purchasing.
Intrigued, I asked why only my books. His answer was simple but powerful.
“Because you look like a real author. You present your books and market them like a real author.” He went on to point out the bookmarks, cards, and other promotional items, and then added, “The other folks here didn’t think enough of their books to bother.”
At a loss, I looked at the other author’s displays and caught on to what he meant. An absence of basic marketing merchandise became very clear. Some of the authors didn’t have bookmarks, or even business cards. No one else had signage of any type. While I’d spent money early on in my book-selling adventures to purchase display racks and stands, no one else had.
After my first book went to print, I began paying attention to other authors and how they did things. I looked not only at what they were doing but also at the authors themselves.
So, here are a few basic tips that I’ve learned to promote sales at events.
Look professional: No matter where you are selling books, dress well for the occasion. I’m not saying you need a suit and tie, but shorts and a t-shirt shouldn’t be the go-to wardrobe choice.
Business cards: Seriously, invest some money in professionally printed cards. Homemade cards printed on your home computer will look like what they are, homemade and cheap. There are many sources online for inexpensive but good-looking cards. But do something different with your cards that’ll get people’s attention.
In my case, I write mainly science fiction and fantasy stories. I found a website (Zazzle) which has hundreds of styles. Instead of one box of cards, I purchased three. Zazzle offered several styles of sci-fi art that are on the card’s background, so I picked out three distinctly different images. It amazed me how folks will approach the table and look at the three different cards and comment on which one has the best art. If the customer likes the card, they’ll keep looking at, ingraining your name in their head along with the picture.
Bookmarks: Like business cards, there are many online sources for bookmarks. In my case, I found an inexpensive printer that makes double-sided bookmarks. Instead of using both sides to promote one book, I placed ads for different books on each side. This way, the person is exposed to more of my works after they leave the table.
Signs and banners: These can be an issue for some folks because of the expense. There is also an issue at times as to whether you’ll have space at an event for big, freestanding banners. The best advice is to start with what you can afford and go from there.
Tall banners are great for projecting your name and books titles across a room. If well designed, a good banner will generate interest and curiosity in you and your works. If your books are lying flat on a table, then a tabletop banners or signs are a great way to get passersby to notice the book covers.
Racks and stands: Too many authors feel that simply laying their books flat on a table will get them noticed. This is simply not true. Flat books are only seen by folks walking directly in front of your table. Inexpensive bookstands or wire racks will increase the visibility of your books from a distance and draw folks in to take a closer look.
While these are just a handful of suggestions, they are the most basic and usually, the most overlooked. Next time you’re at a book event, look around, see which authors grab your attention, and ask yourself what made you look.
Alan Lewis is an ‘alleged’ native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who now resides in Nashville with his children. He has been writing technical guides and manuals for various employers for over twenty years but only in recent years has branched out in to writing fiction. In 2006, Alan took the reins of the Nashville Writers Meetup’s Novelist Group, where he works with new and aspiring writers.
Alan’s debut novel, a fantasy murder mystery, The Blood in Snowflake Garden was a finalist for the 2010 Claymore Award and has been optioned for a possible TV series. He has three other books in print, Keely: A Steampunk Story, The Lightning Bolts of Zeus, and The Bishop of Port Victoria. He is the editor of four anthologies for Luna’s Children 1 & 2 and Capes & Clockwork 1 & 2. He also has short stories in a number of anthologies, including Black Pulp, Pulpology, and Midnight Movie Creature Feature Vol.2. And recently released The Celeste Affair, a steampunk adventure as an e-book short. Reach Alan at http://www.snowflakegarden.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
See the Author? BE the Author / D. Alan Lewis
As much as we hate being judged by our covers, unfortunately that’s the name of the game in marketing. Book displays, business cards, and professional attire go a long way in gaining respect from potential customers at signing and selling events. This week’s guest blogger, fantasy author D. Alan Lewis, offers advice on the promotional power of looking the part.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
See the Author? BE the Author
By D. Alan Lewis
At a recent book signing/selling event, a gentleman approached my table and struck up a conversation. There were several authors including myself at the event, all of us lumped together in a section of the room with our wares on display. Each had a small table with a variety of books, running the gamut of genres.
The man walked down the row, looking but not stopping until he stepped up to the last table, mine. He started picking up bookmarks and cards, asking questions, and finally made a purchase. As I handed him his change, I mentioned a book by one of the other authors but he only shrugged, smiled, and informed me that my books were the only ones he’d consider purchasing.
Intrigued, I asked why only my books. His answer was simple but powerful.
“Because you look like a real author. You present your books and market them like a real author.” He went on to point out the bookmarks, cards, and other promotional items, and then added, “The other folks here didn’t think enough of their books to bother.”
At a loss, I looked at the other author’s displays and caught on to what he meant. An absence of basic marketing merchandise became very clear. Some of the authors didn’t have bookmarks, or even business cards. No one else had signage of any type. While I’d spent money early on in my book-selling adventures to purchase display racks and stands, no one else had.
After my first book went to print, I began paying attention to other authors and how they did things. I looked not only at what they were doing but also at the authors themselves.
So, here are a few basic tips that I’ve learned to promote sales at events.
Look professional: No matter where you are selling books, dress well for the occasion. I’m not saying you need a suit and tie, but shorts and a t-shirt shouldn’t be the go-to wardrobe choice.
Business cards: Seriously, invest some money in professionally printed cards. Homemade cards printed on your home computer will look like what they are, homemade and cheap. There are many sources online for inexpensive but good-looking cards. But do something different with your cards that’ll get people’s attention.
In my case, I write mainly science fiction and fantasy stories. I found a website (Zazzle) which has hundreds of styles. Instead of one box of cards, I purchased three. Zazzle offered several styles of sci-fi art that are on the card’s background, so I picked out three distinctly different images. It amazed me how folks will approach the table and look at the three different cards and comment on which one has the best art. If the customer likes the card, they’ll keep looking at, ingraining your name in their head along with the picture.
