KN Magazine: Articles

3/26/20 3/26/20

Scooped! How to Stay Ahead of the Storytelling Game by Roy Freirich

For writers, there's always the danger of getting "scooped"—spending months developing something only to read about someone way ahead of you. So (my co-writer wife and) I check everywhere to research the status of life-rights stories and other authors' novels that interest us for adapting, and generally for projects with similar themes.

For projects based on a person’s life, the more famous the subject, the more competition you’ll face acquiring rights. On the other hand, if the person is really famous and a public figure, you may not need to acquire anything—but will be up against some giants. Think Spielberg’s Lincoln, before you decide to write Abe! Either way, the more you know about ongoing competing projects or those who have dared before you, the bigger the bullet you may dodge.

For novels to adapt for the screen or stage, rights are essential, and pricey for “buzzy” titles. The other hand here: no one needs rights to adapt Jane Austen’s novels—but the bar is very high for success, because greats have gone before: Think Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility) or Paul Gordon (Emma).

Thankfully, there are ways to track what may be out there waiting to steal your thunder:

Internet Movie Database is hugely helpful. Here production companies announce their projects early, if only to discourage competing projects.
Deadline Hollywood, the film industry trade website of choice, often announces even earlier, driven by their own mandate to get the news out first, and “scoop” everyone else.
Google news alerts can help and require only a few clicks to set up. Google it!
Agents or managers, of course, often have their own "spy network" to check around for others pursuing something similar.
Publishers can always be contacted directly with an old-school email or even a phone call to see if subsidiary rights to a biography or novel have been optioned or bought.
Author websites often list contact information. Think carefully, though. If you engage with them but do not reach a deal for the right to adapt their work, they may feel aggrieved if you go ahead with anything remotely similar. As “gray areas” go, this one is especially murky.
The U.S. copyright office will often, but not always, show the disposition of rights. It's a free search, and no reason why not. For clarity, here’s this, from Copyright.gov, the official website:

“Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.”

And there’s the rub—that last bit: “Ideas?” Does that mean go ahead with your idea because ideas don’t infringe? I refuse to answer—on the grounds that I’m not a copyright attorney.

Sometimes, you do your research. The coast looks clear. You’ve found the novel that hasn’t been bought or the person whose story hasn’t been told in a movie or TV series or on the stage. You outline, you bake a treatment, you start writing. You wake in the mornings enthused and with a keen sense of purpose, because, yes, you’ve “scooped” everyone else!

Or… not. So we mourn the months spent working on a Jean Seberg biopic (now starring Kristen Stewart!), a Phyllis Schafly story (Cate Blanchett!), or another about a crusader against revenge pornography. Sometimes, a major theater venue will hire you to adapt an Anne Rice novel into a musical, but along the way, the rights revert from theater back to author, and director Tom Ford snaps them up for a movie. There are few authors more encouraging and generous than Anne Rice, but a Tom Ford movie is understandably hard to resist. Yes, there have been rending of garments and gnashing of teeth.

In terms of my own original fiction, I've had to put a novel in a drawer for more than a year and wait to see if competing projects gained traction or faded. And "competing" is a very broad rubric indeed. A book editor or film exec might say "another book about stolen nuclear weapons?" and so you put yours aside, only to later read about yet another massive deal to acquire a project on the subject.

In the worst way of all, reality "scooped" me on my first 2008 novel Winged Creatures, about survivors of a mass shooting, when these events began to occur seemingly weekly. Hollywood is never far behind, and mass shootings became suspenseful plot points in TV shows and books, in ways that felt increasingly exploitative, and less and less edifying about the real, lasting costs to victims and their families. At this point, I just don't feel right earning anything for a novel about fictional survivors' stories when there are so many real ones now, so I'm donating all royalties to The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Do writers of pandemic novels feel like COVID-19 will give their books new life, or are they too close to home now? When it is too soon to tackle a subject? When it is too late?

In general, it's a needle to thread: being vigilant so as not to waste months and then get beaten to the story—vs. living in fear and hesitating to dive into something great.

Roy Freirich leads multiple lives as a writer — of lyrics, movies, and novels. His lyrics have been sung by legends Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, and Patti Labelle, among many others. He’s written screenplays for Fox Searchlight, Dreamworks, Warner Brothers, and Sony, and adapted his novel, “Winged Creatures,” for the film, “Fragments,” featuring Forest Whitaker, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Josh Hutcherson, and Kate Beckinsale. He has also served as editor for the national desk of The New York Times and for the renowned Beloit Poetry Journal. He lives with his wife, ever-patient editor, and frequent co-writer, Debrah, in Malibu, California. Together, they’ve written the libretto for a musical adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Cry to Heaven,” for Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre. Visit him online at www.royfreirich.com.

3/25/20 3/25/20

How Authors Can Survive COVID-19 by Judith A. Yates

While Killer Nashville is dedicated to protecting the health and safety of our attendees, we are proceeding as scheduled with the 2020 conference. The general consensus is that the current threat will have passed well before the conference takes place in late August. We are in close communication with our local government, our host hotel, and health officials to ensure that we will provide all our attendees and volunteers with a safe conference experience. We will keep an eye on the situation as it develops but we are optimistic that the current outbreak will not affect our event, which is still nearly half a year away.

Above all, we place the safety of our attendees first and are taking all necessary precautions. We fully expect to have a fun, educational, and unforgettable conference this year. In the meantime, Judith Yates has some helpful tips below for authors marketing their books and interacting with their audiences during these isolating times.

COVID-19 is upon us all, significantly reducing social activity, including attendance at book signings, author appearances, lectures, conferences, and writer’s events. These events are the author’s “bread and butter” because it is the best place to sell books and network. However, authors can overcome these restrictions with a bit of creativity and using social media.

A new virus called SARS-CoV-2 has caused a disease known as “Coronavirus disease 2019.” (COVID-19). COVID-19 has now been detected in over 100 locations internationally at this writing. 49 of the 50 United States have confirmed cases, resulting in mass shutdowns of public places and strict guidelines for personal behavior to restrict disease spreading. A state of national emergency is declared. It has changed the way we do business, conduct ourselves personally and professionally, and revamped the education system. All of this has had a significant impact on authors. Working with people and traveling is how we all work to make a living. So how are we to survive in a COVID-19 world?

Most importantly, we must understand what the coronavirus is—and what it is not. We need to look past the political views and personal ideals and refer to professionals. As one doctor friend put it, “Don’t confuse your Google search with my medical degree.” Furthermore, all of us need to take safety precautions. This virus is not a joke, not a conspiracy, and it should be taken seriously. People are dying.

There are restrictions on public places, travel, and businesses, with schools, places of worship, and nonprofit organizations either closing or restricting attendance; this means less people, cancellation of events, and no advertisement. Authors have to cancel or reschedule book signings and presentations. Because of the recommended practice of “social distancing,” it is best to cancel face-to-face interviews, particularly in nursing homes, jails and prisons, and even people’s homes as anyone with a weak immune system is highly susceptible. With people’s jobs on hold, it can mean loss of wages; this means personal budget cuts. Who can afford to buy books when rent is due? So here we are on indefinite hold, fingers poised over the keyboards and pens in still hands. However, this does not mean we cannot sell books or continue with work.

It is time for authors to get creative. Sure, we have to cancel book signings, but that doesn’t mean we can’t sign books or meet fans. The World Wide Web has made it possible to hold live “meet-and-greets” and yes, even book signings. Using PayPal, Zelle, or any other “instant cash” system, set up a way readers can pay for a book while chatting with you online; use Skype, for example. Authors can be signing their books as they interact. I have done “Live Facebook Q&A” that includes book giveaways. Add a “book signing” to your “Live Facebook” event.

The same concept can be used for presentations. A filmmaker friend of mine has canceled several appearances, and a big convention where he was to appear has canceled. Now he is putting together podcasts where, for a small fee, his fans can “attend” his presentations. Attendees will receive a percentage off one of his DVDs or books.

While conducting “live” interviews is the best way, in my opinion, of gaining information, now we have to change our methods. Using social media for “face to face” interviews is the next best thing. We can at least see facial expressions, read some body language, and connect with people. Still, some folks do prefer written interviews. Some crime survivors I have interviewed preferred emails, at least initially. Others I have never met in person—their choice. The telephone can be one of the best interviewing tools: people both stay in their element, and sometimes it is the only way of communicating; if the subject lives far away or incarcerated, hospitalized or incapacitated, a telephone call is the best tool regardless if the world is practicing “social distance.” And it may help re-learn some “listening skills.”

Notice on so many Facebook pages for writers and authors the posts are mostly ads for an author’s book? Start a trend. Begin posts that ask questions for other authors. “When do you seem your creative best?” Ask readers about their reading habits. “What do you look for when you are perusing a book cover?” “What makes you select one book on a shelf over the others?” Questions start a dialog, lets the other writers and new readers get to know one another. Maybe they are not fans of the author’s genre, but they know others who are, and will recommend that work. The majority of readers select their next read because someone recommended it, either another reader or the book appeared on a list as a “top read.” And specific questions can give authors insight into what people look for when selecting a book—ideas they may have never considered.

I always say, “If you price your books at ten cents, you just told your readers how much your work is worth.” Right now, we can’t afford to focus on making millions (oh, do authors make millions?) but surviving the next few months. Cutting costs on our books will not reflect on our work, but will reflect on the fact we respect our readers may be on budgets. Dropping our prices—but not too steep—helps everyone. Sponsoring the occasional book giveaway is fine, as long as it helps make you money. There are clever ways to market this. Look around at how retail outlets use “cost cutting” ideas to make more sales and use your own spin:

“Buy one for you – get one half off for a friend” with a photo of two people reading your book.

“Buy one get one half off” if you have more than one book on the market.

“20% off because my dog signed it, too,” accompanied by a photo of my dog with my book in his mouth (My dog is famous among my readers. He has gone on book signings!)

Authors can survive the restrictions caused by COVID-19. They must understand the new virus and respect it. Then, they have to be creative. They can use this fantastic tool called social media to overcome barriers. It may even lead to new pastures we have yet to graze.

An excellent resource on COVID-19, see https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

Judith A. Yates is a criminologist and award-winning true crime author who has lectured and presented across the country, to include the 2019 Arnold Markle Symposium hosted by Dr. Henry C. Lee and the H.C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science. She has appeared in several television shows to include the Oxygen Network and Investigation Discovery. She writes true crime and some fiction. Visit Judith at her website.

3/3/20 3/3/20

Making Mistakes Matter by William Boyle

The other night I watched a small indie film from 2001 called Kwik Stop; it was recommended by a friend of mine whose opinion I highly value. Kwik Stop starts one place—a young actor headed to Hollywood and a young woman seeking to escape to anywhere share a meet-cute in a rural gas station parking lot—and you think you know exactly where it’s going, Badlands or True Romance territory most likely, but that doesn’t happen. The couple stops at a dreamy little dive motel, and the narrative shifts out from under us. I won’t give too much away about this underseen gem of a film, but I loved the way it subverted expectations and made no move that seemed predictable (failed schemes abound). It got me thinking about process and what I value most highly in art, that feeling of not knowing exactly where something is headed from minute to minute, or at least the tension that arises from not being certain if a work will go off course. You might give a certain writer or director the same tools as others, even the same characters or setting, but the ones that are most interesting to me will take you somewhere you never thought of going. It’s my feeling that this has a lot to do with making mistakes matter.

