It Was a Dark and Stormy Contest

If you’ve been planning on entering the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest this year, you’d better hop to it. You may or may not have missed the deadline.

Following the irreverence of the contest in general, the rules state: “The official deadline is April 15 (a date that Americans associate with painful submissions and making up bad stories). The actual deadline may be as late as May 30 (the 2009 results will be released by mid-June).” So go for it. The worst that can happen is that your entry becomes one of the first for 2010.

The Bulwer-Lytton contest has been sponsored by the San Jose State University English Department since 1982. The full history of the contest can be found at the official website, but the abbreviated version is that Prof. Scott Rice, a veteran (suffering) judge of more (horrible) writing competitions than he liked to remember, wondered what would happen if he challenged entrants to write openings to “the worst of all possible novels.” The first year, Rice held the contest just for SJSU students and attracted only three entries, but the second year, he took the contest not only national but international and netted an astounding 10,000 entries.

The name of the contest honors Edward-George Bulwer-Lytton, a Victorian novelist whose works include The Last Days of Pompeii, Eugene Aram, Rienzi, The Caxtons, and The Coming Race. Most importantly, he authored Paul Clifford, which opens with the words immortalized by the world’s greatest novelist, Snoopy:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Contest entries should be one sentence, preferably no longer than 50 to 60 words, and never before published. There’s no limit to how many entries you can submit. (One person submitted more than 3,000 one year!) If you email them, put them in the body of the message; do not send an attachment. If you wish, you can put them all in the same message. Then email them to srice@pacbell.net.

Snail-mailed entries should be submitted on index cards, one per card, with the sentence on one side of the card and your name, address, and phone number on the other. Mail the cards to:

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
Department of English
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192-0090

For all you ever wanted to know about the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest and to see the complete list of “childishly simple” rules, click here.

On Research: Locating People

In my previous post discussing research methods for my W-I-P, A Perfect Night for Murder,  I explained that in an effort to locate people who might still be alive in the half-century old case, I compiled a list of those involved and checked it against the SSDI. The remaining names became my wish list of people to locate (although I understood that the absence of a name in the SSDI didn’t necessarily mean a person was still alive), and with any luck -- interview. 

There are several directory assistance sites available, but I used Searchbug.com, where I obtained listed phone numbers. I ran reverse address searches, too. I was surprised to learn that some residents remained in the same location -- over fifty years later. However, in such a small village with a tightly-knit community, this is not unusual.

The reverse address search also helped me determine where many businesses once stood. 

I conducted interviews on the phone; in person; via email and snail mail.  Many of the people I interviewed led me to others with information -- always a bonus. 

I was already a dues-paying member of Classmates.com when I began this journey. I find the message boards very helpful; I have posted requests for assistance and the members have responded beautifully, sharing their memories and information. Also, the site became a resource for finding relatives of those connected to the case.

Crime and Suspense, The Final Issue

Last month I told you that Tony Burton has decided to discontinue publishing the e-zine Crime and Suspense. Generous guy that he is, Tony opened the last few issues to subscribers and non-subscribers alike.

The May/June 2009 issue will be the final issue.

Tony invites everyone to drop by the e-zine site and click on the Subscribers' Area. There you’ll find the May/June issue and a number of its worthy predecessors all eager to be read.

So grab that cup of tea, water bottle, or ice cold mug of beer and give yourself the pleasure of enjoying book reviews, author interviews and some terrific mystery shorts.

Thanks, Tony!

Terrie

Two Sentence Tuesday - Hint Fiction Edition

Last week, Kathleen posted about a Hint Fiction contest being held by Robert Swartwood. There's still time to enter, so I thought I would encourage our readers to give it a shot by posting my two entries here. It's more than two sentences, but some weeks that's what happens!

A SHORT AND BRUTAL LIFE
Three years old: orphaned in a drive-by. Nineteen: orphaned another man’s child in turn. Thirty-two: out of appeals; lethal injection.

AFTERNOON SURPRISE
Crap. I should have known not to walk barefoot in the dog park.

Two sentences I read, from Catherine Mann's Defender:

No one needed to state the obvious. Riots in the area boded poorly for getting Chuck out of there without detection or a major incident--if, in fact, this hunch even played out.

What about you? Did you enter the contest? Did you write something else? Let us know, and we'll add a link!

• Barbara Martin has some scenic sentences on her blog.
• Leah J. Utas has time travel up this week.
• Crystal Phares has screaming sentences on her blog
  

Need That November Kick In The Tush?

A group of writers feeling the need for a little extra push has decided to put together an informal "MayNoWriMo" on LiveJournal. There's no formal organization, like there is in November's NaNoWriMo, it's just a group of people egging each other on.

So if you're the kind of person who likes to get a push from others around you also trying to write to a deadline, you may want to check it out. Given that I am suffering post-partum blockage and haven't worked since I emailed my draft to my agent, I think I will give it a shot. Oh, I won't be hanging out over there, but if anyone here wants to challenge themselves with me, that would be great!

A Poem in Your Pocket Day

As National Poetry Month draws to a close, "A Poem in Your Pocket" day arrives this Thursday. 

