KN Magazine: Articles

2/17/16 2/17/16

Herding Cats for Fun and Profit: Lessons Learned from Producing a Multi-Author Book / Michael Guillebeau

Every enterprise is fraught with uncertainty, and for most of us, that means some level of anxiety. This week’s guest blogger, Michael Guillebeau, faced significant trepidation before (and during) the creation of his new anthology, as he mentions below. But the more he pushed through his fear, the more delighted he was by the results, which seems to be a common theme in success stories. Who knows? Take his advice to heart, and you just may have words of wisdom to share with the Killer Nashville family one of these days, too.Happy reading!Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine

Herding Cats for Fun and Profit: Lessons Learned from Producing a Multi-Author Book
By Michael Guillebeau

First off, I’ve got to apologize for this piece not being funnier than it is. You can blame my writers. When I started Eight Mystery Writers You Should be Reading Now, I thought I’d have a mess of funny stories by now. I mean, writers are notoriously independent (I expected at least one chorus of “I know you said you wanted mystery stories, but I thought my unicorn story would be better”), late (“If I have my section done by Christmas, will that meet your October deadline?”) and even bizarre (“I do all my writing in Japanese. My editor has to fix it”).

Not my writers. Not only are they all great writers whom you really should be reading now, but they were also the best team of people I’ve ever worked with. Thank you, Lisa Alber, Kathleen Cosgrove, Chris Knopf, Jessie Bishop Powell, Larissa Reinhart, Jaden Terrell, and Lisa Wysocky. And thanks from all of us to Hank Phillippi Ryan for giving us a wonderful foreword. And to the amazing Stacy Pethel for editing contributions from nine separate writers for no pay or glory, and no reason other than her love for words. I’d work with you all again on anything.

So, I didn’t get any funny stories to tell. Sometimes, life gives you lemons and you have to make lemonade. Sometimes, a team of waiters shows up at your table to make you a perfect Porch Crawler, and thanks you for the privilege. (I’m a writer; we know how to deal with disappointments involving alcohol...)

I didn’t get any funny stories, but I do have a few pointers on how a multi-author project can be more fun and successful than you can possibly imagine.

1. Don’t say no to the idea.

This is always the hardest and most important lesson, isn’t it? Like most of us, I was frustrated by the problem of asking readers to select my writing based on blurbs when I really wanted them to see… my writing. Handouts and free days help but have their limits.

I reflected on how I picked my own reading material: mostly through recommendations from people I trust. What could be a higher recommendation than inclusion in a book with writers that people already trust?

2. Find a clear vision, and the right people to buy into it.

So now I was excited, but scared. I have trouble asking a waiter for a refill of iced tea. Now, I had to refine my ideas and go up to people I was in awe of and ask them to play with me. But I set that aside and thought: What if they said yes? Who would I want?

There are lots of anthologies focused on a certain style or sub-genre. I didn’t want that. I wanted this to be a book of discovery for readers. I wanted eight writers who were each so different that most people who loved one of them would never have heard of the others—but might discover something new that they wouldn’t otherwise look at.

I also had to have quality. I expected readers to dislike at least one writer because it wasn’t the style they wanted, but if they read even one writer who seemed amateurish, they’d put the whole book down.

So I had to find people whose work I admired, and make sure they were all different. I needed people to buy into a project that was to be largely promotional (we’d rather give away a thousand of these than sell a hundred), but that would still require their best. And the kind of people I wanted were already up to their armpits in better projects than mine.

Jesus.

3. Even big people love to be asked to help, particularly if it helps them, too.

So you’ve heard the saying about leap and the net will appear? After downing antacids and adult fortifications, I started approaching some of these semi-giants. Felt like Dorothy approaching the Wizard, without even a lion or scarecrow or a tin man.

I was rewarded with some of the best experiences of my life, as faces lit up and people I admired thanked me for the opportunity to be a part of this.

4. If you keep your request small, people will deliver big.

I pitched Eight as a low-impact project to the other writers, but none of them treated it that way. All I asked for was a sample chapter, a previously written story, and an interview. I got all that, on time (barely in some cases, but on time), and so much more. Jessie Powell made us a book trailer, and had to be restrained from doing a print ad. Kathleen Cosgrove found us a cover artist (her son Charlie Wetherington) who delivered a killer cover for next to nothing. Chris Knopf sent our press release to his many contacts. And… well, everybody went over and above.

5. Actually producing the book is the easy part.

There are lots of materials out there on how to self-pub a book. I won’t add to them except to say that pulling together a book is just a lot of fussy little time-consuming tasks, but nothing to be scared of.

6. Multiple writers multiply the quality of the book and the power of the marketing.

I really think that each person roughly doubled the value of this project. What a joy.

So now my little-bitty scary idea has become the book that I may be the most proud of, the one that will probably get the most attention, and the one that was the most fun to work on.

Without me having to do all that messy writing stuff.

Michael Guillebeau’s first book, Josh Whoever (Five Star Mysteries, 2013) was a finalist for the 2014 Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel: Literary Suspense, received a starred review in Library Journal, and was named a Debut Mystery of the Month by Library Journal. His second book, A Study In Detail (Five Star Mysteries, 2015) received the following praise from the Midwest Book Review: “fresh, original and witty.” Guillebeau has published over twenty short stories, including three in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Michael Guillebeau lives in Madison, Alabama, and Panama City Beach, Florida. For more information, see www.michaelguillebeau.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.

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.

2/17/16 2/17/16

Herding Cats for Fun and Profit: Lessons Learned from Producing a Multi-Author Book / Michael Guillebeau

Herding Cats for Fun and Profit: Lessons Learned from Producing a Multi-Author Book
By Michael Guillebeau

I didn’t get any funny stories, but I do have a few pointers on how a multi-author project can be more fun and successful than you can possibly imagine.

1. Don’t say no to the idea.

2. Find a clear vision, and the right people to buy into it.

Jesus.

3. Even big people love to be asked to help, particularly if it helps them, too.

I was rewarded with some of the best experiences of my life, as faces lit up and people I admired thanked me for the opportunity to be a part of this.

4. If you keep your request small, people will deliver big.

5. Actually producing the book is the easy part.

6. Multiple writers multiply the quality of the book and the power of the marketing.

I really think that each person roughly doubled the value of this project. What a joy.

So now my little-bitty scary idea has become the book that I may be the most proud of, the one that will probably get the most attention, and the one that was the most fun to work on.

Without me having to do all that messy writing stuff.

(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.

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.

2/15/16 2/15/16

Killer Cocktails: The Secret Affair

This month’s exclusive Killer Nashville Killer Cocktail: The Secret Affair

The Secret Affair

A Killer Nashville Signature Cocktail

Ingredients:

Smucker's PlateScapers

Forbidden Secret Cream - Dark Mocha

Caribbean's Finest Rum

Cream of your choice (optional)

Directions:

Add ice to your shaker.
Add 1 ounce of Forbidden Secret to your shaker.
Add 1 ounce of Caribbean's Finest Rum to your shaker.
Add 1/2 ounce of half & half or your choice of creamer to the shaker (optional).
Shake the contents until it is frothy.
Drizzle PlateScapers onto your glass.
Empty the shaker's contents into your glass.
Top with PlateScapers in a pattern of your choice.
Enjoy

Cheers!

Send us pictures and comments of you and the Killer Nashville’s The Secret Affair. We’ll share them here along with a link back to you.

About Spaz:

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

2/10/16 2/10/16

Challenging Clichés / Sharon Woods Hopkins

There’s a dangerous mental laziness inherent in the use of clichés that, if unchecked, can lead us, and our readers, to a limited worldview—particularly when those clichés are stereotypes. In this week’s guest blog, author Sharon Woods Hopkins shares anecdotal examples from her own endeavors to eschew stereotypes in favor of increased imagination and creativity.

Happy reading!

Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine

Challenging Clichés
By Sharon Woods Hopkins

I was told a long time ago that clichés are weak writing.

So are stereotypes, which are a form of clichés, about groups of people. If you write about bikers, don’t make them leather jacket thugs. For example, I know a great group of Christian bikers, and let’s not forget the Freedom Guard riders. Even if your biker, protagonist or antagonist, isn’t the church-going type, write him or her with an unexpected characteristic. Maybe he or she is a dog lover and carries a miniature poodle in a backpack.

If you write about a group of people, make them unique, different, and most of all, interesting.

I had stereotypes to avoid in Killerground, my fourth Rhetta McCarter mystery. Like the first three, this story is set in rural Southeast Missouri. That, in itself, could give rise to the Ozark hillbilly stereotype. Instead, my protagonist is a businesswoman who drives a resto-mod 1979 Camaro with a Corvette engine.

At the heart of the trouble are unusual deaths of members of a Native American tribe whose land borders that of a mysterious group that call their compound the Righteous Rewards Retreat.

The challenge to the stereotype of a cult compound here was to make the Righteous Reward compound something other than a religious group. It would have been easy to make them ultra-conservative and right wing, and that scenario has been done a lot. The leader, or Teacher as he’s called, is a billionaire from Oklahoma who believes in lay lines and the mystical powers they hold. There is no worshipping involved.

The conflict between his followers and the neighboring Native American tribe is over a natural spring that sits directly on a lay line that Teacher feels has magical power, but which belongs to the Native American tribe.

I enjoyed creating the character of Chief Ed Silver Fox, who strongly resembles a dear friend, Chief Paul White Eagle, whose help was invaluable in this story. At the same time, it was a challenge not to stereotype the chief, too. In many stories, Native Americans live on reservations, are poor, and suffer many addictions. The Native Americans in this story are not a recognized tribe by the US Government, and live on land they own independently. The chief is a talented, widowed artist determined to build a historical museum to tell the story of his dwindling tribe. He is calm, charismatic, and very wise. He is, however, distrustful of most non-Native people.

Another issue particular to the writing of this book was changing the occupation of the character and building a new world for her that was different from the one she had had for three books. I had to create a whole new occupation for Rhetta, while maintaining her circle of supporting characters. They needed different jobs, so it was a challenge to figure out what they would all do, and how they would mesh and be relevant in the new story. I did that by having my protagonist form a charitable foundation and hire her friends to work for her.

Her first project was to help the Chief build the museum. That put her in a position to be involved with the Chief, and by extension, the Righteous Rewards Retreat, and the mysterious deaths, one of which she witnessed.

As always, I strive to make Rhetta, who is just a normal woman thrown into extraordinary circumstances, smart, funny, and too nosy for her own good.

Keep clichés for conversation, like the next time your neighbor is as drunk as a skunk.

Sharon Woods Hopkins, author of the award-winning Rhetta McCarter mysteries, is retired from banking and spends her time writing and volunteering. She owns the original Cami, a restored ’79 Camaro who appears as a character in her books. Her hobbies include restoring muscle cars and painting. Her first book, Killerwatt, placed as a finalist in the 2012 Indie Excellence Awards. Her second, Killerfind, won first place in the 2013 Missouri Writers’ Guild Show-me Best Book Awards and placed as a finalist in the 2013 Indie Excellence Awards.

