When Characters Hook Up...or Not

By Andrew E. Kaufman, Author of Psychological Thrillers

“I’m so glad the main characters didn’t fall in love.” 

This is one of the most persistent comments I see while reading reviews for my books. And while I’m always pleased by positive feedback from readers, I do find it interesting when they feel strongly enough to make note of this.

But to be honest, I’m not sure if I can tell you why my characters never hook up. I don’t think it’s ever been a conscious decision—in fact, most of what I write rarely is.  I’m an intuitive plotter, which means I don’t outline, plan, or imagine my stories before creating them. Generally speaking, all I start with is a basic premise (very basic, often no more than one sentence), and then allow my instincts and characters to lead the way. So maybe I opt out of those love connections because they just don’t feel right to me (or should that be, to them?).

Of course, I’m talking about thrillers here, and admittedly, I do find myself having the same reaction as some of my readers, especially when it seems the situation doesn’t require it or appears particularly unrealistic. And when you think about it, people don’t necessarily fall in love just because they’re thrown into a tense situation anyway; in fact, I think the more natural choice would actually be just the opposite.

Then there’s the predictability factor, something that (cringe) we as authors often see in our reviews. But if I'm going to be completely honest, as a reader I find myself being just as critical about this. I can't count the number of times my eyes have started rolling at the exact point in a novel where a male and female characters start falling in love. That’s not because I’m a love cynic, but rather because in many cases it almost feels too easy, and then it's just plain annoying.

I suppose it all boils down to intent. If it’s relevant and moves the plot rather than being disruptive, I don’t think readers mind so much—if not, then they probably will.

Oddly enough, after saying all this, love is in fact an element that drives the plot for my upcoming novel, Darkness & Shadows, but I don't think readers will find it to be anything near typical, but instead, dark and disturbing--just the way I like it.

 What do you think? Authors: do you allow your characters to share a love interest? If so, how and why? And readers: do you feel particularly strongly about this either way?

Rating system for books

By Jenny Hilborne
Author of mysteries and thrillers

Reviews are a hot topic. Another hotly debated item right now on many social media forums is the Amazon rating system and its usefulness for both readers and authors. I just wanted to share some thoughts and throw out a few questions on the subject:

When you're looking for a good book to read, you might go by recommendation (my preference) or by the overall ranking of a book. For the higher ranked books (those in the top 100), the star rating might not matter or even factor into your buying decision (it rarely factors into mine). After all, each rating is only one person's opinion. Lots of excellent books have a slew of low star ratings, which kind of skews the whole system if a star rating is designed to give readers an insight into a book's popularity.

The system is open to and ripe with abuse. We all know that "trolls" and "haters" exist who slate good books and drag ratings down with their bogus 1 and 2 star ratings. And the bogus 5 star ratings exist as well. We can also vote down or vote up star ratings by agreeing or disagreeing with what another "reviewer" says about a book. This also leaves the system open to abuse from those gaming the system. Nuff said on vitriolic ways in which the system can be used.

Properly crafted and genuine reviews often take a long time to write, which may be the reason so many readers don't write them. A genuine star rating is fast, takes only a second, and gives a snapshot of the popularity of the book. But it seems a pretty pointless exercise without a review to back it up and tell others what the reader did or did not like about the book. Doesn't it? How useful is a star rating without an explanation of why it got that rating (especially when rated 1 or 2 stars)?

Reviews are helpful to readers and authors. Would you (as readers) prefer to leave reviews and no star rating? And do stars aid at all in your buying decisions? Should Amazon reduce or remove the 20 word minimum for reviews, leaving readers free to write shorter critiques? If you could leave a star rating without a review, would you do so?

What about authors? Which would you prefer to see for your books? Do we need both?

For those opposed to the star rating, what would you have in its place?

The Language of Reviews

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

Odd thought of the day: What exactly does it mean when readers say in reviews, "You won't be disappointed," or something similar. I get that sometimes lately, and I see it in a lot of reviews for other authors. 

