KN Magazine: Articles

11/19/21 11/19/21

Ducks on the Pond by Steven C. Harms

THE WRITER’S PLAYBOOK

One of the most fascinating aspects of writing in the mystery/thriller/suspense genre is the enormous opportunity to consistently deliver a unique plot twist that the reader didn’t see coming. It’s the chapter that ignites the story like a rocket, captivating the reader such that they never forget it for the rest of their lives. The grander that “moment” plays out, the more unforgettable it becomes.

Now place yourself at a baseball game at whatever level – Little League, high school, collegiate or MLB. While the sport offers several incredible moments in every game, there is one that trumps them all… a Grand Slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the game. As the game unfolds the intrigue builds and sets up that seminal moment to transport the fan from watching the game, to inching to the edge of their seat, to standing to elation or complete depression. The reason is the emotional investment by the fan culminating in that razor’s edge setting of a thrilling victory or crushing defeat.

The reason both a reader and sports fan experience a very similar “rush” is the experience they witnessed in the outcome of both stories. For the reader, the plot twist triumph of good over evil and for the fan, the plot twist athletic accomplishment that results in victory for their team.

In this manner, I think lifting a page from baseball’s most glorious moment is educational in the construct of a plot twist that a reader will remember forever. The Grand Slam set up takes time to build to because all the pieces must fall in place in a certain way, and in a definitive order to set the stage.

Baseball’s ability to deliver that plot twist moment is different than any other sport. It takes time to build to because all the pieces must fall in place and in a certain way in order to set the stage for that glorious home run. The game lingo for players on base are “ducks on the pond,” a metaphor used by baseball announcers and fans across the country. Its origin goes back to the 1940’s and is still used today. Most often, getting those ducks on the pond is not accomplished with big plays, but rather a combination of small moments that have connective tissue to the previous one.

As an example, it’s the bottom of the 9th inning and the hometown team is down by one run. Last chance to win the game is they must score at least twice. I’ve seen this countless times over my 15 year career with the Detroit Tigers. What happens is a combination of smaller plays that build the Grand Slam story along the lines of:

Batter 1 is walked unintentionally.
Batter 2 sacrifice bunts Batter 1 over to second base, eliminating the double play possibility and advancing the runner.
Because Batter 1 is at second base in scoring position, so the pitcher intentionally walks Batter 3 to reset the opportunity to force a double play and end the inning. Now Batter 1 and Batter 3 are on base.
Batter 4 hits a deep enough fly ball to allow Batter 1 to advance to third base but holds Batter 3 at first because the relay throw comes to second base preventing Batter 3 from advancing.
The pressure has ratcheted up the pressure on the pitcher, now facing Batter 5. The pitcher’s composure is challenged, resulting in a hit-by-pitch scenario on the sixth pitch with a 3-2 count and the game on the line. The pitcher has now erringly put Batter 5 on first and has moved Batter 3 over to second. Bases loaded…ducks on the pond!
Batter 6, the best slugger on the team, steps to the plate and you know the result. Fans go nuts as the plot twist unfolds. The crack of the bat brings them to their feet in unison as they watch the baseball sail over the fence. Elation! Victory! Can you believe what just happened? Grand Slam to win the game!

The point of this comparison is that a combination of smaller plot lines that build and feed off one another (positively and negatively) is maneuvered in such a way as to build plot and ratchet up the stakes of the outcome. It may be your antagonist commits an unforced error, or that your minor character does something that the reader doesn’t even realize feeds the set up later in the book. By the time the unbelievable plot twist chapter comes along, it’s loaded with “ducks on the pond.”

A home run plot twist is great for the reader, but a Grand Slam, bottom of the ninth inning home run is an emotional thrill ride of huge proportions.

Happy writing!

Steve

Steven C. Harms is a professional sports, broadcast and digital media business executive with a career spanning over thirty years across the NBA, NFL, and MLB. He’s dealt with Fortune 500 companies, major consumer brands, professional athletes, and multi-platform integrated sports partnerships and media advertising campaigns.

He’s an accomplished playwright having written and produced a wildly successful theatrical production which led him to tackling his debut novel, Give Place to Wrath, the first in the Roger Viceroy detective series. The second book, The Counsel of the Cunning, is due out in fall of 2021.

A native of Wisconsin, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. He now resides in Oxford, Michigan, a small, rural suburb of Detroit.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Bringing a Foreign Land to Life by Maria Hudgins

MYSTERIOUS GETAWAYS

It is the five senses that bring a setting to life. Can you hear the sound of Big Ben? I can hear it in my mind. Do I have to explain what lemon gelato on the Isle of Capri tastes like? Do the very words “lemon gelato” make you feel as if you are there? I’m not Muslim but calls to prayer broadcast all over town when I’m crossing the street in Istanbul, warm my heart. Cheese fondue in Zermatt, Switzerland. Can’t you taste it? These are the little things that should go into the notebook you keep when actually traveling or as now, virtually traveling. You can buy lemon gelato at your local ice cream shop, find a bench overlooking whatever body of water you live near, and pretend. Whatever works.

Sensory details put you there.

You can use your trip notes (and the Internet) to turn, “We had lunch and a beer at a pub,” into “We ordered fish and chips with a pint of Foster’s at the bar, then settled into a corner booth.” Fish and chips automatically brings up an aroma, doesn’t it? “Shopped for souvenirs at a toy store,” becomes “Bought Pez dispensers at Hamley’s on Regent Street.”

A friend of mine whose husband worked for an airline told me about packing for a week in the Swiss Alps followed by a week in Kuwait. Sometimes the contents of a suitcase can tell a story. The clothes your characters wear tell about the weather, the climate, and the local standards of dress.

Stieg Larsson uses words unpronounceable with an English tongue—words like Blomkvist, to remind us we aren’t in Kansas anymore. I can’t say this out loud, but inside my head, I don’t need to.

My efforts to nail down the essence of a place while actually there don’t always work. In a fit of determined verisimilitude, I sat on a bench in the Botanic Gardens in Oxford and closed my eyes and thought. What do I smell? I smelled vanilla. That made no sense. Turns out I was sitting beside a bed of blooming heliotrope. Lovely, but not terribly typical of Oxford. I sat a while longer and was rewarded with a peal of medieval bells from the ancient Magdalen Tower. That’s better.

Listen to Louise Penny’s description of a tranquil spot in the heart of Paris:

“Hell is empty, Armand,” said Stephen Horowitz.

“You’ve mentioned that. And all the devils are here?” asked Armand Gamache.

“Well, maybe not here, here”—Stephen spread his expressive hands–“exactly.”

“Here, here” was the garden of the Musée Rodin, in Paris, where Armand and his godfather were enjoying a quiet few minutes. Outside the walls, they could hear the traffic, the hustle and the tussle of the great city.

But here, here, there was peace.

The writer, I think, must vary the tension in a mystery or a fast-paced thriller. Louise Penny does this by changing the setting without leaving Paris.

Glenn Meade takes us to Cairo, 1939, with this: “The Khan-el-Khalili bazaar was crowded as usual that evening, the noise and the smell of spices and sweaty bodies overpowering . . .” I was there in 2014 and I smelled no sweaty bodies. Hygiene standards are higher now, I guess. As for the sense of touch, there’s nothing better than the Bazaar’s kitten-soft cashmere pashminas in every color. In case you go there yourself, try the rice pudding in the little storefront café near the entrance. It’s the best in the world. I promise.

But I think it’s important to remember that we are writing mysteries and thrillers. Don’t let the plot get lost in lovely word pictures. Without a killer story, we would have NO readers.

Maria Hudgins is the author of the Dotsy Lamb Travel Mysteries, the Lacy Glass Archaeology Mysteries, and a number of short stories. She has visited Italy, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and the Greek Islands, and used these locales in her stories. She still has the notebooks she kept in each of these places.

11/19/21 11/19/21

The Sounds of the Sea by W.C. Gordon

FORENSIC FILES

Technology in law enforcement is really beginning to amaze me. Gone are the days when we would just kick in a door and run through the house. I’m on my way to a call of an apparent suicide now. This guy lives on the 9th floor of an ocean-front condo. The neighbor calls and says she heard a loud pop. Cops show up for a welfare check and the front door is locked and nobody is answering. Normally, that would be the end of it. We wouldn’t return until the neighbor called back to complain about the stench and there were flies on the inside of the window trying to get out. Then you would force entry and find something resembling a human form melted into the couch, or bed, or whatever. Not in today’s law enforcement arena. Today we fly a drone up to the 9th floor and into the open slider on the balcony. Today we see a dead guy with a gun on the couch without having to go inside. Well, you ultimately have to go inside but it saves some headache doing it this way. For instance, if the guy was suicidal but not enough so to kill himself. Then the cops walk in and, BAM!, you have a suicide-by-cop scenario. That’s a lot of paperwork and typically a lot of zeros at the end of a check for the family. Now, a drone can go inside and assess the situation before the cops do. If the not-totally-suicidal-guy shoots the drone, it’s far less paperwork and cost.

It’s a pretty South Florida evening and I decide to take the stairs instead of the elevator. The heat and humidity have given way to a cool ocean breeze and a little exercise won’t kill me. At the 4th floor, I decide that I could be wrong and there has been enough death in this building today, so into the elevator I go. I check in with the officer at the door of the apartment and sign the crime scene log. I look at the Halligan tool rested next to the threshold and inspect the damaged lock. The officer says, “It was locked when we got here.” I nod my head, smile, and say, “The property manager probably has a key but it looks like you guys wanted to use your own.”

I walk into the residence and find the decedent lying on the couch. He’s leaned back against the cushions with his feet up. At least he got comfy. Gun rested next to his left hand and GSW to the left temple. Hmmm, a lefty? A watch is on his right wrist so I suppose that’s consistent with being left-hand dominant.

“How long ago do you think he did it?” asks a new officer in training. His Field Training Officer nearby just shakes her head.

“I’d say approximately three hours ago. If I had to be more specific, I’d say at 6:02 pm.”

The new officers’ eyes open widely as his FTO roll their eyes. “Wow, you can tell that just by looking at this guy?” I hate to burst his investigative bubble but I can’t help it.

“No, the neighbor called at 6:03 pm and said she heard a loud bang about a minute earlier. We call that in the detective bureau a ‘clue.’”

“Was there a note?” I ask the new officer.

“What kind of note, Sir?” The FTO is getting visibly annoyed at this point.

“What we like to call in detective work a ‘suicide note.’” The officer shakes his head in the negative.

Suicide notes are great to have but are increasingly rare at these types of scenes. More common are suicide texts or emails. The soon-to-be-dead will send a farewell electronic message and then do the deed without realizing that their electronic device will typically lock itself. That leaves me with the task of using a dead finger or face to unlock the phone. Difficult, if not impossible, in late stages of decomposition or if the decedent blew their face off. I explain all of this to the new officer and he looks slightly disturbed.

Okie-dokie, time to inspect. No blood spatter on the wall so likely no exit wound. A .38 Special so not a shock that it isn’t a through and through. A ragged entrance wound. Scorching of the skin. Some dark smudging. No stippling. Some deformity from the overpressure. Definitely a contact shot. His head is tilted to the right slightly which caused blood to pool in his ear. I notice something odd about his ear. With my gloved hand, I poke at a little foreign object. You have got to be kidding me. The blood disguised the color. I tip his head to the left and inspect his right ear. An earplug? This guy put orange foam earplugs into his ears before shooting himself. He’s ok with dying but not with tinnitus. Now I’ve seen it all.

After a cursory search of the residence, I call the medical examiner and tell them what I have. I leave out the earplugs. They decline to come out and have a look for themselves. They dispatch the body snatchers, I mean the removal service, and that is that. In and out in less than forty-five minutes which gets me a mandatory four-hour overtime call out. Back home and to my glass of Eagle Rare.

