Murderous Musings

Revenge of the Dentist

2012-01-30T00:00:00.004-06:00

by Ben Small

I know why people shy away from dentists, professionally and socially. You don't want to get too close to those guys. They know pain; they inflict it.

You know the anticipatory sensations of an upcoming appointment: a slick sweat across the forehead; the stomach that just won't settle; those last few moments sitting in your car when you calculate any number of fake excuses only to realize nobody will believe you.

Face it: You're chicken, just like me. No dentists, thank you. I don't want no lolipops.

Not long ago, I reported on my ailing tooth problem, the filling which fell out and finally started throbbing on a Friday with no dentists working until Monday. I reported how I called a dentist only to discover he was skiing in Colorado, and that he suggested a temporary filling from Walgreen's until I could see him the next week.

Well, I saw him, and he scraped away the Walgreen's junk that had hardened around my teeth like some form of smooth cement, and squashed in his own temporary junk, then set me up for another appointment when he'd provide a permanent solution.

It's all about more appointments, you know, more fees to do the same thing he could have done a month ago. And no doubt, my dentist wanted me to sweat, to think about that big drill for a month or so.

I know this because during my first visit, when my dentist wasn't laughing at my predicament, he was twirling drilling irons and blood napkins like a cheerleader with a flag-draped baton and cackling like a mad Lawrence Olivier poised with a Black & Decker in a shaky hand.

Okay, so Olivier didn't cackle, just asked, "Is it safe?" Still, Olivier left me this impression, so ingrained in my throbbing jaw that every time I visit a dentist, I look for chair-straps and a head-vice.

Well, tomorrow is the day of reckoning, and I'm busy arranging all my affairs, anticipating it may be a while -- if ever -- before I have another fear-free, clear-headed day. Post traumatic stress, you know. Yes, it's been known to happen to dental patients.

Another reason nobody likes dentists.

My sister is married to a dentist. Now, her husband has always been nice to me, but I do get an eerie feeling whenever I see him. Perhaps, it's because he always recommends a dentist whether I need one or not, then chuckles to himself each time I stare back at him.

"Painless," they say.

Right. Doc Holliday said the same thing, but instead of Novocaine, Doc used a Derringer to put his patients out of their misery. If they awoke, the pain of an aching tooth was nothing compared to a hole in the chest.

So I've developed a game-plan for tomorrow. First, I'll pop a couple Vicodin an hour before the appointment, followed by a maximum dose of Naproxin. Pain and inflammation anxiety: the tools to prevention -- maybe...

Okay, I'll add some Xanax.

Then, I'll hit the vodka bottle. Old timers used booze to null the pain of amputations. This combo -- if it doesn't kill me -- should work for an extraction, root canal, or thorough cleaning, don'cha think?

Of course, there's another advantage to this approach: If I get pulled over for DUI or pass out and go to the Emergency Room in an ambulance, that's an excuse any dentist will accept and I'll have a written record to prove it.

Or maybe this guy is really evil, and he'll check my temporary filling, tell me he's too busy, pass a cleaning pic over my pearlies, and schedule me for yet another visit, thereby ratcheting up the fear factor and the post traumatic stress for yet another period of weeks while finding another way to bill an extra appointment.

Now, I must admit, I'm not a total coward. I can take a needle. But someone poised just over my delicate facial features with a jack-hammer so big it must be held in two hands, with a whirling, buzzing blade that to my ear -- eyes, jaw and forehead too -- vibrates like a Norelco electric razor amplified so it's like I'm inside a cranked up Bose, well, the thought just terrifies me.

And meanwhile, some hairy-armed assistant that may have once been on the East German female shotputting team thirty years ago is reaching for my jaw, saying as sweetly as possible for someone with such a large Adam's Apple, "Now, open up, you."

I think of Rosa Klebb, the shoe-blade.

Then, when the procedure actually begins, and smoke rises in a white plume from my open and defenseless mouth, I think about my tongue.

My tongue. Where is it supposed to go? There's a war going on inside my mouth: shrapnel spraying, heat rising...

Did I mention the smoke?

How do I protect a tongue I can't see, touch or feel?

I panic.

And that's where the leather straps come in. I've seen them before. They leave welts, you know.

Since I didn't see straps on my first visit to this guy, I suspect he uses the Auto-Strap, a hidden robotic device that's the latest in dental office supplies. I saw an ADTA (American Dental Torture Association) catalog in the waiting room.

So tomorrow, I get strapped in and discover just how pissed my dentist really was that I called him during his vacation.

And this may be the last you hear of me...

With Age Comes Wisdom

2012-01-25T00:01:00.000-06:00

By Mark W. Danielson

Ever wonder why so many authors are older? Two reasons come to mind; experience and opportunity. Experience comes with age, and for many, the opportunity to write comes with retirement. For those of you who have achieved financial independence by writing novels, I salute you. For the rest of us who enjoy writing and are able to accept meager royalties, read on.

Since we only stop aging once in our lives, I’ll forego any further discussion on that topic and move on to experience. It is safe to say that our frame of reference comes from whatever we do and see. The more experience we gain, the more things we have to write about and describe with accuracy. Quality writing comes from being able to incorporate our experiences into meaningful settings and dialogue. To “write what you know” is more than an old adage. While it is possible to research topics and then write about them, the prose that follows is usually less exciting than if you had written with first-hand knowledge.

A lack of expertise becomes obvious when writing about technical items. To write and be technically wrong will cost you your credibility. To avoid this pitfall, consider interviewing experts and then write them into your story as characters. I have done this several times because I believe if I required an expert’s opinion on something, then my character probably did, too. Since my lead detective is an average guy, this technique works well. I prefer him not being all-knowing and seeing.

I would wager there are more novelists who are retired than not. I say this based on observation and without authority, but it makes perfect sense. After all, people with full-time jobs must choose how to spend their free time, and for some reason, most that have families tend to prefer spending time with their loved ones rather than pinging on a keyboard. This is where retired folks have the advantage. Their only downside is they never get a day off. Retired or not, creative writing always comes down to time management.

If you want to write, then open your eyes as if you are seeing something for the first time. Wherever you go, take in the scene, its sounds, its smells, its grit. Note the dust on the light bulbs, the scratches on the doors, the wafting drapes, the creaking floors. Build your experience one day at a time, and when you sit down to write, draw upon your experience and fill your pages with emotion. While age may provide more opportunities to write, it’s the words that count. In this respect, the playing field is level.

Readers, eh? Can't live with them, etc., etc.

2012-01-24T06:49:00.000-06:00

One of the questions I find difficult toanswer is the one about whether we have a reader in mind when we write. I knowI go on about the characters being free to do what they like but that’s the wayit feels. So, in a way, when I’m recording their activities and dialogue, I’mbeing the reader (sort of). OK, in the end, it’s the writer-me who’s changingthings around, editing sentences and segments to get the rhythms ‘right’, butthe characters take precedence over almost everything else.

The reason I bring this up, however, isthat in the course of answering an email from Jean way back it struck me thatonce you’ve blogged a few times and got a few comments you’re aware of yourpotential (and actual) readers. Which means that the character you’re watching/creating/recordingis you and you can begin to anticipate what sort of responses he/it mightprovoke in the ‘audience’.

Character-Me (CM): OK, smartass, prove it.

Writer- Me (WM): What?

CM: Make me do and say thingsfor the Murderous Musings readers.

WM: It’s not that blatant. It’smore subtle.

(CM yawns.)

WM: Anyway, if I tried that,I’d be bound to offend someone.

CM: Oh, and we can’t havethat, can we? Better to stay all bland and cowardly and non-controversial.You’re pathetic. Real writers upset people all the time.

WM: Well, I can do that inbooks and stories. No need for it here.

CM: Why not?

WM: Because when you startblogging you make … well, sort of friends.

CM: See? You’re a coward.

WM: Why?

CM: That false hesitationthere – the ‘well, sort of’ bit. Why be so … apologetic about it? Why not justsay friends? Why not commit? You’re afraid you’ll have to send them Christmascards, aren’t you?

WM: No, I’m not. It’s … oh, youwouldn’t understand.

CM: Huh, I can read you like abook.

WM: Oh yeah?

CM: Yeah. Your pathetic habitof chucking in big words now and then and pretending to be clever.

WM: That’s not true.

CM: It is. You’re just coveringyour backside all the time. So busy not offending people you’re actuallylicking their…

WM: No I’m not.

CM: Course you are.

WM: You know, you’re one of thenastiest characters I’ve written for ages.

CM: (Sardonic grin.) Huh, youjust don’t like the truth. You want them all to think you’re a young, vibrant…

WM: No I don’t. I’ve told themI’m a granddad. Even used a shot of my grandson to illustrate this.

CM: Yeah, why? For thesympathy vote. You just hope they’ll say ‘Poor old bugger’ and let you get awaywith stuff.

WM: You know what? You’re justspiteful, one of those guys who need to undermine others because of your owninadequacy.

CM: Hmmm. Interesting. Yourealise I’m you, don’t you?

WM: Er … well, yes. But…

CM: Better keep quiet aboutthe inadequacies then, eh? Better change the subject. Do one of those wanderingoff at a tangent things to convince visitors the British have got a quirky wayof thinking. Image, image, image – that’s all you care about.

WM: If that was true, I’dhardly have messed it up by letting them see you, would I?

CM: Who knows? You’re thewriter. You’re the one responsible for this abstruse, rambling garbage.

WM: Hmmm, thanks. ‘Abstruse’ –nice. That should impress a few…

CM: Oh no, I’m not doing yourobfuscation for you. Hey, stop it.

WM: What?

CM: Making me say stuff like‘obfuscation’. Next you’ll have me questioning whether Schoenberg’s atonalmusic really was degenerate art. Damn.

WM: Right, instead of thehyper-criticism, what I’d really like you to do for me now is an exegeticalanalysis of Joyce’s Ulysses, or perhapsa quick ‘Existentialism for Beginners’.

I’m sorry to say that, at that point,Character-Me clapped his hand over his mouth and refused to continue. See? Thewriter always gets his/her way.

Ideas for Mysteries

2012-01-23T08:28:00.001-06:00

I like that ideas to use in mystery novels can come from anywhere. I often find interesting tidbits in the newspaper. On Sunday there’s a section titled News of the Weird. This always has good stories about incompetent crooks and strange behavior. Even regular news articles provide excellent content. Several ideas I’ve used that were reported: 1. The police raided a senior center and arrested oldsters who were gambling. 2. Two women took out life insurance policies on homeless men, killed them in hit-and-run accidents and collected the life insurance money. Many years ago I was on a federal grand jury and we heard evidence to indict people. One of my favorites was a bank robbery. The police couldn’t find any suspects for two weeks. Then the teller who had been robbed came to the police and said she and her boyfriend had staged the robbery. He disappeared to Las Vegas with the money and another woman and now she wanted the police to go get him. Some of these are more farfetched than I can make up.

Choosing a Compatible Critique Group

2012-01-20T00:01:00.035-06:00

by Jean Henry Mead

I recently formed a mystery writer's critique group with authors whose work is similar to mine. I hadn’t taken part in one since 1999, when I joined a large online group comprised of novice writers. As a journalist for more than a decade, making the transition to fiction was a real challenge. My years as a police reporter was a plus when I began writing mysteries but my prose was too terse and lacked description. So feedback from the group made the difference. The downside was that there were so many members in the group that my writing time consisted of critiquing their manuscripts. My lesson learned was to find a few like-minded writers whose work I admire.

How do you form a good critique group? If you write mysteries, don’t invite a science fiction writer to critique your work. It’s obviously not a match because the genres are so different. Even someone who writes mysteries may not be compatible. If you write cozies, a crime writer is not a good choice and you run the risk of boring your critique partner(s). Choose a small group of writers who are experienced with your subgenre and who enjoy it. Many books are genre specific, such as commercial romance novels, which have a common structure.

Select critique group members who can be flexible. You need reactions to your work, not what someone else thinks you should have written. And don’t join a critique group if you're sensitive to criticism. Some critique members insist on stark realism while others demand strong female characters and happy endings. Some may think you write too much dialogue and not enough narrative. So you must take criticism with a grain of salt. Toss whatever doesn’t apply over your shoulder.

Above all, choose fellow critiquers who don’t have an axe to grind or envy your publishing successes. Writer Nancy Kress has said that some people are less objective than others, “due to stubborn personality traits. Some people must find fault with everything in order to bolster their own superiority. They’re a bad source of constructive feedback. Conversely, others have such sweet natures that they hate to offend anyone. They will tell you everything in the novel works beautifully, even if it doesn’t.”

It’s your manuscript and you don’t have to accept every tidbit of advice, but at least listen with an open mind. Your fellow critiquers haven’t spent months with your characters and plot, and can be more objective, so take advantage of their expertise.