I understand and appreciate that the phrase is meant to be positive. In fact, it could be part of a terrific review. But sometimes the line worries me, because it feels like a euphemism for "This book is okay. You won't be disappointed, but you might not be impressed either." The absence of a negative is not quite the same as a positive.

The feeling could just be misinterpretation or paranoia on my part. I suspect that authors like myself with ten or more books published hear it more than new authors with just a few. It could be that readers who stick with a favorite author for a long time start to worry that eventually the author will disappoint them—because it's inevitable that eventually it will happen. Believe me, as a reader, I know!

So when someone is reading my tenth or eleventh book and they get to the end, they might be thinking "Great! She wrote another story that didn't disappoint me." Then that thinking/language becomes part of the review or feedback or blurb.

Of course, I'd like to do better than just not disappoint my readers. I'd like to thrill them, mystify them, and make them think—among other things. I'm also grateful for every reader who has stuck with me through ten books...and for some, two additional unpublished manuscripts.

So I'm not complaining, just musing out loud and trying to understand.

Readers/reviewers: Do you use this phrase? What do you mean by it? Does the meaning varying depending on your expectations of the author?

Writers: How do you feel about this response to your work? Am I the only one who worries that it's not quite a compliment?

To Prologue or not to Prologue

By Andrew E. Kaufman, author of Psychological Thrillers 

I like prologues—actually, I love them. As a writer, I use them to set a mood or tone—a layer of emotional subtext, if you will—before the actual story begins, which I don’t feel I could have otherwise achieved.  

In my upcoming release, Darkness & Shadows, the prologue is steeped in surrealism and tragedy. Patrick, my protagonist, is having an imaginary conversation with the only woman he's ever loved as she burns to death inside a building. The fire and death have actually happened, but the prologue is a product of his subconscious desire to find answers he can’t find in the tangible world. I felt there was no better way to portray this than through the use of a prologue. Sure, I could have allowed his internal dialogue throughout the book to convey his thoughts and feelings—and to a large

extent, it does—but by adding this additional element, I think (or at least I hope) that I was able to dig deeper on a more visceral level, leaving the reader inside Patrick’s mind in a way that will resonate by the time they reach the first chapter. I don’t know if I could have done this as well without it.

My last book, The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted, didn’t have a prologue. As much as I love them, and as much as I wanted to have one, I found it just didn’t work for the story, so I left it out. I’ve often read books with prologues and found myself wondering why the authors bothered, because they didn’t add anything to the story that wasn’t already there. They made the mistake of slapping the word “Prologue” across the top of the page for what is essentially just a first chapter.

When I read a brilliant prologue I get chills that tell me I have to move on to the first chapter. When I read a bad one, I get a different kind of chill that makes me want to put the book down and never come back to it.

Some people, authors and writers alike, don’t like prologues. I’ve even heard a few say they dislike them so much that they won’t even read them and often skip to the first chapter of a book. So as an author, for all the reasons above, and probably many more, it’s an important decision whether to include one, and even more, how to write it. I know that if not done right, it can make or break the rest of my book. I can’t control whether my readers will look at it, but I can make sure it’s as relevant and effective as possible just in case they do.

What’s your take on prologues? Do you like writing them? Do you like reading them?

Don't insult your reader....

By Jenny Hilborne
Author of mysteries and thrillers

....unless you want a scathing review.

When I invest money in a bank, I want a great return.

When I invest time in a book, I want an even greater return. I can't pull my time back out and invest it somewhere else if I'm not happy. That time has gone forever.

I'm insulted when an author cheats me of my time and persuades me to invest in an unworthy product. I'm not talking about taste; there are plenty of books I don't like, and it's not because they're bad. It's because the author is lazy, or maybe they're just pressed for time. So am I.

Lazy writing is easy to spot. It comes in the form of filler to pad the page count, repeated use of words, recycling a sentence, repetitive cogitations, rehashing an old plot, stereotypical characters. The list goes on. If you haven't got enough content for a novel, make it a short story and don't waste your readers' time. Or your own.