Bookmarks: Like business cards, there are many online sources for bookmarks. In my case, I found an inexpensive printer that makes double-sided bookmarks. Instead of using both sides to promote one book, I placed ads for different books on each side. This way, the person is exposed to more of my works after they leave the table.
Signs and banners: These can be an issue for some folks because of the expense. There is also an issue at times as to whether you’ll have space at an event for big, freestanding banners. The best advice is to start with what you can afford and go from there.
Tall banners are great for projecting your name and books titles across a room. If well designed, a good banner will generate interest and curiosity in you and your works. If your books are lying flat on a table, then a tabletop banners or signs are a great way to get passersby to notice the book covers.
Racks and stands: Too many authors feel that simply laying their books flat on a table will get them noticed. This is simply not true. Flat books are only seen by folks walking directly in front of your table. Inexpensive bookstands or wire racks will increase the visibility of your books from a distance and draw folks in to take a closer look.
While these are just a handful of suggestions, they are the most basic and usually, the most overlooked. Next time you’re at a book event, look around, see which authors grab your attention, and ask yourself what made you look.
Alan Lewis is an ‘alleged’ native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who now resides in Nashville with his children. He has been writing technical guides and manuals for various employers for over twenty years but only in recent years has branched out in to writing fiction. In 2006, Alan took the reins of the Nashville Writers Meetup’s Novelist Group, where he works with new and aspiring writers.
Alan’s debut novel, a fantasy murder mystery, The Blood in Snowflake Garden was a finalist for the 2010 Claymore Award and has been optioned for a possible TV series. He has three other books in print, Keely: A Steampunk Story, The Lightning Bolts of Zeus, and The Bishop of Port Victoria. He is the editor of four anthologies for Luna’s Children 1 & 2 and Capes & Clockwork 1 & 2. He also has short stories in a number of anthologies, including Black Pulp, Pulpology, and Midnight Movie Creature Feature Vol.2. And recently released The Celeste Affair, a steampunk adventure as an e-book short. Reach Alan at http://www.snowflakegarden.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
See the Author? BE the Author / D. Alan Lewis
As much as we hate being judged by our covers, unfortunately that’s the name of the game in marketing. Book displays, business cards, and professional attire go a long way in gaining respect from potential customers at signing and selling events. This week’s guest blogger, fantasy author D. Alan Lewis, offers advice on the promotional power of looking the part.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
See the Author? BE the Author
By D. Alan Lewis
At a recent book signing/selling event, a gentleman approached my table and struck up a conversation. There were several authors including myself at the event, all of us lumped together in a section of the room with our wares on display. Each had a small table with a variety of books, running the gamut of genres.
The man walked down the row, looking but not stopping until he stepped up to the last table, mine. He started picking up bookmarks and cards, asking questions, and finally made a purchase. As I handed him his change, I mentioned a book by one of the other authors but he only shrugged, smiled, and informed me that my books were the only ones he’d consider purchasing.
Intrigued, I asked why only my books. His answer was simple but powerful.
“Because you look like a real author. You present your books and market them like a real author.” He went on to point out the bookmarks, cards, and other promotional items, and then added, “The other folks here didn’t think enough of their books to bother.”
At a loss, I looked at the other author’s displays and caught on to what he meant. An absence of basic marketing merchandise became very clear. Some of the authors didn’t have bookmarks, or even business cards. No one else had signage of any type. While I’d spent money early on in my book-selling adventures to purchase display racks and stands, no one else had.
After my first book went to print, I began paying attention to other authors and how they did things. I looked not only at what they were doing but also at the authors themselves.
So, here are a few basic tips that I’ve learned to promote sales at events.
Look professional: No matter where you are selling books, dress well for the occasion. I’m not saying you need a suit and tie, but shorts and a t-shirt shouldn’t be the go-to wardrobe choice.
Business cards: Seriously, invest some money in professionally printed cards. Homemade cards printed on your home computer will look like what they are, homemade and cheap. There are many sources online for inexpensive but good-looking cards. But do something different with your cards that’ll get people’s attention.
In my case, I write mainly science fiction and fantasy stories. I found a website (Zazzle) which has hundreds of styles. Instead of one box of cards, I purchased three. Zazzle offered several styles of sci-fi art that are on the card’s background, so I picked out three distinctly different images. It amazed me how folks will approach the table and look at the three different cards and comment on which one has the best art. If the customer likes the card, they’ll keep looking at, ingraining your name in their head along with the picture.
Bookmarks: Like business cards, there are many online sources for bookmarks. In my case, I found an inexpensive printer that makes double-sided bookmarks. Instead of using both sides to promote one book, I placed ads for different books on each side. This way, the person is exposed to more of my works after they leave the table.
Signs and banners: These can be an issue for some folks because of the expense. There is also an issue at times as to whether you’ll have space at an event for big, freestanding banners. The best advice is to start with what you can afford and go from there.
Tall banners are great for projecting your name and books titles across a room. If well designed, a good banner will generate interest and curiosity in you and your works. If your books are lying flat on a table, then a tabletop banners or signs are a great way to get passersby to notice the book covers.
Racks and stands: Too many authors feel that simply laying their books flat on a table will get them noticed. This is simply not true. Flat books are only seen by folks walking directly in front of your table. Inexpensive bookstands or wire racks will increase the visibility of your books from a distance and draw folks in to take a closer look.
While these are just a handful of suggestions, they are the most basic and usually, the most overlooked. Next time you’re at a book event, look around, see which authors grab your attention, and ask yourself what made you look.
Alan Lewis is an ‘alleged’ native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who now resides in Nashville with his children. He has been writing technical guides and manuals for various employers for over twenty years but only in recent years has branched out in to writing fiction. In 2006, Alan took the reins of the Nashville Writers Meetup’s Novelist Group, where he works with new and aspiring writers.
