Southern City Mysteries

Anyone Can

2012-01-24T10:12:00.000-05:00

Anyone can have a website. Anyone can creat a blog.

Just look at this guy: Brianstalin, Past Life Research (including some very UN-researched connections between JFK and Russian royals and Abraham Lincoln reincarnating as Leonard Nimoy).

And The Watcherflies, which explains the 13 Illuminati Satanic Bloodlines. Of course it does.

So don't believe everything you read. Don't use faulty resources.

What's in a word?

2012-01-22T10:50:00.000-05:00

We think we know what we're writing. We think we know what we're reading. But what if the word we use really means something else?

I am reading Robert K. Massie's Catherine the Great right now. First, let me tell you that it is masterfully written. The prose is interesting, the facts well-researched. He follows a chronological order in laying out the chapters, but throws unexpected and interesting facts in places that catch you off-guard and, at times, make you laugh. I highly recommend it.

Ivan (IV) the Terrible

I digress. While reading this book, I was moved to search online for pictures of Empress Elizabeth I (Catherine's mother-in-law--and if you think you mother-in-law is terrible, you never stepped in Catherin's shoes). One link lead to another, as they usually do, and I began reading about Ivan the Terrible. This paragraph struck me as interesting:

The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivan's nickname, but the modern English usage of terrible, with a pejorative connotation of bad or evil, does not precisely represent the intended meaning. The meaning of grozny is closer to the original usage of terrible—inspiring fear or terror, dangerous (as in Old English in one's danger), formidable or threatening. Other translations were suggested, such as Ivan the Fearsome or Ivan the Formidable.

It's not a major difference. He's either 'terrible' because he did terrible things, or 'terrible' because he was feared for doing terrible, or at least oppressive, things. But still, it made me think.

Do you think about the words you write? The words you read? Do you ponder over their meaning and strain over picking the appropriate verbage? If not, should you?

(For those interested, I came across some very ornate 'dolls,' for lack of a better word, fashioned after historical figures. Here is the link for Catherine the Great's.)

My Super Hero Kids

2012-01-19T10:38:00.000-05:00

My son, the Super Hero, saves Yodicity!

Become a Superhero onwww.hellokids.com, site for kids of coloring page.

And, my Super Hero daughter, too!

Become a Superhero onwww.hellokids.com, site for kids of coloring page.

Cute, right?

Nature is Art

2012-01-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

Art abounds...Not really, but I have a new project I'm undertaking.

For a long time, as long as I can remember, I've always turned my camera on nature and snapped away. Am I any good? I don't know. But I think I have an eye for framing a shot. I spend a lot of time outdoors with my family, and it doesn't take much to just turn a little bit and click a few of a beautiful view or a vibrant tree.

Now I'm sharing those pics on Etsy, and you can order any that interest you. I am offering them

as prints (basic sizes starting at 5x7) and wrapped on canvas. The prices range from a low $8 for a digital copy, to upwards of $100 for a large canvas for your wall.

Even if you aren't interested in bring my view of nature into your home or office, pass the link along to those you think might be. I'd appreciate it. The more art out there, the more beautiful the world becomes.

Thank you, friends!

My photography Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheNaturePhotog
My Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePhotog

Guilty Pleasures

2011-12-27T12:28:00.000-05:00

I love Pinterest. I love the arbitrary pictures people post. I love the chance to just "pin" something because I think it's beautiful...not because I'm pushing a product or wanting you to click on a link. I can find beautiful places and dreamily "pin" them to my boards. I can see unbelievable fashion and just add it to the page and feel satisfaction.

Source: highfashionsproperty.tumblr.com via Michele on Pinterest

Why do I feel satisfaction sharing these beautiful pictures? I don't know. But I do.

Source: thefoxisblack.com via Michele on Pinterest

It's a way for me to explore all my interests without feel shame or silliness.

Find me if you want; find my pins: http://pinterest.com/micheleemrath/

What is your guilty passion?

Happy Holidays.

Quality, right?

2011-12-12T08:12:00.000-05:00

How is it that Mattel can throw out a million (or at least three) Barbie movies a year, and I can barely get to the end of an outline in 24 months?

Quality, right? That's what I keep telling myself: a difference in quality.

Happy Holidays to all of you...

2011-12-08T10:27:00.002-05:00

From my family to yours...

Peace 2011 Christmas Card

Find unique and modern Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Wow.

2011-12-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

Wow. I am overwhelmed! I certainly didn't make it to 12 blogs yesterday, but you all took the time to come by and welcome me back. That means so much!

I am really enjoying this renewed spirit of blogging. In myself, the energy is amazing and my mindset post-blog romp yesterday was much more positive than usual. And the things I found! Dez's Hollywood Spy up for awards! Click away and I find Alex J Cavanaugh up for just as many there (vote for them both)...Patricia Stoltey blogging for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers...and many more wonderful adventures!

And my outlines stare up at me...beckoning and taunting. If only I could tackle those with as much gumption as I tackle blogging!

I'm here.

2011-12-06T08:05:00.000-05:00

I'm here. I'm checking in. I'm on the Internet...I did it! I sat down at my computer and I typed words in a box and I am publishing them...wow. Who would have thought something so small could be so fulfilling? Who would have thought it would take me three months to get back here? And even longer to begin a regular posting schedule? Who would have thought...

I'm off to view your blogs! Happy blogging day!

Hello Again

2011-12-05T21:16:00.002-05:00

Hi.
I am sooooooooo sorry I disappeared! I just lost my edge...lost my time...lost my oomph...lost my mind? Thankfully, not totally on the latter, but I pretty much gave up writing for a long time. Not that I'm 100% back on the wagon, but I have at least put words on paper and complete ideas in an organized form.

So I just wanted to write a quick "Hello!" to all my wonderful bloggy-world friends. I have truly missed the discussion and the exchange of ideas. I hope to hop around your blogs tomorrow (Tuesday), as I'll actually have some time to myself.

And feel free to yell at me if I don't post at least once a week (hey, we have to re-start somewhere, right?)!

Happy Holidays!

Love (and long-time missing),
Michele

eBooks

2011-09-16T08:56:00.000-04:00

"Amazon sells more e-books than hardcovers and paperbacks combined." ~Vanity Fair, October 2011

Facts like these who the future of the publishing industry. And that's not a bad thing (though at one time I thought it was). For Father's Day this year, I bought my husband a Nook. We chose this e-reader for several reasons: size, touch-screen, weight, and ability to interface with .pdf files and library content. (There was a little support-your-bookseller anti-Amazon in there, too.)

But my husband has had so much studying to do for his next level of work (CFP status) and sooooo many Economist magazines to read...that I've sort of stolen the Nook. :) Which is funny, because you might remember I was very against the idea of the e-reader (especially in March 2010).

I love buying books with the touch of a button! (Watch out for hidden fees and know this can get expensive if you add up your purchases.) I love taking a handful of books with me on trips, but being able to hold them all in one hand! I love swiping my finger across a screen to turn the page! And, with the recent founding of e-lending sites like Lendle and Bookfriend, the future is here.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

2011-09-15T07:50:00.002-04:00

Hello, old friends. I pop back in today to wish a very BIG Happy Birthday to my son, Jake. He turns 6 today and is well into his first year of school--kindergarten.

Six years ago I looked down at this round, perfect face and fell in love. Today, I look down at this child's perfect face and fall in love all over again.

This little boy is one reason I haven't been around since June, and not very much then. My children have kept me extremely busy...in a good way! But I am hoping to be back this fall with new and wonderful posts! Thank you to all who stuck with me and who are newly joining Southern City Mysteries.

Watch it

2011-06-21T12:56:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen this show and you love mysteries, you are really missing something! Netflix, Hulu, BBCAmerica, whatever--just get a hold of it and watch it!!!

Masterpiece Mysteries!: Sherlock

Something new

2011-06-13T11:19:00.001-04:00

Trying some new authors. James Morrow (The Last Witchfinder) and Daniel Stashower (The Dime Museum Murders). Actually, I've read Stashower before--The Beautiful Cigar Girl. But this is a different genre.

Are you trying anything new?

How many is too many?

2011-06-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

How many different stories do you have working at once?

I seem to come up with all sorts of good scenes that would play into different plotlines...but I never finish one of them! I know I need to just take something to completion (a problem of mine, really), but just can't for some reason.

Do you make yourself stick with something? Do you work several manuscripts at once?

Strangers

2011-06-06T08:43:00.000-04:00

We have new neighbors. They are really nice people--a young couple with two kids very close in age to our's. We've yet to get to know the parents very well as they both work during the week. But we've had the children around nearly every day since they moved in. Our children are IN HEAVEN! They ask every morning and every night when they can have their new friends over.

And so they come. And they play.

Four laughing, pretending, needing children. In some ways it's easier--my children are entertained and that equals less work for me. In others it's more--more mouths to feed, more responsibility, more restrictions on my activities.

But all in all, it's a blessing. My children can run freely to another house for the first time. They are learning to be hosts and how to treat guests. They are making strong friendships.

Sometimes when I'm writing, a stranger wanders in. That person could be a major character in the future. They could be instrumental to the development of my MC. They could be a killer. But it's a process for me just like it's a process for my children. I have to learn how to work with this new children, discover their likes, dislikes, and other traits. I have to be a good host and treat them well.

Then they aren't strangers anymore. They are just part of the writing family.

I wish I had...

2011-06-05T10:57:00.000-04:00

I wish I had someone to open the house each morning.

Do you know what I mean? Open the blinds, pull back the curtains, make the coffee, a little light dusting...All the things parlormaids in previous centuries were known paid to do.

I wish I had someone like that.

Maybe I'll write historical mysteries so I can pretend. That's what's grand about writing fiction, isn't it? The things we get to imagine. The romances. The cities. The wealth or the poverty. The heroism. The terror. The life.

Your Shelf

2011-06-04T14:35:00.000-04:00

Still on a Christie kick!

Your Shelf

Witty Title

2011-05-24T07:36:00.000-04:00

It's a Mystery

Mystery Writing is Murder

Killer Hobbies

Killer Characters

Murder is Everywhere

You all are a clever bunch. These are witty names for interesting blogs that all revolve around one thing: death. That's right, you smarty writers! Using your wits to name your blogs is just the beginning with you. Click over to each of these aptly titled sites for bunches and bunches of posts

Nothing crazy cool to say today. Just wanted to point out the wit behind the titles.

Have a good Tuesday!

Fill the Silence

2011-05-23T07:46:00.005-04:00

Last night, I finished The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth by Francis Wilson. Blame it on the times or the strange magnetism of William Wordsworth, but the life of Dorothy was one of complete loss of self. She was a woman devoted to journaling, to writing, to observing nature...and yet everything she did was for the benefit of her brother.

Sometimes a character's personality is lost in the strength of other characters. But this can be their characterization. Their complete loss of self can be seen as devotion to others or shyness or mental instability or secrets in hiding. All were certainly attributed to Dorothy Wordsworth in her time.

How many quiet people do you know who are completely innocent, sweet human beings? Many, most likely.

But in mystery writing, this sweet silence can be twisted into something else entirely. Embrace the silence in your characters. Fill it with something larger than dialogue: mystery.

Writing that lasts

2011-05-20T08:36:00.000-04:00

"Mrs. Price Ridley wears what, I believe, are known as 'Hats for Matrons'...They perch easily on a superstructure of hair and are somewhat overweighted with large bows of ribbon."
~The Murder at the Vicarage, Chap. 13, Agatha Christie

I read this passage last night and it just struck me as hilarious! "A superstructure of hair!" What an image! And I can see it so clearly...Even in this age when hats aren't common, I can still picture the kind of woman Christie is describing, and the kind of hat she means.

Writing a description that makes a reader react decade after decade is no easy task. We all know Christie is the Mistress of Mystery, but there are many authors gifted in the way of the pen. I encourage you to share any phrases or passages that strike you when you're reading. We can only learn from the descriptions that stay with us.

Read any lately?

Sound

2011-05-19T16:54:00.000-04:00

Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa.
HOOOOOOONK.
HOOOOOOONK.
Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa..
Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat.
Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa.
Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa. Thu-wumpa...

Any guesses?

It's an MRI machine. That's right, I spent my Tuesday morning inside one of those, and all I could think during the procedure was how I would describe the sounds I was hearing.

Sound is such a strong sense, yet so often ignored in literature. It's not surprising. It's hard to find the right words to describe sound--especially without sounding silly. But it's a real sense that can build real atmosphere.

I wasn't scared in the MRI machine, but I could see how the sounds could be used to create fear. I was certainly surrounded by the sound. With my eyes closed, it's really all I was aware of.

Do you concentrate on sound--or the lack thereof--in your writing?

Also...the MRI was for a possible herniated disc in my neck. We'll see after my second MRI next week if that's what's going on.

Dreams of Death

2011-05-14T05:05:00.000-04:00

Do you ever feel it's too much? The blood? The murder weapons? The victims?

Tuesday I had a migraine. I took medicine. I slept. I slept deeply for hours. I slept so deeply I didn't move. I also dreamed. I dreamed long, horrible, murder-laced dreams. I dreamed in full-length movies, three-act plays, beginning-middle-and-end books. I saw killings and chased murderers--children, actually. I saw affairs (even participated in one) and devastation.

I woke in a dark whorl of sweat and images. And I knew they were connected to the murder mysteries I had been reading. I knew the children involved were leftover thoughts from Child 44 and the social conflicts from Christie's Peril at End House.

Do you ever put down a murder mystery? Do you ever turn away and refresh your mental state with something lighter? Maybe, regret a bit the direction in which your interests lie?

I'll move past this. I didn't read Tom Rob Smith's work Tuesday night, but I did devour more Christie. How could I not?

Agatha, take 2

2011-05-13T20:43:00.002-04:00

Mystery writers are usually interesting people themselves. As a follow-up to yesterday's brief post on Dame Agatha, I bring you a fascinating breakdown of her very personal mystery: her disappearance.

(FYI--this was supposed to post Friday, and the one that posted earlier (Morbid Stuff) was supposed to post after the one that will now post on Saturday, but Blogger was down. It also deleted titles and pics I had stored in unposted articles. Ick, Blogger, ick! Sorry for the confusion!!!!)

Morbid stuff

2011-05-13T05:05:00.000-04:00

Another follow-up post...
To continue in the inappropriate and disturbing vein, check out these sites and crazy issues.

1. Lizzie Borden' home is a bed and breakfast! Go on, book a vacation. Stay where a young girl's parents were killed with multiple hatchet blows. In the morning, "enjoy a hot breakfast reminiscent of the food the Borden’s ate on that fateful Thursday in 1892" (site). And don't go home empty-handed! Get your very own Lizzie Borden Head Knocker (bobble-head doll) or brick dust from the Borden home.

