How do feel you have progressed as a writer over the past few years?

By Andrew E. Kaufman

That’s the question someone posed to me in a recent interview. It’s a good one, but I have to admit that it caught me a little off guard. It wasn’t that I didn’t know—I just hadn’t really paused to think about it in quite some time. The past year has been a whirlwind of activity, and the recent success of my latest novel took me by surprise. I feel as though I’ve been spinning ever since, sometimes with excitement, sometimes with anxiety, sometimes with fear, sometimes with pure exhaustion.

And admittedly, sometimes with I-don’t-know-what.

At times it’s felt as though the bulk of my progress has taken place during this accelerated period, but I know that’s not really true, that it’s been moving on a steady continuum for several years now. The bigger events do tend to cloud the smaller ones, but all are equally important.

But I’m really glad they asked me this question because it’s one we should all ask ourselves from time to time no matter what we do. It’s good for us to stop, to look back, and to measure just how far we’ve come, and it’s important to recognize our accomplishments, our failures—everything—no matter how big or small those things might be.

I remember putting my first book on Kindle and having no idea where it might lead. All I knew was that I wanted to get it “out there “ in the readers’ hands. I sold a total of four copies in the first month, and I soon realized I still had a great deal to learn, and I was thrilled when I finally did. I had very little understanding of how this industry worked at the time. Now I feel like I know a lot. More progress.

And my writing has changed over time as well. I’m the kind of person who likes to keep learning new things. I love to stretch and grow, and I feel as though I have. I look back at some of my earlier work—even my first book—and I can see how much my writing style has changed over the years. Even as I work on my third novel, I have a strong sense that I’ve improved my craft in a way that makes me feel proud. It’s great to be see myself in that place.

My confidence level, while certainly not to the point where I feel fearless or invincible, has risen right along with my writing. Let’s face it, to be a writer means to be vulnerable, and admittedly, that was a tough one for me. Most of us pour our hearts and souls onto the pages. It takes time to build a tough enough skin to where we’re able to use criticism to mobilize us instead of paralyze us. But it’s important. It’s part of The Process. I feel as though I’ve finally reached a point where I can look at criticism objectively instead of emotionally, to sort out the things I feel can help me from the ones that don’t, and then use them to propel my work forward. I don’t worry or obsess about it as much, and that also feels wonderful. Yet another sign of growth.

How about you? Whether you’re an author or not, do you stop every once in a while to take a good look at where you came from, where you are now, and how far you’ve come? If you do, what do you see?

Is Amazon's Punctuation Punctiliousness Persnickety?

By:  Kimberly Hitchens is the founder and owner of Booknook.biz, an ebook production company that has produced books for over 750 authors and imprints.

(The second part of this post appeared in the Booknook.Biz newsletter, newly renamed The Booknook Beacon [sorta]--yes, I'm a sucker for alliteration--so if you've read the newsletter, feel free to skip that bit.  If you skipped the Newsletter--for SHAME!--then read on.)

Amazon Attacks

No, sorry--if you're awaiting a single-breasted woman with a quiver full of arrows to come out swinging, you're to be sadly disappointed.  For those of you earning your filthy lucre by writing, however, nose up:  we had another one of our clients harangued by mega-publisher Amazon about "errors" in her book--with a politely-worded demand that the book be taken down, fixed and re-uploaded.

The history?  We're speaking here of a widely-respected woman author, Edgar-nominated, legacy published, who's put up a handful of her backlist titles on Amazon, as well as on Barnes & Noble's self-publishing platform, PubIt, with our assistance.  Over the past few years, she's put these books up one at a time, each taking some effort, as all of her backlist had to be scanned and OCR'd (have Optical Character Recognition run) first, then proofed,  then edited a skosh (oy, none of you are immune from the rewriting addiction!), and then converted and magically (ahem) made into ebooks.  Her titles aren't wee shorties, but hefty, good-sized books.  We recently received an email from her which contained the Amazon missive, which instructed her as already related, for--wait for it--a whopping TWELVE (12) missing periods (and one word with--gasp!--a space in it).  Yes, Virginia--missing periods, and, no, you're not pregnant.  Twelve missing periods in 90,000 words. 