The third in the series,Killertrust, was a finalist in the 2014 Indie Excellence Awards.

Her newest in the series, Killerground, was released in 2015. Her award-winning short story, “Rear View Mirror”, was published in That Mysterious Woman anthology in 2014.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Guppies, International Thriller Writers, Missouri Writers Guild, Southeast Missouri Writers Guild, and Heartland Writers. You can find Sharon at the website she shares with her husband and fellow author, Bill Hopkins, the other half of The Deadly Duo, at www.deadlyduo.net, on Twitter @sharonwhopkins, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sharonwoodshopkins.

(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.

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.

2/10/16 2/10/16

Challenging Clichés / Sharon Woods Hopkins

Challenging Clichés
By Sharon Woods Hopkins

I was told a long time ago that clichés are weak writing.

If you write about a group of people, make them unique, different, and most of all, interesting.

At the heart of the trouble are unusual deaths of members of a Native American tribe whose land borders that of a mysterious group that call their compound the Righteous Rewards Retreat.

As always, I strive to make Rhetta, who is just a normal woman thrown into extraordinary circumstances, smart, funny, and too nosy for her own good.

Keep clichés for conversation, like the next time your neighbor is as drunk as a skunk.

The third in the series, Killertrust, was a finalist in the 2014 Indie Excellence Awards.

Her newest in the series, Killerground, was released in 2015. Her award-winning short story, “Rear View Mirror”, was published in That Mysterious Woman anthology in 2014.

(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.

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.

2/10/16 2/10/16

Challenging Clichés / Sharon Woods Hopkins

Challenging Clichés
By Sharon Woods Hopkins

I was told a long time ago that clichés are weak writing.

If you write about a group of people, make them unique, different, and most of all, interesting.

At the heart of the trouble are unusual deaths of members of a Native American tribe whose land borders that of a mysterious group that call their compound the Righteous Rewards Retreat.

As always, I strive to make Rhetta, who is just a normal woman thrown into extraordinary circumstances, smart, funny, and too nosy for her own good.

Keep clichés for conversation, like the next time your neighbor is as drunk as a skunk.

The third in the series, Killertrust, was a finalist in the 2014 Indie Excellence Awards.

Her newest in the series, Killerground, was released in 2015. Her award-winning short story, “Rear View Mirror”, was published in That Mysterious Woman anthology in 2014.

(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.

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.

2/8/16 2/8/16

Featured Poetry: "Pencil to Paper"

By Sharon Ann Wilson

My pencil snapped yet again
I can’t get the words right
So I erase and do it again
and again.
That’s the 5th lead today
I’m afraid to touch my laptop
For fear I might throw it.
Is this writer’s block?
I doubt it, but what do I know…
Number six is up, I hope it will hold
Oh boy, a sentence down
Only several thousand more to go
So, I write on, praying this lead will hold.

2/5/16 2/5/16

The Writer's Life: Setting

"Place is a definer and a confiner of what I'm doing. [...] it saves me. Why, you couldn't write a story that happened nowhere." — Eudora Welty

Writing any sort of creative work is taxing on the author. There’s so much to consider: character voice, plot, story arch, etc., that sometimes elements that are vital to the telling of your story are left neglected by the wayside. One of the most commonly overlooked and undervalued components of an author’s work is the treatment of setting.

In this month’s “How-To,” author Jaden Terrell explores what makes setting vital, what it can do, and ways to craft settings that are powerful and provide substance to the work as a whole.

The Importance of Setting: Macro vs. Micro
By Jaden Terrell

Imagine a Miss Marple mystery without the small-town ambience of St. Mary Meade, Gorky Park without the brutal Russian winter, Heart of Darkness without the stultifying heat. Imagine The Lord of the Flies without the island or Sex in the City without the city.

Doesn’t work, does it? Without their settings, each is a completely different book than the original.

Every story takes place somewhere. Events occur in a particular time and a particular place, each of which affects what happens and how the people involved interpret those events. This is true even of fantasy novels and modern fiction set in imaginary towns. Middle Earth and Gotham City may not be places you can visit outside your imagination, but they are “real” places nonetheless, in that each is vividly portrayed with specific details unique to that place.

Think that seems obvious? Not necessarily. Inexperienced writers often make the mistake of moving their characters through “fuzzy space,” amorphous settings that leave the dialogue and action unmoored in time and space. A conversation takes place in a bar, in a kitchen, on a hilltop, in a concentration camp, but the specifics of the setting are so vague that the characters might as well be saying their lines in front of a green screen. What’s missing are the specific, carefully chosen details that put your readers in a scene and keep them there.

Strategically placed, specific sensory details can help bring your settings to life and add an additional layer of authenticity to your story. At the beginning of each scene, you should give your readers enough information to ground them in the setting. Your readers should always know when and where they are. This will help prevent “talking head syndrome” and keep your characters from seeming to float in a formless void.

Look at how Robert Crais uses vivid details to establish setting and create tension in the opening of The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel:

The woman stood in the far corner of the dimly lit room, hiding in shadows like a fish in gray water. She was small, round, and dumpy. The fringed leather jacket probably made her seem rounder, but she’d never been a looker. She reminded Mr. Rollins of an overripe peach, and the peach was clearly afraid.

A steady rain fell from the overcast night. The dingy, one-bedroom bungalow west of Echo Park reeked of bleach and ammonia, but the windows were closed, the shades were down, and the doors were locked. A single yellow twenty-five-watt lamp provided the only light. The chemical smell gave Mr. Rollins a headache, but he could not open the windows. They were screwed shut.

The locked doors, the reek of bleach and ammonia, the screws holding the windows shut…these all help create a claustrophobic feeling in the reader. The peach is frightened, and we begin to feel she has reason to be.

And look at this brief but evocative opening from Gorky Park: All nights should be so dark, all winters so warm, all headlights so dazzling.

This line just before we witness detectives investigating bodies frozen in the snow. Doesn’t it set you up to think about the nights less dark, the winters less warm, and the headlights dimming in the swirling snow?

Setting works best when the details are experienced through the senses of a particular character (or narrator). We all see the world through our own filters. This subjective experience of reality is one reason eyewitness testimony is so unreliable. Ask eight different witnesses to a bank robbery what happened, and you’ll get eight different accounts. None of them are lying, but each one’s memory is colored by his or her memories, beliefs, emotions, visual acuity, and other factors too numerous to list. It’s the common bits that lead to the true picture. If all eight people, without prior collusion, say the bank robber had a limp and a velociraptor tattoo, there’s a very good chance he did.

But that which is a headache for a homicide detective is a boon for a writer. Imagine two teenaged girls at a carnival. One is cheerful, upbeat, optimistic. The other is cynical and angry. Watch how each interprets the same scene in a different way.

The midway was a kaleidoscope of color. Everywhere you looked were flashing lights and bold colors, and the air smelled of cotton candy and funnel cakes, all warm and sugary. A little girl bumped my hip as she skipped past. She peered around the giant stuffed T-Rex she was hugging, and we shared a grin as her mother led her away. It was like Christmas on steroids.

The midway was an assault on the senses—garish colors, flashing lights, screaming kids. It reminded me of a crime scene. The air was so sticky sweet I could hardly breathe. As I turned to make my escape, a kid carrying a giant plush dinosaur plowed into me, bounced off, and gave me a malicious grin. For a moment, I imagined pinching that grin right off her face. Then her mother yanked her away and she disappeared into the crowd.

Bet you had no trouble telling which was which.

Setting can be used to create atmosphere, reveal character, or drive the plot. In many cases, it can do all three. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Create Atmosphere

Reed Farrel Coleman has been called “the noir poet,” and the name fits him well. Listen to how, in his short story “The Terminal,” he describes Cony Island as seen through the eyes of a man whose decision to help a young woman brings him into conflict with local gangsters. This moment is a great example of a description that creates atmosphere and reveals character at the same time.

Doc turned his back to the ocean and beheld the amusement park’s moth-eaten splendor. From where he stood, in the first light of morning, it still looked a grand place. At that distance, it all seemed in working order. Even the Parachute Jump seemed ready to shine again. From Doc’s place in the sand, he thought, you might be able to fool yourself that the sun-faded, blue-finned Astroland rocket atop Gregory and Paul’s food stand might fire up its engines and blast off. You had to get much closer to see the truth of it, the rust and folly of the place.

The setting evokes a sense of nostalgia, but it also echoes Doc’s feelings about himself—a man whose best years are behind him, a man who may have made one too many mistakes.

And how about the opening to Glendon Swarthout’s tragicomic coming-of-age novel, Bless the Beasts and the Children?

In that place the wind prevailed. There was always sound. The throat of the canyon was hoarse with wind. It heaved through pines and passed and was collected by the cliffs. There was a phenomenon of pines in such a place. When wind died in a box canyon and in its wake the air was still and taut, the trees were not. The passing trembled in them, and a sough of loss. They grieved. They seemed to mourn a memory of wind.

Isn’t this bleak wilderness, with its sense of loneliness and loss, the perfect backdrop for a bittersweet tale about six troubled teenagers who, after witnessing the culling of a herd of buffalo in a “canned hunt,” strike out on their own to try and save the next day’s cull?

Reveal Character

How characters maneuver through or manipulate a setting can tell you a lot about them. The Darth Vader figurine on your banker’s desk makes a statement, as do the Tiger Beat posters on the bedroom walls of a 70s-era teen.

Nancy Sartor’s debut suspense novel, Bones Along the Hill, opens in Neva Oakley’s family mortuary, where she’s reconstructing the face of a murdered infant. The funeral home provides a unique backdrop in which we get to know and understand Neva, and as she recreates the face of the child, we see her talent, her compassion, and her determination.

In A Cup Full of Midnight, my detective, Jared McKean, follows a woman down a hallway and into an immaculate living room. The hall is lined with photos of her dead children, and on the living room wall is a hand-sewn heirloom bonnet and christening gown in a frame. The setting shows the ongoing grief and loss that motivate the character.

Drive Plot

Setting can also influence the direction of your novel. A story set in a Minnesota snowstorm forces the characters to deal with the risk of frostbite and exposure, the hazards of driving in deep snow and ice, and the threat of losing forensic evidence to the weather. Trying to track a killer? Better find him before the snow covers his tracks.

Imagine an altercation occurring in a commercial garage versus a pool hall versus a bridal shop. What weapons are near to hand? What kind of cover is available? A fight scene set in one of these three places would be very different from one set in either of the other two.

Rob Pobi uses a hurricane to raise the stakes and heighten suspense in his novel Bloodman. As the action of the story rises, so does the violence of the storm. The hurricane works on a thematic level, but it also drives the narrative, as characters react to the growing danger of the storm.

