Your Death Sentence Will Find No Reprieve

By Art Taylor

Have I ever had a change of heart about a character I intended to dispatch, and found I had become attached to him or her?

The short answer is yes to the attachment, no to the change of heart.

The longer answer is more complicated, of course.

My wife's birthday is Halloween, and in advance of both the holiday and her birthday, we usually watch at least a couple of horror movies—and I always get her one or two new DVDs to add to her collection. Last week, we watched George Franju's Eyes Without a Face—visually creepy, emotionally unsettling, ultimately unforgettable (and I was pleased to see it ranked yesterday among "50 Visually Stunning Horror Movies for Twisted Aesthetes," a great list, with beautiful imagery to boot). After it was over, we watched a short documentary interviewing the screenwriters, Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who wrote novels both individually and together (under the name Boileu-Narcejac) but whose work is probably best known through film; their novel Celle qui n'était plus (She Who Was No More) became Les Diaboliques in the hands of director Henri-George Clouzot, and Alfred Hitchcock turned their story D'entre les morts (Among the Dead or, better to my mind, "Between Deaths") into his masterpiece, Vertigo.

Needless to say, they've got a good resume.

The interview with Boileau and Narcejac, part of the Criterion Collection DVD, is also available online here, and it offers insights into their long history and collaborative process. But what struck me as most interesting was how they distinguished their own work from the vast array of approaches to writing mysteries and thrillers.

"It's the novel of the victim," explained Narcejac. "To simplify, one could say Agatha Christie typifies the detective novel, inspiring curiosity about the investigation. And crime novels are about the killer, aren't they? But we write novels about the victim."

I'd be hesitant to compare any of my own work with the mastery in Boileau-Narcejac's writings, but I felt an immediate affinity with that explanation. As I wrote in a recent post here at Criminal Minds, the lines between hero and villain and victim in my tales frequently blur or twist over the course of the story. When I've slated a character for death in the plotting stages of a tale, then his or her fate is sealed; I've never changed that, not to my knowledge. But those victims (or seeming victims) are almost always part of the primary focus, and as I'm crafting those characters within the story (their scenes, their backgrounds, their actions and reflections, the small, revealing details about them), I'm trying  not just to develop their depth but also, explicitly, to build the attachments that this week's question asks about—attachments both for myself and for the reader, since without the one there's probably no chance of the other.

In the end, I'm always hopeful that even as sympathies shift from one character to another, readers won't just be surprised at some plot twist but might also find their other reactions becoming more nuanced: an enriched sense of loss, an unexpected change of perspective, some broader range of mental and emotional engagement with it all.

I don't kill characters because I have no feeling for them anymore than I just kill the characters I don't like or don't care about. Just the opposite, the best deaths on the page mean something to us. They carry some weight.



 

Mr. Heartless

by Alan

Have you ever had a change of heart about a character you intended to dispatch, and found you had become attached to him or her?

Nah, I’m too heartless to become attached to any of the characters I create. They are merely pawns I manipulate in my fever-induced written fantasies. Mwa ha ha!!

Well, maybe that’s not entirely true, but I do try not to become attached to any of my characters—protagonists, villains, victims—albeit for different reasons.

Because I try to heap a lot of trouble onto my protagonists, it’s better if I’m not too “close” to them. If I became attached, it would be like seeing dear friends suffer through one tragedy after another, with the outlook only looking bleaker and bleaker. (When it comes to fiction, I suppose I’m a fair-weather friend.)

Most of my villains are nasty people, or do nasty things, or have different values than I do. Becoming attached to that type of person doesn’t seem very appealing, even if I know that they’ll get what’s coming to them in the end.

As for getting close to my victims, well, why bother? They’re not going to be around very long.

Many writers say that sometimes their characters will take on a life of their own and do things that the writers never imagined, never planned for. If a character in one of my books started freewheeling and doing things I didn’t plan (and didn’t want), I guess that would make one aspect of my plotting go a little easier.

I’d have identified my next victim.

**********

And now, for some BSP:

My book, RUNNING FROM THE PAST, is part of the Kindle Scout program. Here’s how it works: You read an excerpt from a book; if you like it, you nominate it. Then Amazon’s Scout Team evaluates those books with the most nominations and rewards publishing contracts to those it deems worthy.

It’s like American Idol for books.

If you can spare a couple of minutes, I’d love for you to read an excerpt. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/12QP79x

A bonus: If a book you nominate goes on to get published, you get a free advance copy of the entire novel.