When I think about decisions I’ve made as a writer that have led me to those unexpected places, I think about sticking with mistakes. When you’re driving and you hit black ice, most folks grip the wheel and pump the brakes, when what you need to do is to remain calm and avoid overreacting. Yep, sometimes it’s true that a mistake means you have to go back and scrap the last fifty pages or that you need to reimagine something that’s taken a wrong turn, but often—if you don’t panic—a mistake can lead to a golden moment you might never have imagined otherwise. Watching Kwik Stop, I got the sense that writer/director Michael Gilio stayed with a couple of decisions that might have, at first, been perceived as mistakes and that they brought him somewhere new and unusual.

When I was working on my first novel, Gravesend, I don’t think I would have been able to express this idea as clearly, but no doubt I instinctually believed in it because I committed to a bunch of things I might’ve otherwise rationally bailed on. Back then, working without a net, I liked the chaos of such moments. In my most recent novel, City of Margins, I’ve learned to trust my mistakes and to try to make them matter, to evaluate them before throwing them on the scrapheap. Worst case scenario, as anyone knows: you learn from your mistakes. Best case scenario, as only those willing to take their mistakes seriously know: you find some undiscovered country, some rich vein of story you couldn’t have anticipated or imagined.

I had this experience a lot while working on City of Margins, the first book I’ve written that I plotted and planned so thoroughly but also a book where I allowed my mistakes to guide me, where I allowed them to steer me away from that outline into unchartered territory. I think of one of my characters, Ava, standing on a street corner at a certain point in the novel. To the left, that’s the way that’s mapped out, the way she should go, needs to go for everything I’ve built not to fall apart. To the right, who knows? In the moment, she goes against my wishes and turns right instead of left. At first glance, it’s a mistake and a dumb one at that, a diversion, an unnecessary complication in the name of narrative freedom and not feeling trapped. That is, until it’s suddenly not a mistake anymore, until Ava meets someone or does something that I didn’t see coming and lights up the story in a new way.

William Boyle’s books include: Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France and shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger in the UK; The Lonely Witness, which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; and, most recently, A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself and City of Margins, all of which are available from Pegasus Crime. He recently guest edited the noir volume of Nicolas Winding Refn’s byNWR.com.

Website: www.williammichaelboyle.com

Twitter: @wmboyle4

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wmboyle4

Instagram: @wmboyle4

2/19/20 2/19/20

The Growth Stages of Editing a Manuscript by Jennifer J. Chow

The Growth Stages of Editing a Manuscript

Let’s discuss the proper editing and care of a baby manuscript until it reaches maturity. Like any parent, my insight comes from my own subjective experiences with the editorial process and its timetable. Full disclosure: I teamed up with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, to raise my baby. Now on to the different editing growth stages of a book:

Title/infancy (variable deadline):

I’d already come up with a working title for my rough draft. Just like when expecting a real baby, though, I needed to make sure my partner and I agreed on it. We ended up switching my original choice to its current rendition: Mimi Lee Gets a Clue.

Tip: Trust your publisher.

I love the new title’s play on words and how it highlights the mystery aspect and all the intricacies of Mimi’s life that she needs to figure out.

Retailer copy/toddlerhood (few days’ turnaround):

At this cute stage, you can dress your story in fancy retailer copy. Known also as a cover blurb (not to be confused with a “blurb” or testimonial from a fellow author), this text provides an enticing summary to catch the eye of a browsing reader.

Tip: Don’t work too hard on an early copy.

I’d decided to write my own blurb for fun, but none of it was used. A team of writers had already created their own—oops! Honestly, their version was much snazzier and fit in better with the vibe of the imprint.

Editorial letter/early childhood (three weeks+ turnaround):

This is the crucial development period. An editorial letter suggests key changes to a story’s arc and can go upwards to eight pages of notes! Mine, fortunately, only had two single-spaced pages. My editor divided the letter into multiple parts, including dialogue (improvements for my protagonist’s speech and her verbal interactions with others), scene setting (more specificity about certain Los Angeles neighborhoods), and side characters (how the main character perceives those around her and the continuity of characters for the series). The letter also delved into the two main relationships in the book. It discussed Mimi and Josh (her love interest) and how their relationship flowed—or when it didn’t. Also, it explored the dynamics between Mimi and her pet cat Marshmallow, along with the zaniness of solving a case with a telepathic cat.

Tip: Expect to invest a lot of time.

I ended up tweaking a number of things—and even added a new scene. (Be forewarned: It may take multiple passes. I went through two rounds of developmental edits.)

Copy edits/middle childhood (two-week turnaround):

The literary foundation is set, but there’s still room for growth. The copyedited manuscript came with a new editor, who examined things with a line-by-line perspective. In addition to sentence structure rearrangement, she also vetted my manuscript for continuity and offered plotting advice.

Tip: Save the provided resources.

The copyedited manuscript had an attached style sheet with references and offered pointers on grammar (proper usage of capitalization, commas, etc.). It also listed characters, vocabulary, and places described in the book, an essential database of information, especially when writing a series.

First pass pages/adolescence (two-to-three-week turnaround):

This is the time when the document gets typeset and looks like a real book in PDF format. Revel in its mature appearance and quirks—my pages had cute details, like whiskers on the chapter headings.

Tip: Changes are costly at this stage.

Try to correct only typos and small errors. (Note: Some people also receive second pass pages.)

Proofreading/adulthood (quick turnaround):

Congratulations on having a full-fledged book! The proofreader will mark down any inconsistencies or confusing points and ask for clarification. (I only received a few questions.)

Tip: Rely on the proofreader.

In my novel, I referenced Scrabble, and the proofreader (who deserves my utmost gratitude) researched letter tiles in depth to make sure my game scene was correctly played out.

That’s the general timeline of a growing book. May your manuscript mature through its multiple revisions and release into the world as an adult novel in the near future.

MIMI LEE GETS A CLUE is the first book in the new Sassy Cat mysteries. It’ll be joined by two other siblings over the next few years and raised by Jennifer J. Chow. Follow her online at www.jenniferjchow.com or on social media (Twitter, FB, and IG) @jenjchow.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605896/mimi-lee-gets-a-clue-by-jennifer-j-chow/

https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984804990

2/10/20 2/10/20

Please, Turn Off the Idea Faucet! by Alan Orloff

I get the question all the time: where do you get your ideas?

You may not know, but there’s a service that works like Netflix did before streaming. You subscribe, and they send you three ideas a month. When you’re done with them, you exchange the old ideas for some new ones.

No, not really.

Actually, there’s no one place I get my ideas. I get them from observing people and situations when I’m out and about. Standing in line at the post office. At the bank. In the grocery story. I get them in the shower. I get them while I’m exercising. I get them when I’m reading someone else’s book. I get them from watching the news or listening to the radio in the car or reading a newspaper. (For those of you who don’t know, that’s something that comes every day and it’s made of paper and there are stories printed on it! Mostly true stories!)

I’m bombarded by ideas from every angle. I’m always thinking, What If This, or What If That, or Wouldn’t it be cool if this crazy, insane, unbelievable thing happened? So be alert, writers—you never know where that brainstorm will be coming from!

Once, this happened: several years ago, I was at the wonderful Sleuthfest conference in Florida. I woke up at 4:00 am on Sunday morning with an idea, almost FULLY FORMED, in my head. With a few tweaks to the basic (cool, high-concept) premise, I turned it into PRAY FOR THE INNOCENT, which won the ITW Thriller Award for Best E-Book Original. Of course, now I’m just a little bit disappointed when I wake up every morning without a great idea!

Most writers I know have too many ideas. We have so many ideas, we just know we’ll never have enough time to write them. With so many ideas, the challenge becomes one of whittling down the pile of possibilities. How do I go about that? First off, I let the nature of creativity do its job. Many of the ideas I get are just momentary flashes of inspiration. Lightning strikes. With time, they peter away. Dissipate. Melt into the ether. Some vanish completely without a trace, as if they were never there at all. Those ideas, for whatever reason, aren’t keepers.

But I find that certain ideas stay with me. I return to them, over a course of days, weeks, months, years. These persistent ideas—the ones that have sunk their teeth into my brain and won’t let go—those are the ones I take a closer look at.

To evaluate my idea to see if it’s viable, I run through a checklist:

Will my idea make a compelling story?

Do I “like” the protagonist and his or her quest?

Will I mind doing the necessary research?

I don’t know about you, but it takes me at least three weeks to write a book. Will I get bored spending so much time with this concept and characters?

Do I think I have the skill to write this type of book, to my standards of quality?

And, because I’ve chosen to look at writing as a business, there’s always that tug of war between complete artistic freedom, and my goal of being published. So my ideas have to clear a couple of additional hurdles:

Will people want to read it (topic, hook, etc)? Does it have a big enough market appeal?

Has it been done before? (That’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but it does factor into the mix.)

If I get enough positive answers, then I move forward, full steam ahead, and try not to get derailed by any more GREAT IDEAS!

At least until I’m ready for another one.

Alan Orloff’s work has won the ITW Thriller Award and Derringer Award and been a finalist for the Agatha Award. His ninth novel, I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP will be released in February from Down & Out Books. www.alanorloff.com

2/6/20 2/6/20

Overcoming Social Media: A Writer's Solution

Many a writer has cringed when their agent or publicist suggested they increase their social media presence. I know I sure did. Let’s be honest, social media can be a pretty terrible place. Depending on the specific site you’re visiting, it can be dominated by your former high school classmates’ political rants, overly filtered images pretending to portray an influencer’s perfect life, or snarky barbs about current events, carefully crafted for maximum retweets. Wading through all of that in search of the literary corners can be a demoralizing chore—not to mention that, when you finally find said literary corner, you’ll be faced with a near-constant stream of upbeat publishing news from other writers. It’s enough to make even the most well-adjusted writers among us jealous.

Between the overwhelming negativity, the unavoidable professional jealousy, and the fact that whole thing can be a total time-suck, it’s easy to consider swearing off social media entirely. And even though I’m someone who usually writes about the negative aspects of social media, I’m here to convince you that you should stick with it.

First—and the thing that kept me from throwing in the towel on the whole endeavor—is the opportunity to connect with other writers. Writing is inherently a solitary endeavor, but that doesn’t mean that you should do it in a vacuum. I can’t overstate how valuable it is to have a group of writers with whom you can discuss things like plot structure, pacing, and character development, and who can help you bounce around ideas when you’re stuck. Sure, these groups exist offline—and if you’ve found an IRL writing group, congratulations to you! I searched unsuccessfully for years to find a group of writers with whom I “clicked,” and it wasn’t until I started browsing online groups that I found one. That first group showed me what I was missing, and I’ve since joined more writing organizations and Facebook writing groups, each of which has proved indispensable for one reason or another.