W.C. Gordon is a cop, veteran, and author of the novel The Detective Next Door. His writing is influenced by his personal experiences in the military and in law enforcement, which he then mixes with bourbon and dark humor. He lives at his home in South Florida with his wife and dog.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Novel Malpractice: Concussions by Ronda Wells

As writers, you’re supposed to research your topic. Unfortunately, I joined the School of Hard Knocks. Stepping in a sidewalk crack won’t break your mother’s back but it can trip you and smack your head on concrete. One visit to the E.R., head CT, and X-ray later, I was diagnosed with a mild concussion, contusions, and muscle strains.

I’m thankful to confirm what my brothers have always said: I have a hard head.

Authors love head injuries and concussions because they want a character to be “out of it” for a certain time frame. In medicine though, we deal with ranges rather than precise number of days of symptoms or healing. Medical science knows the least about how our complex brains work and so surprises aren’t unusual.

Concussions are the mildest form of TBI, or traumatic brain injury. TBI has been in the news a lot of late due to the unsettled issue of sports players who suffer repeated hard hits to the head. The concern is a new entity called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. The jury remains out on this, but studies are ongoing.

Medicine loves scores almost as much as the NFL, especially ones that involve emergency treatment. A simple scoring tool helps triage injured or ill patients to the correct next level of care. You may be familiar with a widely used scale for head trauma called the Glasgow Coma Scale. Because of the recent increased interest in head injuries, numerous other scoring systems have been developed. Scoring systems are also used to track the follow-up of head injuries (Post-Concussion Syndrome), similar to how pain is tracked after surgery.

A mild concussion can cause no symptoms, or any or all the following:

headache
blurry vision
issues with slow memory or cognition
balance problems
dizziness or seeing stars
ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
nausea and/or vomiting
issues with sleeping, either too much or too little
irritability and personality changes
sensitivity to light and noise (like a migraine)
disorders of taste and smell
depression and psychological problems
small children may not be able to say what’s wrong, so excessive crying, dazed appearance, unsteady gait, and lack of interest in playing with toys are signs

More severe concussions can cause loss of consciousness, confusion or feeling like your brain is in a fog, or amnesia surrounding the event—not recalling how or where you fell—or worse, seizures.

I was stunned but otherwise able to walk and talk. I suffered a humdinger of a headache that lasted off and on for a couple of weeks. My brain also hurt directly opposite of where I struck my head, something called a contrecoup injury.

Brains are solid but squishy like gelatin. (Not saying my brain is Jello, FYI.) A thin fluid-filled space exists between the surface of the brain and the skull. Due to abrupt deceleration or acceleration, the opposite side of the brain gets forced or bounced against the skull. This can causes a brain contusion (bruise) or even bleeding on that side, in addition to a contusion or bleed on the side of the injury. In some cases, this contrecoup brain injury ends up being worse than the area that was struck.

The risk for serious brain bleeding with a head injury is increased by advanced age, drugs such as blood thinners or aspirin, or by diseases that cause issues with clotting such as hemophilia, alcoholism, cirrhosis and liver diseases. NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen pose a lesser risk.

If you want your character to suffer a head bleed due to a minor head injury, you could have them taking aspirin or be on a blood-thinner for a condition such as blood clots/artificial heart valve/other medical condition.

If you want your healthy and/or young character to have a severe concussion or skull fracture, a trip and fall won’t accomplish that. Severe concussions result from high-speed injuries, hard blows of a weapon such as pipe, fist, golf club etc., gunshot, car wreck, explosions, fall from a great height, or hitting the water hard e.g. from a speeding boat. (Prime example? Young, healthy Connor Fields suffered a head bleed in his BMX crash in the Olympics, reportedly with no skull fracture.)

*Remember: A simple fall or mild knock to the head rarely results in a skull fracture, serious head bleed or coma unless underlying health issues are present.*

Points to take home about Traumatic Brain Injury:

1) The scoring and evaluation of a concussion depends on where your character is. The military uses the MACE (Military Acute Concussion Evaluation). Sports doctors and trainers will typically use the ACE (Acute Concussion Evaluation) score. ER doctors can choose from a variety of common scoring systems.

2) The Glasgow Coma Scale was developed to determine the predicted outcome of a severe head injury that results in an obtunded mental status. The GCS was not designed for concussion scoring, however if someone remains unconscious after a head injury, the Glasgow or modified Glasgow scale comes into play.

3) The most common standard ranking of concussions is Grade 1, 2 and 3, with 3 being the worst.

Grade 1: may have symptoms, but those disappear within fifteen minutes.
Grade 2: No loss of consciousness, but symptoms persist longer than fifteen minutes.
Grade 3: Brief loss of consciousness accompanied by other symptoms.

4) Sports TBI scores go far more in-depth and can even include a physical performance test or computerized visual reaction testing, similar to a video game.

If you google “concussion severity,” you will find no lack of information.

If you want a deeper dive, a great free reference is Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC). 2014. Sports-related concussions in youth: Improving the science, changing the culture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press at ncbi.nlh.nci.gov.

And please, always watch where you step.

An award-winning writer, Ronda Wells hails from the Midwest and is married to a physician. Board-certified in Family Practice, she switched to Occupational Medicine after a stint in private practice. For the last thirty years, she has been a medical director in the health reinsurance industry and case-manages transplants. She has written and published medical policy and guidelines for multiple companies under their name, but her real love has always been fiction. She has just received an offer on her first novel, Harvest of Hope, and is developing a medical suspense series.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Stop Being a Worrywart Writer by Bryan E. Robinson, Ph.D

WRITING RESILIENCE

“Worrying is like paying a debt that may never come due.” —Will Rogers

Raise your hand if you’ve worried about your writing—either that it’s not good enough, that it won’t be accepted, or that no one will take the time to read it. Hey, that’s just about everybody in the room.

Writing and worry go hand in hand, but stop and think about it. Worry doesn’t prepare us for anything, and most of what we worry about never happens. In fact, worry can sabotage the very thing we’re worried about: our writing. It consumes us, drains our energy, keeps us on edge, and interferes with concentration.

Although most worry is unnecessary, our minds and bodies go through
the mental and physical toll anyway, even when things turn out okay, and
we end up paying a debt that never came due. The best policy is to make a
pact with our inner worrywart to wait for the outcome and then worry if
necessary. That way we’re not wasting our valuable writing assets for nothing, and we have more resources to spend on penning our best work.

Today’s Takeaway

Let go of unnecessary worry so you have more energy and concentration
and less stress to focus on what you love most: your best writing.

Bryan E. Robinson is a licensed psychotherapist and author of two novels and 40 nonfiction books. He applies his experiences to crafting insightful nonfiction self-help books and psychological thrillers. His multi-award winning southern noir murder mystery, Limestone Gumption, won the New Apple Book Medal for best psychological suspense, the Silver IPPY Award for outstanding mystery of the year, the Bronze Foreword Review INDIEFAB Book Award for best mystery, and the 2015 USA Regional Excellence Book Award for best fiction in the Southeast.

His most recent release is Daily Writing Resilience: 365 Meditations and Inspirations for Writers (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2018). He has written for Psychology Today, First for Women, and Natural Health, and his blogs and columns for writers appear in Southern Writer’s Magazine. He is a consulting editor for The Big Thrill, the online magazine for International Thriller Writers. His long-selling book, Chained to the Desk, is now in its 3rd Edition (New York University Press, 1998, 2007, 2014). His books have been translated into thirteen languages, and he has appeared on every major television network: 20/20, Good Morning America, ABC’s World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, NBC Universal, The CBS Early Show, CNBC’s The Big Idea. He hosted the PBS documentary, Overdoing It: How to Slow Down and Take Care of Yourself.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Making Peace With Your Inner Critic by Bryan E. Robinson, Ph.D.

INSPIRATION

“When it comes to your inner critic, my advice is to not take advice from someone who doesn’t like you. That’s like returning to the perpetrator for healing after you’ve been abused.”—Patrick Califia, writer

Do you hear voices in your head? Of course, you do if you’re a writer. We creatives have one relentless voice, in particular, that lives in our heads and never rests—an inner critic that puts us under the microscope, bludgeons us with criticism, and tells us how worthless, selfish, dumb, or inept we are. That kick-butt voice pops up like burnt toast with such lightning speed we don’t even notice—eviscerating us with name-calling, discouragement, and putdowns.

The voice tells you that you can’t; you should, ought to, have to, or must. (Psychologists call it “musturbation”). The Critic knows where to find you, no matter where you go. And it does. When you’re working on a manuscript, it stalks you to your desk and whispers in your ear. It could be scolding you right now. Listen closely. Do you hear it: “No, that’s not right! You don’t know what you’re doing! You might as well give up! Who do you think you are, Stephen King? J.K. Rowling? You’re an imposter.”

Burnt toast anyone?

So, when the Critic pops up, what do we do? There’s no use fighting, debating, arguing, silencing, or steamrolling. It always has a comeback and always wins, plus you can’t get rid of it. Instead, observe it like you would a blemish on your hand and listen to it with a curious, dispassionate ear as a part of you. Imagine someone scolding you over your cell phone, and you hold the phone away from your ear. In the same way, you can hold the Critic’s message away from you and listen to it from afar as a separate part from you, not all of you. A dispassionate ear gives you distance from the Critic’s voice and keeps you from identifying with it or attacking yourself. When you let it come and go without fighting or personalizing it, it keeps you from believing the voice’s made-up story. But if you oppose or try to reason with it, you give it credence and, instead of streaming on through, it takes up residence.

What a relief to learn that the voice in our head isn’t who we are. It’s the lowercase “self.” We’re the Writer Self with a capital “S”—the writer who hears and sees the lowercase “self.” The uppercase YOU is composed of “C” words: Creative, Curious, Clarity, Calm, Confident, Courageous, Connected, and Compassion. When you are in one of the “C” states, it automatically triggers some of the others. For example, if we get curious, it often activates clarity then calm. Or when we get calm or confident, it unleashes creativity.

Studies show when you come down hard on yourself after a publisher’s rejection or a harsh review, it’s like attacking the fire department when your house is on fire. It reduces your motivation and dilutes your chances of success. It’s just as easy to affirm yourself with positive messages, as it is to tear yourself down with negative ones. We become proficient at what we practice on a regular basis. If you’re stuck with your writing, try replacing it with Self-compassion (from the capital Self) each step of the way. Experts say self-compassion is a powerful resilient tool that stands up to harm and is more likely to lead to untold heights of literary success. So put down your gavel and amp up your kinder, compassionate side. And in times of writing struggles, give yourself pep talks, positive affirmations, and talk your self off the ledge instead of letting your Critic encourage you to jump.

Vincent Van Gogh once said, “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” I’m no Van Gogh, but I say, “If you hear a voice within you say, “You cannot write,” then by all means write, and that voice will be silenced.”

11/19/21 11/19/21

Part 2: Misuse of Punctuation Power by Angela K. Durden

PUNCTUATION IS POWER

“Sentence, this, that is, this one sentence, copies exactly; or almost exactly though some may disagree! But that’s for another time to discuss, style. Yes, the style of a writer whose style, true some call it searching for a style, has not been found, nay clarified.”

That was painful to read, wasn’t it? Did you even finish the paragraph? Wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. Rest assured I did not make up this style, but was once hired to edit a full-length novel written exactly like that. The author was unequivocal when he said, “Don’t change my voice.” In that he was a lot like ee cummings.

Let me make that original paragraph more plain: Those inverted sentences and fragments won’t be helped by tweaking; they need a rewrite.

However, the question that arises is this: Is all aggravation of a reader bad?

Answer: No! Plot points and character development and first, second, third person points of view and telling and showing and scene setting and cliffhangers all serve to drive a story making it—hopefully!—a page turner. We all want to hear readers say, “I couldn’t put your book down.”

Readers don’t want to work terribly hard to find the story between commas flung willy-nilly, exclamation points shouting everywhere, other punctuation marks running roughshod through it, or a writer meandering in search of a style. That is not their job. Their job is to plunk money down to be entertained. So, aggravate a reader with plot tension. Intensify their engrossment in the character’s journey. Make them love, hate, agree, disagree, with characters, plot, even the ending, yet leave them always wanting more.