Now, the part that slays me is--where is this editorial oversight when it comes to other titles?  Heavens, I wonder, am I the fool to bite the hand that feeds me?  But--I'm compelled to ask:  if editorial oversight and curation is to be imposed by Amazon, then what about titles like these?  Broken Bones, Cheryl Taylor and this beauty:  JFK VIP2RIP .  Twelve missing periods, compared to these, just as two exemplars?

My Theory, however, is:  

My theory runs like this, and I doubt it's an earth-shattering epiphany:  only those who get read, and who have fans, actually get audited.  In other words:  only those of you lucky to be talented enough, who have worked hard enough, have studied the craft enough, to write well enough to attract readers who care about your work, get these types of letters from Amazon, because it's your readers that send them the corrections.  The truly awful don't get read; don't attract readers; don't have fans that care about the quality of the work--and thus, slip through Mighty Amazon's Gates.  However, all that being said, the inequity of one author--who's paid a  lot of good money to get her (backlist) books up on Amazon, and in fine format, if I do say so myself--being told to "fix" the book and republish it, when books like those I've pointed out run about freely, like varmints gamboling on a newly-turfed lawn, seems grossly unfair.  I'm all for some curation--heavens know, you've all heard me whinge about it often enough--but if Amazon's going to police well-respected authors, then I think she needs to spend a little time looking beneath her own skirts, as well.   Self-publishing is self-publishing, regardless of whether it's Neil Gaiman or Cheryl Taylor, and inequitable enforcement seems a gross miscarriage for those who've done all the necessary heavy lifting, versus those who have not.  Why the discrepancy?

That's my primary note for this week; for those of you still equivocating about whether to spend that money on an editor, or whining about how "critique groups are mean," pay attention--suffering those crits may just save YOU a letter like this some day--and yours might be warranted.  

1st Annual WNBA National Writing Contest

No, guys, that is NOT the "Women's National Basketball Association," but, rather, the Women's National Books Association, and it has recently announced its first annual Writing Contest. The WNBA is a 90+ year old venerated organization of women and men across the broad spectrum of writing and publishing. Membership includes Editors, Publishers, Literary Agents, Professors, Academics, Librarians, Authors, Book Marketers and many others involved in the world of books.

Works may be submitted now until September 15th, and include unpublished fiction (short stories or novel excerpts) and poetry.

Interested?  They want only your "highest caliber work!"  Click here to find out more information.  

 Until next time, to mooch a phrase from someone worth mooching:  Good Night and Good Luck.  

Breaking Glass

A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge hardcover, 17 July 2012).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

Since we met journalist Hannah Vogel in A Trace of Smoke, she's lost her beloved brother Ernst, adopted a boy named Anton, and messed up several relationships.

This time around,  writing fluff pieces for a Swiss newspaper called Neue Zürcher Zeitung, she's in Poland to write a feature about the town of Poznań's November 11th St. Martin's Day Festival.  Although her editor has given this assignment in order to keep her from harm after some anti-Nazi articles she wrote resulted in a spate of threatening letters, Hannah is unhappy.  


Thinking that her son might enjoy the Festival, she's brought Anton with her, and almost immediately she regrets it.  She learns that the Germans have arrested a thousands of Polish Jews and forced them back across the border.  Certain that she can get a story out of this, she instructs her driver to take them to the village where the refugees are being held.


And just like that, Hannah once again lands herself in the middle of trouble.  Questions raised by her talks with the refugees lead her back into Germany, where she's persona non grata, and where Anton has no identity.  Hannah is determined that news of the German's injustices be made public, and since she's ideally situated to do this, she does, regardless of what danger she lands in. 


