Understanding your Teenager by Julia Buckley

Julia Buckley is a Chicago area writer.  Her first mystery, The Dark Backward, was released in June of 2006 and earned high praise from Crimespree and others; her next book, Madeline Mann, received glowing reviews from Kirkus and Library Journal.  (She sold two books in the Madeline series, which was never released by the publisher).  


 

Julia is a member of Sisters in Crime, MWA, and RWA.  She keeps a writer’s blog at www.juliabuckley.blogspot.com on which she interviews fellow mystery writers; her website is www.juliabuckley.com.  She is currently at work on a new mystery series featuring an amateur sleuth and English teacher. She also blogs at INKSPOT (www.midnightwriters.blogspot.com) and POE’S DEADLY DAUGHTERS (www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com).


 

Understanding your Teenager

by Julia Buckley

 
For two years now I’ve lived under the same roof as a teenaged boy.  Needless to say, this is both a joy and a constant challenge.  I’ve developed some minimal understanding of my teen as time has passed (this does not, however, make me a teen expert).  However, I am happy to

share what little I’ve learned so that parents on the verge of the teen years might have a sense of what they’re facing.

 

Here are some tips and truisms:

 

1.  Your teen will rarely agree with you; this is almost a requirement .  It is somehow related to his honor.  However, if you assert an opinion and your teen mocks it as ridiculous, do not be surprised if the next day he states that it is HIS opinion, and he has no memory of you ever sharing it.

 

2.  The teen needs to feel superior, both to you and to her siblings and to the world in general.  There are few sentences that being with “I like” or “I am impressed by” and a whole lot of sentences that start with “I hate” and “You know what’s stupid?”

 

3.  Your teen sees you as the following things: meal provider, car driver, person who is “lame,” chore doer, nagger (when you want HIM to do chores), money giver, and general person who makes the house run.   Your teen will not be grateful for any of these roles that you play, but he will recognize that you play them.

 

4. Your teen does not particularly want to be seen with you in public.  You are, to be honest, shameful.  Your teen may tell you (as mine does) to go the far-away movie theatre so that no one in the audience might potentially recognize you as a family.  Teens like to be seen as independent organisms.

 

5. Your teen wants your love but won’t admit it.

 

6.  Your teen needs you to keep her in line, but really hates any criticism.  She will continually accuse you of showing favoritism to other siblings rather than admit to any wrongdoing.  Teens are masters of obfuscation.

 

7.  The average teen, like the average cat, would sleep for much of the day if you let him.

 

8.  Teens like junk food; it’s your job to get vitamins and minerals into their bodies.

 

9.  Until you make him or her get a job, your teen really will believe that money grows on trees. :)

 

10.  Your teen will be off at college before you know it, and then you’ll miss all of the things that drive you absolutely crazy now.

 

I know the strange contradictions of my son at this particular age.  In many ways, he’s more fun and more hilarious than he’s ever been.  In many other ways, he drives me to the brink of crazy town.

 

I guess the ultimate litmus test is to ask if you think your child knows that you love him and if in fact he loves you back.  If the answer is yes, then it makes all of the above a lot easier to bear.  

The Lies We Told: a Trailer and Three Drafts by Diane Chamberlain

Diane Chamberlain is the bestselling author of nineteen novels. She lives in North Carolina with her significant other, John, and her two Shelties, Jet and Keeper.

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The Lies We Told: a Trailer and Three Drafts  
by Diane Chamberlain
 

I'm grateful to Kaye for helping me celebrate the release of my 19th novel, The Lies We Told with a guest spot on her blog. I'm going to use this opportunity to share my book trailer with all of you and also to give you a small peek into my writing process. Welcome to my world!

The trailer was created by my significant other, photographer John Pagliuca, and yours truly. We wanted to capture the feeling of the book instead of trying to tell the story itself. I did the narration, reading from the very first page of the book. It's a huge challenge to create a book trailer, but we had a good time putting it together and I hope you enjoy it.