Alan’s debut novel, a fantasy murder mystery, The Blood in Snowflake Garden was a finalist for the 2010 Claymore Award and has been optioned for a possible TV series. He has three other books in print, Keely: A Steampunk Story, The Lightning Bolts of Zeus, and The Bishop of Port Victoria. He is the editor of four anthologies for Luna’s Children 1 & 2 and Capes & Clockwork 1 & 2. He also has short stories in a number of anthologies, including Black Pulp, Pulpology, and Midnight Movie Creature Feature Vol.2. And recently released The Celeste Affair, a steampunk adventure as an e-book short. Reach Alan at http://www.snowflakegarden.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Resourcefulness 101: Marketing Your Novelettes / Wayne Zurl
So you’re pretty sure the novelette you’ve got sitting on your hard drive is a phenomenon waiting to happen. Thanks to the Internet, there are more ways than ever to get your mini-masterpiece out there, but you could waste a lot of time wading through search results without a proper guide. That’s where this week’s guest blogger, former cop and successful novelette writer Wayne Zurl, comes in.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Resourcefulness 101: Marketing Your Novelettes
By Wayne Zurl
What the hell can you do with a novelette?
Practically speaking, not much—unless you get creative. Wikipedia and other Internet sources define novelette as a story ranging between 7,500 and 17,500 words. Try and sell one sometime. They’re too long for those who publish short stories, and too short for a publisher who’s looking for a novella or full-length novel.
After I finished my first Sam Jenkins mystery novel, A New Prospect, and while peddling it to agents and publishers, I wrote stories for practice. Each was based on an actual incident I encountered while working as a cop in New York. And each ended up longer than the accepted short story ceiling of 7,500 words. But while the memories were fresh and my creative juices were flowing, I ended up with a bunch. So, I tried to flog them, too.
I hit a few of the mainstream mystery magazines and walked away disappointed. Each got rejected, but one acquisitions editor was kind enough to explain why. Basically, he said, “The story is good, but it’s too long.”
I sighed.
“Look, everybody writes stuff this length,” he continued, “but we can only publish one a year. So, if James Patterson sends me one and you send one, who do you think I’m going to accept?”
Nuts, I thought, aced out by someone who didn’t need the exposure or the money. So, I began to scour the Internet for a publisher who might like longer, more detailed and developed stories—real cop fiction—a series featuring the same cast as in my novel.
I found a relatively new company whose sole mission was to produce one-hour audio books and simultaneously publish them as eBooks. Coincidentally, stories from between 8,000 and 11,000 words (those in the novelette range) translate to fifty-five to seventy minute audios—not unlike the old time one-hour radio dramas to which my mother used to listen while ironing or cooking.
I submitted what I thought was the pick of the litter and crossed my fingers. Then I received an email. I hadn’t opened a piece of correspondence with such trepidation since I found that letter from my local draft board back in 1967. But, ha, success! She (the publisher) wanted the novelette called A Labor Day Murder.
From there, we built a good relationship and she published eighteen more novelettes. I worked with her editors and a professional actor who read my work. I felt like I (almost) had my own TV series. Not exactly on one of the networks, or even on cable, but I had an audience, and they liked the adventures of the boys and girls of Prospect PD.
Then, years later, after she had accepted three more new pieces and I was waiting for the promised contracts, I received an unexpected email. “Sorry,” she said. “For personal reasons, I must stop publishing new material. I won’t be sending the contracts. I’m not going out of business, but just won’t be producing anything new.”
I was back to my old dilemma: What do I do with three really good novelettes (I liked those a lot) plus the two more I had sitting in the hopper ready to send in? Head to the Internet.
After an exhaustive search—for me, because when it comes to computers, I’m only a step above clueless—I found Melange Books, LLC. They would accept submissions of novelettes and consider them for publication as eBooks. Okay, my “show” had been cancelled, but eBooks would be better than nothing.
I sent Melange a serial killer story called Angel of the Lord. The publisher liked it and asked if I had any others. I thought: Wow, a match made in heaven.
“Sure,” said I. “I just happen to have four more that have never seen a publisher’s contract.”
“Great,” said she. “Send them and we’ll see about putting them into an anthology and publish it in print and eBook.”
“Yahoo,” I said.
Well, not really. But I did send them, and in April of 2015 they released From New York to the Smokies.
So, what’s my point? If Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen, or The Strand aren’t interested in your very long stories, they can find a home. I did it the traditional way. But if you’re more computer savvy than I am, and you have the ambition to self-publish, you can create audio books, eBooks, and nifty anthologies from your novelette length stories and people will buy them… thousands of them.
Now, here’s a bit of logistical reality. With audio books, MP3 downloads sell MUCH better than compact discs. I never incurred the expense of producing the CDs, but know it was considerable. So, if you’re producing your own audio books, stick with a downloadable version. You’ll find more distributors to handle it/them.
And always back up your audio with a published eBook. They sell even more copies. You’ve already paid for the cover image, so use it on a second product. Then, after your series takes off, offer package deals or “bundles” of several episodes at a discount price.
Wayne Zurl grew up on Long Island and retired after twenty years with the Suffolk County Police Department, one of the largest municipal law enforcement agencies in New York and the nation. For thirteen of those years he served as a section commander supervising investigators.
He is a graduate of SUNY, Empire State College, and served on active duty in the US Army during the Vietnam War and later in the reserves. Zurl left New York to live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with his wife, Barbara—not far from Prospect PD.
Learn more about Wayne at http://www.waynezurlbooks.net/
(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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Resourcefulness 101: Marketing Your Novelettes / Wayne Zurl
So you’re pretty sure the novelette you’ve got sitting on your hard drive is a phenomenon waiting to happen. Thanks to the Internet, there are more ways than ever to get your mini-masterpiece out there, but you could waste a lot of time wading through search results without a proper guide. That’s where this week’s guest blogger, former cop and successful novelette writer Wayne Zurl, comes in.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Resourcefulness 101: Marketing Your Novelettes
By Wayne Zurl
What the hell can you do with a novelette?
Practically speaking, not much—unless you get creative. Wikipedia and other Internet sources define novelette as a story ranging between 7,500 and 17,500 words. Try and sell one sometime. They’re too long for those who publish short stories, and too short for a publisher who’s looking for a novella or full-length novel.