More informally, though, social media is a great place to meet other writers in your genre. Through nothing more than initially tweeting my admiration at other suspense writers and using my platform to shout about their new releases, I’ve managed to develop relationships with a number of authors whom I hold in high regard, even when those authors live across the country or abroad.

Second—and here’s the reason your agent and publicist are pushing it—social media can be an excellent marketing tool. For that to work, though, you have to be smart about how you’re using it. The conventional wisdom is to determine where your target audience congregates online and to devote the bulk of your attention to that social media network, and I don’t disagree. I’ve found that my readers are mostly concentrated on Instagram and Twitter, so that’s where I spent most of my time.

It’s also imperative to not appear as though you’re only online to promote your book. Social media experts often refer to the “Rule of Thirds,” which counsels you should spend one-third of your time online sharing items of interest for your followers, one-third of your time interacting with others, and the final one-third promoting your product. Rather than just shouting about your book all the time, which can turn off a reader, you’re building connections with them—and helping them see you as a real person rather than just a name. From my observations, readers seem more invested in supporting authors whom they feel as though they “know.” Moreover, if you’re interacting in the community and forging those connections with other writers I mentioned above, they may choose to share your news and promotions with their platforms. Everyone wins!

Some doubt the marketing power of social media. I often see people say that no one buys a book because they saw it in a tweet, but I don’t believe that to be entirely true. Sure, a single tweet—particularly a single tweet by you about your own book—is unlikely to generate any sales, but a series of tweets about your book from readers or other authors does wonders to help build buzz. I’ve heard that a reader needs to see your book three times before they consider buying it, so imagine that prospective reader sees three separate tweets about your book. They might not immediately click a buy link, but the next time they see your cover, they’ll think to themselves, “Oh, yeah, I keep seeing this book. Maybe I should give it a try.”

But is it worth the investment of time to maybe sell one copy of one book? Strictly speaking, no. Your time is worth more than $24.99. However, the calculus changes when you remember that social media is a long game and you can’t precisely quantify its benefits. How much is it worth for a popular author to share your publishing news? How much is it worth for a reader with a large following to tweet about your book? It’s hard to say, but it’s definitely positive. Social media still have its pitfalls, and I still have to set time limits for myself and occasionally engage my app that blocks social media, lest I waste my whole day on it. That said, I am more than convinced that building a social media presence is an important step for any author. The contacts I’ve made in the writing community, and the connections I’ve made with readers, simply wouldn’t have been possible any other way. So, yeah, social media is awful, but it doesn’t have to be.

Kathleen Barber writes stories that will make you think twice about social media. Her first novel, Truth Be Told (formerly titled Are You Sleeping), has been adapted as a series for Apple TV+ by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company. Kathleen was raised in Galesburg, Illinois, and is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and son. Follow Me is her second novel. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @katelizabee, or visit her online at kathleenbarber.com.

Learn More:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Follow-Me/Kathleen-Barber/9781982101985

https://kathleenbarber.com/

https://twitter.com/katelizabee

https://www.instagram.com/katelizabee/

https://www.facebook.com/KathleenBarberAuthor/

1/31/20 1/31/20

Realistic Fiction Books for Kids & Teens: A Beginner's Guide by Eliza Brooks

While there are many genres of fiction books (fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, et al.) for young children that are popular, realistic fiction books for kids and teens are just as fun to read and may help young readers experience the world in new ways.

For purposes of discussion, I will refer to the many genres & subgenres of fiction—particularly those that do not fall under the helm of “realistic fiction”—simply as “fiction” throughout this article. Fiction books, as the term suggests, are solely built around fictional characters and imagined stories. On the other hand, realistic fiction pertains to imagined characters in real-life settings. That means these characters could be anyone in the world. You, a mother, an employee, a child, a servant, or just about anyone you could meet on a day to day basis.

As mentioned, the settings in realistic fiction could be relatable to anyone. It could be in a school, mall, village, mountains, and whatnot. That means no setting is built around unrealistic ones like the sun or outer space. Of course, there are those among us who do stand the chance of going to outer space (though none would likely visit the surface of the sun). Realistic fiction deals with scenarios and settings a reader might face in everyday life, and trips to space aren’t in the cards for most of us.

Additionally, the stories for realistic fiction will revolve around life events that anyone can relate to. It could be about marriage, work, friendship, family troubles, love, high school, mental health, bullying, and just about any real-life event that any person can possibly experience.

As for the time realistic fiction stories happen, they typically unfold in the most recent time or recent past.

To understand what differentiates realistic fiction from “traditional” fiction books, start reading these five realistic fiction books for kids and teens.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This romance realistic fiction book could make you cry, laugh, hurt, and everything in between. It’s a story about a young girl who is diagnosed with cancer. After joining a support group, she meets this boy who is also in the same conundrum as her. They both fall in love and they embark on an adventure of their lives, dealing with challenges along the way.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak was a finalist for Young People’s Literature in 1999. The story is about a girl who was castigated in her high school years because she called the cops on a very important party. Because of her isolation, she didn’t have friends and didn’t talk as well. After being lonely for a long time, she decided to join an art class. And that’s when she faced the fears, hurt and anger suppressed about what happened during that party. And this time, she decided, she’s not keeping quiet anymore.

Isaac and His Amazing Asperger Superpowers by Melanie Walsh
This book will teach kids to be kind to anybody even if they’re a little special. This is a book which is about a kid who is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a type of autism that inhibits social engagement. Isaac, the primary character of the book, has super brain powers and some kids in school don’t really understand him save for his brother. This is an excellent book that will introduce young ones into the life of a kid who is different than others.

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty
This is another realistic fiction picture book about Ada Twist, an overly curious little girl who wants to soak in whatever pops into her mind. She scrutinizes the littlest of things – even why there are thorns on a pretty rose! Because of this perennial pursuit of knowledge, Ada embarks on a mission and soon gets into a tight situation that may spell bad news for her.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Illustrated by Ellen Forney, this book follows the author’s life experience as being the only flower sprouting in a vast land of grass. Junior, an Indian native, comes to America and enrolls in an all-white high school. The school mascot and he were the only Indians in the school. Follow Junior’s funny and heartbreaking journey through high school in a foreign land.

These are just a few of the realistic fiction books to start with. There is no shortage of bestselling fiction books online, so it’s best to read one after another. Depending on your or your kids’ preference, getting children engaged in realistic fiction can help mold them into better people as they learn to relate to others and experience various real-life situations.

Eliza Brooks is a passionate blogger who loves to write about travel, books, personal development, lifestyle, productivity, and more. She is currently working with https://www.creedgriffon.com/, which offers incredible teen fiction books series for boys and girls.

1/14/20 1/14/20

5 Essential Self-Publishing Book Marketing Tips for Your Mystery Novel’s Launch Day

There are few things more exciting than the day your book is finally out in the world. All that time and work you’ve put into making it the best it can possibly be—from research and the writing itself, to implementing feedback from beta readers and professional editors—and now all that’s left is to sit back and let readers have it. It’s a heady mix of thrills and nerves, much like a good mystery novel. But before you sit back and consider this case closed, there’s still one very important part of the publishing process left: creating a solid marketing plan for launch day.

So what goes into an effective marketing plan? Let’s break it down.

Cover reveal
Laying the groundwork for a successful launch starts long before the actual release date. In fact, the more effort you put in now, the bigger splash you’ll make come showtime. And it all starts with building hype.

One of the best ways to generate buzz is with your cover. We’re visual creatures, after all, and compelling covers are an easy way to grab a reader’s attention. Of course, the best way to ensure you’ve got a killer cover is to work with a talented cover artist who knows the genre you’re writing in. Some of them may even provide you with “teaser” images that you can use, so make sure to ask if they offer any promotional graphics. If working with a professional isn’t in your budget and you’re going the DIY route, make sure your cover conveys a sense of danger or disturbance. No matter which path you choose, always take a moment to hunt for clues on what cover styles are popular by browsing through the bestsellers in your categories on Amazon.

Once you’ve got the cover nailed down, it’s time to decide how you’re going to unveil it. A guest post is a popular option, using a larger blog’s audience to drive traffic to your own work. But even if you can’t swing that, make sure to hype up the cover reveal beforehand. Small images that show only a taste of the design, sprinkled onto your social media accounts in the days leading up to the reveal are a fun way to get the word out.

And while you have the attention of readers, make sure you give them something to do with their excitement! Call them to action with…

Preorders
It works for the big publishers and it works for us self-publishers, too. Preorders are a great way to give your launch a boost in rankings.

Most of the platforms you’ll be looking to release your book on offer preorders these days, so it’s a waste not to take advantage of them. Preorders not only capture sales through early hype of your book, but start building your sales rank before it’s even released. Coupled with a cover reveal, this can lead to some encouraging early numbers, positioning you even better for the boost you’ll capture on launch day.

But there’s another advantage to preorders, and that’s being able to play around with your book description, categories, and keywords before your book goes fully live. For a few weeks before launch day, you can gather data on what draws readers to your book on Amazon—and what doesn’t—giving you an inside edge for when your sales really kick off in earnest.

You can set up preorders on Amazon up to 90 days before a book release, but most people recommend a few weeks or a month at most. That’s enough time to experiment and build some early ranking, without starting to lose momentum for launch day itself.

Now that you’re driving traffic to your book, it’s time to make sure those visitors become readers.

Early reviews
Here’s the hard-boiled truth: nothing drives sales better than reviews. But if your book is brand new, how is anyone supposed to have read it in order to leave a review?

The answer, of course, is to provide reviewers with advanced copies. And advanced copy—sometimes called an Advanced Reader Copy or ARC in the traditional publishing world—is simply that: an early version of your book, that you give away for free in the hopes that the people you’ve given it to will leave you a review.

Now, it’s important to note that if you do set up your book for preorder, your reviewers won’t be able to leave their early reviews on Amazon until release day—but at least they’ll have read the book and have their review ready to go. Additionally, early reviews can be posted on Goodreads in advance, and you can quote the best ones under the editorial review section of your book’s page.

You can reach out to reviewers individually, or you can use a service like Reedsy Discovery to put your book in front of a whole team of reviewers specifically interested in self-published books.

Alright, so now you’ve got people reading your book in anticipation of launch day. What do you do when launch day finally arrives?

Email blasts
One of my favorite advertising methods is to use “email blast” services. There are literally hundreds of these available, though obviously not all of them are as effective and reputable as others. They also work best if your book is on sale, so you’ll want to use this mainly if you plan to launch your book at a discount.

Email blasts also tend to work best if your book is a standalone, the first of a series, or your debut novel — basically, any situation where there’s not a built-in fanbase already eagerly anticipating launch day. Email blasts are an excellent way to boost your initial ranking and get your book in front of a lot of people all at once. BookBub is, of course, the king, though you’re not guaranteed placement, and you do pay accordingly.