Video interview

2012-01-18T02:00:00.000-06:00

by Carola

Gone West comes out on Tuesday, hardcover, Kindle, and Nook:

I'm now 5 months behind with my Work in Progress, so I hope you'll forgive me if the rest of this Wednesday's post is just a link to a video interview about my career as a writer:

http://www.authorsroad.com/CarolaDunn.html

This was created by a couple who, on retiring, sold their house and bought a motor home with the intention of travelling about and interviewing authors. As they started from Portland, I was one of the earliest.

It's about half an hour long, so if you're interested allow time.

Location, location, location

2012-01-14T00:00:00.001-06:00

Where Do You Like a Book Located?

by June Shaw

When you read a book, do you care about the location of the story? Do you care whether the location is a real place or not?

I don't care about either.

Having said that, I consider a few books where I've cared, and where I prefer for the location to be real.

There are the Barbara Colley mysteries that feature a maid in the New Orleans famed Garden District. Those of us fortunate enough to have been in that area around the gorgeous monstrous homes can envision each house even more beautiful than the next one -- and a maid discovering what happens within their confines. These cozies are excellent reads for the stories and their unique people and setting.

Tell us only that a mystery is set in New Orleans, and readers' minds conjure various expectations. If it includes Bourbon Street, we have one mindset of what will occur and what we'll see. Tell us part of your story will take place in one of the cemeteries with large, above-ground tombs, and we'll envision one thing. Maybe shootings around the tombs. Maybe witches coming from them. Or zombies. How about voodoo?

Almost all of us can list large numbers of mysteries set in Los Angeles. New York. Chicago. Are any of them cozies? I haven't read one yet. A large majority of stories set in those states feature detectives and real, well-known streets and buildings.

Okay, it seems I do know what to expect from mysteries in many real places, and I do enjoy knowing what to expect.

I also realize I enjoy stories in which the author creates a setting, a community, the town's stores and streets. I have done both in my mystery series. I set the first book in a town I created outside Chicago, where I've enjoyed visiting. I love the Gatlinberg area and set the second book in a fictional place near there. I adore taking cruies, especially to Alaska, so gosh, guess the most recent place I needed to bring my spunky widowed protagonist and the hunky lover she tries to avoid so she can rediscover herself? (Of course the cruise line is fictional, although the ship's staff members enjoyed answering my questions like, "Where's a good place to find a body?")

Lots of readers here in south Louisiana have asked why I haven't set my books down here. Gosh, would it be more fun researching my city or a cruise ship?

We'll see. I am considering writing a future book or so set down here. And since Swamp People on the History Channel has become so popular, I might even give names of the real locations. Of course that's one of the things that's so enjoyable with writing fiction. We can decide and discover where we are and what will happen. I can't wait to find out what's coming up next in my books.

How about you? Do you like to read -- or write -- about a real location?

Writing Series Novels

2012-01-13T00:01:00.006-06:00

by Jean Henry Mead

After you write that standalone novel, your publisher may suggest that it become a series. So it’s important that you like your protagonist(s) and want to continue writing about them. Agatha Christie grew tired of writing about Hercule Poirot and wanted to kill him off, just as Conan Doyle attempted to rid himself of Sherlock Holmes.

When I began my Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series, I named my two protagonists Shirley Lock and Dora Holmes. They were known as Shirl Lock & Holmes, a corny spin on the detective and his physician narrator. When my publisher closed its doors, I resold the series and changed the names to Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty. By that time my two women sleuths had become like old friends, whom I enjoy visiting to eavesdrop on their conversations.

Dana is a bit autobiographical while Sarah is like my friend Marge, who is outspoken and often so funny that she has me laughing tears. Dana is a mystery novel buff, who, with her friend Sarah, a private investigator’s widow, buy a motorhome to travel the West, as I’ve done.

Making the two women mobile provides them new settings in each novel. Although two of their motorhomes have been wrecked in the first three books, Dana’s wealthy sister dies and leaves her a considerable sum of money as well as a Wyoming mansion. The money allows them additional mystery solving opportunities as well as extensive travel.

Most protagonists have a job and the author needs to be knowledgeable about the occupation, or at least know the basics. And above all, enjoy writing about the job on a continuing basis, without becoming bored. Another pitfall is to change the tone of the writing. For instance, you shouldn't begin writing a cozy and decide in the middle of the series to darken it to a noir. Readers will complain. I’ve covered various subjects in my series, including adultery, drug gangs and homegrown terrorists, but with humor, so I’ve been able to get away with subjects not usually associated with two 60-year-old feisty amateur sleuths. And readers have fortunately told me that each book has been a fun read.

If your series becomes popular, you may have to continue writing it longer than you had planned. J. K. Rowling was able to discontinue her Harry Potter series after seven books but Sue Grafton is committed to 26. Her schedule has changed over the years and she now only writes three hours a day with one published novel every two years. At 71, she’ll be nearly 80 when Z is for Zero is released, but she plans to continue writing about her private investigator on a standalone basis after the series ends. She admits that Kinsey Millhone is her alter ego and that she enjoys writing about her.

I can't imagine writing 26 novels about someone you don't like and I'm glad that I enjoy my characters, especially my lovesick sheriff.

A Writer's Paradise

2012-01-11T00:01:00.000-06:00

By Mark W. Danielson

Hemingway would have loved this picturesque town on Spain’s southwest shore. Narrow cobblestone streets guide you through its laid back charm. Pristine beaches welcome the Atlantic’s gentle waves. The sun casts magnificent colors as it rises and sets over the ocean. Seagulls swarm over the fishing boats. Cafes overlooking the beach provide perfect settings for enjoying its temperate climate. Imagine sitting from a balcony watching a spectacular sunset and you’ll understand why Rota is an ideal location to kick back and write a tale.
But as tempted as one might be to stay glued to a keyboard, the lure of this town is too great to resist. Markets conduct business in much the same manner as they have always done. The public market offers fresh cuts of meat. The seafood market is located at the dock where fishing boats deliver their catch. It doesn’t get any fresher than this.

Time seems irrelevant here. During the day, the streets are eerily empty and the town seems to sleep, but once the ocean swallows the sun, the vampire-like residents awaken. Almost on cue, when darkness falls, they fill Rota’s town squares and restaurants, laughing and talking with the approval of their tail-wagging dogs. Tail wagging is highly encouraged throughout Spain.
While tourists flood Rota during the summer months, many shops and restaurants close in the winter due to a lack of business. For writers, this doesn’t matter, but for tourists you might want to consider September as an ideal month to visit. Bear in mind that Rota does not have an abundance of tourist activities, but its charm and beautiful beaches rival anywhere in the world. Whether you choose to write or not, this town is definitely worth visiting if you’re going to Spain.

As if it weren't hard enough already...

2012-01-10T00:09:00.000-06:00

Thereare plenty of examples of writers who’ve produced great stuff by imposingrestrictions on themselves. Beckett wrote in French to stop himself giving into his facility with English. The French classical dramatists interpreted the‘rules’ of Aristotle very tightly and had to write in Alexandrines and stick tothe 3 unities. But their constraints were easy to cope with compared with thethings the members of a group called Oulipo do. I’d vaguely heard about thembefore but they were featured in a recent BBC podcast and I was amazed to hear thesort of difficulties they create to make the writing process even trickier.

Thename comes from a French expressionmeaning ‘workshop for potential literature’. (It could only be French, couldn’tit?) The group’s been going for fifty years and you can only join if you’reinvited to. If you ask to become a member, that guarantees that you never will.Mind you, when you hear the sort of constraints they impose on themselves, youprobably decide a visit to the supermarket or a few hours spent staring at awall would be a better way to spend your time.

I’dheard of Georges Perec’s novel La Disparition, which doesn’t have the letter‘e’ in it. What I didn’t know was that it had been translated into English byGilbert Adair (again with no ‘e’s). He then used all those ‘e’s that he’d ‘saved’ to write a novella calledLes Revenentes which uses ‘e’ but no other vowels. A Canadian poet, Christian Bök,was interviewed on the programme and he’d written a lipogram that uses only onevowel in each of its five chapters. Michel Thaler wrote a novel with no verbsin it. And so it goes on. One poet, whose name I’ve forgotten, wrote a book often sonnets whose pages were cut in such a way that you can create any 14-linesequence you like out of them. To see what he meant, imagine those kids’ bookswhich have a head, body and legs on 3 separate segments of the page so that youcan create different combinations by matching the different heads, bodies andfeet. The mathematical permutations when you have 10 poems of 14 lines each aresuch that it’s effectively a book you can never finish reading.

Thetheory is that this triggers ideas, inspiration, and forces you to ‘thinkoutside the box’ (apologies for such a gross cliché). But, apart from it beingan entertaining sort of game to play for one’s own amusement or a way of sayingto the world ‘Look how clever I am’, it’s hard to warm to the idea. I thinkimposing restrictions is valuable. I often get students to remove all theadjectives and adverbs from a piece to show them how it affects the narrativetone and pace and, indeed, changes meanings, but these arbitrary and verysevere restrictions seem to work against full creativity. You may producesomething which obeys all the rules but I can’t help but think that, in doingso, you must surely have had to discard insights and images that would haveadded to the message you were conveying. It’s form taking precedence overmeaning , and the two shouldn’t (and can’t, in my book) be separated.

Tofinish, another example of an Oulipo-type product. One of their techniques iscalled n+7. It involves replacing each noun in a text by the noun which comes 7places after it in the dictionary. The programme gave one about the Creationwhich ended with God saying ‘Let there be limit’, which I rather liked. So I’vejust recast perhaps the most famous opening novel sentence as follows: It is atube universally acknowledged, that a single mandala in possession of a goodfounder, must be in want of a wildebeest.

Research

2012-01-09T09:29:00.000-06:00

One of the fun parts about being a mystery writer is doing research. Clearly, there are the basic forms including searching the Internet, going to the library and interviewing people. Then comes another whole realm of research—visiting specific locations you are writing about. My three published mysteries take place in Hawaii, Colorado and California. Since I grew up in Hawaii, spent time in California and now live in Colorado, I’m acquainted with all three locations. But for my recently published Senior Moments Are Murder, I needed to become more familiar with Venice Beach, California. Fortunately, my daughter lived there for several years, so my wife and I went to visit a number of times. I spent my spare time wandering around Venice Beach. You couldn’t ask for a better place to people watch. Along the boardwalk you’ll find every imaginable size, shape, and type of people in any costume you can or can’t imagine. There are rollerskaters, street performers, sellers hawking their wares, graffiti artists, beachgoers and gawkers. There are also canals in Venice Beach that are worth seeing—only a three block stretch but beautiful.
My upcoming novel, Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder, takes place on an Alaskan cruise ship, so my wife and I went on an Alaskan cruise as a research expedition for me (tough tour of duty).

The other form of research I get involved in is experimentation. As an example, I had a scene where someone my weight (150 pounds), would need to float in water using only inflated toy balloons. So my research question was: how many balloons would it take to support me in the water? Before you read further, make your guess. At the time I needed an answer to this question, I was still working full time and traveling several times a month to Orange County, California. On one of my trips I bought some balloons and some fishing net. When I got back to the motel that night, I went down to the pool to experiment. I blew up some balloons, stuffed them in the netting and jumped in the pool to see how many balloons would be needed to hold me up in the water. When I did this, there were a group of people in the hot tub watching this weird guy play with balloons. Undeterred, I performed my experiment. I thought it would take about six balloons to keep my afloat, so I started with six and found that number provided more than enough buoyancy. Then I eliminated balloons, one at a time, until I discovered the answer—one balloon could keep me afloat. Afterwards, I went over to the hot tub, which led to a number of questions and a chance for me to pitch my books to a new audience. Hey, everything is an opportunity when you’re a writer.

Mike Befeler

The Holiday Season

2012-01-07T00:04:00.010-06:00

by Leighton Gage

Down here in Brazil, we had four significant events to mark our holiday season.

One: On the 26^th of November a floating Christmas tree was erected in the lagoon of Rio de Janeiro.

It was 83 meters tall, weighed 542 tons and remained in place until yesterday.

Two: On the 27^thof December, I launched my latest book, “A Vine In The Blood”.

And, in that short time, it’s already garnered a number of stellar reviews:

Gage knows Brazil well and has a cast of characters so amusing and so skillfully constructed that this novel is irresistible. – Toronto Globe and Mail.

Rising above Brazilian brutality, corruption, and bribery with uncommon wit and the help of his colorful, appealing colleagues, (Silva) scores a winning goal in an enormously complex kidnap payoff scheme. – Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

Let’s take a moment to celebrate excellence…(“A Vine in the Blood” is) a great story, well told. – New Mystery Reader

Mr. Gage is a master of the procedural who paints with a fine brush, using the tools he needs to craft a fine novel—and no more. – The New York Journal of Books

Whether it's characterization, plot or setting, “A Vine in the Blood” is possibly the best book in this series. Rating A+ – Kittling Books

Three: The annual run took place on St. Silvester’s Day.

Featuring more than15,000 participants, and including practically all of the great long-distance runners in the world, it’s the most famous race in South America.

Four: Two million people rang in the New Year with a stupendous show of fireworks on Copacabana Beach.