The premise is simple: on April 30th,  carry a poem in your pocket and show it to friends, family, or colleagues.

Here’s the one I will carry -- a classic by none other than Billy Collins, who I am fortunate to call my friend:

"The Lanyard"

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

"The Lanyard" appears in The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems, published by Random House in 2005.

For a real treat, enjoy listening to Billy read it on this clip.

What about you? Which poem will you choose to carry in your pocket?

The Prosecution Rests Book Launch

Edgar Week is coming to town.

Each year the Mystery Writers of America hosts Edgar Week in New York. There is a grand Symposium and a blow-out of an Awards Banquet. At the Agents and Editors Cocktail party, Mary Higgins Clark presents the Simon Shuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award to some lucky novelist.

This year Edgar Week has an exciting addition. The MWA anthology The Prosecution Rests will be formally launched on Tuesday, April 28 at 6:00 pm in The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street in New York City. Phone: 212-587-1011

You may remember that I told you about the anthology here.

The launch promises to be a gala occasion. Our great pals Anita Page and Angela Zeman will be available to sign book copies along with Linda Fairstein, Kate Gallison, Daniel Hale, Diana Hansen-Young, John Putre, S.J. Rozan, Morley Swingle, and Joe Wallace.

I have already read half the stories in the anthology and I can tell you this is a masterful group of writers. Stay tuned for more about The Prosecution Rests.

Terrie

Friday Fun - April 24, 2009

The month's almost over! You deserve a good laugh. ...But what makes for a GOOD laugh? Whatcha think?

Here goes:

A policeman pulls a man over for speeding and asks him to get out of the car.

After looking the man over he says, "Sir, I couldn't help but notice your eyes are bloodshot. Have you been drinking?"

The man gets indignant and says, "Officer, I couldn't help but notice your eyes are glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?"

Thanks to http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/scanner/jokes/police/cops.html
Thanks for the laughs, Uncle Jimmy!

Thaaaaat’s all, pals!
Thanks for stopping by!
Nan

The Book As Object

In all the hubbub about the death of traditional print books, it was interesting to read this article from the NYT about an online comic being turned into a print book. What I found most interesting was this particular paragraph, which aligns pretty closely with my own ideas about the future of print books:

In fact, the xkcd story previews the much more likely future of books in which they are prized as artifacts, not as mechanisms for delivering written material to readers. This is print book as vinyl record — admired for its look and feel, its cover art, and relative permanence — but not so much for convenience.

I do find it a bit odd that xkcd is going to be a book. I read the comic but can't see owning a book of the strips. On the other hand, I love books as objects and collect my favorites in editions I will never read because they are too precious to be damaged (more than they are when I get them, since they are often quite old when I find them).

I think the print book market will split into two pieces. The first will be fulfilled by kiosks like the Espresso Book Machine. You can watch a video of this machine below. Amazon is already using this technology, and I can't imagine that anything other than this kind of production makes sense in the future for inexpensive copies of books because it eliminates returns, shipping, etc.



On the other end of the spectrum, I think you'll find high end collector's copies of books. Once upon a time, owning a first edition meant something. Now, with bestsellers, they print so many "first editions" that that market has diminished. Sure, they're still on nicer paper, but generally they're not worth much. As eReaders proliferate, and print books get supplied by kiosks, there won't be "print runs" per se, or "first editions." Instead, I predict "special editions" and a return to the days in which boutique printers became known for the look and feel of the books they put out. If you want to collect, say, all of John Connolly's work, you'll be able to pick a variety of printers. Whoever's look and feel appeals, that's who you'll go with.

What about you guys? Does that sound too far out to you? Do you see something else coming down the pike?

"Hint Fiction" contest

Up for a challenge? Write a "Hint Fiction" story for a contest sponsored by the author (Robert Swartwood) who recently coined the term (read his essay here). Hint Fiction is a story of under 25 words, not including the title. The winning entry will be chosen by Stewart O'Nan.

The deadline is April 30th.

The winner receives a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.

Two Sentence Tuesday

OK, so I wrote nothing last week but email. That's because I needed a week due to the two words I wrote the week before: THE END. But, just to be fair, here are two sentences from my email to my agent.

It's definitely more mainstream thriller with romantic elements than it is romantic suspense. I'd love to get your feedback when you get a chance!

As for the sentences I read, they're from Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver.

We live by stories--our own and those of others, real and imagined. It's how we relate and stay connected on the most personal and intimate level. We need stories, the story process, to maintain our balance and our identity.

What about you? Did you write something more exciting than email this week? Read something juicy? Tell us about it in the comments, or post on your blog and we'll link back to it.

• Crystal Phares is back at the keyboard this week!
• Leah J. Utas has two "reflective" sentences up this week.
  

MTM: Wincanton, Somerset, UK

Okay, not my home town, but some lucky someone's, because that town has decided to name several streets and lanes after the locations from (now Sir) Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Add it to my travel list! Maybe Lyzzydee has heard more about it.