But even if you can’t land a coveted spot among their subscribers, you can still build an email blast launch strategy. Scheduling several smaller lists will give you a couple of boosts throughout the first week, which tells the sales rank algorithm that you’re doing well, putting your book in front of still more readers on Amazon search results.

Of course, not everything can be automated, and there’s still no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and doing the work. Which is why you’ll want to cap off your launch day with…

Guest posts
For the best visibility on launch day, consider going on a good old-fashioned blog tour. Several weeks before your release, make a list of blogs that might be a good promotional opportunity for your book.

Not sure what kind of sites to approach? Book review sites that post about your genre are always a good bet, but if you really want to dig deeper and think creatively, try putting together a reader avatar. A reader avatar is a stand-in model of what your typical reader is going to be like — their age, gender, interests, and income, among other things. Then, you can consider what topics would appeal to them, and can craft a series of guest posts toward sites targeted there, in order to entice them toward your own work.

Even if you’re not going to go that extra step, though, make sure you book has at least a few guest appearances on blogs or even podcasts that align directly with your book. These can be as simple as release day announcements if you’ve already developed a relationship with the host, or range from interviews, to sneak-peaks, to posts on news going on in your particular genre.

Whenever you approach a site owner, though, remember: the more prepared you are to do the work, the more likely they’ll be willing to listen. Just saying “I want to appear on your blog but don’t have any ideas” isn’t anywhere near as likely to succeed as, “I have a guest post on [relevant topic] that I think would be a great fit for your readership.”

With these tricks at your disposal, it’ll be no mystery why your launch day kicks off with a bang.

Desiree Villena is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. In her spare time, Desiree enjoys reading contemporary fiction and writing short stories. She tries her best to avoid using terrible tropes.

10/4/19 10/4/19

Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem at Killer Nashville International Writers' Conference

Murder, Mystery & Mayhem at Killer Nashville

by Joseph W. Borden

You’ve just arrived in Nashville after a long and arduous flight. The night is dark, maybe it’s storming. Your feet are sore, eyes tired. You’re just about at your wits end. You hail a cab. “To Killer Nashville,” you yell, “and step on it!” After dragging, pushing, pulling all your luggage inside and checking in, you finally get to your hotel room. But when you open the door, you see furniture overturned, drawers opened, their contents strewn across the floor. But, worst of all, there’s a dead body occupying your bed!

This is scene you might’ve witnessed at Killer Nashville 2019—albeit something would have to go very wrong at check-in for you to wind up in the room that hosts the mock crime scene each year.

Nashville has long been known for its ties to country music, but what about its connection to murder, mystery, and mayhem? Since 2006, each August, Nashville has been home to The Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference. The conference, a bastion of the dastardly, hosts about 350 mystery, thriller, and suspense writers each year. These miscreants and ne'er-do-wells are blackguards of the darkest kind—each of them well versed in the languages of espionage, foul play, and general malfeasance. The 2019 conference featured Guests of Honor Alexandra Ivy, David Morrell, and Joyce Carol Oates, all of whom are renowned storytellers and purveyors of the perilous.

Killer Nashville boasts over 60 educational sessions throughout the weekend, ranging from subjects as innocent as “Reviews & How to Get Them” to more nefarious ones such as “Evolution of the Cyber Threat Actor.” Aside from writers, the event brings agents, editors, and other industry professionals from all corners of the globe—and everyone is there for a shared purpose: to learn, connect, master the art of murder…of fictional characters, of course.

The mock crime scene that is featured at Killer Nashville each year is one of the most popular aspects of the conference, as one might expect at an event filled with current/former law enforcement officials and admirers of the macabre. Staged by forensic professionals, the crime scene is an adaptation of real crime scenes they have encountered. Throughout the weekend, attendees work to solve the murder of Ralph David Reed. They attempt to piece together the mystery by using the clues left on scene and by watching pre-recorded witness & suspect interviews. Whomever gets the closest to solving the murder is awarded the Dupin Detective award. This year, Amanda Feyerbend took home this honor, the only one of 100+ participants to deduce every single fact about the “murder” correctly.

“The Killer Nashville Mock Crime Scene was such a great experience!” said Feyerbend. “As I walked around the room, I tried to put on my investigator’s hat and soak up everything I could about the intricate scene. I’d hoped to win the Dupin Detective Award, and when Former Assistant Director [of the TBI] Dan Royse said all those kind words and called my name, I was ecstatic. It’s such an honor. The whole conference was amazing, and I can't wait to come back next year.”

But it’s not all fun and murder games at the conference; there’s also glory to be earned at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner. Villains and vagabonds alike come together to listen to speeches from Guests of Honor & scholarship winners, and to see who will go home with coveted Killer Nashville awards. Killer Nashville coordinates two large award competitions: the Silver Falchion Award & the Claymore Award.

The Silver Falchion Award honors the best books readily available to a North American audience in both fiction and nonfiction from the previous year. The competitions recognizes books in 10 different categories relating to mystery, thriller, suspense and all the fiendish iterations those genres can form. From those categories, only one can be honored as Book of the Year. The 2019 Book of the Year recipient was author Baron R. Birtcher for his title Fistful of Rain. Birtcher also won Best Action Adventure and Best Attending Author for the same title—one could say he’s a dangerous man, indeed.

Of his award, Birtcher said, “I'm still trying to wrap my head around the honor of having won the Silver Falchion for Book of the Year! I've been attending Killer Nashville for 10 years now, and it still stands as my favorite. Drawing incredibly talented writers from all over the world, the programs, panels, networking, and above all, the camaraderie among the attendees is unparalleled. There is a reason that Killer Nashville is considered to be one of the preeminent writer’s conferences on the planet. "

The Killer Nashville Claymore Award is one that is particularly special to the conference, as it recognizes the best 50 first pages of an unpublished manuscript. Most of the writers who enter the Claymore Award competition have never been published before (mischief-makers in training, if you will). In 2019, for the first time in its decade-long history, the Claymore Award had a tie for first place. Originally, it was suggested that a tiebreaker would be had by way of knife fight but, eventually, the contest judges concluded that less bloodshed would be preferable, from a PR perspective.

"Winning the 2019 Claymore Award was an enormous gift of confidence for me,” said John Carenen, who won for his title Breathtaking in the Blue Ridge. “I was delighted to be one of the 20 finalists and stunned when my name was announced at the Awards Dinner. And to have David Morrell present the award added to what was a surreal moment. I don't think anything that follows in my writing career can top that event."

Joseph Simurdiak took home the Claymore for his historical fantasy A Red Autumn Wind. Of his experience, Simurdiak said, “Killer Nashville enthusiastically cultivate[s] new and rising voices. [M]any Claymore finalists go on to land book deals, and I felt like I'd crossed some kind of threshold. It [the night he won the Claymore] was truly one of the most amazing nights of my life, the realization of a childhood dream. But it was also a huge step in an even larger journey, one in which the following chapter is already underway.”

Although it may be a conference full of those who have one foot in the dirty underworld of society (strictly—well, mostly—in a fictional sense), the overall goal for Killer Nashville is to create a nurturing environment in which writers at all stages of their careers can come together to better their writing and make lasting connections with like minds. So come, all ye scoundrels, and see what all the buzz is about. It’s truly an experience to die for.

10/3/19 10/3/19

Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem at Killer Nashville International Writers' Conference

Murder, Mystery & Mayhem at Killer Nashville
by Joseph W. Borden

This is scene you might’ve witnessed at Killer Nashville 2019—albeit something would have to go very wrong at check-in for you to wind up in the room that hosts the mock crime scene each year.

7/12/19 7/12/19

How Did a Nice Banker Get Involved with Serial Killers?

It wasn’t that I was fascinated with serial killers.

Before writing Murderabilia, my previous thrillers had more to do with the financial services industry and the countries I know like Colombia, Canada, and Algeria. But then I started playing the “what if” game and combining ideas.

Things got weird — fast.

It all started with a secret. Everyone has at least one. A good secret can be the center of a novel and often drives the plot forward. I wondered what a private banker for the extremely wealthy might keep hidden. What if his father was a killer? That could be something he didn’t want his colleagues to discover. But what if it was worse than that? Suppose his father was a serial killer, a more egregious scandal for my tony banker. Even better — suppose his father is notorious. Maybe he’s as well known as Dennis Rader, Jeffery Dahmer, or Charles Manson. He is so creepy that deranged fans revere him and create internet sites about him.

So why is the father so notorious? Well, a real killer, Harvey Glatman, took photos of his victims. That’s promising (for a crime writer, anyway). Suppose my protagonist's serial killer father went one step further. What if he took artsy black-and-white photos of the rearranged bodies of his victims with props? Suppose they were well-composed and professionally lit. What normal person would admit to being related to that psychopath? So you’re his son? You inherited his genes?

Another author once told me that being creative in fiction doesn’t require a revolutionary idea. You just have to combine two or three existing ideas in a way no one has before. I had several of those ideas: private banking, son of an infamous serial killer, and victim photography. But there was something else I could combine.

In researching serial killers, I discovered there actually is a market for their art called “murderabilia.” Paintings by Manson, John Wayne Gacy, and a hundred others are traded through brokers and dealers who advertise on the web. This is real stuff, and it’s creepier than anything I could make up. Clown paintings by Gacy go for more than $100,000. One dealer said a mother bought a Gacy painting for her 12-year-old on his birthday.

What if the serial killer father in my book became so famous people bought and sold his photographs? Suppose those photographs started the “murderabilia" market and some are even on display in museums. Now I was starting to get ideas about the tortured past of his son, my protagonist. My private banker wouldn’t want anyone to even suspect who his father was. All kinds of character flaws and motivations emerged. He’d feel as if he could never escape his father’s horrible legacy. But I wasn’t done yet.

I grew up a Christian Scientist but left the religion when I went to college. Christian Science is so unusual that I always wanted to make it an element in a book. It’s an incredibly philosophical religion. Evil is regarded as a false conception. If a person stops believing evil is inside a person, if they understand that people really reflect God’s perfection, then the evil will cease to exist. Now there is a great religion for the wife of a serial killer — especially if she is fanatical about her devotion. Just imagine how that would enable her husband to pursue his photography and how it would unsettle her children.

There was only one thing left. I’m not a photographer. But I could learn. I got an instructional DVD from a National Geographic photographer and bought some books on the history of photography. A side benefit was that through research, I became interested in photography, and now I’m going to a class every week.

So you see how weird even an analytical banker can get when he starts playing the what if game and combining ideas. The people I worked with thought I was so conservative and normal — well, maybe not completely normal — if they only knew.

What if they really had known?

Carl Vonderau grew up in Cleveland in a religious family that believed that God could heal all illness. He left that behind him when he went to college at Stanford and studied economics. Somehow, after dabbling in classical guitar, he ended up in banking. Carl lived and worked in Latin America, Canada, and North Africa, and conducted business in Spanish, French and Portuguese. He also secretly wrote crime novels. Now, a full-time author, he also helps nonprofit organizations. He and his wife reside in San Diego, where their two sons live close by. Check out more at http://carlvonderau.com/.

6/14/19 6/14/19

Is Creating a Novel an Act of Alchemy or Engineering?