People ask me how many drafts I write when working on a book and I'm never sure how to answer, so this time I counted. The answer? Six. I'm tired just thinking about it! The picture of my office was taken somewhere toward the end of the fifth draft. What a mess! I thought I'd demonstrate how those drafts differ from one another by sharing the same paragraph from an early draft, a middle draft, and the (almost) final draft. 



The Lies We Told is the story of two sisters, Maya and Rebecca, both doctors working with a relief organization after a hurricane nearly wipes out Wilmington, North Carolina. You can read the prologue and first chapter on my website if you like. (www.dianechamberlain.com)

We are in Maya's point of view in the scene below. I hope that seeing the first draft will encourage those of you unpublished writers who think you have to write something perfectly the first time!

Early Draft:

     A guy walked into the restaurant. She noticed him the second he walked in. there was something about him. the way he scanned the restaurant. unsmiling. a flare to his nostrils that reminded her of ___. His eyes came to rest on the two men at the table next to her and Adam's he walked toward the table with a deliberate stride, and she watched him pull a gun from his jacket pocket and before she could scream or duck or even widen her eyes, he'd shot the man at the table in the head. Everyone screamed then. She had a lot of company.

--------------
Middle Draft:

     Adam said something to Brent and Rebecca, but I didn't hear him. My gaze was on a man who had just walked into the restaurant. He was dark-haired, wearing a white t-shirt and beige pants and he stood in front of the door, looking from table to table. There was something about him that sent a shiver through me.

     He started walking toward us--or at least, I thought he was heading toward us. Then I saw that his gaze--his ice-blue eyes--was on the two men at the table adjacent to ours. Adam said something that must have been funny, because Brent and Rebecca both laughed, but I'd set down my fork and was beginning to tremble, my heart thudding beneath my breastbone.

    I knew how quickly these things could happen. He reached behind his back, then whipped his arm out straight, the gun a gray blur, and I saw the small symbol tattooed on his finger as as he pressed the trigger.

--------------
(Nearly) Final Draft:

      Adam said something in response, but I didn't hear him. I was watching a man who had just walked into the restaurant. He was Caucasian, dark-haired, wearing a white t-shirt and beige pants, and he stood in front of the door, shifting his gaze quickly from table to table. Something about him sent a shiver through me.

      He started walking toward us--or at least, I thought he was heading toward our table. His stride was deliberate, his nostrils flared. Then I saw that his eyes--his /ice-blue /eyes--were locked on the two men at the table in front of ours. Adam said something that must have been funny, because Brent and Rebecca both laughed, but I'd set down my spoon and was gripping the corner of the table, my heart thudding beneath my breastbone.

      I knew better than anyone how quickly these things could happen. He reached behind his back with his right hand, then whipped his arm out straight, the gun a gray blur as it cut through the air, and I saw the tattoo of a black star on his index finger as he pressed the trigger.

--------------

Imagine 400 pages of this! No wonder I'm so tired when I finish a book--tired but excited. I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into my world.  I'll pick one of the commenters to this post at random to receive an autographed copy of The Lies We Told. Good luck!



       
         

Finally! I'm a Real Author! by Julie Hyzy

Born and raised in Chicago, Julie Hyzy knew she wanted to be a writer from the time she was old enough to hold a pencil. But life kept her busy and it wasn't until about 2002 she was able to make writing a priority. Now, the author of several award-winning short stories, Julie has also won awards and critical acclaim for many of her novels.

Julie writes the White House Chef Mysteries, featuring Ollie Paras who feeds the First Family and saves the world in her spare time. The first book in that series, State of the Onion, won an Anthony Award and a Barry Award at Bouchercon in 2009. The novel also garnered a Lovey (Love is Murder Readers' Choice Award).

Julie's newest series - the Manor of Murder Mysteries - begins with Grace Under Pressure which earned a *starred* review in Publshers Weekly.