If you missed the tree, the race and the fireworks, all is not lost.

You can still console yourself with the book.

Go here: http://www.amazon.com/Vine-Blood-Chief-Inspector-Investigation/dp/1616950048/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1303077898&sr=8-5

And click on the "Look Inside" feature, to see if you like the writing.

A Somewhat Belated Happy New Year To All!

Now Write Mysteries!

2012-01-04T14:47:00.000-06:00

By Jaden Terrell

About a year and a half ago, a friend and fellow writer, Philip Cioffari, sent me an email saying he was contributing an exercise to a book on writing and that the editor had asked him to recommend another contributor. "Are you interested?" he asked.

Was I interested? Is our papillon, Luca (aka His Lordship of Eternal Cuteness, Light of a Thousand Suns) a beautiful, shining being of goodness and light? Well...yeah.

The book, the fourth of a series called Now Write, is called Now Write Mysteries, edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson. I chose my topic, character development, because it's the thing reviewers who read my books comment on most often and most favorably. I wrote about using character relationships to create depth and ended with a series of questions designed to reveal the complexities of a character

A few months ago, I got an email from the editor saying the book would be published on December 29th. I clicked through to the list of contributors and realized I was in the company of some of my favorite authors. In addition to Philip, whose vivid, elegant writing makes me sick with envy, the list includes such powerhouses as:

Graham Brown
Reed Farrel Coleman
Bill Crider
Bruce DeSilva
Wayne Dundee
Hallie Ephron
Chris Knopf
William Kent Krueger
Sophie Littlefield
Louise Penny
Twist Phelan
Cathy Pickins
Marcia Talley
Elizabeth Zelvin

And many more.

Seeing my name on a list packed with bestsellers and award winners was quite a thrill. I checked out the sample writing exercises and was glad to see that I would want this book even if I weren't in it.

If you're a crime fiction writer, Now Write Mysteries might be a good addition to your writing library. I'm off to spend my Christmas gift cards buying mine.

Happy 2012, all. May this coming year bring you joy and fulfill your dreams.

The joys of research

2012-01-04T01:00:00.000-06:00

by Carola Dunn

Sometimes it's a real struggle to find information you desperately need for your story. Sometimes information you didn't even know you wanted just falls into your lap--more information, in fact, than you can possibly use.

My next book, GONE WEST, comes out this month, January 17th to be precise, in hardcover and for Kindle and Nook. It's the 20th in my Daisy Dalrymple series, set in England in 1926.

The story takes place in the Matlock district of Derbyshire. When I started to research the area, I came across mention of a huge health spa, Smedley's Hydro.

The building dominates the small town, so Daisy couldn't avoid noticing it. And lo and behold, there on the web was Smedley's visitors' handbook for the mid 1920s. I couldn't resist using some of the wonderful information, and the hydro ended up playing an important part in the story, though I hadn't ever heard of it when I began planning the book.

Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite:

...........................................................................

Bath Arrangements - continued

ELECTRIC TREATMENT.
    Galvanic or Faradaic          per application 1/6
    Both Galvanic and Faradaic                    2/-
    High Frequency                                2/6
    Diathermy                                     5/-
    Ultra Violet Rays                             5/-
    Electric Ionization                           5/-
    Bath                                          2/-

THE HOT-AIR OR RADIANT-HEAT BATH (DOWSING'S PATENT).
An installation of these baths has been in constant use for some years, and the results obtained have been very satisfactory. Recently the full bath of the latest pattern has been added. The heat is produced by Electricity, and there is consequently no vitiation of the atmosphere by products of combustion. These baths are especially useful in cases where the patient is enfeebled or crippled, or from any cause unfit for the ordinary Turkish or other form of hot-air bath.

    For a Single Bath           7/6
    Course of Three Baths     £1/1/-
    Course of Six Baths       £1/10/-
(If booked at one time and taken within one month.) £ s. d.
NAUHEIM TREATMENT, 
     Bath only                                      0 4 6
     Bath and Schott Exercises                      0 5 6
PLOMBIERES TREATMENT, per application               0 2 6
PINE BATH                                           0 3 6
AIX DOUCHE                                          0 3 0
VICHY DOUCHE                                        0 3 0

Night Attendance for Invalids.-The night watchmen are qualified to give simple treatment in case of need. If required, they will summon medical assistance.BATHS TO VISITORS.
Ladies and Gentlemen desirous of taking baths on their own account, and without consultation, are requested to apply to Head Bath Attendants. Time and place will be arranged so as to avoid interference with Patients going by prescription. Baths in the bedroom, and private baths, are subject to a small special charge in the case of visitors.
For Massage and such other of the foregoing treatments as may be taken by non-patients, the charges are 50 % higher.

Baths to persons not staying in the Establishment., £ s. d.
Turkish or Russian Bath per single bath             0 3 6
                        per series of six           0 18 0

Page 26

The Baths, &c

N0 description can do justice to Smedley's unrivalled suite of baths, renowned all over the world for completeness of equipment and efficiency. Nothing but a tour of inspection, or, better still, actual experience of the incomparable treatment, can convey any adequate conception of the astonishing scope of the health-restoration and health-maintenance facilities, aggregated during many years, and vigilantly modernised to the moment. . . . THE BATHS ARE UNDER THE SAME ROOF AS THE ESTABLISHMENT, THUS DISPOSING OF ANY NECESSITY TO GO OUT OF DOORS, WITH CONSEQUENT RISK OF CHILLS.

...............................................................................

Take a look at the rest--it's fascinating!

Unfortunately I was too far along in the plotting to use the Galvanic or Faradaic bath to bump someone off. Another time...

Writing About Foreign Locations

2012-01-03T00:01:00.001-06:00

By Chester Campbell

Writing mysteries with foreign locations can cause some difficulties, but when I started penning novels in the early nineties, I plunged ahead without hesitation. You do that when you're young (I was only sixty-seven then). My second book, still unpublished, was set largely in Korea, with smaller sections in Hungary and Thailand. I'm currently revising it with a new market in mind.

For the Korean part, I had the advantage of having spent a year in Seoul during the Korean War in 1952-53, plus a visit there during a tour of the Far East in 1987. I also had a Korean daughter-in-law who provided some information on customs in the country. I read lots of other views of the Hermit Kingdom, including those in various travel books.

The title of the book is The Poksu Conspiracy. Poksu in Korean means "vengeance." I found enough expressions in phrase books to give the story a realistic feel. Transliterations of Oriental languages with odd alphabets are notably inconsistent, but I tried to stick with spellings used in the media for better known words. After completion of the manuscript, I had it read by a Korean college student to catch any inaccuracies.

For the portion set in Thailand, I used the area around Chaing Mai, a popular tourist destination in the northern part of the country. In checking on Google, I found the city has grown tremendously in the past quarter century. The metropolitan area now includes a million population. I had visited Chaing Mai as part of that month-long Far East tour in 1987.

The Hungarian setting was a bit different. I had never visited that part of Europe. I read several books to get a feel for the people and the country. My chapters were set in Budapest, and I found a copy of National Geographic that included lots of good photos and details of locations I used in the story.

Using foreign locations in mysteries isn't all that difficult if you're willing to do the research. As best I recall, Martin Cruz Smith wrote Gorky Park without ever visiting the Soviet Union. Reading the book, you'd have thought he had lived there. Have you written foreign locations? If so, how did you handle it?

Visit me at Mystery Mania

Useful Software for Writers

2012-01-02T00:00:00.003-06:00

by Ben Small

I confess to being a computer and software junkie. Yep, guilty as charged. I about wet myself when Apple first came out with the Apple 2, and was one of the first in line when its 2e came out. Since then, I've always had at least one computer, and currently I run four (two desktops, two laptops). And funny thing, none of these computers are Apples. The reason: I don't know anybody who uses Apple, so have no one to turn to when I need help. Yes, Microsoft is maddening, but at least I understand most of Microsoft logic by now and can cure most problems I experience. If not, I have friends who can.

And since I love computers and I write, I'm always looking for software to help me do just that. I use Microsoft Word as a word processor, but when I work on a novel, I use Write-Brain's Power Writer. I'll tell you why a bit later, since I've blogged about Power Writer before.

Recently, however, noting trends of writers preparing book trailers and posting them on their websites, Facebook and on YouTube, I started exploring easy options to allow me to do just that. Problem is, I don't know much about video technology, about video or audio formats.

And then, I stumbled upon Camtica, from Jiteco. Camtica.

Here's what attracted me to Camtica:

"Camtica enables you to create professional screen recordings, presentations, tutorials and more. You can record any desktop activity with voice, webcam and animated mouse clicks. The resulting video can be saved in various formats including AVI and WMV.

"Why do you need Camtica?

 * To create professional screen recordings, demonstrations, presentations, screencasts, tutorials and more

 * To generate effective videos that help you train, teach, sell and more
* To create demonstration videos for any software program

 * To show customers how to use your product
* To create on-demand interactive training, tutorials for school or college class

 * To create a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions

 * To share your recordings on YouTube, Screencast.com and other videos sites

"Features:

 * Records entire desktop, selected rectangle region, dynamic region around mouse cursor, webcam

 * Records anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen and rectangular regions

 * Records desktop screen with audio and webcam together - personalizing your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself over your desktop at any position

 * Records video chats, Skype video calls, games, flash movies played on sites

 * Mouse highlighting spotlights the location of the cursor

 * Records video in many video file formats including AVI and WMV

 * Supports various video and audio codecs

 * Free support and advice

 * Free lifetime updates and upgrades

 * System requirements: Windows XP/2000/2003/Vista/Windows 7

"It’s easy to use as one, two, three."

Then I looked at the software controls, the so-called "ease of operation" aspects. I hate complex software, like Dramatica. Life is complex enough without having to spend countless hours learning the ins-and-outs of software I'll use occasionally. These looked simple enough. And Camtica is priced right: $9.95. {Can you believe that price? You can even get it free if you jump through a couple hoops and act immediately.} You can see screen shots of these controls at the website I've linked.

So imagine you have some photos relating to your book's setting or topic. Or a video you want to produce. You want a trailer. Or maybe you got some good reviews, either on video or somewhere else. You want to display these. Camtica gives you simple flexibility, putting some muscle into your creative arts. Sure, you can spend thousands of dollars for complex software to do this, or hire a publicist, graphics artist and a webmaster. But why? In most cases, you'll pay these costs yourself, and if you want to create your own promotional stuff, you'll spend mucho hours in a classroom somewhere.

If you own a quality video camera -- even some smartphone cameras -- and some basic and simple editing program, you've got the tools for quality trailers, just not the software to put it all together.

Camtica gives you that tool.

Check out Camtica. Like me, I think you'll like it.

As for the novel itself, I've used Power Writer for years, have bought more than one copy -- remember, I use four computers. Why? Because Power Writer give me tools Microsoft Word does not, the ability to create a character database, outline-as-I-go and compose screens all connected together. Plus it's got a decent thesaurus and is connectable to Power Structure, Write-Brain's structure assistance software. While this latter program sounded good, however, and indeed, I bought it, I've never used it, because PowerWriter contains enough of these features I haven't needed what Power Structure offers. And Power Writer is easy to use; it follows most of Microsoft Word's features, and when my novel is finished, I convert it to Word before transforming it into any other format I need. Power Writer

Ever forget which eyebrow bears a character's scar? Just copy and paste that description into your character database in the lower screen (expandable), and have no trouble manipulating Search commands to find it again. And Plot points of your outline are automatically grayed into your composition screen or you can enter them into your composition screen and they automatically appear in your outline. Print up either or both.

For character development, I usually turn to books, but I've also used Character Pro 5, which I understand has now been merged with Quick Story into a new software program called Character Writer. Truth be told, I haven't shelled out yet for Character Writer -- although as a software junkie I may do so someday -- because as a trait-tracker and character-depth generator, Character Pro 5 works just fine. Character Writer

New Year, New Resolutions

2012-01-01T10:16:00.002-06:00

by Susan Santangelo

Happy Healthy 2012 to one and all. For me, the healthy part comes first, and then positive thoughts and happiness will follow. I hope.

My 8-year-old granddaughter, Rebecca, told me over the holidays that 2012 is the year for me to "get my sparkle on." Hmm. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that. More sequins? Rhinestones? Perhaps wearing a tiara now and then?

Well, why not?? Each day is, after all, a celebration and, as the old saying goes, that's why it's called the present.

I've chosen to apply my wise granddaughter's advice to my writing rather than my wardrobe. I've vowed that 2012 is the year my writing will sparkle. I will finish Book 3 in the Baby Boomer mysteries and even start cracking on Book 4.

And, what the heck, I may borrow one of Rebecca's tiaras to wear while I write. It couldn't hurt.

Japanese New Year's Celebration Season

2011-12-30T00:01:00.058-06:00

by Jean Henry Mead

Among New Year's celebrations around the world, the Japanese shōgatsu is one of the longest in duration. The New Year is celebrated on January 1, but the holiday continues well into January. Just as we prepare for Christmas and Thanksgiving, the Japanese take their holiday preparations seriously, especially New Year's Eve, which is known as Omisoka.