After I finished my first Sam Jenkins mystery novel, A New Prospect, and while peddling it to agents and publishers, I wrote stories for practice. Each was based on an actual incident I encountered while working as a cop in New York. And each ended up longer than the accepted short story ceiling of 7,500 words. But while the memories were fresh and my creative juices were flowing, I ended up with a bunch. So, I tried to flog them, too.
I hit a few of the mainstream mystery magazines and walked away disappointed. Each got rejected, but one acquisitions editor was kind enough to explain why. Basically, he said, “The story is good, but it’s too long.”
I sighed.
“Look, everybody writes stuff this length,” he continued, “but we can only publish one a year. So, if James Patterson sends me one and you send one, who do you think I’m going to accept?”
Nuts, I thought, aced out by someone who didn’t need the exposure or the money. So, I began to scour the Internet for a publisher who might like longer, more detailed and developed stories—real cop fiction—a series featuring the same cast as in my novel.
I found a relatively new company whose sole mission was to produce one-hour audio books and simultaneously publish them as eBooks. Coincidentally, stories from between 8,000 and 11,000 words (those in the novelette range) translate to fifty-five to seventy minute audios—not unlike the old time one-hour radio dramas to which my mother used to listen while ironing or cooking.
I submitted what I thought was the pick of the litter and crossed my fingers. Then I received an email. I hadn’t opened a piece of correspondence with such trepidation since I found that letter from my local draft board back in 1967. But, ha, success! She (the publisher) wanted the novelette called A Labor Day Murder.
From there, we built a good relationship and she published eighteen more novelettes. I worked with her editors and a professional actor who read my work. I felt like I (almost) had my own TV series. Not exactly on one of the networks, or even on cable, but I had an audience, and they liked the adventures of the boys and girls of Prospect PD.
Then, years later, after she had accepted three more new pieces and I was waiting for the promised contracts, I received an unexpected email. “Sorry,” she said. “For personal reasons, I must stop publishing new material. I won’t be sending the contracts. I’m not going out of business, but just won’t be producing anything new.”
I was back to my old dilemma: What do I do with three really good novelettes (I liked those a lot) plus the two more I had sitting in the hopper ready to send in? Head to the Internet.
After an exhaustive search—for me, because when it comes to computers, I’m only a step above clueless—I found Melange Books, LLC. They would accept submissions of novelettes and consider them for publication as eBooks. Okay, my “show” had been cancelled, but eBooks would be better than nothing.
I sent Melange a serial killer story called Angel of the Lord. The publisher liked it and asked if I had any others. I thought: Wow, a match made in heaven.
“Sure,” said I. “I just happen to have four more that have never seen a publisher’s contract.”
“Great,” said she. “Send them and we’ll see about putting them into an anthology and publish it in print and eBook.”
“Yahoo,” I said.
Well, not really. But I did send them, and in April of 2015 they released From New York to the Smokies.
So, what’s my point? If Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen, or The Strand aren’t interested in your very long stories, they can find a home. I did it the traditional way. But if you’re more computer savvy than I am, and you have the ambition to self-publish, you can create audio books, eBooks, and nifty anthologies from your novelette length stories and people will buy them… thousands of them.
Now, here’s a bit of logistical reality. With audio books, MP3 downloads sell MUCH better than compact discs. I never incurred the expense of producing the CDs, but know it was considerable. So, if you’re producing your own audio books, stick with a downloadable version. You’ll find more distributors to handle it/them.
And always back up your audio with a published eBook. They sell even more copies. You’ve already paid for the cover image, so use it on a second product. Then, after your series takes off, offer package deals or “bundles” of several episodes at a discount price.
Wayne Zurl grew up on Long Island and retired after twenty years with the Suffolk County Police Department, one of the largest municipal law enforcement agencies in New York and the nation. For thirteen of those years he served as a section commander supervising investigators.
He is a graduate of SUNY, Empire State College, and served on active duty in the US Army during the Vietnam War and later in the reserves. Zurl left New York to live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with his wife, Barbara—not far from Prospect PD.
Learn more about Wayne at http://www.waynezurlbooks.net/
(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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Resourcefulness 101: Marketing Your Novelettes / Wayne Zurl
So you’re pretty sure the novelette you’ve got sitting on your hard drive is a phenomenon waiting to happen. Thanks to the Internet, there are more ways than ever to get your mini-masterpiece out there, but you could waste a lot of time wading through search results without a proper guide. That’s where this week’s guest blogger, former cop and successful novelette writer Wayne Zurl, comes in.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Resourcefulness 101: Marketing Your Novelettes
By Wayne Zurl
What the hell can you do with a novelette?
Practically speaking, not much—unless you get creative. Wikipedia and other Internet sources define novelette as a story ranging between 7,500 and 17,500 words. Try and sell one sometime. They’re too long for those who publish short stories, and too short for a publisher who’s looking for a novella or full-length novel.
After I finished my first Sam Jenkins mystery novel, A New Prospect, and while peddling it to agents and publishers, I wrote stories for practice. Each was based on an actual incident I encountered while working as a cop in New York. And each ended up longer than the accepted short story ceiling of 7,500 words. But while the memories were fresh and my creative juices were flowing, I ended up with a bunch. So, I tried to flog them, too.
I hit a few of the mainstream mystery magazines and walked away disappointed. Each got rejected, but one acquisitions editor was kind enough to explain why. Basically, he said, “The story is good, but it’s too long.”
I sighed.
“Look, everybody writes stuff this length,” he continued, “but we can only publish one a year. So, if James Patterson sends me one and you send one, who do you think I’m going to accept?”
Nuts, I thought, aced out by someone who didn’t need the exposure or the money. So, I began to scour the Internet for a publisher who might like longer, more detailed and developed stories—real cop fiction—a series featuring the same cast as in my novel.
I found a relatively new company whose sole mission was to produce one-hour audio books and simultaneously publish them as eBooks. Coincidentally, stories from between 8,000 and 11,000 words (those in the novelette range) translate to fifty-five to seventy minute audios—not unlike the old time one-hour radio dramas to which my mother used to listen while ironing or cooking.
I submitted what I thought was the pick of the litter and crossed my fingers. Then I received an email. I hadn’t opened a piece of correspondence with such trepidation since I found that letter from my local draft board back in 1967. But, ha, success! She (the publisher) wanted the novelette called A Labor Day Murder.