2. The Mütter Museum, College of Physicians, Philadelphia. We aren't supposed to stare or question when we see someone with a physical deformity. (In truth, we should treat them like a so-called "normal" person (what is that, anywa?) but not pretend the deformity isn't there.) But do we need an entire museum showcasing medical specimens from conjoined twins, the brain of a murderer, and full skeletons of giants and dwarves. Go ahead, click and look. That's why it's there now, isn't it?

3. Bog People--bodies of murder victims thousands of years old. This one actually has archaeological and historical value. Were they sacrifices? Murder victims? Gallows bodies?

4. Cemetary Statues--creepy ones. This one is harmless because the images were put there to be seen. They are memories of someone. And what that says about those "someones"...well, I don't know. Go see for yourself.

5. Another fascinating one in a morbid fashion: hearses over time. How did Elvis get to the cemetary? What beautiful wheels used in 1900! Ronald Reagan's was (surprise!) conservative.

Dame Christie Returns

2011-05-10T07:56:00.001-04:00

So into Dame Christie right now! I picked up a couple of my father's 1970s prints--Evil Under the Sun and Dead Man's Folly--while in Nashville, and plowed through them. Of course, I'd read Christie before. Many, many stories in high school and several plays as well. But this revival of the Queen of Suspense is exciting!

Do you have a favorite you return to occasionally? Does your vigor for that author's work surprise you with its vitality?

Do you have a favorite Agatha Christie story? There are so many, I know! Right now I'm reading Peril at End House--a new one for me.

Ode to My Blog

2011-05-09T08:14:00.000-04:00

How do I return? How do I jump back in and type a post that will grab readers? How do I feel at home on my blog again? Where is it written that time away means mind away?

A day didn't pass that I didn't think of you, My Blog. In the midst of child-rearing and wedding-prepping, an image of you would reach out to me, flash in my mind and call to me. I missed your perfect header, your intriguing Literary History banner, your links and images, your bevy of posts past.

Oh, how I long to be lost in your Dashboard...pouring my thoughts and knowledge into post after post! The comments! The readership! The friends! The magic of the Internet!

I've missed you, Blog. I've...

Hi, all. It's been a while.

Witches

2011-04-17T08:04:00.002-04:00

Roald Dahl's The Witches. Michael Gruber's The Witch's Boy. Shakespeare's Macbeth. The Witches of Eastwick. Snow White. Harry Potter. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

What do all these pieces of literature have in common? You guessed it: witches.

It occurred to me last night while reading Dahl's story to my son that there are sooooooooo many witches in literature--something that would seemingly mean similar characters--and yet they are all sooooooooooo different. Are Shakespeare's evil sisters comparable to the woman who takes in a child and learns to love in The Witch's Boy? Compare even L. Frank Baum's Wicked Witch of the West to Gregory Maguire's Wicked. They are meant to be comparative and near opposites--one a misunderstood version of the other.

Magic Circle by John
Waterhouse

"Witches" date back to the some of the earliest recorded history, all over the globe. Witch hunts first appear in the 14th century in Switzerland and France. And yet, with as much as we know about witchcraft and wicca, the stories depicting witches are as different as the countries in which they practice.

What does this mean? It means there are endless possibilities. Think of the blogfests in which you've participated or visited. With the same subject, each entry is completely different because of its author. Don't be afraid of tackling a classical subject or taking on an old tale. You can leave your mark. And always explore different authors. You just might learn something and you will definitely read a different point of view.

Great writers, Great homes

2011-04-03T09:55:00.000-04:00

"Undershaw"

I was shocked to find that Arthur Conan Doyle's home, "Undershaw," is in a state of disrepair and set to be converted to multiple residences. Where are the museums? The funds to preserve this landmark where works such as The Hound of the Baskervilles became a park of the canon? This is the home that saw the likes of J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan), Bram Stoker (Dracula), Virginia Woolfe (Mrs. Dalloway), and "famous Sherlock Holmes actor" William Gillette (wiki). Where are the preservationists?

It turns out, as much as they object, the money just isn't there. And I have to wonder if the public cares. Is it just an American thing that every piece of brick touched by famous hands is preserved eternally? Perhaps it is only normal that homes and other buildings throughout Europe would be renumbered and recycled. After all, there are hundreds of more years of history and less land on which those generations have lived.

Dickens House

But there are some exceptions--many, as it turns out. The Dickens Museum is located at 48 Doughty Street, where the Victorian author wrote The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. A plaque resides at the 17th century home of diarist Samuel Pepys. A home at 29 Fitzroy Square shared (at different times) by George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolfe bears plaques for both writers. Samuel Johnson's locale and home have been preserved. Author Thomas Carlyle's home is even furnished in the likes of his style.

Faulkner House

In the US we have no problem marking something "historic" and setting up a foundation. Edgar Allan Poe has a museum at his homes in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Richmond, Virginia. You can visit Thomas Wolfe's house across my state in Asheville, North Carolina. William Faulkner has his home in Mississippi, Mark Twain in Connecticut, and F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota.

Are these places important? Do they add to one's experience of the literature? I think so. What do you think?

Birthdays are starting points

2011-04-02T07:58:00.001-04:00

My baby, Natalie, is 3 today! As you can imagine, we are pretty busy making her happy and basking in the purple and pink glow of her presents.

Three is a whole new world. Three leaves the baby behind and embarks on the reality that is girlhood. Three means no more pacifier and, in Natalie's case, no more nap. Three means change.

Change is a great element to incorporate in your writing. It can be the catalyst for so many great emotional events. Birthdays, retirement, new jobs, graduations...these can all mean many things for your characters. Adding them to your story can create an explanation for emotional reactions and even a setting for cataclysmic events.

Do you include life-changing events in your writing? Do you make this a focal point for your story?

Happy birthday to my "baby," Natalie!

*FYI: I wrote this via Blogger's new 'Blog This! extension' and I really like it. Find out more here.

The Ending

2011-03-30T10:57:00.002-04:00

Are you a writer who sees the ending before it's written? Perhaps I should ask this a different way...

Are you a person who plans long-term? Or do you see what is right in front of you, the here and now?

On page 228 of The Sherlockian, Graham Moore writes, "The thing (Harold) most remembered about her...was her ability to live entirely in the present. She was able to accept the joys and misfortunes in front of her as they came, without wondering endlessly when the joys would end or the misfortunes would life. Harold was paralyzed by endings."

There are, of course, benefits to both. Those of us who think of the right now (like me), tend to be optimistic people who worry less and do a lot of spontaneous things. Those who view the far future save for retirement, retire earlier, and solve problems before they arise.

And, there are negatives. I, for one, am not a planner. I don't save and I don't clip coupons and I don't think about the trips we'll take when our children are out of the house. I want the trips now and I want to have fun now. Long-termers seem to have a little trouble letting go of worries in order to enjoy what's right in front of them.

But in book writing, it has to be better to be a long-term thinker, right? Take it from one who is not: this is the case. I don't see an ending, I see chapter by chapter. I might see parts of my characters' makeup, but not the whole of him/her until I write them. I am a writer who writes when I feel like it, not at a set time every day. I live my life the same way--and it's been known to cause a problem or two in my house.

So, are you a 'Harold' writer or a 'Michele' writer?

Hello, blog.

2011-03-29T08:54:00.000-04:00

Ever feel like life interferes with your blogging? Ha! What a ridiculous statement! Life--here defined as anything that happens in the physical world, not pertaining to the Internet or the computer--should interfere with blogging!

But what about when your own blog starts to look like a foreign space? When you can't remember where you placed that Shelfari app or which links remain on your sidebar? When you don't even check back on the day your post to see if anyone responds?

That's the way I feel. I never realized how busy young kids could keep a person. By the time I have a brief moment of solitude, putting my brain to use on this thing is the last thing I want to do. A good book to take me away, a TV show to relax me, or just sleep...aaahh, sleep.

I must also admit to you that I am a person of immediacy. I like to do whatever I feel at the moment. I hate schedules and commitments. I like spur-of-the-moment decisions and spontaneity. I will buck appointments till the last minute.

How does one reconcile this personality with the need to get things done? Even the want to be better about blogging every day? Impossible? Maybe.

The Minor Characters

2011-03-23T07:33:00.000-04:00

Don't ignore them. They can make or break a movie, a tv show, and definitely your book. Take this episode of Castle. "One Life to Lose" aired Monday, March 21st, with Jodi Taffel playing a soap opera fanatic. Costuming certainly helped--jingly bracelet over cuff, curly hair wild like her eyes, long nails weilded like daggers. But it is Taffel's timing and expression that steal the scene. Check her out below at 10:24.

If a minor character has character, your scene can come alive. A reader will laugh or cry with that character and exclaim, "Perfect!" if you pay attention to the little things and the little characters. Just like the setting and the costumes and the framing can play essential background to the main characters, they can also play starring roles.

Let your minor characters shine through! Do any favorite supporting roles come to your mind?

Edgar Allan Poe, the Opera

2011-03-17T10:00:00.006-04:00

Album cover for opera

That's right, folks. Poe is hitting the stage in a new way--set to music. According to BBC Radio, the drummer for The Police has written an opera based on Poe's famous story, The Tell-Tale Heart.

In order to understand the short story as an opera, one must first know the definition of "opera"--an "art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score" (wiki). Opera came about in the late 16th century, in Florence, Italy--home of so many artistic triumphs. In the early 20th century, the musical art underwent a transformation by modernists such as Stravinsky and Puccini. Now, "modern" opera goes back a century and takes on a tale of guilt and madness.

Watch part of it here, if you like:

clever merchandise

Does the story lend itself to opera? Tragic lead character, dramatic turning point, life-changing event...all there. But it seems to me the story is meant to be read. It's meant to be seen in black and white in contrast with the color of Poe's words. Each sentence is meant to be thought as the narrator thought them, in the growing, swirling madness that slowly overtook his mind. An opera is too bold for this bold work. Does that make sense? Throwing such a story in your face does not make it stronger, but instead weakens the very strengths of Poe's brilliance.

What do you think?

Oh! And Happy St. Patty's Day!

What's in a name?*

2011-03-15T21:54:00.001-04:00

Warwickshire. Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Maryport. Much Wenlock. Gloucestershire. Needham Market. Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. Ottery St. Mary. Saffron Walden. Shepton Mallet. Thornbury. Wells-next-the-Sea. Nottinghamshire.

As you may have guessed, these are towns and counties in England. They are simple names, but they are very specific to the location in which they exist. With the exception of those former colonies of HRH, only in GB could these very British names take hold. This without even getting into the names of historic properties and estates!

Say some of these words aloud...Gloucestershire. Thornbury. Warwickshire. Your mouth probably stretches a bit more than usual, your tongue getting more use and your mouth forced to really enunciate.

But, aside from the difference in speech, you probably feel something when saying these words. Does Wells-next-the-Sea make you think of a matter-of-fact group of people in a beautiful ocean setting? Honest fishermen, perhaps, in straight-up cottages the wind whips through morning, noon, and night. How about Shepton Mallet? Must be a country village with a busy former trade life and hardworking townfolk. Warwickshire? I see landed gentry and acres upon acres of working lower classes, beautiful pastures divided only by estate homes and historic buildings.

These assumptions are not correct. Wells-next-the-Sea is a beautiful, oceanside town, but established as a port and famous for the nearby birthplace of Lord Nelson. Warwickshire is a county--so not defined by just one description. It, too, is famous for those it has born: Shakespeare, George Eliot, and poet Rupert Brooke. Shepton Mallet? I was right on! See what a name can say!

The point is that words can make you feel. They can make you imagine and therefore should be used wisely. They are dangerous in the wrong hands and inspiring in the right ones. Name your places well. Call your people only words that invoke the right character. Call out for geography with the titles of towns and houses.

How do you name your places and characters? Do you try to invoke a feeling? Do you search the history of a name or the meanings behind it in different cultures? Do you say it out loud and feel it roll off your tongue?

* In the manner of my good blogging friend, Margot Kinberg, the title comes from another source. This one is from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, (II, ii, 1-2). The full line, spoken by Juliet, goes as such:

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name; And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.

Romeo and Juliet, Annie Liebovitz, for Vogue 2008

Author Allan Leverone's Debut Thriller

2011-03-15T10:30:00.002-04:00

Today we welcome author Allan Leverone to Southern City Mysteries. His thriller, Final Vector, is now available. Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist whose short fiction has been featured in Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Shroud Magazine, Twisted Dreams, Mysterical-E and many other venues, both print and online. Now, I give you Allan Leverone...

Write a Good Book: How Hard Could it Be?

By Allan Leverone, author of FINAL VECTOR

I was pretty ignorant about the hard realities of publishing when I decided to try my hand at writing a novel. I figured, “How hard can it be? I’ll write a good book, submit it to a number of different big New York publishers, and then I’ll wait for the offers to come flooding in and I’ll pick from the best one.”

Simple.

So was I, looking back on it. I had absolutely zero knowledge about the process of getting a novel published, beyond the “write a good book” part. But I was ignorant, not stupid. After finishing my first manuscript, I set about learning as much as I could about the publishing business in order to be able to sort through the many offers I would soon be receiving from Random House, Penguin, etc.

I suppose it goes without saying that the first thing I learned was there would be no offers from Random House, at least not until I had persuaded a literary agent that my work was worthy of his/her time, since the days of publishing’s Big Guys accepting “over the transom” manuscripts were long past. Oh yeah, and landing an agent would be no picnic, either. It would be at least as difficult as persuading that fictional Random House employee to buy my book, maybe more so.

I should probably note for you that all this was occurring in early 2007, before the current explosion in electronic reading devices had begun to turn the publishing world on its ear. Self-publishing back in the dark ages of 2007 was frowned upon to the point that it was considered career suicide for any writer—particularly an unknown writer trying to get his foot in the door—to place his own work into the marketplace.

It was all about distribution, you see. No distribution meant no sales to speak of, because, as everyone knew, the way to sell books was for your publisher’s sales force to fan out across the country and convince bookstore owners/buyers that the author of the book they were pushing would be the next J.K. Rowling or Dan Brown or Stephen King or Clive Cussler, depending of course on the genre of the book.

It seems almost quaint, doesn’t it? Like the idyllic picture of a much simpler world your parents or grandparents paint when they talk about how wonderful things were back in the good old days of 1990 or 1970 or 1950, depending upon how old you are and how old your parents or grandparents are.

That was less than four years ago. Now it seems many of those bookstores an author was so desperate to get shelf space in have either closed their doors for good or are in the midst of their agonizingly painful death throes. Shelf space in a real, brick-and-mortar bookstore? Sure, that would be great, who wouldn’t want that? But it represents the old model.

And I’m not here to tell you that’s a bad thing. If I could get my thriller, FINAL VECTOR, placed next to Barry Eisler’s latest or Lee Child’s latest, would I turn down the opportunity? Not on your life! I would probably camp out in front of the store’s entrance every night so that when they opened their doors for business in the morning I would be first in line to admire . . . I mean, examine, yeah, that’s it, examine . . . the display.