But for the love of God, go easy on the punctuation. Less is more until more is less. So now the question is: Geez, when am I to worry about punctuation? See Part 3.

Author, editor, publisher, and more: learn about Angela K. Durden here and here and here.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Starting As a Writer by Dale T. Phillips

THE SUCCESSFUL INDIE WRITER

Some of the basic questions a starting writer has:

How do I write?

What do I write?

How do I publish?

How do I promote and sell?

How Do I Write?

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

― Stephen King

King is right on this. To be successful in selling fiction, you really must be in love with reading. You’ve got to know how words are put together to make a compelling story, you’ve got to know what works in telling a story, and what doesn’t work. You’ve got to know the field you’re competing in. If you write in a genre, you must know the tropes and conventions of that genre. Storytellers enjoy the stories of others, and learn from them. Walking through a house frame doesn’t make you a carpenter, it’s having the tools and skills and experience to know how things are put together. As a master carpenter is a craftsman, making things fit, functional, and looking good, so must you be with your writing.

You don’t need a college degree, or specialized training. While it’s helpful to improve through workshops, writing programs, mentoring, critique groups, reader feedback, you can learn much on your own through focused study and practice, practice, practice. Always be improving. The more you write, the better you should get, because the study and the practice works to improve what you do. The “Ten-thousand-hour rule” is much more complex than just putting in that number of hours to get successful. You need specific, focused practice.

There are hundreds of books that tell you how to become a better writer, and they can be your writing program. You should be familiar with at least some of the best of them, and absorb their lessons. See what the writers you admire recommend. Every year, you should have gone through some craft lessons that will make your writing better. Even now, I’ll come across some piece of advice that helps me get unstuck from some thorny issue I’m having with the telling of a tale. These are tips from professional writers who’ve been there, and most of your issues will have been discussed somewhere. Having a broad and deep knowledge of the lessons of the writing craft books is a substantial help in becoming a successful writer.

Are you familiar with how tales are told in different Points of View (POV)? Story arcs? The hero’s journey? Beats in story structure? The unreliable narrator? Foreshadowing? The surprise ending or twist? All this and more should be part of your craft knowledge.

The answer to when to write is whenever you can, and whatever works for you: morning, noon, night, lunch breaks, vacations, whenever. Having the habit of writing is supreme, because it makes you practice a lot, which gets you better quicker, and produces more output. A mere 500 words a day, most days, gives you the word count of several novels in the course of a year. Don’t wait for the perfect time or for inspiration, they may not come as often as needed. Put words down as often as possible, even if they’re not good. They’ll get better.

What Do I Write?

The question of what to write is a personal one. Some writers set about creating books for the market they think are popular types, chasing the latest publishing fad. This rarely works in traditional publishing, because the long development times mean the fad will likely be over by the time the book is ready to come out, or the fad too quickly gets glutted with similar books. The best thing about Indie publishing is you never have to worry that a particular book won’t get published, due to it not being commercial enough for someone else to make a lot of money from.

Traditional path writers have to constantly worry about being dropped by their publisher if a book doesn’t sell well, so they strive to be as commercial as possible. While they do, there’s usually the desire to write “the book of the heart,” one that matters to them, but may not be as commercially successful. In the Indie world, every book can be the book of the heart. And when you write books that deeply matter to you, you’ll likely find a devoted readership, and more personal success, rather than writing blah books you don’t care about, even if they put food on the table.

My metaphor for this is that fast-food chains make money selling a lot of junk food, which fills a need for many. I prefer to run a top-level restaurant, which produces memorable meals that create a good life experience.

How Do I Publish?

To the question of how to publish, there are now different, good options, and each writer must decide what path is best for themselves.

There’s a lot to learn about the world of publishing these days. Lucky for you, there’s a great deal of good information about at your fingertips, distilled down for you to easily absorb. If you want to be successful, it’s good to know what’s happening in the writing and publishing world. Various articles, blogs, and newsletters give great information on current writing and publishing events. Writer organizations let their members know about areas of concern. Some sites warn of various dangers, such as predatory people or trends. Be aware of your world.

Publishing in general:

Research! Learn the business before you publish.
Go Indie to control your career.
Go wide for Discoverability (how can readers find your books?)- Formats, Distributors, and promote for free in as many places as you can.
All formats- print, ebook, audio, others as they become available, for example, graphic novels.
Use the big distributors- Amazon/Ingram’s Lightning Source for print, Smashwords/Draft2Digital for ebooks, and options like ACX/Audible for audio.

How Do I Promote and Sell?

To the question of how to promote and sell, there are hundreds of books which go into great detail about how to do just that. You should have at least a basic understanding of what’s involved, and decide how much you want to take on versus how much time you have to write. Remember WIBBOW, which stands for Would I Be Better Off Writing?

It’s going to take some work, because you’re competing against millions of other books, many of them quite good. What’s going to set your above the others, to make people want to pay money for yours? You won’t have time or energy to do every darned thing. But the more you do, the better your chances.

Some writers have expectations of huge sales with their first or second books. While it does happen from time to time (lottery wins), it’s not a reasonable goal. Mostly a readership has to be built over time. Around 96% of all books don’t sell more than a few hundred copies. So anytime you meet or beat that average, you’re a success! Study the concept of the Long Tail for an idea of how your work might grow over time.

If your view of success is limited simply to how much money you’re making in the short term, you’ll probably never be happy or successful enough. Human greed and desire are bottomless. In the words of robber-baron millionaire John D. Rockefeller, when asked how much money would make him happy: “Just a little more [but to infinity].”

Think of your writing career as a Johnny Appleseed metaphor, where each book is a single tree planted, each copy an apple from that tree. It takes time, and it’s tough to make a living selling apples off just one tree. But if you’ve created an orchard, with quality and quantity, word will eventually get around. And you don’t have to stick with just apples: you can sell cider, jelly, pies, all other formats. Continuing that metaphor, give people who haven’t tried your product a free taste, because you know it’s good, and they’ll be back for more. Give copies away, so they’ll find your other work. Ebooks made this easy and free. Writers get more well known when their books are read for free in libraries. For the most part, forget about “piracy”: superstar author Neil Gaiman talks a lot about being pirated, and giving away his work for free, and watching his sales go up!

There are still articles published saying how expensive it is to self-publish. If you pay too much for the many services available, it certainly can cost a lot. But there are so many free tools and inexpensive methodologies that you don’t need to spend a lot of money. Do your homework!

So those are your expectations. Are you still ready to tackle this venture?

Dale T. Phillips has published novels, story collections, non-fiction, and over 70 short stories. Stephen King was Dale’s college writing teacher, and since then, Dale has found time to appear on stage, television, radio, in an independent feature film, and compete on Jeopardy. He’s a member of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Visit Dale at www.daletphillips.com.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Sponsor Profile — Murder On the Beach Mystery Bookstore

We, at Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore, count outside book events as an important part of our business. Outside events however, require a lot more physical work than waiting on customers inside the store. Those boxes of books don’t schlep themselves to the hotel! So it is a great pleasure when selling books outside the store is as much fun as Killer Nashville was.

KN2021 was not only a profitable venture, but an exciting one as well. We were introduced to many new authors, and got the opportunity to refresh our relationship with some old friends as well.

This month (November 2021) Murder on the Beach, the only mystery bookstore in the state of Florida, will be 25 years old. A New York Times reporting store, MOB specializes in mystery (adult and children’s), thrillers, horror, and true crime. We feature many author booksignings and events, including James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Alafair Burke, Charlaine Harris, Randy Wayne White, Tim Dorsey, Lisa Gardner, and many others, two book discussion groups, and rare books.

We offer virtual writers workshops, FLAuthorsacademy.com, taught by published authors from around the world, and literary lunches in partnership with local restaurants. We are the official on-site bookseller for many writers conferences including the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Killer Nashville, Mystery Writers of America SleuthFest, Florida Romance Writers, Romantic Times, Florida Writers Association, and numerous Brandeis, Hadassah, and library author events.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Killer Nashville Interview with Tosca Lee

NYT Bestseller

Tosca Lee is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels including The Line Between, The Progeny, The Legend of Sheba, and Iscariot. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages and optioned for TV and film.

She is the recipient of multiple awards including two International Book Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, ECPA Book of the Year in Fiction, and the Nebraska Book Award.

She recently sat down to talk writing, her author journey, and inspiration with Killer Nashville.

You live and write on a farm in Nebraska in what you describe as a plot twist you never saw coming.

That’s true. I was a city girl completely until I met my future husband—a farmer and single father of four—in 2013. He proposed at one of my book signings the following year at Barnes & Noble and we married in 2016. Today I write in the renovated upstairs of the 1940s portion of our farmhouse. During planting in the spring and harvest in the fall, I sometimes take lunch for Bryan and I both and eat with him in the planter or combine. He introduced me to farm life, I introduced him to ComiCon and Thrillerfest.

You’ve just returned from the Sharjah International Book Fair in the UAE, where you made several visits to area schools to talk to middle and high school students about writing. What advice did you give them?

I was so impressed with the students I met—they asked very good and sometimes difficult questions about the writing process, how I approach my routine, handle rejection, continually improve, and how to know when a story is finished.

What are a few things you told them?

Never give up. Write what you love to read. Read voraciously. Learn from rejection and never take it personally.

Have fun. If you’re doing that, you’ll always weather the setbacks and bumps along the journey.

I also shared several of my top rules for writing:

Write like no one will ever read it, like you’re hidden away writing in your secret notebook with a flashlight. That’s how you avoid worry about what people will think and get the good stuff.
Get the clay on the wheel. In other words, finish that draft and then go back and perfect it. So many people want to write a novel, for instance, and dream of a career in writing. But if you don’t finish that book—or short story or essay or whatever is—you will never be able to have that.
Know how you work best and honor that. Not everyone outlines. Not everyone writes by the seat of their pants. Some people need music, low-level noise, interaction, and collaboration. Some need silence and isolation. Some like feedback from a critique partner along the way. Some prefer to protect their ideas like fragile budding sprouts.

You originally wanted to be a classical ballerina growing up—how did the switch to writing happen? And how has that background in dance impacted your writing journey?

I did—from a young age, ballet was something I pursued vigorously. While my friends were watching TV after school, I was in the car on my way to class in a larger city an hour away. I spent my summers at intensives and dance camps away from home and began to audition for schools like the American Ballet at age 13. But I got an injured a year later with a slow recovery that caused me to evaluate my future and explore future career goals. Meanwhile, I’d always been a writer—was first published with an essay about my dog in third grade and had won several contests in school. I just hadn’t really thought of it as anything other than a fun departure from reality like the books I so enjoyed reading.

Your father was instrumental in your decision to pursue writing. What was it he said or did that inspired you?

I came home for spring break my first year of college at Smith and my dad and I were in the car together and I was talking about what it was I loved about reading fiction and my favorite books. How a great novel was like a roller coaster, or a door to another world that, once the story is over, you miss and want to return to. I blurted it out that day: “I think I’d like to write a novel.” I wanted to know if I could build that roller coaster or construct that secret passageway for someone else to enjoy the way my favorite authors had for me.

That day, my dad made me a deal. He offered to pay me what I would have made at my summer job as a bank teller if I instead wrote my first novel, did it 40 hours a week and treated it like a job. That summer I wrote my first novel—an epic, sweeping tale of the Neolithic people of Stonehenge. It got soundly rejected by Writer’s House the following year and still lives in my basement. But they did compare it to Clan of the Cave Bear—a book I had loved growing up. And that kept me going.

Who else was instrumental in your early journey?

Teachers. Teachers encouraged me to write from a young age. Pat Kaltenberger and Anne Cognard in high school. My professor and advisor at Smith College, Craig Davis. Daniel Mueller, whom I spent two summers studying under at the University of New Mexico Creative Writing Program in Taos.