Although the story is  fictional (it's based on the real Kristallnacht), Cantrell's prose is so vivid that the reader feels involved in incidents that could quite easily be real, especially since the narrative is written in the first person from Hannah's point of view.  


The next book in the series is in the works, and it can't come soon enough!






FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the author, who sent me an advance copy of the book for review purposes.

Focused or Blurry? Five Tips for Clarity

By Peg Brantley, author of RED TIDE

I'm a person who loves excitement and spur of the moment interruptions. I appreciate involvement and interaction with others. I treasure conversations with friends and I can feel twenty years younger just by hanging out with my granddaughters. The freedom of disorganization and flexibility. The freedom to Just Be.

I'm also a person who craves routine and solitude and the gift to follow my plan for the day. I like knowing this is going to happen now and that will happen then. The organization of my time and the confidence in what I can accomplish during a given period of said time. That wonderful opportunity to focus on the task.

Say what???

I don't know about you, but events can pull me out of my coveted routine. Sometimes those events are amazing and wonderful and memory-makers. They're part of life. Sometimes those events are filled with anxiety and distraction. These are also part of life. And sometimes I don't know what the hell happened. I'm just off.

But how do I regain focus? How do I get back to work? Because other than my husband and family, work is what grounds me. I happen to be a writer, but it wouldn't matter what I did, as long as it was important to me.

Here are some things I've found that work:

• Within my morning pages routine (three pages of handwritten stream of consciousness writing) I include my goals for the day.
• A To Do List in no particular order but which includes things like scene completions and word count (often taken from my morning pages). Personally, I love striking lines through the items on my list. That simple act imparts power.
• Trust the process. Sometimes it's important to be pulled away and unfocused. We all require breaks from time to time. Let it happen. Maybe I need to give in and curl up with a book. Or watch a movie on Lifetime.
• Mentally prepare to get down to business by doing something completely unrelated—like watering the plants or playing a game of Free Cell—with the understanding that once I'm finished, I'm into the project.
• Take the plunge. Start in willy-nilly and let go. Again, trust the process.

What about you? Are you always one hundred percent focused: 20/20? Or do you sometimes experience blurred vision or floaters that distract you? If so, have you discovered a technique that helps get you back on track that you're willing to share?

Me and my sidekick

By Gayle Carline

When I started my first mystery novel, I invented Benny Needles, picturing him as an amoral man who collects memorabilia in order to sell it, because he'll do anything to make a buck. Once I began figuring out why a grown man would have an ice cube tray autographed by Dean Martin, and why he'd hire a detective to find it in his own house, it put a different spin on Benny's world. Suddenly I had a sympathetic, if annoying, man who needed a pallie - Dean Martin.

I like to write journals in my characters' voices. It helps me get to know them. However, when I went to write a journal for Benny, I struggled. It finally dawned on me: Benny is not a journal writer. What "Benny" wound up writing was a sixth grade essay, "My Hero." It took me awhile to decipher it, since Benny's handwriting was mostly illegible (at least in my head), and Benny as a twelve-year old is no Hemingway. But here it is.

* * * * *

My Hero by Benny Needles

My hero is Dean Martin. Dean Martin sings and acts and is a big star. He was born in Steubenville, Ohio on June 7, 1917. His real name is Dino Paul Crocetti. Dean Martin has sang lots of songs and made lots of albums. He has starred in many movies. My favorite is Rio Bravo. He plays Dude who starts out drunk and pretty dirty but then takes a bath and helps John Wayne shoot the bad guys.

Dean Martin is my hero because he is the King of Cool and gets to do fun things, like singing and making movies. He is really funny on his TV show that my mom and me watch every Thursday night. Everybody likes him and they call him Dino which is funny because its his real name even tho he changed it to Dean.

My dad has been gone for two years, so sometimes I get sad and miss him. When my mom says I look like Dean Martin it makes me happy. Sometimes I wish Dean Martin was my dad. Then I could see him every Thursday on TV and maybe we would have a secret sign, like he could wink, to say hello to me. When I grow up, I want to be cool, just like Dean Martin.