Don't insult your readers' intelligence. Don't use big words and pull me out of the story when I have to set the book down to get a thesaurus and look it up. Because I will. And that big word had better be used in the right context.

Build my confidence in your writing. If you use a big word and then include a sentence to explain what that word means, I'll assume you didn't know it either. And it will undermine my confidence in your writing, not to mention insult my intelligence as a reader.

If you have discursive tendencies in real life, don't bring them into your novel. Time is valuable, and short. Don't describe your book as an immersive provocative novel when the only sense it stimulates is irritation. Don't be a sloth between the sheets. Unless you want a scathing review. I wrote one last week for a lazy writer who undermined my confidence and insulted my intelligence, not to mention the poor return on my investment.

Should Authors Review Other Authors?

By Andrew E. Kaufman

It’s an interesting question, one I often think about after reading a book. Should I or shouldn’t I?

Since becoming an author, I’ve left very few reviews on Amazon, and during the past year I made the decision to stop completely. There were several reasons for this. True, I’m a reader just like anyone else, but am I a typical reader?

No. Not really.

For me, it started feeling like an ethical issue. Since I write what I read, most of the books I enjoy (or don’t) are in the same genre as mine. That means the authors I read are competing for the same market share, and leaving a review on Amazon feels like a conflict of interest. If I leave a bad review, it could easily be interpreted as an act of bad intent.

And even If I leave a favorable review, readers might suspect that I did it as a favor to the author, and if that happens, have I done that person a service or disservice by leaving one? Just as much of a concern, have I done myself the same, possibly even damaging my own credibility as an author?

Another part of this involves my personal feelings: quite honestly, I have a hard time leaving a bad review for an author—as one myself, I know how deep the sting can feel from a bad review, and I find it difficult to inflict that on a colleague. This is not to say that they shouldn’t get a poor review for writing a lousy book; I’m just not sure whether I’m the one who should leave it.

Giving an author a blurb review is something different—with those, it’s clear that I’m doing it as a favor, but even then I’m hesitant due to time constraints and also because I wonder whether they actually help readers reach a decision on whether to make a purchase.

Also of concern is that as an author, I have a whole different set of standards while judging a book. My interests are often far more of a technical nature, nitpicky things,

and because of that I tend to scrutinize a work more needlessly than for the average reader. When I read, it’s hard to pull off my writer’s hat and put on the reading one—the two are so intricately intertwined these days. I worry that the things I’m critical of would be of no interest the average reader, and in stating them, it could have negative effects for a book that most people would find perfectly enjoyable.

Not everyone agrees with me on this. Some authors regularly leave reviews on Amazon—and really, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. It’s all about personal choices.

Contrary to what some may believe, Amazon doesn't discourage or pull reviews from authors based on that criterion, so they are free to review all they’d like. The only reason they would do so is if there appears to be a financial interest or gain on either side. This could be caused by something as innocent as me sending a birthday gift to the author, or something as obvious as having co-written something with him or her. Having said that, besides the co-authoring part, this would apply to anyone, whether they're an author or not.

So what do you think, troops?

Readers, do you have a problem seeing reviews from authors?

And authors, do you or don’t you? If so (or not) why (or why not?).

Reflecting on The LA Times Festival of Books

By Jenny Hilborne
Author of mysteries and thrillers

As the Murder We Wrote team gathered bright and early last Saturday morning, we anticipated a fun-filled weekend on our booth at the LA Times Festival Of Books. We weren't disappointed.

First, if you've not yet attended the LA Times Festival Of Books, it's an exciting annual event and probably the largest congregation of authors and readers in the western US. The event attracts somewhere around 150,000 visitors each year. Live music, food, all kinds of books and all kinds of people can be found here. Famous authors and celebrity speakers meet and entertain their fans every year.