Macro & Micro Settings

There are two main types of settings in your novel—macro-settings and micro-settings. The macro setting is the region, city, state, etc. where the story as a whole takes place. The micro settings are the specific places where individual scenes take place.

A macro-setting might be the Outer Banks, New York City, Chicago, Nashville, or New Orleans. When writing about macro-settings, you need to consider things like climate, terrain, architecture, and culture.

Micro-settings might include an abandoned warehouse, the living room of a suspect, the victim’s basement, the protagonist’s favorite restaurant, or an interrogation room at the local police station. When writing about micro settings, you should take into account things like décor, building structure, objects at hand, and so on. If you’re describing a person’s kitchen, what are the telling details that will reveal both the character perceiving the room and the one who lives there?

Making Setting Work for You

What’s the macro-setting of your novel? When you think of this setting, what comes to mind in terms of climate and temperature, weather patterns, and landscape? If it’s an inhabited area, what is the architecture like? The traffic patterns? The time period? What’s the culture? Is there a festival or other special event going on? Can you think of a way for the macro-setting to influence the plot—a storm, a drought, a hurricane?

Now, think about your micro-settings. Remember your list of clues? The ones your character needs in order to solve the mystery or stop the bomb from exploding? Think about where (s)he might find those clues. Try to set your scenes in a variety of places. A pub can be a great setting for an interview with a potential witness, but a dozen pub interviews dilutes the effectiveness of the pub as a setting.

Does your sleuth interview someone in his or her living room? What details can you use to show the character of the person who lives there?

Try making a list of all the micro-settings in your novel. Free write a description of each. Don’t censor yourself; visualize the setting and write down everything you can think of. Be sure to include other senses as well. (If it’s a real setting, consider going there and writing down everything you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.) Now take a highlighter and go back and read your descriptions. Highlight the most telling details, the ones that encapsulate the place and the person whose space it is.

Are you starting to see scenes in each of these settings? If so, jot down your ideas. We’re going to use them in next month’s lesson.

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

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.

2/5/16 2/5/16

Under the Microscope with Dr. Robert Jacobs: Borderline Personality Disorder

In our October issue, Richard Helms’s "Cradle of Criminality," gave us a look at the inner workings of the criminal mind. For you crime and mystery writers out there, a basic understanding of the criminal psyche is pivotal to crafting believable, authentic characters. But not every criminal, or antagonist, for that matter, possesses those specific markers laid out in Helms’s article.

In keeping with February’s Romantic Suspense theme, we’ve elected to take a look at a common trope among literature and film alike, i.e., the obsessive significant other. In this installment of Under the Microscope, Dr. Robert Jacobs, psychologist, explores the tendencies of someone suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder.

Borderline Personality Disorder and Romantic Relationships
By Dr. Robert Jacobs

Adam met Liz by chance in the aisle of a department store, and the two began a playful banter right away. Her laugh was airy and carefree, and she touched his arm while they talked. Before they parted ways, she said to him, “I know you want to text me, so why don’t you give me your phone and I’ll put my number in.” He placed his phone in her hand. Her candor was thrilling. Liz seemed so open and familiar.

They arranged to meet for a drink the following day. When Adam arrived at the bar, he spotted Liz easily despite the crowd; she was wearing a short, tight dress. She stirred her drink and kissed his cheek as he sat beside her. Her touch felt electric. Her eyes never seemed to leave him. Hardly an hour passed before they were at his apartment, turning off the lights.

The first three weeks of the relationship were invigorating; Adam felt energized and constantly turned on. He’d never had such great sex. Work seemed unimportant, and he often left early to spend time with Liz. He felt unusually protective when she mentioned her ex-boyfriend; thinking the guy sounded vain, even abusive. Fleetingly, Adam marveled at how quickly he and Liz had connected—in moments. The pace was dizzying. She texted a lot, and he noticed that when he didn’t respond immediately, she often asked if everything was okay. Or if he was mad at her. He found himself having to reassure her that he felt fine, and that the relationship was “great.”

“How great?” She would ask flirtatiously.

Something inside Adam began to tighten.

The next time he picked Liz up for a date, she seemed irritated at his being s a few minutes late. Adam noticed several magazines related to his hobbies on the coffee table in her living room, and that she’d stocked the refrigerator with his favorite type of beer. Over dinner, Liz wanted to decide on a vacation destination for the following summer, and had several ideas. When he told her he would need to check his work calendar, and that it was too early to decide, she bristled.

The following week, Adam realized he was woefully behind at work and needed to catch up. When he called Liz to suggest they postpone their date, she screamed and hung up. Startled, he immediately called back and when Liz answered, her voice sounded completely different. Sobbing, she explained that her doctor had phoned earlier to tell her that she had a rare form of cancer. “I’m sorry,” Adam offered. “What can I do?”

“Can you just come over so we can talk? I don’t want to be alone.”

An hour later, Adam arrived, and found Liz to be in a mysteriously positive mood. In fact, she didn’t seem to want to talk about her health at all. She wanted to have sex. The change seemed odd, and when Adam pressed for details, Liz was vague and annoyed. The tightening inside Adam continued. Her cancer diagnosis was never mentioned again.

A week later, Adam decided he decided he needed some space from the relationship, and explained to Liz, in the kindest way he knew, that he wanted to slow their pace and take time for himself. Liz turned over her chair as she stormed away. Five minutes later, Adam’s phone lit up with a text message from her. “I have something I need to talk about, too,” it said. Below was a picture of a positive pregnancy test.

Human behavior is inherently fascinating. Most of us have puzzled over the motivations of our friends and loved-ones, and, at times, been curious about the intent of our own actions. We want to be more effective participants in our relationships, but at times we’re at a loss for how they work. We ask questions like, “Why would (s)he do that?” and often in hindsight wonder, “What was I thinking?”

Certain diagnoses in particular are especially intriguing. Any time the subject of Borderline Personality Disorder comes up, curiosity and questions follow, and it’s easy to understand why. People with this diagnosis have an easy time capturing the attention and igniting the frustrations of people around them; they engage others and act out in ways that are intense and often destructive. They show a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, affective states, and marked impulsivity. The pattern typically begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts (DSM-V, 2015). They are frequent characters in fiction. About seventy-five percent of those diagnosed are female, though research on males with Borderline Personality Disorder continues to come forth.

Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder, or BPD, lack emotional regulation and exhibit strong, sometimes wild, behavioral extremes in their relationships. Many times the goal of this behavior is to elicit the concern of a caretaker, but nowhere is the pattern more acutely observed than in their romantic connections.

In therapy, when patients characterize their exes as “crazy,” what do they mean? What is a romantic relationship like with someone who has BPD? Many people describe them as childlike and manipulative, constantly testing a relationship, often showing wild emotional swings when they sense real or perceived abandonment. Having little emotional regulation, they’re prone to tantrums. It can feel to people around them that “something” is missing, or didn't develop; a critical sense of stability, of being fundamentally okay despite normal relational fluctuations, is distinctly absent. Their impulsive, acting-out behaviors are even more notorious for being self-damaging: recurrent suicidal behavior, self-mutilation, substance abuse, reckless driving, overspending, promiscuity, and intense and inappropriate anger are common.

What Borderline patients excel at is eliciting an emotional response. The clinical folklore among some therapists is, that if in the first session the therapist wants a romantic, inappropriate connection with the patient, he or she is probably Borderline. If that sounds circular and patronizing, it’s because it probably is. Even if the idea offends some, (I do think that a therapist’s awareness of his or her emotional response to a patient can help diagnosis and guide treatment. For example, our own reactions likely resemble the reactions of others around them, as well.) it does raise an important truth: Borderline patients are skillful at provoking.

Borderline Personality Disorder is fueled by emptiness and insecurity, and the misguided goal of all of this self-destructive and manipulative behavior, after all, is to gain stability and feeling cared for. One cruel paradox of Borderline behavior is that the backing-away response elicited from relationship partners is precisely the reverse of what the person desires: more love, assurance, and intimacy. The conventional thinking among many psychologists is, that when it comes to having a relationship with someone suffering from BPD, the best strategy is avoidance altogether. Or, as one friend suggested, “Run, don’t walk.” And most of the time, this self-protective drive comes from a very understandable source: frustration and fear. We sense right away that we want no part of the toxic behavior at hand, or worse, worry that we’ll reinforce it, making it more likely to recur.

Theatricality may distract us in other ways as well. It’s tempting to marvel at the foreignness of Borderline behavior, and in doing so, we may be miss the universality of the particular feelings themselves. The strength of the particular emotions at play—abandonment, sadness, emptiness—may be alien, but the feelings themselves are likely quite familiar. Truth be told, people with a Borderline Personality Disorder may fascinate us because we see ourselves in them. Fundamentally, all personality disorder diagnoses describe characteristics and ways of being that are simply extreme versions of common traits and urges. I’ve never heard someone say, for example, “I just love feeling abandoned,” or “I never wonder where I stand with people I care about. I never need assurance.” Tragically, the disproportionate reactivity of the Borderline patient obscures the underlying ubiquity of their emotional experience.

Given all the difficulties that exist in these types of relationships, why would anyone start a relationship with someone with a Borderline diagnosis? Contrary to my friend’s advice, not everyone runs, or even walks away. It’s important to note that while there may be intense and disruptive behavior, Borderline patients often have qualities that produce a rewarding romantic partnership much of the time.

Often warm and kind, they may also be described as fun, exciting, and passionate. Here, people often speak of the disorder in terms of its deficit, like any other organic or medical concern. Even in troubled moments, they will report seeing a flicker of deep recognition and awareness in their partner’s eyes, enough to know that the person they know and love is still there covered beneath their insecurities. I understand the notion of duality. I too have been taken aback and puzzled over the recklessness and irrationality (and astonishing immaturity) I’ve seen among otherwise very high-functioning people. Borderline patients don’t seem to have figured out how to keep their feelings, particularly their anger, in check. This juxtaposition between high and low-functioning can be shocking at times. We may ask ourselves how it’s possible that this composed, professional person, mother, from whom I received a Rockwellian Christmas card the year before, is acting the way she is.

Some are drawn to these patients because they have intense emotions and strong desires for intimacy—and because they themselves have precisely the same emotions and desires. This is often more challenging to recognize and contend with, because, again, the behavior of the Borderline patient positions them in such an obvious position of scrutiny and vulnerability. As it plays out, Borderline patients aren’t often offered much empathy. Many times, they describe feelings of being used, and often do allow themselves to be used by their partners, because of their neediness. Many times, their friends and family admit that if the patient’s acutely descriptive behavior stopped long enough that they could feel safe, they would run for the hills. Not much of an incentive to stop, even as BPD patients recognize they have worn out their supports.

In writing characters with similar diagnoses, it is often too easy to dehumanize the subject and make him or her out to be villainous and completely alien from the rest of us. But in order to craft authentic, believable characters—regardless of his or her psychological well-being— it’s important to understand that character’s psychology, and that it isn’t much different from our own.