(And feel free to share this with all your suspense-loving friends!)

Thanks!

Writing a Stay of Execution

 by Tracy Kiely

The victims in my books are not randomly snatched from fiction’s equivalent of Central Casting. Instead, I create each one with great care and attention to detail. Because of this, I see them more than a mere prop to jumpstart the action for my detective.  Every nuance of their character, hue of their appearance, and degree of their imperfection is selected for a specific reason.  For me, each of their deaths represents something meaningful, something bigger than it seems.

And that something, of course, is petty revenge.

Laugh if you want. But, I’ve never made much of a secret about this.  My victims are embodiments of those annoying souls who have really pissed me off. Horrible ex-boyfriend? Dead.  Hideous Mean Girl in Middle School? Dead. Tyrannical Boss? Dead. Guy Who Cut Me Off and Then Flipped Me the Bird? Dead!

Okay, in my defense, for that last one was I was having a really bad day and the guy in question had a hair full of product and was driving a freshly detailed yellow Hummer with one of those ball sacks hanging from the trailer hitch. You totally would have wanted to kill him too, so put down the gavel, Judge Judy.

My victims represent a kind of cathartic release of pent up rage and frustration that would probably be better managed by trained health care professionals, but as my insurance won’t cover that, I write mysteries.

I did, however, once spare a character from jail. In writing my last book, Murder with A Twist (Midnight Ink, May 2015), I realized that the character I had pegged as the murderer had grown on me. I liked him. I didn’t want to see him end up in cuffs and thrown in the back of a squad car. So, I switched out the guilty party for someone else.

I think the reason for this, is that in creating him, I tried to create a character that the reader wouldn’t suspect. In other words, I made him likeable. At least, he was likeable to me. After a few special chapters together, I discovered that I couldn’t send him off to his prescribed fate.

As I write this, I wonder if I really shouldn’t look into getting better insurance. I’ve just admitted to not only creating characters just so that I can kill them, but that I’ve spared others out of a guilty attachment. Is this covered under ObamaCare?  I think I’ll check into it. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? I’ll have an absurd conversation with a health care representative that will result in another character begging to be killed off. It’s kind of a win/win actually.

Unless mental stability is your goal, that is.

             

DEAD CHARACTER WALKING

by Clare O'Donohue

Q: Have you ever had a change of heart about a character you intended to dispatch, and found you had become attached to him or her?

In my first Kate Conway mystery, Missing Persons, I killed Kate's husband Frank. (This is not really a spoiler, it says so on the book jacket.) I didn't intend to like Frank. He was an adulterer who had left her, a wanna-be artist who mostly wasted his time and talents, and a bit of a spoiled brat. So when I killed him, I was fine with it. Good riddance.

But the end of a relationships aren't as neat as that, are they? She hated him. And she loved him. She missed him, and she felt guilty, stupid, sad, angry, hurt... pretty much everything you feel under the circumstances.

As I wrote the story, and let Kate explore her feelings as she looked for answers in her husband's death, I realized there was a lot of good in Frank. And maybe people don't fit neatly into categories of good or bad.

By the end, I was sad about having lost Frank before I ever really knew him. I've even had emails from people asking if Frank will appear in some future book, but no. Frank (in the words of the Wizard of Oz) is not merely dead, he is most sincerely dead.

In the 2nd Kate book, Life Without Parole, I introduced a character named Brick, a 3-time killer in prison for life. On the surface he was an ex gang member with little respect for Kate or for anyone. But as she got to know him, I did too. I became very attached to him. I won't tell you what happened to him, or whether he lives or dies, but I can tell you that when I finished writing that book, I realized that Brick is not an easy character to leave behind.

I suppose that's the nice and terrible thing about creating characters. If I make them real enough, then they take up space, not just in my imagination, but in my heart. 

Bodies, bodies everywhere....

By R.J. Harlick

Have you ever had a change of heart about a character you intended to dispatch, and found you had become attached to him or her?

I have left a few bodies on my pages, haven’t I? Was I sorry I did them in? Hmm…let me see.

I did rather like one or two of my victims before I sent them on to the big beyond. Some were so nasty, I was quite glad to kill them off. And some died so early in the stories that I barely had a chance to get to know them, let alone become attached to them.