Julie's books include:
Artistic License (standalone romantic suspense)

Alex St. James series:
Deadly Blessings
Deadly Interest

White House Chef Mysteries:
State of the Onion
Hail to the Chef
Eggsecutive Orders
Buffalo West Wing (January 2011)

Manor of Murder Mysteries:
Grace Under Pressure

Please visit Julie's website at www.juliehyzy.com

Finally! I’m a Real Author!

by Julie Hyzy

I started writing when I was about six years old. My mom, bless her soul, saved quite a few of my first attempts at novel writing and they are the source of much hilarity around my house these days. My kids—trying to make me feel good?—have even said that maybe, if I ever get really famous, these folded-notebook-paper tales (with accompanying artwork!) will be worth something someday. Gee, thanks, kids!

But… I didn’t feel like a real author at age six. Nor at age eleven, even when I started writing my Mary King Mystery stories. Watch out, Nancy Drew, I thought. I planned to be published by the time I was twelve.

Didn’t happen.

My first real novel came out in 2004. Although I’m still quite proud of it, it had quite a few flaws. And I learned a lot. Still… one novel… did that make me a real author? Nope.

Something was missing. Something big.

Fast forward: Here I am in the middle of 2010, and my eighth book, Grace Under Pressure, was released last week. Finally, I feel like a real author! But not because of the new book’s release. Nope. It’s because in the fall of 2009 I finally achieved something momentous. And I’ll bet you can guess what that is…

I got a cat.

Everybody knows that writers and cats go together. Especially mystery writers and cats. But even when I was little I knew there would be no felines in my future. My dad said, “No cats!” and when I got married, my husband said, “No cats!” How could I ever be a real writer with such limitations?

From the time we were married my husband let it be known that we would never have a cat in our house. His family hated them and he professed to hate them too (note the use of the word: “professed”). My cat requests became a bit of a joke because we knew that it was probably the only argument he consistently won. And that made him feel very good.

Every six months or so, I’d remind him of his ongoing triumph and we’d have an interchange that went something like this:

“I’m a writer, I need a cat. Can we get one?”

“No.”

“Okay, you win.”

Dogs are great. I love dogs and when our beloved lab/mix, K’Ehleyr (it’s Klingon) left us last summer, I was devastated. No more pets, I vowed. It hurts too much when you lose them.

It was about that point I decided to stop my humorous pleas for a cat. Just wasn’t funny anymore.

And that’s when Kitka entered our lives.

My middle daughter happened across two sister strays up at school. She couldn’t keep them up there and none of the overcrowded local shelters would take them. My eldest daughter adopted the all-black one, but that left the tiny tuxedo cat we’d named Kitka (from the original Adam West Batman movie). My husband and I agreed to keep Kitka for a week until our daughter could find her a home. 

That was last September…

Now Kitka sits on my lap as I type, crawls into an empty box atop my desk for afternoon naps, and paws pitifully at the door when I close it to take important phone calls. She’s a cutie and I’m nuts about her. My husband, the professed cat-hater, rassles with her when he gets home at night, pets her on his lap as we watch TV and constantly says, “I didn’t know cats were so friendly. I didn’t know they had personalities.” Of course, he has been known to call Kitka by another name: Pita-cat. Pita being short for pain-in-the—youknowwhat. To be fair, Kitka can get into trouble… but most of the time even the trouble makes us laugh.

So thank you, Kitka! Finally, finally, I’m a real author. And now I even feel qualified enough to give one of my protagonists a cat as a pet. If you pick up Grace Under Pressure, you’ll meet Grace. But it isn’t until her next adventure, the one I’m writing right now, that you’ll meet Bootsie…

Woo-hoo! I’m a real author now!

Janet Rudolph announces the Macavity Award Nominees

Macavity Award Nominations Announced

My congratulations to all the nominees!!! 

Janet Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, announced this year's Macavity Award nominations yesterday (6/8/2010), as follows:

"The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International. The 2010 Macavity Nominations are for books and stories published in 2009. Mystery Readers Journal is MRI's publication. The winners will be announced at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, in October. Bouchercon will be held in San Francisco in 2010. This award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats)."