For some, creating a novel is an act of alchemy. The transmutation of blank space into a story you just can’t stop reading. It appears as if from nowhere as words flow onto the screen or the paper, propelled by some force over which the writer seemingly has very little control. It’s almost like magic. These are the writers who start with a seed, an opening scene perhaps, or a piece of dialogue, and let the story write itself. No predetermined plan, no carefully mapped out sequence of scenes and events. One thing leads to another, characters emerge, conflicts boil over, and soon there is a novel. The process is organic, self-replicating. An evolution with a whiff of genius about it.

I’ve met writers like this. I’ve always been a bit envious of these magicians and alchemists. These are the writers who say things like: “the story wrote itself”, and “the characters kept surprising me, I had no control over them.” What a wonderful thing to be able to create this way, with freedom and spontaneity.

For me, writing is an entirely different process. More an act of engineering than evolutionary biology. Build it. Start with place and theme. What is the subject, the essential message of the book? Where will it be set? Why this, and why here? This is the foundation. Once these things are clear, make a plan. Sketch it out, from beginning to end. I create the characters and they absolutely do only and exactly what I tell them to. I determine the key events that will make up the story. Before I can start the first sentence, I need to see how the book will finish. That means lots of planning before I ever start composing prose, and a lot of hard work. When the plan hangs together, I can start writing. Each morning I know what I am going to write, what has to happen. Then I can focus on writing the best prose I can. And when the whole things is done, the even harder work of revision begins, the polishing, the adding of essential detail, the culling of all of the wonderful but superfluous stuff every writer loves to create but needs to take out.

My first novel, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, which was shortlisted for the CWA Creasy Prize, took me ten years to write. I was working full time, raising a family, building a business. I just looked back through my old notebooks, charted the life of the book. The first plan, a series of sketches, bears almost no resemblance to the final product. In fact, the published novel retained less than ten percent of the original plan. The plan changed over the years, as I learned, received feedback, and tested ideas. At that level, it was definitely a process of evolution.

My fourth novel, Absolution, released in 2018, was the final in the Claymore Straker series. I wrote it in a year, pretty much full time. The planning still happened, but the momentum of a series meant that so much of the context and essential character work was already done. Looking back, the writing process was much more “let it flow” than rigorous planning.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that perhaps the two approaches aren’t so very different. The evolutionary writer’s initial seed contains the story’s DNA, the essential coding of the story, wrapped up in his or her life experiences, hopes, dreams, and fears. Nothing comes from a vacuum. Place and theme are encoded in that opening scene, and carried deep within the writer’s soul. If the seed finds fertile ground, gets enough water and sun, it grows, replicates, branches out, spreads and gets strong. That’s life. What seems like magic is actually a lot of hard work, planning and preparation done subconsciously. All the engineer does it try to harness that work, make it explicit and use it. The plans themselves evolve and develop under the same influences. It all comes from the same place, needs the same nourishment. That’s what I tell myself, anyway, when I emerge from a day of “writing” and all I have is a series of sketches and notes that look more like battle plan than work of art.

If you are writer, you’ve got to write. One hears it all the time. And you know, it’s absolutely true. But whatever the method, engineering or alchemy, magic or planning, creating a novel is hard work. A year (or ten) to write, four days to read. So I better get to it.

Paul E Hardisty is a writer, university professor, environmental hydrologist, and triathlete. His first novel, 'The Abrupt Physics of Dying', a thriller set in Yemen, in which one man risks his life to bring down an oil company, is published by Orenda Books, and is available on Amazon. The sequel, 'The Evolution of Fear', was published by Orenda Books in 2016. He currently leads Australia's national science research in land, water, biodiversity and climate adaptation. Paul lives in Perth, Western Australia, with his wife Heidi and his sons Zachary and Declan. His latest non-fiction book, "Environmental and Economic Sustainability" was published by CRC Press in 2010, and is also available on Amazon.com.

6/14/19 6/14/19

I Just Got Out of Jail

I just got out of jail.

Just like I do every Thursday at approximately eight o’clock at night. Tonight there’s a biting—and for mid-November unexpected—breeze coming off the East River onto the Island. It punches me in the face as I exit the housing unit and do my best to admire the Manhattan skyline a few miles in the distance. Not even the single-digit “Real Feel” temperature can chill the heated excitement coursing through my veins.

For the past four hours, I’d been working with incarcerated young men—eighteen to twenty years old—reading and writing. My partners and I show them a piece of poetry or prose, ask for reflections, and then try to get them to write something in a similar vein. The work we get from these young men is never short of astounding—if not always in “quality,” then always in honesty.

This day, I had given a small group of young men one of my favorite writing exercises: write a scene using just dialogue. No setting, no attributions, just dialogue. The only other rule is that both speakers must be in conflict with each other. Quite often they come up with stuff they choose to work on after my time with them is over.

And every once in a while, I get something to take home with me.

One of our more reluctant writers, a young man of about twenty, had taken ten minutes to write only four lines, each character taking two turns to speak. Not a big output, but the last line stood out: “I’ma kill you.”

“Why,” I asked, “is this character threatening to kill the other?”

“It’s like this,” the young man began. “The last time they was playing dice, the one guy lost and didn’t have the money to pay the other guy. Ya feel me? So the guy said he could wait. So now they gonna play again and if the guy who lost last time loses again and doesn’t have the money like he says he does, the other guy’s gonna kill him. Ya feel me?”

“Does that happen?” I asked. “Over dice?”

The young man gave me a smile that would make Jack Nicholson envious. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “Lemme tell ya something.”

However reluctant a writer he was, he was the exact opposite as a storyteller. What came out of his mouth for the next twenty-plus minutes was nothing short of a dissertation in the world of underground—sometimes literally, as many games are played in the basements of Brooklyn housing developments and brownstones—dice playing and the folks who play.

When I was sure he was finished, I looked at him and said, “You know I’m going to steal that, don’t you?”

Knowing I was a novelist, he smiled and said, “Really?”

“Yeah. Really.” And then I added, “Ya feel me?”

Without realizing it, this incarcerated youth—whose incarceration for drug use makes none of us any safer—had given me setting, characters, and plot development. The next day, I stopped writing the scene I’d been working on, and wrote a new one where my protagonist Raymond Donne—ex-cop turned New York City schoolteacher—gets taken to a dice game in search of the murder victim’s former drug dealer.

This is one of the more obvious reasons I’ve never believed in writer’s block. I live in New York City; here “writers block” is a street where two or more authors live. If I ever get stuck for an idea, I step outside and go for a walk. (Or to prison.) Soon enough, someone will say something, do something, or remind me of something I can get down on paper and make fit into what I’m working on.

I’m not suggesting you head off to the nearest house of detention to get your ideas. After thirty years in the New York City public schools, I’ve always wanted to work with incarcerated youth. (Thanks to Prison Writes—www.prisonwrites.org—I now have that opportunity.) I am suggesting that when you find yourself stuck in the middle of your work-in-progress, and it’s not working or progressing, get up off your seat and get out into the world.

Go to the store and observe. Go to McDonald’s and listen. Go to the nearest wooded area and smell. Taste and touch using your own judgment. There’s no link on your laptop that leads to inspiration.

You’ve got five senses. Get up, get out, and use them.

Ya feel me?

TIM O’MARA is best known for his Raymond Donne mysteries about an ex-cop who now teaches in the same Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood he once policed: Sacrifice Fly (2012), Crooked Numbers (2013), Dead Red (2015), Nasty Cutter (2017), published by Minotaur Books (#1–#3) and Severn House (#4). O’Mara’s short story The Tip is featured in the 2016 anthology Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, and his novellas Smoked and Jammed appear in 2016 and 2018 crime trilogies from Down & Out Books. O’Mara taught special education for 30 years in the public middle schools of New York City, where he now teaches adult writers and still lives. In addition to writing his next Raymond novel, The Hook, and the stand-alone high-school-based crime drama, So Close to Me, O’Mara recently finished curating the short-story anthology, Down to the River, to benefit the non-profit American Rivers.

5/31/19 5/31/19

Dynamic Duo: The Adventures of Caped Co-Authors

We’ve all seen the memes and jokes on social media. Being an author is great except for…editing, re-writes, plot holes, characters who misbehave, marketing, dealing with writer’s block, and the list goes on and on. We laugh, maybe a little self-consciously, because deep down we know there is a little grain of truth in the humor. Being an author can be hard, but being a co-author is actually great, at least in our opinions. We have a built-in support network when we write, and we are able to keep each other going and avoiding many of the potential pitfalls commonly faced by an author who is doing it solo. We don’t claim that we don’t face the same problems, or suffer the same fears (marketing anyone? *shudder*). By writing as a team, we can more easily overcome the obstacles when they crop up.

Division of Labor

We have known each other since high school, and this really helps in our writing. We started out doing game design together, developing role-playing games, and card and board games. This allowed us to develop our skills while working together and made it so that when we started writing fiction, we knew what our strengths and weaknesses were. Geoff is the creative one and does the bulk of the initial draft for each story, while Coy is the one that keeps Geoff on track and the continuity flowing. Geoff is not an editor (he’s never met a comma that he either put in the wrong place or didn’t put where it belonged) while proofreading and story continuity are Coy’s strengths. Once Geoff has drafted the story, Coy can go through and make sure everything works – the characters stay true to who they are, and the story and dialogue flows. Once that is done, we sit down at our respective computers (Coy lives in Kansas City, while Geoff is in Albuquerque) and through the magic of video calls, we then read the story aloud and edit again as we go. Our strengths are very complimentary and when we work together it is like our powers merge and we become super-writers.

Shared Responsibilities

While we each have our strengths, which help us be better authors and (we feel) put out great stories, we also share many duties. This includes marketing and promotion as well as developing story ideas. We both work to get the word out about our books through social media, our own network of friends, family, and acquaintances, and performing author appearances. Between the two of us, we can draw from a larger pool of potential readers, and we can attend in-person events in different parts of the country. We are able to get together several times a year to attend larger events (like the larger comic cons) and we use this time to develop new story ideas. In this way, we become sounding boards for each other, tossing out story and character ideas, and plot out the basic outline for a story, which we can then work on when we are back at our respective homes. This allows us to continually develop stories for our different book series, as well as any solo projects we are working on.

You Can Be A Super-Writer

What can you do to get the same super powers that we enjoy? Well, the simplest thing would be to find another writer and start writing together. Become your own writing dynamic duo. But we know that this may not work for all authors. What’s the solo hero to do? Why, you join a superhero team, of course! Like the Avengers or the Justice League, you can join with a group of fellow authors and combine your powers. Whether you find a group online or in person, joining an author group has many benefits. You’re joining a group of like-minded people that you can use to work through those pesky plot holes, writer’s blocks, and misbehaving characters. An author group is also a ready group of beta readers for your story. But beyond the basic concepts of support that a great author group provides, you can also benefit in other areas. Authors in a group can cross-market their books for each other, building upon each other’s social networks and newsletter lists. This benefits all the writers in the group. You can also pitch in to share a booth or table at a large book fair or convention, sharing the cost for the booth and working together to sell your books. Having multiple authors at a booth can help to bring traffic to your booth, as the availability of a wider selection of titles has the possibility of appealing to more people. Once a potential buyer stops to look at one title, you can then pitch all of your titles, potentially increasing everyone’s sales.