From there, we built a good relationship and she published eighteen more novelettes. I worked with her editors and a professional actor who read my work. I felt like I (almost) had my own TV series. Not exactly on one of the networks, or even on cable, but I had an audience, and they liked the adventures of the boys and girls of Prospect PD.
Then, years later, after she had accepted three more new pieces and I was waiting for the promised contracts, I received an unexpected email. “Sorry,” she said. “For personal reasons, I must stop publishing new material. I won’t be sending the contracts. I’m not going out of business, but just won’t be producing anything new.”
I was back to my old dilemma: What do I do with three really good novelettes (I liked those a lot) plus the two more I had sitting in the hopper ready to send in? Head to the Internet.
After an exhaustive search—for me, because when it comes to computers, I’m only a step above clueless—I found Melange Books, LLC. They would accept submissions of novelettes and consider them for publication as eBooks. Okay, my “show” had been cancelled, but eBooks would be better than nothing.
I sent Melange a serial killer story called Angel of the Lord. The publisher liked it and asked if I had any others. I thought: Wow, a match made in heaven.
“Sure,” said I. “I just happen to have four more that have never seen a publisher’s contract.”
“Great,” said she. “Send them and we’ll see about putting them into an anthology and publish it in print and eBook.”
“Yahoo,” I said.
Well, not really. But I did send them, and in April of 2015 they released From New York to the Smokies.
So, what’s my point? If Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen, or The Strand aren’t interested in your very long stories, they can find a home. I did it the traditional way. But if you’re more computer savvy than I am, and you have the ambition to self-publish, you can create audio books, eBooks, and nifty anthologies from your novelette length stories and people will buy them… thousands of them.
Now, here’s a bit of logistical reality. With audio books, MP3 downloads sell MUCH better than compact discs. I never incurred the expense of producing the CDs, but know it was considerable. So, if you’re producing your own audio books, stick with a downloadable version. You’ll find more distributors to handle it/them.
And always back up your audio with a published eBook. They sell even more copies. You’ve already paid for the cover image, so use it on a second product. Then, after your series takes off, offer package deals or “bundles” of several episodes at a discount price.
Wayne Zurl grew up on Long Island and retired after twenty years with the Suffolk County Police Department, one of the largest municipal law enforcement agencies in New York and the nation. For thirteen of those years he served as a section commander supervising investigators.
He is a graduate of SUNY, Empire State College, and served on active duty in the US Army during the Vietnam War and later in the reserves. Zurl left New York to live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with his wife, Barbara—not far from Prospect PD.
Learn more about Wayne at http://www.waynezurlbooks.net/
(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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Finding Your Voice… As The Opposite Sex / Raymond Benson
How do you get inside your opposite gender protagonist’s head? Clearly, it’s not impossible to write across gender lines—the success of “Harry Potter” alone dismisses that idea. But it’s tricky. Isn’t it? Raymond Benson, of Bond novel fame, lets us in on his process of transforming his authorial voice from male to female.
And I’m with him: I love it when the woman wins.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Finding Your Voice… As The Opposite Sex
By Raymond Benson
Well, if that title doesn’t raise some eyebrows, I don’t know what will.
Seriously, we all do it—every writer at some point creates a protagonist who is one’s opposite gender. Even Ian Fleming did it for his 1962 Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, in which the story is told in first person by a woman... and 007 doesn’t enter the novel until the last third. There are plenty of female authors who write male characters, but how many male authors follow the exploits of female characters? To be fair, there are definitely a few out there. I’m one.
Speaking of James Bond, I was fortunate enough to be hired by the Ian Fleming Estate to write continuation 007 books from 1996-2002. When that gig was finished, I set out to create my own brand of suspense novels, and they were a very different kettle of fish. My original novels tend to be Hitchcockian thrillers, mostly about everyday people in unusual circumstances. And more often than not, the protagonist is female.
Strangely enough, I think I found my elusive authorial “voice” by doing this. I’ve found that I’m pretty good at creating believable female heroines—they range from ordinary suburban housewives who must rise to the occasion to overcome a threat, to kick-ass women who put on masks and fight crime and injustice.
A case in point is my recent five-book serial featuring the character The Black Stiletto. It’s about a young woman in the 1950s who runs away from near-poverty and an abusive stepfather to New York City, where she becomes a legendary vigilante for five years, and then mysteriously disappears. But in the present day, a divorced dad approaching fifty is taking care of his elderly mother—she has Alzheimer’s and is dying—and he discovers that she was the infamous Black Stiletto. Thus, it’s two parallel stories—one in the present that deals with family and Alzheimer’s, and one in the past, which is about the Stiletto’s exploits.
The Stiletto’s portion of each book is in the form of a diary—that is, first person. How did I get the voice right? Good question! How did I get any of my female protagonists’ voices correct? I like to say, facetiously, that I used up all my testosterone writing James Bond, and now I’m forced to rely on whatever estrogen I have in my body.
But to examine this question seriously, I suppose the first answer could be that I really like women. Since they are from Mars, and we men are from Venus—oh, wait, is it the other way around?—it’s obvious they are a different species from my own. However, I have done my research, and that means living, relating, and empathizing with the wonderful creatures.
I have a mother and a sister with whom I’m close (my mother is 94 and still ass-kicking), a history of girlfriends, and one wife of twenty-eight years (and counting). I watch movies by Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, and any film buff will tell you that those guys create excellent roles for women. The best answer I can give is that I ultimately find women to be more interesting characters because, in my very male opinion, they’re more complex! Men only think about two things (and I’ll let the reader figure out what they are), but there’s a lot going on inside a woman’s brain. A woman can multi-task better than any man. I find that kind of cool... and sexy, too.
I also believe I’m a feminist; I’ve supported women’s political causes my entire life. I think I understand where a woman is coming from, regarding what is important to the female gender. In fact, when Library Journal described the first Black Stiletto book, they called it a “mashup of the work of Gloria Steinem, Ian Fleming, and Mario Puzo, all under the editorship of Stan Lee.” I was especially proud of the Gloria Steinem part. I want women to win.