Buddhist temples around the country ring their bells a total of 108 times on New Year’s Eve to symbolize the 108 human sins and to rid themselves of the 108 worldly desires. A major attraction is “The Watched Night Bell” in Tokyo, which is reminiscent of the Times Square ball drop. The Japanese believe that the ringing of bells can rid them of their sins of the previous year. After the bells stop ringing, they celebrate and feast on soba noodles.

The New Year season is also celebrated with a special selection of food called osechirvori, or osechi, which consists of boiled seaweed, fish cakes, chesnuts, sweet potatoes, burdock roots and sweetened black soybeans. Another popular dish is ozoni, a mocha rice cake, which is often eaten with sushi and later a seven herb rice soup that is prepared on Jimijitsu, the seventh day of January.

Japanese post offices are their busiest during the end of December and beginning of January, due to the country’s custom of sending postcards called nengjo. Like our oun custom of sending Christmas cards, the postcards are delivered on New Year’s Day. However, the cards are not sent if someone in the family has died during the year. Instead, a simple postcard called mochyyn hgaski is sent to friends and relatives.

Children are customarily given money on New Year’s Day, which is handed out in small decorated envelopes called pochibukuro, which are similar to the Chinese red envelopes and the Scottish handsel. The custom, called otoshidama, began during the Edo period when large stores and wealthy families gave children small bags of mochi, a boiled, sticky rice cake topped with a a slice of Mandarin orange. The amount of money they receive depends on the child’s age but has been known to exceed $120 U.S.

The custom of giving mochi is a dangerous one because it has caused a number of chocking deaths, especially in the elderly. The death toll from eating mochi is reported annually in newspapers following the New Year, yet the custom continues.

Games are also part of the New Year’s celebration, including kite flying, or hanetsuki, and a game called sugoaroku, fukunwarai, which resembles our “Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” using paper facial parts to tack blindfolded to a wall. Other entertainment includes TV programming, which pits members of two teams of popular music artists against each other.

Another Japanese New Year's tradition is poetry, including haiku, a 17 syllable verse, as well as renga, or linked poetry. Some haiku celebrates a number of “firsts” for the New Year, including the first sunrise, first laughter and first dream. And before sunrise on January 1, people often climb a mountain or drive to the coast to watch the first sunrise of the new year while others visit a shrine after midnight.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is played throughout Japan during the New Year’s season, often accompanied by a chorus. The symphony was introduced by German prisoners of war during World War 1, and was first played by the renowned NHK Symphony Orchestra in 1925. The Imperial government encouraged performances of the symphony during the Second World War, especially on New Year’s Eve, to promote Japanese nationalism because, at that time, Germany was an ally. The symphony became a tradition after the war and continues to this day.

No matter how you plan to celebrate the New Year, I hope that 2012 is the happiest and most successful ever!

Spell Check Can't Save You

2011-12-28T00:01:00.001-06:00

By Mark W. Danielson

Ever find a typo in a published book? Most people have, and if it’s in your book, you’re mortified. How does it happen? Simple -- computers have made writing so easy that we get lazy. We are so used to reading and writing at the speed of technology that we tend to miss things. The up side is we can type at our thought’s pace. The down side it errors are easily induced.

If you’re like most authors, you use Spell Check and Grammar Check to proof your work. But what happens if your words are spelled correctly and are grammatically correct, but the wrong one was used? Then there’s a good chance it may come out something like this:

“What do you mean he’s dead?” she screamed. “He said he was heeled!” After saying that, she collapsed over his body and wrapped her arm around his waste, feeling the last of its warmth.

The doctor tried consoling her, but she pushed him away. Her actions shouldn’t have phased him, but instead they peeked his interest. “Wear were you when this happened?”

“In bed, of course. He swore he was fine, that the stitches wouldn’t rip, that it was okay to make love. But soon he screamed in pain. I wanted to poor him some water, but he declined. When he winced again, I called 911 and told them their wasn’t a second to lose. Oh, God, what will I do without him?”

“I’m not sure, but you need to weight outside. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

Without claiming this to be great dialogue, it does provide an example of ate dictionary words that sound the same, but are not the intended word. Subconsciously, it’s easy to induce errors, and while most are easily discovered, others sneak in like ants. As you can see, the wrong word can create entirely different images from those intended.

But incorrect words can also be the result of typos or mistakes, and Spell and Grammar Checks probably won’t save you on these. One book I recently finished contained several such errors. In one case, the character is firmly gripping another’s hand demanding he “Sweat it!” Certainly, the intended word was “Swear”, but the error remained. Bummer. The next mistake in this book involved naming the wrong President. The timing and all previous references were of Nixon and Johnson and the author certainly meant to name Nixon, but instead Reagan appeared on the printed page. As Rick Perry would say, Oops.

Writing is easy, but creating an error-free novel seems next to impossible. The solution? Once everything is finalized, find yourself a good proof reader who has never seen your work before. Then, and only then, do you have a chance at submitting an error-free manuscript. Happy hunting.

The season of cheer?

2011-12-27T00:12:00.000-06:00

OK, for the purposes of this aside on the festivities, let’s leavekids out of the equation. Christmas for them is different. Never mind that theStar of Bethlehem doesn’t move nearly as fast as the flashes from their magnumsas they play the kindergarten equivalent of Grand Theft Auto – there aresparkly things everywhere, a huge tree is suddenly growing and twinkling insidethe house and the fat guy with the red gear is on his way. My cynicism about itall is barely disguised but I genuinely am happy that it makes kids happy.

But this isn’t about the kids’ Christmas (or the Christmas forgenuine believers, which, again, I acknowledge is something different andsomething special). This is about Christmas for heathens such as me and eventhose heathens who still pay lip-service to the notion that it’s somehowconnected with a religious faith.

I used to get angry about the whole thing – all the enforcedjollity, the contagion of Santa’s ‘Ho-ho-ho’. I found it sad that people werenice to one another just because it was Christmas and couldn’t see that itwould be good to be like that right through the year. Why not be happy, caringand ho-ho-ho-ish because it’s Tuesday or October or late afternoon? I didn’tlike the profits made from crap goods that wouldn’t even last until bedtime. Icouldn’t see the point of sending a card to someone ‘because they’d sent one toyou’. I was the guy wandering amongst all the ever-so-jolly adverts, listeningto Bing Crosby, George Michael, Wizzard and Slade belting out their singalongsin all the shops and muttering ‘Bah humbug’ at every opportunity. I was thepre-ghosts Scrooge minus his miserliness.

Then, lo, it came to pass (several years ago, actually) that thescales fell from my eyes and I realised what I’d known all along – that’s it’sthe festival of Godot. Waiting for Godotis about all sorts of things. It’s bleak and yet very funny, it’ssimultaneously theatrical and anti-theatrical, and it sums up marvellously howwe live our lives. I want everyone who reads this to have a wonderful happytime, so I won’t stress (well, not much, anyway) the essential self-deceptionof waiting for something which never happens, but that’s what Christmas is. Theanticipation begins earlier and earlier each year – and that’s marvellous, becausethere’s a feeling of direction, purpose, a reason to do particular things. Theexcitement and magic is a daily experience, through late October, November,December.

The mistake is to assume it’s building up TO something. It’s not.Nothing could match the build-up, so Christmas Day arrives, then goes. Andalmost at once the newspapers start including supplements about summerholidays. Philip Larkin’s poem Next,Please is a powerful evocation of our Waitingfor Godot lives and, although it’s not about Christmas, it encapsulates theseason. I’m not going to quote it because its truth (for an unbeliever) mayseem uncomfortable (and for a believer, it’s just plain wrong).

And no, I’m not just being a miserable old bugger. I’m having agood time. I like the excitement, the gaudiness, the superficial impressionthat everything’s OK really. I love the wonder in the faces of the younger kidsand the naked, smiling acquisitiveness of the older kids who’ve learned how towork the system. And I actually think it’s a shame that, in the USA, for somereason, the bluff, complex cheer of the greeting ‘Merry Christmas’ has beenreplaced by the bland ‘Happy Holidays’.

But I really, really do want everyone (of all faiths or none) tohave a great time. So please do.

Geezer-lit Mysteries

2011-12-26T09:24:00.001-06:00

This is my first posting as a new member of Murderous Musings, so let me introduce myself. I’m Mike Befeler, and I write the Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery series, which includes Retirement Homes Are Murder, Living with Your Kids Is Murder and Senior Moments Are Murder. The fourth book in the series is under contract with my publisher and will appear December, 2012, and is titled, Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder. I’m always interested in what readers think of the word “geezer.” I’ve had debates with some fellow authors who don’t like the word, but I use it in an affectionate not derogatory fashion because I’m a geezer-in-training. My protagonist is in his mid-eighties with short-term memory loss, has a good sense of humor and can laugh at his predicament. He may have this adversity of old age but is still an active and contributing citizen. So my advice to everyone is to embrace your inner geezer. Thanks to Mark Danielson and Chester Campbell for inviting me to join this blog.

A Christmas Wish

2011-12-24T08:23:00.005-06:00

Christmas is upon us. Glory to God in the highest. Peace on Earth is my Christmas wish to everyone, regardless of their religion. Over the past two weeks I have traveled halfway around the world and back and have seen frantic shoppers everywhere trying to make last minute preparations for their family celebrations. As the hours fly by, it's easy to forget the significance of this holiday. The birth of Christianity. The Son of God, delivered to us. I'm not the most religious person on the planet, but the principles that came with Christ's birth apply to everyone in everyday life, not just at Christmas. If we learn to respect one another, to accept each other with all of our faults and differences, then peace on Earth is possible. During this holiday season, take a moment to tell everyone you know how much they mean to you, and enjoy the blessings that have been sent your way. I speak for all of us on the Musings staff when I say, have a very Merry Christmas.

2011--What a year!

2011-12-21T02:00:00.000-06:00

by Carola Dunn

So much has happened in my life in the past year, not just in the world of books, but I'll stick to that world here.

My 20th Daisy Dalrymple Mystery, Anthem for Doomed Youth, came out in the spring, in both the US and the UK, and later in large print.

Large print


First 6 are mine

My UK publisher set up signings for me at Heffers, the Cambridge University bookstore, and Hatchard's, the 200+ year-old book shop in London. That shop had been there for nearly 20 years already at the beginning of the Regency, the period I used to write about. It makes an appearance in at least one of my books. Believe me that was a thrill, especially when my UK editor sent me a photo of my books featured in their window.

The 19th Daisy mystery, Sheer Folly, came out in paperback.

Two of my Regencies came out in large print.

large print

e-book

original paperback

[I can't get them all to go on the same line!]

Large print


e-book

And all my Regencies, which have been available as e-books for years, at last made their appearance on Amazon, for Kindle. Considering how long ago I wrote them, sales have been amazing.

What a year!

Oh, Danny Boy

2011-12-20T01:00:00.000-06:00

by Jaden Terrell

In 2004, my father-in-law, Dan Hicks, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It's a disease sometimes called "the long, slow goodbye." It's a thief, and a cruel one at that, stealing memories, independence, and even the ability to carry on a conversation. It makes children of grown men and women, turns spouses and children into caretakers. What it cannot do is vanquish love.

Dan was a quiet man. It's a trait shared by both his sons, who bide their time until exactly the right moment, then say exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. None of them have ever been much for small talk.

Case in point: Mike and I were once in a grocery store buying chips and soda for a get-together at our house. The man behind us said to Mike, "Are you guys having a party?"

There was a long silence. I smiled at the man and looked at Mike, not wanting to be one of those pushy wives who answer for their spouses. More silence. The man shifted uncomfortably, gave me an embarrassed smile. Finally, I answered the question and we had a brief conversation. As Mike and I were walking back to our car, I said, "What do you do when I'm not here?"

He said, "What do you mean?"

"That man. He asked you if you were having a party."

"Oh that." He shrugged. "He didn't really want to know."

Over the years, Thelma, my sister-in-law Nikki, and I would shake our heads over it. "Those Hicks men," we would say, and laugh. They were three of a kind: men of few words, but also strong men of dignity and kindness. Men who would come out in a thunderstorm to fix your flat tire, who dropped you off at the door when the weather was bad, even though they knew you wouldn't melt and wouldn't have minded walking across the parking lot in the rain.

Dan's quietness helped him cover for his diminishing intellect. Those first few years, he could follow a conversation fairly well, inserting an occasional apt comment, even making the occasional joke. As the disease progressed, his jokes became simpler.

"How are you?" I would ask.

"Still here," he would say, with his old smile. It was an answer with layers of meaning. Still here. Still alive. Still me.

A few years ago, Thelma bought him a powderpuff Chinese Crested puppy. Dan fell in love with the pup and named it after himself and after his favorite song: Danny Boy. The family had begin a tradition of meeting weekly at a nearby Sir Pizza, and Dan would fret, "Do you think my little puppy is going be all right? . . . We'd better get back home and take care of my little puppy."