In navigating relationships (and, perhaps, storylines) with Borderline patients, acceptance may be our best course. Learning emotional regulation as a couple may be helpful, as may be developing an understanding of common triggers and de-personalizing reactivity. Context helps understanding, and it’s important to bear in mind their (and our) story leading up to the beginning of the relationship. For the relationship to be successful, we have to accept that our partner really does need more emotional reassurance than most. And we have to look in the mirror to examine our own attraction to that particular person, at that particular moment in our lives.

Robert Jacobs grew up in Fort Myers, Florida. He completed his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University and has been a practicing psychologist in Nashville since 2003. Clinically, he focuses on treating anxiety as well as addressing family and couples’ issues. Outside of work, he enjoys athletics, spending time with family, and working on creative fiction. Learn more about his practice at www.robertjacobspsychologist.com.

2/5/16 2/5/16

Live From Scandinavia: What's Wrong With Scandinavian People?

If you’re like me, when you think of Scandinavia, you envision quiet, picturesque countrysides. Maybe a farmhouse nestled between greenery-covered mountains. Kind, peaceful people who are always happy and eating fancy chocolates. You might be surprised to learn that our friends in the Scandinavian region churn out a large chunk of today’s popular crime literature. What, exactly, makes “Scandi crime” so popular? And why does so much of it come out of this particular region of the world?In this edition’s International Corner, Scandi crime author Anders de la Motte attempts to make sense of Scandinavia’s infatuation with crime lit.

What’s Wrong With Scandinavian People?

By Anders de la Motte

Is it perhaps related to the vast amount of pickled herring the Scandinavians eat at every major holiday? Or has it something to do with the various types of high-quality alcohol we produce and later consume along with the salty little fish? Could it be the influence of our Viking forefathers?

I’ll do my best to answer all those questions, but first, being a Swede, there is a small matter of protocol that I’ve been yearning to correct.

Scandinavia, in its proper meaning, only consists of the countries sharing the Scandian mountain ridge, meaning Sweden and Norway. If we were to include Finland, Denmark and Iceland, the correct name would be the Nordic region, or just the Nordics. Still, the word, “Scandinavia” seems to have stuck with the entire region, and not even the inhabitants know the difference anymore. There, I’ve said it. Now I feel a lot better.

So what is wrong with us Scandinavian (Nordic) people, besides the obvious need to always be right? Why do so many of us write crime fiction and why does the rest of the world never seem to tire of reading it?

Let’s begin with some statistics that may shed some light on the Scandinavians.

Crime fiction is by far the top selling genre in all the Scandinavian countries.
Police procedural is the dominating sub-genre.
The actual crime rate in the Scandinavian countries is very low compared to most other countries, and the combined police forces of the five countries just about exceed that of the NYPD.
The majority of crime-fiction readers are women aged 35+
Gender balance within the writing community is more equal in Scandinavia, but still skews toward female dominance.
The most popular character of Scandi crime is often, but not always, a troubled-yet-gifted cop that solves cases involving a serial killer.
Serial killers are VERY unusual in real-life Scandinavia.
So are troubled-yet-gifted cops who go after them alone.

My personal opinion is that many readers look in books for something they don’t encounter in their daily life. A bit of excitement, and even horror, that you can stop just by closing the book you are reading. And because Scandinavia is one of the most peaceful and safe regions in the world, we can’t seem to get enough of reading about violent crime, especially when the setting is somewhere familiar to us, making the suspense even higher.

This attraction to violence probably goes for most readers of crime fiction, not just Scandinavians. But why does the rest of the world take such a huge interest in Scandinavian crime literature?

What is the magic recipe that makes the genre so successful? Here’s my special brew for creating Scandi crime that will kill (pun intended) with readers the world over:

Start With the Basics

In the spirit of Swedish equality, it all started with a couple, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, who in the late 60’s and 70’s wrote books about the slightly gloomy detective inspector Martin Beck and his colleagues in the homicide division of the Stockholm police. The books broke away from the previously dominating Anglo-Saxon tradition of storytelling by being both quite realistic regarding police procedure, and by including a large social pathos, criticizing the Swedish welfare system that, at the time, was considered the best in the world.

Sjöwall and Wahlöö wrote ten books altogether, the fourth titled The Laughing Policeman, which won the prestigious Edgar Award and propelled the books to international fame. In 1995, Mystery Writers of America rated The Laughing Policeman the second best police procedural ever written.

All the Sjöwall-Wahlöö books have been filmed numerous times; The Laughing Policeman even became a Hollywood movie in 1973, starring Walter Matthau as Martin Beck, with the setting moved to San Francisco. In Sweden, a series of 34 films will be finalized in 2016, which says something about how the popularity of the characters has transitioned to the modern day.

Recently deceased Henning Mankell and his books about detective lieutenant Kurt Wallander revived the concept of combining a procedural police story with social criticism in the 1990s. These books have also been frequent book-to-film adaptations, most notably by the BBC adaptions starring Kenneth Branagh as Kurt Wallander.

In the 2000s, Stieg Larsson took the concept to an entirely new level with his Dragon Tattoo series, featuring Lisbet Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, starting out with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’m sure you have missed neither the books nor the film(s).

The series was so popular that a fourth book was recently released, this time written by David Lagercrantz, as Stieg Larsson sadly and unexpectedly passed away in 2004.

Perhaps you can say that it was Sjöwall-Wahlöö who invented Scandi crime, Henning Mankell who updated and refined it, and Stieg Larsson who made it the worldwide phenomenon that it is today. Every Scandinavian writer is in some way influenced by some—or all—of them.

2. A Drop of Dynamics

As I mentioned earlier, Scandinavia is a relatively unknown part of the world that you hear little or nothing from. The countries are known for their generous welfare systems, and they are all ruled or have been ruled for long periods of time by social-democratic parties, emphasizing a large public sector. The Scandinavian countries have a very high standard of living, low levels of corruption, and crime rates are low (in all international comparisons), and are therefore considered safe and very desirable countries to live in. The population in general has a high level of education and is considered civilized, peaceful, and friendly—although perhaps a bit reclusive. If you combine all these factors with dramatic events like murders, power games, and acts of violence, you get an interesting and suspenseful dynamic that works well in crime stories.

3. Lots of Location

The Scandinavian (Nordic. Sorry, last time) countries are located way up in the Northern hemisphere, meaning we have short, beautiful summers where the light never seems to end (some really northern parts even have midnight sun), and long, dark—and sometimes very snowy—winters (where the same northern parts have no daylight at all). Scandinavian nature includes vast forests, deep fjords, high fjells (mountains), tens of thousands of lakes, and beautiful archipelagos—many of these features not far from the major cities. These are all fantastic locations for any kind of story, but especially those with the most counter-dynamic.

4. A Hint of History

The Scandinavian region has lots of exciting history, dating all the way back to 10th century Vikings. Even though we are now very peaceful, the Swedish king Gustaf II Adolf revolutionized 17th century warfare and waged war against half of Europe before being killed in battle. The weapons industry he founded is still world-leading, even though Sweden has not been at war in 200 years.

Before becoming friendly neighbors, Sweden and Denmark were archenemies for half a millennium. Finland, which was a part of Sweden for 700 years, was conquered by Russia in 1809 before declaring independence in 1917, and then suffered through a very bloody civil war. Denmark and Norway were both occupied by Germany during WWII; Sweden declared neutrality and became a playground for spies and smugglers, and Finland had it’s own war against the Soviet Union.

During the Cold War years, both Sweden and Finland were situated right between NATO and the Warsaw-pact, and the Baltic Sea was a zone of constant confrontations.

All of these factors create a very compelling backdrop for any story, not just crime.

5. Serve It In Style

Scandinavians (in general) are efficient, engineering people; some say a more polite version of the Germans. Our trains (mostly) run on time, our roads are good, our cities well-organized, and our tradition of gathering statistics about almost everything dates back hundreds of years. A reader once suggested to me that perhaps this almost manic focus on efficiency and process optimizing also has effect on our language and storytelling.

Perhaps he was right—at least when it comes to crime fiction. Many of our stories are fairly short and to the point, with very little room for excess. In fact, the Sjöwall-Wahlöö novels were only around 150-200 pages long, and most of us Scandinavian writers (except Stieg Larsson) still finish well before the 400-page mark.

Quite a few writers in the region have had other jobs somewhat related to our stories, too. Sjöwall-Wahlöö, Liza Marklund, and Stieg Larsson were journalists. I used to be a policeman; Jo Nesbo was and still is a Norwegian rock star (Ok, bad example.). My point is that many of the Scandi crime stories are stylistically enticing, as they’re written efficiently, in a realistic way (perhaps due to previous job skills).

6. Enjoy In Good Company

I’m sure you’ve heard that success breed success. I’m not sure that is true, but what I do know is that the friendly competition between the Scandinavian writers definitely has something to do with the success of Scandi crime. You have to constantly improve if you are to belong to the top-tier. Every time a Scandinavian writer is successful it increases the interest for Scandi crime as a genre, something that benefits us all. Right now it is Jo Nesbo in the lead, and next year it might be me, but we all help each other sometimes, even practically with blurbs, recommendations or advice. This is one of my favorite things about the book industry.

So that’s it! Now you know everything there is to know about Scandinavian crime literature, what’s wrong with us Scandinavians, and why we (nor the world) never seem to tire of our crime lit. All that is left now is to try (another?) one of our books and see if you agree that the recipe is pretty good for a fantastic read.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading them as much as we enjoy writing them.

Anders de la Motte is the author of Game, Buzz, and Bubble. He has worked as a police officer and the director of security at one of the world’s largest IT companies. He now works as an international security consultant in addition to being Sweden’s most exciting and innovative new thriller writer.

2/5/16 2/5/16

State of the Industry: Contract Decoding, Part Two

In this second of three installments, Milt Toby explores perhaps the most popular of subjects: getting paid for your work.

As an accomplished author and attorney, Toby is better equipped than most to be your guide into the publishing world. In our January edition, Toby gave us a glimpse at contract decoding and how to determine where your rights end and the publisher’s begin.

So put the cushions back on the couch, leave the kids’ piggybank alone, and hold off on calling that bookie—at least until you’ve heard what Toby has to say. In this installment, he will show you how to understand your contractual payment rights. We’re not guaranteeing you profit (that’s between you, the publisher, and your audience), but we are guaranteeing that no kneecaps are assaulted due to a failure in communication.

Contract Decoding (Part 2 of 3)
By Milt Toby

As mentioned in the first installment of “Contract Decoding”, a publishing contract can often be riddled with mind-numbing legal jargon. The author must understand, among other things, the rights being sold and warranties/indemnifications present within the contract—difficult channels to navigate, at best.