And other writers, whether they knew me or not, whom I studied as I read for years.

You were first runner-up to Mrs. United States 1998, and also spent several years traveling the world as a Gallup Organization consultant. How do these experiences impact your writing life today?

I’m so grateful for both of these portions of my journey—and the ballet, too, which taught me tenacity from an early age. I came into this writing career already comfortable with radio and TV interviews. After leaving Gallup in 2011 to write full time, I also had 15 years of public speaking, which is an immense boon. Today I enjoy talking to readers any chance I get, presenting at book fairs and events, and teaching others what I’ve learned along the way.

Your most recent two novels, The Line Between and A Single Light are part 1 and 2 of an apocalyptic duology centered around a pandemic. Both books released in 2019—the second just four months before COVID struck. What was 2020 like for you?

Surreal. I’d just written about a society entering lockdown after a hotspot of a new pandemic appeared in Washington before moving swiftly throughout the U.S., about Canada closing its borders, and the search for a vaccine.

But surreal also because, as a writer, I kind of entered a state of creative catatonia. I beat myself up for not taking advantage of all this time alone and getting more done. But we had three boys home from school and a house torn up for renovation and sometimes you just have to give yourself grace. It turned into a special time in which I read live to my readers online, and got to spend more time [with them]—even if virtually—than I ever had before. I did wonder how the pandemic would affect the readership of The Line Between and A Single Light. I assumed it would be a lot less fun to read fiction about something that had become reality…

And then The Line Between won the Silver Falchion last year—were you surprised?

SO surprised. Especially when I saw both books had finaled and then to have one of them win was such reassurance in the midst of uncertainty and uncertain times. I’m just so grateful. Weirdly, these two books have now won more awards than my previous ones put together.

What do you attribute that to?

I’d like to think it has to do with the fact that the theme is love, hope, and light. I named the sequel A Single Light based on this idea that it only takes one act of kindness, of love, of heroism to save the world a moment at a time.

She is the recipient of multiple awards including two International Book Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion, ECPA Book of the Year in Fiction, and the Nebraska Book Award. Her work has finaled for the High Plains Book Award, the Library of Virginia Reader’s Choice Award, the Christy Award, and a second ECPA Book of the Year. The Line Between was a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery/Thriller of 2019. In addition to the New York Times, her books have appeared on the IndieBound and inspirational bestseller lists, Library Journal’s Best Of lists, and as part of Target Stores’ “Target Recommends” program.

Lee’s work has been praised by Publisher’s Weekly, The Historical Novel Society, Booklist, Kirkus, Woman’s World, BookReporter, The Dallas Morning News, and The Midwest Book Review, as “deeply human…” “powerful…” and “mind-bending historical fiction.” A public speaker with over 25 years of experience, Lee is a featured presenter and guest of honor at writer’s conferences and literary events throughout the nation. She is a member of the Tall Poppy Writers, Rogue Women Writers, and Mystery Writers of America and was recently elected to International Thriller Writers’ board of directors.

Born in 1969 in Virginia, Lee earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Smith College. She also studied at Oxford University. A former Fortune Global 500 consultant with the Gallup Organization and first runner-up to Mrs. United States, she lives in Nebraska with her husband and three of four children still at home. For more on Tosca, please visit: www.toscalee.com.

11/19/21 11/19/21

What Mystery Writers Can Learn from Hitchcock Movies by Saralyn Richard

Recently I purchased a collection of Hitchcock CDs as a birthday present for my husband. He and I both enjoy watching them, even when we’ve seen them scads of times before. What’s especially fun about this collection is the bonus footage in the form of production notes, movie trailers and posters, and information offered about the movies by those involved in making them.

As a mystery writer, I’ve gobbled the insights like—um, movie popcorn—and I’ve learned a lot about what made Hitchcock’s movies so successful. The following are some of the takeaways:

At the heart of every suspense thriller is a likable, relatable character. The character need not be perfect; in fact, her flaws may be what draws the audience in, sympathizing with her. The character’s point of view, revealed by dialogue, body language, and smart camera shots in the movie, creates the heart-pounding tension we feel when the character finds herself in danger. Marion Crane, for example, Janet Leigh’s character in Psycho, is a thief and a liar, but her crime is mitigated by the fact that she took the money so her boyfriend could pay off his debts. Also, when she interacts with Norman Bates at the motel, she is touched by his situation and offers him friendly advice. In short, Crane is a decent person who falls into a trap. She could be any of us, stuck in a remote motel room late at night.
Every Hitchcock movie, regardless of how terrifying, has a generous dose of humor. In The Man Who Knew Too Much, there is a hilarious scene when Dr. McKenna and his wife (Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day) have a meal in a Marrakesh restaurant, and everything from the seating to the food to the eating utensils goes awry. Another such scene occurs in the taxidermy shop owned by Andrew Chapel. One would think that in a tension-filled drama, such frivolity would be out of place, but no. Hitchcock uses the lighter scenes to turn down the tension enough to create a dip before the subsequent scene, where the terror is heightened. It makes us feel as if we are on a roller coaster, rolling along softly, up, up, up to the top, just before speeding into the stomach-dropping dip that will have us shrieking aloud.
Specific details matter. Hitchcock was known for using camera movements to mimic a character’s gaze, and whatever the camera focused on became important. Nowhere was this better illustrated than in Rear Window, when the Jimmy Stewart character, a man with a photographer’s eye for detail, spies on his neighbors through binoculars. Details such as the height of flowers and the placement of a woman’s handbag on a bedpost become important clues. In The Birds, camera shots of a pair of sweet-looking lovebirds in a cage serve as a symbol of generosity and love, as well as the wrath of nature.
It’s okay to have a MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an item or goal the protagonist is pursuing, but it has no narrative value to the rest of the story. In 39 Steps the narrator is chasing a stolen set of design plans. In North by Northwest, the microfilm of government secrets that Vandamm (James Mason) is trying to smuggle out of the country is necessary to explain the character’s motivation, but it is otherwise irrelevant to the action of the movie. The MacGuffin corresponds to a red herring in a mystery novel, or to the premise that gets the action moving, but falls off in importance as time goes on.
Plunging into the dark side of human nature. No one, in my opinion, captured the darker emotions on film better than Hitchcock. In Vertigo, an Everyman Jimmy Stewart obsesses about the Kim Novak character to such a degree that after he believes her to be dead, he forces another woman to dress and act the same. In Marnie, we are stung by the effects that Marnie’s mother’s rejection has on her daughter—including sexual frigidity. These “underside” emotions were largely avoided or covered up by moviemakers before Hitchcock, but Hitchcock’s dauntless exploration of these themes made his movies psychologically more credible—and more gripping.
Finally, Hitchcock was known for pushing against the boundaries of censorship. Whether it was using unique filming to have Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman kiss for more than three seconds in Notorious, or implying homosexuality in Rope, incest in Shadow of a Doubt, or rape in Marnie, Hitchcock never shied away from uncomfortable images. In fact, he reveled in them. In an interview with French director Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock said, “"My suspense work comes out of creating nightmares for the audience. And I playwith an audience. I make them gasp and surprise them and shock them. When you have a nightmare, it's awfully vivid if you're dreaming that you're being led to the electric chair. Then you're as happy as can be when you wake up because you're relieved."

These are but a few of the insights I’ve learned from binge-watching Hitchcock movies. Although psychological movies and mystery novels aren’t exactly the same, and writing has evolved in the half-century since Hitchcock’s last movie, the Hitchcock movies can give us some inspirational tools for our writing.

Award-winning mystery and children’s book author, Saralyn Richard was born with a pen in her hand and ink in her veins. A former urban high school educator, she’s living the dream, connecting with readers through her books: A Murder of Principal, Naughty Nana, Murder in the One Percent, and A Palette for Love and Murder. Saralyn participates in International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, and she teaches creative writing. Website: http://saralynrichard.com.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Do You Suffer From Writer's Block? by James Glass

Do you suffer from writer’s block?

Have you hit the wall? If so, you’re not alone. Most of us do from time to time. The words won’t come or if they do, they’re all jumbled. The story doesn’t seem to move in any direction. Or worse, you stare at a blank page or screen for hours. Terrible, I know. It’s natural. Baseball players get into a hitting slump, so it’s fair to say, writers also run into a bit of a slump.

Don’t worry. As a retired Navy veteran, we have a saying, “Don’t give up the ship!” This is also true is of writing. “Don’t give up the story.”
Every writer I’ve ever known has hit the wall at some point. Some may give up. Actually, that’s not true. Many people who start their first story will quit because they run into the wall. The more time you procrastinate, are unable to come up with ideas, the more you get discouraged. However, what makes you different from the rest is you continue to write. “Don’t give up the story.”

How do I overcome this slump? What if I can’t get back into the story? What if I’ve gone as far as the story will take me?

All great questions. One thing I’ve come to recognize is that I tend to run into a wall at a certain point in all my books. The plot may be weak or too simple, the characters all sound alike, or I haven’t written enough action to keep the readers attention. If you find yourself in the similar situations, this is when writers lose confidence in their writing. And like me, if you stay in this mindset too long, you can’t move forward in the story. So where do you go from here?

If I find myself stuck and can’t move forward in the story, I’ll go back and see how I can make the plots more exciting, the characters more compelling. Find ways of getting the writing spark back. If I can’t, then I will jump several chapters ahead and see if this gets me out of the rut.

If this doesn’t work, it’s time for me to set the story aside for a while and work on a different project. This might be another novel or short story. If I still remain stuck in some writing virtual abyss I will try one last thing—writing prompts.

Writing prompts are geared to kick-start your muse, flex your creative mind. Below are examples to choose from. Aim for a hundred words. If you feel inclined write more, do so. There are no rules. One of these may turn into a short story or your next novel. The skies the limit, cliché I know.

You hit a deer with your brand new car. While the car is in the shop you discover something about the car you never would have known if you hadn’t hit the deer.
• Your best friend gives you a surprise party, but you’re not the one who’s surprised.
• You find a key. You don’t know what it fits. You set out to solve the mystery, asking yourself, “Why did I hang onto it?”
• You’ve been captured by cannibals. How do you try to convince them not to eat you? If that fails, how do you attempt to escape?
• You receive a message on your answering machine. There are only 3 words before the message is cut off. “I need help …”

Writing prompts can help you hone your writing skills. They can also be fun. Now you have something to start with, yet the rest of the story is up to you. If you don’t like the examples above, go online. The internet has plenty you can choose from.

Do you ever hit a wall in your writing? How do you deal with it? How do you overcome this challenge?

James Glass achieved the rank of Command Master Chief before retiring after 22 years in the United States Navy. After retiring from the Navy, he exchanged his rifle for a pen. He and his family moved back to the Florida Panhandle. James is also the President of the Panhandle Writers Group.

11/19/21 11/19/21

Reinvigorating That Manuscript You've Put Aside by Philip Cioffari

Many of us have at least one manuscript tucked away in a drawer, one perhaps we’ve written some time ago. We know it’s not right yet, not publishable as is. BUT we still believe in it. We know in our hearts it’s a worthwhile project, if only we can get it into proper shape. Here are some ways I’ve used to approach that manuscript from a new direction, to give it the life it’s capable of.

Change the Point of View

Seeing the story through another character’s eyes can often give us a radically different insight into our material. We discover elements of the story we hadn’t seen before, and we see familiar elements in a totally different way. In a manuscript I’d been working on for years, I changed the POV from limited third to first person. It brought me to a confrontation with my main character that was immediate and forceful. It opened up aspects of his personality that I’d previously been blind to. I was able to go deeper into his psyche, into the emotions that drove him. I fed off that energy as I rewrote the novel.

Change/Adjust the Voice.

