The Writing Game 1

The past five days for me have illustrated that sitting here at my desk isn’t the single monotonous activity it may seem to be to an outsider. The ongoing background activity finds me in the early 19^th century reading about people such as Samuel Martin, a hatter in Aberdeen who was way ahead of the game when it came to advertising. In 1842 a competitor advertised ‘new patent washable beaver hats’ and almost immediately Sam was advertising his own ‘superior beaver hats which never require washing’. (That’s from Edward Ranson’s The Mad Hatter of Aberdeen.) Sam would have been all over Facebook and Twitter – he insisted that you should ‘never omit an opportunity of placing your name in printed characters before the world’.

Anyway, in order to earn some money I’ve had to switch from that to writing  a DVD about how to get stuff out of the hollow concrete legs of offshore platforms to decommission them, another on the responsibilities of security personnel on ships' gangways and a third on the awareness of the procedures and systems needed for gas testing where hydrocarbons are being produced.

But there are two more projects which are much more interesting.  One is a project with a local charity, the Aberdeen Safer Community Trust. It's aim is to make the city's streets safer, bring crime levels down, etc.

They're organising their annual fund-raising event called CSI Aberdeen. It involves people in groups of five combining to solve a mystery - it might be a murder or an accidental death. They get to study documents, interview witnesses, take and compare fingerprints, do experiments in a lab on substances and whatever else the scene of crime team produces. They asked me if I'd be interested in helping, so I've been creating the scenario and, in between the commercial stuff, I'm now writing briefs for witnesses, the scenario itself, notes to help the forensic chemists to decide what sort of experiments to devise, etc. I've never been to one of those murder mystery dinners so it's interesting to see how the process works from the inside. (In fact, as I write that, it strikes me that it might be worth writing a wee blog about it and maybe asking the readers to come up with their conclusions on the events.) The writing is different in that I have to think very carefully about what to reveal and what to conceal. Those taking part should really get the information they need from interviewing the witnesses but if they don't ask the right questions, they won't - and they'll probably feel cheated. It's a fascinating balancing act.

So I’m piecing that together but now there’s another, quite scary event coming up soon. I’ve been asked to go to a primary school and read one of my kids’ stories then talk to them/work with them to create another story or do something related to writing that might interest them. I’ll have 45-50 minutes with each of the 7 classes and it’s part of what the school calls a ‘literacy week’. I think it’s a great initiative and I’m actually looking forward to it. I won’t even mind if a 5 year old butts in as I’m reading my masterpiece to tell me it’s boring.

Messy Desk or Clean Desk

Do you keep a messy or a clean desk? Several months ago members of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America submitted pictures of their writing work space for the monthly newsletter. As could be expected, some of us had messy desks and some had clean desks. When I write, I fall in between. I keep stacks of manila folders on my desk—on the right side for current writing projects and on the left side for other projects. I like to keep the space in the middle of my desk neat. Even in this electronic age, I still keep manila folders particularly for research subjects. Since I write about older characters, I have folders on aging, memory, different locations I’ve visited that I use in my mystery novels, conferences, material for speeches, etc. When I find interesting articles in the newspaper, I clip them and drop them in the particular folder. I have a file cabinet with drawers of manila folders. I keep manuscripts, synopses, blurbs, etc. on the computer. I’m not ready to forgo paper yet. I organize linearly with my folders. As opposed to this form of organization, a co-worker from my business days always had a huge mound of paper on his desk. I thought he was disorganized until I watched him pull requested documents out of the mound with no effort. He was a spatial organizer and knew exactly where he had placed things in his three-dimensional file. So whatever works for you, go for it.