The publishing contract also establishes how, and how much, the author will be paid.

Common payment schemes include:

Flat fee;
Advance with royalties deferred;
No advance, with royalties starting with the first sale.

A flat fee is just what the name suggests. The publisher pays the author an agreed upon amount, usually divided into two or more installments triggered by specific events such as signing the contract, delivering the manuscript, and final approval by the editor. A flat-fee payment before any book sales might sound a lot like an advance—both are upfront money—but there is an important difference between the two that authors should understand.

After the flat fee is paid, the publisher has no ongoing financial obligation to the author in the form of royalties from book sales. An advantage to a flat fee contract is guaranteed income for an author early in the publishing process; a disadvantage is that the author has no financial interest in how well the book sells. Over the long term, especially if the book turns out to be a popular one, an author might earn more from royalties than from a flat fee.

An advance against royalties, especially a large one, is the Holy Grail for authors—money when the contract is signed, plus royalties based on sales. Only a small percentage of publishers offer advances these days, however, and authors lucky enough to land one need to understand how the numbers work.

Unlike a flat fee, which is not dependent on sales, an advance is money paid to an author by the publisher in anticipation of future book sales. A typical structure for advance payments is one-third of the total amount when the contract is signed, one-third when the manuscript is delivered by the author, and one-third when the final version of the manuscript is approved by the publisher. For authors of fiction, who generally sell their books based on a completed manuscript rather than on a proposal, the first two installments in the example above could occur at the same time.

One aspect of an advance that sometimes confuses authors is the notion that an advance is free money. In fact, royalty payments to the author will not begin until the book has “earned out.” This is a term of art which means that the publisher recoups the advance already paid by keeping all royalties until the full amount of the advance is recovered. Only then, and only if the books earns out, will royalty payments to the author begin.

The majority of books do not earn back their advances, however, unless the author is among the Stephen Kings and Dan Browns of the publishing world. For that reason, it is prudent for many authors to consider the advance the only money they will earn from their books.

The third payment scheme, and the most common one for fiction authors, is a publishing deal without any advance. The downside is obvious, no money up front. On the other hand, the author earns royalties starting with the first book sale since there is no advance for the publisher to recover. Given a choice, most authors probably would opt for an advance. Realistically, though, a choice between an advance against royalties or no advance will not be an option in most situations.

Running the Numbers

Royalty payments will be listed as percentages in a publishing contract. A typical (and imaginary) royalty schedule for a hardcover novel might look something like this:

10% of cover price/net price/net proceeds for first 5,000 copies sold

12.5% of cover/price/net price/net proceeds for next 5,000 copies sold

15% of cover price/net price/net proceeds for subsequent copies sold

For this to make sense, some definitions are in order:

Cover price: Self-explanatory, the price listed on the cover of the book (and the price most readers never actually pay)
Net price/net proceeds: The cover price of the book, minus the discount given by the publisher to book retailers. This method recognizes that book publishers typically are wholesalers of their books. A publisher’s net price/proceeds should not include any deductions for overhead expenses.

The distinction between cover price and net price is important. The terms should be defined and the contract should be clear about which number is being used as the basis for the royalty calculations. The difference between royalties based on cover price and those based on net price can be substantial.

For example, an author’s 10-per-cent royalty for a book based on a cover price of $25.00 is $2.50 for each copy sold.

If, on the other hand, the same 10-per-cent royalty is based on net price (the cover price of $25.00 minus the publisher’s discount given to book retailers, usually between 40 per cent and 50 per cent), the author’s royalty drops by as much as one-half, to around $1.25. A basic understanding of the mechanics of royalty payments helps an author avoid an unpleasant surprise when the first royalty check arrives.

A word about ebooks is appropriate here, because there is substantial disagreement about how to calculate the appropriate royalty rate for those paperless editions. Authors argue that the royalty rate for an ebook should be higher than for a print book because the publisher has very little overhead compared to printing, storing, and shipping print versions of the same book. The Authors Guild is pushing for at least a 50%-50% split on ebook royalties, characterizing the author-publisher relationship as a joint venture, but publishers are resisting. This is an example of how the competing interests of authors and publishers come into play in a publishing contract.

Finally, authors should consider how often the publisher is going to write a royalty check. It might take longer to get a check than expected. Many publishers calculate royalty payouts every six months, on December 31 and June 30, for example. The accounting period sometimes is unreasonably long, however, with publishers asking for accounting on an annual basis. Six-month accounting does not mean that the publisher cuts a check at the end of each accounting period, however. Contracts generally allow publishers an additional period of time—30 days at a minimum, sometimes longer—before they have to actually pay royalties to authors. Lengthy accounting periods, along with additional time to actually pay authors the royalties due, amount to interest-free loans from authors to publishers.

Lessons Learned

Authors should try and negotiate as short an accounting period as possible.

Publishers also frequently hold back a portion of the royalties earned by authors, called a “reserve,” to account for returns of books from retailers. The rationale is that a publisher might pay royalties on sales to retailers on books that later are returned for refunds. Authors should try and negotiate either no reserve or a reasonable limit on the length of time reserve funds can be held.

Publishers usually give authors a few free copies of the book (always ask for more free copies!) and the opportunity to buy additional copies of the book at a reduced price. Although authors generally do not earn royalties on these discounted purchases, authors can generate profitable full-price resales at signings, book fairs, and other events, unless the contract seeks to prohibit such retail sales by the author. Resale restrictions do not show up in publishing contracts often, and publishers often delete them if asked, but authors should look for these clauses if they plan to resell books themselves.

In our next edition, Toby will guide you through understanding “warranties and indemnifications”—what they are, and what rights you have regarding them

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.

2/5/16 2/5/16

State of the Industry: Contract Decoding, Part Two

In this second of three installments, Milt Toby explores perhaps the most popular of subjects: getting paid for your work.

Contract Decoding (Part 2 of 3)
By Milt Toby

The publishing contract also establishes how, and how much, the author will be paid.

Common payment schemes include:

Flat fee;
Advance with royalties deferred;
No advance, with royalties starting with the first sale.

Running the Numbers

Royalty payments will be listed as percentages in a publishing contract. A typical (and imaginary) royalty schedule for a hardcover novel might look something like this:

10% of cover price/net price/net proceeds for first 5,000 copies sold

12.5% of cover/price/net price/net proceeds for next 5,000 copies sold

15% of cover price/net price/net proceeds for subsequent copies sold

For this to make sense, some definitions are in order:

Cover price: Self-explanatory, the price listed on the cover of the book (and the price most readers never actually pay)
Net price/net proceeds: The cover price of the book, minus the discount given by the publisher to book retailers. This method recognizes that book publishers typically are wholesalers of their books. A publisher’s net price/proceeds should not include any deductions for overhead expenses.

For example, an author’s 10-per-cent royalty for a book based on a cover price of $25.00 is $2.50 for each copy sold.

Lessons Learned

Authors should try and negotiate as short an accounting period as possible.

In our next edition, Toby will guide you through understanding “warranties and indemnifications”—what they are, and what rights you have regarding them

2/5/16 2/5/16

Marketing Your Book 101: How Long Should a Post Be? Three Tips for Writing Your Author Blog

Blogging has become essential to the marketing machine. You Tweet and Facebook about yourself, but now it’s a “must” to share your knowledge, and ultimately your writing skills through blogs. Marketing expert Erik Deckers answers that burning question about blog length. When is enough enough?

How Long Should a Post Be? Three Tips for Writing Your Author Blog
By Erik Deckers

Someone once asked Abraham Lincoln how long a man's legs should be. "Long enough to reach the ground," he said.

I think of Abe's advice whenever someone asks me how long a blog post should be.

"Long enough to get to the end," I say. And then I have to explain the whole story, which ruins the effect.

Basically, there's no magic rule of how long a blog post should be. You need enough time and space to say what you need to say, and that's it. Don't say too much, but don't give short shrift to your ideas either.

Reading Is Different Today

People read differently today than they did 50, 20, or even five years ago. Readers skim and scroll to see what catches their attention. No longer can we write long, Faulknerian paragraphs that stretch on for pages, joined by semicolons and em dashes. In fact, this paragraph is making me uncomfortable, and I really want to hit the return key to make it—

GAAH! I couldn't take that much longer. You probably couldn't either.

Basically, we have become an impatient society. People read on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. We're not a nation of readers, but a nation of skimmers. That affects how we write and engage our readers.

Here are three tips for writing the ideal blog posts to keep your readers coming back.

Use plenty of white space

Blogging is as much a visual medium as a written one. Imagine a book printed in a sans serif font, very little space between lines, and blocks of text that fill up an entire page. You'd probably quit after five pages.

White space (also called negative space because there's nothing in it) is important in making a post or magazine article appear readable. It's more pleasing to the eye, because it looks easier to digest.

I use short paragraphs partly because my fourth grade teacher said they had to be four or five sentences long, and I never do what I'm told.

But I do it mostly because when people skim-read, they think, "I'll just read a little bit. Oh, that next paragraph is short, I'll read that one. Oh, and that one. All right, this one too. And the next one."

If I've done a good job with my white space, people will jump from paragraph to paragraph, thinking they'll only read "a little more" until they reach the end.

And now here you are at tip number 2. See how that works?

2. There's no "magic number."

I can give you several good reasons why your posts should be less than 300 words, around 700 words, or why 1,000 words is perfectly fine.

For example, 300-word-writers will tell you a smartphone screen will hold 100 words. People who research this kind of thing know that readers have the patience to swipe two more times to read an article. That's—tap (100), swipe (200), swipe (300)—and they're done.

At the same time, long-form writers point to the growth of sites like Grantland.com and LongReads.com to say 1,000 word articles are perfectly fine, as long as the work is interesting.

Basically, whatever anyone tells you is the "best" length, just remember there's always a reason to pick another length. So just pick the length that suits you and your readers.

3. Identify "The Crease"

At the same time, you can have an article that's too long. If you've reached 1,500 words in one article, that may be too much, and you can break it up into smaller posts.

That's because when people tend to write about a big topic, they start combining two or three smaller points into one big point.

When that happens, look for the crease, that spot where you thought, "And another thing!" and kept writing. That "And another thing!" should instead be another blog post. Cut and paste everything from that point on, and save it somewhere else. Focus on what's left.

For example, I could have written this article as three separate articles—the importance of white space, word count, and the crease—and covered each of them in about 300 – 500 words. The crease happens between each point.

In fact, breaking up big posts is another blogging strategy. Rather than writing one big post about a subject, divide it up into several smaller ones. You can publish more posts more often, which boosts your personal brand by boosting your blog readership.

Did you see it? Did you see what happened back there? That previous paragraph was an added thought, but if I had kept going, I could have added another 300 words to this post.

That "In fact" was the crease. If this article really did run to 1,000 words, I could have cut that out and used it somewhere else. It was important to the central point of publishing, but it wasn't so important that I had to share it today.