Some victims were planned at the outset, others happened during the course of the story telling. I remember one character ended up being murdered because I was stuck. I’d hit a brick wall in my writing and was having difficulties moving forward. A friend suggested killing someone I hadn’t planned on.  So I picked one particularly unsavory character and did him in and broke the logjam.

I’ve not yet been tempted to put an end to a character who has become integral to the series, one that I have grown to love. Though I did come close in one book. But if Elizabeth George can do it. I don’t see why I can’t.

So to answer the question, I’d say no. Thus far I’ve not regretted any of my victims, even those I liked. And I’ve never decided to let a planned victim carry on with life. Their murders served a purpose, were integral to the story.

Oh dear, it sounds rather heartless, doesn’t it? But I do write murder mysteries, though focusing on the actually killing isn’t exactly my thing. I prefer to explore the motivations that drive ordinary people to commit the ultimate crime.

I mustn’t forget to offer my apologies for missing my blog date two weeks ago. My husband and I were celebrating our 40^th wedding anniversary across the sea in the south of France. I’m afraid writing blogs was furthest from my mind.  Here’s a glimpse of Nice where we spent one glorious week.

No regrets

Have you ever had a change of heart about a character you intended to dispatch, and found you had become attached to him or her?

by Meredith Cole

Yes, I have murdered people in my books. Nice people. But I don't regret a single death. In fact, I'd do it again to those same characters without question.

Maybe at the time I waffled a little bit. The character was nice. They had such potential. They could have been the murderer or even been a character in the next book in my series. Was it really necessary to knock them off? I'm sure I asked myself that question at least once.

But one of the secrets to making progress on your manuscript is to go ahead and make decisions about character and plot. Even if you don't want to, you need to go ahead and do it anyway. If you wait too long to try to decide between door number A and number B, hating to give up any options, your manuscript will come to a screeching halt. You make absolutely zero progress.  And for what? To keep someone alive who never really existed? If their death is an absolute disaster for your book, you can bring them back to life in the next draft.

But I have never had to resuscitate anyone and I've never been haunted by the spirits of any of my fictional characters. So it all came out okay.

Happy Halloween week everyone!

Shades of Gray – But Only Forty-Nine

by Paul D. Marks

Since I answered this week’s what are you reading now question on the SinC blog hop a couple of posts ago and it hasn’t changed all that much, hope no one minds if I respond to last week’s question instead: Is there a type of crime you won't write about? Why?

Being obsessed with crime and murder is a pre-requisite for a mystery writer.  My wife and I often joke that if I was being investigated for a crime that the cops would take a look at our bookshelves and internet searches and have a field day. God forbid anything should ever happen to her... Those internet searches will put a needle in my arm. As crime writers, we tend to focus on corruption and evil, so there probably aren’t a lot of subjects we won’t explore. But sometimes there are crimes that are so heinous that they turn our stomachs and topics that are so controversial that we wonder how people can do what they do.

There used to be certain types of crime that I thought I wouldn’t write about, mainly because I didn’t want to give anyone any ideas—mostly things having to do with terrorist/terrorism type stories. But it seems that the real world has far outpaced anything I can think of in terms of horror and cruelty so I don’t think I would be giving anyone any ideas anymore.

Just look at some of the horrific things people do to each other on the various Investigation Discovery shows. Then look at the beheadings in the Middle East. The planes flying into the World Trade Center. I never thought of that one exactly, but I did have ideas for “terror” stories that I never pursued because I didn’t want to give people ideas, as if they needed me to give them ideas. And, like I say, most of it’s already been done at this point anyway—in real life. Watch the news tonight and you’ll see. Besides, Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn have that area covered pretty well. And the George Clooney-Nicole Kidman movie The Peacemaker (a “breathless thriller,” I might add—see pic) and Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman, respectively deal with the stealing of Russian nukes and a virulent disease epidemic.

At the same time, I don’t think we’re responsible for other people’s actions. And we shouldn’t shy away from uncomfortable or topical subjects. My novel, White Heat, deals with the ugly subject of racism via the plot and characters of a mystery story.  And the N word is used several times by the characters. I debated a long time whether or not to use that word, but ultimately I felt it was part of who those people are. I didn’t want to compromise the story by putting a pretty face on it or wiping clean all the offensive language that might show some characters in not the best light. But I think I also tried to show the flipside of that too—how people can sometimes say or think the wrong things, but do the right thing. Or how we can have people in our lives who we love despite their weaknesses and faults. I try to show moments of humanity where I can. And the reality is that the world is not black and white, but shades of gray, as are most of the people in our lives, including ourselves.