Love isn't quite a strong enough word for how I feel about these books, but if you're not familiar with the sprawling Discworld, this colorful schematic of the 30+ novels and other works may be helpful. If you are already a fan and not a Somerset local, like me, you are polishing your passport to get your own picture taken at Peach Pie Street. No, Photoshopping is cheating, and cheating yourself of the genuine experience. The nefarious character seen above left is the author.


Extra dose of the character DEATH from the novel Mort and this excellent fan page.

Sputtering About Tweets

Last year — when I realized that my habit of devouring wisdom about writing and publishing was foiling my efforts to strap butt to chair and finish my writing projects — I stopped my subscriptions to Writers Digest, Poets & Writers, and a host of others. Same for online discussion lists and even blogs I’d faithfully followed. 

These days I’m tentatively stepping back into bedlam, even trying to keep up with Facebook and LinkedIn. And as I shudder, watching authors and professionals embrace YouTube and Twitter, I’m beginning to wonder whether the race is worthwhile. You’ve got to be quick. It helps to be witty. And you must have time on your hands.

Check out the following:

• Sara Weinman, in Hail Twitteronia, links to her piece about Twitter published in the May/June edition of Poets & Writers. In it she says, “...many in the publishing industry now consider Twitter an essential marketing and communication tool: Publishers such as Random House, Graywolf Press, and New Directions interact directly and instantaneously with reviewers, booksellers, and industry professionals about new and forthcoming titles.” 
  
• There are a bunch of authors on Twitter, but what about mystery writers? You’ll find a lot of them listed in Librarian D.O.A. (who is she/he???) where there’s a March 17 piece with a fairly extensive list of mystery, suspense, and thriller authors “who use Twitter to keep their fans and friends up to date.” The post remarks on the fact that it’s hard to find stuff by subject on Twitter, that this list is a first stab at cataloging authors of the genre.

And if your day job is consulting or freelancing, see:

• In a KiplingerBusinessResourceCenter post, Michael Doan explains how tweets can benefit even small businesses.

If you tweet, what do you think? If not, why not?

Lois

The International Billionaire's Secretary's Secret Baby Rocks!

Laura originally sent this ABC article and video link to me, but she's too busy being productive to post it, so I'll take the credit.

No matter how you feel about romance novels, per se, you probably like reading stories with romantic relationships in them. The treatment and amount of focus that you prefer is personal taste, a function of who you are, and you don't have to adore The International Billionaire's Secretary's Secret Baby to admit, head head high, that love rocks! And if you did enjoy TIBSSB, say that loud and proud, too! During economic troubles, a few hours of enjoyment with a $5 paperback seems like a bargain. We may be on the cusp of the rebirth of pulp, even if it's occasionally e-pulp.

As an educated person with appreciation for diner eggs, bowling, and the well-crafted velvet Elvis, joy-killing literary snobbery makes me have to scratch. I will not discuss (or defend) all the permutations and explicit hotness levels and variety of quality that exists in romantic fiction, except to say that the best of it is very fine writing, as it is in any of the genre ghettos. And furthermore, it's almost impossible (do try) to think of meaningful literary classics without an important love at their centers. The tally's as small as the number without a great mystery or injustice at their hearts.

Editorializing and business aside, the celebrities, from Paul Rudd to George Will, reading snips from romance novels is simply too hilarious to miss.

Thoughts on Research: The SSDI

Our fellow Sister-in-Crime and blogmate, Nan Higginson, has again inspired another posting this week (Laura’s “Thoughts on Finished Projects,” was in response to Nan’s question). During one of our trips on the LIRR, I explained to Nan how I conducted some of my research for my WIP true crime memoir, A PERFECT NIGHT FOR MURDER. Nan suggested I blog about some of these methods (thanks, Nan!)

I’d like to share a series of posts explaining these methods. My background as a police officer and a genealogy buff came in handy. 

In 2002, when I began reviewing the 47-year-old unsolved murder case that has interested me since childhood, I recorded the names in the file on an Excel spreadsheet. For each person listed, I included pertinent info I found, such as an address, DOB or approximate age, connection to the case (detective, witness, suspect, etc.)

Since I was researching a case nearly five decades old, I turned to the SSDI (Social Security Death Index), found on Rootsweb.com (a guide on how to use found here).A unique name was a pleasure to search, usually resulting in one hit. A common name might reveal hundreds of hits. 

To reduce the list, I used an advanced search. Besides the year of birth (if known), the following "eliminators" were helpful: 

• The “Last Residence” entry. Many residents who were born in the small village where the murder occurred tended to live their lives and die there. The name of the village became a beacon. 

• The “State of Issue" entry. I would take a stab at “New York," which reduced the list and I usually got lucky.
  

I was perplexed when I couldn’t find the names of those who I knew were deceased; I discovered the following causes:

1. If the subject was known primarily by their middle name (as I discovered during a trip to the cemetery -- I’ll save that adventure for another post), and their "real" first name was not public knowledge
2. If the subject was never issued a social security number
3. Their death went unreported to the Social Security Administration
4. Many of those who died prior to 1962 may not be listed in this index

My intent was to locate the subjects involved in the case who remained alive (yet another post to follow).