But let’s face it—Allan Leverone is an unknown quantity, unless you happen to be a fan of mystery short fiction or dark short fiction, in which case I am only a mostly unknown quantity. The odds of my thriller ending up in the same zip code as Lee Child’s at your local bookseller are roughly equivalent to the odds of me winning a “Best-looking Author” photo” contest—and there’s not enough air-brushing in the world for that to happen.

But the thing about being an author in 2011 is that there are now other legitimate ways to sell books and, for new authors, to begin building a fan base. I spent a lot—no, wait, a LOT—of time querying agents between the spring of 2007 and late 2009, doing things the established way, spending hundreds of hours contacting many dozens of agents, all in the hopes of making that elusive connection, all in vain.

Finally, in late 2009, while still trying to gain the attention of an agent, I decided to try another tactic—I would begin sending my manuscripts to smaller, independent publishers, many of whom differ from the Big Guys in that they do not require agented submissions. It was a world of difference from self-publishing, as most Indies have their own daunting submissions procedures and rigorous editing process.

Almost immediately Medallion Press, one of the biggest and, in my opinion, best, of the Indies showed an enthusiastic interest in my book about an air traffic controller who must stop an attempted assassination of the President of the United States while his dealing with his own wrenching personal loss.

You want to know the best part of this brave new publishing world? After some changes of proposed format over the past year, FINAL VECTOR is now available as an ebook, and thus is completely insulated from the make-or-break aspect of attempting to gaining admittance into the rarefied air of your local bookstore’s shelves. As I try to develop a fan base for my debut novel, all I need do is convince thriller readers that they will be getting a good story when they download my book onto their electronic device.

It’s still not easy, don’t get me wrong. I’m still an unknown, or mostly unknown, author, but this slight leveling of the playing field has resulted in folks like me having at least the chance to reach a potential audience, especially as the ereader explosion continues. And that’s all I can ask for. Because, ultimately, it’s all about the story.

“Write a good book.” How hard could it be?

Thank you, Mr. Leverone, for stopping by Southern City Mysteries! Hope your book brings you much success and many more opportunities to publish.

For more on the author and his work, visit AllanLeverone.com or check out his blog.

Thank you for broadening my mind

2011-03-12T11:09:00.001-05:00

Is it the lack of intellectual stimulation, the result of being a stay-at-home mom with two preschool-age children? Is it a maturity that comes with the 30s, otherwise known as "the fourth decade" to those who want to torture themselves? Is it a change of interest as the world seems to set itself on fire? A need to know as much as possible in the belief that other aspects of life will be explained? Is it a way to enrich my writing, or perhaps escape from the burden of putting words on paper?

Whatever it is, turning 30 (and now 31) has produced in me a propensity for learning. Let me preface this by pointing out that I didn't used to read nonfiction. I had my fill in college and working in news every day. My at-home reading was always mystery/thriller fiction--usually with an edge toward the airport novel. You know the kind--you pick it up and it's a short, thrilling ride with questionable writing skill but full of action.

Now, nonfiction fills my shelves, with the classics keeping up in the race and both trailing just slightly behind literary fiction.

Sure, age has something to do with it. But even more to blame is you.

That's right, my blogging friends, you have opened my eyes to the world. Where I once read only male authors and only quick thrillers, I now read Tana French, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, and international fiction that blows my mind. Where I once thrived on the unreal, I now thrill at the idea a story could actually be real. (Often the real is more perverse than its counterpart.)

So, thank you. I have read books set on every continent and by authors from nearly as many places. I have learned so much from my nonfiction turn and it is all piling up in my head and my notes, hoping to spill into my own writing.

Eva Peron

2011-03-11T08:31:00.000-05:00

Why is she so interesting? Why does her name strike a fascination that defies her simple appearance and benevolent smile?

Perhaps it is because that smile wasn't what it seemed. And the era in which she reigned--for reign she did--is one of fear and uncertainty, not just in Argentina, but around the world. It is the time of Nazi Germany and Peronist Argentina. It is a time of military rule and the height of dictator furor.

Patti LuPone as Evita, 1979

But why am I so interested? I remember my first encounter with Evita. It was through the words of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. "Don't cry for me, Argentina!" Patti Lupone sang. And my parents explained to me who this Evita was and why she asked a whole country not to cry, though she really meant the opposite. At the age of 10 I knew words like "whore" and "bitch" and I knew that someone could be both but still magnetic and effervescent.

In the fifth grade, Evita became the topic of my first school paper. I carefully read and wrote a biographical essay on the former First Lady of Argentina, replete with a profile-with-chignon rendering that my teacher remarked "wasn't called for in the instructions for this paper." (Funny how we remember the slights in life, isn't it? Perhaps this was how Evita survived--chewing on the slights until they nourished her.)

I am not Argentinean. I have no ties with the Peronists or even with the Broadway musical. But somehow this bottle-blonde Queen enticed me. She still does. Is it the mythical power that overwhelms the historical characters in Tomás Eloy Martínez's Santa Evita?

No. It's the mystery. It is! The mysteries of this life are more fascinating than the ones we make up. Hence the success of the historical novel and the nonfiction writings of Capote and Martínez. Mystery is why I write this blog. Mystery is why I scour bookshelves and online libraries. Mystery is why I watch Criminal Minds and CSI and even White Collar. Mystery is why I read art books and play Legos with my children--yes, it's present even there. Mystery is the not knowing, the wondering, the questions that fill our minds and pour out through our fingertips.

Do you have an Eva Peron? Is there an historical figure who fascinates you? Is there a mystery that enthralls?

Funnily, I hadn't thought about Evita in years. I hadn't listened to

Nonfiction post, again

2011-03-10T09:21:00.014-05:00

Noticed a lot of nonfiction references here lately? First of all, you've noticed more than my usual zero posts, so that's a change in itself. Then there are the constant ramblings on history as literature and government docs as nonfiction...

The point is, I've been reading a lot of the genre lately. I have a hunger for learning lately that came out of no where. That's not true. I turned 31 in February and I can only imagine that has something to do with it. The vastness of the knowledge yet to learn is truly overwhelming, but it still appeals to me. My sister's in law school and my son is getting read for kindergarten. And I read. That is my graduate school.

Last night I finished Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez. In his 2010 obituary, The New York Times describes Mr. Martínez as "a distinguished Argentine writer whose fiction mingled journalistic and novelistic techniques to conjure an Argentina more authentically strange and elusive than either fact or fiction alone might allow." (I highly recommend reading the article, which briefly documents the life of a heroic writer/journalist with such anecdotes as this: "In 1975, while eating lunch in a Buenos Aires restaurant, Mr. Martínez received word that when he stepped outside, he would be assassinated. There was no back exit. Reasoning that the least he could do was document his own murder, he phoned his newspaper and requested a photographer. The receptionist said: 'Why so modest? I’ll send them all,' Mr. Martínez recalled in a 2007 interview with The Guardian of London. A swarm of photographers descended, and the assassins scattered.")

It is a book that mixes reality with legend--and not just one reality, but the reality as believed by multiple personalities. It mixes myth with mysticism, life with death. But most of all, it sends the reader straight to the confusing parallel universes that exist in Argentina--the dichotomy of great wealth and great poverty, great power and great weakness, great love and great hate, great fear and great bravery, great desire and great cowardice. Passion.

I hungrily add several more of Martínez's works to my TBR list, including The Perón Novel and The Tango Singer. I hope a biography of the writer will appear--perhaps written in the style he so favored, a style very Argentinean, where "nothing is true; at the same time everything is true" (ny times). One gets the feeling that is the kind of life Martínez led. At one point, the Times journalist writes, "Mr. Martínez was married several times...Information on other survivors could not be confirmed."

It's the little mysteries, isn't it?

*My next nonfiction undertaking will be The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth by Frances Wilson. Fictionally, I am reading The Canterbury Papers by Judith Koll Healey.

Local Laureate and Nonfiction

2011-03-09T09:20:00.002-05:00

The 2011 Piedmont Laureate spoke yesterday on our NPR affiliate, WUNC. Scott Huler said many interesting things, but one stood out to me. He said during his reign as Piedmont Laureate the "worst piece of nonfction" will come to an end. He's talking about the Homeland Security Color Coded Threat System.

That's right, folks, you can no longer ignore the Code Orange rating on your way to the airport, because it won't be there to ignore! (NY Daily News) Who knew what Code Orange even meant? Who paid attention to it anyway? I know in the news business we reported code changes dutifully but without relish.

But I digress...What struck me most about Huler's comment wasn't the end of the Threat System, but him calling it nonfiction. I never thought about it one way or the other, but do we include all records and government publications as literature? Do they count enough to be called fiction or non? (Not debating the fictional possibilities in government works here...)

This reminds me of the US governement's 2004 publication, The 9/11 Commission Report. The result of months of investigation into the worst act of foreign terrorism on US soil became in instant bestseller, according to the NY Times. And they're doing it again! That's right, the government commission headed by Thomas H. Kean is releasing a new, fully-loaded report titled The 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. It's due to be released August of this year.

All of this strikes a cord with me right now because I've been reading so much nonfiction. I seem to be in an era of learning in my life--can't get enough of the stuff! None of it is dry or mathematical. It's all related to my interest--arts, mysteries, death, politics, history. And Huler's comment made me realize how much is out there at which I've never looked before. Nonfiction, fiction, a blend of the two...It's all around us!

What do you think?

History as Literature

2011-03-07T10:20:00.000-05:00

"Why does history have to be a story told by sensible people and not the delirious raving of losers...? If history--as appears to be the case--is just another literary genre, why take away from it the imagination, the foolishness, the indiscretion, the exaggeration, and the defeat that are the raw material without which literature is inconceivable?"
~ Tomás Eloy Martínez in Santa Evita, p. 129

What do you think?

Imagination

2011-03-04T09:09:00.000-05:00

We don't have any trees in our yard which we can climb. It's a shame, really. I love climbing trees and I would love to watch my kids explore the view from different heights. There's nothing like the world one can create from the branches of a tree.

But this week the light was just right. It shone through this one tree--each limb drawn on the ground with near God-like precision.

So we climbed it.

We climbed that shadow tree, my daughter and I, and we each found our perfect branch. We stretched out long and we let our legs dangle. We chatted about the view and about the animals perched beside us or above us in our secret tree.

We imagined.

2011-02-25T05:05:00.000-05:00

Today we welcome Frank J. Edwards, author of the new medical thriller, Final Mercy. First, a brief bio: Edwards was born in Rochester, New York. He entered the US Army in 1968 and served a tour in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. He received a BA with honors in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill then attended medical school at the University of Rochester. In 1989, he received an MFA in writing from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC. After practicing medicine for a decade in North Carolina, he returned to the Rochester area in 1990 where he remains in active practice. This is his first fiction novel, but he has seen his poems, short stories, and two nonfiction books reach the market. Edwards lives with his family on Lake Ontario, near Rochester, NY.

Here is Frank Edwards...

Similes for the Act of Writing

When trying to describe the process of creating fiction, writers often resort to similes and metaphors to express the act. This is because writing is still a mysterious thing—the unconsciously motivated, consciously directed stringing together of words to create a flow of thought and images that will resonate in the conscious and subconscious of others. And there you go: abstract descriptions like this, not only sound like gobbledygook; they don’t convey what it really feels like. They don’t teach and they don’t inspire.

Analogies do a better job of illuminating the heart of the matter. That is why they are one of the writing tricks of the writer’s trade—the making of creative comparisons. Ring Lardner supposedly said that writing is like sitting down at your typewriter and slitting open a vein. Rudyard Kipling compared it to knocking ashes off a bed of coals.

I read one just last week I’d never encountered before from a writer whose name I wish I remembered, saying that writing is like swimming underwater. I like that. It doesn’t apply to writing outlines or taking notes, but to when you begin creating the scenes that are the real lifeblood of any story. That is when you dive down and stroke your way into the moment. Then you surface and do it again. The more you practice, the longer you can stay under. The trick lies in learning when you are just floundering on the surface versus going deep.

And here’s one of my own invention. I’ve never heard it used before, but it works for me. I used to be a military helicopter pilot and I was also a civilian flight instructor while going to college. When you first start flight training, it seems like an overwhelmingly difficult task because there are so many crucial things to coordinate at once. It’s far trickier than learning to ride a bicycle. But, gradually with time and lots of practice the balancing act becomes second nature. You get to the point where you no longer think; you just point yourself and fly there.

Writing is very much like this.

Thank you, Frank, for coming by Southern City Mysteries. I'm sure many of the readers here have placed Final Mercy on their TBR lists.

For more on Mr. Edwards, check out his website or that of his book, MedThriller.com.

Silence is Showing

2011-02-22T10:35:00.001-05:00

I am watching The Divine Lady with Corinne Griffith and Marie Dressler. It is a silent film made in 1929 and tells the romantic story of the love between Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton. The costumes are the ultimate in luxury. The makeup is dramatic to the 'enth degree. The love is melodramatic. And the music is a a mix of emotion-inducing symphony and hopeful lyrics. Drums take the place of cannons and beautifully crafted model ships fall in Admiral Nelson's daring naval battle.

The story is told in black and white. It is told in near silence. It is told with facial expressions and body movements. It is told with emotion but without the obviousness dialogue brings. In fact, it is not told at all--it is shown.

Just look at the photo of Griffith above and to the left! See her eyes? Her clasped hands? The innocence implied by the hat and the chasteness by the gloves? Her eyes are sad and begging. Her mouth is barely open in a hopeful purse. She is begging or praying or both and won't you, won't you give her the attention she wants? She is so innocent and beautiful; how can you deny her?

Showing.

Some of the best authors use descriptive action where an adjective might muddy the sentence. Some of the best directors use movement and beautifully framed shots where dialogue might take attention away from the story.

Darren Aronofsky, nominated this year in the Best Director category for Black Swan (five nominations), is brilliant at this as Christopher Nolan, whose 2010 movie Inception is up for eight Academy Awards.

What great examples of showing stand out to you?

P.S. Don't forget to swing by Friday for guest blogger and author Frank Edwards and his new release, Final Mercy.

The Unlikable MC

2011-02-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

What if you don't like the protagonist in a book? What if his redeeming features aren't redeeming enough? What if you have trouble sympathizing with his situation because he just seems, well, smarmy?

Do you keep reading?

I understand the desire to write unlikable characters. After all, they exist in the real world and we hear about them and/or meet them every day. There are people we don't respect and people we don't even want to touch. Do we avoid them, or seek as much contact as possible?

I'm reading a book with an MC that fits this description. It is very well written and compelling in its simple narrative. It's also very short, which makes following the somewhat weasly protagonist a less than long journey. But is the story worth the effort?

A story has to be pretty darn good to outlast a weak MC. Have you read a book like this? Have you struggled with an MC who isn't likable, but demands to be written?

Those pages! That cover!

2011-02-20T09:23:00.000-05:00

Ever look at a book and think, Wow. Those pages are really nice. That cover! Impressive.