The only thing left to master is learning how a woman dresses, applies makeup, and chooses what shoes to wear. For those kinds of things, I ask my wife. She is a reader and is extremely helpful with that stuff. “No, she would never wear that.” That kind of constructive criticism. And the Internet is great for researching period clothing, though thrift shops are also good resources.
My wife is also my first beta reader, so she’s the first to clobber me with, “A woman would never say that.” When I wrote the first Black Stiletto book in the form of a diary, I gave it to another (female) beta reader who told me that had she not known a man had written it, she would have been fooled. So I thought maybe I was on to something.
Now, years later, after over ten titles starring women characters, I’ve completed a new stand-alone literary chiller featuring yet another female protagonist—this one a sixty-year-old romance writer! So apparently I’m pretty comfortable in another gender’s skin.
Temporarily, that is. When I’m finished writing for the day, I do manly things like throwing burgers on the grill, bending lead pipes around my waist, and entering raw egg eating contests. It puts hair on the chest.
Raymond Benson is the author of over 30 published titles, including the first four entries in the Black Stiletto series: The Black Stiletto, The Black Stiletto: Black & White, The Black Stiletto: Stars & Stripes, and The Black Stiletto: Secrets & Lies. He is most well known for being the official James Bond 007 continuation author between 1996 and 2002. In total, he penned and published worldwide six original 007 novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories. An anthology of his 007 work, The Union Trilogy, and a second anthology, Choice of Weapons, followed. His book The James Bond Bedside Companion was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America. Benson has published several other bestsellers and award-winning books, and has authored the novelization of a number of popular video games. Benson lives in the Chicago area. Reach him at http://www.raymondbenson.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
“Murder, mayhem, and mystery! Every story in KILLER NASHVILLE: COLD-BLOODED is filled with suspense, sizzle and startling twists. I loved it!”
- Lisa Jackson, New York Times Bestselling Author
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Finding Your Voice… As The Opposite Sex / Raymond Benson
How do you get inside your opposite gender protagonist’s head? Clearly, it’s not impossible to write across gender lines—the success of “Harry Potter” alone dismisses that idea. But it’s tricky. Isn’t it? Raymond Benson, of Bond novel fame, lets us in on his process of transforming his authorial voice from male to female.And I’m with him: I love it when the woman wins.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Finding Your Voice… As The Opposite Sex
By Raymond Benson
Well, if that title doesn’t raise some eyebrows, I don’t know what will.
Seriously, we all do it—every writer at some point creates a protagonist who is one’s opposite gender. Even Ian Fleming did it for his 1962 Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, in which the story is told in first person by a woman... and 007 doesn’t enter the novel until the last third. There are plenty of female authors who write male characters, but how many male authors follow the exploits of female characters? To be fair, there are definitely a few out there. I’m one.
Speaking of James Bond, I was fortunate enough to be hired by the Ian Fleming Estate to write continuation 007 books from 1996-2002. When that gig was finished, I set out to create my own brand of suspense novels, and they were a very different kettle of fish. My original novels tend to be Hitchcockian thrillers, mostly about everyday people in unusual circumstances. And more often than not, the protagonist is female.
Strangely enough, I think I found my elusive authorial “voice” by doing this. I’ve found that I’m pretty good at creating believable female heroines—they range from ordinary suburban housewives who must rise to the occasion to overcome a threat, to kick-ass women who put on masks and fight crime and injustice.
A case in point is my recent five-book serial featuring the character The Black Stiletto. It’s about a young woman in the 1950s who runs away from near-poverty and an abusive stepfather to New York City, where she becomes a legendary vigilante for five years, and then mysteriously disappears. But in the present day, a divorced dad approaching fifty is taking care of his elderly mother—she has Alzheimer’s and is dying—and he discovers that she was the infamous Black Stiletto. Thus, it’s two parallel stories—one in the present that deals with family and Alzheimer’s, and one in the past, which is about the Stiletto’s exploits.
The Stiletto’s portion of each book is in the form of a diary—that is, first person. How did I get the voice right? Good question! How did I get any of my female protagonists’ voices correct? I like to say, facetiously, that I used up all my testosterone writing James Bond, and now I’m forced to rely on whatever estrogen I have in my body.
But to examine this question seriously, I suppose the first answer could be that I really like women. Since they are from Mars, and we men are from Venus—oh, wait, is it the other way around?—it’s obvious they are a different species from my own. However, I have done my research, and that means living, relating, and empathizing with the wonderful creatures.
I have a mother and a sister with whom I’m close (my mother is 94 and still ass-kicking), a history of girlfriends, and one wife of twenty-eight years (and counting). I watch movies by Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, and any film buff will tell you that those guys create excellent roles for women. The best answer I can give is that I ultimately find women to be more interesting characters because, in my very male opinion, they’re more complex! Men only think about two things (and I’ll let the reader figure out what they are), but there’s a lot going on inside a woman’s brain. A woman can multi-task better than any man. I find that kind of cool... and sexy, too.
I also believe I’m a feminist; I’ve supported women’s political causes my entire life. I think I understand where a woman is coming from, regarding what is important to the female gender. In fact, when Library Journal described the first Black Stiletto book, they called it a “mashup of the work of Gloria Steinem, Ian Fleming, and Mario Puzo, all under the editorship of Stan Lee.” I was especially proud of the Gloria Steinem part. I want women to win.
The only thing left to master is learning how a woman dresses, applies makeup, and chooses what shoes to wear. For those kinds of things, I ask my wife. She is a reader and is extremely helpful with that stuff. “No, she would never wear that.” That kind of constructive criticism. And the Internet is great for researching period clothing, though thrift shops are also good resources.
My wife is also my first beta reader, so she’s the first to clobber me with, “A woman would never say that.” When I wrote the first Black Stiletto book in the form of a diary, I gave it to another (female) beta reader who told me that had she not known a man had written it, she would have been fooled. So I thought maybe I was on to something.