This year, TV crews were wandering the campus, interviewing authors on their booths. Perhaps that's happened before, but I hadn't noticed. Murder We Wrote attracted the attention of an interviewer from KPCC radio, Pasadena, who questioned Gayle Carline and me about our books, about the event, and asked about our concerns regarding safety in light of the tragedy in Boston. The presence of additional campus security helped put our minds at rest, so we could place our focus on enjoying the event and meeting our readers.

Murder We Wrote is a team of about ten mystery/thriller authors who gather several times a year at different book festivals and events in Southern California. Now in our 3rd year at the LA Times Festival Of Books - our biggest event - we've become great friends and we are becoming more well-known on the campus. We have our own growing fan base of readers who seek us out, compliment us on the books they purchased from us the previous year, and ask us about our new releases. It's a wonderful feeling, and a real pleasure to chat with these people who come back each year to see and support us.

Our team name attracts a lot of attention, and an interesting moment on our booth this year came when we met Tom B Sawyer. He'd noticed our banner and strode over to introduce himself. Turns out Tom is a novelist, screenwriter, and playright. As the Head Writer/Showrunner, he wrote 24 episodes for the TV mystery series Murder, She Wrote. He enjoyed the twist on the name and it was our pleasure to meet him.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Kate Yackley, Vice President of Advertising for the Los Angeles Times. As a fellow Brit, she and I enjoyed reminiscing a little about our homeland, before she purchased a copy of my latest release, STONE COLD; a Brit thriller she said she was looking forward to reading. My thanks again to Linda Boulanger, owner of TreasureLine Publishing, for such a great cover. Stone Cold was my biggest seller at the festival and the cover drew many compliments.

Murder We Wrote offers a varied selection of mysteries and thrillers, including humor from Gayle Carline, Terry Ambrose, and Jim Stevens; my own psychological and suspense; legal by Teresa Burrell; romantic suspense by Anne Carter (aka Pam Ripling), noir by Paul D Marks, and paranormal romance by Susan Griscom. We had a lot to offer and we encouraged readers to browse.

For 2 days talked about books with thousands of readers who wanted to hear all about them...or so we thought. One of the funnier things we heard came from one or two visitors to our booth who, when prompted: "what kind of mysteries do you like to read?" responded with: "Oh, I don't read books." Yes, it left us without a response and wondering why they were at the book festival.

Another cute visitor was a gorgeous little 11 year-old girl who tried her hardest to convince us she was "quite mature" and ready to read our dark and gritty thrillers. We gave her a lollipop instead and she went away contented.

Not everyone at the festival is a reader. Our booth attracts its fair share of authors looking for advice on how to get started, how to find an agent, a cover designer, editor and so on. We especially loved it when young people told us they write. We attracted other sorts, too...and certain types of behavior we don't encourage at a book festival (which Gayle Carline will cover in a later post).

We all worked hard in the heat, sold lots of books, and still found the time for a good laugh. Here's Gayle Carline to prove it. I have no idea what she's laughing at, but this was the mood on our booth for the whole weekend.

As 5 o'clock rolled around on Sunday, we sat back for a few minutes to reflect, made plans for other events, then packed up our booth, said our goodbyes, and headed out in 8 or 9 opposite directions.

I know we'd all like to send our huge thanks to the thousands and thousands of readers who attended the festival. Once again, you made this such a fun event for all of us authors, and we look forward to seeing you again next year. 

Below is editor Jodie Renner's very helpful link to a list of other book festivals across North America for 3013-2014 http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.ca/2013/04/book-festivals-in-north-america-2013.html

Publicly Private

By Peg Brantley

I have always been one of those people who will tell anyone just about anything about me because I truly love to connect. I think the more we know and share about each other, the more we'll find common ground and will be able to build a lifelong relationship. The ideas of keeping secrets and holding your cards close to your vest have been very difficult for me to incorporate into my daily routine. In fact, I generally don't. Just ask my husband.