*          *          *

And please check out my new post, “Words and Pictures: Short Stories, Novels, and Screenplays,”  on Ellery Queen Magazine’s blog site: Something Is Going To Happen, on the differences between the three forms of writing.  http://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/2014/10/22/words-and-pictures-short-stories-novels-and-screenplays-by-paul-d-marks/ 

What did you eat yesterday?

Like "What are you reading now?", it's a great question.

Once, when I moved to a different village and got a new doctor, he asked me, "What did you eat yesterday?" at the initial appointment. I said, "Uhhhh, yesterday's not a great example." He said, "Yeah, exactly. That's why I don't say 'describe your diet'. What did you eat yesterday, Catriona?"
I liked him a lot.

In the same way, "Who are your favourite writers?" gets a lot of Balzac, while "What are you reading now?" gets more Billingham. (Because some people are pseuds, not because Mark's not fab, by the way.)

I'd also add "And how long have you been reading it, and how many times have you abandoned it to inhale a thriller, and if you had to bet your own money if you'd ever finish it, how high would you go?"

So. What am I reading now? Actually, I'm reading magic realism, counterfactual history and a volume of short stories. Pretty high Balzac rating, eh?

In detail:

1. A pdf of an ARC of Jessica Lourey's delicious upcoming magic realism* novel THE CATALAIN BOOK OF SECRETS. It's being published under Jessie's own steam via Kickstarter and she's almost there.

*Was it Terry Pratchett who said magic realism could be defined as "fantasy by people who speak Spanish"? I like to think so. Part of the joy of reading this book - as well as the characters, secrets, wordsmithing and Minnesota, which is my favourite place I've never been - is trying to work out what magic realism is. I'm still not sure, except that I think Harry Potter must have been it. And Sookie Stackhouse. In fact, if I was pressed, I'd say magic realism is fantasy where people are called Jasmine instead of Qwon'droth.

2. JACK 1939  by Francine Mathews, for moderating at Bouchercon. (I love my job.) It's a historical thriller that sees a young JFK spying for Roosevelt in Europe just before WWII. I'm googling a lot because my knowledge of the period from a US perspective isn't quite strong enough to see what's counterfactual and what isn't, but I'm loving it. It's like Nancy Mitford crossed with Harlan Coben crossed with John LeCarre. And that's not something that comes along every day.

3. WORKING STIFFS by Simon Wood, for interviewing him at Bouchercon. I don't normally read a lot of short stories; they make me feel as if I've set off on a long walk and immediately stepped off a cliff. It might be because I tend to read for long stretches at one sitting and short stories are best read one at a time. I must say, though - these are great. I'm not surprised Simon's been such an award-botherer for his shorts. It's kind of sickening to read a plot you just know you'd have made a novel out of it and yet there he is just tossing it over his shoulder on a ten-page story. Plenty more where that came from, I can hear him say. Big show-off.

It's A Secret

by Robin Spano

This week's question: What are you reading now?

My answer: It's a secret.

I'm reading 2 very cool stories. One is aimed at children, one at middle-grade readers. I'd love to give you more details, but neither book is published yet so I don't want to give away any plot lines that result in the writers' ideas being stolen and them suing me for all the royalties they would have earned. In both cases, I'm helping them with edits and thoroughly enjoying both stories in the process.

P.S. For authors who say no to reading other people's manuscripts because of how time consuming it is, I highly recommend finding space in your life for at least one unpublished novel per year. I find that I learn just as much from helping other people hone their novels as I do from any writing craft book or course.

What Are You Reading?

- from Susan

Unlike, “What are your three favorite books?" this is a fun question to ask or answer, both as a reader and as a writer. It used to be fairly easy: look at the stack next to a person’s bed. I’ll start there:

Incognito: The Secret Life of the Brain, by David Engleman (author of Sum, an inventive and moving series of small stories about the possible forms of an afterlife)

The Orientalist, by Tom Reiss, the biography of a man caught between his fantasies of an old and attractive concept of “East” and the war-shaped realities of the 20^th century

The Years of Rice and Salt (for the second time), by Kim Stanley Robinson, a rich, compelling alternate history based on a “what if?” – what if the plague had killed almost everyone in Europe, leaving a political, geographical, and economic hole to be filled?