We know the importance of narrative voice, those qualities inherent in the voice of the teller of the tale. They help define the narrator, help us feel who that person is. By tinkering with that voice, we can create a more empathetic, accessible, vivid character. (This is most obviously recognizable in a first-person narrator, but it is equally though perhaps more subtly evident in third person narration as well.) Again, in reference to the manuscript. I mentioned above, I tightened up the language of the narrator, used fewer words, gave those words more of an edge, made the sentences and phrases shorter and more abrupt, used more fragments rather than complete sentences and within those fragments used more present participles instead of past tense, all of which made the quality of his voice sharper, tauter, harder-hitting, which not only brought out his personality more fully, but also added to the overall tension of the novel.

Change the Beginning and/or the Ending.

Sometimes as simple a thing as changing where we begin the story can jump-start the work with a burst of new energy. I try to find a new angle to introduce my character and the situation he/she is facing, perhaps a place later in the narrative, a place farther along on the rising tide of tension. It can also be helpful to reconsider the end of the story. Of course, we want the most fitting, powerful conclusion we can conjure, but there are many options for that. We sometimes fool ourselves into thinking the ways we begin and end our stories are fixed, immutable. But coming back to a manuscript after some time has elapsed allows us the opportunity to re-evaluate what we thought was absolute.

Change the Main Character.

I know—a daunting prospect. But the payoff can be surprising and enlightening. Like changing the POV, the story takes on a new dimension that opens up unforeseen possibilities. In my novel, The Bronx Kill, I had three young men who were all candidates for being the main character. In early drafts of the book, I had chosen one of them as lead. But something was missing; there was a lack of energy. I didn’t create the vitality I wanted until I chose a different one of them as lead. And once I did, within a matter of a few pages, I could feel the difference in energy: the novel had come to life. (I should add that, when you make any of these changes that I’m discussing, you’ll probably know fairly quickly if you’ve made the right choice. You’ll feel an excitement you didn’t feel before. You’ll feel the story coming alive in a new way.)

Add a new Character.

As daunting as that sounds, introducing a new character can open up a story in surprising and beneficial ways. While working on my first novel, Catholic Boys, an editor suggested that I might want to add an adult character. The original version of the novel consisted of a group of young boys who discover a dead body near their housing project in the Bronx, in the swamps where they play. The main character was one of those boys. The editor commented that adult readers might be more engaged if there was an adult character they could relate to. His suggestion struck a nerve and, within hours of when he made it, I had come up with the character of a housing detective whose job it was to investigate the death. I became so enamored of this detective that he became the main character in the novel and the story, ultimately, became his story. Much of what I had written thus far became part of the unfolding plot of his life, his investigation. Adding a new character changes the dynamics of the relationships of all the characters in the story. Like the stranger who arrives unexpectedly at a party, everything is suddenly in flux; nothing remains the same. Possibilities abound. (Side note: with the twenty-first version of that book, I found a publisher.)

Add a Character or Plot Reversal.

If a character feels flat or one-dimensional, I try letting him/her do something completely unexpected, maybe something that on the surface seems totally out-of-character. This adds an element of surprise and mystery that enhances the character and thereby serves to engage the reader. It can open up a previously unexplored side of a character. So, too, for the plot. If it feels humdrum or dull, I find a way to insert a reversal of a situation or set of circumstances. Aristotle, in his Poetics, put great store in this as a dramatic technique. He called it Peripety—as in Oedipus Rex when Oedipus calls upon the blind prophet Tiresias for help in finding the cause of the plague that has beset the kingdom. Tiresias, because he is blind, is led in by a young boy as his guide. Because he does not like what Tiresias has to say, Oedipus curses him and casts him out of the palace; but later in the play Oedipus, who has blinded himself, is led away in exile with a young boy as his guide, a complete reversal of circumstances for a once mighty ruler of the land. Reversals can come as a consequence of a character’s actions, or as a consequence of fate. Handled deftly, either can be effective in raising the intensity of the plot.

Change or Enhance the Setting(s).

Often overlooked or under-rated, setting can give both texture and verisimilitude to our work, so where things happen in our stories, I believe, should be accorded careful attention. Setting is a reflection of our characters and their actions, and in many instances it can become a character in itself. So I try to make my settings be practical as well as symbolic, atmospheric as well as sensual. Setting can easily be a driving force of fiction. Certainly that has been true for me. In my novel, Jesusville, the setting consists of both the barren, arid reaches of the New Mexico desert and the refuge for troubled priests situated in that desert; each intensifies the other. In my novel, Dark Road, Dead End, it is the brutal physicality of the Everglades that plays as much of a role as any human character does. I tend to think that where things happen is as important as what happens.

A final consideration.

Something that has helped me when I return to a manuscript that hasn’t yet realized its potential is this: I try to re-connect to the inspiration/impulse/desire that made me want to write it in the first place. Then I examine what I’ve written in search of those pages or details that feel disconnected from that original impulse. That has always seemed to me a good place to begin.

Philip Cioffari is the author of the novels: Catholic Boys; Dark Road, Dead End; Jesusville; The Bronx Kill; and If Anyone Asks, Say I Died from the Heartbreaking Blues; and the story collection, A History of Things Lost or Broken. www.philipcioffari.com

11/5/21 11/5/21

That Difficult Long-term Relationship—with Characters by Carolyn Haines

When I wrote Them Bones in 1999, which turned out to be the first book in a mystery series, I had no idea what the future held for me. I’ve been an avid mystery reader all of my life, wallowing in the delicious creepiness of E.A. Poe and daydreaming about being Nancy Drew. My early writing ambitions focused more on short stories—because I didn’t believe I could plot well enough to write a full-fledged mystery.

When I finished Them Bones, what I considered a Southern humorous novel with a murder at its heart, my agent sent it out to several publishers. Lo and behold, an auction ensued. Of course, it was thrilling, and when Random House won the bid I was snapped back to earth. They wanted a 3-book contract for a mystery series. My little plotless goose was cooked!

My desire to be an author was bigger than my fear. I’d written numerous Harlequin Intrigues, which are a balance of mystery and romance. I had some experience under my belt, and yes, I would do this no matter how hard it might be.

Today, I am writing the 24th book in the series, and with each book that same old haunting fear of not having a good enough plot rises up to frighten me. I nod to it and keep writing, using the tools I’ve learned over the years about action/reaction and I remember that in a mystery, motive is all. But I will confess that never did I ever think that, while my protagonist, Sarah Booth Delaney of Zinnia, Mississippi, has aged only some 20 months in all this time, I have aged closer to 25 years. Sarah Booth is still spry and frisky, riding her horses across the wide-open spaces of the Delta. The passage of time hasn’t been as kind to me. It’s just part of life, as Jitty (the haint of Dahlia House and Sarah Booth’s subconscious) would say.

Along the way, I’ve learned some lessons about writing a long-term series. Each book is a complete, standalone mystery. But the art of a series is in how the characters grow and change. When I was teaching fiction writing at the local university, I would go over the elements of a novel (plot, theme, setting, character), asking my students, “In romance, what is the most important element? Plot, character, setting, or theme? Think simplistically. Think in broad terms.” They caught on quickly that character was vital to every romance. The meat of a romantic story is embroiled in the characters’ backstories, their wounds and flaws and, yes, motive.

That same question, when asked about mystery, often led to a lively debate between two camps: Those who said character is more important, and those who championed plot as the major focus. Both are correct. Readers fall in love with the characters and how they work to solve the mystery. Characters, just like regular humans, are shaped and formed by past experiences, hopes, dreams, and fears. And that character is revealed via the plot—how the characters seek the clues and solve the puzzle. Character revealed through action is exciting to a reader.

I was very, very, very lucky when I wrote Them Bones in that I spent a lot of time learning about Sarah Booth, Tinkie, Cece, Millie, Coleman, Harold, Oscar, and the entire population of my little fictional town. I knew Zinnia inside and out.

While each book stands alone as a mystery, the characters do grow and change, just as I have. Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve learned a whole lot of valuable lessons. By some miracle (I do believe each story is a gift and is given to us to tell to the best of our ability) I chose wisely with my characters. Sarah Booth had plenty to learn, and she has changed. But the character who has changed the most in the series is her partner in the detective agency, Tinkie Richmond. Sarah Booth is a tomboy and Tinkie is a daddy’s girl who can get her way with men by crooking her little finger. At first Sarah Booth resented that and found it manipulative, but over time, she realized how smart and wonderful Tinkie really is. By the third book, they are partners, each valuing the strengths of the other. I wish I could say I’d planned that out, but I didn’t.

Pick characters that allow you to explore different value systems, classes, and beliefs. In my opinion, diversity is your friend because it allows you, the writer, to explore and learn new things. If the series is stale to you—it will be stale to your readers. So explore. Let your characters go there with openness and honesty. Your readers will love the journey. There’s a big difference between exploring with your readers and preaching to them. I try to keep that in mind, though I’m far from perfect.

The Sarah Booth books are somewhat issue driven, but they are also humorous. Remember that the first book you write will set certain patterns that will be expected in additional books. If you blend mystery and humor, that’s what you have to deliver. If you use mystery and supernatural elements, as I do in the Pluto’s Snitch series, then those are a must to include in future books.

It’s an art to introduce each character afresh for the readers who may join the series midway through. Don’t forget to include that courtesy to new readers. I sometimes want to pull my hair out trying to explain Cece’s life choices in a couple of sentences. Or to clue the reader into the role that Millie, the café owner, plays as the mother each character so desperately needs in her life. It’s hard to encapsulate the history of 23 books in a few sentences. But like descriptive details of setting or historical facts—choose wisely and remember less is more if you pick the right details.

I am a pantser by nature, meaning I don’t like to outline. I love letting the story unfold for me as the characters live it. But I write one and sometimes two books a year, and along with the grand joy of having a contract there is also the backside of knowing that the publisher is counting on me to deliver. Life is always up and down. The past two years I’ve had a lot of family illness and loss. I have accepted that in writing mysteries, a synopsis is a must have to stay on track. I don’t have the luxury of spending months working only to have to discard a lot of pages because I hadn’t thought out the plot properly.

I write every day. I plot out my book before I start and I discuss it with my editor so she’s aware of what’s coming. She also offers invaluable help with considerations that perhaps haven’t occurred to me. But this thinking through of the plot is crucial (at least for me) in a mystery so that I can lay the red herrings and plot twists properly and set the clues up so the payoff in the end is gratifying to the reader. You can’t trick a reader—there are rules about playing honest—but you have to sometimes obscure the truth. It’s a grand challenge to me. This is not my natural strength, but I have learned to enjoy trying. That is not to say, though, that if the characters and the story take a hard left turn somewhere that I won’t go with them, despite the synopsis. Remember the first rule is to honor the story you’re given, and sometimes that means listening to the story before all else. When this happens, I stop and really think about where these changes will take the story, and I proceed with caution. Each writer has to find this balance for themselves.

I didn’t deliberately choose not to age my characters. That was lucky happenstance—for me. I fought hard against incorporating cell phones (because I didn’t have one!). Now my characters are current with technology and they employ it as it becomes available in real life. I sometimes think of my grandmother, who emigrated to this country in 1896. She saw incredible change in her life, from covered wagons to landing on the moon. Sarah Booth has a quarter decade compressed into 20 months. Crazy and kind of fun. Some writers freeze their characters in a specific decade, and that’s fine too. Just think about it a little before and make your decision, remembering that it is a decision you will have to live with for the lifespan of your series.

Readers tell me that Sarah Booth and the Zinnia gang are like family to them now. They certainly are to me since I spend more time with them than anyone else. I am with them every day, all year long. Create characters that you can love enough to let them become family. And then enjoy the ride.

Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of the Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series, the Pluto’s Snitch historical spirit detective series, and one of the authors of Trouble, black cat detective, mystery series. She is an animal advocate and runs a small refuge for dogs, cats, and horses in Alabama. She urges everyone to please spay and neuter their pets to stop the suffering of unwanted animals.

11/5/21 11/5/21

Motivation, Hitchcock, and Why Cheaters Never Win by Maegan Beaumont

Yesterday afternoon, as I was passing through the living room on my way to the kitchen, I caught a flash of a beautiful blonde woman herding a room full of school children away from a bank of windows and the mass of birds camped outside of them, on the entirely too large TV screen.