What fascinating or unusual methods have you used to conduct your research? 

Friday Fun - April 17, 2009

Surviving the Tax season merits a cheer. Instead, I send you this:

Driving to work on a clear, sunny day, a middle aged guy swerved as a box fell out of the truck in front of him.

Seconds later a cop pulled him over for reckless driving.

Another officer spotted the carton in the road, stopped traffic and recovered the box filled with large upholstery tacks.

The driver and the cop were bickering over the reckless driving charge when the second cop appeared, box in hand.

The first cop didn't skip a beat. "I'm sorry sir," he told the driver, "but I am still going to have to write you a ticket."

Amazed, the driver asked for what.

The trooper replied, "Tacks evasion."

(Enormous groan time!)

Thaaaaat's all, pals!
Thanks for the laughs, Uncle Jimmy!

Thanks for stopping by!
Nan

April Showers Bring May Classes

Several times in the past, I've written about an online class or two coming up the following month. Each time, I had people thank me afterward because they ended up taking one of the classes and enjoying it.

I've taken several online classes myself over the years and I've found most of them to be beneficial. Not only are they convenient, but the subjects are often very specific. Furthermore, every student is privy to all the teacher-student interactions, and the assignments bring valuable feedback from the other students in addition to the teacher.

Online writing classes are available through a number of venues these days. Some cost as little as $15 or $30, while others are $300 or even quite a bit more. In my experience, the quality is the same. In fact, the best classes seem to be given by working writers who have perfected a certain facet of their craft or business and occasionally offer a class on it through whatever venue extends an invitation.

Following is a sampling of the venues that regularly offer online writing classes and the classes they're offering this May. Searching for "online writing classes" will turn up quite a few more.

Writer University made its debut in May 2005. Growing by word of mouth, it today offers up to half a dozen classes a month. The classes are two to four weeks long and are taught by such popular instructors as Mary Buckham, Margie Lawson, and Alicia Rasley. The regular classes cost $30 and the master classes $55. The master classes are limited to thirty students and often require the completion of a prerequisite course.

Two classes are still available in May:

• "Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices and More," Margie Lawson, May 1-30, $30
• "Grammar for the Faint of Heart," Cheryl Norman, May 4-29, $30

Writers Online Classes has also been around for several years now and picked up a solid following. Founded by Mary O'Gara and Diana Rowe, it usually offers three to four classes a month, with the classes starting at different points during the month and running for two to four weeks. Most of the classes cost $30, but some run $50 or $60 and a few very hot classes can be as much as $90 to $125. The instructors include Candy Havens, Robin Perini & Laura Baker, and Karen Wiesener.

Three classes are still available in (or beginning in) May:

• "Journey Steps: Taking the Train to Somewhere," Susan Meier, May 1-30, $30
• "Mastering the Short Synopsis: For Those Who Hate to Write Them!" Mary Buckham, May 3-16, $90
• "Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist," Margie Lawson, May 31-June 13, $30

The Kiss of Death Chapter of Romance Writers of America offers two classes a month through its College of Felony and Intrigue, aka COFFIN. One of the classes each month is in the "Murder One" tract, focusing on the "technical aspects of murder and mayhem," and one is in the "Killer Instincts" tract, focusing on "writing craft topics." RWA membership isn't necessary, although Kiss of Death Chapter members pay $15 while nonmembers pay $30.

The two classes offered this May are:

• "A Behind the Scenes Look at a Fully Operational Forensic Crime Laboratory," a "Murder One" class, Robert Genna, May 1-31
• "Deconstructing Emotion," a "Killer Instincts" class, Suzanne McMinn, May 1-31

Two other well respected venues for online writing classes are Writers Online Workshops, owned by the same company as Writer's Digest Magazine and Writer's Digest Books, and Gotham Writers Workshops. Both offer too many classes to list here.

For class descriptions and registration information, click on the names of the venues and follow the links.

Thoughts on Finished Projects

A few months ago, one of my fellow Women of Mystery (hi, Nan!) asked me how many projects I'd finished. After much discussion of what constituted "finishing" a fiction project, we agreed that she meant getting a first draft done, with all the holes filled but unpolished. As we sat waiting for our Sisters in Crime meeting to commence, I tried to come up with a list. But I think I left out a couple. The other day, I "finished" my current WIP, at least by that definition, and I recalled her question.

The first book I ever wrote was a picture book. I wrote it in first grade, and it was called The Speshel Dog. You can see it here, reproduced in its entirety. I didn't have much idea of story arc, but I had a fine sense of audience and included both a dedication--to my mother, because she always wanted a book--and a dog. (I won't subject you to the sequel about the little girl who wanted a dog and the dog who wanted a family. I think that was written in third grade; better penmanship and an actual plot, but no colorful pictures of dogs milking cows.)

Despite the enormous success of my first two books, it was many years before I wrote another. I wrote short stories here and there, but never really did anything with them. Eventually, I decided I wanted to write a novel. But I knew myself. I'm dreadfully ADD, and I had no idea whether I could finish such a thing. So I set out to write a category romance. Not because I thought it would be easier than anything else, but because it was the shortest form of novel around.