Who Still Listens to Books?

by June Shaw How many people still listen to books? When my mom lived with me during her last few years, she listened to books on tape for the blind because macular degeneration had snatched most of her vision. Of course that was the reason she eventually, at the age of 98, agreed to leave her home and stay with me. I had lots of room. She had little vision--her only problem (which led me to write a book about her--at the prompting of many others. It was great of the company to send her a recorder and any cassettes she wanted me to order for her. The only problem was she couldn't see any part of the machine enough to know how to start or stop it. Or if she fell asleep while it played--what in the world was going on with that novel? She had no idea of what was taking place, so she lost interest. Of course she was happy that the company had provided it. Audio books for everyone else--who listens to them? I've seen them in Cracker Barrel stores and have been tempted to buy or rent them. But I'm not in my car enough to listen to taped books in it, and I surely wouldn't keep still enough to listen to one at my home. Who does, I wondered, until the youngest of my two daughters told me her eyes gave her trouble when reading, so she couldn't do it for long. She preferred books on tape. Ah, and today I received a contract for just that--Books in Motion wants to put the second book of my humorous mystery series on tape. Right when it seems most people are debating paper or e-books, I receive this reminder--many people still enjoy listening to books. RELATIVE DANGER, the first book in my humorous mystery series, has three very different covers created for each venue in which it is released. Here you'll find the covers for the hardcover version from Five Star, the paperback cover put out by Harlequin when they bought reprint rights, and the cover created by Books in Motion for the audio edition. http://www.juneshaw.com. You can also find there the cover for the hardcover edition. I wonder what the Books in Motion cover will look like. Have you ever had different covers for your books--or do you like to see them for the books others write?

E-book Daisy

by Carola Dunn

I am exceedingly happy to announce that at long last all my Daisy Dalrymple mysteries are available for Kindle and Nook (using the original hardcover art--not necessarily a good idea!).

 The first four recently joined the fifth through twentieth.

 

They were delayed partly because I changed agents halfway through the series and my former agent no longer agents; partly because back when I wrote them St Martin's wasn't interested in what were called "computer" rights.

Their legal department first had to figure out what to do about it. Then the two agents had to come to an agreement--not difficult--as to who was "agent of record." Countless papers (in sextuplet) had to be sent back and forth and signed by all concerned. That really slowed everything down. Then the publisher had to decide what they were willing to pay for the e-rights. 

 

 

It's all sorted at last. You can find these four and all the other titles at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/daisy-dalrymple-series?keyword=daisy+dalrymple+series&store=ebook

And:

http://www.amazon.com/daisy+dalrymple+mysteries

(Click on my name at the top to go to my website and see a list in the proper order.)

Cliff Walk: Interview with Bruce DeSilva

by Jaden Terrell

It's my pleasure today to bring you an interview with Bruce DeSilva. Bruce was a journalist for 40 years. His many hats during those years included working as an editor and as an investigative reporter. After a lifetime of honing his writing and research skills, he retired to write crime fiction, and his years of experience served him well. His first crime novel, Rogue Island, received rave reviews and an Edgar win. He's followed that success with a sequel,  Cliff Walk, which is already receiving rave reviews. Publishers Weekly gave it a coveted starred review, saying, "Look for this one to garner more award nominations." Booklist also gave it a starred review, calling the plot "exquisite" and saying it is "terrific on every level." Please join me in welcoming Bruce to Murderous Musings.

Jaden: Welcome, Bruce. Let's start with a question most aspiring writers are probably wondering about (if only so we can live through it vicariously). You won both some major awards for Rogue Island. What does it feel like to win two of the most prestigious awards in the field for your very first novel?

Bruce: I was stunned by all the rave reviews and awards for Rogue Island. It won both the Edgar and Macavity Awards and was a finalist for the Barry, Anthony, and Shamus awards. Crime novelists and their fans form an incredibly nurturing and supporting community, and the way my books have been received has made me feel a part of that. Climbing onto the stage at the Edgar Awards dinner to accept the award from Michael Freeking Connelly is a moment I will never forget.

Jaden: How do you follow a first novel that racks up so many prestigious awards and nominations?

Bruce: By writing a better book. Cliff Walk is more complex and textured than my first novel. The third Mulligan novel, Providence Rag, which I just finished writing, is the best one yet. It will be published sometime next year. 

Jaden: Cliff Walk is the second in the series. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Bruce: Once again, the story revolves around the tumultuous life of Liam Mulligan, a wise-cracking investigative reporter for a dying Providence, R.I., newspaper.  As the tale opens, prostitution is legal in the state (which it really was until two years ago.) Politicians are making a lot of speeches about the shame of it, but they aren't doing anything about it. Mulligan suspects somebody is being paid off. 