Tippi Hedren.

Hitchcock.

The Birds.

Catching that flash reminded me of another movie—The Girl. The bio-pic about the dynamic between Hitchcock and Hedren while filming that movie and with that reminder came another about something that Hitchcock said to Hedren, particularly during the filming of The Birds. Something that’s stuck with me. Something that plays into the vanity of Hitchcock (specifically) and writers (in general).

In the scene where Hedren (played by Sienna Miller) and Hitchcock (played by Toby Jones) discuss her character’s motivation for going into the attic alone, knowing there would be birds there, Hedren asked, “Why would Melanie go into that attic all alone?”

Hitchcock replied, “Because I want her to.”

Because I want her to.

While a cinematic genius like Hitchcock might be able to get away with that, for a lowly novelist like me, writing takes a bit more work. Just because I want my characters to do something, doesn’t mean that I should just make them do it. There has to be a reason my characters do and say the things they do and it’s my job to give it to them.

It’s called motivation.

Motivation is what a writer weaves throughout a plot to bind it tight. Motivation is what makes even the implausible seem possible. Even the most unlikely seem inevitable. But what is it?

A traumatic past? Money? Love? Revenge?

I can’t simply decide that I want my protagonist to rob a bank or rescue a bunch of kids from a burning orphanage. There has to be a trigger that sets them on their course. Are they days away from losing their home to foreclosure? Are they drowning in gambling debts and on the run from a loan shark? Did they lose their child in a fire? Did they grow up in an orphanage themselves?

These are the seeds from which future action grows and if you want your novel to feel real, they must be planted. From these seeds should sprout a chain of events, fed on emotion, and tended by circumstance, that will eventually lead your protagonist to a place where the life-altering decisions they make are the only ones that make sense.

Look at it this way…

If a novel is a vehicle, then motivation is the fuel in its tank. It makes us move and takes us places—maybe to places we never intended to go. Places we don’t want to be… places we have a hard time visiting. If there’s no gas in the tank, that vehicle isn’t moving. But if we put the wrong kind of fuel in the tank then your vehicle breaks down completely. It becomes an undrivable hunk of junk that nobody wants to drive.

Or read.

When Hitchcock sent his character into that attic full of live, pissed off birds, he wasn’t sending Melanie—he was sending Hedren. He allowed his personal motivations to color the actions of his character… and in doing so, changed the movie completely.

It was no longer about the story or his character’s motivations at all. It was about Hitchcock’s and desire to punish Hedren for finding him repulsive. In punishing Hedren, Hitchcock gave us a peek behind the curtain. Even though we may not have known it at the time, we saw a writer at work and that is something your reader should never see.

The stories we write should be seamless. Our characters should be fully formed, with their own set of experiences that give their choices weight and purpose and the conclusion of those choices lead them to, should seem inevitable.

Anything less would be cheating.

Maegan Beaumont is the author of the award-winning Sabrina Vaughn thriller series. Her debut novel, Carved in Darkness was awarded the 2014 gold medal by Independent Publishers for outstanding thriller as well as being named a Forward, book of the year finalist and a debut novel of the year by Suspense Magazine. She also writes hot, contemporary romance as USA Today bestselling author and evil twin, Megyn Ward. When she isn’t locked in her office, torturing her protagonists, she’s busy chasing chickens (and kids), hanging laundry, and burning dinner. Either way, she is almost always in the company of her eleven dogs, her truest and most faithful companions and her almost as faithful husband, Joe. Look for her latest, The Darkwater Girls, to be released in the fall of 2021 through Bookouture.

11/5/21 11/5/21

Fourteen Ways to Dispose of a Body by Nate Hoffelder

I don’t know about you, but in my line of work we sometimes have to get rid of a body or two. And given the rising cost of paying off the cops, I have found that being creative when disposing of a witness or former colleague can save me a tidy sum.

That’s what one of your characters might say when narrating his adventures. You, on the other hand, are a crime writer, and it is your job to come up with a plausible way for your character to dispose of the body. It doesn’t have to be a practical or even smart way to get rid of the evidence; in fact, it might actually be better for the bad guy to mess up in some way (this makes catching perp more believable).

While there are a number of effective ways to dispose of a corpse, most require a lot of supplies or equipment. Other options include hiding the body rather than getting rid of it, or dumping it in a place where no one would look for it.

Here are a few possibilities to spur your imagination.

1. Freezer

If your villain is in no hurry and doesn't fear getting caught, they could just stick the body in a freezer for a bit. While this doesn’t count as getting rid of the body, it does have the benefit of minimizing the stink and mess; a frozen corpse isn’t going to rot or drip, after all.

2. Pigs

It is said that pigs can eat anything. And since they are omnivores, they are supposedly the perfect way to get rid of a body. I don’t know if that is actually true, but this is certainly one of the more colorful ways to do the deed.

It is also one of the least practical; it’s not like most people have access to a herd of pigs, and breaking into a pig farm has its problems.

3. Abandoned Building

This might seem sloppy, but if the perp is short on time and happens to be familiar with the decayed parts of town, they might choose to dump the body in an abandoned building. Depending on the neighborhood, your chosen urban area might have any number of buildings to choose from.

For example, I have been looking at investing in real estate in Richmond VA, and I have usually found two or three boarded up homes within a block or two of a house up for sale.

Gaining access to that boarded up building might be difficult, and the perp might leave evidence while breaking in. (And let’s be honest, eventually someone is going to complain about the smell).

4. Fast Food Dumpster

While you might think that this option is guaranteed to fail, the truth is that your typical fast food place throws out so much meat and so much trash that the perp could probably put the corpse in heavy duty trash bags and no one would know the difference. It would be almost impossible to smell the body or see the one bag among many.

5. Local Landfill

If you’ve never been to the dump then it might be hard to imagine just how much trash is thrown out everyday. There’s so much trash that if the perp dismembered a body and put it the parts in separate trash bags then there would be literally no way to tell the human remains apart from the household trash.

6. Raised Planting Beds

This option won’t do your perp any good if the police get suspicious, but if the murderer happens to know of landscaping work in progress then they could dump the body in the new planting bed, and then cover it with fill dirt.

This option could also work with a newly built retaining wall. Just dump the body before the dirt or rock is installed behind the retaining wall, and it won’t be found without a corpse-sniffing dog or a ground penetrating sonar.

7. Bonfire

Anyone who has burned a rack of ribs or a burger could tell you that flesh creates a lot of smoke once it catches fire. So does a large wood bonfire, which means that if the perp built the bonfire over a corpse, they could throw a cookout and still destroy most of the evidence before anyone was the wiser.

The thing is, the heat from the fire would cause the marrow in the skeleton to boil, shattering most of the bones into unrecognizable bits. The rest can be scooped up after the fire has died, and then dumped in the same trash bags with the leftover bones from the rack of ribs or side of beef from the cookout.

8. Wood Chipper

Made famous by a Canadian serial killer, a wood chipper would reduce a body to mostly unidentifiable fragments, but it would not completely destroy a skeleton. (This was how the serial killer got caught.)

Your perp should only use a wood chipper if they are confident that no one would ever think to check.

9. Burial at Sea

This option has the benefit of requiring otherwise unremarkable nautical equipment to pull it off (an anchor and either chain or a rope), but it also has a problem. If the body is dumped in a high-traffic shipping channel or in shallow water, it might be spotted by a passing boat.

Also, there’s been at least one report of a body getting a Chicago overcoat and still washing up on shore, making this one of the less viable options.

10. Acid

Dissolving a body in acid might seem like the perfect solution to an annoying problem, but it’s not as easy as you might think. Buying enough acid to melt a body is bound to raise eyebrows, and once the body has been turned into soup, disposing of gallons of toxic liquid will be a hassle.

11. Cremation

If the perp has access to a crematorium then it would make an ideal way to get rid of a body. Assuming they don’t get caught in the middle of the act of burning the body, there would be literally no evidence that could be traced back to the victim.

Unless, that is, the victim had a metal plate, pin, or screw. Orthopedic surgical devices (to use the technical term) often have serial numbers which can be traced and used to identify the person they went in to.

12. Make it Look Like a Suicide

This is more a form of misdirection than a method of disposal, but there’s something to be said for making a murder look like a suicide.

Why bother with hiding a body when your character can make the detectives think there’s no crime to be investigated?

13. Existing Grave

Most graveyards typically have one body to a grave, but there’s no reason why a second body can’t go in the same hole. (Or in the same coffin, even.)

If the bonus corpse goes in the hole first, it will be covered up by a casket. This would make it hard for techs to spot it using sonar, or for corpse-sniffing dogs to smell the decay. This would make it rather hard to find.

14. Concrete

Possibly even more infamous as a body disposal solution than the wood chipper, burying a body in concrete is the stuff of horror stories and crime tv series. It is at this point almost a cliche, which could actually work to your character’s advantage.

While this option does create a problem in that the body is hidden but not gone, one upside is that all of the required supplies can be bought at the hardware store, and no one will even blink.

So tell me, what was the most interesting way one of your characters has disposed of a body?

Did they get away with it?

Nate Hoffelder has been helping people fix broken tech since 2010. He builds and repairs Wordpress sites, and acts as a virtual IT department for authors. He also blogs about the Kindle and indie publishing, and has been mentioned on news sites such as the New York Times and Forbes.

Nate belongs to a number of writing groups, and is the president of the Riverside Writers Club. When he’s not volunteering, he spends his time working on projects such as The Speaker Bureau, Book Fair Website, and Author Website in a Box.

You can sign up for Nate’s newsletter here.

11/5/21 11/5/21

What Is Fiction Writing Success? by Dale T. Phillips

THE SUCCESSFUL INDIE WRITER

“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”
—Bob Dylan

What to know up front about any type of fiction publishing: Success (in terms of sales) is not guaranteed.

Take the view that getting a good book published is success. Whether or not it sells is a matter of luck— but the harder you work, and the longer you keep at it, the luckier you usually get. More success becomes much more probable, even likely, if you plan for it, and constantly work for it. It will likely be hard, and won’t come quickly, but your chances improve over time. Most published books, Traditionally published or Independent (Indie) published, do not sell more than a couple of hundred copies.

If your main success and happiness criteria is making big sales, you’ll never have enough, never be satisfied. Authors who hit #3 on the best-seller list want to be even higher, and to stay on it longer. I saw one top-selling author (with sales numbers most would kill to get) enter a conference loudly complaining, because a local bookstore hadn’t set up his latest novel display just the way he wanted.

Many people have the desire to write a book. They have a story to tell, whether it’s the story of their life, someone else’s, or something made up. Many talk about wanting to do it, dream of doing it, but they just never seem to make it enough of a priority to find the time or the impetus to put the butt in the chair and do the work. So they never achieve their aim. Or they get discouraged along the way. Winston Churchill said that success consists in going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm, and who wants that?

Almost everyone thinks they can write, they just need some big blocks of time, you know, like maybe after they retire, despite not having done it for their lives. Hey, they write emails all day, how hard can it be? We use the language every day, it’s just a matter of recording words, right? Well, it’s a lot more than that. Stephen King has a great cheeky response to the types of people who say they want to write a book some day (but never will). “Yes, and I’ve always wanted to try doing brain surgery some day.”

Others make an actual start on a book. They get some words down on paper, almost always finding out that what is in the head is difficult to transfer clearly to the page. Many give up when they realize that finishing seems like an impossible task. I’ve known a number of talented writers who never got around to completing even one novel. It’s a shame, really, because they had real skills in storytelling.