Bird by Bird, by Annie Lamott, because I’m always reading Bird by Bird

Murder Misdirected, by Andrew MacRae, a fellow board member of SinC Norcal, because it looks like fun

Anarchy and Old Dogs, by Collin Cotterill, whose crime fiction tales of Dr. Siri Paiboun, the only coroner in the sloppy, sorry world of communist Laos are funny in the way “Waiting for Godot” is funny

But that’s not my complete TBR stack These are among the two ten-foot bookshelves’ worth waiting to move to the bedside table:

This summer, headed to France with a present of books for my friend, I was faced with space issues in my suitcase, so I bought my first e-reader. Now there’s a virtual stack there too:

Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek, by Terry Shames

Criminal Intent, by Sheldon Siegel

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler

Killer in the Cloister, by Camille Minichino

Lawrence in Arabia, by Scott Anderson

Treasure Hunt, by Andrea Camilleri

The Family Way, by Rhys Bowen

The Housewife Assassin’s Handbook, by Josie Brown

And there’s always this to fall back on, should I find myself looking for a good piece of crime fiction to read (other genres are shelved elsewhere in the house). 

I don't think I'm crazy, and I know I’m not alone. We People of the Book all have stashes of reading material that will take us through every crisis and feed us for our lifetimes. And  because I'm always looking for more good books, I hope blog readers will chime in. There's always room in my house and on my TBR list for another book!

Is Anything Off Limits?

By Art Taylor


This week's question—"Is there a type of crime you won't write about?"—prompted two immediate answers: sexual violence and the abduction/abuse of children. Along the same lines as Meredith earlier in the week, the issue of child abuse in fiction became particularly troubling after my wife, Tara, and I had a son of our own. Soon after he was born, I read a couple of stories that centered around the abduction and/or abuse of a child, and it was simply too much for me to take in, emotionally overloading and exhausting. And both with that topic and with sexual violence, there's such a risk of handling the material poorly: the potential for it to appear exploitative, missteps into insensitivity, the challenge to offer deeper insight emotionally or otherwise.

All that said, I think I'd generally shy away from making either of those topics the central focus of any of my works, at least now.

However, even as I write that, I realize that I've incorporated each of those issues in smaller ways into recent stories. Earlier this year, I finished a story in which two young boys are caught in the center of trouble as the father of one of the boys threatens the mother of the other, with at least the possibility of sexual violence churning in the mix. My wife reviewed "Parallel Play" in draft form, and while she said it was one of my best stories, she asked me to please not ever ask her to read it again. I would encourage you to see for yourself, but it won't be published for a year and a half, in the next Chesapeake Crimes anthology, Storm Warning.

A rape in the distant past was also an important—but again, not central— aspect of another story that I wrote a while back, "The White Rose of Memphis," which was published in Needle: A Magazine of Noir. My editor at Ellery Queen, I should say, passed on that story as not right for their readers; and I could certainly understand. Just proof that such issues, even treated indirectly, can be tough to take. 

I hope I don't seem to be contradicting myself here. In my mind, the distinction is a clear one. Burrowing deep into the physical details and psychological aftermath of either of these specific types of crime would, at this point, be more than I want to attempt writing about. But I also don't think it's necessary to pretend that such things don't happen—to purge completely from the page any reference to those crime or the possibility of those crimes.

It's a fine line there, of course—and a fine line to tread generally for anyone attempting to write about sensitive, troubling issues at all.

Going to the Dark Side

by Clare O'Donohue

Q- Is there a type of crime you won't write about?

Shoplifting.

Also, probably, serial killers. In part because (forgive me) it's been done to death. But also because the idea of killing for the thrill of it, to satisfy a craving, doesn't really interest me.

From what I can tell, either you have an urge to be a serial killer or you don't. It's kind of like the ability to roll your tongue. If you don't think that way (and I sincerely hope you don't, especially if you know where I live) then serial killers are the literary equivalent of circus freaks. You might be fascinated to take a peak, but you're not afraid of turning into a serial killer anymore than you are of becoming the bearded lady.

Maybe you might imagine yourself his victim, but fictional victims of serial killers tend to be less interesting than their fictional killers. They exist to up the body count.

I'm more interested in people who - but for a specific issue, like money or infidelity or a twisted kind of love - would never commit a serious crime. I want to know what makes them take a step like that, so far out of their nature. I want to know if it haunts them, or if they have found a way to justify it. I want to know how they got from never thinking about murder all the way to actually plunging the dagger into a friend or loved one. What was the tipping point? Did they think they'd get away with it?