It took me ages to complete, and once it was done it seemed a shame to let it molder, so I shipped it off to Harlequin. It was rejected ten months later with the comment that my characters had too much baggage. That seemed a bit much to me, since this was the eighties and everyone had baggage, but by then I was on my way to writing my next book.



Luckily, I'd switched genres and lightened the characters' luggage. That project was a 119,000 word epic fantasy. And yes, I wrote it all by hand. I still really like that story and I periodically think about resurrecting it. It would need a lot of editing. Like every other manuscript from under the bed, there are reasons it never found a home with a publisher. (Reasons beyond the fact that I submitted it only to one publisher, and the rejection--though it was personalized and really helpful--was too hard for me.)

After that, there was a YA book that I never submitted anywhere. It was a story I just needed to write. I finished it and filed it. Thought about writing another, but both of them were too dark and depressing. Of course, that was in the early 90's. Things have changed a lot since then.

Then I took a break. I was working, writing curriculum, then going to grad school and too busy writing academic work to write fiction.

My academic career came to an abrupt end when my epilepsy meds went on the fritz, but when they stabilized the drugs after a couple years, I suddenly wrote the first draft of my first mystery. It took six weeks start to finish. All I can say is it must have been percolating all the time I wasn't writing, because I am by no means a fast writer.

That was the point at which I got serious about getting published. I joined organizations, researched editors and agents, polished the manuscript way beyond what I had done to previous ones. In the process I realized that the Internet had changed everything about the process. Instead of going out and buying a Writers Market, picking through the entries for someone who seemed right to me and knowing, even while I did, that the entry was probably long out of date, I could go online and find up-to-the-minute data.

Of course, so could everyone else.

Still, there was something energizing about being able to do that kind of research when I didn't feel like writing. So while I was out trying to sell that first mystery, I wrote the next one in the series. Of course, then the rejections started coming in and they all said the same thing:

Academic mysteries don't sell.

So, really, why was I considering the third book when the whole "hook" of the series was going to be a turn off to agents and editors. (I'm not touching the question of whether or not it would intrigue readers--it had to get past the first hurdles first because that's the route I've chosen to publication.) Instead, I discussed another possible hook for a mystery with an agent at Sleuthfest a couple of years ago, and she said "finish it and send it to me."

So that was mystery number three, the beadmaking mystery. It got me an agent (woohoo!!) but she couldn't sell it. I don't know who was more surprised or frustrated by that--her or me. But she said that the traditional mystery market was a tough one, and I said "well, as it turns out, I've been thinking about this romantic suspense project." And it was off to the races.

Friday, I filled in the last missing scene of that manuscript. Now I have to edit it, but I do a lot of that as I go along, so it shouldn't be too much work. I'm nervous about this because I've never tried to write anything remotely like it before, but when I look back at this post I realize I've done a lot of genre-switching over the years. So maybe it will be okay. And luckily, my agent recently wrote a post about how she's willing to work to improve her clients' work rather than kicking them out on their keisters.

So wish me luck in this, the ninth attempt. (Yes, I am counting the first one, spelling errors and all.)

Hot Off The Press

I got home from visiting Grandson # 1 and Granddaughter #2 only to find Granddaughter # 3 waiting excitedly because she had a package that had been delivered to her house in my absence. It was addressed to me. After providing cookies and kisses, I opened the package and there it was:

~ TADA ~

Mystery Writers of America Presents The Prosecution Rests: New Stories about Courtrooms, Criminals, and the Law edited by Linda Fairstein.

This latest of the MWA anthologies will be officially launched at the end of April during Edgar Week, but I am ready to sit down and revel in the stories right this very minute. A special treat for the Women of Mystery is that one of the contributors to this anthology is our own Sisters in Crime New York Tri/State chapter member Anita Page, whose story, The Lie, drew critical acclaim in our chapter anthology, Murder New York Style.

Along with Anita, other SinC chapter members with stories in The Prosecution Rests are Michele Martinez and editor Linda Fairstein .

Our friends at the Criminal Brief Weblog are well represented with stories written by Leigh Lundin and Angela Zeman in the anthology .

A special note to David Cranmer: The lead story in The Prosecution Rests is a heretofore unpublished mystery by the late Ed Hoch.

Well, I’m off to a grand night of reading. There are twenty-two stories in all. I’ll let you know what gems I discover.

Terrie

Two Sentence Tuesday - Feel Good Edition

Before we get to the usual twofer (wow, spellcheck recognizes "twofer" as a word, but not "spellcheck"), I have to provide a link to this, which is an amazing "feel good" video: Susan Boyle, 47-year-old singer on Britain's Got Talent.

That said, my two clips this week from an article I think is worth reading if you want to know where your food comes from. It's called Politics of the Plate: The Price of Tomatoes.

Said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, "We abhor slavery and do everything we can to prevent it. We want to make sure that we always foster a work environment free from hazard, intimidation, harassment, and violence."

[...]

But when asked if it is reasonable to assume that an American who has eaten a fresh tomato from a grocery store or food-service company during the winter has eaten fruit picked by the hand of a slave, Molloy said, “It is not an assumption. It is a fact.”