Personally, I like the pages that are rough on th edge, as if they've been torn from an important manuscript. Not quite white, but more ecrue. And the size--I know it's more expensive, but I like the larger paperbacks that are so popular today. They seem more authoritative while still giving concession to the economy.

The cover? My ideal cover would have muted colors and a deep black title that really stands out. The cover would be a blur of impressionistic modernism. I know that doesn't actually mean anything, but I don't yet have a reason to be more clear.

Some of my favorite covers? Michael Gruber's The Witch's Boy, Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire, Louise Penny's Bury Your Dead, Tana French's In the Woods, and Tasha Alexander's Tears of Pearl. You'll notice they are all different but all so appropriate for their contents, all beautiful in their detail.

All thoughts of publisher's input aside, how would your ideal book look and feel?

Penance

2011-02-19T08:18:00.000-05:00

So...(I sheepishly write after more than a week away from blogging)...

I've been reading a lot. Not writing, but reading a lot. And I heard a hilarious bit on NPR's Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me (THE funniest show ever) about streaking so I'm honoring this weekend with a few streaking links for you. Enjoy...and maybe you'll forget that you need to forgive me for my absence!

First off...the song that haunted my youth, good ol' Ray Stevens:

Now...Most videos were too risque for this site. I mean, words are one thing, but naked people? However, this one cracked me up because a) the kid didn't even get naked and b) the boy streaked through Wal-Mart! As if that's a real low point for the place.

Speaking of Wal-Mart and its impossibly low standard of customer, here's a glimpse:

For more, visit peopleofwalmart.com

So, that's my penance for missing so many posts lately. I think I've done my time.

February 8th

2011-02-08T11:28:00.000-05:00

How important are dates?

I have always loved this day--February 8th. I should. It's my birthday! But it's also a date on which much has happened in the world. And every time I read or hear of an event that occurred on February 8th, I feel a kinship with that incident. Whatever it may be, I feel tied to it somehow, as if our experiences converge somehow just because we share a date in common.

One of my favorites is Mary Queen of Scots. On this day in 1587, she was beheaded for "complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I" (history). I'll be honest, one of the reasons this particular event has always struck me is that Katharine Hepburn played the unlucky queen in the 1936 movie, Mary of Scotland. And Kate, for those of you who don't know, is my all-time favorite actor. I even named my daughter after her (Katharine is Natalie's middle name)!

Another February 8th occurrence: Peter the Great dies in 1725. The monarch, known for his Westernization of Russian government, was succeeded by another famous Catherine who would also become "Great."

More death and crime on this day...The first execution by lethal gas took place in 1924 in Carson City, Nevada. Champion Irish racehorse Shergar (worth $13.5 million) is stolen at gunpoint from a stud farm. "Shergar was never seen again and no ransom was paid. The case was never solved" (history). The outspoken and brave "Cardinal Mindszenty, the highest Catholic official in Hungary, is convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Communist People's Court" (history). One of the most controversial and cinema-changing films ever made opens in the US: Birth of a Nation. In 1989, 144 people died when "an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores" (Wash. Post). Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose in 2007.

And war...The Russo-Japanese War begins in 1904. The Battle of Roanoke Island, one of the first major victories for the Union in the American Civil War, takes place in 1862. 60 men were killed and 276 were wounded. Operation Lam Son 719 begins in 1971 with South Vietnamese forces invading southern Laos.

Is it any wonder I'm a crime writer? :)

But...some happy things happened today as well (in addition to my birth, of course *wink wink*)...In 1910, the Boy Scouts of American was incorporated. In 1697, a charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in the Virginia colony, the second-oldest college in America (after Harvard). In 1960, work began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

And it is also the birthday of some famous people...Ted Koppel is 71, and John Grisham is 56. Jules Verne, Jack Lemmon, Lana Turner and my favorite James Dean were all born February 8th.

So happy February 8th everyone! What's in a date? A lot.

The Story

2011-02-07T10:37:00.000-05:00

Storytelling is one of the oldest traditions in human history. Can you imagine a world without it? I don't just mean the rich library of books you have on your shelves. I don't just mean the words that fill your notebooks and Word documents as you strive for publication. I mean the stories that make up life.

When you teach a child, you use stories as examples. When you share your day, you tell the story of it to someone else. When you share your life with a partner, you make their story a part of yours, joining the two and creating a deeper, more fulfilling story together.

Phone calls. Songs. Magazines. Blog posts. Jokes. Emails. Letters. Dreams. Confessions. Television shows. Movies. Plays.

All stories.

I am reading a book right now that is a magically woven story. It isn't just one story, really, but hundreds pieced together to create the lives of two very different me--one black, one white--in the 19-teens Boston. It is The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. You might know Lehane's work. It is vast and disparate--noir-style mysteries, dramatic tales of human folly, psychological thrillers, historical epics--and all well done.

This book by Lehane shows how every human life is rife with story, full of drama and rich with page-worthy affairs. One step into the world of Lehane's Bostonian characters and you won't want to step back out. Correction, you'll constantly cringe and long to flee from the squalor that was inter-war America, but you won't be able to tear your eyes away. You'll be caught in the story.

Life is a story. Do you have one in you?

Raindrops

2011-02-05T10:50:00.000-05:00

Today it is all out raining. The tear-shaped drops race to the wet floor of my back deck. Splash! Splash! Splashsplashsplash!

Droplets hang from tree branches like glass baubles. The trees seem to be melting, growing more brilliant in color as they do.

The sky is a blank haze behind it all--a backdrop for this blending picture. The chairs, the wood, the grass, the trees--all becoming one in the uniform covering of rain.

Rain.

Rain.

Rain.

Rain in Writing

2011-02-04T10:28:00.000-05:00

It's raining today. Not a torrential downpour--we don't get those in Raleigh, really. But the drizzle is continuous and the clouds are covering the sky. It's wonderful!

How can a grey haze be fantastic? you ask. Well, think of what it means. We stay in our warm house, protected from the cold, biting raindrops. We watch the world going through a wash and know that everything will come out brighter and richer for it. We fold up on the couch or in our rooms and read and watch films and pretend Bionicles are taking over the Barbie house and Princess Tiana needs to change clothes ten times and Lego Atlantis meets Lego Pharaoh Quest. It's wonderful!

Rainy days usually mean something else in mystery novels. They are portents of doom and danger. They are cloaks for antagonists and slippery slopes for the MC.

Why? Is this what rain means to you? Does a dark, rainy night in mystery writing seem trite or right to you?

Making It Memorable

2011-01-31T05:05:00.001-05:00

"This is my new song...you can sing along..."

"We can ooh with ooh...we can aah with aah..."

"Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog..."

You might not recognize these phrases, but any child under 6 and their parents definitely do. These are the tunes one hears when watching Playhouse Disney--Mickey Mouse, monkey hosts, and Little Einsteins highlighted here.

They're the kind of ditties that stick in your head all day. You find yourself humming them later and mentally smack yourself upside the head. They are a parents worst nightmare because they prove to other parents that yes, you do let your children watch television (the whipping boy of childhood problems and the activity we have been taught to keep secret).

They are also great advertisements.

Every time your child sings one of these refrains in public and shouts "I love Little Einsteins!" the word is spread. Every time you share the frustrating tune repeating in your brain, the word is spread.

Selling a book can follow a similar path. Many authors pick a catchy theme for their titles. Sue Grafton has the alphabet series--U is for Undertow, G is for Gumshoe. Catchy, isn't it? Others give their MC a catch-phrase. Or a unique look (think Lisbeth Salander in the Dragon Tattoo series). Or a memorable sidekick.

It's important to remember that these tricks can turn off as many people as they attract. Personally, the cutesy naming of a book or series is a big turn-off for me. I like my murder mysteries serious and dark. (Though I'll admit: the exceptions I've made for books like Elizabeth Spann Craig's recent Memphis BBQ release have been worth it!) Others might not see Salander as someone with whom they can even remotely identify or empathize. So pick your tricks according to your audience.

What do you do, if anything, to brand yourself and your writing? Do you think about this and research it, or shun the practice? What do you think of authors/books who use these techniques?

Creative

2011-01-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday. Ovation TV asks on Facebook, "Doing anything creative this weekend?"

Well, are you?

My latest Obsession

2011-01-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

Art. I can't get enough of it! I am an avid DVR-er of Ovation programming (Art of the Heist, Art Crimes & Mysteries, Betrayal: the Life and Art of Rudolph Bauer, and Trainspotting is coming soon!). I pour through my almost-monthly ArtForum with eager to dog-ear fingers. I devour any book, fiction or non, that includes art history.

My sister gave me the best Christmas present ever. (If you'll remember from this very early post, she is great at giving gifts!) She bought me a membership to the NC Museum of Art. I can see gorgeous paintings and sculptures any time I want!

What do I do with this obsession? Include it in my writing? Go for a Masters in Art History? Drop writing and see if I can make it as a curator or gallerist?

Hmmm...How do you incorporate your interests in your life? Your writing?

Edgar nominees--have you read them?

2011-01-20T09:35:00.001-05:00

I am so excited to post this year's Edgar nominees, as a writer I know through the blogging world is among them! You've read my posts about Timothy Hallinan's great Thai novels, here and here. And if you read my Sunday Foreign Post Roundups, you'll have seen many links to his interesting posts at the blog Murder is Everywhere. (The latest post there, Gender is Murder, is going on this week's list. Click here to read it now.)

Congratulations to all the nominees, but especially to Mr. Hallinan for his novel The Queen of Patpong.

Another one I must celebrate on the list is Tana French's Faithful Place. As you know if you've been reading here long, I love French's work. I have read all of her books, with The Likeness being my favorite. She previously won the Edgar for Best First Novel for In the Woods--a fantastic novel of friendship, psychology, murder, and Irish society.

Congratulations to Ms. French on her latest nomination!

Here are the nominees:

Best Novel:

Caught by Harlan Coben
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
Faithful Place by Tana French
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

Best First Novel (by an American author):

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
The Serialist by David Gordon
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto
Snow Angels by James Thompson

Best Paperback Original:

Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard
The News Where You Are by Catherine O'Flynn
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski
Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis
Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler

Best Fact Crime:

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry
The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard
Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz
Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr

Best Critical/Biographical Work:

The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks by John Curran
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner

Best Young Adult:

The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando
The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price
Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

Best Juvenile:

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon
Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler
The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Louis Buzbee
Griff Carver: Hallway Patrol by Jim Krieg
The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters

Grand Master:

Sara Paretsky

Congratulations to ALL the nominees! What an accomplishment! The winners will be announced on April 28th.

What have you read from this list? Any in your TBR pile?

The Dream

2011-01-17T09:21:00.002-05:00

At first it doesn't seem to have much to do with writing--Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. But on deeper reflection the outcome of such a brave man's actions should be obvious.

First, how many of us know and have quoted the great speeches of Dr. King? I can write most of this quote from memory:

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today."

(The full speech can be found here.)

The words. The passion. That we all could evoke such emotion in our writing!

Secondly, Dr. King cleared a path for many black writers to create stories in a more free society. Nothing was fixed right away--Dr. King lost his life to the cause and many more people would suffer humiliation, torture, loss, and even death. That still goes on today, but in much less occurrence thanks to Dr. King.

We've talked about journalists writing in the midst of battle in countries where they are not wanted and where a free press is illegal. But think of the black Americans who risked their lives to speak out. And because of their bravery and the bravery of others, everyone is free to speak out today in the United States.

Many have suffered oppression--women, American Indians, aboriginal tribes in Australia, the lower castes in India, political opponents in Argentina and Brazil, the Kurds and Armenians, both the Tutsis and Hutus in different periods.

Many of those groups still suffer oppression. And it is the job of great writers to bring their stories to the world. Because of freedom fighters like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., black writers everywhere can be heard.

I leave you with his voice.

Sunday Foreign Post Roundup

2011-01-16T08:01:00.001-05:00

1. Congrats to Beth Groundwater on some great reviews of her latest book, Deadly Currents. Click here to send her a kind word.

2. The next Bryant & May book by Christopher Fowler is on its way to press...Read the opening line here.

3. Cool publisher contacted me about placing books for review on my blog. I checked out their site, and you should, too! Other Press right here-- and their Summer 2011 catalog will intrigue you.

4. When you get to the point of publicity for your book, there is no greater source than Elizabeth Spann Craig. Check out her tips on interviews.

5. Get naked with your favorite Alliterative Allomorph.

6. Elspeth weaves a tale that will keep you hooked to the end. But is it fiction? It's Thirties Thursday.

How does she do that?

2011-01-15T10:19:00.000-05:00

How does she write like that? How does she create such dynamic characters? How does she invent the backstory and the settings and the conversation? I've never read such amazing...poetry in prose!

I'm talking about Susan Straight. I'm moving through her book (work of art, really) Take One Candle Light a Room right now. I'm in the last part and the whole story is coming together. It's really amazing how she brings so many different stories--the characters's past-present-future--together and how they're about to all crash into a virtual storm, while a literal storm is also bearing down on them.

I can't recommend highly enough this work of art. If you love books of any kind, you will love this. There is something here for everyone--romance, death, mystery, murder, social commentary, travel, art, racial conflict, coming-of-age.

Have any of you ready work by Susan Straight? What did you think?

Here are a few links for the author/professor:
webpage
UC-Riverside bio
Wikipedia

Finally...sigh

2011-01-13T10:27:00.000-05:00

I'm at a coffeeshop. Both kids are in school and I am out of the house. I am dressed. I am showered. I am makeup-ed. I am drinking coffee--a medium mocha skinny, to be exact. I am blogging. I am typing. I am surrounding by warmth and the smell of good brew and the chatter of conversation--business, friendship, gossip, pain. It's all around me and I breathe it in.

Where are you today? Can you pull inspiration from your surrounding, mundane or fantastic?

The Library

2011-01-12T09:40:00.001-05:00

I take my kids to the library about once a month. They pull random books from the shelves and bring them to a round table, where we vet the options. Usually, Natalie brings anything pink or with a princess on it, and Jake goes for Scooby Doo and superheroes. He also likes the more artistic books--fictional Da Vinci tales and adventures of musical instruments.

This week was a little different. I took Natalie to a different library, this one closer to their preschool. A carpeted, stepped storytelling room gave my 2yo plenty of room to run. A mentally handicapped volunteer kept bringing her books and making us laugh. He was so sweet! Point: it was a wonderful experience.

Then something extra special happened. Something unusual. Something very out of the ordinary.

My day usually consists of lots of doing, doing, doing for the kids. Not much for myself (hence the lack of blogging and commenting recently). But on this particular trip to the library, I decided to look for some books for myself.

Not my library :)

What?! you ask incredulously. You took time away from your daughter's education and betterment to find reading material for YOURSELF?

Well, yes I did.