I think we all have a dark side. And, under the right circumstances, we would all be willing to kill. Maybe it would take war, to save your own life, or the life of someone you loved. Or maybe your line in the sand is murkier. That's the character I want to write about. 

Dodging a bullet

Is there a type of crime you won't write about? 

by Meredith Cole

Some people probably think that mystery readers are a blood thirsty lot. We like nothing better than to curl up with a lurid tale and consume all the gory details. But the truth is that quite a few of our number is--how should I put it?--a bit prudish. Many readers I know have a long list of items that they do not like in a book and will "throw it across the room" if they run across these objectionable things in a book (hopefully missing any hapless passersby and/or the writer). And others will find a book decidedly flat if it doesn't contain any of those things. So what's a poor writer to do?

I think every writer should write about what they're interested in and what they like to read. When my child was small, I couldn't read books in which children were kidnapped or killed. I just couldn't. My overprotective mother imagination was already working overtime and didn't need any help. So I certainly didn't write any books where children were endangered either. But I don't rule out becoming fascinated by a story land writing a book with a child victim some day when my own child is safely into adulthood.

I'm not very interested in writing about professional criminals. Mobsters, for instance, who kill people as part of their daily routine are as fascinating to me as office workers who do data entry. But I enjoy reading books by others where the traditional mobster story is given a new twist--something that makes it different from every other book that came before.

I think our only choice as authors is to write books with as much skill and talent as we can muster and find out audience among the people who like to read what we're writing about. And every once in a while we can also become the "exception" to someone's rule. "I don't normally like books where the murderer is the narrator," they'll say, "but I just couldn't put this one down!" Indeed.

Guest Blogger: Mark W. Danielson

This week’s question is “What's your biggest dream / ambition as a writer?” Instead of responding to it, let me introduce friend and colleague, mystery-thriller author Mark W. Danielson.  Mark’s background as a fighter pilot in both the Navy and Air Force, as well as a FedEx pilot (so you know who to get mad at when your stuff is late J)  gives him plenty of background material for his exciting novels.

Mark’s fast-paced novels share startling coincidences with actual events.  Spectral Gallows and Writer’s Block are in the Maxx Watts detective series.  Diablo’s Shadow echoes a Florida missing child case.  Danger Within is an action thriller that takes the reader into the gritty world of commercial aviation and underwater salvage.  The Innocent Never Knew is a political conspiracy that parallels the suspicious death of President Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.   Twice selected as the US Navy’s top author, Mark’s global travels as an airline pilot enable him to write from a perspective shared by few.

Take it away, Mark:

Recently, my friend Paul D. Marks posed the following question to me:  What's your biggest dream / ambition as a writer?  Pausing to consider this multi-dimensional question, my first thought was my characters have more dreams than me.  How can this be when my characters stem from my imagination?  Simply put, in first drafts, the characters that originate from my subconscious thoughts grow as they tell their stories.

Having said that, if I were to have only one ambition, it would be for someone to send me a note saying they loved a character’s particular line.  To me, that’s an author’s ultimate praise.  To clarify, here’s an example from a Stephen Coonts novel where his protagonist faces a rival at a party.  With a grin, his protagonist says, “You look constipated.”  I was so impressed by Coonts’ slam that I wrote him to pass on my admiration.  He responded with an equally simple line, “Sometimes you get it right.”  I liked that one, too.

Fan feedback trumps any book review because it comes from the heart.  On the contrary, editors and book reviewers, like car show judges, may give your work/car accolades one day, and the next hate it even though nothing changed.  For thin--skinned authors, this indifference can be demoralizing, but if you’ve been around a while, you learn to expect it and find the good in their critiques. 

Flashing back to Paul’s original question, my biggest ambition is to be recognized as a credible writer.  In other words, readers would recognize the extent of research done in order to create my reality-based stories.  And because my stories are factually based, I tend to use actual locations and in some cases, real names.  In Danger Within, a novel based on an actual FedEx DC-10 in-flight fire, I received a note from someone in the FedEx safety department saying that while he enjoyed the book, it sounded a lot like the FedEx fire.  As a FedEx pilot, my response to him was, “It is,” still smiling from his flattering feedback.

The business end of writing is ugly, and can quickly snuff the dreams and ambitions of any writer, so if you’re in it to make money, you’re better off writing for magazines where they always pay up front.  If you’re in it for fame, then consider turning your talents to acting.  Just remember how many actors wait tables in LA. 

