And For Scarily Bad Writing...

Check out the How To Write Badly Well blog. This will also allow you add a bunch of padding words in case you need them in the next 30 days for NaNo.

Happy Halloween!

You're sitting alone, the candy for giving long since expended, the neighborhood's little darlings all snugabed in diabetic comas with their loot bags stashed under their pillows for safekeeping. Oddly, this year, you find yourself vowing to stay awake through the witching hour, having the strangest feeling that you must cross that boundary with alertness, even vigilance. What will keep you sharp in the intervening, waiting hours?

If you haven't yet read it, blogpal Charles Gramlich has a terrific short up at Beat to a Pulp. It's a tricksy little sweetmeat called Hunter's Moon.

I see now where BTAP's got yet another thematic offering for us. This tidbit's got Bela Lugosi starring in his own, real-life Western. Read James Reasoner's One Night Near Hangtown.

For another genre-bender, here's a steampunk short mystery via Tor.com and written by GD Falksen called The Strange Case of Mr. Salad Monday. (If you're not aware, the definition of "steampunk" is roughly Victoriana with some selective historic or fantastic twist.) In this case, the setting is police work amid an ink-crazed world of overlapping pamphlets and chapbooks. There are also several-times daily printed broadsheets that publish tit-tat for tatters, which is to say, back-and-forth coded classifieds carrying abbreviated debates. In this world IIMOT stands for, "It is my opinion that..." and IHN for "In Heaven's Name..."

Fun stuff, until you see an impossibly-shaped shadow cross your threshold.

Forgotten Book Friday: The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories

Since this is the day before Halloween, I guess I should have a very scary forgotten book, but I don’t read scary stories or watch scary movies. However, there is an element of the mystical in Mary Higgins Clark’s first published collection of short fiction, The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories, which debuted in 1989.

The title story, The Anastasia Syndrome, is a novella that centers on Judith Chase who is about to be married to a man expected to become the next Prime Minister of England. Orphaned during World War 11, Judith tries to discover her own past and is “regressed” by a well known psychiatrist. She finds an earlier self enmeshed in the conflicts of 17th Century England which, since this is written by Mary Higgins Clark, can only lead to current trouble.

The four shorter stories each take the reader down winding trails of terror, mistrust, mental communication between identical twins and on the very last page of the very last story, a tug-at-the-heart-strings ending.

I have the older hard cover edition but this book is still a popular seller in soft cover and may be available at libraries as well.

For more forgotten books, click on over to visit the keeper of the list, Patti Abbott.

Terrie

Thursday's Ample Offload

In advance of November, I'm offloading a passel of absolutely erratic links. Enjoy them, dumpees.

Dept. of Bedtime Stories: The most common Fairy Tales have origins that date in the millennia, not centuries. Yet and still, the Beeb changed the end of Humpty Dumpty.

Dept. of The Nose Knows: The boffins (smart folk) have determined that contrary to my mother's assertion that she was constantly bitten for being so sweet, it's the sweet sweat that stumps the 'squitos. In related news, clean smells promote ethical behavior.

Dept. of Bamboozled Ambulance Drivers: Innovative, constant-pressure artificial heart means living with NO PULSE. Story ideas? Me, too.

Dept. of Dayrunner Bankruptcy: So-called "superachievers" often don't use to-do lists and aren't necessarily workaholics. They choose what to do knowing that time management is a myth.

Dept. of Everything Old is New Again: Now proven to neurologists' satisfaction: Sitting up straight makes you more confident. Also, considering dangerous faces, scientists study whether the cover does communicate something about the book.

Dept. of Chronic Shelfstrain: Roger Ebert can't get rid of books. Ever.

Dept. of Unusual Image Galleries: Animals with Lightsabers, Bizarre Motorcycle Sidecars, and Nature's Oddly-Shaped Vegetable Mistakes.

I feel cleansed.

Halloween Happenings

Halloween’s around the corner, and this year it falls on a Saturday -- which can mean an entire weekend of celebrating.

Check your local listings if you want to catch "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." I'll be watching it tonight at 8 p.m. on WABC.

If you'd like a spooky reading suggestion, Janet Rudolph has compiled an impressive list of Halloween Crime Fiction over at Mystery Fanfare.

October 30 kicks off “Hallopalooza” over at The Stiletto Gang. It’s a Halloween Blog Mystery Scavenger Hunt. If you follow the clues and solve the mystery, there are many prizes to win!

From the real story of Halloween to pumpkin stencils, history.com has lots of good info.

If you’d like to host a Halloween Film Fest, here are some movie suggestions.

Need some last minute costume ideas?

Listen to comedian Lewis Black rant about candy corn. It’s hysterical.

You'll probably hear "Monster Mash" by Bobby “Boris” Pickett on the radio this weekend, but if you'd like to download it to your IPOD or make it your ringtone, you can do so by visiting here.

Going to a party? Check out this Halloween Graveyard Cake recipe.

Or, how about some healthy Halloween snacks?

If you're looking for some Halloween health & safety tips, check out the CDC site.

For many folks, the clock falls back one hour at 2 a.m. this Sunday. Always a great reminder to change your smoke detector batteries.

How about you? Got any good plans for this Halloween weekend? Gearing up for NaNoWriMo?