And I found two new authors that I'm currently racing through! They are writers of whom I had heard, but never read. The Gordian Knot by Bernhard Schlink (author of book on which Oscar-winning movie The Reader is based) and Take One Candle Light a Room by Susan Straight (who might be the best writer I've ever read...ever).

I finished The Gordian Knot in two days (quite a feat when you have kids) and am half-way through Straight's magnificent book.

The short of it? I turned my eyes and found two gems. I had heard how great libraries are for authors, but had never experienced the magic for myself. This is the same library that sponsored the author night on which I met Elizabeth Spann Craig and heard her speak about her Riley Adams series. And the impact of librarians was lauded at the Killer Nashville conference I attended in 2009.

Libraries are powerhouses. What have you found at a library that made an impact in your reading life? How about as an author?

A special day and the BEST New Year's posts

2011-01-09T05:05:00.009-05:00

First of all...Happy Birthday to my Daddy! The one who put mystery novels in my hands and fills my head with more knowledge than I could ever fit in a whole series of books. Love you, Dad.

Roundup time...

How did you start your New Year? I told you how mine began in Monday's post. Here are what other readers had to say. Some of my favorites are below. I hope you will click around and see the challenges people are placing on themselves, and on you! Enjoy and welcome to 2011. It's going to be a good year.

1. Patricia Stoltey "balances" blogging.

2. Elspeth's New Year, New Determination. What are your resolutions?

3. What better way to ring in the new year than talking about new characters introduced by mystery authors? Leave it to Margot Kinberg to catalog some of the best at 'Something Tells Me I'm into Something Good.'

4. French pastry and revolutionary reading by author Cara Black.

5. How do the Brazilians celebrate? Just ask author Leighton Gage. Oh, and it involves roses, pomegranates, lentils, and the ocean. Intrigued?

And my New Year's resolution to you wonderful, loyal readers...More posts! I am slowly picking back up the pace and plan to post daily (with some exceptions, I have kids and it's cold season after all!) as well as respond to all of your comments. I also plan to visit at least the blogs of those who comment in mine, and hopefully more as well. I love reading what you all have to say. I look forward to reading more of you and more often in 2011!

What was your favorite New Year's Day (or around then) post? Share the link!

2 days, 1 Patterson

2011-01-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

Author James Patterson

I finished a James Patterson book last night. His latest Alex Cross novel, Cross Fire, pits the detective against his longtime foe and former friend, serial killer Kyle Craig.

Several things amaze me about this series. One, they are such quick reads! The chapters are between 1 and 2.5 pages long. The sentences are direct and brief. The characters have been around for so long now that not much description is needed. Furthermore, dialogue is carefully placed to get the most bang for the buck.

Two, Patterson gets himself into the head of a seasoned black detective living in one of the rougher areas of Washington, D.C. I am not an expert on this demographic myself, but the author somehow puts himself there and writes the character in a believable and non-offensive way. He doesn't take Cross too ghetto and he doesn't make him unbelievably mainstream for the narrative. He really does a good job of this, and gives the MC a fantastic family to boot.

Three, a ridiculous amount of money has come from a book so simple and formulaic as to make one sick. I mean, really? 16 books going back 18 years. According to Forbes, Patterson made $70 million in one year spanning 2009 and 2010. $70 MILLION!

Author Umberto Eco

And I read his book in 2 nights. That's roughly 4.5 hours of reading.

What do you think of that?

BTW--I'm going the complete opposite way in taste now with The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I expect to measure the reading time in weeks, not hours. ;)

My second take on Bryant & May

2011-01-05T08:12:00.002-05:00

A few months ago I wrote this post on a book by Christopher Fowler. His Bryant & May series had been highly recommended to me, but I found my first foray into the world of the Peculiar Crimes Unit a bit, well, disappointing.

But then something surprising and very cool happened. Mr. Fowler commented on my post. He encouraged me to read some of his other works. So, I did.

Over Christmas week I read The Victoria Vanishes--and loved it! Fowler's grasp of the history and changes that make London an fascinating town is impressive. His use of bar culture as a commentary on the culture of Londoners and the social history that continues today is near-brilliant. What better place to set a murder than in a bar? And to tie in numerous pubs with names such as Crown & Anchor and Coach & Horses with murder and history makes for a great, and learned, read. (For more on pub culture plus Mr. Fowler's own blog, click here.)

This time, I found the characters endearing and true to themselves. Instead of conflict between age and action, Bryant & May directly deal with those maladies that come with getting older. Then there are the other detectives. They each have a personal life that adds to the plot, but doesn't detract from it.

I wish I had the book right in front of me to quote from it. There are some really great passages that would make you laugh. But, I leant it to my sister! The more readers the better, right?

Have you ever given a writer a second chance? Were you happy with your choice? How about Christopher Fowler--who has enjoyed his unique mysteries?

5 o'clock coffee

2011-01-04T10:08:00.000-05:00

It hits me at about the same time every evening. Exhaustion. The weariness that only constant motion and ceaseless "I wants" can bring. Dinner is still ahead of me. At least an hour of entertaining the now Lego-ed and Barbie-d out children is still to come. Then cleanup. Bedtime. Readying coffee and lunches for the next day.

Yes, 5 o'clock is the hour. The point at which my mind starts to close, my patience wanes, and my body begs for a comfy chair and a good SILENT book.

So I make some coffee. (Or, more likely, reheat a cup from the morning's brew. Who has time to make fresh coffee?)

That 5 o'clock coffee gives me a moment's respite. The smell of it revives me just a bit and gives me the caffeinated energy to make it over the last hurdles of my day.

Like my 5pm hump, I find there is a point of final exhaustion in almost every book. There is that last great adventure on which the protagonist must embark. There is one final villain left to be outsmarted. There is a point where everything seems fine, only for horror or terror or danger to be thrown back into the mix.

How does he or she get to the end? Most often, they pull from within. Maybe a child or a loved one is in danger if they don't solve the mystery. Maybe their own life is at stake. Perhaps world as they know it will come crashing down if they don't muster this last bit of energy and resolve.

Sometimes they pull from the world around them. Drugs or coffee to wake their senses. A weapon to protect them on their quest. Information gleaned from the Internet or some futuristic device.

Whatever the source, it wouldn't be a satisfying book if the MC just gave up. If they threw in the towel so close to the end. If they saw that final challenge and said, "Nah, not worth it." Who would read a book like that?

Do you have a 5 o'clock hurdle in your daily life? What is your "coffee?" How about your characters? Do you enjoy writing their last journey, their final success?

2011...the year of...?

2011-01-03T09:47:00.000-05:00

New Year's Day began like this: an 8 hour drive ahead of us, 4 brand new tires on the Xterra, and no kids within yelling distance.

Sounds pretty great, right?

30 minutes down the road, the gps sends us down a highway that is closed. Then we stop to check the air pressure in the tires and they start to leak air--3 of the brand new tires! With one almost completely flat, we begin the search for an open auto shop...on New Year's Day.

Finally, after much turning and confusing directions in Hammond, Indiana, home of the Horseshoe Casino--"a winning place to play!", we passed a fire station. They help everyone, right?

"We dont't do that sort of thing, man! We put out fires!" (That is a direct quote.) But another fireman had a tool we could use to tighten the air valves and all was right in the world. On we went...nearly 2 hours after we entered the industrial town of Hammond.

Is this an omen for how 2011 will go? I could choose to believe that and it would probably become true. Or I could choose to laugh at the incident, concentrate on the kindness of the creative fireman and the joy of getting time with my husband without the kids, and expect the best of the new year.

I choose the latter.

How did your New Year begin? Did it set the tone for what you expect of the new decade?

Happy New Year, friends! I wish you all many great writing days...and many smiles.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

(from Chicago)

The Golden Ticket

2010-12-29T05:05:00.000-05:00

How many authors make it BIG?

Monday night we watched the Tim Burton version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the kids. Five golden tickets out of millions of chocolate bars meant only five children get into the magical dream that is Willy Wonka's world.

Tuesday we watched the 1971 version with Gene Wilder. (Really interesting to view them back-to-back and see how each director interpreted the story. At first viewing, I didn't like Burton's version with the emphasis on Wonka's insecurities, but comparison shows some really great additions to the 2005 movie. One, Charlie's family was loving and delightful--a nice change from the bickering sadness of the first one. And two, the closeness of that family made for an excellent message in the end that even my 2yo got.) Still, five tickets and five children.

But the children hoped and the children bought the candy bars. In the same vein, we hope and we write. Some care if they make it BIG and some just want to express themselves. Some just strive for publication, while others have sales numbers they'd like to hit.

But whatever you admittedly look for in writing, I'm sure there is a part of you that wouldn't complain if the big bucks, reviews, and prestige came your way. And the chances are...well, slim.

Talent? Luck? Timing? Money? Resume? All or some of these may mean the difference between stardom and mediocrity.

Is being one of the few important to you? Do you think about this when you write?

Humans

2010-12-26T15:06:00.000-05:00

Guidish. (adj) of or pertaining to the Guido culture

At midnight on Christmas Day we finally got to the point of making up words. So delirious and stuffed with yummies were we, that I coined this term. (Don't ask why we were talking about Guidos and 'Jersey Shore.' Let's just say it was a long and varied conversation.) Everyone readily agreed this was a great term and one to become part of Websters's Slang and Other Stupid Words.

It made me think about Language. How easy and difficult is it to create a new word? Why are words slipped so seamlessly into our Cultures, either temporarily ('hater'--please let this be short-lived) or longlasting (blog, webcam, etc.)?

The answer is simple. We are a social species. We are constantly looking for ways to describe to others what we see and feel. We must interact and therefore communicate. And books are one of our favorite methods of passing on our ideas and beliefs. Not only can we tell great stories—some based in fact and with some import—but we can also express our innermost fantasies.

Think of the worlds created by Tolkein and Carroll. Think of the twisted reality that was the mind of Hunter S. Thompson. Or even the society mele that was Truman Capote's existence. All of these lives translated into great—or at least interesting—works of literature.

So, whether you are creating words a la Jabberwocky or settings a la CassaStar, you are participating in a very human concept—eternal life through social interaction.

Go forth and live forever!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T05:05:00.000-05:00

To all who celebrate this holiday today, Merry Christmas! To all who just enjoy the season, Happy Holidays! And to those who are sitting back and laughing at the crazy commercialism and snarking at the smiling families and jolly children, Bah Humbug!

Happy Holidays, my blogging friends. This year would not have closed so beautifully without you.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas.

Sparking creativity

2010-12-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

Happy holidays all! The season has turned bright, cold, and joyous for our family. We are all together, we have a tree that seems to be floating atop all the gifts. We have a fire burning hot and a wind blowing cold against the glass.

But I find myself living in my head more this Christmas. When I get two free moments back-to-back, I retreat into that space that is the imagination. I don't necessarily see scenes of a novel forming, but encouraged in the right direction this could definitely be fertile ground.

Is it the smell of pine? The smiles of my children? The egg nog? I don't know...

Does the holiday season affect you this way? Do you feel your creativity sparked along with the soul-warming hearth fire?

My holiday reading

2010-12-16T08:43:00.001-05:00

I am making my holiday book stack. I have some pretty exciting reads to keep with me over the holidays. Here they are in no particular order:

1. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.

2. The Victoria Vanishes by Christopher Fowler.

3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

4. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny.

Oh, man! It's going to be a good Christmas even if no presents arrive for me. I am ready to read! What are you reading and what are you most excited about this holiday season?

A Surprise Haircut

2010-12-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, guys. I am still around, but it's been a weird week. Sickness, school duties, Christmas shopping and THIS:

That's right, my daughter cut her own hair. Her beautiful, golden locks turned into a MULLET!

Last week she poured two bowls of water on the indoor rug before I caught her (cleaning off the reindeer's boo-boos, btw) and emptied a small bottle of lotion on her clothes and carpet during quiet time. I call her my Ramona Quimby.

Do you have a character who is wild or catches you by surprise? It can be wonderful, but it can also be, well, surprising! What do you do with your characters when they act out?

Guest blogger: author Kathryn Casey

2010-12-10T07:33:00.001-05:00

Today we welcome Kathryn Casey, whose novels have made the lists in Vanity Fair and Booklist, among other publications. She also has an impressive group of nonfiction recognized by Queen-of-the-genre Ann Rule.

Without further ado, here is Kathryn Casey on 'The Joy of Pure Fiction.'

When Singularity, my first mystery, came out, I noticed a couple of distinct reactions from family and friends. Before reading it, they seemed delighted that I wasn’t hanging around courtrooms and prisons as much as in the past, during my more than two decades as a journalist, writing true crime books and covering real murder cases. “It’s good for you to not see such a depressing side of life,” my aunt said one day, patting my hand. “It’ll give you a more optimistic view of the world.”

I didn’t argue. First, my parents raised me to not contradict my elders. Second, it can get pretty intense covering real murder cases, sitting with the victims’ and defendants’ families, watching their reactions, listening to the evidence, often grisly, looking at disturbing crime scene photos, and then, later, interviewing the killers.

My family and friends relief, however, was short lived. When they’d actually read the book, some eyed me rather warily. “You know, Kathy,” a friend said over lunch in a crowded restaurant one afternoon. We were out celebrating the new novel, and we’d both sipped a bit of champagne. I was feeling rather effervescent when she said, “Some of the girls have been talking, and we’re wondering if we should be concerned with the ideas you have floating around in your mind.”

I put down my fork, looked at her eye-to-eye, thought briefly, and then said, “You know, you really shouldn’t bother. I’m pretty sure, I’m okay.”

“But those murder scenes in your book,” she said, growing ever more adamant. “They were, how should I put this, unusual. Do you often think about such things often?”

Again, I took my time, considering the scenes she’d referred to. My main character, Sarah Armstrong, is a Texas Ranger/profiler. She doesn’t get the run of the mill murders. Instead, she’s kind of like that TV doc House, the one they call on to weed through all the clues when they can’t crack a case. In that first book, the one my friends had just read, Sarah hunted a serial killer and the death scenes were indeed unusual, in fact, ritualistic might have been a better word.

“You know, I do think about such things,” I told my friend, who shook her head slightly at my confession. “But you don’t need to worry, because the beauty of fiction is that none of it’s real.”

As my aunt had hoped, the transition from fact to fiction has been invigorating. After all those years covering real cases, I do have rather strange things floating around in my head, and, for the first time, I’m letting them out to play, resulting in plenty of plots and characters to draw on.

For instance, in the second book in the series, Blood Lines, I wrote about a deadly cyber-stalker circling a pop star and an oil company exec found shot through the head with a farewell note beside her body. Was it suicide? I’m not telling, but I will say that both plot lines tied back to cases I’d heard about but never wrote about back in the early nineties. So their roots are real, even though they’re thoroughly fictionalized in the book.

So is it any surprise that in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike hitting my hometown, Houston, I wrote a book entitled The Killing Storm? The African symbols and the sugar cane plantation in the book? All modeled after real places and archeological finds within an hour of my house. The location where the book builds to a climax? You guessed it. Real.

