Writing What You Know

“Write what you know,” said my first fiction instructor back in 1954. I was 17 and already a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma. Needless to say, I was in deep water and way over my head—at least socially. Due to this traditional writing advice, like most novelists, I drew from my personal life to write fiction.

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Book 1 
Grace Gets in Trouble

THE INCONVENIENT CORPSE, first book in my B&B mystery series, stars Grace Cassidy. She marries too young, loses her own identity trying to be perfect, and ends up broke and alone with a naked corpse in her room.

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Book 2Grace learns to spread her wings.

Book 3
Grace practices flying.

Through the series, Grace loses everything she owns, discovers her own personality, finds a new strength and her own autonomy.

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 Below is an article Grace has written for women on money, finances: 

MONEY TIPS FOR HAPPILY MARRIED WOMEN

(Or Who Think They Are)

by Grace Cassidy

Every woman should have money saved under her name alone. Married or not. Happy or not. In today’s world of changing mores and weakening family structure, a woman must always be able to support herself without help from anyone. Always have a bank account and a savings account under your own name and yours alone.

“Sounds selfish,” you say. “My husband loves me, and promises to always provide for me,” you say. “My husband takes care of all of our business,” you say.

That’s what I thought, too. Then suddenly the husband who adored me (or so I thought), ran off to the Cayman Islands with his secretary and took all of our resources with him. Most of it my family money. I was left with only the cash in my designer purse. (That purse, later sold on e-bay, was worth more than the money it held.)

“You would have credit cards!” you say.

Maybe so, but whatever you charge has to be repaid. By you. (This wasn’t a problem for me, since the girl friend called and reported each card as stolen.)

Be wise, and be safe. Here is what I suggest:

While still happily married start a savings account with some of your monthly household allowance. Be wise with the money under your control. Do you really need that $200 jar of night cream. After I was left penniless, I began using pig’s lard for night cream, and found that it worked as well as the fancy department store brand.

Jeans and T-shirts from Walmart or Target, that once I would never have even considered buying, looked great when I added an expensive scarf or brooch that I already owned.

You may never need this personal bankroll, but if your husband strays, or makes bad investments, or indulges in an unexpected midlife crisis, you are prepared to take care of yourself. And if necessary, care for an ill or injured husband who was smart enough to stick around. And with that advice, ladies, I leave to solve more mysteries. GC

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Are Critique Groups Worth the Bother?

by Jackie King

The short answer is, "Yes." Finding a Critique group that is a perfect fit is more complicated.

Locating the right critique group can be a bit like dating. I can be time-consuming, frightening and emotionally painful. You may have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince. But if you’re persistent, the results can be a wonderful enrichment to your life. Only you can decide if it’s worth the investment of your time.

A good critique group is a valuable tool to any writer, but if you’re a beginning writer finding the right one can be a harder challenge. This process may take courage and determination. Many of the best groups are by invitation only. Some of these groups include multi-published authors who may seem intimidating to a tyro. But as writer Jodi Thomas often says with a laugh, “I was a 15-year-overnight success.” That’s true of more published authors than not.

To get started, begin hanging out where the writers of your genre are: their author pages on Facebook, writer groups, and writer conferences. Most writers are wonderfully friendly and helpful people. The money I spent attending writer’s conferences has put me in contact with many authors.

Remember, you can always start a group of your own. Take a writing class at your local community college and invite the students you meet. Look for an online group. I just Googled “Critique groups for Tulsa writers,” and found several opportunities. Two were local writer’s groups and one was an online writing group. This is the way you start.

Years earlier I was invited to join a group that has changed a great deal over the years, and because the participants were kind hearted, I’ve stayed. There are now only two founding members remaining in this group, but this group has morphed into the gem of all critique groups. I trust these writers to tell me the truth and to tell it gently enough that I won’t want to go home and throw my computer out the window.

If you’re starting you own group, set up guidelines to begin with and stick with them. One of the rules in our group is that we must always be kind as well as honest. Some groups have a rule that you must either bring something to read for critique or a writing information handout for each member.

These things are learned by trial and error. Don’t be discouraged if meetings for your first group begin to fizzle after a few months. Keep encouraging each other, and above all else, keep writing.

Why Add Romance to Mystery?

by Jackie King

Romance in mysteries seems to be anathema to some readers and writers, and I have no problem with that. Everyone should read and/or write any type of book they like. I, myself, enjoy some of these mystery novels from time to time. However, for me, a touch of romantic love adds that special human touch.

Even hard-edged thrillers such as the remarkable Val McDermid writes, usually have an affair of the heart touching the story. I just finished Cross and Burn, and the angst Tony Hill endured while thinking of Carol Jordan, added much tension to this mystery.

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Including a touch of romance is something I do in my own B&B cozy mystery series featuring Grace Cassidy. After publishing the second in the series I got remarks from readers who were annoyed that I left the relationship between Grace and Sam Harper, hanging in the wind. They were right. If I had it to do over, I’d add one last chapter that would give readers a bit of satisfaction.

  

In the third novel of the series, The Corpse and the Geezer Brigade, their romance picks up again, and I got better reviews. (I’m a late bloomer and probably a slow learner—but I do try to improve my writing skills in each book.)

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In her autobiography, Agatha Christie mentioned that if she added a bit of romance to her novels, the books to sold more copies. Now I think that most mystery fans will agree that writing romance wasn’t the great Dame Agatha’s strong suit. Her surprising plot twists were what caused her books to fly off the shelves. But the famous lady of mystery was an astute business woman; therefore most of her stories have some kind of love interest.

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Writers have now become adroit at blending a love story with pure mystery. In Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone mysteries, our heroine always seems to have bad luck with men. But when Grafton penned G Is for Gumshoe and added an anti-hero type guy named Robert Deitz, the book sizzled for a few pages.

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Historical mysteries also feature love. One of my favorite authors, Anne Perry, uses two different hero types. William Monk, brilliant and ambitious, fancies helpless, very ladylike women. Our protagonist, Hester Latterly, who served with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, is a prototype of the early feminist. When these two characters are pierced by Cupid’s arrows, the excitement mounts.

Another of Perry’s popular series features Thomas Pitt, a poorly paid policeman who weds Charlotte Ellison, the daughter of a well-to-do family. The union is definitely a no-no in the class-conscious Victorian setting. The marriage and the complications that arise from it, make Perry’s plots deep and believable.

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Even hardboiled mysteries feature strong love stories. The Elvis Cole series, written by the grand master Robert Crais, is a perfect example. Elvis’ love match with Lucy Chenier is enough to melt your teeth. And even though the two have parted for the safety of Lucy’s young son, her memory still lingers with Elvis and adds an extra dimension to Crais’ books.

  

Joe Pike, that hour-and-a-half hardboiled egg, and my personal favorite hero (also created by Crais) is not immune to love. When he falls, he falls hard.

This list could go on and on, and I haven’t even mentioned the popular romantic suspense novels. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say that adding romance to mystery just makes the story that much richer and more fulfilling.

If you have a favorite mystery that also features romance, I’d like to know about it. I will also love any comment you care to make, favorable or not.