Blogging is one of those specifically ambiguous art forms where you only have to write enough to make you happy. Just put your ideas out there, explain them thoroughly, but succinctly, and your posts will be exactly as long as they need to be. Just like Abe's legs.

His hat is a different matter.

Erik Deckers owns a content marketing agency in Indianapolis, and is the co-author of four books on social media. He is also a professional speaker and newspaper humor columnist, and was named a 2016 writer-in-residence at the Kerouac House Project.

2/5/16 2/5/16

Self-Publishing: The Perfect Title

I used to have a professor who would often ask, “So, what are you writing right now?”

The first few times he asked, I gave him a synopsis of whatever plot I’d been kicking around, major character traits, etc. Inevitably, my professor would stop me and say, “Yeah, but what’s your title?”

His lesson was simple: if you aren’t committed enough to a piece to sit down and think of a good, working title, then why should anyone else care about what you’re writing?

Granted, that’s a bit harsh, but his philosophy helped me to understand that titles are paramount to shaping readers’ perception of your work, and the creation of titles is not to be taken any more lightly than any other component of the writing process.

Often, though, finding the right title for your work seems impossible. Nothing fits; nothing inspires. In this month’s column, author and self-publishing wiz Tom Wood offers insight into how to find the perfect title for your work.

Finding the Perfect Title
By Tom Wood

"Vendetta Stone: The Force Awakens."

“Whaddya think?” the marketing genius said. “It’s got a nice ring, huh?”

A thoughtful pause.

“You’ve had some wild ideas that worked before, but I don’t know about this one,” the treasurer/vice-president retorted. “What do you think, boss?”

An instant response from the chief executive of Me, Myself and I Self-Publishing, LLC: “Next! One more like that and you guys are fired!”

Sigh.

As great as it would be to capitalize on the success of the latest movie in the Star Wars franchise, it probably wouldn’t be the best title for the sequel to my self-published debut novel. So, I’ll pass on this one. Go in a different direction. Try something else, perhaps a little more in tune with what the book is actually about.

A silly conversation, at best, but it illustrates the decisions you have to make about perhaps the most important aspect of your self-published novel: The Perfect Title.

Look at it this way: You’ve spent countless hours writing and rewriting your novel, then run it past an editor, your critique group, your beta readers—or maybe just the relatives—and you’re going to spend just a few minutes, perhaps several hours (or maybe even a couple of days) coming up with the first words a potential reader sees about your book? Traditional publishing houses hold scheduled meetings to consider different titles for books.

There are a number of facets to consider in boiling the guts of your book down to one catchy turn of a phrase when trying to connect with potential readers.

But you have to think of it as a smart business decision, one that intrigues/hooks a reader before they’ve read the back cover or the first paragraph of the first chapter. The title may or may not tie in to the cover art, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Inspiration for The Perfect Title can come from anywhere.

It might be a line from your book. Or it could come from “The Good Book.” Some of the great book titles inspired by phrases from the Bible include Chariots of Fire, East of Eden, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Sun Also Rises, and Vengeance Is Mine.

Titles inspired by our literary predecessors are also not uncommon. Lines from some of William Shakespeare’s greatest works have wound up in book titles, including Something Wicked This Way Comes, Brave New World, and The Fault in our Stars.

Inspiration might be found in a sense of whimsy, a twist of a popular phrase, some other form of media, or an off-hand comment from a family member or friend. It might take weeks, months, and perhaps even years, to decide on the right title for your book. Then after you’ve settled on one, something else comes to mind and you go in an entirely new direction.

And sometimes we’re just in the right place at the right time for that spark of imagination that will lead to a great title.

For me, inspiration was a combination of all these. And it came from one of the last things I wrote.

Vendetta Stone tells the story of Nashville advertising executive Jackson Stone and his quest to find his wife’s killer.

After months of kicking around ideas, and not being happy with any of them, at my wife’s suggestion I decided to spend an afternoon downstairs boiling the book down to its basics to come up with ideas for the title. I had the television on, but wasn’t really watching.

Ten minutes into what I expected to be a day-long process, I decided to focus on these angles:

Jackson Stone. I wanted the main character’s name somewhere, somehow in the title. Stone provided more opportunities and gave it a little more grit. Stone’s _____ or _____ Stone. OK. That’s settled.
Play up the revenge element. I started thinking about synonyms for revenge and pairing them with Stone. Avenge, vengeance, retaliation, payback and retribution all came to mind. I said combinations out loud, seeing if that had that certain ring to them. Stone’s Vengeance? Nah. Payback for Stone? Nope.

At almost the exact moment I said “Vendetta Stone,” a commercial for Rosetta Stone, the language-learning software, came on the television …

Ding, ding, ding.

Excited, I quickly Googled for Rosetta Stone and found this definition at dictionary.com: “A clue, breakthrough or discovery that provides crucial knowledge for the solving of a puzzle or problem.”

Light bulbs exploded in my brain.

I knew I had found The Perfect Title.

But these moments of inspiration aren’t always so easy to come by. More often than not, finding The Perfect Title requires long hours and several bad ideas before you land on a good one. Test out different methods and figure out what works best for you. There’s no wrong way to go about finding your own perfect title.

A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, Filtered Through Time and conducting an interview with Stephen King for Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. In the last year, Tom has begun writing Western fiction short stories, two of which have been published by Western Trail Blazer. “Tennesseans West” is his next project with four other authors involved. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series “Nashville”. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. Vendetta Stone is his first novel and he is working on the sequel.

2/5/16 2/5/16

From the Classroom: Writing a Thrilling Short Story

In the past few decades, we’ve seen a surge in popularity of the short story format. This rising popularity can be attributed to many factors—our increasingly fast-paced lifestyles, the form’s place as a staple in college curricula, increased accessibility to short works by emerging/established authors through blogs, Amazon’s “Kindle Singles,” and a near-limitless amount of other online sources—but what are the advantages and challenges of the short story format? How can the traditional novelist try his/her hand at short story writing and find success?

In this installment of “From the Classroom,” author and teacher, Kimberly Dana, demystifies the short story so you, too, can learn to write a compelling short fiction piece.

How to Write a Thrilling Short Story
By Kimberly Dana

The Benefits of Short Story Writing

Just about everyone I know wants to be a novelist. But let’s be honest. Writing a book is a long and tedious process that can take years to finish. To that end, almost every wannabe novelist I know never even comes close to finishing that elusive manuscript. Even writing that first chapter can be a daunting task!

But writing a short story is an attainable endeavor with many benefits to the aspiring writer. At 1,000 – 4,000 words, there is power in the short story. It’s lean and mean, and can be read in one sitting. The short story allows the writer the opportunity to explore the uncharted territory of a plot, character, and/or setting and make it pop. In addition, one can experiment with other genres, develop their style, and use their short story to expand their platform as a marketing tool.

But most importantly, crafting a short story teaches the writer a vital skill: word economy. To paraphrase my idol Stephen King, writing is “refined thinking.” Nothing could be truer than when writing a short story, where the prose must be clean, compact, and concise. If you are prone to a producing a bloated manuscript, trim the fat and turn it into a short story. It’s quicker to write and if you’re lucky, quicker to sell.

SWBS — Somebody Wanted But So…

Okay, so the benefits of writing a short story are clear, but the question still plagues most spinners of words: how do I write a compelling story in a condensed timeframe, i.e. one sitting? One word—conflict! Conflict creates the need for story in the first place. It is what adds tension and moves the story forward. Without conflict, there is no story!

You need proof? Think back in school when you first learned about story structure through Freytag’s Triangle. Do you recall what’s on top? Climax! It is the decision-making, sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat moment of the conflict-ridden protagonist that determines the story’s outcome.

When I teach my middle school students about conflict, we use the following SWBS Statement:

Somebody ___________________________ Wanted ___________________________ But_______________________ So __________________________________.

(It is the “but” that is the heart of the conflict in the story).

Let’s look at a few examples of conflict in three classic short stories: “The Necklace,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” and “The Lottery,” paying particular attention to the “but” element. Note: MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS!

“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant

SomebodyMadame Loiselwantedto appear rich at a partyBUTlost the fake necklace she borrowedsoshe spent years paying it off.

“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs

SomebodyThe White familywantedto wish for money on a cursed monkey’s pawBUTtheir son Herbert got killedsothey unwisely wished him back to life.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

Somebody The Hutchinsonswantedto uphold the town’s traditionsBUTTessie won the lotterysoshe’s stoned to death.

The Thrilling Threesome

Okay, conflict rules. But how do I actually get started?

It’s literally as easy as 1-2-3. Think of a thrilling threesome story prompt consisting of 1) character, 2) setting, and 3) a compelling conflict.

Here are ten short story prompts just begging to be penned into a story:

Ten Thrilling Threesome Short Story Prompts

A C.E.O. (character) gives a keynote address at a convention (setting) when overtaken by a panic attack (conflict).
A passenger (character) discovers an unattended carryon (conflict) when flying over the ocean (setting).
A book club hostess (character) receives a threatening anonymous note (conflict) at her own home (setting).
A disgruntled claustrophobe (character) finds himself locked in an elevator (conflict) at work overnight (setting).
A weary taxi driver (character) picks up a sinister stranger contemplating suicide (conflict) who wants to drive around town first (setting).
A couple (character) celebrates their anniversary at a cozy restaurant (setting) when a mysterious bouquet of flowers is brought to the table (conflict).
A daughter (character) cleans out her parents’ attic (setting) and discovers an urn of ashes (conflict).
A valedictorian (character) gets arrested for shoplifting (conflict) right before graduation (setting).
An unappreciated secretary (character) calls in sick and goes shopping (setting) where she runs into her boss’s wife with another man (conflict).
A first-day-on-the-job nanny (character) takes the children to the park (setting) where she loses the master key only to have a burglar find it (conflict).

Need Suspense? Implement G.E.M.

Okay, now that you have a thrilling story starter, throw in a little suspense, which of course is the secret sauce to story telling. It’s easy with G.E.M.—an acronym I created to frontload my students when teaching the craft of suspense writing. G.E.M. stands for Gothicism, Expansion of Time, and Magic of Three.

GOTHICISM: All suspense stories can benefit from an element of the gothic genre, such as the supernatural; an eerie, mysterious setting; emotion over passion; or distinctive characters who are lonely, isolated, and/or oppressed. Throw in a tyrannical villain, a vendetta, or an illicit love affair - you've got Goth gold! Why Gothicism? It explores the tragic themes of life and the darker side of human nature. What’s more, readers are innately attracted to it. No one wants to read about someone’s perfectly wonderful life. It’s boring. Remember—conflict rules!