Yet everything else materialized when I let my imagination take over, freed from worrying about sticking to the facts, able to mold the best plot, scene, and characters. What’s the most delightful thing about writing mysteries? For me, it’s that when it comes to the killer: pure fiction.

Bio: Kathryn Casey is an award-winning, Houston-based novelist and journalist, the creator of the Sarah Armstrong mystery series and the author of five highly acclaimed true crime books. SINGULARITY, the first in the Armstrong series, debuted in June to rave reviews. It was a Deadly Pleasures magazine Best First Novel of 2008 selection, was included on Vanity Fair’s Hot Type page, won stars from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and the Tampa Tribune said: “Not since Patricia Cornwell’s POSTMORTEM has a crime author crafted such a stellar series debut. Kathryn Casey hits the right notes.”

The second in the series, BLOOD LINES (2009) was called a “strong sequel” by Publisher’s Weekly, and was included in a Reader’s Digest condensed books edition for fall 2010.
The Killing Storm, Katherine’s latest, has been chosen as a Mystery Book Club selection, and Publisher’s Weekly labels it “the best in the series so far.” Library Journal awarded the book a star, and Kirkus calls it “pulse-pounding.”
In addition, Ann Rule has called Casey, “one of the best in the true crime genre.” Her non-fiction books all published by HarperCollins include: A WARRANT TO KILL, (2000); SHE WANTED IT ALL (2005); DIE, MY LOVE (2007); A DESCENT INTO HELL (2008), EVIL BESIDE HER (2008), and SHATTERED (2010). Three were Literary Guild, Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Club selections.
You can visit her website at www.kathryncasey.com.

Thanks to Kathryn for coming by SouthernCityMysteries today!

What I've Written

2010-12-09T05:05:00.000-05:00

For the first time in a long time I am sitting down to write a real post. I am thinking and writing and really putting effort into this. I am. Promise.

But, since I can't seem to think of any topics or themes, I'll just tell you all what I've written lately.

And I have written lately.

It strikes me that this is actually a wonderful topic for a writing blog: what the blogger has actually written!

During my five days of alone time I did not write. I read A LOT and I set up my work space and I played online and I watched tons of foreign movies and independent films (Australians make really depressing ones, by the way)...But I did not write. It just didn't come to me.

Afterward though, things started flowing. For the first time in, well, ever, I forced myself to write. I wrote a scene that was nicely informational but uninspiring. I wrote a scene from the MC's POV that was dark and a little creepy, but might actually be correct. He might really be speaking through me in this one.

Then I drew. Yes, I drew! I drew an entire collection of fashion garments--something I have never done before! I can't believe it either, really. I mean, I love Project Runway and other creative outlet shows. But I've never come up with my own designs before!

It was a very creative and rewarding day.

So was today. My 2 1/2 yo daughter watched the entire Royal Ballet version of The Nutcracker. It was a wonderful experience of bonding and memories. (Ovation channel is showing a different version of the Tchaikovsky masterpiece every night this week. Tonight is the French version--should be wonderful!)

All for now. Thanks for letting me just talk. It felt good. Maybe we bonded a little here, too. :)

What's my style? What's his voice?

2010-12-08T08:04:00.001-05:00

I'm still finding the voice of my MC. And it feels like it's taking forever! I have outlines and character sketches and scenes galore--but not yet do I have the correct style down.

Sure, it can be said that this is the struggle of any First Novel attempt. Who knows their voice for certain on their first work? But still...

Did your characters' voices come easily to you? Did your writing style jump out like a puppy on Christmas morning? Or did you have to search?

Can't go much deeper this morning. Lucky to get a post out at all! And here's a bit of Christmas cheer from my family to yours:

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get kids to smile. :)

The Emotion of Snow (and Writing)

2010-12-05T08:39:00.000-05:00

I don't write or read holiday books, but I do think Christmas lends a writer special opportunities. Namely: emotion. Whatever your heart's reaction to this time of year, there is something there from which to pull.

Saturday, it snowed. It snowed in Raleigh less than a week after humid, summer weather was in the air. Luckily, it was our day to get the Christmas tree. So, in the midst of a beautiful, large-flaked storm, we headed to the tree lot. The kids opened their mouths and tipped back their heads. They licked snowflakes off their coats and tried to pick the tree with the most snow on it (gotta love kid logic). I think we succeeded in that endeavor, as our tree is still drying in the garage. And we made friends with complete strangers. I mean, we were all in it together, right? Christmas, tree picking, snowstorm to start our December. So we laughed and smiled together for 20 wonderful minutes.

Situations, relationships, emotions, moral codes--the holiday season brings all of these to the social forefront. And a writer...Well, a writer would be remiss not to notice! Even if you, like me, do not write or read holiday-based fiction, you can at least benefit from the exercise in friendliness that is December.

How does this time of year affect your writing? Do you include holidays in your work?

Merry Christmas and Happy December everyone!

The Witch's Boy

2010-12-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

Thursday night I finished Michael Gruber's The Witch's Boy.

Wow.

Wow.

It is a short book, but so full of fantastical elements inspired by tales of old and mystical powers even older. One recognizes at once bits of the fairytales we've all heard--Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White--but they are not told in the Disney fashion or even as passed down by the Grimms. They are told as a witch might tell them, in perfect dark fashion but somehow completely plausible.

The author, Michael Gruber, is a fantastic story-weaver. Some of his other works, The Book of Air and Shadows and The Forgery of Venus, are among my favorite reads. In his Detective Jimmie Paz series, Gruber takes on Santeria and makes it believable. I cannot express how highly I recommend any work by Gruber. As I told you all in this post from November, I wasn't even sure I would read The Witch's Boy when I read the blurb. And now it has become an inspiration to me--proof of what imagination can create.

Oh! One more thing. In the back of the book is an interview with Gruber and a statement by him on the origin of the story. I don't usually read these things. Why do I need extra words to describe what I have already read? If the author can't prove his points and convince me of his story inside the pages, then he certainly won't in extra, nonfiction words. But this one was different. I was fascinated by what Gruber had to say about his own mother (a witch?) and from whence the idea for The Witch's Boy came.

Read it. Even if you don't usually read fantasy. Read it.

Serendipitous Barthes

2010-12-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

Heard of Roland Barthes? A Vanity Fair article on the man caught my eye in November, but I didn't think much more about him beyond the back cover. Then I walked through the bookstore. And there, in the clearance rack, was a Barthes Reader. Clearance? Barthes? It was serendipitous. I just had to buy it, and I did.

Is serendipity just luck? Does it mean something is "meant to be?" Or is it a truly fortuitous coincidence?

I don't know. I don't even know if I'll like the Barthes Reader. But I know a good idea when I have one. And if something pops into my head because of a find like this--a find twice pushed in my face--then I'll know true serendipity.

How about you? Do you ever find something great by luck, an idea or even a purchase?

2010-12-01T07:56:00.000-05:00

What day is it? I lingered in a state of silence and peace for nearly five days before my husband and children returned Sunday evening.

That's right: I had FIVE days to myself! You see, I had to produce my show Friday night and, instead of hosting like we so often do for Thanksgiving, I opted to send my family away and bask in the quiet that is a childless house.

Monday evening, my first as responsible parent for two preschoolers in the aforementioned number of days, I was at a complete loss for what to do. My daughter and I napped till 6. Then we watched a cartoon because I was too groggy for anything else. When my husband arrived home at nearly 8, I hadn't even fixed dinner! I quickly realized my irresponsible confusion had to change and haven't repeated the craziness. But it was a very strange evening. It's amazing how quickly one can get off schedule.

The same goes for this blog. As much as I've been accomplishing tasks in my non-Internet life, I've neglected this blog and those of my blogging friends for nearly a month now. I've gotten off-schedule and had a hard time getting back.

But I'm breathing again. My fingers are nimble over the keys and my children are gently snuggling again with me each morning. The coffee is brewing on schedule and each school day comes with regularity. Only Christmas music and the smell of pine needles interrupts my world. But those are joyous things that can only add to the imagination.

How are you? I miss checking in with you all. I hope this holiday season is treating you well!

New Writing Space

2010-11-25T20:26:00.000-05:00

And now I wanted to share my new work space...

My husband ordered this desk for me and I added the Arshile Gorky print. Something so beautiful should inspire me, right?

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for you all! Write on...

Mood

2010-11-24T08:45:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd share my mood for today.

Happy Saturday!!! Now let's get writing...

Writers writing something else

2010-11-23T09:08:00.000-05:00

As a strange coincidence, I have books by three authors on my nightstand--and they are all out of genre for the writers! Sunday night I began The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber. I've read his mystery/scyfy/thriller series featuring Detective Jimmy Paz. But my favorites of this talented author are his art/history literary mysteries, including The Book of Air and Shadows and The Forgery of Venus. I automatically bought The Witch's Boy without even reading the description because I'd read anything by Gruber. Surprise! It's a fantasy "retelling of classic fairy tales...the stunning new tale of a boy raised by a witch, a cat, a bear, and a demon" (books). So far, it's really fascinating and magically intriguing.

Also on my endtable, John Grisham's Ford County and The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. The latter isn't so much off-genre for the author as it is for me. Lehane has written other historical dramas, including Coronado and the psychological thriller Shutter Island (books). But it is still odd for me to have so many mystery writers' non-mystery books!

Do you find yourself exploring the off-basic exploits of your favorite authors? Do you like it when an author tries something new? Have you ever written off-genre?

Sunday Foreign Post Roundup

2010-11-21T09:29:00.003-05:00

1. 10 Writing Pests by Elspeth Antonelli. Her usual posting charm is in high gear for this post.

2. Sex sells by Roland D. Yeoman. Yes it does, and this post is an great take on the subject--plus some other hidden links.

3. Al shares his early life--and it IS a love story!

4. Prize and contest for December at Dangerous with a Pen! (And I'm sure your holiday month was looking empty and boring...) But one of the multitude of prizes is a very beautiful, handmade ornament. At least click over to see the designs!

5. Aaaahhh...the question on all our lips: what will Kate Middleton's title be when she marries a royal? This and other interesting monarchy facts right here.

Writing...not writing. Blogging...not blogging.

2010-11-20T08:56:00.000-05:00

So I wrote another scene on Thursday. Hooray! Felt good until I realized I couldn't find the notebook containing the scene I wrote a week ago! Well...it'll work out.

But blogging? I just can't seem to get back in the pocket. The ideas aren't flowing...The bloghopping interest has waned a bit...

So, sorry. I will come back. It's just taking a bit longer than expected.

**BUT...This was written Friday night. THEN I started hopping around some of your blogs and commenting...and I remembered how much I enjoyed the exchange of ideas. I think I'm back!

Autumn in...Your Writing

2010-11-18T09:11:00.000-05:00

Ok. Reload. One of those times. What is it with this season? The parties the holidays the school activities...the stress! How does anyone write in Autumn?

And yet it's my favorite time of year! The colors are so inspirational. I want to spend every moment in the crisp, cool air. People are nicer, stores are happier, children are storing up the good points for Christmas (right around the corner, btw).

But this is the first time I've sat down to write anything in more than a week. Sadness. Even my reading has dropped off to an average of 1 book/1.5 weeks.

When is your "busy" season? How do you get through it? Do you stop writing for a period, or struggle through?

Getting back to basics

2010-11-11T07:19:00.000-05:00

It's been a long few weeks of constant movement. Shuffling family members around. Shuffling kids around. Shuffling everything and everyone! And, as you've probably noticed, I have been absent from most of your blogs. The time just hasn't been there.

So, for a few days I am taking a vacation. I am getting a weekend with my husband--much needed--and a weekend away from the blog. I hope to come back to this, my writing, and my kids refreshed and revitalized.

See you Monday!

Art. Stolen. Writing.

2010-11-10T05:05:00.004-05:00

Program in an Artistic Soiree, Study 1, Degas

I love art. I love Abstract Expressionism and Cubism and Impressionism and Surrealism. I love paintings and statues and pottery and mixed media. I love what art brings to a space, to a life, to a moment. I love what emotion can be contained within a piece of art--and what emotion lies in wait, only to be released upon interaction with a viewer.

Chez Tortini, Manet

A few weeks ago, I began reading Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton. It is a fascinating look at the different facets of the artistic realm through the eyes of an anthropologist. She dissects the meaning, the purpose, the people, and even the locations of some of the most important events in art--museums, art schools, art magazines, auctions, biennales, and art shows. It really opened my eyes to all the different planes that make up the complicated shape that is Art.

And in reading this book, I have awakened in myself a long subdued passion for the stuff--Art. I DVR any art special that appeals--from Art & the City (unapologetically cheesy) to a documentary I watched just last night called 'Stolen.' I subsribe to Artforum magazine.

The Concert, Vermeer

'Stolen' is an award-winning film by Rebecca Dreyfus that follows renowned art detective Harold Smith as he tracks down 13 priceless works of art, all stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It was "the largest art heist in modern times" (stolenthefilm.com). Among them, Vermeer's 'The Concert,' "one of only 35 of the masters surviving works" and "the world's most valuable missing painting." A tragic loss for the world and a fascinating story of something that shouldn't have happened. Involving murder, ex-con art thiefs, an eye-patch wearing detective, smuggling, and 16th century paint chips mailed to a reporter--this story has all the pieces of a great mystery.

And it has revived my desire to write an art mystery book. I have read many, some disappointing, some quite fascinating. But could I do it? I don't know. But I want to! Not yet...someday.

What world inspires you? What realm do you long to break into through writing?

Missing Pieces

2010-11-09T07:35:00.002-05:00

Storytelling is an art. Perhaps the oldest art. It is a way to live on after death. It is a way to impact the next generation and those beyond them. It is important.

We tell stories in my house. But it started before us...My father was a storyteller. Some were fantastic and a little jaw-dropping in this current age (like the brother who died because his hair got stuck in the tub drain--to get us to keep our long hair away from it while bathing), while others made us giggle with wonder (like the dozens of variations on Grizzly Adams and the Indian Chief looking for his son Falling Rock--you know, like the road sign: 'Watch for Falling Rock.') Now he shares his crazy mind with my children, and they love "Papa's" stories.

So we tell stories. I make my kids superheroes and animal whisperers, great adventurers, pilots, artists, and ballerinas. They have been around the world through our stories. They have battled Transformers and befriended lions, tamed snakes, and saved many'a'zoo.

And now my 2yo daughter is picking up the torch. Unfortunately, her favorite place to tell stories is on the swing. This means that I hear the tale like a Jim Carrey balcony scene: every other phrase is missing. For instance yesterday, a prince and a princess were dancing. Then, all of a sudden, the princess was in a spider web! I didn't get to hear the action that brought her to this scary fate.

This phenomenon made me think...What if we leave too much out of our narrative? There is no reason to show a character's every move from plot start to plot end. But leave out too much, and the reader can become lost. 'How did MC get here? Why did he go here?' they might wonder.