As he investigates, a child's severed arm is discovered in a pile of garbage at a local pig farm. Then the body of an internet pornographer turns up at the bottom of the famous Cliff Walk in nearby Newport. At first the killings seem random, but as Mulligan keeps digging, strange connections begin to emerge. 

Promised free sex with hookers if he minds his own business--and a savage beating if he doesn't--Mulligan enlists the help of Thanks-Dad, the newspaper publisher's son, and Attila the Nun, the state's colorful attorney general, in his quest for the truth. What he learns will lead him to question his long-held beliefs about sexual morality, shake his tenuous religious faith, and leave him wondering who his real friends are. Cliff Walk is at once a hardboiled mystery and a serious exploration of sex and religion in the age of pornography.

 

Jaden: The two books cover vastly different topics. What inspired each of them?

Bruce: On the surface, Rogue Island is about an investigative reporter on the trail of a serial arsonist, but what it is really about is the high price the American democracy is paying for the decline of the newspaper industry. Good reporting costs money, investigative reporting is particularly expensive, and not much of it is being done anymore. Local and network television news, which was never very good, is also in steep decline. Cable TV news has deteriorated into warring propaganda machines. News websites (which draw most of their information from newspapers) lack the resources to do much serious international, national, state, or local reporting. That makes Mulligan the last of a dying breed. As readers watch him pursue his investigations with skill and dedication, I hope they will develop a deeper appreciation of what is being lost as newspapers pass into history. 

Cliff Walk was inspired by real events in our smallest state, a quirky place with a legacy of corruption that goes all the way back to one of the first colonial governors dining with Captain Kidd. In 1978, COYTE, a national organization representing sex workers, sued the state in federal court, alleging that its antiquated prostitution law was so vague that it could be interpreted as prohibiting sex between married couples. The suit was dismissed in 1980 after the state legislature rewrote the law, redefining the crime and reducing it from a felony to a misdemeanor. As it turned out, however, a key section of the new law was left out, supposedly by accident, when the legislature voted. Amazingly, more than a decade passed before anyone seemed to notice. Finally, in 1993, a lawyer representing several women arrested for prostitution at a local "spa" did something remarkable. He actually read the statute. The only word used to define the crime, he discovered, was "streetwalking." Therefore, he argued, sex for pay was legal in Rhode Island as long as the transaction occurred indoors. When the courts agreed, many of the state's strip clubs morphed into brothels, and a whole bunch of new strip clubs and "massage parlors" opened up. Soon, tour buses full of eager customers began arriving from all over New England. At the height of the state's legal sex trade, 30 brothels were operating openly. For years, the state's politicians made a lot of speeches about the shame of it, but they didn't get around to fixing the law until a couple of years ago. Cliff Walk is a hardboiled story of murder and political corruption, but it is also a serious examination of sex and religion in an age of prostitution and pornography.

Jaden: It does sound complex. I notice that both of your books give the reader insights into worlds they might not be familiar with (arson and the newspaper industry in Rogue Island and the sex trade for Cliff Walk). How did you research, and how much research did you do, for the books?

Bruce: In a sense, my novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter at a dying Providence, Rhode Island, newspaper, took forty years to research because they draw on everything I learned about cops, thugs, journalists, corrupt politics, and organized crime during my 40-year journalism career, about a third of it spent at The Providence Journal. I was well prepared to write these books. But when I started Cliff Walk, which is about the state's thriving sex trade, I did not know much about its inner workings. I spent many dreary evenings hanging out in Rhode Island strip clubs, where prostitution was openly practiced, discretely questioning bartenders, bouncers, and naked hookers who kept climbing into my lap. Since I'm a married man, that could have had serious consequences. Lucky for me, my wife found my research hilarious.

Jaden: You have a very understanding wife! It sounds like researching the books had a lot in common with your life as an investigative journalist. How was writing a novel different from and similar to your writing as a journalist? What advantages (and challenges) did your journalism experience give you?