Now, years later, after over ten titles starring women characters, I’ve completed a new stand-alone literary chiller featuring yet another female protagonist—this one a sixty-year-old romance writer! So apparently I’m pretty comfortable in another gender’s skin.
Temporarily, that is. When I’m finished writing for the day, I do manly things like throwing burgers on the grill, bending lead pipes around my waist, and entering raw egg eating contests. It puts hair on the chest.
Raymond Benson is the author of over 30 published titles, including the first four entries in the Black Stiletto series: The Black Stiletto, The Black Stiletto: Black & White, The Black Stiletto: Stars & Stripes, and The Black Stiletto: Secrets & Lies. He is most well known for being the official James Bond 007 continuation author between 1996 and 2002. In total, he penned and published worldwide six original 007 novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories. An anthology of his 007 work, The Union Trilogy, and a second anthology, Choice of Weapons, followed. His book The James Bond Bedside Companion was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America. Benson has published several other bestsellers and award-winning books, and has authored the novelization of a number of popular video games. Benson lives in the Chicago area. Reach him at http://www.raymondbenson.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
“Murder, mayhem, and mystery! Every story in KILLER NASHVILLE: COLD-BLOODED is filled with suspense, sizzle and startling twists. I loved it!”
- Lisa Jackson, New York Times Bestselling Author
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Finding Your Voice… As The Opposite Sex / Raymond Benson
How do you get inside your opposite gender protagonist’s head? Clearly, it’s not impossible to write across gender lines—the success of “Harry Potter” alone dismisses that idea. But it’s tricky. Isn’t it? Raymond Benson, of Bond novel fame, lets us in on his process of transforming his authorial voice from male to female.And I’m with him: I love it when the woman wins.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Finding Your Voice… As The Opposite Sex
By Raymond Benson
Well, if that title doesn’t raise some eyebrows, I don’t know what will.
Seriously, we all do it—every writer at some point creates a protagonist who is one’s opposite gender. Even Ian Fleming did it for his 1962 Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, in which the story is told in first person by a woman... and 007 doesn’t enter the novel until the last third. There are plenty of female authors who write male characters, but how many male authors follow the exploits of female characters? To be fair, there are definitely a few out there. I’m one.
Speaking of James Bond, I was fortunate enough to be hired by the Ian Fleming Estate to write continuation 007 books from 1996-2002. When that gig was finished, I set out to create my own brand of suspense novels, and they were a very different kettle of fish. My original novels tend to be Hitchcockian thrillers, mostly about everyday people in unusual circumstances. And more often than not, the protagonist is female.
Strangely enough, I think I found my elusive authorial “voice” by doing this. I’ve found that I’m pretty good at creating believable female heroines—they range from ordinary suburban housewives who must rise to the occasion to overcome a threat, to kick-ass women who put on masks and fight crime and injustice.
A case in point is my recent five-book serial featuring the character The Black Stiletto. It’s about a young woman in the 1950s who runs away from near-poverty and an abusive stepfather to New York City, where she becomes a legendary vigilante for five years, and then mysteriously disappears. But in the present day, a divorced dad approaching fifty is taking care of his elderly mother—she has Alzheimer’s and is dying—and he discovers that she was the infamous Black Stiletto. Thus, it’s two parallel stories—one in the present that deals with family and Alzheimer’s, and one in the past, which is about the Stiletto’s exploits.
The Stiletto’s portion of each book is in the form of a diary—that is, first person. How did I get the voice right? Good question! How did I get any of my female protagonists’ voices correct? I like to say, facetiously, that I used up all my testosterone writing James Bond, and now I’m forced to rely on whatever estrogen I have in my body.
But to examine this question seriously, I suppose the first answer could be that I really like women. Since they are from Mars, and we men are from Venus—oh, wait, is it the other way around?—it’s obvious they are a different species from my own. However, I have done my research, and that means living, relating, and empathizing with the wonderful creatures.
I have a mother and a sister with whom I’m close (my mother is 94 and still ass-kicking), a history of girlfriends, and one wife of twenty-eight years (and counting). I watch movies by Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, and any film buff will tell you that those guys create excellent roles for women. The best answer I can give is that I ultimately find women to be more interesting characters because, in my very male opinion, they’re more complex! Men only think about two things (and I’ll let the reader figure out what they are), but there’s a lot going on inside a woman’s brain. A woman can multi-task better than any man. I find that kind of cool... and sexy, too.
I also believe I’m a feminist; I’ve supported women’s political causes my entire life. I think I understand where a woman is coming from, regarding what is important to the female gender. In fact, when Library Journal described the first Black Stiletto book, they called it a “mashup of the work of Gloria Steinem, Ian Fleming, and Mario Puzo, all under the editorship of Stan Lee.” I was especially proud of the Gloria Steinem part. I want women to win.
The only thing left to master is learning how a woman dresses, applies makeup, and chooses what shoes to wear. For those kinds of things, I ask my wife. She is a reader and is extremely helpful with that stuff. “No, she would never wear that.” That kind of constructive criticism. And the Internet is great for researching period clothing, though thrift shops are also good resources.
My wife is also my first beta reader, so she’s the first to clobber me with, “A woman would never say that.” When I wrote the first Black Stiletto book in the form of a diary, I gave it to another (female) beta reader who told me that had she not known a man had written it, she would have been fooled. So I thought maybe I was on to something.
Now, years later, after over ten titles starring women characters, I’ve completed a new stand-alone literary chiller featuring yet another female protagonist—this one a sixty-year-old romance writer! So apparently I’m pretty comfortable in another gender’s skin.
Temporarily, that is. When I’m finished writing for the day, I do manly things like throwing burgers on the grill, bending lead pipes around my waist, and entering raw egg eating contests. It puts hair on the chest.