I recently finished a book that left me feeling a little like this. It is a book I had long anticipated as the author is widely sold (internationally) and respected. Jo Nesbø's Nemesis struck me this way. It wasn't necessarily action that was missing, but more the feeling that I was missing some information. And then there would be a paragraph I'd have to reread because I was sure I had skipped a page, but hadn't.

In this case, it very well could have been the translation. But...will I read another Nesbø? Because of his reputation, yes. But not as quickly as I would have. Will I continue to listen to my daughter's stories? Of course! But only because she is my daughter. If a career storyteller told them in every other sentence fashion, I wouldn't stick around.

How about you? Do you struggle with how much action to include and how much to leave out? Have you ever read an author who has this problem?

Chewing what you bite

2010-11-08T07:55:00.000-05:00

So you fill your schedule. You have multiple kids. You have a mortgage. You have responsibilities. You have desires and dreams. And you have something in every category that has to be done this week.

Now, many who know me might say I am the last person from whom you should take time management advice. I am often frazzled leaving the house, at least five minutes late for appointments (usually the fun ones, like coffee with friends), and even let the stress affect other parts of my life.

But, like right now, I can't go back on the promises I've made or the events I have planned. It's a busy time of year for anyone, and for us it is exacerbated by the kids and their parties and needs. (Don't worry, I'm not one of those moms who has my kids in a million activities. They are just 2 and 5, and only one of them does Fall and Spring soccer--nothing else yet!)

So, if you can't cut back on the things you have to accomplish, and you can't change the time in which you have to do them, what do you do? Do you take your kids to school late? Do you push your editor for a later date to turn in your MS?

No.

You find a way.

You (oh, yeah, I'm gonna use the big word) organize. There's really no other way to do it. We live nearly 30 minutes from my children's school, so I have to take certain precautions to not have crazy mornings. Precautions such as making lunches the night before, prepping the coffee to automatically brew in the AM--those things make it possible to do everything (having a great husband helps.)

For writing, we prep our supplies so they're ready when we have a moment to scribble--notebook and/or recorder in purse, computer plugged in near the biggest kid distraction--the TV, outline stored on the desktop for easy clicking, editor's and publisher's numbers on speed dial. Whatever your plan, just having one gives you an edge.

What is your plan? Do you have time to chew what you bite? Or are you overextended? If so, what can you cut? What suffers?

Some Beat poetry for your weekend

2010-11-06T05:05:00.000-04:00

A work friend sent this poem to me Friday night and I loved it so much I decided to share it. Considering the Literary Movement Series: Beat Generation had the most traffic of any post I've ever published, I thought you all would like it.

Keep in mind the institution against which the Beats were fighting, the staid lifestyle by which they were surrounded. Then think about life today. How much of this is still applicable? There is a question for thought at the end...

'Marriage' by Gregory Corso

Should I get married? Should I be good?

Astound the girl next door with my velvet suit and faustus hood?
Don't take her to movies but to cemeteries
tell all about werewolf bathtubs and forked clarinets
then desire her and kiss her and all the preliminaries
and she going just so far and I understanding why
not getting angry saying You must feel! It's beautiful to feel!
Instead take her in my arms lean against an old crooked tombstone
and woo her the entire night the constellations in the sky-

When she introduces me to her parents
back straightened, hair finally combed, strangled by a tie,
should I sit with my knees together on their 3rd degree sofa
and not ask Where's the bathroom?
How else to feel other than I am,
often thinking Flash Gordon soap-
O how terrible it must be for a young man
seated before a family and the family thinking
We never saw him before! He wants our Mary Lou!
After tea and homemade cookies they ask What do you do for a living?

Should I tell them? Would they like me then?
Say All right get married, we're losing a daughter
but we're gaining a son-
And should I then ask Where's the bathroom?

O God, and the wedding! All her family and her friends
and only a handful of mine all scroungy and bearded
just wait to get at the drinks and food-
And the priest! he looking at me as if I masturbated
asking me Do you take this woman for your lawful wedded wife?
And I trembling what to say say Pie Glue!
I kiss the bride all those corny men slapping me on the back
She's all yours, boy! Ha-ha-ha!
And in their eyes you could see some obscene honeymoon going on-
Then all that absurd rice and clanky cans and shoes
Niagara Falls! Hordes of us! Husbands! Wives! Flowers! Chocolates!
All streaming into cozy hotels
All going to do the same thing tonight
The indifferent clerk he knowing what was going to happen
The lobby zombies they knowing what
The whistling elevator man he knowing
Everybody knowing! I'd almost be inclined not to do anything!
Stay up all night! Stare that hotel clerk in the eye!
Screaming: I deny honeymoon! I deny honeymoon!
running rampant into those almost climactic suites
yelling Radio belly! Cat shovel!
O I'd live in Niagara forever! in a dark cave beneath the Falls
I'd sit there the Mad Honeymooner
devising ways to break marriages, a scourge of bigamy
a saint of divorce-

But I should get married I should be good
How nice it'd be to come home to her
and sit by the fireplace and she in the kitchen
aproned young and lovely wanting my baby
and so happy about me she burns the roast beef
and comes crying to me and I get up from my big papa chair
saying Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple deaf!
God what a husband I'd make! Yes, I should get married!
So much to do! Like sneaking into Mr Jones' house late at night
and cover his golf clubs with 1920 Norwegian books
Like hanging a picture of Rimbaud on the lawnmower
like pasting Tannu Tuva postage stamps all over the picket fence
like when Mrs Kindhead comes to collect for the Community Chest
grab her and tell her There are unfavorable omens in the sky!
And when the mayor comes to get my vote tell him
When are you going to stop people killing whales!
And when the milkman comes leave him a note in the bottle
Penguin dust, bring me penguin dust, I want penguin dust-

Yes if I should get married and it's Connecticut and snow
and she gives birth to a child and I am sleepless, worn,
up for nights, head bowed against a quiet window, the past behind me,
finding myself in the most common of situations a trembling man
knowledged with responsibility not twig-smear nor Roman coin soup-
O what would that be like!
Surely I'd give it for a nipple a rubber Tacitus
For a rattle a bag of broken Bach records
Tack Della Francesca all over its crib
Sew the Greek alphabet on its bib
And build for its playpen a roofless Parthenon

No, I doubt I'd be that kind of father
Not rural not snow no quiet window
but hot smelly tight New York City
seven flights up, roaches and rats in the walls
a fat Reichian wife screeching over potatoes Get a job!
And five nose running brats in love with Batman
And the neighbors all toothless and dry haired
like those hag masses of the 18th century
all wanting to come in and watch TV
The landlord wants his rent
Grocery store Blue Cross Gas & Electric Knights of Columbus
impossible to lie back and dream Telephone snow, ghost parking-
No! I should not get married! I should never get married!
But-imagine if I were married to a beautiful sophisticated woman
tall and pale wearing an elegant black dress and long black gloves
holding a cigarette holder in one hand and a highball in the other
and we lived high up in a penthouse with a huge window
from which we could see all of New York and even farther on clearer days
No, can't imagine myself married to that pleasant prison dream-

O but what about love? I forget love
not that I am incapable of love
It's just that I see love as odd as wearing shoes-
I never wanted to marry a girl who was like my mother
And Ingrid Bergman was always impossible
And there's maybe a girl now but she's already married
and I don't like men and-
But there's got to be somebody!
Because what if I'm 60 years old and not married,
all alone in a furnished room with pee stains on my underwear
and everybody else is married! All the universe married but me!

Ah, yet well I know that were a woman possible as I am possible
then marriage would be possible-
Like SHE in her lonely alien gaud waiting her Egyptian lover
so i wait-bereft of 2,000 years and the bath of life.

Here is Corso reading the poem:

Do you fight any institutions or mores in your writing? Do you take on social norms or even political entities? Do you create something to fight against, but find it is a stand-in for a very real subject?

Write what you don't see

2010-11-04T14:37:00.001-04:00

I thought of a writing exercise today. I was sitting in my car with the rain beating down, crashing against the metal and sliding down the windshield, and I thought, I could write this scene. Then I thought, But how hard is that? Any half-decent writer can describe what they see. The challenge is to create something unseen.

So, for a writing exercise (if you're looking for one), I propose you sit somewhere with a notepad (a computer can be rather distracting), take in your surroundings, and then write the opposite. Maybe not the direct opposite, but try to imagine everything different.

You could change the seasons, you could change the weather, you could change your house from a 1-bedroom walkup to a 3-storey townhouse on the river in Boston...Or you could make it fantastic! Why couldn't the leaves be pink or the rain be alien gore?

Anyway, it's just an exercise I thought of and wanted to share. As you know, setting is very important to me as a writer and reader.

Also...I apologize for not being around the blog world or posting much this week. My in-laws dropped in for a surprise visit and with Halloween weekend and other things, it has been super crazy. Thanks for your patience.

The Bad Trip

2010-11-02T10:06:00.002-04:00

Monday, my son was looking at the back of a Berenstain Bears book on the way home from school. For those unfamiliar with these great children's books, the back cover is a group of cover shots of all the stories in the series. Jake read yet, so he was making up titles for all the books based on the pictures. Things like "Trouble with TVs" and "The Bad Nail-biting Habit." When he got to one that shows the Bear family on vacation, he said "The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Trip." I spluttered my drink. Visions of stoned Sister Bear and hallucinating Mama Bear danced in my head...danced slowly, that is. And I could envision the cover: psychadelic colors in a swirly tie-dye pattern with a droopy-eyed Bear Family surrounded by Cheese-Its and empty soda bottles.

Obviously, this wasn't what Jake meant when he said "Bad Trip." But how often do we say something that could be construed in a different way? When we mean it, we call it a double entendre. When we don't, we might say, "Freudian slip." But when we write it into a novel...Oops.

I wish I had a great example to write here. I can only think of settings...Say you're writing a very serious situation, and then slip up and have the female lead say, "It's very hard" while hugging the male protagonist. Is she talking about the tough dilemma in which she finds herself? Or her very well-endowed scene partner? Hmmm...

Have you ever read a Bad Trip-slip in a book? Have you caught one in your own writing?

HALLOWEEN Sunday Foreign Post Roundup

2010-10-31T10:25:00.001-04:00

2003

HEADLINE LINK FOR HALLOWEEN:

Does the mysterious and scary excite you? Are you interested in spells? Do you have someone or something you want to curse? How about love? Leighton Gage has the link for all that ails you...Spells online for your every need! (Oh, yeah, you'll also need a Portuguese/English (or whatever your native tongue) dictionary.)

**Pics here are of the ever-fabulous Heidi Klum at her famous Halloween party. The last picture is a sneak preview of this year's costume.

All posts except the headline and the first are in the order in which I read them, starting back on Sunday, Oct. 17th.

2006

1. And topping the link list (even though it's out of order, but b/c it's awesome) in non-scary, absolutely fantastic news is: CLARISSA DRAPER'S MANUSCRIPT ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION! I read the news on KarenG's blog, Coming Down the Mountain, but make sure you go by Listen to the Voices to congratulate Clariss! Congrats, congrats, congrats!

2008

2. Mrs. Pig performs and autopsy and Mr. Teddy Bear leaves pawprints...all as Debbie Cowans takes us through the ABCs of forensics.

Designer Mark Bouwer,
2008

3. The battle we all fight in our writing: Good vs. Evil, at Rayna's Coffee Rings Everwhere.

4. A movie reviewer with a really intelligent approach to the industry. Some great reviews at Film Intel, and definitely check out this well-researched (and Dez-quoting!) post on Angelina Jolie in Bosnia.

5. Help out your fellow man--in this case WOman--by entering "the sweetest frickin' contest ever and change the frickin' world." Over at The Misadventures in Candyland!

2002

6. A compilation of the best of British crime writers (volume 7), and blogger-friend Paul D. Brazill will be included in the next volume! Congrats to him.

2009

7. And Icelandic author travels to the US...Yrsa Sigurðardóttir talks about what she observed--and it's eye-opening to see it from someone else's POV!

8. Children of detectives in crime fiction. Margot Kinberg pulls it off again--another great post!

2005

9. Looking for a scare? Check out Palindrome's scary movie recommendation...I'll definitely be renting this one!

***

10. Ever wonder about those letters you see strung together on writers' blogs? MS, MG, YA, LI...yep, some were even new to me on Clarissa's list of Writers' Acronyms.

2007

11. If you like my link roundups, you'll love this link list at Grasping for the Wind (also had our friend/author Alex J. Cavanaugh featured on Monday).

12. You will laugh, you will cringe, and you will definitely relate to this post by Jen Daiker on writing and telling: Sour Patch Kids.

2004

13. Taxation for bloggation? Oh, yeah, Philadelphians. Check out the article on Helen's Straight From Hel.

14. Debbie Cowans second edition of Forensics Alphabet. So awesome, with stuffed animals!

15. Be afraid...be very afraid...Links from Shannon O'Donnell...

Heidi Klum 2010, courtesy Stylist.com

The Haunting of My Childhood

2010-10-30T08:28:00.000-04:00

For this Halloween weekend, I will share with you a tale of scare that haunted my childhood. It's a story that dates back to the early 1800s and involves a young family and the future President Andrew Jackson.

As a child in Nashville, Tennessee, I was told that if you stood in front of a mirror at midnight and said "I hate the Bell witch!" three times, she would appear. And she would scratch your face with her mean claws, marking you forever as her victim. We got to two a lot, but never three incantations.

Today I know a bit more about the story, but it is no less spooky. Read on, brave ones...

Early in the 19th century, John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to the Red River community in Robertson County, Tennessee. The Bells own hundreds of acres and had lived on the property for at least 11 years before the first encounter.

It happened one day in 1817...Bell was inspecting his corn field when he spotted a strange animal between the rows. Bell was shocked--for the animal had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit! He shot at it several times, but the unnatural creature vanished. It was that night that the sounds began.

The Bells were inside their log cabin when they began hearing someone or something beating on the walls. Each night, the sounds got worse, and then the encounters turned physical. "the Bell children began waking up frightened, complaining that rats were gnawing at their bedposts. Not long after that, the children began complaining of having having their bed covers pulled from them and their pillows tossed onto the floor by a seemingly invisible entity."

Endless whispering was the soundtrack to their lives. And soon, the youngest daughter, Betsy, became the spirit's favorite victim. "It would pull her hair and slap her relentlessly, often leaving welts and hand prints on her face and body." Soon, it became too much to keep quiet. The Bells had to share their grief.

James Johnston and his wife came to stay one night. They, too, experienced the horror--bed clothes pulled from them during the night, slaps to their bodies while they were sleeping. Johnston calmed the spirit only with this cry: "'In the name of the Lord, who are you and what do you want!'"

Soon, a man with a bright future came to show interest in the haunting. Major General Andrew Jackson visited the Bell family in 1819. He traveled with several men, horses, and a wagon. Upon entering the property, the wagon suddenly stopped! It couldn't be moved, by my or by beast. After several minutes of trying to move the immovable, a "disembodied female voice told Jackson that they could proceed and that she would see them again later that evening.."