This is a scary world. I was shocked to hear that in the two years since Gabby Giffords and the others were shot in Arizona, there were eleven mass shootings in the United States! All of our radar is up and functioning more than it would ever have been earlier in a different age. At least it should be.

It's important to recognize that there are a lot less publicly violent ways to assault a life. There's identity theft, slander, malicious one-star reviews, and stalking, to name a few. There's nothing much we can do about people who slam our books. They're out in the public domain, after all, and our skin should be thick enough by now to absorb the punches. But we need to try and be smart about the rest of it.

I want to interact with my readers. From them I receive affirmation and support and encouragement and all of those amazing things I thought were just there for the "big guys" like Stephen King or Dean Koontz. Readers who enjoy my efforts are the ones that make me say it's okay not everyone likes my stuff. That they like it is sufficient. But I have found a few places where the boundary lines have been drawn. And they're not drawn just for me. They're drawn for my family.

It's important to note that even having drawn these lines, it's impossible to maintain absolute privacy any more. My goal is to have enough elements in place that I'm not an easy target if someone is targeting people, while at the same time being able to talk to readers in a meaningful and personal way.

Here are three things I've done:

• my online accounts will show my birth year as 1903. Even on my worst days, I don't look like I was born in 1903
• I recently obtained a post office box. Beginning with the postcards I mailed out for THE MISSINGS, my PO Box is the one I use for all things that are not personal.
• I post on Facebook about where I've been after the fact, if my home is likely to be open and vulnerable. 

Authors, what about you? Have you considered you might be vulnerable? What kinds of things have you done to give yourself a sense of privacy?

Readers, does it bother you to see a kind of roadblock between you and your favorite authors?

Giving Readers a Bonus with Maps and Lists

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

After a lively discussion on the DorothyL mystery list-serve, I decided to add a map and a list of characters to my Detective Jackson books. One person in the discussion said she would “never read a book” that included a list of characters, but so many others supported the idea that I knew I wanted to provide the information. Fortunately, my new publisher (Thomas & Mercer) was willing.

In today’s world of content marketing, interactive media, and bonus features, giving readers a little something extra seems like a good idea.

We placed the character list in the back of the books, so it’s there for people who want the reference, but it’s not up front where the connections might possibly spoil some of the surprises. And I was careful not to include descriptive phrases such as “sister of the killer” so the list shouldn’t be a spoiler even if readers see it first.

The map is just a bonus for people who like a visual orientation. We placed it in front, and it only includes a small portion of central Eugene. But at least readers will be able see where the police department is in relationship to the jail and the university, for example.

But including the map created a few questions and issues.

• Do you differentiate between real places and fictional places? What if your fictional hospital is located in the same place as a real hospital? (I told the proofreader to let it go, it’s a fictional map, not a real one.)
• What if the police department relocates, as ours has? Do you include both locations or just make a new map for later books when you finally start writing about the new address? I haven’t dealt with this issue yet, but in the next book I have to.
• What if the important places in each story—such as where the crime happened or the body was found—don’t show up on the map at all? A small map can only include so much information, and often the crimes occur outside central Eugene so I decided to leave these off. We’re using the same map for each book, so it has to be fairly generic.

The character lists, however, are unique to each novel and include both recurring characters and new characters that appear in that story only. Some character descriptions may change over the course of eight novels, but noting those changes will only help readers follow the character development.

What do you think? Are maps and character lists helpful? And does the medium—print or ebook—make a difference? What else should I include?

PS: If you haven't tried the series, I'm giving away the first book, The Sex Club, on Amazon today and tomorrow.

Bad books hold value

By Jenny Hilborne, author of mysteries and thrillers

Most authors I know are voracious readers. We devour books and we feel cheated when we invest time and money only to be disappointed with our investment, especially when the book came highly recommended or has a slew of favorable reviews. It's like getting bad financial advice from a once trusted source. However, there is still value in "bad" books.

My experience with books creates a change in my mood, and it's far more noticeable after I finish a disappointing book. The last few novels I read lifted me out of the blah state the previous ones dumped me into and I started to compare the difference, see what tips I could learn from each of the books, good and bad, and determine what made some books great and others forgettable. 