Always a man of few words, those words became fewer and fewer. Still, he would reach across and straighten Thelma's collar or pluck at a stray thread. Those Hicks men. Always taking care of the ones they love. Even when he could not remember her name, he remembered her.

She kept him at home and cared for him as he became less and less her partner and more and more her child. His daughter, Rene, says it was Dan's gentle nature that made that possible. Yes, he was stubborn (those Hicks men!), but his easygoing nature made him easier to care for. But I also think his love for Thelma carried him. She was his anchor and his lifeline. When he didn't remember himself, he remembered her.

It was hard to watch him slip away. It was just as hard to watch Thelma lose her best friend and life mate, little by little and inch by inch. When they married, she was sixteen and he was nineteen. Her older sister, Lucille, signed the papers allowing her to marry, and for fifty-three years, they loved each other. Raised three children. Loved four grandchildren. Welcomed their children's spouses as if we were their own.

At 2 AM on December 16, just four days before his 73rd birthday, Dan passed away. His daughter, Rene, gave the eulogy. It was a brave and loving thing to do, and I admire her for it. She painted a picture of a loving father who taught his children to swim and to love roller coasters, whose quiet humor blessed their lives, whose pride in his service in the Marine Corps inspired one son and whose love of hiking and photography inspired another.

I once read a quote in a Jewish prayer book. It said that every act of kindness contributes to the goodness in the world and that these acts of kindness live on forever, long after those who committed them are gone. It was about acts of goodness done by common men and women, whose names will never be in history books but whose lives touch other lives like ripples in a pond.

Dan Hicks, you made the world a better place. And now...the pipes, the pipes are calling.

You will be missed.

Brazil's Wetlands - The Pantanal

2011-12-17T00:01:00.011-06:00

by Leighton Gage

Four times the size of England, one-third the size of France, almost forty times the size of the Everglades, it is, by far, the largest wetland region on the face of the earth.
It's called the Pantanal.

Mostly it's in Brazil, but it also stretches into Paraguay and Bolivia.

In all, it covers a total area of more than 75,000 square miles.

The name comes from the Portuguese pantano, meaning swamp or marsh, an apt description, because eighty percent of the region is submerged during the rainy season.

More than 400 kinds of fish swim in the rivers and and clearwater lakes of the Pantanal.

More than 480 kinds of reptiles slither in its mud,

Some of them are anacondas that like to feed upon crocodiles.

Tapirs can be found there...

...and anteaters;

Capybaras...

and coatis;

great otters,

many varieties of monkeys,

rare, maned wolves,

jaguars, and a lovely little creature we call...

the Jaguatirica, a pixie bobcat that looks like a cat...but is most definitely not. Cute aren't they? So cute that some people have tried to domesticate them - without success and with lots of bites and scratches to show for their trouble.

In all, there are more than 300 species of mammals in the Pantanal...

and more than 1,000 species of birds...

including 15 different kinds of parrots.

The fauna, too is impressive. There are more than 1,700 varieties of flowering plants.

How many more varieties of animals? How many more varieties of plants?

Nobody knows.

The Pantanal is a mother lode of unrecorded wildlife.

And it isn't only the variety that's impressive. The numbers are, too. Current estimates are that the region contains more than ten millioncaimans.

Readers from Europe and the United States sometimes question my reasons for living in a country that has more than its fair share of criminality and violence.

One reason, among many, is the Pantanal.

Short Stories by Earl Staggs

2011-12-16T08:21:00.005-06:00

by Jean Henry Mead

Earl Staggs certainly knows his stuff when it comes to short story writing. His collection is not only entertaining, it grabs you and doesn’t let go until you reach the conclusion and take a peek at the next story. It’s like the former Lay’s potato chips commercial. You can’t just read one of Earl’s stories at one sitting. You’re compelled to read just one more and then another. They run the gambit of humor to crime and I especially enjoyed one of Earl’s well-drawn characters, Sheriff Molly, who outwits crooks and lays down the law in her own methodical way.

My favorite of the Sheriff Molly stories is when she encounters Henry Lee, a naked young man standing on the roof of a two-story building, posed to jump to his death. Convincing him that he will only break his legs if he jumps, she manages to talk him down after learning what prompted him to disrobe and contemplate suicide. The author writes convincingly with humor and acquired southern charm which will keep you smiling.

If you’re looking for a great read, I highly recommend the award-winning author’s fictional adventures into the realm of mystery, where good always triumps over evil or at least takes a good run at it. I like Earl’s characters, which he brings to life with just enough description to make them believable. And the plots and settings are varied enough to keep you turning pages.

Short Stories by Earl Staggs will make a great Christmas gift for busy people who have little time to read, although once they start, they’ll make time to continue reading.

The Most Dreaded Word

2011-12-14T00:01:00.000-06:00

By Mark W. Danielson

It’s funny how certain things cross your mind. Sometimes they are pleasant. Other times, not as much. Perhaps it was because I was flying to Guadalajara where drug lords had just delivered another message by dumping twenty-three bodies around the city that got me onto this subject. Or maybe it was the news story of a light plane crash that killed six people, three of whom were children. Whatever the reason, it got me thinking about the word was and how it plays into stories. In a narrative story, it is essential. When used to describe people, it means death.

The last thing I want is for my loved ones to read I was a good writer, or I was a good pilot because both are used in the past tense. Words written post-mortem describing what was once my life. When you think in these terms, this word becomes rather sobering.

The 2011 holiday season kicked off with a vengeance, first, with a woman pepper-spraying WalMart customers on Black Friday, and then with news of more fights in stores. Such events not only reflect poorly on our society, they lead to neighbors saying, “I have no idea what happened. He/she was such a nice person.” Although no one died in these acts of stupidity, the lives of the guilty parties were changed forever.

Every day, the papers are riddled with obituaries that use was to describe people. Whether they died in combat, automobile crashes, or from cancer is a moot point because dead is dead, and now the most dreaded word is printed in their honor. Please keep this in mind as you travel to visit your loved ones. Don’t drink or text while driving. Always be aware of your surroundings so that you and everyone else can enjoy a safe and happy holiday season. Above all, have a very Merry Christmas.

Writers' identities

2011-12-13T01:24:00.000-06:00

I wrote this before reading June's posting last Saturday so it's serendipitous that it turns out to be my extended answer to the question she posed. First, though - Cliché alert – ‘No two writers are thesame’. OK, good to get that out of my system, but there’s more because I alsothink that ‘No ONE writer is the same’. Here’s what I mean.

We all know the publishing business haschanged significantly and increasingly quickly over the past five years or so.When I started writing novels as opposed to plays, you polished your MS,printed out a copy (not cheap if it ran to 300-odd pages) and sent it out toagents and/or publishers. Postage wasn’t cheap either, (you also had to coverthe costs for its return if they didn’t like it). Then, through the (sometimes)months you waited for them to reply, you got on with the next novel. Meantime,you also had your day job and you were a husband, wife, lover, significantother, hermit, father, mother, son, daughter, outcast, or whatever other rolesyour social situation imposed on you. See what I mean? There were (and are) severalpeople inhabiting your body. But, back then, the writer bit was just that – youwrote, sent your stuff away, waited patiently but eagerly for a reply, gotrejected and did it all again.

Today, though, even that writing bit hasfragmented. Being a writer doesn’t just involve the one role. There’s still thewriting (the best bit), but there’s also:

the PR person, desperately trying to create and project a cuddly profile;
the fish out of water, trying to learn and apply marketing techniques;
the social networker, scrolling through tweets and Facebook comments with all the other writers;
the blogger, trying to sell books;
the prostitute, willing to do just about anything to be published or nudged higher up the sales lists;
the reviewer;
and, mostly, the unrecognised genius, whose blockbuster novel will change the course of humanity but lies misunderstood in the depths of a computer.

I exaggerate, of course, but only on thebasis of fairly common experiences shared by many.

But why am I saying stuff you all knowanyway? Because what I’m really doing (with very little subtlety) is boast.I’ve already sent out a few tweets and FB comments saying how wonderful I am, andthis is another because yet another ‘self’ has been added to my list. I am now …(discreet but still quite loud fanfare) … an ‘award-winning author’. Mypublisher, Diane Nelson of Pfoxmoor Publishing, submitted two of my books tothe 2011 Forward National Literature Awards. The Sparrow Conundrum was the winner in the ‘Humor’ category, and The Darkness came second in the‘Mystery’ category. OK, trumpet blown, so what?

First, the news made me behave like a six yearold on Christmas Eve. And yet, objectively, I’m not comfortable with the ideaof ‘competitive literature’. Even though I know there are terrible novels outthere as well as terrific ones, I applaud anyone who’s had the stamina and thecommitment to actually write one and see it through to the end. But if I denythat it’s a competitive business, where do sales figures fit in? In the end, beingable to add that little ‘award-winning’ tag to me and two of my bookstheoretically gives me a wee marketing edge. I say ‘theoretically’ because Idon’t yet know whether that’ll be the case and, anyway, it’ll be up to me (thesloth) to make it happen.

Perhaps more importantly, though, it opensup another tricky area when it comes to the various ‘selves’ I was speaking of.My two awards were for very different books. The Sparrow Conundrum is a spoof ; its sole purpose is to makereaders laugh. The Darkness, on theother hand, is a stark revenge/vigilante story with a pretty chillingresolution. It's still got jokes but its intentions are darker. So what does that make me? A funny man or a scary man? And whatabout the other stuff, the police procedurals, the historical, the non-fictionand the kids’ books? Multiplying your ‘selves’ can be counter-productive.

Readers, naturally enough, like to knowwhat to expect when they buy a book. If they’ve enjoyed your gore-saturatedslasher mystery, they’ll probably feel cheated if your follow-up is alight-hearted romantic romp through the tulips. In a way, then, they impose anidentity on you – and they have every right to do so. But what happens if it’s notyou but the characters in the follow-up who decide that they’ve gone off theidea of being serial killers and instead want to fall in love and skip througha field outside Amsterdam?

As I keep saying, ‘Hell is other people’but it’s also readers and our characters.

On the other hand, to end on anothercliché, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

My Tooth Is Killing...You

2011-12-12T00:00:00.020-06:00

by Ben Small

Why do serious toothaches always seem to strike when no dentist is available?

It began so innocently, a bit of grit on my tongue. Probing with a pinky, I pulled out a bit of something that looked like metal. I'd gone shooting that day and wondered if somehow I'd injected a piece of torn cartridge. But I'd been shooting rifles, not pistols, and all my rifle cartridges are made of brass. Besides, I hadn't felt anything, and torn cartridges are rare, a sign of catastrophic failure -- the kind that kills people. There'd been no pool of blood in the dirt.

That was Thursday. Friday, about Noon, my tongue found a new edge on a molar. As it rolled over its ivory neighbors, savoring last vestiges of double cheeseburger, my tongue caught a snag.

Had I lost a filling? Goodness, I've only had three and all are over fifty years old. I'd forgotten I had them.

I found a magnifying mirror and opened my mouth. Perfect pearlies on the upper, the Grand Canyon on a lower.

Uh oh.

But no pain whatsoever. Nada.

So I'd worry about it later. My toofers are so good, I haven't seen a dentist in years, two states away. Gum disease? Not me. Why have a dentist when I can do whitening myself? Indeed, the only dentist I know these days is my brother in law, who's actually a periodontist, and he's three thousand miles away. He once opened my mouth, hopeful of a windfall, then closed it again with a frustrated obscenity, telling me to go away.

So I blew it off, figured I'd worry about it sometime next week...or month. What harm could it do? To my knowledge, I hadn't swallowed any of that metal. Besides, I had more important things to do. Indiana was playing arch-rival and No.1 ranked Kentucky the next day. Why worry about teeth? Kentuckians don't have any.

So, at 4 P.M. on Friday, the pain began, at first subtle as I sipped some cold pop. But then it grew. In an hour, I'd transformed from a genial giant to a raging Cujo. The pain moved from my tooth, now raised by swelling underneath, to my head. Even my eyes hurt. And a lump stood out on the side of my face.

A friend called, to make sure the game's invite was still on. I growled at him, said he'd best wear Kevlar.

Frantically, I pulled out the yellow pages, turned to the Ds. Scanned ad after ad. Discovered dentists don't work on Saturdays. Heck, most didn't work on Fridays.

I called my doctor, desperate for a pain-killer. Maybe Demerol, something strong. He'd closed up for the weekend.

Then I remembered I had some Hydrocodone somewhere. I went searching, pulling out drawers, overturning furniture like the FBI conducting a search warrant on a serial killer's residence. I found the container under a chair, covered in dust-bunnies. Two pills left, I guzzled them without water, because water's cold and cold was my enemy. Hell, even breathing sent cold shock waves through my jaw, eyes and head.

That damn tooth.

I eyed my Culver saber, wondered if I could wedge it under my tooth and pop it out. Decided to defer. Too much collateral damage for first choice.