One man in Jackson's enterouge claimed to be a witch tamer. In fact, he showed off his silver bullet-shooting pistol with the claim it could kill any evil spirit. "Immediately, the man screamed and began jerking his body in different directions, complaining that he was being stuck with pins and beaten severely." A strong kick sent the man out the front door.

The Jackson group settled in for the night...but was seen heading toward Nashville in the early hours of the morning.

What is true? What is fiction? What is rumor? Do you dare test it yourself...In front of the mirror at midnight...Would you risk your face for a glimpse of the Bell Witch?

*All quoted lines and the majority of the story information came from the Bell Witch site, run by writer Pat Fitzhugh. Fellow blogger and YA writer Steph in the City also thought this was a worthy topic last year.

Write Around the World: Wrapping up our tour

2010-10-26T09:39:00.005-04:00

It's been more than a week of globetrotting, bloghopping, and exciting reading. Many new followers have signed up to read whatever I might put here next. And many more swung by to see what their favorite bloggers had to say in the six guest posts featured here in the last week and a half. To all who paused or came to stay, thank you and welcome! To all who took the time to creat fantastic posts, thank you, thank you, thank you. Write Around the World more-than-a-week was an exciting trek because of your effort.

Would you like to see exactly where we went?

View Write Around the World in a larger map

I started us off with Nashville, TN and Raleigh, NC--both in the U.S.
Clarissa Draper took us to London and Mexico.
Leighton Gage showed us the uncompromising highs and lows of Brazil.
Debbie Cowens taught us something new about New Zealand.
Jackee Alston went all out in the first-ever-on-SoCityMysts vlog featuring the Southwest United States.
And Cold As Heaven wrapped up the tour with a look at living and writing in Winterland.

I don't have any other series planned, but I'm sure something will strike me in the future. What is coming is the Sunday Foreign Post Roundup you all missed this past weekend! Yep, I've been keeping track of some great links, but opted to keep the Write Around the World posts going through my usual Sunday roundup. However, next Sunday is Halloween! So I'll start with an especially appropriate link and include some spoooooky pictures. It will also be a double issue--two weeks worth of the best links around the blogosphere!

Again, thanks to all who participated and all who came by to read and comment. Writing is truly universal, something that has brought us together from around the world!

Write Around the World: Cold As Heaven on Winterland

2010-10-25T05:05:00.006-04:00

For our final stop on the Write Around the World tour, we go to a place of fantasy, of beauty, of history. Cold As Heaven is a "scientist, skier, and drummer," futball lover, and father. For a glimpse into his personality, see his lists of "cool places on the web" in the righthand column of his blog. One after the other: 'Church of Satan,' 'The Vatican,' 'Muhammed Cartoons,' and 'The Hitchhiker's Guide.' Talk about crazy juxtaposition! What does he write? Here's his prize-winning entry to my Happy Birthday Blogfest, and I'm guessing the rest is dark and probably bilingual. As to where he writes, I'll let Cold explain...

I was born in a pile of snow, and grew up in a pile of snow. Well, that’s an exaggeration, I admit. We have summers here too, very light and sometimes warm summers. Fair to say, I have only lived half of my life in the snow. And believe me; I really enjoy it.

Some 15.000 years ago the Scandinavian Peninsula was covered by a 3000m (10.000 feet) thick ice cap, similar to Greenland today. The heavy load of the ice depressed the land masses below. When the ice disappeared, the land started to rise. We still experience a rebound from the ice that melted. The land is still rising, slowly but steadily, a few centimeters per year. We can find ancient shorelines in our local ski resort, 160m (500 feet) above present-day sea level.

When the ice pulled back, the people moved in. They needed something to do in the snow, so they invented skiing. Skis have been used in Scandinavia for a long time; 4000 year old rock carvings found in Finnmark, show the use of skis. Historically, skis were used for general transportation and for hunting and warfare. We have a long record of ski heroes: Now they bring gold medals back from the Olympics and the World Championships. In Medieval times they rescued a king.

In the 12th century there was a civil war going on around here; a conflict between king and church, and about succession to the throne. The main groups involved were called the Baglers and the Birkebeiners, the latter supporting the king. When the king died, the only successor to the throne was a one year old boy. He was of course a target for the enemies of the king. The winter of year 1206, Birkebeiner skiers carried the little boy across high mountains and deep forests, in blizzards and cold, to safety in Nidaros (painting by Knud Bergslien, 1869). The little boy grew up to become the legendary king Haakon Haakonson. In memory of this historic event, the Birkebeiner Race is held annually. Today, the best (professional) skiers, with modern equipment, cross the mountains in less than three hours

I got my first pair of skis when I was three years old. That’s quite normal in Winterland. When I was a kid, I often skied to school in the winter, on cross-country skis. I wanted to do alpine racing, but unfortunately, it was too expensive for my family to afford the equipment and the lift tickets. When I got my first pair of alpine skis in the teens (when family economy improved), I was too old to become a good racer,

When my older boy was six yo, I brought him to alpine racing practise (as you could probably guess). He was competing in slalom, giant slalom and downhill racing and was fairly good. At age 13, he wanted to switch to freestyle skiing, and I approved it right away. I had chosen alpine racing for him. He had chosen freestyle himself. There’s nothing better than the motivation that comes from inside. My little boy is still into alpine racing. He will get the same freedom to choose when he gets older.

My boys are passionate skiers. For them it’s the meaning of life. Freestyle skiing is in fact the fastest growing kids’ sport in our country. The kids all want to become the ski heroes of the new generation, and some of them are quite good. I’m happy to be a ski dad, spending the winters on the slopes with the kids. We even go skiing in the summer, on the glaciers in the mountains, the last remnants of the ice age.

You see why I enjoy living in Winterland?

Finally, I want to thank Michele for inviting and hosting me. This is in fact my first time guest-blogging, and it was great fun.

Thank you so much! I am not only suddenly dissatisfied with where I live, I am also very definitely taking my protagonist on a murder-solving trip in the future!

This is the last of the Write Around the World posts...Wrap-up tomorrow.

Write Around the World: Jackee Alston's vlog on Southwest US

2010-10-24T12:50:00.000-04:00

Problem solved by Jackee's tech savvy husband! Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm sure the wait and the extra trip will be worth the trouble. Once again...

Back to our round-the-world tour of great writing locations and settings. Our tour guide today will be Jackee Alston, who combines the worlds of natural science and art to create Middle Grade and Young Adult books. She lives in Northern Arizona (a beautiful and very clean part of the country, as I have lived there myself) and raises her three children around books and nature.

For the first time ever...I present Jackee Alston with a vlog!

If you want to know more about Jackee, visit her bio page on her blog, Winded Words. You can also read some of her work while you're there! Thank you, Jackee, for this creative guest post, and this fascinating look into a world that is unfamiliar to many. The SW is a truly mesmerizing place.

Monday, Cold As Heaven takes us to Winterland for the last stop on our Write Around the World Tour. In fact, Cold says they had their first snow just last week. See you there...dress warmly!

Problem-solving...

2010-10-24T12:05:00.002-04:00

I am working on the problem with today's "vlog." So sorry for the technical issues!

Write Around the World: Jackee Alston on the SW United States

2010-10-24T08:27:00.007-04:00

Back to our round-the-world tour of great writing locations and settings. Our tour guide today will be Jackee Alston, who combines the worlds of natural science and art to create Middle Grade and Young Adult books. She lives in Northern Arizona (a beautiful and very clean part of the country, as I have lived there myself) and raises her three children around books and nature.

For the first time ever...I present Jackee Alston with a vlog!

(removed by author, see corrected post)

If you want to know more about Jackee, visit her bio page on her blog, Winded Words. You can also read some of her work while you're there! Thank you, Jackee, for this creative guest post, and this fascinating look into a world that is unfamiliar to many. The SW is a truly mesmerizing place.

Monday, Cold As Heaven takes us to Winterland for the last stop on our Write Around the World Tour. In fact, Cold says they had their first snow just last week. See you there...dress warmly!

Interview with author Marvin D. Wilson

2010-10-23T05:05:00.010-04:00

"An old Hippie rock and roller, a non-religious, dogma free, Maverick spiritualist Christian." That's how today's guest, author Marvin D. Wilson (known to most of you ast The Old Silly) describes himself. Here, he answers my questions about his writing and his newest book, Beware the Devil's Hug. I think I asked some pretty tough questions, and Marvin had no trouble answering them!
A brief description of his book is a good way to start. This is from a review by Ron Berry, author of Laughs from Corn Country and Math for the Family:

'The Old Man wagged his hand in the air. "That is of no significance. I am here to ask to take this man's place. Please - kill me instead." Thus we start our journey through the world created by Marvin Wilson ... in which even names are elusive ... each word hits harder than a punch ... As you weave your way down the path ... there are glimpses of truth, but then you ask ... which is truth and which is a lie. What does it all mean? This is not a book to be taken lightly ... rest assured, by the last sentence you will see yourself and those around you in a much different light....'

*****

Michele: The dichotomy of a man so dirty he's untouchable, yet so powerful he's almost divine is a strong one. Where did this character come from?

Marvin: I am, or The Old Man as he is also called, is a representation of some of the vast potential within any of us. We can be anything from dirty, filthy, mean, untouchable and fearsome, to divine and healing—full of love and compassion. The name ‘Iam’, of course, is a play on the Biblical answer God gave when asked who He was. He said, “I Am That I Am.”

The actual character in the book was inspired by watching an old homeless man panhandling. I wondered to myself, and this is the book’s blurb-

What if a homeless, smelly, ugly, unkempt old man had a hug so powerful it could cure cancer? Cause a prostitute to stop hooking, find happiness and seek true love? Shake the demons of addiction free from a junkie? Make a radical terrorist Muslim want to befriend and love a Christian and visa versa? But rare is the beneficiary of his divine embrace – nobody wants to come near him out of fear.

Michele: When you begin a book like this, do you start with a Christian moral, a story you want to make fit a moral lesson, or a character with strong moral implications?

Marvin: Usually the book is inspired by a character who comes to mind. Someone who is unique in some way, yet someone we can all relate to in one way or another, be it through personal or vicarious experience. But for the plot I start with the ‘spiritual/inspirational’ message ideas(s)—not necessarily limited to ‘Christian’, there are messages drawn from all spiritual paths, the amount of overlap is greater than the amount of differences. Then I write an entertaining story wherein the characters learn and deliver to the reader moral/ethical/spiritual lessons.

Michele: Do you find giving your work such strong religious implications limits or broadens your audience and the reactions to your work?

Marvin: Neither I, nor any of my books, are ‘religious’. Spiritual, yes, inspirational, yes, delivering moral and ethical messages, affirmative. But I will have nothing to do with ‘religion’, which I believe is the very man-made, rule-oriented and limiting, opposite of true spiritual freedom found through the enlightened state of reunification with the One.

That being said, I believe my style of ‘cross-over’ writing expands my potential readership. People wanting a darn good entertaining story to read, be it a mystery/suspense, romance, intrigue, etc., as well as those looking for a book with some weight and message to it, will find my novels a worthy read. If anything, as far as losing any readers, I appeal probably least to those who are ‘religious’—my books would offend the stiff, narrow minded and prudish.

Michele: How much of yourself do you put into a book? If it is a lot, have you placed your own faults or your own victories in this one?

Marvin: I put a lot of myself in my books. Owen Fiddler, the main character in the book by that name, is a whole lot of me—both the lost man in the beginning and the loving, connected person in the end. In Beware the Devil’s Hug, one of the main characters is Christian Dean Wilson. He is really me, in terms of his spiritual and social outlooks, and is the author’s ‘voice’ throughout the book. I wrote him up as being much more conservative than I was as a young man when it comes to pre-marital sex, but ... other than that, Christian is Marvin. Well, Christian is already a household name best-selling author, so I exaggerated a bit there (wink), but my hope and prayer is that Hugs will catch me up in reality to my fictional counterpart, hmm?

Michele: How does this book differ from your other work? Is it continuing a thread in your writing and/or in your life?

Marvin: It is a continuing thread in that it is my style, my voice of appeal to everyone to, as Bob Marley so well sang it in,

“One Love, One Heart ...

Let’s get together and feel all right!”

How is it different? My last novel, Owen Fiddler, was a more straight forward and simpler story. Beware the Devil’s Hug is much more complex, with more sub-plots, genre crossover elements, red herrings and twists to it. It is definitely my most intricately woven work so far.

Michele, thanks for having me on today. These were thought-provoking questions, and I enjoyed the process of thinking them through and answering them. I will be stopping in today and early eve, so I would enjoy interacting with your readers if they would like to ask any questions and/or leave any comments that inspire a response in the comments gallery.

*****
Thank you, Marvin, for stopping by! I wish you the best in book sales and future writing.
For more on Mr. Old Silly, check out his blog by that name, or his books, Beware the Devil's Hug and Owen Fiddler.

Tomorrow on Southern City Mysteries, we go back on tour! Jackee Alston joins us to show us what the Southwest US can bring to a book. And on Monday, writer/blogger Cold As Heaven brings exotic Winterland to this blog. Don't miss either of these great posts!

Southern City Mysteries

Anyone Can

What's in a word?

My Super Hero Kids

Nature is Art

Guilty Pleasures

Quality, right?

Happy Holidays to all of you...

Wow.

I'm here.

Hello Again

eBooks

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Watch it

Something new

How many is too many?

Strangers

I wish I had...

Your Shelf

Witty Title

Fill the Silence

Writing that lasts

Sound

Dreams of Death

Agatha, take 2

Morbid stuff

Dame Christie Returns

Ode to My Blog

Witches

Great writers, Great homes

Birthdays are starting points

The Ending

Hello, blog.

The Minor Characters

Edgar Allan Poe, the Opera

What's in a name?*

Author Allan Leverone's Debut Thriller

Thank you for broadening my mind

Eva Peron

Nonfiction post, again

Local Laureate and Nonfiction

History as Literature

Imagination

Silence is Showing

The Unlikable MC

Those pages! That cover!

Penance

February 8th

The Story

Raindrops

Rain in Writing

Making It Memorable

Creative

My latest Obsession

Edgar nominees--have you read them?

The Dream

Sunday Foreign Post Roundup

How does she do that?

Finally...*sigh*

The Library

A special day and the BEST New Year's posts

2 days, 1 Patterson

My second take on Bryant & May

5 o'clock coffee

2011...the year of...?

Happy New Year!

The Golden Ticket

Humans

Merry Christmas!

Sparking creativity

My holiday reading

A Surprise Haircut

Guest blogger: author Kathryn Casey

What I've Written

What's my style? What's his voice?

The Emotion of Snow (and Writing)

The Witch's Boy

Serendipitous Barthes

New Writing Space

Mood

Finally...sigh