Hmm, perhaps I should have put the feel-good video after the clips. If you go over and read the whole article, and I really recommend it, you'll definitely need to watch it (or the Easter Bunny video from Sunday) again.

One of the scenes I had to fill in this past week was a fight scene, so here are a few sentences from that:

As they rolled, she felt the shears in her pants pocket and cursed herself for forgetting them. They thumped down a stair, and as his arm came around her neck she got her hand on the scissors. She couldn’t release them from the pocket where they’d tangled, so she didn’t bother, merely pushing them backward into her assailant’s leg.

So, what have you been reading? Writing? Adding? Subtracting? Oh, wait, I got carried away. It's 2:30am and I really shouldn't be writing blog posts at this hour. Anyway, put your two cents in the comments, or let us know where to find them and we'll update this post during the day with links.

---

• David Cranmer has some pulpy goodness over on his site.
• Barbara Martin keeps the suspense going on her site.
• Crystal Phares is into worn jeans and...heaving bosoms.
• Leah J. Utas has some existential sentences on her blog.
  

MTM: Music Row, New York City

A couple of years ago I posted a brief reminiscence about Book Row, the second-hand book enclave in New York City, that no longer exists.

Well now it seems that Music Row on and around west 48th Street is about to follow the way of Book Row and fade into history. Next month Manny’s Music will close its doors. That general area, a few blocks north of Times Square, has been the home to music stores that have serviced clients for decades. Any eleventh grader from the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art receives the same patient attention and service that Benny Goodman and members of the band U2 have received. It's that kind of place.

The Lost City Blog explains the importance of Manny’s and Music Row much better than I can. For any musician or any New Yorker, the comments on the post are heartbreaking.

Here is a tour of Manny’s courtesy of You Tube. The visual is astonishing. I don’t have audio on the computer I am presently using, so I hope the sound is as evocative as the video.

If the rumors are true, a large real estate group wants to buy up the small buildings on west 48th and the surrounding blocks and put up large office buildings similar to the one in the background of this picture.

And they will call it progress.

By the time this post shows up on Women of Mystery, I will be on an airplane winging my way home to New York, and perhaps I’ll make some time in the next few weeks to re-visit Music Row.

For more My Town Monday trips around the world, please visit Travis Erwin keeper of the My Town Monday list.

Terrie

Rap Rabbits

Ever try to write a rap? Check out:

http://www.dougpatton.com/custom/flash/rapeasterbunny.swf

For those of you who celebrate the day...and for those who don't...here's one that will make you smile.

- Lois

image from uxbridgeholidaynight.org

Forgotten Book Friday, Short Story Version

This week our intrepid Forgotten Book Friday leader Patti Abbott has asked us to talk about a short story written some time ago that hovers in our memory.

The lovely thing about contemporary mystery stories is that if they stay in the good grace of the readership for a generation or two, the story becomes an excellent period piece. Such is the case with Agatha Christie’s The Blue Geranium, which was written before I was born. The first time I read it, in the 1950s, there were still a few old ladies who wore lace mittens (fingerless gloves) when they “dressed” for an occasion, and who draped a fichu (square lace or linen scarf, folded as a triangle and frequently fastened with a jeweled brooch) around their shoulders, so Miss Marple seemed quite appropriately dressed at the Bantry’s dinner party, which is the setting for most of the story. Today, young people would think that Miss Marple is quaint and that the weapon and method in this story are hopelessly old fashioned. Yet the story holds.

What is it about the Miss Marple stories that give them so much staying power? I think it is that the reader knows that within the dinner table conversation is every subtle clue, if only the reader could find them and put the pieces together, but alas, Miss Marple generally wins that race.

For more links to posts about interesting short stories, click on over to Patti’s blog.

Terrie

Friday Fun - April 10, 2009

Feel like Tax Day is way too close? Need a beer? Consider the following:

Arkansas

Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided to throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run.

He found a perfect cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window.

The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious.

Turns out that the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass. The whole event was caught on videotape.
Very entertaining!

Thanks to www.legal-forms-kit.com
Thanks for the laughs, Uncle Jimmy!

Thaaaaat’s all, pals!
Thanks for stopping by!
Nan

Power of Language: Career Haiku

I'm often struck by the clever (or amusingly not-so) use of language in everyday life. And it's been strange days in corporate land lately.

I have a dear friend working at [Big Company] who knows a guy providing various internal technical services. This poor shlub was informed that, circumstances being what they are, despite heroic efforts, his performance review was destined to be craptastic.

Like anything passed through the alimentary canal of corporate HR, the lengthy form he was provided for self-evaluation reeks of buzz-speak and CYA redundancy. I'll spare you the endless bullets, but he was asked to rate himself in the following areas: Planning & Execution of Projects; Ownership, Accountability, and Interaction; Problem Management; Standards & Processes; Financial Management; Leadership; Connectivity; Developing Provocative Dialogues; Client Focus; and Technical Learning. Makes me wince just reading that.