 

* * * * *

When I wrote my latest Peri Minneopa Mystery, Hit or Missus, I originally didn't plan to have Benny in the story. He was a client in Freezer Burn, so I thought he wouldn't fit in. I planned to bring him back in the third or fourth book, again as a client. But I had so many readers ask, "You're bringing Benny back, right?" I was surprised. So I found a way for him to return, in a most effective yet annoying role.

I think Benny is now part of the recurring case of my Peri mysteries. This means Dino will be there, too, guiding Benny toward the everlasting light of Cool.

This leads me to a question: What are some of your favorite secondary characters in books you've read?

What are you saying?

by Jenny Hilborne, mystery/thriller author 

“What is the main theme or message of the book?”

I heard this question quite a bit on a booth I shared with 5 other authors at the LA Festival of Books this past April. I’ll admit it had me a bit stumped and I had to scramble for an answer. Madness and Murder has a theme of second chances woven through it, although I wasn’t actually aware of this until a reader pointed it out in a review. 

When I start writing a new novel, I have a main plot in mind and a possible working title, and that’s it. I definitely don’t have any kind of message or theme on my mind. If I'm honest, I don’t intend to convey any kind of message in my novels. I write to entertain rather than to educate. One reason for this is that I can’t be sure my message, should I decide to send one, would be interpreted in the way I intended.

I’d like to pose a question to readers: how important is it for a novel, a work of fiction, to carry a message? Does it need to be moralistic? 

I read fiction (thrillers) because I like to be entertained and I enjoy trying to solve the mystery. I’ve never thought much about whether there was a message in the books I read, and it doesn’t spoil my enjoyment if there isn’t one. Having just read (and loved) To Kill A Mockingbird, I’m not so sure anymore. I believe books with a message are more memorable and stay with the reader for longer. These are the books that generate conversation, which creates interest and spreads the word among the reading community.  Without a message, does the book stand a chance of breaking out from the ever-growing crowd?

I’ve read books by authors who use their work to express themselves and their personal opinions, be it politics, religion, whatever. I tend to shy away from those. As a reader of fiction, I don’t want to know the author's opinion on a subject and have it slant the outcome of the novel, or have it shoved down my throat. I just want a good story. After a little thought on the subject, I'd say I'm of the opinion a message is fine, good even, as long as it's not too intense, but I don't care if there isn't one. How do you feel about it? Do you feel let down if there is no underlying message? 

Real Challenges for Cold Case Investigators

by Tom Adair
Investigating cold cases is, in some ways, like searching out your family genealogy. New technologies have helped us mine data from public records but the data has to exist in the first place right? I have worked on many cold cases; some old, some not so old. They can be very challenging. Some might think that the greatest challenge is the passage of time. While that can be a major obstacle affecting things like memory, there are other issues that can be far more damaging. Cold cases can languish in archives for decades (even longer). They may be passed among dozens of detectives over the years and reside in multiple buildings and locations (as agencies relocate or reallocate space). They may transition from a state of acute institutional knowledge to one of complete unawareness. Like family lore that dies with the passing of a generation.


These issues can lead to massive frustration for the investigator. As authors we should consider how these challenges may influence our storyline and character evolution. Even the most advanced forensic analyses  may fail to provide meaningful answers. It's hard to comprehend future environments. Laws can change, rules can change, people can change. Knowing what critical issues will arise decades from now is an impossible task for criminal investigators. There are some cardinal principles, of course, but rarely does a case boil down to those broad points. The devil is in the details as they say and details have a stubborn habit of getting lost in time. Here are some of the most frustrating.