How could I last until Monday, when I could make an appointment? And could I get an appointment? I don't know any dentists in Tucson.

So I called a friend, asked him for the name of his dentist. Asked what he thought it would cost me to bribe that guy to come in NOW. He gave me the name and number, then asked me how much money I have.

I snapped at him, warned him, too, to wear Kevlar.

You don't piss off Cujo.

I called the dentist, and surprise! his recorded message offered an emergency number. I dialed it. Actually got him on the phone.

About then, the Hydrocodone hit, like a blast-wave of ahhhhh. Yeah, I still felt the pain, but I no longer cared. I could cut off my arm and wave it around laughing.

Slurring my words now, I told the dentist my problem. He asked a few questions, to ensure, I guess, that I wasn't just some drunk pulling a tease, then told me he'd take care of me right away...on Monday.

Monday?

I had no more painkillers. How would I last that long? Hell, by Monday, I'd be on a tower somewhere, shooting at anything that moved. Or I'd have turned to that saber after all.

He said my biggest worry was infection, that he'd prescribe some antibiotics.

I corrected him. No, my biggest problem was the pain.
Do not forget the pain.

The dentist laughed. He actually laughed. I wondered how funny he'd find my AR-15 stuck in his mouth.

He told me he was skiing in Colorado, wouldn't be back until Monday. I think I offered to charter a jet, but I'm not sure. The Hydrocodone, remember.

He told me I likely had both an exposed root and an infection. He said the antibiotic would handle the infection, and that I could buy some temporary filling material at the pharmacy that would cover the root. The pain would magically disappear. He'd see me Monday.

While I can't exactly remember, I think I said something about his mother around then. Temporary filling? Yeah, sure, that'll work. Y'or momma!

But it did work. And the pain disappeared, sparing the lives of many. And the Hoosiers beat No. 1 Kentucky, no teeth and all.

Cujo is at rest.

Now all I gotta worry about is how much that mother insult will cost me...

Humorous Mysteries

2011-12-10T00:01:00.000-06:00

I love humorous mysteries. Of course that's why I chose to write some.

Why wouldn't anyone like to read or write something that makes them smile? Or laugh? Why would anyone want to be serious all the time?

I've heard agents and authors of highly successful humorous romances say those are out now. Readers don't want them.

Of course that's not true. The latest book written by Robin Wells,an extremely successful author of funny romances from my writers' group in New Orleans, was just a finalist for the Rita for Best Romance of the Year.

Many leaders in the mystery genre say serious work is more highly rated. Of course maybe they've stood in lines around the block to have Janet Evanovitch sign her latest work for them?

The romantic comedies of long ago (like when I was a teen)were loved by people of all sexes and ages. I don't believe everyone's taste has changed. There is, of course, lots and lots of serious crime everywhere. Just turn on the TV. Open a newspaper. Check your computer screen.

In the meantime, I believe that at least for a while, I will keep writing work that makes me smile or even chuckle. That's fun, which I enjoy.

Do you like any humor in books you read?

Wyoming Firsts

2011-12-09T00:02:00.007-06:00

by Jean Henry Mead

I recently edited an unusual book, Wyoming Historical Trivia by J. J. Hammond, which contains some interesting, disturbing and amusing facts about Wyoming, including the state's many "firsts".

Which state first gave women the right to vote?

A bill granting Wyoming women the right to vote was signed into law by John Campbell, first territorial governor or December 10, 1869, but it was a Utah woman who cast the first vote on February 14, 1870. The Utah Territorial Legislature had passed its suffrage law four days earlier. Wyoming women didn’t vote until August of that year, but they, unlike Utah women, were allowed to hold public office.

Who was this nation’s first woman bailiff?

Mary Atkinson of Albany County, Wyoming, was appointed to her job in 1870, as was Esther Hobart Morris, this nation’s first woman justice of the peace.

When did the first all-women jury serve?

They were sworn in on March 7, 1870, in the town of Laramie, Wyoming.

Which Wyoming town was governed entirely by women?

Jackson was governed from 1920-1921 entirely by women. Grace Miller was elected mayor and Rose Crabtree defeated her husband, Henry, the former mayor, for a city council seat. The all-women council also approved the election of Pearl Williams as town marshal and Edna Huff as the Jackson health officer, among others.

Who was Wyoming’s first woman doctor?

Lillian Heath Nelson was one of three doctors in 1881 to perform an autopsy on outlaw George Manuse, aka “Big Nose George” Parrott. The autopsy was performed by removing the top of the outlaw’s skull to determine any criminal abnormalities. None apparently was found. Nelson reportedly dressed like a man and wore pistols strapped to her hips while studying obstetrics with a Wyoming doctor. (I’m not making this up.)

Who had shoes made from Big Nose George’s hide?

Dr. J. E. Osborne, who performed the outlaw’s autopsy, had shoes and a medical bag crafted from” Big Nose” George’s hide. The doctor, who became Wyoming’s governor (1893-95) is said to have worn the shoes while holding office. The shoes and George’s skull are on display at the Carbon County Museum. (I believe that’s another first, and hopefully the only time it happened.)

There are many other firsts: Yellowstone Park was the first nationally designated park, Devil’s Tower the first national monument, and the nation’s first ranger station was established 30 miles west of Cody, Wyoming, in 1903 in the Shoshone National Forest. Also, the first library system was established in Laramie County in 1886.

And last but certainly not least, the first woman governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, was elected in 1925 and was later appointed by FDR to head the U.S. Mint, a position she held until 1953.

Wyoming Historical Trivia is on sale for 99 cents on Kindle and Nook and will be available in print before Christmas.

Writing characters from one series into another...?

2011-12-07T17:35:00.001-06:00

by Carola

I'm writing about lifeboats at present--a rescue from a cave. Both these types of boat are involved.


D-class inflatable inshore boat

I've had a lot of discussion on Facebook and on my website as to whether it's kosher to name the three lifeboats in my Cornish series mystery after characters in my Daisy Dalrymple series: the Daisy D., the Belinda, and the Lucy. These people, from the 1920s setting, would be in their 50s/70s by the time of the Cornish series.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institute is a volunteer organisation. RNLI boats are usually named after the donor(s) or fundraisers of the donations that paid for them. Daisy, her friend Lucy, and her stepdaughter, Belinda, could well have done this.

This is the actual Padstow lifeboat at the time of my story, now retired to Land's End.

The Oakley class--this is a 37'; Padstow actually had a 44', as pictured above.

Lots of readers liked the idea of a nod to the Daisy series. A few didn't like it, but those few had very strong opinions on the subject.

What do you think? Is it a mistake to intrude one series on another, in such a minor way? Maybe next I'll have an older Daisy turn up in Cornwall and meet Eleanor...

All photos courtesy of RNLI

Research in Depth

2011-12-06T00:01:00.002-06:00

By Chester Campbell

I suppose I've become lazy the past few years while I continued to write PI mysteries set around Nashville. They haven't required much research as I'm writing about a city I've known intimately for most of my life. If I need to refresh my memory on something, all it takes is a little drive-by "research." I've also chosen subjects I'm familiar with that needed little more than Googling.

It wasn't always like this. When I started writing mystery novels in earnest, after retiring in 1989, I chose the subgenre I'd read avidly since the end of World War II, the spy story. I wrote a trilogy of international thrillers set at the end of the Cold War. They feature a disgraced former FBI agent who gets involved in espionage. None of the three sold, far a variety of reasons (I had a different agent for each of them). I've been revising them lately with an eye to putting them up as ebooks.

During this process, I've been fascinated at recalling the amount of research I did on these books. I had read extensively about the CIA and the KGB, and I bought several newer books for background. One major challenge was the variety of locations around the globe. I spent a lot of time at the library going over travel books and memoirs by people who had lived in the areas.

Locations my characters visited in the first two books included Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Chiang Mai, Thailand. At the time I wrote the stories, I had never been to Israel. Having toured the country and seen Tel Aviv in 1998, I was quite pleased at how well I had described the setting. I only made a few tweaks based on firsthand knowledge.

I toured the Southeast Asian locations in 1987 when my wife and I joined our younger son (then with Army Special Forces) and his wife on a 30-day junket that included Korea, Okinawa, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. Of course, I had also spent a year in Seoul at Fifth Air Force Headquarters in 1952-3 during the Korean War. I did additional reading on the areas while researching my spy stories.

Most of the U.S. cities in the books were ones I was familiar with. One fictional location I created was a small island off the Florida Gulf Coast. I visited the area and consulted with seamen at the Apalachicola, Florida Coast Guard Station to keep things realistic.

The last book in the trilogy has the most areas I've never seen. It includes a remote corner of Iran, parts of Ukraine, and Minsk, Belarus. It is set in the early nineties, and I did extensive research on conditions in the areas. I also used parts of Mexico, some of which I had visited. The stories include many technical details that I researched extensively, much of it in cooperation with my "technical adviser," brother Jim, an electrical engineer.

Ho Ho Ho! Holiday Book Signings

2011-12-04T16:39:00.000-06:00

by Susan Santangelo

There have been lots of posts recently on other blog sites about the best ways for authors to market their books. In-person signings vs. the Internet. Facebook vs. Twitter. Websites. On-line contests and giveaways. Gosh -- it seems that if we did all of this every day, there'd be no time to write the next book. And isn't that what it's all about really -- writing books?

I admit that I get a kick out of doing book signings. Especially if people come and buy, which is always an iffy proposition. I've done lots of signings on Cape Cod where friends have come to support me, but they've already bought/read the books. For the next few weeks, Cape Cod is a happening place, with holiday strolls, special events, even a parade or two. I'll be at some of them, of course. Gotta take advantage of the crowds before we all settle down for a long winter's nap after New Year's. I'm even doing a two-day signing at the big Providence R.I. dog show next weekend, because I have two dogs in my books.

And then, I promised myself, I'd really tackle and finish the first draft (at the very least!) of book 3. Because at every in-person book event I've done recently, lots of people ask me -- how's that third book coming??

The New Jerusalem

2011-12-03T08:50:00.001-06:00

by Leighton Gage

Pictured above, is one of the seven gates to New Jerusalem.

All of them constructed out of stone.

As are the walls that connect them.

Looks like a city in the Holy Land, doesn’t it?

In fact, Nova Jerusalem (as it's rendered in Portuguese), is the world’s largest open-air theater.

It consists of an area of over 100,000 square meters, surrounded by 3,500 meters of walls and 70 towers, all constructed to duplicate the walls and towers of Jerusalem at the time Christ was crucified.

It’s a bit smaller in scale, only about one-third of the size of the original, but it’s still pretty impressive.

The theatre stands some 180 km due west of Recife, the capital of the Brazilian State of Pernambuco.

And Recife, my friends, is about 1,900 km to the North of Rio de Janeiro, which really puts this New Jerusalem off the beaten track.

But each year, during Holy Week, thousands of people gather there to witness Brazil’s most famous Passion play.

And each night, beginning at six pm, about 8,000 spectators spend two hours walking a four kilometer path within the walls.

The path takes them past nine permanent stages.

At each stage, they witness 60 key actors, and as many as 500 extras, act out the key incidents in the last week of the life of Jesus.

Including his crucifixion...

...and resurrection.

It's all presented with digital sound and spectacular lighting effects.

And some of Brazil's most famous actors have roles

If you’ve been to Greece for Easter, visited Seville during the Semana Santa, and caught the passion play in Oberammergau in 2010 (they only do that one every ten years) you might consider making New Jerusalem the next one on your list.

"Mystery We Write" Holiday Virtual Book Tour

2011-12-02T12:01:00.002-06:00

by Jean Herny Mead

Earl Staggs wrote about the virtual holiday book tour a few weeks ago and we're currently in the middle of the tour, with great interviews, blog posts about writing including how our 15 mystery writers got their starts and why we write. There are also photos of where we work (our desk, messy or neat), book excerpts, and best of all we're giving away more than 60 mystery novels.

Blog visitors who leave comments at the individual sites are eligible to win novels from Earl Staggs, Tim Hallinan, J. Michael Orenduff, Marilyn Meredith, Anne K. Albert, Beth Anderson, Alice Duncan, John Daniel, M. M. Gornell, Wendy Gager, Jackie King, Jinx Schwartz, Pat Browning, Ron Benrey and me.

I’m giving away 14 Kindle or Nook books—one at each blog site each day--as well as three signed print copies of my Logan & Cassidy series novels at the conclusion of the tour. I would love to be eligible to win some of the great books offered by my fellow tour writers.

My tour schedule is listed at: "Mystery We Write" Holiday Tour along with links to all the other blog sites. There's also a slideshow of all our books on the site, created by our tour coordinator Anne K. Albert.

I’m appearing at Pat Browning's site today, talking about the unusual ways I've researched my books.

We wish you the happiest of holidays and hope to see you along the tour.