However, this one man refused to be defeated by small minds and smaller raises. He fought back with the power of poetry, and this is the verbatim response he delivered to his boss:

Planning is important
There is much to keep on track
Accomplished on time!

Working with others
Perception's Reality
Everyone's happy

So unexpected!
All problems are important
Things break all the time

We should all agree
Standards are necessary
We work together

They all must be paid
Or the work will not get done
Money makes it go!

Lead by example
No one's paying attention
I still do what's right

We are a business
I support [Company]
refer Customers!

Words are important
But I must be understood
Don't cross the thin line

Service Company
The client is why we're here
We keep them happy

They offer training
But there's no training budget
I will find a way!

Apparently, his boss sympathized, so it wasn't job hara-kiri.
But this is one Zenned-out IT muthafuggah, ya'll. I am awed and inspired.

The House Across the Street

A truly flipped house in Paju, South Korea

Whenever I sit at my desk, I can see the house across the street around the edges of my computer monitor. Lately, that house has been a beehive of activity. This has been distracting, but also motivating.

The house across the street has been sitting empty for three years now. We've been in our house for four years, and the first year we were here we became friendly with the old owner there. One day, we saw him loading up his car, however, and that was that. He was outta there.

He'd inherited the house from his parents, he explained. But one of his brothers had also recently passed and left him a house, plus he had his own house. All three houses were long miles apart--one here in western Long Island, one in eastern Long Island, and one upstate. He was spending more time traveling to his houses than staying in them. On top of that, the upkeep on the houses was adding up. Plus he was divorced and paying child support--for teenager$.

Step one of getting out from under, he said, was selling his parents' house to another brother, who had visions of flipping it. But while the new owner/brother did do work on the house, that work was sporadic. Extremely. Meanwhile, the front lawn went to seed, the Dumpster in the driveway became a permanent fixture (and neighborhood wastebasket), and the house itself became a popular spot for local kids to party and vagrants to crash. I don't know how often I found half a dozen police cars, strobe lights flashing, out in front of my house and even in my driveway, and a police helicopter circling above.

But at the turn of the new year, something changed. Some days, so many different workers are running around the house that it almost looks like a bumper car track. And as I said, this has been distracting, but it's also been motivating. For many years, I was like the new owner--picking away at my novel sporadically. But lately, I've been pushing on it. And on those days when my muse is sleeping in, all I have to do is sit down at my computer and peek around my monitor, where I can see the rundown house across the street shaping up into a beautiful new home. After watching even just a few seconds, how can I not put my fingers to the keyboard and tap away at building my novel?

Two Sentence Tuesday

The end of my manuscript approaches! If you're like me, you sometimes have spots you just can't think about when you come to them, so you have to leave them blank and go back later. I have two of those to fill in, and then I am done! Woohoo!

Here are two sentences from one of the other spots I had to fill in:

The front window held an enormous lobster tank, with dozens of the Caribbean crustaceans crawling over one another. Their brown, mottled shells and spidery limbs reminded her more of supersized crawfish than of the bright red Atlantic lobsters she’d grown up eating.

A few sentences I read, from Pop Matters. All the information/links here apply to non-fiction publishing, particularly "news" books, but they are interesting nonetheless.

Reihan Salam links to this post from Tim O’Reilly, in which he suggests that publishing is becoming like software development—a process involving many authors working quickly (and perhaps patching bugs later). The fact that he is working on a Twitter book seems to underscore the point, though I can’t imagine who in the world would want such a thing. (Sort of like the board-game home version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?")

What did you write? Anything you read that excited you?

• Barbara Martin has two very creepy sentences up.
• Crystal Phares has two sentences about raising and running quarter horses.

More Free Kindles

Apparently the thing to do these days is give away Kindles. I already mentioned the Bookgasm contest, but Deanna Raybourn is also giving away a Kindle. Check out her site for details.

If you're a South Park fan, you can win a Kindle at First on Mars, but the contest ends Tuesday, so get there soon!

If you're a Twitter user, you can win a Kindle from Axiom by entering their Easter Twegg contest.

Slightly Delayed due to Plague

Oh, the wonderful things I find online. I was keeping distracted with super-fun activities this weekend, and all went splendidly, except for the now unavoidable fact that I've been steadily encroached upon by plague.

I woke up at noon today without a hangover, court date, or tattoo to show for it. I'm trying to nip the mess before it takes out 1/3 of Western civilization though. Anyway, I was going to put up some cheery plague-inspired artwork, and found this image and explanation of the Bubonic plague doctor's eerie uniform with mask. I also learned where my husband can get his own. But, if you're like me...

...you were immediately reminded of something else.

I'm going to have to submit it here.

Win a Kindle!

Bookgasm has partnered with HarperCollins, publishers of Andrew Gross' new book, Don't Look Twice, to give away a brand, spanking new Kindle 2 (plus an autographed copy of Gross' book)!

For details, head on over to the Bookgasm blog.

Miscellaneous Weekend Greenery

Perhaps your forsythia's blooming. My catmint has survived the winter, and I'm about to get a daffodil or two. But a group of Thai Buddhist monks collected a million donated bottles from their community, turning the green-glass Heineken and brown-glass Chang beer refuse into a temple. Now that's transcendentally greening up the place! More pictures and story here.