1. Illegible Reports: Old police reports were largely hand written. Some officers have very poor (illegible) handwriting. If you can't read the report, or the language is unclear, then it may as well not exist. Sometimes you luck out and the deputy is still alive, or perhaps a child can read it but other times you can't. The chicken scratches just taunt you. Do they hold the missing key or are they just redundant case data?It's not just reports either. Notes, crime scene measurements, even the reporting officer's name may be illegible! How do you get a writing standard from someone you can't even identify?
2. Outdated Storage Devices: This is a big one. Since the 1950's police agencies have been utilizing various technologies to store data. In the early days it was microfiche. Today we have terabyte imaging drives. In between these two technologies are a vast number of devices. Some had mass market appeal and others were a flash in the pan. How does a modern agency "read" a 5 1/4" floppy disk? Even if you could find the hardware do you have the software needed to open the file? Imagine a crime scene sketch and measurements done with a program written by some detective's neighbor's kid. How do you open it now? How about old cassette drives or processing 110 formatted photographic film?  Let's say you could find the correct device. Do you have the cables and connections necessary to link it to modern equipment?
3. Evidence Handling: This is huge. DNA didn't exist thirty years ago. Fingerprints weren't recoverable from surfaces that today we can process. I have seen numerous old crime scene and autopsy photos of individuals handling evidence bare handed. I know that sounds terrible but it was just how things were done back in the day. Prosecutors, detectives, officers, doctors, even the media sometimes handled items without gloves. Knowing that, how valuable will any DNA or fingerprint evidence be? Can you even get standards from the old employees and how do you know who even touched the items? This situation also raises concerns about the chain of custody for these items when they are eventually submitted at trial. 
4. Incomplete reports: I hate these. As writers we love to depict the detective taking the case file home and spreading it out all over their coffee table or kitchen counter. Today, we don't do that stuff but forty years ago was a different story. Most of the time the missing data is obvious. You may open a suspicious death inquiry with no autopsy photos. They had to take them but they aren't there! It may be that the Coroner was the custodian and when they left they took their "records" with them. Sometimes old documents are just purged to make space. It sounds crazy but it happens. You may have crime scene photos that were taken but filed under an incorrect case number (maybe the photographer is dyslexic). You can use your imagination because virtually anything that could happen, has happened somewhere. 
5. No trail: Cold cases are called cold for a reason. Time has a way of hiding the trail as they say. Today we can track and identify people much more easily than we could forty years ago. People today leave an enormous data footprint. Back then, everyone in town may have know "Old Man Hitchens" but today it's not much to go on. Phone numbers don't exist and police may have never jotted down things like a date of birth or social security number. A detective on the case may have been able to look at a photo and tell you exactly who was in it. No need to write that information down right? Thirty years later however there may be no one left who is familiar with the case or is able to identify who certain witnesses are. Then there's the issue of identity theft. You can run commercial database searches for "Tom Adair" in Colorado and come up with a dozen different records, many of which are not me. That's a lot of leg work to track all those people down and figure out who is who. 

I wish I could tell you that cold case investigations are hampered only by faulty memories but the truth of the matter is that administrative "systems" and decisions made decades ago can have devastating effects to a case file. Today, many police agencies see the benefit of doing a yearly audit of cold case files. They can identify what "gaps" may exist in the information and try to get them filled. Likewise, investigators working active unsolved cases realize how important it is to dot the "i's" and cross the "t's".  If you are writing about a cold homicide case you should try to incorporate some of these obstacles into your storyline. The average reader may not identify with the frustrations but and cop that reads it will give you a thumb's up.

Interview With Crime Novelist Mar Preston

Jodie Renner: Today’s guest is crime fiction writer Mar Preston, a Canadian who been on vacation in California for more than 40 years.

Mar has written three suspense-mysteries and is just putting the finishing touches on a fourth one. The first two, No Dice and Rip-Off, are both Detective Dave Mason mysteries set in Santa Monica, California. I was fortunate to edit Mar’s last two novels: Rip-Off and Payback, a suspense-mystery set in the mountains of California.

