Characters That Form Our Lives

and Later Come Alive in Our Stories

by Jackie King

One of my earliest memories is sitting in a circle with my brother, sister and various neighbor kids as my mother told us stories. Delia Hodges Sprague could spin a yarn about any character or characters we might name. Let’s say that I wanted a story about Cinderella, my sister Joan wanted the heroine to be Wonder Woman and my brother J.D., chose Tarzan of the Apes.

No problem to Mother. She’d create one tale using each of these characters. The story would be exciting and it would make sense. At least to kids.

Delia Hodges Sprague was a storyteller, an actress, a teacher and a sometimes writer. This redheaded dynamo was smart, fun and very temperamental. My childhood was sometimes difficult, sometimes frightening and always challenging. But life was never boring.

Mother taught me to read, and when there was nothing to read, to make up stories inside my head and entertain myself with imaginary friends and foes.

Delia Hodges Sprague is often found in my books. Sometimes she’s in the guise of a father, a mother or a best friend. In my latest mystery, MURDER AT THE EDGE OF NOWHERE set in the land of her childhood, the Oklahoma Panhandle, she’s walks and breathes in the character of Winnie Doolittle.

$3.99 at Amazon Kindle

Delia faced real danger with lionhearted courage: she rode boxcars from Oklahoma to New York state at the age of 20, challenged rattlesnakes in my grandparents pasture and tarantulas in the outhouse of a country school. But small things shattered her: imagined slights, walking into her bank to ask for a loan or having a conversation with her own father.

When I was a child she often awoke screaming bloody murder from recurrent nightmares; battled depression her entire life and fought breast cancer until her death. She was an extraordinary woman of courage. I loved her with all my heart. But she wasn’t an easy mother to have.

To see the best side of Delia Hodges Sprague, read MURDER AT THE EDGE OF NOWHERE, and observe Winnie Doolittle. To see the more complicated side of my mother, notice Emily Ashcroft.

Most everyone loved my mother—especially me. I hope you’ll enjoy her as Winnie Doolittle in MURDER ON THE EDGE OF NOWHERE

Below is a clipping from the end of chapter two after Liz O’Brien and Winnie Doolittle find cousin Christabel in Liz’s garage:

“Help!” Liz screamed. “Oh, my God. Someone. Anyone. Please help.” They stretched Christabel on the grass.

“Won’t do no good to yell.” Winnie’s voice was cold, toneless. “You know how to do that resuscitation thing?”

Liz forced herself to press her mouth against Christabel’s cold lips. Her gut twisted. Why didn’t someone drive by? She alternated the breathing routine with chest compression for what seemed forever, but she knew it was useless. Christabel was unresponsive. Liz felt for a pulse. Nothing.

“You might as well quit.” Winnie pulled at Liz’s shoulder. “She’s dead. We’ll have to call the police and tell them she killed herself.”

“But that’s crazy. Christabel would never commit suicide. Nothing could make me think that.”

“Oh, hell, Liz. Don’t be stupid. I’m not telling you what to think. I’m telling you what to say.”

Galley Proofs for MURDER AT THE EDGE OF NOWHERE

by Jackie King

Yesterday I received galley proofs of my latest mystery, MURDER AT THE EDGE OF NOWHERE. The odd thing in up-to-date publishing trends, at least with my small regional publisher, is that the ebook came out a few weeks ago. I’ve been reading this version and have been appalled at some of the errors. Did I do that? I ask myself, or was it the publisher’s editor, the publisher himself?

It doesn’t really matter. It’s my book, and I accept all responsibility for any mistakes. Which is what Galley Proofs are all about. The last ditch chance to catch and correct mistakes. 

For those who don’t know, Galley Proofs are pages of the novel sent to me online. I print them out on paper, or do a final $3.99 at Amazonedit on a copy online. My choice. 

The good news is that this means the paper version will soon be available.

Jackie at Work on Galley Proofs

And that’s what I’m doing just now—or it will be as soon as I finish this post. And according to both my calendar and my watch, I’d better get at it. Now!

Cheers, 

Jackie

GUEST WRITER—MARY COLEY

Posted by Jackie King

Mary Coley is an Oklahoma writer. During her professional career, she has worked as a journalist, a park planner, an environmental educator and a public relations officer. A native of Enid, Coley lives in Tulsa, where she is an active volunteer for Oxley Nature Center. She holds membership in state and national writers groups, as well as the Tulsa Chapter of the Women in Communications.

Finding a Storyline

by Mary Coley

We've all heard that there are no new story lines, they have all been used before. Not good news, especially for mystery writers. A limited number of motives for murder exist and only a limited number of ways to do the deed. So how do you make your mystery new and relevant? Incorporating a topic of current interest into your story is one way to do it.

For my second mystery, Ant Dens, I found a topic I had seen in the headlines and even on a  billboard with a 1-800 number. But I had never read anything about it and had never attached a human face to it. It was only a phrase; I didn't pay much attention.