The most important criteria of a mystery or thriller (for me) are a complex plot, compelling motive, and intriguing characters. The books I read were penned by respectable authors and the writing itself was fine. So, was the premise of the story. The problem I had was the writer's style. 

Lots of people rave about the TV show "Bones", based on Kathy Reich's character, Temperance Brennan. I've never watched it and I'd never read any of her work until 2 months ago, when I stumbled across one of her books in a phone booth 'library' in Britain. The blurb looked good and I settled in. I finished the book, and wondered why the show was so popular. 

The mystery seemed to be an afterthought, with the author's focus on educating the reader about her subject (forensic anthropology) rather than delivering an interesting story. The reader was required to have extensive knowledge of the human anatomy to understand much of what she wrote. I felt like I'd wandered into the wrong class and was forced to listen to the tutor ramble on about her subject. The story lacked suspense and I never got a sense of the southern charm of South Carolina. Perhaps the TV show is better than the books. Reich's is not the only author to bash the reader over the head with too much subject matter. Others do it with weapons. Too much detail makes the writing dull and slows the plot. It's indigestible to the reader.

I also read Taste of Fear by Jeremy Bates. I loved his first book, White Lies. Taste of Fear is about survival and is gripping from the beginning, with action, suspense, and danger. Bates focuses on developing the story, takes the reader on an intense trip, and fills the senses with smells, sounds and tastes. I still remember what this story is about. 

I'm sure writers make the most critical readers; however, for me fiction is escapism. It's supposed to entertain. In comparing my recent reads, I note how good books engage all the senses and good authors know when to withhold information. They take the reader on a journey, but they don't hold them hostage. Fiction is a way to learn. Writers have their unique style, but reading a lot of fiction helps shape our craft and develop/improve our own style. Well read authors make better authors. They learn what works, what doesn't, and take from the best and the worst. There is value to both. 

Living Creatively

By Peg Brantley, an author who utterly loves what she does.



"Love what you've got or create something new."

I made that off-the-cuff statement recently to someone. I was commenting on a surprising litany of snarky, negative authors who had big enough names they could be named in a post for snarky, negative authors.

I believe we create our lives, even the crap we have to deal with. I also believe we can find the spirit— the direction—to facilitate change, if that's what we want at our core. A further belief is that we're in some kind of weird accordance with a more powerful element who knows better than we do what we need to experience in order to truly facilitate growth as spiritual beings.

To repeat: I believe we create our lives, even the crap we have to deal with. Which means we can change it. It's one of those things that is simply stated but not particularly easy to bring into reality.

What? Are you saying I asked for this?

Well, yeah. In a sort of sideways metaphysical kind of way, you did. As did I. And the sooner you wrap your head around that, the sooner you can decide to create something new. Something different. It probably won't happen overnight, but it can happen.

I've never liked the saying "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" because quite simply, some people don't have boots. But everyone, even those who aren't fortunate enough to live in a country dedicated to free-will, have at least an internal choice to make. Every single one of us, whether we have boots or not, can choose to allow our internal lives to go in a snarky, negative direction—or not.

Every morning I write three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts. When there's something in my life I'm not happy with, I work it out—evaluate my level of control—and facilitate change. When there's something I'm not happy with and have no control over, it's time to try and understand what I need to learn from it and what my options are—what direction I want to choose. That's my choice. That's my control. There is no reason, ever, that I should become a snarky, negative author.

As a writer, I face things I cannot control professionally day in and day out. Even as an Indie, there's only so much I can make happen. The rest is up to the Fates or God or simply Readers. Also as a writer, I can use this lack of control to more fully develop my characters. To validate both their weaknesses and their strengths—because in the end, they are reflections of me. Even the snarky, negative characters.

And if I'm ever fortunate enough to find myself in a position to be named in a group of well-known authors, I can promise you that snark will have nothing to do with it.