Writing Fiction Isn't Rocket Science

2011-11-23T00:01:00.004-06:00

By Mark W. Danielson

I just returned from another wonderful Men of Mystery event. For authors and attendees, this Irvine, California event is always fun, and as a general rule, is the only author event I attend. Here, two keynote speakers and nearly fifty mystery authors enjoy lunch with hundreds of avid mystery readers. Over the years, I have listened to many wonderful keynote speakers, but this year’s William Kent Krueger was particularly delightful. Perhaps it was because he and I share the same beliefs that writing should be fun, that it is nothing more than storytelling, that the motivation for writing should come from the joy of it, not for financial gain. And should financial success come your way, then congratulations, but don’t forget why you started writing. Kent is a very approachable and equally likeable gentleman whose genuine smile and easy manner certainly add to his success.

But not every author shares Kent’s jocular demeanor. Some want you to believe only a select few can create interesting stories. Honestly, anyone willing to put in long solitary hours and subject themselves to harsh criticism CAN write. But regardless of how much effort one puts in, professional writing does not come easy in this constantly evolving marketplace. While vampires may currently be in vogue, ten years from now these stories may not be marketable. If you want to be published, know the market before you begin the first chapter.

With my Gypsy lifestyle, flying to California to take part in Men of Mystery can be challenging, but it is worthwhile because I enjoy meeting people like Kent and reuniting friendships, and you can't put a price on that. Authors like Kent reaffirm that men (and women) authors who have achieved financial success and commercial notoriety still enjoy writing as much as they did when they first started. And while they take their craft seriously, they don’t view themselves that way. Folks, writing fiction isn’t rocket science, it’s just words, so keep your writing accomplishments in perspective and enjoy the ride. Doing so will ensure your characters have hearts as big as your own.

Granddad's revenge

2011-11-22T04:49:00.000-06:00

by Bill Kirton

It’s 1975. Aberdeen, Scotland. Thebeginning of the school year. My daughter (aged 11) needs new shoes. I take herinto town. We visit many shoe shops and the silences between us grow longer,the tension mounts higher in each shop. I want her to have shoes that’llwithstand the rigours of school playgrounds whereas she wants things withsparkly bits on them. The expedition ends with nothing having been bought, aride home in a simmering silence shot through with electric menace, and a resolutionon my part never ever to go near a shop with her again.

Now we’re into another century. This time it’s Brighton, England.The beginning of another school year. That same daughter, who now has fourchildren of her own, needs to get shoes for the eldest. I accompany them. Mydaughter is far more reasonable than I am as her efforts to persuade herdaughter to accept sensible shoes are met with downcast eyes and ‘proofs’ thatthey’re ugly and that the sparkly ones would be a much better investment. Thistime, I’m in the sparkly camp. The expedition ends shoeless and in relativesilence, broken only by my barely-suppressed, self-satisfied chuckles.

I always liked schadenfreude but when it has a personaltwist, it’s even more profoundly satisfying. Grandchildren restore the balanceof families.

The picture, by the way, is of a 'Garbo' by Carvela which retails at a very reasonable £150.(Aye, right.)

History’s 9 Most Notorious Crimes of Passion

2011-11-21T13:26:00.000-06:00

by Ben Small

[Jay Smith, with Criminal Justice Degrees Guide, sent me this article from his site, asking if I'd like to run it on Murderous Musings. Congrats to Jay for an excellent article. I hope we hear more from him.]

History is plagued by all types of crime, but crimes of passion, in particular, have caused a great deal of heartache and have left so many people asking "why?" Crimes of passion typically involve assault or murder and are fueled by rage, heartbreak, and revenge. Out of all the tragic crimes of passion that have happened, these nine are the most notorious.

Murder of Phil Hartman
On May 28, 1998, comedian Phil Hartman was shot and killed by his wife, Brynn, who committed suicide hours after the murder. The shocking murder-suicide that left the couple’s two children orphaned stunned family and friends. The Hartmans had been married for 10 years, but Brynn was deeply troubled and the marriage was suffering because of her drug use. On the night of the murder, Brynn returned home intoxicated and got into a heated argument with Phil. He threatened to leave her if she started using drugs again. While Hartman was sleeping, Brynn shot him three times with a handgun. After the shooting, Brynn drove to a friend’s house and confessed to her crime, but he did not believe her. When they returned to Brynn’s home, her friend called the police and she went into the bedroom, where she committed suicide.
Dismemberment of John Wayne Bobbitt
One of the most bizarre and unforgettable crimes of passion occurred on June 23, 1993, when Lorena Bobbitt attacked her husband and cut off approximately 2.5 cm of his penis after he allegedly raped her. According to her court testimony, Lorena left the house and threw his severed penis along the side of the highway. She realized the seriousness of the incident and called 911. Surgeons were able to reattach Bobbitt’s penis. and the jury found Lorena not guilty due to her husband’s sexual abuse — and her insanity that spurred this wild crime of passion.
Attempted murder of Mary Jo Buttafuoco
The infamous love triangle between Joey Buttafuoco, his wife Mary Jo, and his mistress Amy Fisher became one of the biggest news stories of the ’90s. Joey Buttafuoco, a New York auto body shop owner, was having an affair with 17-year-old Amy Fisher, who subsequently shot his wife, Mary Jo, in the face. On May 19, 1992, Fisher, then nicknamed the "Long Island Lolita," had an accomplice take her to Joey’s house to confront the wife. Mary Jo answered the door and Amy told her that Joey was having an affair with her 16-year-old sister. When Mary Jo brushed her off and told her to leave, Amy came inside and shot her in the head. Mary Jo survived the shooting and suffered a loss of hearing in one ear and partial paralysis on one side of her face. Fisher’s jealousy turned deadly and she served seven years in prison for first-degree attempted murder. Joey served six months in jail for statutory rape.
Steve McNair murder
The brutal murder of Steve McNair was a crime of passion that shocked the sports world and beyond. On July 4, 2009, McNair was shot and killed by his 20-year-old girlfriend Sahel Kazemi, who immediately turned the gun on herself. Detectives said Kazemi was struggling to make ends meet and had recently been arrested for driving under the influence. She also made comments to co-workers about ending her life. Kazemi discovered that McNair was in another extramarital relationship and she decided to take his life in revenge.
Arturo Gatti Murder
On July 11, 2009, Canadian boxer Arturo Gatti was found dead in a Brazilian hotel while on vacation with his wife, Amanda, and their infant son. Amanda spent 10 hours in the hotel before realizing that her husband was dead, and her blood-stained purse strap led authorities to believe she murdered him. His widow vehemently denied the allegations and claimed Arturo committed suicide. Brazilian police let her go and ruled his death as suicide, but the Canadian government required further investigation. In 2011, private investigators reported Arturo’s death as a homicide, but no arrests have been made.
Lisa Nowak
In 2007, astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping, burglary, and battery of Colleen Shipman, a woman who was involved with Nowak’s love interest. In a rage of jealousy, Nowak drove from Houston to Orlando to follow Shipman from the airport and talk to her about her relationship with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, pilot of the 2006 Discovery flight. The crazed Nowak packed a wig, trench coat, pepper spray, a BB gun, knife, and garbage bags on her trip to see Shipman. A disguised Nowak followed Shipman to her car and sprayed her with a chemical. She was caught and arrested by police and was later charged with attempted first degree murder.
Marvin Gaye murder
Famous singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye was killed by his father during a heated argument at his parents’ LA home. Marvin Jr. and his father, Marvin Sr., had a long history of conflicts that were worsened by the singer’s personal problems. Tension continued to grow between the two men, and Marvin Jr. began collecting guns to protect himself. On April 1, 1984, the two men got into a heated argument that quickly turned physical. The fight was broken up by Gaye’s mother, but Marvin Sr. returned with the .38 pistol that his son gave him and shot his son in the chest and fired again. Marvin Sr. killed his son in the heat of the moment and he was sentenced to five years of probation.
Murder of Alfred T. Elliot
Crimes of passion became more common during the Great Depression, and the murder of Alfred T. Elliot became one of the most notable cases. Bibeau murdered Elliot because he was having an affair with Elliot’s wife and he wanted him out of the picture. What further spurred this crime of passion was the fact that Elliot was handling some of Bibeau’s finances, which could have turned detrimental if Eliott found out about their secret romance.
Murder of Philip Barton Key
U.S. Congressman and Union general Daniel Sickles committed a crime of passion when he killed his wife’s lover, district attorney Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key, in 1859. Sickles shot and killed Key in Lafayette Park, which is across the street from the White House, because he was having an affair with his wife. Sickles is also famous for being the first person to use "temporary insanity" as a legal defense. Sickles’ defense told the jury that he was driven insane by his wife’s infidelities and he was later acquitted of his crime of passion.

-- Jay Smith, Criminal Justice Degrees Guide Criminal Justice Degrees Guide

Magic

2011-11-19T00:01:00.026-06:00

by Leighton Gage

Yo no creo en las brujas,

pero que las hay, las hay

That’s a Spanish proverb that doesn’t translate well into either English or Portuguese. A close approximation of the meaning is “I don’t believe in witches, but they really do exist”.

I quote it here because I can think of no more succinct way to sum up the attitude of most Brazilians about the power of magic to intervene in their daily lives.

The intervention can come in the form of “white magic”, in which spirits are enlisted to do good, or it can come in the form of “black magic”, where spirits are enlisted to do evil. Either way, it’s not the kind of magic practiced by people like David Copperfield or Houdini. It’s the real stuff, the magic of primitive peoples, the magic of five hundred, a thousand, ten-thousand years ago. It came here as part of the cultural baggage of over three million Africans, imported into Brazil as slaves, and it's a magic as old as man.

Nobody in this country believes that a trabalho (ritual) carried out by a Pai do Santo (think of him as someone who intercedes with the spirits)...

...or a Mãe do Santo (his female equivalent) can bring love, cement a relationship, give success in business, punish an enemy or cure a disease.

Except that almost everybody really does.

And everyone has a story to tell.

We have a friend, a well-educated woman, who is convinced that her brother was cured of a serious eye disease by spiritual intervention. She had a trabalho performed in Salvador, Bahia, on a day when her brother was in the city of São Paulo, almost fifteen hundred kilometers away. She told the Mãe do Santo only that her brother had a problem with his eye. She didn’t say which one. The woman “received the spirits” bent over and began shrieking in pain, her hand over her right eye. (The same one in which our friend’s brother was afflicted.) After about fifteen minutes she quieted down, sat up straight and pronounced him cured. Our friend went home, called him, and he was.

Just like that.

As a young teenager, my wife knew a girl in her neighborhood who paid a Pai do Santo to have a boy fall in love with her and then, when she tired of him, paid again to have him fall out-of-love with her. My wife accompanied the business at first hand. Each event happened from one day to the next.

Just like that.

Coincidences?

Of course they are.

Or maybe not.

The one thing I can tell you for sure is that the casting of spells in this country is big business. Every town and village has at least one person adept in the black arts. Every big city has many hundreds, sometimes thousands.

And, these days, if you’re in an isolated spot, it’s even possible to enlist help via the internet.

Consultation with your local practitioner often begins with the casting of the buzios.

You have questions about your life or your future? You ask, and the practitioner throws the shells. The spirits direct the way they fall. You can’t read the answer directly, of course. You need the practitioner for that.

Sometimes, the spirits advise that your problem, whatever it is, has to do with a spell cast against you. You’re advised to react, to protect yourself. Sometimes, the spirits know exactly what you need, but they want you to fess up, to ask for it, to obtain their intervention.

Protection often requires procedures like bathing in foul-smelling mixtures of herbs and oils.

More proactive trabalhos, like achieving success in business, or getting someone to fall in love with you, might require a more complicated procedure. Either way, some stuff is going to be required to perform the ritual (or series of rituals).

Shops like this one stock everything necessary. They’re to be found all over the country.

And, as you'll note if you carefully inspect the photo above, they even accept credit cards.

Of course I know, Dear Reader, that you don’t believe in any of this silly business.

And never will.

But, just on a lark, if you come to Brazil,

I'd be delighted to refer you to the lady who throws the buziosfor me.

Ten Things You Should Never Include in a Crime Novel

2011-11-18T00:00:00.003-06:00

by Jean Henry Mead

I discovered an article in my files written by Andrea Campbell for The Writer magazine. It’s titled “10 Things Police Wish [Crime Writers would] Omit" and I’m going to paraphrase here so as not to plagiarize:

1. Don’t have your cops eating donuts. Most eat salads while on duty and they drink bottled water. They also work out to stay in shape, so have them at least mention visiting a gym.

2. Policemen and veteran crime writers hate over-dramatization and not many real life detectives fight over a case. Crime writer Daryl W. Clemens is critical of plots such as the film, “Bloodwork,” where cops have a tug of war over a case that’s taken place on their jurisdiction border. They already have more work than they can handle.

3. Revolver silencers are another point of contention, according to crime writer Barbara D’Amato. She says, “Since the rotating cylinder is not closed, you can’t baffle the gases” or muffle the sound.