*Best Mystery Novel*

• *Bury Me Deep* by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
• *Tower* by Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman (Busted Flush Press)
• *Necessary as Blood* by Deborah Crombie (Wm. Morrow)
• *Nemesis* by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins)
• *The Brutal Telling* by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• *The Shanghai Moon* by S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

*Best First Mystery Novel*

• *The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie* by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)
• *Running from the Devil* by Jamie Freveletti (Wm. Morrow)
• *A Bad Day for Sorry* by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur)
• *The Ghosts of Belfast *by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)
• *A Beautiful Place to Die* by Malla Nunn (Picador)

*Best Mystery Nonfiction*

• *L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City* by
John Buntin (Random House: Harmony Books)
• *Talking about Detective Fiction* by P.D. James (Alfred A. Knopf)
• *Rogue Males: Conversations & Confrontations About the Writing Life* by
Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books)
• *The Line Up: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of
Their Greatest Detectives*, edited by Otto Penzler (Little, Brown & Co)
• *Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of
Modern Art*by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (Penguin Press)
• *Dame Agatha’s Shorts: An Agatha Christie Short Story Companion* by Elena
Santangelo (Bella Rosa Books)

*Best Mystery Short Story*
• “Last Fair Deal Gone Down” by Ace Atkins in *Crossroad Blues* (Busted
Flush Press)
• “Femme Sole” by Dana Cameron in *Boston Noir* (Akashic Books)
• “Digby, Attorney at Law” by Jim Fusilli, (*AHMM*, May 2009)
• “Your Turn” by Carolyn Hart in *Two of the Deadliest *(Harper)
• “On the House” by Hank Phillippi Ryan in *Quarry: Crime Stories by New
England Writers* (Level Best Books)
• “The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away” by Marcus Sakey in *Thriller 2:
Stories You Just Can’t Put Down* (Mira)
• “Amapola” by Luis Alberto Urrea in *Phoenix Noir* (Akashic Books)

*Sue Feder Historical Mystery*

• *A Trace of Smoke* by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge)
• *In the Shadow of Gotham* by Stephanie Pintoff (Minotaur)
• *A Duty to the Dead* by Charles Todd (Wm. Morrow)
• *Serpent in the Thorns* by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)
• *Among the Mad* by Jacqueline Winspear (Henry Holt)

Writing and Living in Paradise by Marcia Talley

Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award-winning author of ALL THINGS UNDYING and eight previous crime novels featuring survivor and sleuth, Hannah Ives.

Marcia is author/editor of two star-studded collaborative novels, NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX and I’D KILL FOR THAT set in a fashionable health spa and an exclusive gated community, respectively. Her short stories appear in more than a dozen collections and have been reprinted in several of THE YEAR’S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES anthologies. A recent story, “Can You Hear Me Now?” is featured in TWO OF THE DEADLIEST: NEW TALES OF LUST, GREED AND MURDER BY OUTSTANDING WOMEN OF MYSTERY, edited by Elizabeth George.

Writing and Living in Paradise
by Marcia Talley

My friend, mystery novelist Elaine Viets who lives there, says that Ft. Lauderdale is the farthest south you can live and still get meaningful work done. I’ve checked the maps, and my present location, 26° 35.51 N, 77° 00.36 W to be precise, is exactly 28 minutes of latitude — approximately 32 miles — north of Elaine’s condo in Lauderdale, so as a novelist, I figure I’m safe, but it’s not always easy writing while living in paradise.

We’re in a rented house on Dickie’s Cay, a tiny strip of land that forms the harbor that protects Man-o-War Cay, a settlement of boat-builders and church-going people with a year-round population of approximately 150. There’s a hardware store —“if we don’t have it, you don’t need it” — where items that went on the shelf twenty years ago are still for sale, with their original price tags. There’s one sit-down restaurant — best hamburgers in the world at the Dock-n-Dine, my husband says — a couple of gift shops, a sailmaker’s shop where four ladies sit at ancient sewing machines turning out the most beautiful and practical canvas bags, and two groceries that don’t sell cigarettes or booze. No law against it, they simply don’t. Albury’s Harbour Market, where I shop, is the size of your average two-car garage, but I can’t think of anything that Phyllis doesn’t have — even half-and-half! — in that tiny, neat-as-a-pin store. I shop, she puts it on our tab, and we pay up at the end of the month. With a tab, I feel like I really belong.

No TV, no daily newspaper. There are no ATMs, the bank is open on Tuesdays from 10 to 2, and few cars. Rush hour is two golf carts meeting on The Queen’s Highway, an eight foot wide strip of concrete that bisects the narrow island.

There are no roads where we are on Dickie’s Cay, and our family “car” is an Avon dinghy — to go shopping or to eat out, we walk out to the end of the pier, climb down a wooden ladder, fire up the outboard and putt-putt across to Man-o-War. I couldn’t resist setting my eighth Hannah Ives novel, Without a Grave, in these islands, although I took the very great liberty of sandwiching my fictional islands between Scotland Cay to the north and Man-o-War Cay to the south while pushing Fowl Cay a bit further out into the Atlantic Ocean. I must apologize in advance for an inconvenience this will cause to cruising sailors.

On the porch of “Tradewinds” where I’m sitting right now riding a rogue wireless signal — thank you, whoever you are! — I’m working on my next Hannah Ives novel, drinking a cup of coffee, and watching the sun come up.

Just a few minutes ago, the first boat of the day came by, filled with Haitians from Marsh Harbour who come here every day to work building boats and houses, doing yard work, anything to earn a few dollars to send back to their families in Haiti. They are a friendly, hard-working people who often spend their lunch hours reading passages from the Bible aloud, and seem delighted when I speak to them in my passable French.

I’ve adopted a cat, “Dickie,” who showed up one day so hungry that he ate plain, cold spaghetti and bits of

garlic bread. We don’t know what happened to his family, but he may be a boat cat who fell overboard and swam ashore. We’re feeding him to help protect the local bird population. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

And speaking of birds, as I was writing yesterday a hummingbird whizzed by like a giant wasp, reversed suddenly and hovered just two feet in front of my face, wings a blur. I’d seen hummingbirds visiting the yellow flowers on the oleander in the garden, but I couldn’t figure out what drew this little fellow to me, until I realized that on his side of my computer screen there is a brightly-lit white apple.

A sudden rainstorm followed by a rainbow, a sunset that sets the horizon ablaze, a tiger cat purring for the first time in who knows how long nestled against your side, and a hummingbird checking you out. As I said, there are distractions while working in paradise, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

2010 Anthony Nominees

The 2010 Anthony Nominees have been announced

My heartfelt congratulations to all the nominees!

BEST NOVEL

THE LAST CHILD, John Hart
THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH, Charlie Huston
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, Stieg Larsson/trans. Reg Keeland
THE BRUTAL TELLING, Louise Penny
THE SHANGHAI MOON, S.J. Rozan


BEST FIRST NOVEL
 
THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, Alan Bradley
STARVATION LAKE, Bryan Gruley
A BAD DAY FOR SORRY, Sophie Littlefield
THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST, Stuart Neville
IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM, Stefanie Pintoff


BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
 
BURY ME DEEP, Megan Abbott
TOWER, Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman
QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE, Max Allan Collins
STARVATION LAKE, Bryan Gruley
DEATH AND THE LIT CHICK, G.M. Malliet
AIR TIME, Hank Phillippi Ryan


BEST SHORT STORY

"Last Fair Deal Gone Down", Ace Atkins
"Femme Sole", Dana Cameron
"Animal Rescue", Dennis Lehane
"On the House", Hank Phillippi Ryan
"Amapola", Luis Alberto Urrea


BEST CRITICAL NONFICTION WORK

TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION, P.D. James
THE LINE UP, Otto Penzler, ed.
HAUNTED HEART, Lisa Rogak
DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS, Elena Santangelo
THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH, Joan Schenkar


The 2010 Anthony Awards will be presented at the San Francisco Bouchercon's Sunday Brunch on October 17.

How long, oh Lord, how Long? by Alex Sokoloff

Alexandra Sokoloff is a California native and a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, where she majored in theater and minored in everything that Berkeley has a reputation for. After college she moved to Los Angeles, where she made an interesting living doing novel adaptations and selling original suspense and horror scripts to various Hollywood studios. Her ghost story, THE HARROWING, debuted from St. Martin's Press in 2006, and was nominated for Bram Stoker and Anthony awards for Best First Novel. Her supernatural thrillers THE PRICE, and THE UNSEEN are out now; BOOK OF SHADOWS is coming in June 2010, and THE KEEPERS in fall 2010. She's a Thriller award winner, a former Director of the Writers Guild of America, west and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America. She is also the founder of WriterAction.com, a large and unruly cyber-community of professional screenwriters. AlexandraSokoloff.com   ScreenwritingTricksForAuthors.com  

How long, oh Lord, how long?

by Alex Sokoloff

I’m about to go on tour for my newest book, which means that I actually have to start talking to people coherently about the whole process of writing.    And I’m remembering that one of the questions I most often get at book signings and panels is, “How long does it take you to write a book?”

Well, my feeling is what’s always being asked is not how long it takes ME to write a book, but how long it would take the person asking to write a book.   Which of course,  I have no way of answering, unless it’s to cut to the chase and shout,  “Save yourself!   Don’t do it!”    But that’s never the question, so I don’t say it.

What I usually answer instead is,  “About nine months.”     Which, from Chapter One to copyedits, I guess is true enough.    But the real answer is almost always:   “Decades.”

Because honestly, where do you even start?   I’m quite convinced I’m a professional writer today because my mother made me write a page a day from the time I could actually hold a pencil.   At first a page was a sentence, and then a paragraph, and then a real page, but it was writing.   Every day.    It was an incredibly valuable lesson, which taught me a fundamental truth about writing:  it didn’t have to be good, it just had to get written.   Now I make myself write however many pages every day.    And now, like then, it doesn’t have to be good, it just has to get written.   Some days it’s good, some days it’s crap, but if you write every day, there are eventually enough good days to make a book.

Then there were all those years of theater, from writing and performing plays in my best friend’s garage, to school and community theater, to majoring in theater in college, to performing with an ensemble company after college.   Acting, dancing, choreography, directing – that was all essential training for writing.

And then the reading.    Again,  like probably every writer on the planet, from the time I could hold a book.    The constant, constant reading.    Book after book – and film after film, too, and play after play – until the fundamentals of storytelling were permanently engraved in some template in my head.

Hey, you may be saying,  that’s TRAINING.   That wasn’t the question.    How long does it take to WRITE A BOOK?
 

I still maintain, it takes decades.     I think books emerge in layers.    The process is a lot like a grain of sand slipping inside a clamshell that creates an irritaion that causes the clam to secrete that substance, nacre, that covers the grain, one layer at a time, until eventually a pearl forms.    (Actually it’s far more common that some parasite or organic substance, even tissue of the clam’s own body, is the irritant, which is an even better analogy if you ask me, ideas as parasites…)

My fourth supernatural thriller for St. Martin’s,  BOOK OF SHADOWS, comes out next week, June 8.    When did I start it?   Well, technically in the fall of 2008, I guess.    But really, the seed was planted long ago, when I was a child growing up in Berkeley.   Which pretty much explains why I write supernatural at begin with, but that’s another post.    Those of you who have visited this town know that Telegraph Avenue, the famous drag ending at the Berkeley campus,  is a gauntlet of fortune tellers (as well as clothing and craft vendors).

Having daily exposure to Tarot readers and psychics and palm readers as one of my first memories has been influential to my writing in ways I never realized until I started seeing similarities in the two books I have coming out this year (the second, THE SHIFTERS, will be out in November) and discovered I could trace the visuals and some of those scenes back to those walks on Telegraph Ave.

Without mentioning an actual number, I can tell you, that’s a lot of years for a book to be in the making.

Over the years, that initial grain of sand picked up more and more layers.   BOOK OF SHADOWS is about a Boston homicide detective who reluctantly teams up with a beautiful practicing witch from Salem to solve what looks like a Satanic murder.   Well,  back in sixth grade, like a lot of sixth graders I got hooked on the Salem witch trials, and that fascination extended to an interest in the real-life modern practice of witchcraft, which if you live in California – Berkeley, San Francisco, L.A. –is thriving, and has nothing at all to do with the devil or black magic.    Hanging out at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire (more Tarot readers!), I became acquainted with a lot of practicing witches, and have been privileged to attend ceremonies.  So basically I’ve been doing research for this book since before I was in high school.

And my early love of film noir, and the darkest thrillers of Hitchcock, especially NOTORIOUS, started a thirst in me for stories with dark romantic plots that pit the extremes of male and female behavior against each other.   BOOK OF SHADOWS is not my first story to pit a very psychic, very irrational woman against a very rational, very logic-driven man; I love the dynamics – and explosive sexual chemistry - of that polarity.

So to completely switch analogies on everyone, this book has been on the back burner, picking up ingredients for a long, long time.

Now, what pulls all those ideas and layers and ingredients into a storyline that takes precedence over all the other random storylines cooking on all those hundreds of back burners in my head (because that’s about how many there are, at any given time), is a little more mysterious.   Or maybe it’s not.   Maybe storylines leap into the forefront of your imagination mostly because your agent or editor or a producer or executive or director comes up with an opportunity for a paycheck or a gentle reminder that you need to be thinking of the next book or script if you ever want a paycheck again.   I know that’s a powerful motivator for me.

But the reason a professional writer is able to perform relatively on demand like that is that we have all those stories cooking on all those back burners.    All the time.    For years and years, or decades and decades.   And if a book takes nine months, or six months, or a year to write, that’s only because a whole lot of stuff about it has been cooking for a very, very, very long time.

A long time.

If there are other writers reading, today – how long does it take YOU to write a book?   Or your latest?   How many stories do you figure you have on the back burner at any one time?

And readers, do you ever notice certain themes – or recurring scenes or visuals - in your favorite authors’ books that make you suspect that story seed was planted long ago?

BURY YOUR DEAD by Louise Penny

 Cover for the Canadian and UK version

I was the lucky recipient of an ARC of Louise Penny's newest - BURY YOUR DEAD, which is scheduled to be released in late September.

wow.  

Repeating myself - this is, I think, one of the best series being written today.

Repeating myself yet again - I felt as though her last book, THE BRUTAL TELLING, was masterful and that it carried Ms. Penny to a new level. 

I know sometimes when a book in a series reaches as high as THE BRUTAL TELLING, we've been known to feel a bit let down with the next entry.  Not to worry.  I can't imagine anyone feeling that way about BURY YOUR DEAD.  The magic of Ms. Penny's writing continues.  The subtle humor, the restrained poetry of word play and the emotions emanating amongst the characters, along with meticulous research.  


This one is a bit of a departure for Ms. Penny.  There's a plot line dealing quite extensively with the history and founding of Quebec City which I found to be fascinating.  I love well researched novels and this one strikes me as having been exceptionally and lovingly meticulously researched.

Mentioning that I felt this was a bit of a departure is not to mean we don't still have everything we've come to expect and love in one of Ms. Penny's Three Pines novels; as I said - the magic is still there.  The  intricate plotting we expect is there. The gentle subtle humor is there.   Its also got a surprise or two.  or three.  It's also profoundly sad. I found myself wiping away tears more than once.

We don't spend quite as much time in Three Pines as we sometimes do, but the time we do spend there is as quirky as ever.  Where else are we going to find favorite characters having dinner in their local bistro in their  jammies, with no one batting an eye?
For fear of giving anything away, I'm going to hold off on saying any more . . .   

Well - okay - one more thing . . .  there's a major aspect concerning our beloved Gamache that is heart wrenching - keep that box of tissue handy!

Last year after reading THE BRUTAL TELLING, I think I immediately knew it would be at the top of my 2009 favorites, and told you all I thought you should add it to your "gotta read" list.  Well, I'll repeat all that this year for BURY YOUR DEAD.  

And now that I've finished it and know what happens, I'm going to immediately bury myself in it again to just savor the poetry of the writing, the ambiance of setting, and pure joy of words put together perfectly to tell a perfect tale.  

I adore this book.

and its author.

FTC Disclosure

An Advance Reading Copy of

BURY YOUR DEAD

was sent to me by the publisher

in hopes that I might review it.

No additional compensation was made

or offered.

Adapting Our Writing Routine...and How to Survive Our Kids' Summer Vacation by Elizabeth Spann Craig

Elizabeth Spann Craig  writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin as Riley Adams, the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink (under her own name), and blogs daily at http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com,  which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers in its current issue.

Delicious and Suspicious releases July 6, 2010. 

As the mother of two, Elizabeth writes on the run as she juggles duties as Brownie leader, referees play dates, drives carpools, and is dragged along as a hostage/chaperone on field trips.

Adapting Our Writing Routine…and How to Survive Our Kids’ Summer Vacation

By Elizabeth Spann Craig

I have a week and a half until my children’s schools let out for the summer.

This time last year, I was completely horrified at that realization.

This year? Not so much.  Because I managed to write the better part of a novel over summer break last year.  It had to be done…I was under a deadline.  I developed my own routine last summer.

Now I’ve got a routine for every occasion, not just summer break:

My routine when writing at home isn’t working for me and I need to escape:

Yes, sometimes writing at home isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.   That’s because when you’re faced by a dog that sleeps a lot

and cats that hang off the side of small tables while they sleep,

 sometimes it can make you feel a little bit sleepy.

Or sometimes the house is too interactive.  The dishwasher stops running, the dryer buzzer goes off, a table sassily says “dust me.”

So I go out and write where the background noise is there but means nothing to me.  

• I’ll write at the library, the coffee shop, or a diner. 
•  If the background noise starts edging into the foreground, then I put headphones on and listen to music I’ve downloaded to my computer while I write.

The I’ve-only-got-15-minutes-to-write-today routine:

• I make it count by planning the writing the night before. 
• What am I going to cover? 
• Where am I picking up the story? 
• What’s the point of the scene? 

If I know ahead of time that I have a really, really limited timeframe to write in (I’m travelling, it’s a holiday, etc.) then I make every little minute count.

The it’s-a-beautiful-day writing routine

• I go to the park after school with the kids. I take a laptop and a folding chair (and, yes, I look nerdy as heck and don’t care a bit.)
• I write in the hammock
• I use a notebook and pencil if the sun is glinting too much on the computer screen.

And now, for you parents out there, my routine for surviving the kids’ summer vacation (and still get a book written): 

Go completely with the flow.  There is no routine over summer break…that’s how summer break works! But I do have tips for you: 

Go on an outing—the kids and your manuscript. If your kids are older, the park, skating rink, bowling alley, swimming pool, etc, work out well. If they’re younger, try one of those indoor playgrounds with inflatables. 

Bring a friend for your child. Or more than one. They’re much happier if they are on outings with a friend or two. And they’re more inclined to let you get some work done. 

Plan some dedicated time with your child to play one on one. This time can be either before or after the time that you need to get some work done. Here’s the deal with this time: you need to be completely focused on your child. No thinking about anything else. You play Monopoly, read a few books, whatever they want to do with you---and then you explain you are going to spend X amount of time writing. 

Quiet time works for everyone. Even my older child (12) needs time to unwind in the afternoon. My kids unplugged for a while with a book or played quietly in their room while I worked on my laptop. When I had a toddler, I’d put her in her room and give her books. The rule was that even if they couldn’t sleep, they had to “read” (look at pictures.) 

Host playdates. I know—this sounds like more trouble than help. But usually (this depends on your kid and the kids you invite over), my children disappear to hang out with their friends. It’s the perfect time to write. 

Remember that the more adaptable we are, the more writing we can get done!  Best of luck, everyone!  And Happy Memorial Day!

 

 (My corgi, Chloe, desperately wanted a cameo in my post because she’s a huge admirer of Kaye’s Harley. So excuse the gratuitous corgi photos. :) )