Rip-Off was recently released, and, since I read it and loved it, I wanted to ask Mar a few background questions about the making of this fast-paced page-turner full of suspense, quirky and nasty characters, and international intrigue.

JR: How did you choose to write about something so foreign to you and your Santa Monica locale as Chechen organized crime?

Mar P: For decades, I was an academic researcher at the University of Southern California. All that time I was slowly veering towards the dark side to contrast my rather dry academic life. I lived in Santa Monica, and my first mystery, No Dice, explored its lively political landscape. Dave Mason, my cop, works homicide with the Santa Monica PD.

JR: Where exactly is Santa Monica, and is it really a hotbed of crime?

Mar P: Santa Monica is an eight-square-mile upscale beach city on the balmy shores of Los Angeles. In fact, it’s the place Raymond Chandler called Bay City so many years ago. No, there aren’t a lot of gun battles or gang shoot-outs here. I can't remember where the idea came from to write about Chechen organized crime in my second mystery, Rip-Off. But for the purposes of the story, I needed to raise the stakes.

JR: Before editing Rip-Off, I had barely heard about Chechnya. Where is it, anyway?

Mar P: Chechnya is small country located in the mountains of southeastern Europe. A breakaway republic of Russia, Chechnya has been at the mercy of every invader throughout history that swept across the mountains to devastate its people. It struggles to build the infrastructure of government, law and order, but often loses out to organized crime because crime offers jobs. Those who can, leave. And, of course, not all Chechens are criminals.

JR: How did you prepare to write about this?

Mar P: I’m not sure I prepared. I did the research on a need-to-know basis. Yet once I started burrowing down internet rat holes, it was difficult to stop. Like all writers, I was curious. Do a search for Chechen news sites and you'll see what I mean.

JR: How did you get the speech of the characters to sound so authentic?

Mar P: I set up a Google Alert, read cultural histories, and what novels and accounts I could find in English. For years I read regional newspaper accounts about Chechnya, its wars with Russia, and its increasing fundamentalism. Gradually, individual characters came forward and I began to hear them talk in my mind. No, I am not schizophrenic. Most writers do this.

I heard their stories and the way they speak in the comments they post following pieces in many of the Chechen news sites. The kinds of errors people make writing in English are the kinds of errors they make in speech as well. For example, I saw they commonly left out the definite article “the”

before a noun. I notice this is common to Farsi speakers as well—and probably many other non-native English speakers.

JR: How did you manage to give the reader the necessary background to follow the story without a lot of info dumps?

Mar P: Here are some tricks I used to work in background: Mason reads police reports and he strikes up conversation with a visiting Moscow police official. He meets with an academic at UCLA. I tried to integrate the expository pieces with Mason's need to know as well.

JR: The stakes were high in Rip-Off, with several levels of law enforcement involved, at times almost coming to blows with each other!

Mar P: Yes, Mason isn’t the only law enforcement official who’s interested in the international criminals strolling Santa Monica’s “mean streets.” SMPD butts up against the FBI, whose cases are often trumped by the authority of the Homeland Security. Everybody wants a grab at the credit when Mason solves the case.

Fortunately, these entities only intersect in a couple of scenes at the end of the book. That meant hundreds more hours burrowing down into websites looking for up-to-the minute glimpses into how the FBI and Homeland Security relate.

JR: Was it depressing or tedious doing all that research for the book?

Mar P: No, I loved every minute.

JR: So do you think all those hours of research were necessary to make your book realistic?

Mar P: I'll let the readers decide on reading Rip-Off.

JR: It was a pleasure working on this great story with you, Mar! And the most recent one, Payback, too!

Mar P: Thanks for the interview, Jodie. And I want to thank you for catching the many glitches, times out of sequence, and point of view shifts in both Rip-Off and Payback. Neither would have been as good a book without your clever eye.

To find out more about the amazing Mar Preston and her crime fiction novels, visit her website at www.MarPreston.com, and her blog at http://marpreston.com/blog/.

To order Rip-Off from Amazon, click here.