A few go on to finish a draft of a book. For most, that first one is a tough learning experience, the result is not very good, and is more of a home project than commercial material. It’s difficult to create something wonderful when you’re just learning how to do such a monumental creation project. But they completed a book, and that’s a great step on the success path. Most writers will tell you of early novels of theirs that have never been published, because they were not good. Since the first novel or few is the learning part, many mistakes are made. The books produced are called “trunk novels” or “drawer novels,” because one writes them, but they’re so bad, they get stuck in a trunk or a drawer, and never see the light of day. The writers realize the (usually) low quality of that first production, and seek to do better. They’ll learn more about the craft, and work on another book, using what they’ve learned. A few unwise ones will try to sell that first book, despite the flaws. Most will not have success at that, for obvious reasons. Fewer still will finish another book, and go on to publication eventually, and more books.

Statistic: Over 80% of published authors stop after 3 books. About 10% of published authors make it to six books. Only 5% make it to twelve.

This is a field in which, with practice and proper learning, one can develop skill enough to have a good product for sale. However, very few will continue for years to learn and grow and do better, because the financial rewards are usually small. They realize that for the time spent, they could make more money working a minimum-wage job. Writers do it for the love of what they’re doing. Only a handful turn this quaint hobby from a dream into something more. Still, the level of success achieved depends in great part on the effort put out by the achiever. Those who produce good work, constantly learn more, and follow successful models should do well.

The married team of Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch have been professional writers for over forty years, and they’ve seen too many writers just give up, because they could not sustain the success they desired. Most writers don’t stick around long enough to write ten books, so if you do, congrats. My original plan was that when I had ten good published novels, ten story collections, and 100 published stories, I’d have a good start, and be a professional. I’m close to that goal now, though I’ve set further goals.

Some writers push the concept of constant promotion and specialized marketing to achieve better sales. That’s fine for those who like it, and I do some, but I didn’t take up writing to become a marketer! I’d rather write more good books and stories than to constantly fiddle with algorithms and long, complex sales campaigns. To me, my success is that I get to do as much or as little as I want, how I want, on my schedule, and enjoy the results, as do many of my readers.

There are millions of books out there, more than anyone can ever read. This is now a world of infinite free entertainment (including music, movies, television, etc.), so if a stranger gives you money for something you made up in your head, you are a success! No one has to read anything you wrote, or give you so much as a penny for it. The fact that anyone does means you’re doing something right, that your stories matter enough to pay for.

Somebody said that the unsuccessful get halfway to the finish line and turn around. When the successful get halfway, they keep going. It’s the same distance at that point.

So set writing goals that are in your control. Sales, awards, great reviews, all are external. Continue to improve and publish quality work, and enjoy every small win.

11/5/21 11/5/21

It Takes a Thief: Eugène François Vidocq by Bradley Harper

MYSTERIES IN HISTORY:

TRUE CRIMES AND REAL PEOPLE WHO INSPIRED GREAT STORIES

The Sûreté Nationale, or French National Police, was founded in 1812 by Eugene Francois Vidocq, who headed it until 1827. It was the inspiration for Scotland Yard, the FBI, and other departments of criminal investigation throughout the world, while its founder served as the inspiration for Victor Hugo’s character of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and Edgar Allen Poe’s French Inspector C. Auguste Dupin. In later years he founded the world’s first private detective agency, and was the first law enforcement official to employ female agents.

At the time of its formation in 1812, Paris was approaching one million inhabitants, and its crime rate was the highest in Europe, forcing even middle-class citizens to hire guards when they ventured out at night. Vidocq’s small force primarily worked undercover and its early members consisted largely of reformed criminals. By 1820 – eight years after its formation- its 30-man team had reduced the crime rate in Paris by 40%.

Vidocq’s ability to recruit reformed criminals and to blend seamlessly into the criminal underworld was due in large fact to his former life as a convicted thief and forger.

Born into a comfortable middle-class family he was known as a youth for his fierceness as a fencer in local fighting halls, and earned the nickname Le Vautrin, or “Wild Boar.” He was also well-known to the local police, and at the age of thirteen was imprisoned at his father’s orders for fourteen days for stealing silver plates from his home.

The lesson his father intended for his wayward son was short-lived however, for at age fourteen he stole from the cash box of his father’s bakery and ran away. He traveled about France for a few months, joined a group of entertainers, and learned how to act. In 1791 at age sixteen, he enlisted in the Bourbon Regiment and within six months was involved in fifteen duels, killing two of his opponents. While in a military jail he helped another inmate escape by forging his release papers.

He did eventually stay out of trouble long enough to see combat, and fought so bravely he was to be promoted to Corporal but at the ceremony he challenged a Sergeant Major to a duel. When the man refused Vodocq hit him, which could have resulted in the death sentence so he fled, only to join another regiment a month later.

His military discipline was no better in his new regiment, and at the age of eighteen he was cashiered out and returned to Arras, his home town. Whether to escape a mob of jealous husbands or out of boredom, Vidcocq had one last fling as a soldier, with no better results, and fled to Brussels, where he fell in with assorted criminals, then on to Paris where he soon found himself in jail for beating a lover and the man he found her with.

His sentence was for three months, but lengthened after he successfully forged a release for a fellow inmate. He escaped several times with the help of another lover, but was better at escaping than hiding, and was finally held long enough to be sentenced to eight years of hard labor for the forgery.

Sent to Brest, he escaped while disguised as a sailor but was arrested as a possible naval deserter. He escaped a military hospital while dressed as a nun, and then hired on as a cattle drover and walked across France to Holland, where he was Shanghaied onto a crew of privateers. He served with them for a short while before being released, only to be arrested as an escaped convict by the French and sent to prison in Toulon, to escape once more.

He was on the run for eleven years after that, even becoming a successful businessman in Rouen, then again in Paris, but his past kept catching up with him, and he would be forced to flee. He was arrested in 1809 as an escaped convict, but now with a death sentence over him due to his frequent escapes. He had just turned thirty-four, and decided that it was time to turn over a new leaf. He offered his services as a police informant, and his life was never the same.

He was sent to a jail and was soon forwarding information on unsolved crimes to the Paris Chief of Police. Vidocq’s information became so useful that after almost two years in prison he was allowed to “escape” with the tacit assistance of the police, allowing him to continue his work within the criminal underground of Paris.

At the end of 1811, Vidocq informally organized a plainclothes unit, the Brigade de la Sûreté (“Security Brigade”). The police department quickly recognized its value, and in October 1812, the experiment was officially converted to a security police unit under the prefecture of Police, and Vidocq was appointed its leader. On 17 December, Napoleon signed a decree that made the brigade a state security police force. From that day on, it was called the Surete` Nationale.

In 1827 Vidcocq resigned his position and in 1833, founded Le bureau des renseignements (“Office of Information”), a company that was a mixture of a detective agency and a private police force. It is considered to be the first known detective agency. Once again, he predominantly hired ex-convicts.

Forensics did not formally exist during Vidocq’s time but he usually had a small laboratory set up in his office building. In the archives of the Parisian police are reports of cases that he solved by applying forensic methods decades before they were recognized as such.

Among his successes was the development of tamper-proof paper, that would cause the ink to smear if a forger tried to alter an amount after the ink had dried, and indelible ink, that was adopted by the French government for the printing of bank notes. He also used plaster casts of footprints found at a crime scene and developed a filing card system of known criminals, listing their aliases, physical description, and modus operandi. If the criminal was a forger, a copy of their handwriting was included.

The legend of Vidocq lives on, not just in literature, but in the Vidocq Society. Founded in 1990 in Philadelphia, its members are all forensic experts. At their monthly meetings, they try to solve cold cases from around the world, free of charge and in accordance with their motto Veritas veritatum (“Truth generates truth”). The rolls of membership are closed and the number of members remains low enough to never exceed eighty-one, the number of years of Vidocq’s tumultuous life.

Bradley Harper is a retired US Army Colonel and pathologist who has performed over two-hundred autopsies and some twenty forensic death investigations. A life-long fan of Sherlock Holmes, he did intensive research for his debut novel, A Knife in the Fog, which involved a young Doctor Conan Doyle in the hunt for Jack the Ripper, including a trip to London’s East End with noted Jack the Ripper historian Richard Jones. Harper’s first novel was published in October 2018 and was a finalist for a 2019 Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel by an American Author and is a Recommended Read by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate.

Knife went on to win Killer Nashville’s 2019 Silver Falchion as Best Mystery. The audio book, narrated by former Royal Shakespearean actor Matthew Lloyd Davies, won Audiofile Magazine’s 2019 Earphone award for Best Mystery and Suspense. The book is also available in Japan via Hayakawa Publishing.

His second novel, Queen’s Gambit, involving a fictional assassination attempt on Queen Victoria, Won Killer Nashville’s 2020 Silver Falchion Award twice, once for Best Suspense, and again as Book of the Year.

11/5/21 11/5/21

There Is Someone Among You...Who is Just Like You by Chad Campese

There is someone among you, standing in the master bedroom of an expensive home while other officers string yellow caution tape around the manicured lawn. He’s staring at a note on the Victorian era dresser, sitting next to some items that mean nothing to him, but were left, one for each family member that survived her. She, Mary, is in the garage, lying peacefully. It was quick, painless even, at least for her. Not for the daughter that found her, or for the husband consoling the daughter. Screams and sobs eco up the steps. He picks up the note, gloves on just in case, and begins to read. But, maybe we shouldn’t start there.

Writing can be a lonely endeavor. Staring at a computer, or with pad and pen. Outlining, reading, rereading, editing, agonizing. Is it good enough? Will anyone care? Is it even worth it? Is this project just a giant waste of time? Is life just a giant waste of time? Yes, that did escalate quickly.

I’ll never forget summers in middle school. We moved many times due to my father’s job. During those years I went to a private Christian school because my parents thought it would be best. Had very little in the way of friends. During summer I’d escape by hanging alone in the woods, in my treehouse, with another Hardy Boys adventure, any Stephen King book I could get my hands on, and even traveling into the world of Narnia for a few great weeks.

Thank God, literally, for those authors who were kind enough, talented enough to help me escape into other worlds during the days when I felt alone much of the time. As I watch my middle school aged daughter now go through a bit of that, I stand by ready to help, but giving her space as she escapes into her own worlds. For me, the stories always ended, and it always was just me, in my tree fort, staring at a new book, and pretending to be someone and somewhere else for a while. That kid became an adult, occasionally wishing I was somewhere and someone else, sitting with a whiskey, by a fire, thinking of the ways my wife, my kids, would all be better off if I simply rode into the sunset and they were free to pick another dad, another husband, one that suited the roles much better than I ever could.

As an adult I still love to read. But an odd thing happened when I became an officer, who never intended to become one, at first setting out to be a Chef and realizing how hot it truly was in the kitchen. After a few years on the stree,t emotions shut down. Empathy runs out. The life, feeling, love, is literally sucked out of police officers. I tried not to let it happen, and there are others who have made more attempts than I, I’m sure. Few succeed. The career wears on. Negativity, pain, the worst the world has to offer for forty plus hours a week, working odd shifts, getting held over on a whim or a late call, coming home to a wife and three young kids who always need something and don’t care about what daddy saw or dealt with, or how tired he is. Nor should they, I should add.

When the uniform came off, I should have been daddy, and a husband, but eventually I just became, to be frank, an emotionless prick. Cop was my identity 24/7. I couldn’t turn it off. To see what officers see and deal with everyday, emotions, feeling, they die off for reasons I’ll not get into here. But it’s an unavoidable response. The problems begin as you realize you can’t turn them back on, for anyone, on the job or in your life outside a cruiser. Partners, children, friends, family, they need emotion, love, connection. But eventually I just treated everyone like another call, another problem to be solved, another report to say how I made it all better for the moment while in reality not fixing anything at all.

On the verge of divorce once, probably twice, I still thank God for a wife who held on. Drinking too much, reading, watching movies because they let me escape, I questioned life, my faith, my purpose. I was lonely, emotionless, going call to call, just moving on to the next worst day of someone else’s life, while not really being involved in my own. But you’d never know it.

What I was going through, what my family was dealing with, to everyone else I was good, great, fine. To our friends, my wife and I were in love, happy, a picture of the perfect family. In the neighborhood, at church, at parties, family gatherings, on Facebook. Life looked grand. Wonderful pictures, happy posts and conversations, the best of our lives. All the while talking of divorce, ignoring each other, possibly scaring my kids without even realizing it, or caring.