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

MAGIC OF THREE: Finally, the Magic of Three comes into play. The Magic of Three is a writer's trick where a series of three hints lead to a major discovery. During the first hint, the protagonist detects something is amiss. The second hint sparks a more intense reaction but nothing is discovered—not yet. And then—BANG! The third hint leads to a discovery or revelation. During the big reveal, I teach my students to use and manipulate red flags and phrases, such as Suddenly, Without warning, In a blink of an eye, Instantly, A moment later, Like a shot, To my shock, and To my horror.

Adding suspense to your short story tantalizes your readers and breeds amazing results. It’s what makes a perfectly adequate story “un-put-downable.” So go ahead, and write a short story that explodes with tension! 1) Start with a thrilling threesome. 2) Punch up the plot with conflict. 3) And, sprinkle it with suspense. Not only will you hone your craft and have your readers begging for more, it could morph into something bigger—like that elusive novel that no longer seems so impossibly unattainable.

Write on!

Kimberly Dana is a multi-award-winning young adult and children's author. She is the recipient of several writing honors from Writers Digest, Reader Views, the Pacific Northwest Writes Association, and various international book festivals. Kimberly’s most recent book is her YA killer-thriller, Cheerage Fearage, an award-winning Writers Digest Young Adult novel, Readers Favorite Young Adult Bronze Winner, and Honorable Mention in the 2012 New York Festival of Books. Kimberly invites readers to visit her at kimberlydana.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.

2/5/16 2/5/16

Dying for Dinner: Caroline's Eggplant Parmesan and Florentine Roast Pork

Dying for Dinner

Looking to serve your beloved a delicious meal this Valentine's Day? Look no further—Killer Nashville is here with tried and trued recipes that'll leave your mouth watering.

Because what's more romantic and intriguing than a recipe procured from a mystery/suspense magazine?

Caroline’s Eggplant Parmesan

By Caroline Davidson

As a new year rings in, the cold weather lingers, and Valentine’s day is right around the corner, there is something romantic about this time of year. It’s a time to reflect on what we want to accomplish over the next 12 months and time to maybe start a new hobby, or spend more time on one we already have! For me, cooking is my hobby and I always wish I could spend more time in my kitchen experimenting and trying new dishes. Maybe if you fear the kitchen and find it stressful, this year you can step outside of your comfort zone and impress your significant other with a warm, romantic dish on a chilly evening. I am sharing with you one of my personal favorite recipes, one that has taken me years to perfect after reading through recipe after recipe from both celebrity chefs and home-cooks. Pour a glass of red wine and dive into this comforting (& vegetarian) romantic dish…

Disclaimer: I’m a cook who doesn’t really measure anything…a dash of this, a spoonful of that…eyeball it and trust your tastebuds!

Serving Size: 4
Cooking Time: 1 hr and 30 min

Ingredients:
2 Eggplants

Salt & Pepper

Italian Seasoning

2 to 3 cups Panko Breadcrumbs

2 large eggs

3/4 to 1 cup Flour

3-4 cups Marinara sauce (homemade or store bought)

1 large ball of fresh Mozzarella cheese (cut into 1 inch slices…or you can use shredded if that’s more convenient!)

12 fresh leaves of Basil

Angel hair pasta

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Vegetable Oil

Instructions:

Slice the eggplant in 1 inch slices. You’d like to have 6 slices from each eggplant…creating stacks of 3 eggplant slices for 4 servings.
The key to a delicious eggplant parmesan is taking the bitter flavor that can sometimes be tasted when roasting eggplant. I have your answer! After slicing your eggplant, line them up on a baking sheet and sprinkle both sides of each slice with salt and let sit for 20-25 minutes. Why? This actuallypulls out juices that carry bitter flavors and it collapses the air pockets in the eggplant's sponge-like flesh, preveniting it from absorbing too much oil and getting greasy.
While your eggplant is soaking it’s “salt bath” prepare your marinara sauce…this can be homemade or from your favorite store brand. Although, I will admit homemade marinara is SO easy that once you learn to make a big batch of it at home you’ll never go back to buying it at the store! You can also freeze whatever you don’t use in ice cube trays and save in the freezer for months….pull out a few cubes when you want to whip up an easy spaghetti dish or a homemade pizza!
Preheat over to 425 degrees
Now you can set up your frying station. Here is how I organize my ingredients:
1. On 1 large plate—spread about 3/4 a cup of white flour
2. In 1 medium size bowl—crack the 2 eggs and add a tablespoon of water…add salt and pepper and beat until yolks are broken down
3. On 1 large plate—spread at least 1-2 cups of panko breadcrumbs and sprinkle a generous amount of italian seasoning into the panic.
Once the eggplant are finished soaking, rinse them off and pat dry
Heat about a 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in your frying pan until simmering. Note: you can drop a piece of panko into the pan—if it starts frying, you are good to go!
For each eggplant slice, follow these steps:
1. Pat both sides of eggplant slice in the flour
2. Dredge the eggplant slice in the egg wash
3. Dip both sides of the eggplant slice in the Panko Breadcrumb mixture (after about 4-5 slices, you may need to add some more panko to the plate so that the additional slices are coated well also)
4. Place in frying pan and fry at least 3-4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown
5. Place all slices on a paper towel after they are fried and golden brown!
After all your eggplant slices have been fried, you are ready to assemble & pop in the oven!
In a casserole dish, cover the bottom with a layer of your marinara sauce
For each eggplant stack, follow these steps:
1. place 1 eggplant slice on top of the marinara layer in the casserole dish
2. top with a slice of mozzarella, 1 basil leaf, and a spoonful of marinara sauce
3. place the second eggplant slice on top
4. top with a slice of mozzarella, 1 basil leaf, and a spoonful of marinara sauce
5. place the third, and last, eggplant slice on top
6. top with a slice of mozzarella (no basil leaf here, it will turn brown and ugly in the oven…you will add it at the end for presentation!)
After you have your 4 stacks completed and in the casserole dish, pop in the oven for 25-30 minutes
When your eggplant has about 10 minutes left, cook your angel hair pasta. Be SURE to toss the cooked angel hair with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil…the pop of flavor here is incredible!
Pull your eggplant out of the oven and top each eggplant stack with one large basil leaf
To assemble:
1. On a large plate or in a large pasta bowl…add a layer of angel hair pasta
2. Add a spoonful of marinara sauce on top of the pasta
3. Top with 1 eggplant stack & add a few crack of fresh black pepper and a pinch of salt
4. ENJOY!

Arista alla fiorentina/Florentine Roast Pork

By Alana White

MAKES 6 to 8 SERVINGS
PREP: 10 MIN.; BAKE: 1HR., 15 MIN.
STAND: 15 MIN.
PREHEAT OVEN TO 475 DEGREES THEN REDUCE TO 350 DEGREES

1 (4-lb.) boneless pork roast
4 sprinkles fresh rosemary
4 cloves peeled garlic, thinly sliced
5 whole cloves (the spice)
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
Meat thermometer
Aluminum foiled-lined broiler pan, 4-qt. or 9"x13"

1. With a small knife cut slits in the pork roast. Insert the thinly sliced peeled garlic and the cloves.
2. Rub pork loin with the olive or canola oil
3. Insert meat thermometer in thickest portion of the roast
4. Bake at 475 for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350, and bake 50 to 55 more minutes or until the meat thermometer registers 160. Turn off oven.
5. Sprinkle rosemary over the roast and return to oven. Let stand in the warm oven for 15 minutes or until thermometer reaches 170.
6. Remove from oven, slice and enjoy!

JKS02small

Caroline Davidson graduated with honors from Belmont University with her Bachelors degree in Entrepreneurship. She worked for a start-up company a few months after college and learned the inside world of the distribution business. After this business dissolved, she joined Turner Publishing in Nashville as the marketing director. She organized marketing campaigns for 30-35 books a year and worked directly with Ingram distributors. Caroline joined JKS Communications as a publicist in the fall of 2015.

alana Alana White's debut historical mystery novel, THE SIGN OF THE WEEPING VIRGIN, is set at the height of the Italian Renaissance. The book features powerful (real-life) Florentine lawyer and diplomat Guid'Antonio Vespucci and his nephew and secretary, Amerigo Vespucci, as they investigate a plot involving a painting of the Virgin Mary that has begun weeping in the Vespucci family church, a missing girl, and Pope Sixtus IV's scheme to overthrow the Florentine Republic.

SignOfTheWeepingVirginLGfront-330 Alana's first short fiction featuring the Vespuccis was a Mystery Readers International Macavity Award finalist. Her book reviews appear regularly in the Historical Novel Society "Historical Novels Review." Her lifelong fascination with Renaissance Italy has taken her to Florence for research on the Vespucci and Medici families on many occasions, and she is currently writing her second Guid'Antonio Vespucci mystery.

In addition to fiction set in 15th-century Florence, Alana is the author of a biography of Sacagawea, SACAGAWEA: WESTWARD WITH LEWIS AND CLARK, and of COME NEXT SPRING, a novel set in 1940s Appalachia. She is a member of the Author's Guild, the Historical Novel Society, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Women's National Book Association.

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.

2/5/16 2/5/16

In The Public Eye: The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is becoming an increasingly popular option for many authors. And, in recent years, the industry has seen a flood of self-publishing companies hit the market—CreateSpace and Lightning Source chief among them.

In her latest article, PR expert Julie Schoerke discusses the pros and cons of self-publishing, and how companies like CreateSpace or Lightning Source simultaneously help and hurt writers, readers, and bookstores alike.

The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-Publishing
By Julie Schoerke

You may be, no you are, brilliant with what you’ve chosen to do with your life up to this point. However, nothing prepares you for book publishing and the myriad of ways that you can get screwed.

Because there are so many books being published today—some estimates based on ISBN purchases, put the number at more than 3 million in the United States alone each year. And 2.2 million of those are self or “indie” published books.

There is a whole industry that has emerged to “help” authors publish their books for the first time. But, a number of these are predatory or are not the right fit, and it’s tough for an author to know that unless they’ve been down the publishing path before.

Here’s what you need to do if you’re going to self-publish, while going for the “traditionally published” look of your book:

Hire a professional book editor. Not a journalist, not a former teacher, a book editor. At JKS, we require the book to be edited by a book editor that has either worked for a major publishing house (a lot of them freelance now) or has edited a book that has won a major national award. They know how a book is supposed to be packaged so that the reader has an enjoyable experience. This is developmental editing with copy editing coming at the very end.
Hire an amazing book cover designer. While there are lots of über-talented and creative graphic artists, a book cover is very specific and if you don’t do it correctly, it will look shoddy. Unless you’re coming from a publishing background, you really need to have a pro to create and evaluate the cover. A book is, sadly, judged on its covers oftentimes.
Find a book designer who has laid out interior books for a publishing house in the past. There are all kinds of amateurish mistakes that can be made here that will make your book look unprofessional. Trust me. I shudder when I see these, as I know that, no matter how good the writing is, it’s just not going to get the respect it deserves if it isn’t done well and to industry standards.
Hire a book publicity firm that you feel like you click with, understands what your goals are, and is enthusiastic about your particular book. There are various ways to find out if a book publicity firm is legitimate. Talk to friends. Research them online. Research the mid-list books that they represented 6 to 18 months ago to see if you can find plenty of things online about the book. Talk to the publicity firm and see if the personality fit is comfortable for you. Find out how they are held accountable for what they say they will do for you (there are no guarantees of specific media in book publicity, but reporting and transparency are paramount).