Bruce: Daily journalism is peopled by stick figures instead of flesh-and-blood characters. It is filled with quotes (words sources say to journalists) instead of dialogue (words people say to each other.) Too often, it uses street addresses in lieu of creating a sense of place. And it is filled with turgid "articles" and "reports" instead of stories that have beginnings, middles, and ends. The best journalists rise above that, writing real stories that bring people, places, and action to life on the page. I spent the first half of my journalism career trying to write stories like that and the second half teaching other journalists how to do it. Stories I edited won virtually every major journalism prize including the Polk Award (twice), the Livingston (twice), the ASNE, and The Batten Medal. I also edited two Pulitzer finalists and helped edit a Pulitzer winner. But the main thing journalism taught me that writing is a job--something you do every day whether you feel like it or not. You do not wait to be inspired. You do not search for your muse. You are not allowed to have writer's block. Journalists know that writer's block is for sissies. You put your butt in the chair and write.

Jaden: Speaking of writing, can you describe your creative process for us?

Bruce: I don't outline. I begin with a general idea of what the book will be about and then turn my characters loose to see what they will do and say. I find that if I don't know what's going to happen next, my readers probably won't either. I try to write 1,000 words a day. If I get that done in a couple of hours, I take the rest of the day off. But if it takes ten hours, I plant my butt in my chair and write.

Jaden: Did you always know you would one day write a novel? How did you decide when it was the right time?

Bruce: For most of my journalism career, writing a novel never occurred to me. But one day in 1994, when I was working for a Connecticut newspaper, I received a note from a reader praising “a nice little story” I’d written. “It could serve as the outline for a novel,” the note said. “Have you considered this?” The note was from Evan Hunter, who wrote literary novels under his own name and the brilliant 87^th Precinct police procedurals under the penname Ed McBain. I sealed the note in plastic, taped it to my home computer, and started writing. I was only a couple of chapters into the novel when my life turned upside down. In my busy new life as a husband, father, and senior Associated Press editor, there was no time to finish a novel. Years streaked by. Each time I bought a new computer, I taped that note from Hunter to it, telling myself I would get back to the book someday. But I didn't. Finally, a few of years ago, I found myself dining with Otto Penzler, the dean of American’s crime fiction editors, and happened to mention that long-ago note from Hunter.

“Evan Hunter was a good friend of mine,” Penzler said. “In all the years I knew him, he never had a good thing to say about anything anyone else wrote. He REALLY sent you that note?”

“He really did,” I said. “I still have it.”

“Well then you’ve got to finish that novel,” Otto said, “and when you do, you have to let me read it.”

So I went home and started writing again. I wrote at night after work and all day every Saturday; and six months later, Rogue Island was finished.

Jaden: That may be one of the best how-I-got-started stories I've ever heard. Once you'd decided to write the book, how did you come up with your main character? Is he like you? Different from you? A mix?

Bruce: Mulligan is me--except that he's 25 years younger and eight inches taller. He's an investigative reporter; I used to be. He's got a smart mouth; I get a lot of complaints about the same thing. We both have a strong but shifting sense of justice that allows us to work with bad people to bring worse people down.  

Jaden: You address a number of social issues in your novels. What do you hope people will take away from your books?

Bruce: The best crime novels are about more than a hero solving a murder. They have something meaningful to say about the crazy, complex world we live in. For example, George Pelecanos' brilliant novels may be murder mysteries, but they are also serious works of fiction, examining complex race relations on the streets of our nation's capital. Each of my novels explores a social problem, but the serious stuff goes down easy. I want to write serious books that are a blast to read. That is always my hope for them.

Jaden: Do you have a favorite moment in your books? Can you tell us about it (without spoilers)?

Bruce: The short final chapter of Cliff Walk portrays a weary Mulligan's inner turmoil about the soul-wrenching things he witnessed during his investigation of the state's sex trade. When I read it out loud, it feels almost like a poem. It's the best thing I have ever written. 

Icon - The Statue of Christ the Redeemer

by Leighton Gage

The first proposal to build a statue on the peak of Corcovado (the name means “hunchback” in Portuguese) goes all the way back to the mid-1850’s, but found no favor with the royal family of the time.