Many authors are quite successful working their craft alone, but we have found that working together has made us better authors than either one of us could be on our own. Working with a co-author can be challenging, especially if both authors are attempting to steer the ship in different directions, but when authors have complementary skill sets and are able to work together, then the final result can truly be something heroic.

Coy and Geoff have been best friends since high school (which was a long, long time ago). When not discussing comics, movies, or TV shows they dabble at other stuff, including game design and writing. As game designers they have released many role-playing accessories and two card games. As writer's they have published two novels, Unremarkable and Wrath of the Fury Blade. Their third novel, Untouchable, will be released in September. Coy lives with his wife and one cat in Kansas City. Geoff lives with his wife, son, and two creatures that claim to be cats in Albuquerque. You can learn more about their writing at their website:

https://www.habigerkissee.com/

5/30/19 5/30/19

Setting as Inspiration

Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Some places speak distinctly. Certain dank gardens cry aloud for a murder; certain old houses demand to be haunted; certain coasts are set apart for shipwrecks.”

I lived on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal for eleven years. It’s a windswept and beautiful place, with brooding headlands, deserted beaches, towering sea stacks, and ruined forts. When I began writing crime novels, I could not have set them anywhere else.

I ran the most northerly law practise in Ireland while I lived there, so it was no coincidence that my protagonist/amateur sleuth emerged as a female solicitor named Benedicta O’Keeffe, known as Ben (my own friends and family call me Andy). No coincidence either that Ben also runs the most northerly law practise in Ireland (last legal advice before Iceland, as a friend of mine pointed out).

But what truly inspires me is place—landscape and buildings. When I visit somewhere for the first time, I find myself imagining what might have happened there, and whether the memory of those events might have remained embedded within the walls, in the atmosphere, marking it out as a place of contentment or sadness. Or fear. My grandmother (who also believed she had the gift of second sight and that the banshee followed her family) believed that to be the case; she thought that a place retained the essence of what had occurred within, and that one could sense it. And despite years of level-headed, rational legal training, I think she was right.

Which is why each of my books starts with place: a forgotten crypt below a deconsecrated church on a cliff, a deserted beach, a remote island, an old house.

Setting is important in crime fiction. It contributes to and affects the plot, evokes mood, and influences the characters. Inishowen is another character in my books, as important as the protagonist herself. I’m not sure they would work if I set them anywhere else.

Some disagree, but my advice is: don’t set your story in a place you haven’t at least visited. Readers can tell if you’ve over-googled. And if you are writing about somewhere you don’t live, keep newspapers, pictures, brochures, to bring you to where you need to be. I live in Dublin now but sometimes an old Donegal Creameries milk carton is enough to take me back to Inishowen.

Setting is not just about accuracy—many writers create fictional locations – it’s about evoking a sense of place. Use language, customs, food and weather to bring a place to life, not just physical landscape. Use all your senses, not just sight, ask yourself what the place sounds like and smells like (something google will rarely tell you). Use a few memorable details rather than too many. Write about place through your character or narrator’s eyes. Are they new to this place? Or do they dislike it? If you are writing about somewhere you know well, become a stranger in your own town – try to notice things as if you are seeing them for the first time.

When I moved to Dublin, Inishowen became easier to write about when I was detached from it – its colours and sounds more vivid because I missed them. But now I return all the time. I’ve just come back from a week there, tapping away on my laptop while gazing out at the North Atlantic Ocean.

At no point do I plan out my books. I simply write as I like to read; with every chapter the mist clears a little, and I can see what will happen in the chapters to follow. I am driving along a foggy road at night and there are times when the road stretches clearly ahead and other times when it is barely visible; either way, I can never see further than the next bend. I think it’s this very quality of not knowing how it will end that drives me to finish the book.

I write the first draft straight through, because for me it is about story: that age-old human need to relate and to hear stories. The first draft is rough, like a piece of stone I need to sculpt, and I have been known to construct scaffolding which I remove later.

But my story starts with setting—always.

Andrea Carter grew up in Laois and studied law at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to the Inishowen peninsula in Co. Donegal where she ran the most northerly solicitors’ practice in Ireland. In 2006 she returned to Dublin to work as a barrister before turning to write crime novels. She was a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and is the recipient of two Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary Awards.

She is the author of the Inishowen Mysteries, most recently The Well of Ice and Murder at Greysbridge. She is published by Oceanview in the U.S., Little, Brown in the U.K. and Goldmann Verlag in Germany. The series will shortly be adapted for television.

The Sunday Times has said ‘Carter excels in re-creating the cloistered, gossipy confines of a small Irish village…the Inishowen peninsula community where everybody knows everybody else’s business is a fine stand-in for the mannered drawing room society of a Christie mystery.’

5/14/19 5/14/19

Why We Kill: A Discussion with Female Crime Authors

Last year I had the pleasure of attending Bouchercon, the annual world mystery convention where crime fiction lovers gather to discuss all things books. Out of the many panels I went to, the one that stuck with me the most was the all-female “Who We Kill and Why.” The discussions about each author’s choices fascinated me. Forty-five minutes wasn’t nearly long enough, so I caught up with Kimberly Belle, Emily Carpenter, E.C. Diskin, Karen Katchur, Laura McHugh, and Mindy Mejia—six powerful, bestselling, and award-winning women—and dug a little deeper into the reasons behind their murderous ways.

1. Hannah Mary McKinnon (HM): What is it about crime that interests you enough to want to write about it?

Emily Carpenter (EC): I love the whole psychological aspect of a person trying to figure out who committed the crime, or is about to commit a crime, without coming right out and asking questions like a detective would, but more with insight and intuition.

Kimberly Belle (KB): I am fascinated not so much with the crime itself, but the psychological aspects of why people commit one. What led them to do something so awful they have to lie to cover it up? What motivated them? And as the story unfolds, I love watching them dig themselves an even deeper hole, especially with the people who love and trust them most.

Laura McHugh (LM): In addition to the psychological aspect that Emily and Kimberly mentioned, crimes are like puzzles to me, and I hate to see a puzzle go unsolved. I’m often inspired by cold cases because I can’t stop thinking of ways the crime might have unfolded. I want to figure out what happened, and the victim deserves for the truth to be unraveled.

Karen Katchur (KK:): It’s the same for me. I write about crime in order to explore the why. Why do we, as a society, often resort to violence? Why do we continue to hurt each other? And, like Laura said, it’s a puzzle I want to solve. Also, it’s a way for me to assuage my fears about violence. I lean into that fear when I’m writing, and I control the outcome. Making sure justice is served one way or another is hugely satisfying.

E.C. Diskin (ED): I agree with all of these points, so I guess I’ll just add that, sometimes, I’m drawn to write about an issue that might, on its face, have nothing to do with violence, but as I figure out how to write a compelling, page-turning tale, it naturally becomes what could be called a crime story. Nothing ups the stakes like life and death consequences.

2. (HM): Do you typically kill off the men or the women in your novels, or are you an equal opportunist?

(KB): I typically come at a story from a female POV (point of view), which means if it’s not violence committed against my women characters, there’s some kind of great betrayal. My stories concentrate on relationships—parent/child, siblings, spouses—a tight type of bond that makes the betrayal hit even harder.

(MM): I skew slightly male in my body counts, but gender is normally a secondary consideration, a 30,000-foot revision question. When I’m writing I’m more interested in the victim’s character and agency, giving them enough resources and power to determine their own fates. Sometimes they make it out alive. Sometimes they don’t intend to survive.

(KK): Well, I’ve written four novels and in every one of them I’ve killed men. I didn’t plan to only kill men. I didn’t even realize it until someone pointed it out to me. So like Mindy, gender wasn’t a consideration. I just wrote the stories I wanted to tell. That said, my fifth novel has a female body count.

(ED): I guess I’m an equal opportunity killer. I never gave it much consideration, but as I look back, both men and women have killed and been killed.

3. (HM): With so much crime against women in the world, why make them suffer in your novels, too?

(EC): It’s oddly satisfying to solve crimes and right wrongs in a world that can be so infuriatingly unjust.

(KB): My stories are realistic, and they reflect what’s happening in the world. That’s the appeal of the genre, I think, that readers read it and think, this could have happened to me.

(MM): I agree with Kimberly. We’re not writing fantasy. We live in a world where it’s often acceptable for women to suffer, and our responsibility as writers is to help people reject that cultural acceptance, and examine misogynistic violence on a deeper and more personal scale.

(KK): I agree with Emily, Kimberly and Mindy. We’re finally reading/writing about the side of the victim, the victim’s families, and I love that women are taking control of their own narratives. It’s so refreshing to read about crime from a woman’s perspective, since we’re often the ones on the receiving end. It’s relatable. It’s real.

(ED): I agree. It’s realistic for bad things to happen to women, particularly at the hands of men, but I also like to portray women as heroes more than just victims. That’s the reality too and it’s nice to write about women fighting back, getting even, saving the day, killing the bad guy, solving the murders, etc.

4. (HM): How has #MeToo influenced your work?

(KB): One of my characters In Three Days Missing was inspired by the #MeToo story of a very dear friend. It’s a fictionalized story crafted around a real-life one, and writing it helped me sort through all the emotions I felt, the sadness and helplessness and anger, while watching my friend go through hers.

(MM): The book I’m finishing now is the first I’ve written since the #MeToo movement began and it’s taken a very subversive point of view. I can’t say more without spoilers. Ask me again in a year when it’s out.

(KK): My next book, Cold Woods, was actually written before the #MeToo movement, and it’s finally coming out in 2019. So I guess you could say these issues have been on my mind for a long time. It centers around domestic violence and sexual abuse in the eighties, when there was very little protection for victims. It’s also about friendship and how strong women can be when they stick together, especially when confronted with extraordinary circumstances.

(ED):Desperate Paths, out in March, definitely has #MeToo issues, though like Karen’s Cold Woods, that story began before the movement. My guess is that we’ve all been exploring these issues long before it became a hashtag, simply because sexual harassment and/or sexual assault are realities that every woman on the planet knows and understands—whether personally or not. Actually, as I look back at my books, there are elements, at least in passing, of sexually-charged dangerous behavior—whether feared or experienced—in every story I’ve written because that’s a woman’s life, whether she’s in a parking lot, a bar, or at an office holiday party.

5. (HM): How do you think male and female authors approach the subject of murder?

(KB): As I’ve mentioned before, I love stories that explore the killer’s relationships and motivations, and some of my all-time favorites were written by women. To me, women authors just seem to dig deeper into the psychological whys, which are far more interesting to me than the hows.

(ED): I’m not sure I can answer this because I’ve read a few books by men in the genre, but not enough to generalize. I read a ton of badass women authors (like EC, KB, KK, MM, LM, HM)!

6. (HM): How do you think female crime authors are perceived vs. male crime authors?