There are many questions about self/indie publishing through CreateSpace (Amazon) vs. Lightning Source or Spark (Ingram). If you are publishing through CreateSpace, and have that name inside of your book, then know that it will be looked upon favorably by Amazon when “optimizing” it’s viewability on the book buying site, but will be a total buzzkill for bookstores who want nothing to do with Amazon and consider the company to be ruthlessly setting out to ruin their business. CreateSpace indicates in it’s promotional materials that your book is available for order by any bookstore—just understand that no bookstore will order your book whether it’s available or not since it’s been produced by their toughest competitor.

If you publishing through an Ingram subsidiary, that is very friendly for bookstores and makes it easy for them to order your book—it’s always “in stock” because Ingram can produce a beautiful print-on-demand copy (they’ve come a long way, baby!) within an hour of the request and it will be mailed the same day. What’s more, if you publish through an Ingram subsidiary, the largest distributor of books in the U.S. is producing your book across all distribution chains. The best feature is that a bookstore can order your book and see it in the Ingram catalog without having to set up a new payment system to get your book. Indie bookstores would like to be able to keep track of all orders in one place and Ingram or Baker & Taylor are the top choices. Your book won’t be highly “optimized” on Amazon, but it’s not penalized either.

Many of our indie authors publish on CreateSpace for Amazon and Ingram Spark for bookstores—it takes two ISBNs, but is well worth it. Anyone who is going to publish a book, an ebook, or audio book, and will potentially write more books in the future, should buy a set of 10 ISBNs (cheaper in a bundle) from Bowker (www.bowker.com), rather than through CreateSpace (again, you will be tagged as an affiliate of Amazon if you use one of their ISBNs, which bookstores can see in their computer systems).

While both CreateSpace and Ingram subsidiaries have their benefits, you’re most likely to experience positive results if you eschew the Amazon self-publishing option. Whichever route you take, one thing remains constant: you will need professional help in order to turn your manuscript into a well-polished, marketable reality—or else risk undermining the book you worked so hard to create.

Happy writing in 2016!

Julie Schoerke founded JKS Communications, a Literary Publicity Firm, 15 years ago, and the firm has gone on to represent more than 600 authors, as well as publishers and literary organizations. Personalizing creative campaigns for each author, having an accountability system in place throughout the authors' campaigns and including former journalists on the publicity team are hallmarks of her vision for the firm. Julie speaks at writers’ conferences, universities, and book festivals across the United States. She also writes book- marketing and book-promotion columns for trade publications and is a featured guest frequently on radio. JKS Communications is headquartered in Nashville, TN with operations in New Orleans and New York as well. For more information please visit www.jkscommunications.com

2/5/16 2/5/16

In The Public Eye: The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-Publishing

The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-Publishing
By Julie Schoerke

You may be, no you are, brilliant with what you’ve chosen to do with your life up to this point. However, nothing prepares you for book publishing and the myriad of ways that you can get screwed.

Here’s what you need to do if you’re going to self-publish, while going for the “traditionally published” look of your book:

Hire a professional book editor. Not a journalist, not a former teacher, a book editor. At JKS, we require the book to be edited by a book editor that has either worked for a major publishing house (a lot of them freelance now) or has edited a book that has won a major national award. They know how a book is supposed to be packaged so that the reader has an enjoyable experience. This is developmental editing with copy editing coming at the very end.
Hire an amazing book cover designer. While there are lots of über-talented and creative graphic artists, a book cover is very specific and if you don’t do it correctly, it will look shoddy. Unless you’re coming from a publishing background, you really need to have a pro to create and evaluate the cover. A book is, sadly, judged on its covers oftentimes.
Find a book designer who has laid out interior books for a publishing house in the past. There are all kinds of amateurish mistakes that can be made here that will make your book look unprofessional. Trust me. I shudder when I see these, as I know that, no matter how good the writing is, it’s just not going to get the respect it deserves if it isn’t done well and to industry standards.
Hire a book publicity firm that you feel like you click with, understands what your goals are, and is enthusiastic about your particular book. There are various ways to find out if a book publicity firm is legitimate. Talk to friends. Research them online. Research the mid-list books that they represented 6 to 18 months ago to see if you can find plenty of things online about the book. Talk to the publicity firm and see if the personality fit is comfortable for you. Find out how they are held accountable for what they say they will do for you (there are no guarantees of specific media in book publicity, but reporting and transparency are paramount).

Happy writing in 2016!

2/3/16 2/3/16

Believability—How Much Can We Stretch Reality and Get Away With It? / Caroline Fardig

Part of the fun of fiction is escaping the constraints of normality. Although readers value consistency and authenticity in the worlds we construct, we have to be careful not to allow these concerns to squelch our creativity. This week’s guest blogger Caroline Fardig offers advice on walking that tightrope, drawn from her experience as an author of both cozy and forensic procedural mysteries.

Happy reading!

Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine

Believability—How Much Can We Stretch Reality and Get Away With It?

By Caroline Fardig

My agent, Ethan Ellenberg, once told me that if you can get the reader sucked into a good story, it’s okay for believability to take a backseat. I agree wholeheartedly, and in my writing I’m always stretching the limits of what “real” people would actually do in a given situation. That said, you can’t exactly introduce a family of sparkly, angsty vampires into your psychological thriller and expect your readers to go along with it. Yes, writing fiction gives us certain liberties, but you still have to play by the rules of your genre.

In any genre, you want to create characters who come to life for your readers. They should have faults as well as redeeming qualities, and you can exaggerate those traits, but only up to a certain point. For example, maybe your main character is a curmudgeonly, hard-nosed cop, never passing a chance to offer up a gruff comment or a fiery retort. You can play that to the hilt. However, he has to have a softer side; otherwise, he won’t seem real (or likeable).

Humans are complex, and characters with layers to their personalities are much more lifelike than one-dimensional caricatures, and thus believable. If your character seems dependable and real, you can stretch the boundaries of what they are able to do, like when the fate of the world hangs in the balance and only one person has the power to save it.

With mysteries, it depends on your specific genre as to how much of a stickler you need to be for accurate investigational procedure and forensics. In cozies, you’re never going to have a decomposing body lying in a pool of bodily waste with blowflies circling it. It’s just not done.

On the flip side, in a more hard-boiled detective novel, you’re not going to find dead Aunt Martha posed peacefully in her favorite chair and still smelling like roses after being dead for a day or two.

Case in point, in my upcoming humorous cozy, Mug Shot, the heroine lands herself in jail for a minor infraction. She’s thrown in the drunk tank, which is co-ed, and hilarity ensues. Do men and women ever get locked up together in the same cell in real life? Not likely. But when I asked my friend Rick Reed (a detective-turned-author and yearly Killer Nashville presenter) if he thought it was too unbelievable, he said I should go for it.

Rick assured me that it wasn’t too terribly far-fetched for a cozy and it sounded like a fun scene. Would I do the same thing in the forensic procedural I’m currently writing? Heck, no!

In fact, I am so intent that my grittier mystery series is believable, I’ve taken two criminology classes at my local college. My forensics professor also works as a firearms and tool mark specialist for the Indiana State Police Crime Lab, so for one of the class sessions, we got to tour the local lab facility and speak with all of the criminologists on staff. Both classes had a lot of guest speakers, so I was able to make connections with law enforcement officials who have been more than willing to answer my questions and explain the ins and outs of crime solving.

Did I go that far in researching for my cozies? Again… heck, no! In preparing to write my cozy Java Jive series (Death Before Decaf and Mug Shot), the most rigorous “research” I did was going on a couple of weekend trips to check out coffeehouses in Nashville.

Don’t scoff too much at that, though. If you’re writing a story based in a real area, you need to actually go to the area and get a feel for the place. I’ve either walked or driven down nearly every street in the Midtown area of Nashville, which is just south of downtown between the campuses of Vanderbilt and Belmont Universities, because I want the setting to be as true-to-life as possible, even if the situations the characters get themselves into are not!

If you’ve followed all the rules and are still worried that something doesn’t quite sound believable, fess up to it! At the end of Joyland, Stephen King admits to making up some of the carny slang he uses throughout the book. He basically said that we readers should get over it, and he very kindly let us know we could save our hate mail, because after all … it’s FICTION!

Caroline Fardig is the author of the Java Jive Mysteries series and the Lizzie Hart Mysteries series. Suspense Magazine recently named Fardig’s Bad Medicine as one of the Best Books of 2015. She worked as a schoolteacher, church organist, insurance agent, funeral parlor associate, and stay-at-home mom before she realized that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Born and raised in a small town in Indiana, Fardig still lives in that same town with an understanding husband, two sweet kids, two energetic dogs, and one malevolent cat. Find Caroline on the web at www.carolinefardig.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.

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.

2/3/16 2/3/16

Believability—How Much Can We Stretch Reality and Get Away With It? / Caroline Fardig

Believability—How Much Can We Stretch Reality and Get Away With It?
By Caroline Fardig

Rick assured me that it wasn’t too terribly far-fetched for a cozy and it sounded like a fun scene. Would I do the same thing in the forensic procedural I’m currently writing? Heck, no!

(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.

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.

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KN Magazine: Articles

The Secret Affair

The Importance of Setting: Macro vs. MicroBy Jaden Terrell

Borderline Personality Disorder and Romantic RelationshipsBy Dr. Robert Jacobs

What’s Wrong With Scandinavian People?

Contract Decoding (Part 2 of 3)By Milt Toby

Contract Decoding (Part 2 of 3)By Milt Toby

How Long Should a Post Be? Three Tips for Writing Your Author BlogBy Erik Deckers

Finding the Perfect TitleBy Tom Wood

How to Write a Thrilling Short StoryBy Kimberly Dana

Dying for Dinner

Arista alla fiorentina/Florentine Roast Pork

The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-PublishingBy Julie Schoerke

The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-PublishingBy Julie Schoerke

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The Importance of Setting: Macro vs. Micro
By Jaden Terrell

Borderline Personality Disorder and Romantic Relationships
By Dr. Robert Jacobs

Contract Decoding (Part 2 of 3)
By Milt Toby

Contract Decoding (Part 2 of 3)
By Milt Toby

How Long Should a Post Be? Three Tips for Writing Your Author Blog
By Erik Deckers

Finding the Perfect Title
By Tom Wood

How to Write a Thrilling Short Story
By Kimberly Dana

The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-Publishing
By Julie Schoerke

The #1 Novice Mistake in Self-Publishing
By Julie Schoerke