The second proposal, the one that ultimately resulted in what we have today, was made in 1921, by a group of religious laymen in Rio de Janeiro.

And it wasn’t a government project. It was financed by donations from Brazilian Catholics.

Initial proposals included a Christian cross and a statue of Jesus with a globe in his hands.

Construction of the winning design, in reinforced concrete covered with soapstone, took nine years and cost the equivalent of $3,000,000 in today’s U.S. dollars.

You can get there by tram...

...or by road.

Inside there’s a metal stairway that offers access to every part of the interior, and there are viewing ports in the hands and the head, but they’ve long been closed to the public because of the strong winds that blow almost constantly at that height.

The breadth of the statue from fingertip to fingertip is 28 Meters (92 feet).

The granite peak on which it is built, is 710 meters (2,329 ft) above sea level.

The statue and the pedestal add an additional 110 meters (361 feet).

Here’s the view you get from the base of the statue.

You can still spot the head and extended arms from a distance of more than 20 kilometers at sea.

I have.

And hope that, someday, you’ll be as lucky.

And, oh, did I mention?

It just happens to be on the cover of my current book:

A Visit with Jeffrey Knox Philips

by Jean Henry Mead                                

Jeffrey Knox "Hammerhead" Philips, an internationally known underwater naturalist, has pursued his passion for large marine animals such as hammerhead and tiger sharks, humpback whales, sea lions, and manatees around the world from Bridgetown, Barbados; Peti-Goave, Haiti, to Lucuala, Fiji. Twice winner of the Okefenokee Wildlife annual contest for his underwater photography, his photographs often appear in the pages and on the covers of half a dozen dive magazines. 

His articles have appeared in Florida Scuba News and Shark Diver magazine and his video footage has been used in several documentaries aired on the Discovery Channel. As an underwater naturalist he often is interviewed on TV by CBS affiliate WPECand NBC affiliate WPTV in south Florida, as well as nationally, which has helped to get the word out about the destruction of turtle nesting sites, over harvesting of lobsters and anchor damage on the coral reefs. He also offers advice on undersea homeland security issues. So when he decided to write mystery novels, the sea was a natural setting.

Jeff, you have an impressive background in underwater photography. How did your interest in large marine animals come about?

It is easier for a large animal to fill the viewfinder than it is for a little guy. Photographing flighty palm-size fish becomes frustrating unless you have lots of patience. The key for me was to start with slow moving, fat creatures. Manatees are easy to learn the craft. After gaining confidence and experience, I set my lens on french angelfish, queen angels, rainbow parrot fish, each species getting a little larger. The most curious were Nassau groupers who seemed to enjoy seeing their reflection in the dome ports or lens glass.

What’s a shark rodeo? And why do you prefer to photograph hammerhead and tiger sharks?

I believe “Shark Rodeo” was first coined by the dive staff on Walkers Cay, Bahamas in the ‘80s. They would take a 50 gallon trash barrel, fill it full of fish and freeze it, thus making a chumsicle. Once frozen, they’d take it out to a sandy bottom site that is surrounded by brain corals with a boat load of nervous divers. Over the years the sharks learned that anytime they heard the whine of a particular boat propeller, that they would get fed. While revving the diesel engines , the Bahamian boat captain said “I’m ringing the dinner bell. Time for supper.”

The divers then descended into about 30 feet of water and laid or knelt on the sandy bottom. The frozen chumsicle, tied to a float ball, would stay suspended about 15 feet below the surface. As soon as the ball started to melt, the sharks swam in. Not a few, but around a hundred. Nurse sharks, black tips, Caribbean reef, and bull sharks.

The divers had to follow one rule, don’t touch the bait and stay at least 15 feet away from the frozen fish chunks. The sharks would circle the bait ball, tearing bits out of it, just like a wild rodeo. The sharks often swam between the divers, over the divers, around the divers. Strobes firing from cameras, newbie divers and first timers wide eyed. Definitely a heart pumping, adrenalin pulsing time. Often nurse sharks would lie beside divers to rest and hope to get scratched. The encounter lasted little over an hour. Plenty of time to capture an award winning shot and memories never to be forgotten.