(EC): I think women rule in the suspense genre! So many incredibly talented, smart, savvy authors who are writing the best, most innovative books are women.

(KB): I agree with Emily, but I also think that all genres suffer from a male-dominated industry. Yes, women are writing great books, but so much talent gets overlooked just because the author’s name is female.

(LM): I think male crime writers often get better covers, ones that might appeal to both male and female readers. Not many thrillers by men have a woman in a red coat on the cover, or the back of a woman’s head—or the back of a man’s head, for that matter. Books are often judged by their covers, and it’s unfortunate if some readers are deterred by covers that are unnecessarily feminized.

(MM): I agree with Laura. So much of perception is marketing, and women tend to be packaged and marketed differently than men. I’ve also met male authors who’ve struggled to break into psychological and domestic suspense, two sub-genres that female authors are perceived to dominate.

(ED): I think whatever the perceptions were, they’re rapidly changing. Women—including my fellow responders here—are taking the industry by storm, but we all have to fight the marketing machines and label-makers.

7. (HM): Do any of your experiences influence what you write about?

(EC): My critique partners tell me I’m always writing about nature trying to kill people, which basically reveals the truth that I am not outdoorsy in the least. I write a lot about the south and religion and difficult mother/daughter relationships. Hmm.

(KB):All my experiences influence what I write about, whether consciously or unconsciously. I’m always hearing from family and friends that they recognize me in my stories.

(LM): Same as Kimberly, there are bits and pieces of myself in each of my novels. My most recent book was partly inspired by the unexplained death of my brother; writing about it allowed me to solve a mystery that I can’t solve in real life.

(KK): Absolutely. I’ve seen three dead bodies outside of funeral homes: a drowning, auto accident, and a murder victim. Also, I grew up around law enforcement.

(ED): I have recently realized just how autobiographical writing thrillers and mysteries can be! I used to think I just had a wild imagination, but I often find (after a draft is complete) that I’m deeply embedded in the story, either in the characters or in the issues or worries.

8. (HM): Is there anything you consider too dark to read or write about?

(KB): I’ve written about abuse, missing children, and murder, so...no? But I do tend to choose subjects where I can work towards a bright spot, not necessarily a happily ever after, but I want the reader to get the feeling that my main character will be okay.

(LM): So far, no. I don’t think any topic is off-limits, but it really depends on how the subject matter is approached and depicted.

(MM): I don’t do horror or gore, anything that relies on death as spectacle or entertainment.

(KK): I’m not sure. I’ll let you know if I come across anything that’s too dark for me. It hasn’t happened, yet!

(ED): I can handle most subjects, but there are certainly acts of violence I would rather never imagine or have a reader imagine. If a killer is particularly twisted or gruesome, I’m certainly not going to entertain his/her point of view and I’m not going to remind readers of the details again and again. I’m trying to keep readers up at night, but I’m not trying to give anyone nightmares

9. (HM): Any stereotypes in crime writing that drive you crazy?

(KB): I don’t know about stereotypes, but it is getting harder and harder to stay current and fresh. Where is this genre going next? It’s a constant struggle.

(LM): I occasionally come across crime novels where the supporting characters are undeveloped stereotypes who only show up to serve the hero’s needs—devoted wife, meek secretary, horny waitress. I love character-driven crime fiction, so I tend to put books with flat characters aside.

(MM): Can we be done with the detective haunted by a secret from his past? It’s 2019. Get Talkspace [Online Therapy]. Figure that out before you reluctantly take on your next big case.

10. (HM): How do you feel about deliberately writing unlikeable women? Ever worried it’ll turn the reader off?

(EC): I’ve had people tell me my characters should be more likable. But I find them immensely likable. Not sweet necessarily, but interesting.

(MM): Likeable is a giant catch-all net of a word, isn’t it? What do we mean when we say likable when we hit that like button on a post, or tell someone we liked this character and disliked that one? We could be talking about relatability, about charisma, about strength, humor, or daring. I wish we could strip ‘like’ from our vocabularies and get to the heart of what really attracts or repels us, and why those criteria tend to change with a character’s gender. For my part, I never worry about writing traditionally likable characters, whether men or women, as long as they are compelling. My characters aren’t friendly, but they’re strong. They navigate tumultuous worlds with cores of steel and unique—sometimes highly skewed—definitions of right and wrong.

(ED): Agree… I was told recently to consider softening a character because it seemed that everyone was un-likable, and the reader needed at least one person to cheer for. I understood her point, but I wasn’t sure she was giving the reader enough credit. To me, just because a character makes choices that might be ‘immoral’ or ‘unethical’ to someone, doesn’t mean I discard her or the book. In fact, it makes me want to understand her. I’d rather have a book full of interesting and complicated people. I’ll keep reading as long as I’m curious about where the story is going.

11. (HM): Do you think you’ll ever write something lighter…a romance, perhaps?

(EC): I’m dying to write a romance and a paranormal and also a legal thriller, but I’m not a lawyer so that one is going to be tough.

(KB): Not anytime soon. I am a literary adrenaline junkie, and I’m not sure I could slow myself down enough to work on something else. I love writing—and reading—suspense.

(LM): Not likely. Darkness comes naturally to me. When I started writing, people would ask if I wanted to write children’s books—probably because I was a stay-at-home mom with two young girls—but no one asks that now, after reading my work.

(MM): Is dystopian noir fantasy lighter? Then, yes.

(KK): Probably not. I’m a big fan of ghost stories, though, so I’d like to give that a try.

(ED): I might write another legal thriller, but otherwise, I think this shoe fits. Like KB, I need a certain pace to keep me focused—as a reader and writer—and I find that in thrillers/mysteries/suspense/crime.

Find out more about each author and their latest novels:

Kimberly Belle (KB): – Dear Wife (June 25, 2019): www.kimberlybellebooks.com

Emily Carpenter (EC): – Until the Day I Die (March 12, 2019): www.emilycarpenterauthor.com

EC Diskin (ED): – Desperate Paths (March 19, 2019): www.ecdiskin.com

Karen Katchur (KK): – Cold Woods (August 13, 2019): www.karenkatchur.com

Laura McHugh (LM): – The Wolf Wants In (August 6, 2019): www.lauramchughbooks.com

Mindy Mejia (MM): – Leave No Trace (out now): www.mindymejia.com

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. Hannah’s third novel Her Secret Son, releases May 28, 2019. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter @HannahMMcKinnon, and Instagram @HannahMaryMcKinnon. For more, visit www.HannahMaryMcKinnon.com

5/7/19 5/7/19

When an Author's Character Takes On a Life of Their Own

I’m a mystery author, and the character I write about is TV journalist Clare Carlson. We’ve had a complex relationship, Clare and me. It started off as a brief fling, but now has somehow grown into something much more long-term. I’m not sure exactly where we’re headed next, but I’m sure Clare will tell me.

Okay, I know Clare is just a work of fiction that I created. But that’s what happens to an author’s character a lot of times: they really do take on a life of their own.

Clare Carlson began as my protagonist in a fifty-page manuscript that I submitted to Killer Nashville for the Claymore Award competitionback in 2016. Clare was an ex-newspaper reporter turned TV news executive trying to uncover the truth about a legendary missing child case in New York City, while at the same time hiding long-buried secrets of her own. I really wasn’t sure there would ever be any more of her other than those fifty pages.

To my surprise, the manuscript—then called Forget Me Not—won the Claymore Award. So I wound up writing a full manuscript about Clare and her exploits in TV news. The book was later sold to Oceanview Publishing, who put it out (under the title of Yesterday’s News) last year.

It was never meant to be more than a stand-alone novel, so I figured I’d say goodbye to Clare after that.

But then the people at Oceanview asked if I’d do another Clare Carlson book. I, of course, said yes.

That book, Below the Fold—about the seemingly insignificant death of a homeless woman on the streets of NYC that leads to shocking revelations about rich and powerful figures—was published on May 7 of this year.

Looking ahead now, I’ve just completed a third Clare Carlson book that will be out in 2020.

During this time, Clare has changed a lot from the woman I envisioned her to be when I wrote those first 50 pages for Killer Nashville. She’s a good person. An interesting person. But she’s also definitely a flawed person—both professionally and personally, she makes some bad decisions. I like her most of the time, but not always.

I’m the one writing the Clare Carlson character, of course.

But she continually surprises me with some of the directions that character takes.

Of course, I’m not the only author who has had this experience with their characters.

Jeffery Deaver told me in an interview not long ago how he originally planned to kill off his popular Lincoln Rhyme character at the end of the first book (by suicide, no less)—but Lincoln Rhymes just refused to die. In the end, Deaver couldn’t pull the trigger on his suicide. I’m sure he’s happy about that now with fourteen best-selling Lincoln Rhyme series books, plus a hit movie in The Bone Collector.

The same sort of thing happened to Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child with their hugely-popular Agent Pendergast. Pendergast was just a minor character in their first few books, taking a back seat to other law enforcement figures. But Pendergast’s personality burst through big time in the third book—and he’s been a huge mystery/thriller fan favorite ever since.

And did you know that Hawk, one of the most beloved characters in Robert B. Parker’s long-running Spenser series, didn’t make his first appearance until the fourth Spenser book? I wonder if Parker thought back then that Hawk would play such a big role in his books. And, for that matter, Susan Silverman—Spenser’s long-time love interest—wasn’t in the first book. She showed up in book two.

Did Parker think Hawk and Susan were just one-time characters in those books when he wrote them? Maybe not, but I doubt that even he envisioned the huge role they would play in all the Spenser novels going forward.

But, like I say, sometimes an author’s character just takes on a life of their own.

They grow. They change. They refuse to die. They go in entirely new directions, and—most surprising of all—they refuse to listen to anything the author tells them to do.

In the end, the author generally winds up letting them have their own way.

Hey, if you don’t believe me, just ask Clare Carlson.

R.G. Belsky is a longtime journalist and a crime fiction author in New York City. Belsky has worked as a top editor at the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. He has also published 12 mystery novels, including his current Clare Carlson series – about a New York City TV journalist.

4/12/19 4/12/19

Mycroft? Not Sherlock?

In 1969 I was the NBA’s first draft pick. The Milwaukee Bucks had won a coin toss with the Phoenix Suns, which meant that, after four years in warm and sunny L.A., I would be back in the cold and the snow — of a consistency and a tenacity that put New York snow to shame. I ended up reading a lot, both at home and on road trips, and someone gave me a full set of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, which I devoured. To this day I believe that the act of paying attention to my environment, of looking for clues that reveal weaknesses in other players, helped my game. Frankly, I thought that was going to be as far as my love affair with all things Holmes went.

Fast forward to 2013. At that point, I had been retired for several years and already had several books under my belt, including two autobiographies, another about my time coaching kids on a Native American reservation, one about African Americans who served with distinction in World War II, yet another about the Harlem Renaissance, even a few children’s books. That’s when my manager and producing partner, Deborah Morales, asked me if I had ever thought about writing a novel.

No, I said. But if I were to write one, it would be an exploration on Sherlock Holmes’s older and lesser-known brother Mycroft.