And then one day I met Mary. There were many before her, but she hit home for reasons I can only guess. Mostly because she was honest. Her story isn’t for show or entertainment. But simply to illustrate a point. To her friends, she was great, fine. To her family she was happy. Facebook showed that she was living her best life. But one day Mary decided to buy a gun, write a note, and call life over. She did it in the garage, after a bottle of wine, over a blanket and beside her husband’s tool chest.

I was upstairs in her house that day, after a bad morning at my own, still working second shift. I saw the note on her dresser amidst the mementos addressed to her family. Other officers were in the garage, stringing tape, dealing with loved ones. Gloves on, I picked it up, read it. It was in that moment that I found myself agreeing with a dead woman, supporting her points, nodding my head in her bedroom. And I knew, then, I had a problem.

Mary was right. About life, about surface relationships, about who we are and what the world thinks we should be. About fake people, the pointlessness of small talk and about spending time on so many unimportant things. About covering it all up to be the package that is always good, great, fine, the package we think people should see. All while never really being known, or being real, or having a relationship with anyone that’s worth anything more than simply what that person across the table, or phone, or computer wants or needs from you at the moment. I’ve met many Marys since then, talked to them both prior to, and dealt with them after, they made a decision that ends it all. The Marys called me out. There were too many. There are too many. And every year since then the numbers increase.

I’ve already told you I’ve done horrible things. Treated my wife poorly, been short and dismissive to my children, taken my family for granted and lived life in selfish ways. I swore off a God I thought was there and had a plan, a purpose for life. I’ve wasted time and money on things worth less than nothing, and traded time with the people that matter for pennies on the dollar. Why does it matter, why do I confess it now, and why should you join me?

Because confession is an amazing thing. It does amazing things. They say your first book is always about you, but I never realized this fully until I wrote my first book. I wrote hoping to make sense of things, my life, sort of like Mary. Indeed, the writing, it was all about me, a confession of sorts, in a hero’s journey sort of story, and for me, a true portal to new life, and a new man. And I can’t take any of the credit.

It wasn’t the book that changed my life, though it did help make sense of things. It was my family and friends, after I finally broke down having nothing to lose and not caring about the outcome, as I asked them to read it, to hear the confession, scared to death of what they would think and do and how they would view me forever after. I just didn’t want to end up like Mary, like Jude, like so many others I’ve dealt with. The honesty that filled those pages had an impact on people I never realized it would, and it bonded me to them in a way I hadn’t imagined. After reading it they wanted to share their own stories, stories of fake lives, tragedies, pain, even healing. They felt comfortable, because they had already seen the worst in me, the honest through me. I was free. And yes, there was so much more to my redemption of sorts, but that’s entirely another story…

As an officer, one thing I’ve always noticed as people struggle, stress, and strain while they lie through all types of investigations, is the freedom and peace that comes with the final confession as they reveal the truth. No more hiding, they face reality head on. It’s like a ton of weight simply slides from their shoulders. Deep breath, relaxed posture, you can always tell when the honest finally comes out. Now I suggest it’s your turn. Why?

Well, you’re a writer of course, or maybe you’re just staring out like me. You live in other worlds and deal in stories that take people away from who and where they are. And if you let it, it’ll become a lonely endeavor. Alone, lost in other people’s lives and stories, we get disconnected from others, from ourselves, from real life. From the important things and people that are right in front and around us. Stories, like the ones that kept me happy and sane in middle school, can also kill if that’s all we have as adults. The stories we live in, the stories we project, the stories we share through photos and posts, and saying good, great, and fine to everyone that asks, all the while never really knowing who we are, or being known by others. We become Mary. I became Mary. It didn’t end well for her, and it almost destroyed my family, and ended my own life.

Stories are wonderful things, as long as we recognize that’s all they are, great stories, and we still take the time to live real life outside of them. Being honest with people we trust. Truly known by the people we love. Emotion, connection, they make life worth living. We were made for community, to socialize, to interact. Even the most introverted of us, of which I am certainly one.

Killer Nashville is a community. Can you help make it an honest one? A connected one? A community of people that are known for the connection they have doing the thing they love, telling stories, but also for being actually known to each other, real, connected outside of just the thing they do, the story world.

I’m free now. Free to be honest. Thanks to Mary, and so much more that happened after, I’m free to feel emotion and be bonded to people and have a depth in relationships and friendships that go so far beyond the Facebook posts, networking, and the small talk facade. If you’re reading this, if you’re part of the Killer Nashville family, would you consider sharing your story, your confession, with me? Not for entertainment’s sake, but for the sake of others’ lives who truly may be on the line, feeling alone, lost in a story they’ve created, the entire time knowing it is only that, a story, sitting alone at a computer and wondering if anyone really cares. Are they good enough, do they matter? Does life matter?

If I sat with you over lunch, dinner, maybe over a drink, and just asked “How is it honestly going, these days, being you?” All masks aside, the noise drowned out, the shell gone that you hold for work, or family, or friends. If you felt comfortable looking me in the eye and revealing the truth, getting out of the story you project for others, how does it really feel being you? How did it feel being you during your darkest hour, day, or year?

Honesty bonds us, pain bonds us, struggle bonds us, and, yes, so does success, especially if everyone knows the struggles prior. The deep things, in the dark water. Change never happens in the shallow end. We bond over the things said and shared. Confessions that sit on that shelf in the side bedroom beneath the cobwebs that we try never to look at, but that truly have or had a huge impact on who we are. Who we’ve become.

Everyone has a story. We identify with each other through the darkest ones. They are ones that truly create community. Even if you don’t want it written about for others to see, if you feel like you can’t tell anyone else and you’re not yet in that place, if you’ve identified with me at all and need someone to share it with, reach out, I’d be happy to listen. At least you’ll be known to someone. You can confess, feel the freedom, enjoy the deep breath and sigh of relief as you reveal what it’s really like to live your story. And bask in the knowledge that there is someone among you, just like you, who has royally screwed up, questioned life, treated people poorly, failed at many things, and still was able to turn the page. And you, no, you are not alone….

There is someone among you, who is just like you.

Chad Campese is a father, a husband, and a police officer extensively trained in peer support, CIT, CISM, and counseling. His first book currently sits with a few contests, so maybe one day he’ll have an award to speak of, or even perhaps have been published. He enjoys hanging with his kids, his wife, and his friends as he comes to terms with who he really is while enjoying a responsible drink by the fire and staring off through the night sky. His current passion is talking through real issues with others as they open up about their honest selves and walk forward together through this thing we call life.

11/5/21 11/5/21

Killer Looks: Part Two in Creating Killer Characters by Alexandrea Weis

CREATING KILLER CHARACTERS

You know by the way a character darted their dark eyes, thickened the ridge above their brow, or eased their meaty lips into a thin line that they have sinister intentions. That is the power of vivid descriptions. They can stir the imagination—creating a scoundrel any reader will love, or hate, lies in the details. Vague doesn’t cut it when making a person leap off the page. The more description, the better, but don’t get bogged down. You might bore your reader and could lose the essence of your character. Your portrayal is meant to be a tantalizing glimpse of your killer, not a mugshot. Make sure to unveil who they are in stages, adding new, important details as the story unfolds. Keep the reader hungry for more.

Many writers look to the pictures of Hollywood actors for inspiration. This is a good start, but sometimes it can get you into trouble. It is best to have an original evildoer in mind, not a copy of someone else. That is why your imagination is critical. So instead of looking for your serial killer among television or movie screens, go within to carve out a nightmarish degenerate the likes of which the world has never seen.

Most writers relate describing characters to writing a summary of their entire novel. It’s challenging, but instead of going for the physical, go for how you want to make a reader feel. If you need your criminal to terrify, create corresponding characteristics that suggest such emotions. Or you can unwittingly unnerve by presenting someone attractive and charismatic. One who disturbs because they are the perfect partner or dreamy date, but their intentions are utterly heinous. Sometimes the closer we come to a reader’s reality, the more hard-hitting the impact. The attractive, quiet guy next door can sometimes turn out to be more frightening than the haggard old man down the street who shouts at children for playing too loud.

Remember those details I mentioned? Start with the basics. The look and feel of the skin should be an essential part of your character. Cold or hot, smooth or coarse, lumpy or silky, these are descriptions that convey pleasure or instill disgust. Don’t forget scars, skin coloring, birthmarks, pockmarks, wrinkles, tattoos, odor, and other telltale signs that can add to your character’s personality. Imagine a man, his yellowish skin cracked and rough, with bleeding sores that give off the foulest stench reminding you of dead fish scattered on a lake. Behind a scraggly beard dotted with bald patches, you detect one long scar inching toward his right eye socket. Does this make you want to run into his arms or flee?

Facial features are another element that can say so much about a person. Are their cheekbones high, sunken, flat, or carved by a master sculptor, instilling lust or jealousy in another? Is their nose aquiline, prominent, or upturned, revealing a rather snooty demeanor? Pert and button noses encourage a sense of trust, whereas long, broken, and hooked noses could instill revulsion. What about their chin? Dimpled ones often bring the girls running, but a pointy one can be seen as witchlike for a woman or standoffish for a man. Are their teeth white, yellowed, crooked, or straight? We all check out people’s teeth when meeting them. It’s important to do the same for your culprit. Finally, don’t forget the forehead. The breadth, depth of wrinkles, and whether it hoods the eyes can say a lot about the person you are bringing to life.

The eyes are a must when illustrating the darker dimensions of who you are attempting to build. How they stare, the depth and color of the irises, the veins or discolorations in the sclera, the size of the pupils, the intensity and coldness they emit. Are they small, downturned, wide, have thick lashes, encrusted with sleep, or bloodshot from too many drugs or alcohol? Everything you put into your psychopath will unnerve and fascinate your reader.

Taking the time to build a true personality involves constructing your Frankenstein one feature at a time, while keeping in mind the emotions you wish to stir. Go for the original and extraordinary, that includes stepping outside your comfort zone. What scares readers most is something they don’t expect, which could take a lot of planning, but be well worth it in the end. If you have fashioned an iconic villain who lives on in the mind and hopefully causes a few sleepless nights, you’ve done your job. Killer characters are more than a pretty face or an ugly one, but you can’t make a great story without first painting an unforgettable picture.

Alexandrea Weis, RN-CS, PhD, is a multi-award-winning author, screenwriter, advanced practice registered nurse, and historian who was born and raised in the French Quarter of New Orleans. She has taught at major universities and worked in nursing for thirty years, dealing with victims of sexual assault, abuse, and mental illness in a clinical setting at many New Orleans area hospitals.

Having grown up in the motion picture industry as the daughter of a director, she learned to tell stories from a different perspective. Infusing the rich tapestry of her hometown into her novels, she believes that creating vivid characters makes a story moving and memorable.

A member of both the International Thriller Writers Association and the Horror Writers Association, Weis writes mystery, suspense, thrillers, horror, crime fiction, and romance and has sold over one million books. She lives with her husband and pets in New Orleans where she is a permitted/certified wildlife rehabber with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries and rescues orphaned and injured animals.

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

KN Magazine: Articles

How Do I Write?

What Do I Write?

How Do I Publish?

How Do I Promote and Sell?

NYT Bestseller

Change the Point of View

Change/Adjust the Voice.

Change the Beginning and/or the Ending.

Change the Main Character.

Add a new Character.

Add a Character or Plot Reversal.

Change or Enhance the Setting(s).

A final consideration.

1. Freezer

2. Pigs

3. Abandoned Building

4. Fast Food Dumpster

5. Local Landfill

6. Raised Planting Beds

7. Bonfire

8. Wood Chipper

9. Burial at Sea

10. Acid

11. Cremation

12. Make it Look Like a Suicide

13. Existing Grave

14. Concrete

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

Conference

Awards / Scholarships

2025 Sponsors