Raymond Benson is the author of over 30 published titles, including the first four entries in the Black Stiletto series: The Black Stiletto, The Black Stiletto: Black & White, The Black Stiletto: Stars & Stripes, and The Black Stiletto: Secrets & Lies. He is most well known for being the official James Bond 007 continuation author between 1996 and 2002. In total, he penned and published worldwide six original 007 novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories. An anthology of his 007 work, The Union Trilogy, and a second anthology, Choice of Weapons, followed. His book The James Bond Bedside Companion was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America. Benson has published several other bestsellers and award-winning books, and has authored the novelization of a number of popular video games. Benson lives in the Chicago area. Reach him at http://www.raymondbenson.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
“Murder, mayhem, and mystery! Every story in KILLER NASHVILLE: COLD-BLOODED is filled with suspense, sizzle and startling twists. I loved it!”
- Lisa Jackson, New York Times Bestselling Author
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Fact into Fiction / Andrew Welsh-Huggins
You’ve come to that horrible moment in your writing journey when, just as you’re leaving the harbor, a dark and ominous cloud front rolls across the sky. Rain starts to fall, big cold plops of realization that you are totally unequipped for this story, that no matter how much you think you know about coal fracking off the top of your head, you have nowhere near the expertise you need, and that Wikipedia is going to exhaust its usefulness pretty quickly (if even reliable, at that).
It’s a common moment for all writers. But for journalist-turned-novelist Andrew Welsh-Huggins, it’s a moment he knows how to navigate, thanks to his years of experience doing research. In this week’s blog, learn from a professional fact-finder, so that the next time you come to an “I-have-no-idea” moment, you have the skills to help you sail straight through. And for me, the 10-minute rule he cited on research and writing long are pure diamonds.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Fact Into Fiction
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
“How much research do you do for your books?”
It’s one of the questions I’m asked most often at signings and talks, even more than the tried-and-true, “Where do you get your ideas?”
My usual response—“A lot”—should come as no surprise. By day, I’m a full-time reporter with The Associated Press, and my first two books were nonfiction on the death penalty and domestic terrorism, respectively. Both involved hundreds of hours of reporting, from poring over documents to conducting numerous interviews.
Despite all that, I’m the one sometimes surprised by my own answer. As a novelist, I figured, things would be different, a welcome break from my job as a fact-gathering journalist. You just make stuff up, right?
Wrong.
For starters, I found myself relying on my work experience more than I expected, whether setting scenes in courthouses or coffee shops, or loosely modeling characters after cops, lawyers, and politicians I’ve interviewed over the years. One of the subplots in my first mystery, Fourth Down And Out, involved a health-care financing company run like a Ponzi scheme. Incorporating that storyline was easy, based on weeks I’d spent covering the real-life $1.9 billon fraud case of suburban Columbus-based National Century Financial Enterprises.
Experiential writing only gets you so far, however, as I learned when it came time to write the book’s climactic scene, in which my hero, disgraced ex-Ohio State-quarterback-turned-private eye Andy Hayes, enters Ohio Stadium for the first time in twenty years to confront an old nemesis. Sure, I’d been in the famed stadium plenty of times, both as a reporter and as a civilian watching a game. But I quickly realized that neither casual knowledge nor Internet trolling was going to cut it. Trust me: when writing about the fanaticism of Buckeye fans, you don’t want to screw things up.
So I put my reporter’s hat back on and arranged a stadium tour. Thanks to that hour-long expedition, I timed Andy’s walk to a specific gate entrance, took pictures of the views he would see inside, and most importantly, counted the number of steps he’d have to climb to reach a particular luxury suite.
In a 2014 interview with The Daily Beast, Michael Connelly discussed researching his Mickey Haller books, “until I feel that the books feel of authority and have some realism to them.” When I left the stadium that day, I felt a similar sense of authority. Readers partial to the scarlet-and-gray might not appreciate my portrayal of rabid OSU supporters, but they can’t argue with that scene’s layout.
The reporting load was even heavier in my second book, Slow Burn, in which I combined a ripped-from-the-headlines arson fire near campus with another subplot, this time involving hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” a drilling process used to free previously off-limits supplies of natural gas from deep underground.
I’d written a bit about the controversial extraction method as a reporter, since eastern Ohio, home to the Utica Shale formation, is a fracking hot bed. But I hardly knew enough even to be dangerous. Soon, I was trading emails with a retired state geologist who taught me everything I needed to know and more about permeability, magnetic resonance, and piggyback logs. My happy challenge became integrating all those facts into the story without interrupting the novel’s pace.
In mystery writing as in journalism, the one thing research shouldn’t do is slow down the creative process. “Make one quick effort to get the answer,” wrote Stuart Kaminsky, whose many novels include the Sarasota-based Lew Fonesca series. “If you can’t find it in ten minutes, keep writing and go back for the answer when you finish your manuscript.” I often write longer articles while I’m still reporting them, finding it easier to fill in gaps as I go than start from that awful blank page. Similarly, I plow through my mysteries’ first “vomit drafts” regardless of the facts. It’s good to be right; it’s also good to have something completed and in hand to be right about.
My life as a hybrid journalist-novelist shows no sign of abating. Despite years spent in and around the Ohio Statehouse, I turned to the building’s able historians, my notebook and pen at the ready, when writing Capitol Punishment, the third volume of Andy Hayes’s adventures, coming in spring 2016. After ten years in print journalism and another seventeen with a wire service, it’s the only approach to writing, fiction or otherwise, that I know how to do.
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, a legal affairs reporter for The Associated Press, is the author of the Andy Hayes mystery series, set in Columbus and featuring an ex-Ohio State quarterback turned private eye, including Slow Burn and Fourth Down And Out; and the nonfiction books No Winners HereTonight: Race, Politics and Geography in One of the Country’s Busiest Death Penalty States and Hatred at Home: Al-Qaida on Trial in the American Midwest. He enjoys running, reading, watching movies, spending time with family, and trying to remember why having a dog, two cats, and two parakeets seemed like a good idea at the time. He can be reached at https://andrewwelshhuggins.wordpress.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, Emily Eytchison, and publisher/editorial director 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.
And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.
“Murder, mayhem, and mystery! Every story in KILLER NASHVILLE: COLD-BLOODED is filled with suspense, sizzle and startling twists. I loved it!”
- Lisa Jackson, New York Times Bestselling Author
*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine
Want to have your writing included in Killer Nashville Magazine?
Fill out our submission form and upload your writing here: