"My Book the Movie"

Sheila Lowe, mystery author and forensic handwriting analyst

I'm in Vancouver this week, working my considerable butt off analyzing handwriting at the 2014 TED Conference (hoping to meet speakers Gabby Giffords, Bill Gates, and Sting, at least!). So my entry today is a reprise, albeit slightly edited, of one I once wrote for Marshall Zeringue's great blog, Mybookthemovie.blogspot.com. Marshall asks authors to share which actors they would pick for their main characters, which was great fun to think about.

Like me in real life, my character Claudia Rose is a forensic handwriting expert who uses her special knowledge to understand the people she gets involved with—especially the ones who create problems. She’s also an independent 40 year-old, facing the challenges many modern women do. She has an LAPD detective lover, Joel Jovanic, and friends Kelly Brennan, a man-eating family law attorney, and Dr. Zebediah Gold, a semi-retired criminal psychologist.

I thought about some of my all-time favorite movies and discovered that Jeannot Szwarc had directed Somewhere in Time, and also currently directs numerous forensic-type shows, so he’s the perfect fit for my forensic handwriting mysteries.

My number one pick for Claudia is Minnie Driver, and many readers of my series agree there’s something very Claudia in Minnie’s energy and her looks. If Minnie isn't available, Amy Adams would be just as perfect (she has the right color hair). When I first created Jovanic, I had in mind a cross between Michael Keaton and Harrison Ford, and then I thought—Denzel Washington! But it took so long to get published that now they’re all too old (sorry, guys). Recently, I saw Olympus Has Fallen and Gerard Butler is Jovanic. He’s goodlooking without being a pretty boy, you can tell he’s sharp and intelligent, and there’s a seriousness to him that would make him a good police detective. He’s about the right age now, so we need to hurry and get this thing made!

Claudia’s irreverent friend and confidante, Zebediah Gold, reminds me of Sean Connery (or someone who looks just like him and has those twinkly eyes). Reese Witherspoon is cute enough and perky enough to be Kelly, but the part might not be big enough for someone with her star power.

If I had a buck for everyone who’s said to me, “this series would make a great movie!” I could buy a new Mont Blanc pen. Happily, the series has already been optioned, so maybe someday my druthers will actually find their way to the screen. Inkslingers Ball, the next Claudia Rose mystery, is set for a May release. This will be the first new Claudia book since 2010.

Does a protagonist have to be miserable?

By Sheila Lowe, author and forensic handwriting expert

Everyone alive is flawed in some way or another. None of us gets to be an adult without experiencing a load of crap that we’ve had to deal with. But I’ve noticed an extra helping of flaw and misery for the protagonists of many books I read. From the descriptions on the daily list of free or low cost books from BookBub, I’m struck by how many unhappy ones there are: alcoholics, drug abusers, “nearing 40 and desperately unhappy;” murdered spouse; broken heart; fighting cancer; “one tragedy after another.” And then, of course, there’s the perennially unhappy Kay Scarpetta.

Trust me, I understand the importance of “tension on every page.” I clearly remember a workshop I attended given by big time agent Donald Maas, who told us that to be successful writers, we must make things as bad for our protagonist as they could possibly be. Then make it worse. Then make it even worse. In fact, he spent most of a day repeating that mantra: make it even worse.

That’s a tough assignment if you like your protagonist. Putting him or her in dangerous situations is hard enough, but killing off their friends, making them ill, blowing up their house etc., takes real dedication to the craft. Claudia Rose, the heroine of my Forensic Handwriting mysteries is an ordinary person who, through her work, is thrown into extraordinary circumstances where she is forced to dig deep for courage, fortitude, and the other admirable characteristics that get her through. She’s been through her share of losses and difficulties, and I take it personally (crying real tears) when something awful happens to her.

Alcoholism, drug abuse, and all that other unhappy stuff is an ongoing part of life for many people. And when done well, those challenges can provide an interesting dimension to a character. The key, I think, is to make sure s/he is struggling to overcome those problems while keeping a sense of humor, not taking himself (or herself) so seriously that the reader can’t relate to him. We need to see the character arc—over the book, or through the series. Otherwise, there’s a danger of disliking that character, which could mean putting down the book and never picking it up again—the bane of an author’s existence. And, speaking from my own POV, I’m too old and leisure time is too limited  to spend it with people I don’t like, even in books.

There’s no moral to this post. Just meandering in my mind, wondering whether any of you have had the same thoughts. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. I spent mine a bunch of mine fighting with Word (I’m a dyed-in-the-wool WordPerfect user).