Fiction writing is about being true to yourself and expressing your innermost thoughts through characters.  It gives you the chance to play God, creating harmony from chaos while giving others a sneak peek into your soul.  But the risk is high, for every word will be judged, few readers will ever write a review, and fewer still will remember your name when they finish your story.  So write from the heart because it’s what you like to do, and it you’re lucky, someone might send you a kind note.  

Thank you Mark!

Deadly Nightstand

I swerved the posted Criminal Minds question for the Sisters in Crime Great September Blog Hop in August so why not round it off in October? (Especially when Robin and Clare have nailed the answer for the official question and then duct-taped it, to make sure.)

So. I'm going to answer:"what's on your nightstand?" - a question pretending to be about literary taste that's really about how much of a hopeless book junkie and slattern you are.

Here's the unexpurgated list of books on the nightstand in my mum's spare room in Edinburgh, where I'm writing this blog post.  That is, here are the books I have with me two long plane journeys from my house.

Ahem.

On the top:

John Gilstrap's END GAME (I'm on p. 91) This doesn't count because it's for moderating at Bouchercon.

Underneath:

AFTER THE ARMISTICE BALL (doesn't count)
ARC of THE SECRET PLACE, Tana French
A WEDDING IN DECEMBER, Anita Shreve (I read it last year and left it here to take home this year because this year I wasn't going to buy any books and I'd have room in my case)
DARK PLACES,  Gillian Flynn (bought this year)
NOW YOU SEE ME, S.J. Bolton (read last year and left here to take home this year because . . .)
JOHN McPAKE AND THE SEA BEGGARS, Stuart Campbell (bought this year, but doesn't count because he's my English teacher)
MURDER PAST DUE, Miranda James (read last year and left here to take home . . .)
FATHER CONFESSOR, Russel McLean (read last year and left here . . .)
UNSEEN, Karin Slaughter (read last year and . . .)
JACK 1939, Francine Mathews (bought this year but doesn't count because it's for moderating at Bouchercon)
TIME OF ATTACK, Marc Cameron (this year, doesn't count, Bouchercon)
BLOWBACK, Valerie Plame (Ha! Sent by publisher - really doesn't count)
DID NOT FINISH, Simon Wood (borrowed from brother-in-law for Bouchercon Toastmaster interview prep - mega doesn't count)
NO SHOW, Simon Wood (ditto)
WORKING STIFFS, Simon Wood (brought over with me but . . . Bouchercon so still doesn't count)
THE SCRUBS, Simon Janus aka Simon Wood (Bcon, doesn't count)
ASKING FOR TROUBLE, Simon Wood (guess whether it counts)
DEAD MEN'S BONES, James Oswald (on a Bouchercon panel together, doesn't count)
THE LAST REFUGE, Craig Robertson (ditto)
THE NIGHT HUNTER, Caro Ramsay (on three panels together this year. Not having this book would be rude.)

So, basically, when you get right down to it, on my nightstand are one Gillian Flynn and an ARC of a Tana French.  I'm travelling light. Who needs a Kindle?

THE "SLIGHTLY LONGER THAN ROBIN'S ANSWER" ANSWER

by Clare O'Donohue


Q: What's your biggest dream / ambition as a writer?


Yesterday Robin answered this question perfectly and I am tempted to say, "What she said" and end there. But that would be cheating.

So I'm going to elaborate, in hopes that it counts as something new...

1. I want to make a living as a full time novelist. I say novelist rather than just writer, because technically my job is as a TV writer and in case the universe listens in on such things, I don't want them to get confused. I've seen the Twilight Zone. I know how you make a wish to have time to do nothing but read. And the world ends, so you finally do. But then you smash your glasses. I'm not getting screwed by fate because I wasn't specific enough.

I'm not greedy. I realize I'm very lucky in the writing department to have been published and to make money at it. So I'm not saying, "I want to beat James Patterson's annual salary." (Though, universe, I'm fine with that in case you're asking.) I want to replace my TV income with the earnings I make from just writing my books and stories. That would be an amazing accomplishment.

2. I want to be a really good writer. I have always said that I want my 50th book to be my masterpiece. I want to get better with each book, as I learn from my own work and from the work of other people. I want to write, not just a sentence or paragraph that makes me tingle with excitement, but a whole book. That would be even more amazing than beating Patterson.

So, yeah, "What she said" pretty much sums it up...