While researching, I discovered a shocking issue: the kidnapping of children, young women, young men and even adults for use in the sex trade or servitude. Could I incorporate the issue of human trafficking in a mystery I had just finished drafting?

In the second mystery in my Family Secret Series, Ant Dens, the main character's stepdaughter disappears. Jamie wonders if Rebecca ran away or if she had been kidnapped. Wouldn't the tension be increased if it was possible that her stepdaughter had been trafficked and might be existing in a living hell? That would add a whole new twist to the story, and provide a way to make the mystery current but also timeless.

People have been sold into slavery, or trafficked, throughout the history of mankind. This horrific crime is not new, but most of us don't think much about it. That is, unless we personally have a missing loved one.

I began to delve into the emotions those family members feel when a loved one disappears. What horrible fears and imaginings must go through the minds of those left behind! I can imagine my character wanting to shrug it off, to refuse to believe the worst, but what if it becomes almost a certainty that her worst fear has been realized? And worse yet, what if the disappearance was not random, but might be related to her stepdaughter's father, her deceased second husband?

My character, Jamie, does what I hope I would do. She becomes consumed with finding her stepdaughter. It does not matter that she was not particularly close to the young woman. Rebecca is family -- she is all that remains of the husband she loved and misses horribly.

In Ant Dens I chose the setting of New Mexico, a state well aware of tragic disappearances, as the Hispanic population is often victimized in trafficking crimes. And Rebecca is half Hispanic. I added an additional conflict by including Rebecca's mother, Jamie's husband's first wife, in the mystery. Maria comes to stay with Jamie as they investigate the girl's disappearance.

I hope that the resulting newly crafted mystery, Ant Dens:A Suspense Novel provides a new awareness of this horrifying and prevalent crime as well as a chilling ride for the reader! I hope you'll check out my Amazon Author page too, after you visit my book link.

Www.amazon.com/Ant-Dens-A-Suspense-Novel/dp/1627871969/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1419966722&sr=1-2

MARY COLEY'S LATEST MYSTERY:

Learn more about Mary on her website, www.marycoley.com
or at her blog,Blog Site:  http://marycoley.me

Her books are available at Amazon.com.

Linking the Past to the Present

by  Jean Henry Mead

I enjoy research, especially when I can link historical events to the present. So when I came across the Teutonic Knights, a group established in the year 1190, as well as the Heart Mountain internment camp of World War II, I worked them both into my recent release, Mystery of the Black Cross. The Teutonic Knights was formed to establish hospitals and escort pilgrimages to the Baltics and the Holy Land. The organization evolved, however, into anarchist groups, abbreviated ABC, which still support political prisoners worldwide.

During this seventh Logan and Cafferty novel, my senior women amateur sleuths discover a black cross painted on their front door, which they learn has marked them for arson, murder and terrorism. The police chief and a rogue detective, who considers himself a latter day Don Juan, figure prominently in the plot, which led me to Wyoming's Heart Mountain internment camp for some 14,000 Japanese during WW II.

I made a trip to northern Wyoming to witness the former internment camp, which I consider a concentration camp. Four of the barracks where the internees lived still remain along with a guard tower. The living conditions were deplorable, and I read interviews with some of the people who had lived there, which I included in the book.

When the war ended, each former prisoner was given a train ticket back to the West Coast and $25 to begin a new life. And Congress finally decided in 1988 and 1992 to compensate the survivors for the loss of their homes and livelihoods. The state of Wyoming also erected a monument to commemorate those who enlisted from within the camp to serve in the army during the war. 

Working both histories into the novel was easier than I had anticipated. I also included some humor and a bit of romance to hopefully balance the seriousness and relevancy to the history we're producing today.

Mystery of the Black Cross is available at http://amzn.to/1X63EHE in digital and print editions. 

Mary Coley Writes Thriller Set in Osage County, Oklahoma

 

It's my great honor to present Mary Coley, author of the exciting suspense novel, COBWEBS! Her contemporary spine-tingling tale weaves a web back to 1906.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cobwebs-Suspense-Mary-Coley-ebook/dp/B00FVWLYMK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384436718&sr=8-1&keywords=Cobwebs+by+mary+coley

On Never Giving Up

by Mary Coley

Mystery and romance. There’s nothing more entertaining and intriguing than a puzzle to solve and characters who get into your heart and stay there. That combination is the pull in my suspense novel, COBWEBS. But there’s more, a real life historical element - a cold case with files open even today.

In the 1920s, full blood members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma were under attack. It was a new type of Indian War, but just as deadly. The tribal members had become wealthy beyond belief; the Nation (all members together) owned the oil and gas royalties to the lucrative fields beneath the surface of Osage County Oklahoma. Tribal members listed on the Roll of 1906 received monthly checks for their individual portion of these mineral rights. But they cared little about this wealth. Money had no importance in their culture.

As I learned about this bit of Oklahoma history, and discovered I carried Native American blood in my veins, the story embedded itself in my psyche and cried out to be told.