Needless to say, Deborah didn’t hear the cash register ring. But, dutiful soul that she is, she brought aboard our friend Anna Waterhouse, a screenwriter who had helped produce two documentaries with us, one which aired on HBO, the other which ended up winning the NAACP Award for Best Documentary. Anna admitted that she didn’t know much about Mycroft Holmes (or Sherlock, for that matter), but that she was willing to investigate.

We began work on the first novel, Mycroft Holmes, in 2014, which came out in September 2015 to great reviews and surprisingly good sales. We deepened our understanding of his character, and of Sherlock’s, in Mycroft and Sherlock, which came out October 9 of this year (2018). Then, recently, we turned in our third novel in the series, which will be published at the end of 2019.

The first book only features Sherlock in one chapter, whereas in Mycroft and Sherlock they’re almost evenly divided. And our characters are young, by the way: in book two, Mycroft is only 26 and Sherlock is 19. They’re still discovering things about themselves and each other. They’re still making mistakes. They have a ways to go before they inhabit the characters that Conan Doyle writes about.

Frankly, the differences between the brothers are more compelling than their similarities, but let’s get the similarities out of the way. They’re both extremely keen observers of human nature, and of details in nature that most of us wouldn’t notice on a bet. They’re both willful and eccentric, wrapped up in their own internal worlds (understandable, since the external world can barely keep up with them). But whereas Sherlock is fascinated by crime and criminals, and like a bloodhound on the scent is determined to “get his man,” Mycroft is interested only in the bigger picture: the criminals whose misdeeds might upset the global balance, especially if doing so can in any way injure his beloved England. And, whereas Sherlock studies different sorts of cigarette and cigar ash, paper stock, or the tracks that vehicles make in order to become more proficient at reading clues, Mycroft is blessed and cursed with a photographic memory and the ability to speed read. Since genius comes more easily to him than to Sherlock, he tends to treat it the way most of us treat our fingers: convenient, sure; but not really something we give a great deal of thought to. This of course annoys Sherlock no end, as does Mycroft’s dismissal of anything that interests Sherlock.

Mycroft is also, by nature, more conventional than Sherlock. While Sherlock has no interest in courtship, Mycroft would like nothing better than to have a home and a family. Since we know that can never be — because Conan Doyle kept them both bachelors — as authors, it is our sad duty to be sure that Mycroft can’t ever get what he wants in the romance department.

The parts of the novel that seem to be the most fun for readers are the ones that feature both brothers working together, and yet keeping secrets from each other and trying to outmaneuver each other. These competitions between siblings are a lot of fun for us to write, especially given that both Anna and I are only children. It’s all the arguments we would have had with siblings, I guess, if we’d had the chance.

And of course, in starting them so young, we can also delve into how they were raised and how that might account for their behavior and their oddities. Conan Doyle tells us only that their parents were “country squires,” meaning landowners, so it gives us a lot of leeway to speculate.

Whatever happens from this point on, I’ve really enjoyed putting together these stories — more like gigantic puzzles, really — and I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to explore these fascinating characters. A big thanks to Arthur Conan Doyle, and an even bigger thanks to our faithful readers.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a global icon that changed the game of professional basketball. Since his stellar professional career, he has gone on to become a celebrated New York Times-bestselling author, filmmaker, ambassador of education, and Time Magazine columnist. A sought-after speaker, Abdul-Jabbar recounts in riveting and humorous detail his exciting evolution from street ball player to successful athlete, author, producer, and community activist.

4/11/19 4/11/19

Full Disclosure

“Write what you know” is the age-old advice new writers usually get. As a result, we get a fair number of novels where the protagonist is rather similar to the author, except, of course, smarter, buffer, and all around more exciting. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re going to make up stuff, why not draw on, well, what you know. It makes the making-up part of writing a little easier. We writers have to work hard enough to make sure the stuff any reader can check up on is correct, never mind coming up with an entirely new character. Now, if you are (or were) a cop, a dancer, a reporter, a firefighter, or a CIA analyst, then taking that personal experience and making it more dramatic makes perfect sense. Take off a few years (and pounds), add a few muscles and a great plot, and you’re good to go.

That didn’t work for me. When I began writing crime fiction, I faced an existential dilemma. I’d never been at the receiving end of a crime. My own transgressions were rather pathetically minor. Something like a couple of parking tickets and a few encounters with illegal substances. I’ve never even been pulled over. The closest I got to a gun was during my military service in Germany in the mid-1970s. And then, I became…wait for it…a professor. How can I write international thrillers based on what I know? I know how to keep students mildly entertained, I know how to write articles that only my best friends read (if they are nice). Sure, I’ve traveled to many exotic places, but, again, never to war zones, never to disaster areas. I’m male, I’m white, I’ve had all the privileges that come with those social constructions. Consequently, I’ve lived a rather calm, predictable, even sheltered life. As far as crime fiction is concerned, I don’t know a damn thing.

Okay, now let’s take a quick detour. I recently had the occasion to interview an author of creative nonfiction. In preparation for the interview, I read some of her essays published in a variety of reputable outlets. The essays I read were autobiographical but were told with all the tools creative writing offers. There was a degree of intimacy in those essays that made me feel a little like a voyeur. They were sad, at times shocking, but also funny. I kept forgetting that these stories had really happened. I asked her about this, and she stated plainly that she doesn’t shy away from disclosing truths that are very personal. Those disclosures create vulnerability, but they also offer points of connection with the reader.

Back to the main point. Unlike that author, I don’t reveal personal truths in my thrillers. My protagonist is not at all like me. He’s younger, fitter, knows accounting, and speaks French, Flemish, German, and English. He’s stubborn, has the tenacity of a bulldog, everything you’d expect from a protagonist. But he isn’t my better, more desirable self. I don’t wish I were him, hell no.

The more I thought about the disconnect between who I am and what I write, the more I realized that I wasn’t being honest. I do know international and African studies (my academic fields), so there’s plenty of material for international thrillers. But knowing stuff doesn’t, by itself, make for a compelling story. The missing ingredient is empathy. Yup, you read right, empathy. I know it sounds crazy. Do you need to have empathy to write thrillers? I say yes. And this is where the lessons from the author I interviewed started to make sense. I’m not writing about my own life, but I write about the lives of people I’ve invented. It behooves me to create each of these characters with empathy, to feel what they are feeling as best as I can. By letting my characters act, love, and suffer in specific ways, I reveal something about myself. This is my version of letting myself be vulnerable. To the extent that my readers resonate with those emotions, I’ve made a connection with them. We connect over the shared sense that a specific character reaction to a situation sounds true to us because we can feel with them. It’s quite different from an autobiographical essay, few readers will be able to say, “Aha, so that’s who Michael Niemann really is.” And that quite alright with me.

Fostering empathy can be learned. For me, the starting point was learning Nonviolent Communication as pioneered by Marshall Rosenberg. For others, it may be something else. But employing empathy, being vulnerable and showing how I would feel in a given situation helps me create more plausible characters. This is especially important when it comes to writing antagonists. We don’t need more cardboard cutouts for villains. They, too, need to be real human beings, not ones we like, but still ones acting to meet their needs, even if their strategies for doing so are terribly harmful.

So, write what you know, but not only in the sense of rational knowledge, write also what you feel deeply and let yourself be vulnerable while you do it.

Michael Niemann grew up in a small town in western Germany before moving to the United States. He has studied at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn, Germany, and the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver where he received his PhD in International Studies. He now lives in southern Oregon with his dog Stanley.

Michael's latest thriller, NO RIGHT WAY, releases on June 11, 2019. It is available for pre-order here: https://amzn.to/2v0aqpf

You can visit him at his website, www.michael-niemann.com.

3/29/19 3/29/19

Getting the Most Out Of Your Supporting Cast

You’ve spent a lot of time developing your protagonist. She has a good backstory, motivations, internal conflicts, a favorite coffee creamer—everything she needs to be a compelling lead for your story. Now it’s time to make sure she’s surrounded by a great supporting cast. But don’t be misled by the word “supporting.” Sometimes, an ally’s most important job will be to challenge her.

As a crime writer, it’s inevitable that you’re going to put your protagonist in some tough situations. The decisions she makes about how to deal with those situations will either make or break your story. Many of those decisions will need to be exceptional, if not outright unbelievable.

Why would she pursue the killer on her own? Through the woods? At night? And without so much as bug spray to protect her, let alone something useful like a flashlight or a gun? Shouldn’t she just call the police and wait for them to arrive? Preferably in the safety of a large public area like a nearby grocery store or a strip mall?

It’s your job to answer these questions so they don’t linger in the readers’ minds. And your answers have to be good enough to allow them to suspend disbelief. Otherwise, that disbelief will be a roadblock for them.

Your protagonist is going to have to justify her decisions. There are two basic ways she can do this: she can explain her decisions to herself by thinking about them, or she can explain them to someone else through dialogue. Without a doubt, the second option is better than the first.

Your protagonist will spend an abundance of story time thinking about stuff. In fact, regardless of whether your story is told using a first person or a limited third person point of view (omniscient should be avoided in most cases), the reader will basically be living inside her head. Explanation through dialogue can be a welcome break. So who will she be explaining her decisions to?

One of the best uses of your supporting characters can be their ability to voice the concerns of your readers. Assuming you know ahead of time what questions they may have (and you should), your protagonist’s friends or allies can be the ones to ask them.

You’re going after him on your own? Are you crazy? You don’t even have bug spray!

Ultimately, whatever her justification is, it should be good enough to sway the reader, but it doesn’t have to change the mind of the supporting character. This can add a nice bit of conflict that further isolates your protagonist. One more device to raise the tension in the story.

For better or worse, supporting characters often resemble archetypes. Without intending to, I’ve been guilty of relying on three of them in particular: the mentor, the fan, and the sidekick/partner/best friend/love interest (yes, these can all be the same person). Each of these characters can question a different aspect of your protagonist’s decision-making process.

The mentor is good at questioning whether she may be abandoning some principle or lesson that he taught her in the past. You’re going after him on your own? I’ve told you a thousand times, always wait for backup!

The fan can give her a push when she might be reluctant. You’re not going after him? But we’re all counting on you to catch the bad guy!

And the sidekick/partner/best friend/ love interest can express the most concern for her personal safety. I can’t let you go in those woods alone. You don’t even have…

You get the idea. You’ve created a new world and populated it with interesting people. Maximize their utility. Let those characters who are closest to your protagonist challenge her. Not only will your readers sympathize, but the extra tension may make the story even more compelling.

While J. R. Backlund's heart resides in North Carolina, where he was born, his parents transplanted him to the Sunshine State before he was old enough to put up a fight. Prior to writing his first novel, he studied journalism at the University of Florida, then took a thirteen-year detour in construction management before getting back to telling stories. He lives in Jacksonville with his wife and their furry children -- they don't like it when he calls them dogs.

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

Want to have your writing included in Killer Nashville Magazine?
Fill out our submission form and upload your writing here:

SUBMIT YOUR WRITING