Jabberwocky Wordle

Jabberwocky, derived by Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/)

I just discovered Wordle through the Stop You're Killing Me newsletter. I am charmed. Here's a Word cloud picture about Chocolate from my blog post on scents:

Signs of Life

Marriage, Birth, Death...Bingo? I laughed uncontrollably upon reading this tremendous sign when I visited the Brookhaven Town Clerk’s office with my husband. We were applying for a temporary disabled/handicapped parking permit due to his recent knee surgery. 

Throughout my years of genealogical research, in my quest to locate the vital records of my ancestors, I must admit I never encountered a Bingo connection. 

I didn’t want the employees to think I had evil intentions by whipping out a camera and taking photos of their office (I’ll never stop thinking like a cop), so I asked permission to take the photo of the humorous sign. The clerk, who shook his head and smiled, agreed. 

Out of curiosity, I later looked up the history of Bingo to see if there was any connection to central life events that I was missing. I didn’t discover any, but I learned something new.

The roots of the game began in Italy in 1530. The popular game arrived in the U.S. in 1929 during a carnival in Atlanta, Georgia. A player would call out, “Beano!” (named for the beans used to mark the spots on the card) if they won. Edwin S. Rowe, a toy salesman who was visiting the carnival, brought the game back to his home in New York. He overheard a woman call out, “Bingo” by mistake. Rowe liked that name better, and he hired a Columbia University math professor, Carl Leffler, to increase the number combinations on the cards. Leffler allegedly went insane after coming up with 6,000 combinations (you would have lost me way before first 1,000). 

According to About.com, more than $90 million is spent weekly on Bingo in North America alone. I certainly understand the importance of licensing. 

I thought the juxtaposition of words conveying major life events and Bingo was odd. But come to think of it, the birth of a child may take all the luck in the world; my daughter was an IVF baby, who took four years to conceive. During each round of IVF you may as well roll the dice. The odds involved could rival any game of Bingo (unless, of course, you're Octo-mom).

Roughly fifty percent of marriages end in divorce; talk about a gamble.

When it comes to death, well, no one can predict when that outcome will occur. 

Maybe the Town Clerk’s office, where major life events and Bingo co-exist on a sign, is really on to something. After all, isn’t life itself a game of chance -- an adventure, a gamble, a risk?

Makes perfect sense to me. 

Friday Fun - April 3, 2009

Glad to see you made it through April Fool's Day. Sad to report: not everybody scored as well. Read On!

Several years ago, Andy was sentenced to prison. During his stay, he got along well with the guards and all of his fellow inmates. The warden saw that deep down, Andy was a good person and made arrangements for Andy to learn a trade while doing his time.

After 3 years, Andy was recognized as one of the best carpenters in the local area. Often he would be given a weekend pass to do odd jobs for the citizens of the community.... and he always reported back to prison before Sunday night was over.

The warden was thinking of remodeling his kitchen and in fact had done much of the work himself. But he lacked the skills to build a set of kitchen cupboards and a large counter top which he had promised his wife. So he called Andy into his office and asked him to complete the job for him.

But, alas, Andy refused.

He told the warden, "Gosh, I'd really like to help you but counter-fitting is what got me into prison in the first place."

Okay, I hear your groan!

Thanks to http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/scanner/jokes/police/cops.html
Thanks for the laughs, Uncle Jimmy!
Thaaaaat’s all, pals!

Thanks for stopping by!
Nan

Happy Birthday T(w)o Us

[image courtesy the fabulous Pink Cake Box, makers of extraordinarily fab cakes for all occasions!]
Today we are two! I wish I had something deeply profound to say. Last year, I posted a number of musings about the nature of group blogs, etc, but you don't want to hear all that again, right?

Last March (so it's almost new this year), we started running Two Sentence Tuesdays. I mentioned the idea one day to Clare as a means of being sure I wrote something every week, and she thought it sounded okay, as did the rest of the Women of Mystery when I asked their thoughts. It's been a good kick in the pants for me. I feel amazingly guilty when I can't even come up with two sentences I wrote in the previous seven days! It still happens, mind you, but I hope it happens less often.

And we've had great participation from our various blog pals. Now everyone need to get published, so I can see the rest of the stories that go with the weekly sentences! (And may I mention, one more time, how thrilling it was to have our Two Sentence Tuesday meme mentioned in Bill Crider's Blog Bytes column in EQMM?)

And speaking of blog buddies, our hits are growing slowly but steadily, which is always a good thing. When we started this blog, it was to give agents and editors a place to find us when our work landed on their desks. We had nothing to sell, so we weren't thinking of building a purchasing audience. (I don't know about the other WoM, but I doubted anyone but my family would be interested in my trials and tribulations as I attempted to establish myself as a writer.) Imagine our surprise when people started coming back to visit again and again, commenting, and generally propping up our fragile writerly egos.

So here's to you, our readers. Thanks for making this past year better than I could have imagined when this blog began. May all good things come to you.