4. Alcoholic policeman have been overdone and is another sore point for the police department. Former police officer and crime writer Robin Burcell wonders why so many fellow writers inject alcoholism into their plots.

5. Lone female detectives who search isolated areas without calling for backup is extremely foolhardy, according to writer Susan McBride. Make sure your woman detective alerts her partner or dispatcher of her plans and whereabouts.

6. Never tell a suspect to “Drop it, Pal,” because the gun could discharge when it’s dropped or tossed. Have the suspect place it on the ground and back away.

7. Never have police officers pointing their guns skyward, or what is referred to as “aiming at Jesus.” Police are trained to point a gun out and down, and directly ahead in preparation to discharge the weapon. Also, never have an officer jack a round into the gun’s chamber before entering a building. They always keep a round chambered, even in their holsters.

8. Don’t shatter a windshield. When hit by a bullet, there will be a small hole and spider web effect, even when hit several times.

9. Suspects are no longer called “perps,” unless your police department is located in New York, California, or a few other heavily populated areas. The term isn’t generally used anymore.

10. Police officers are burdened with lots of paperwork so made sure your cop does his or her share. According to Campbell, there’s “paperwork related to the Miranda warning before an interrogation; paperwork that police turn over to medical personnel at a hospital before interviewing a crime victim; and still more paperwork for requisitions and reports."

Readers of crime fiction are pretty savvy about police procedure. So do your research and don't depend on what you've seen in films and on TV. Sloppy research may result in readers passing up your next release in favor of writers who have done their homework.

Thanksgiving Thoughts from New Orleans

2011-11-17T19:36:00.005-06:00

By Jaden Terrell

I'm writing this post from a quaint little New Orleans hotel called The Prytania Park Hotel. Lace curtains over the window, pineapple-colored walls, antique green armoire, desk, and dresser, wrought-iron chairs and tables in a courtyard draped in ivy. Mike and I just had got back from dinner at The Irish House, where we shared a bowl of the most delicious lobster bisque I've ever had, followed by a fig-and-brie-stuffed duck breast. It doesn't get much better than this. I can even enjoy it without guilt because I wrote a chapter of the third Jared McKean novel on the way down. (Fortunately, Mike was driving.)

Tomorrow, we explore New Orleans, and on Saturday, we embark on a cruise to the Caribbean, a 25th anniversary gift from both our mothers. It's a first for both of us--we'll visit the falls in Jamaica, swim with wild stingrays and go to the turtle sanctuary in Grand Cayman, and tour the Mayan ruins in Cozumel. I don't know if Jared will be traveling to any of those places, but I'll be taking notes in our cabin afterward, just in case.

This month of Thanksgiving reminds me to be conscious of the things that bring happiness and not to take them for granted. Sitting here in this charming hotel room, I'm reminded not just to be grateful, but to express that gratitude.I'm grateful for this opportunity to experience new things, have time to write on the ship, and spend a week alone with someone I love. I'm grateful for my mom and his, not only for giving us this incredible gift, but for all the love and support they give us every day.

What else am I grateful for? Family, friends (old and new, real-world and online), my publisher, Martin Shepard, my agent, Jill Marr. I'm grateful for our dogs, who love us unconditionally, and for our jobs, which help us pay the bills--at least until that six million dollar (after taxes!) movie deal comes through. I'm grateful for the Quill and Dagger critique group and for Clay Stafford and Killer Nashville.

I'm grateful for all of you who read and write this blog. You're the best.

Above all, I'm grateful for this great adventure that is life, especially the writing life. The cruise doesn't end when we return to the dock. In a metaphorical sense, it begins the day we're born and ends...well, does it ever end? Or do we just disembark at another port?

What are your thoughts? And what are you grateful for?

Bon voyage!

I kid you not

2011-11-16T01:30:00.000-06:00

by Carola Dunn

Last week, I gave a talk at Willamette University in Salem (Oregon), part of a community education series for seniors. One interesting question that came up afterwards was about kids in mysteries.

The woman posing the question had read several of my Daisy Dalrymple mysteries. She really liked Belinda, Daisy's stepdaughter, and wondered why she doesn't appear in more of the books. She said she prefers mysteries with a protagonist who has children. They seem more realistic, the characters more real.

The US hardcover of Fall of a Philanderer is the only cover in which Belinda is shown, in the distant background.

These two covers for Gunpowder Plot (US hardcover and paperback) show respectively:

<--- a bunch of children who have nothing to do with either Daisy or the plot (apart from their mere presence);
and a presage of future half-siblings for Belinda! ---->

Out of twenty books in the series, Belinda appears in seven, usually playing quite an important part in the story. Apart from the audience member cited above, and entirely coincidentally, I've just heard from several people on an email list that the best of the Daisy books are the ones with Belinda.

So why didn't I put her in all of them? Why do so many mystery writers avoid giving their protagonists children?

Writers--do you have children in your books?

Readers--do you like mysteries with children?

Let me know what you think and I'll tell you my thoughts next time.

RIP Evans Erikson

2011-11-14T00:00:00.002-06:00

by Ben Small

It's not everyday one receives a telephone call from an Undersecretary of Treasury. Even rarer when he tells you that if you persist in your notified defiance of a Treasury Department Iranian assets seizure order, he'll tell the New York Times you're endangering the lives of U.S. hostages held in Iran.

Jimmy Carter's administration had just upped the ante.

My former employer made aircraft parts and components, lots of different ones, used in many different aircraft systems, some of them integrated to system-level; parts, components and systems critical to aircraft manufacture, flight and repair. Indeed, at the time, we owned the only technology capable of converting the variable power of an aircraft engine into electrical power required for all other flight systems.

In other words, we had a lock on the market in aircraft electric power generation. But since it was a technological monopoly, protected by patent rights, the exclusivity was legal. If you flew a jet, you had our equipment on board. You couldn't fly without it.

And Iran Air, an Iranian government-owned commercial airline, owned jets, lots of them. Repairs and spare parts came from us, from our French subsidiary. And, turns out, Iran Air had lots of repaired or purchased product on hand, already paid for, in France, ready for shipment.

Iran Air needed its parts. They were grounding aircraft without them.

Trust me: Instructing our French sub not to ship did not make me popular in France. Each morning, I stared at my Gillette wondering the origin of its inventor.

Our French sub was mad, hopping so. The French government had decreed it would not honor Carter's seizure order, and they'd reminded our French management that under French law, refusal to honor a contract is a criminal offense. Our employees were in a pickle.

And I'd tried to avoid this problem. Consulting with my boss and our CEO, Evans Erikson, I'd written the Secretary of Treasury, explaining our French problem and asking for a window -- just ten days -- in which to ship our product. I explained that Treasury had issued its order with no advance warning. I'd warned that our French employees were subject to prosecution if we honored Treasury's seizure.

The phone call, some weeks later, was Treasury's response.

I beat a path to our CEO's office. Evans Erikson, the inventor of many of our products. A tall, handsome, commanding man, with an intellect that could astound, Evans Erikson was Chair of the Aerospace Industries Association and on the board of the Machinery and Allied Products Institute, both leading international industry groups. A man of substance.

Together, we called the Undersecretary back. It was a long conversation. Summary: They'd put us in a spot, with no window and no way out, and if they didn't rectify this, we'd do so ourselves. We gave them ten days notice of our intent to ship, and I followed the ultimatum up with a confirming letter.

The clock ticked...

On the morning of the tenth day, as I arrived for work, ready to tell our French sub to ship, the Treasury Department amended its regs and provided a ten day window for those with Iranian property on hand, paid for and required by contract to ship.

We shipped and never heard another word.

Evans Erikson died last week. I admired him greatly. He will reign long in my memories.

Giving Thanks

2011-11-12T00:01:00.003-06:00

Giving Thanks

by June Shaw

During this time, I am thankful for my faith, family, and friends. And for all readers who care about the work I love to do.

I remember and give thanks for my mom, who moved on to celebrate with others in heaven two years ago. She danced till the end. And I am fortunate enough to have written a book about her that just came out called NORA 102 1/2: A Lesson on Aging Well. While not a mystery in the usual sense, the way she lived her life, mainly during her senior years, had almost everyone who met her say, "You're my mentor. I want to be just like you."

An ordinary woman in most ways, Mom lived to be over 102--and never had a headache. Ever. She didn't have pains and started dating after she was seventy. Her mother waited up for her to come in the house and wouldn't give her a house key.

Mom took one pill a day. When she was in her mid-nineties, a man asked what it was for. She said, "Birth control."

So I was extremely lucky. I was the daughter. In the book about her, I tried to unravel clues as to how she became such a vibrant woman.

I hope you and yours have cause to celebrate and also give thanks this season.

2011-11-11T17:34:00.002-06:00

PUMPED FOR THE TOUR
by Earl Staggs

I’m excited to be part of the Mystery We Write Blog Tour set to kickoff on November 25. Apparently, the other authors involved decided they needed a wrinkled, weathered, worn-out writer in the mix and invited me to join them.

Run down this list of the other fourteen authors involved in the round robin tour and you’ll see why I felt honored to be asked.

Anne K. Albert

Beth Anderson

Ron Benrey

Pat Browning

John M. Daniel

Alice Duncan

Wendy Gager

M. M. Gornell

Timothy Hallinan

Jackie King

Jean Henry Mead

Marilyn Meredith

Mike Orenduff

Jinx Schwartz

Here’s how it will work. Each day for fourteen days, I’ll host one of the authors on my blogsite and on each day, I’ll be a guest on the blog site of one of the other writers. It’s going to be a monumental, whirlwind tour. Each day, each writer will discuss something different on a different site until it wraps up on December 8.

On my site each day, the guest author will answer the question, “What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?” I’m anxious to see their responses.

And there’s more. The authors are giving away books. All told, some sixty books will be given away during the tour. All you have to do to win books is visit the sites and leave a comment. The more sites you visit, the more books you’ll have a chance to win.

For my part, I’ll draw two names on December 9 from those who leave a comment on my site. The first name drawn will receive a signed print copy of MEMORY OF A MURDER, my first mystery novel. The second name drawn will have a choice of an ebook or print copy of SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, a collection of sixteen of my best short stories.

To find out who’s appearing where during the tour, watch for announcements on your favorite elist group and other popular sites. You can also stop by my website at http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com and see the schedule.

While you're there, you can read Chapter One of MEMORY OF A MURDER.

Also while you’re there, you can read “The Day I Almost Became a Great Writer,” which some say is the funniest story I’ve ever written. There’s also one called “White Hats and Happy Trails,” about the day I spent with a boyhood idol, Roy Rogers.

So for now, we wait until November 25, the kickoff date for the Biggest, Bestest, Boldest Blog Tour ever and the largest book giveaway ever. I hope you’ll join us.

Earl Staggs

http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

Virtual Resources

2011-11-09T00:01:00.000-06:00

By Mark W. Danielson

These days, the availability of instant information has made fiction writing simple. However, it also means there is no excuse for inaccurate subject matter. Authors cannot be experts on every topic. However, unless they are writing fantasy, they must have enough knowledge on the subject to create accurate and plausible stories.

Recently, I was disheartened to read a book by a big-name author who wrote countless inaccurate and unrealistic situations that involved flying. While it would have been easy for him to contact someone in the field to review these scenes for accuracy, he apparently believed he could fool his audience. Since I fly for a living and have over forty-five years of experience in that field, I sent him an e-mail offering to proof any flying scenes on his future books, gratis. I never received a reply, but the offer still stands.

Although the Internet has its limitations, it is a priceless tool for authors. Knowing my limitations, I frequently use the Internet to link up with experts. In my last story, I contacted a federal DNA expert. In my current story, a paranormal expert and physicists have given me sufficient knowledge to write my story with confidence. I also find Google Earth’s bird’s eye and street level views significantly aid in scene description. In this regard, the Internet makes accurate writing a breeze.

But there is a significant difference between expert information and Internet articles. The down-side to the Internet is there are no filters. As such, there is no way to guarantee an article’s accuracy. Any credible fiction writer can craft a believable bogus document. My goal is to always create fictional stories plausible enough to make the reader wonder whether it actually happened. Using real events, names, and locations adds authenticity and makes it easy for my readers to identify with my story just as movie audiences do when seeing familiar landmarks.

Since I know my limitations, I write expert characters into the scene rather than have my protagonist appear all-knowing. Doing this allows professional information be presented in a manner similar to how it was obtained by me. My protagonist, Homicide Detective Maxx Watts, is an average guy with good instincts, but has his weaknesses and isn’t always right. As such, most readers can relate to Watts, and by following his thought process, can understand how he reached his conclusions. For me, this works better than a shootout at high noon where everyone conveniently gathers on Main Street.

The Internet is a tremendous asset, but must be used with discretion. While researching topics, carefully consider their sources and read as many articles from as many authors as you can find before believing the information to be valid. My experience is experts are nearly always available and willing to assist authors. Without accuracy, the author loses credibility, and loss of credibility is not only distracting to a reader, it can lead to loss of readership. Research is only as good as the effort you put into it. Getting it right means no side effects.