Ten years ago, I drafted the first version of Cobwebs while working in Osage County. Professionally, I was a nonfiction writer; I’d written nonfiction pieces for every job throughout my career. I’d never attempted to write a full length novel from start to finish. Cobwebs became that novel.

Over the years, I edited and rewrote Cobwebs, received a lot of encouragement, but rejections from both agents and editors. It wasn’t quite ready. Then, more encouragement, and even a couple of tentative offers which never panned out.

But I couldn’t get the book out of my mind. I changed the POV from third person, to first; I added new suspense elements; I restructured; I honed my characterizations - and finally, the book had a new shape. My test readers raved. Cobwebs placed second in the Oklahoma Writers Federation’s 2013 contest, in the Mystery-Suspense division.

This past summer the book became reality. Cobwebs had been a living part of my life, and now the book is like a little fledgling leaving the nest. But it’s not the end of this writer’s journey - a sequel, AntHills, is in second draft right now.

Writers never, ever give up. When they believe in their stories, they know they’ll find readers who believe in them, too.

Take time to enter the world of mystery and intrigue in Cobwebs - A Suspense Novel. Enjoy - and remember - this cold case is still open. Now available at online book sellers.



Mary Coley

Mary Coley is an Oklahoma writer. During her professional career, she has worked as a journalist, a park planner, an environmental educator and a public relations officer. A native of Enid, Coley lives in Tulsa, where she is an active volunteer for Oxley Nature Center. She holds membership in state and national writers groups, as well as the Tulsa Chapter of the Women in Communications.

Learn more about Mary on her website, www.marymcintyrecoley.com, or at her blog, http://marycoley.wordpress.com.
https://www.facebook.com/MaryColeyAuthor

Her books are available at Amazon.com.

http://www.marymcintyrecoley.com 

Epic Tale Needs Reviews

By Chester D. Campbell

The final segment on my post Cold War political thriller trilogy is about ready for the Kindle store. Titled Overture to Disaster, it's an epic tale that follows two widely divergent plot lines until they merge in Mexico. The story opens in 1991 just prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One thread begins with a Soviet Army bivouac on a collective farm in the Ukraine where chemical weapons are to be displayed. The other takes place at the same time in Washington, where a secret Special Operations helicopter mission to Iran is ready to launch.

The fallout from the two events begins to surface a few years later for two of the central characters, a chief investigator for the city prosecutor in Minsk, Belarus and the former Air Force colonel who piloted the ill-fated rescue mission to Iran. They meet in Guadalajara as a diabolical plot by dissident Russians and world-order capitalists begins to unfold.

The book will appear first in the electronic version for the Kindle. Since I need some reviews to get it noticed on Amazon, I thought I would try something new. Any readers out there who would like to review Overture to Disaster can contact me by email (chester@ chesterdcampbell.com - after closing the space following @) and I'll send you an ebook copy, PDF or some other format.

The book is of epic proportions, running a little over 160,000 words, but my editor thinks this trilogy is my best work. You can decide for yourself.

The Crime Scene

By Chester Campbell

Nope, this is not another CSI treatise. It has to do with scenes, the building blocks of a mystery, or a crime story. Chris Roerden, free-lance editor and author of Don't Murder Your Mystery, and its sequel, Don't Sabotage Your Submission, writes:

"Without conflict there is neither progress nor setback; consequently, no scene."

I once worked with Chris on the opening chapters of a manuscript and learned how she works with an author on an edit. She wants each scene in the book identified with what the characters' goal is for the scene, what the obstacle is to that goal, and what is the outcome. In short, you need to show the conflict in the scene.

Conflict breeds tension, and tension keeps the reader on edge, turning pages to find out what will happen next. So how do you get conflict into a scene? Put two characters together, each wanting something different from what they're doing, whether it's dialogue or action, and you have the potential for conflict. And what happens at the end of the scene lays the foundation for later conflict.

It doesn't necessarily require two characters to create conflict. A scene may only involve the hero in conflict with himself over a choice he must make, which direction he should take, or whether he should or shouldn't pursue some course of action.

Like the electricity in a high tension power line, competition between characters keeps the tension high in a scene and leaves the reader anticipating the next crucial turn of events. Suspense comes about when we anticipate the approach of danger, or when we're unsure just what may lie ahead.

Give us a scene that surprises and our anxiety level goes up. But keep the surprises at a minimum. Too much of that and it sounds contrived. One measure of conflict is the higher the stakes, the higher the tension. In a mystery where someone's life is threatened, there's no question about how tense things can get.

If you want to create a scene packed with tension, use the ticking clock method. It doesn't have to be a  bomb with a ticking clock attached. As long as there's a deadline involved, a specific time in the near future when something must be done or else, you have built-in tension that will keep the reader glued to the pages long past bedtime.

There are other ways to create conflicts in scenes, such as misdirection, or the familiar red herring. But the important things is to give us characters with goals to achieve and roadblocks to foil them. That's what good mysteries are made of. Have you read one lately?

Mystery Mania.