Two Sentence Tuesday -- Special NaNo Edition

NaNoWriMo is coming! If you've never heard of it, you should definitely check it out. In November, thousands of people will be closeting themselves in corners, in coffeeshops, in cubbyholes, attempting to finish the first draft of a novel in a single month. The point of NaNo is to write 50,000 words in a month, in order to do which you need to learn to switch off your inner editor.

I'll be doing NaNo this November, as will a couple other of the Women of Mystery, I believe. About a year and a half ago, I wrote a two page piece that was supposed to be the prologue for a book, the followup book to the MS I am working on now. I haven't touched it since, so for NaNo I figured I'd start with that and try to write a draft of the novel that goes with the prologue. So rather than two sentences this week, I give you two pages, the two pages of prologue.

Are you doing NaNo? What will you be working on? Did you write two sentences this week? Where can we find them?

• Leah J. Utas has surprising sentences at her place!
--
Tara Jean Dobbs was not cut out to be a cult member. She didn't know whether the plants in the field were herbs or weeds, so she couldn't be trusted to maintain the crops. She had lousy communications skills, so she couldn't be sent out to recruit new members. Her kindergarten teacher had remarked that she didn't play well with others, and her first grade teacher had said she wasn't good at sharing, neither of which had changed much in the twenty-odd years since.

And she flat out hated to follow orders.

The Leader had re-named Tara “Serena,” which she thought was pretty much the biggest crock of shit she'd ever heard. She laughed about it behind his back. Unfortunately, no one else shared her sense of humor, and she couldn't talk to anyone outside the group, which left her to laugh alone. Not so different from her pre-cult life, really.

Theoretically, she could have had friends outside the pretty picket fence at the front of the compound, because she wasn't locked inside. Not exactly. But if she hoped to achieve a high rank among the acolytes, to become one of the Leader's personal attendants with the freedom to wander the great house and surrounding buildings unsupervised, she had to pretend to have no desire for outside conversation. Or cheeseburgers, diet coke, true crime novels or hot baths, dammit. And she had to put her mind to learning skills like sucking up, keeping her opinions to herself, and keeping her head down.

Tara had noticed some women seemed to be singled out for personal attention based on their looks, but that wasn’t a route she could take. God knew her parents had made that clear enough. "Your hair is a disaster, Tara Jean." "Do you really need to eat that, Tara Jean?" "Where are we ever going to find gloves to suit those stubby fingers, Tara Jean?" The one thing she appreciated about the name Serena was that it wasn't Tara Jean.

But although her figure was a little on the square side, and her hair curled in every direction, Tara had one thing going for her that most people in the group did not, at least as far as she could see. She had a brain. Logic and analysis were her fortés. Of course, those talents weren't prized within the compound, but that didn't bother her because they also weren't recognized. The dumber she appeared, the faster she'd get what she was after. And with blonde hair and blue eyes, Tara could make herself appear pretty damned dumb. It was another lesson from her mother, who'd assured her that smart women never found husbands.

Maybe Allyson Kendall Dobbs had been right on that score. Because sure as God made little green apples, no man had ever come knocking on Tara's door with a ring in his pocket. When she was being particularly honest with herself, Tara could admit that precious few had come knocking at all.

But that was okay, too, because most men weren’t worth the saliva it would take to spit on them. Take the almighty Leader, for example, the benevolent father who walked among them three times a day: six in the morning, noon, and six in the evening. Occasionally, he'd turn a shovel of earth, stir the soup in the kitchen, or heal an ailing member of the congregation, but the majority of his life was spent in his mansion with his attendants.

In public, the Leader prayed repeatedly to the Powers on how best to help his flock leave behind their worldly concerns and receive enlightenment. As far as Tara could tell, the Powers generally espoused getting rid of worldly goods, first, then worrying about worldly concerns. And since members no longer needed their iPods, cell phones, watches or jewelry, they didn't need the cash to buy them, so the Powers recommended giving money to the Leader to help him in his crusade.

How anybody fell for this shit was beyond her.

Not that Tara was particularly materialistic. If she were, she'd still be living in Dobbs Hollow, where her family had been royalty for generations. Well, before their fall from grace, anyway. But she'd left that life behind even before she left the Hollow, and her most recent job had been as a short-order cook in a diner in the podunk town of Fayetteville, Texas. She'd actually made friends in Fayetteville. Three of them, in fact; a veritable cornucopia. And it was one of those friends, Andrea MacDonald, who'd prompted her interest in the cult. Or commune. Or whatever.

Because somewhere along the line, Andrea had become entangled with the group, and then she'd disappeared. And while Tara would never be a good cult member, she was very, very good at her true vocation.

Tara Jean Dobbs was a cop.

Likable Characters

I meant to write about this earlier, but, as usual, time got away from me. Last month over on Romance University, I read a post about making editors--and readers--connect with characters. What makes a character likable? What makes her strong? What makes her believable? Here's what the editor said that struck me in particular:

When evaluating characters, I sometimes try to imagine how they would behave in an amusement park. Would they rush straight to the line for the scariest ride, or would they stand in the walkways and laugh as other people scream? Would they study the map and come up with a plan to see the most in their allotted time? Would they memorize showtimes? Would they take time to eat a meal in the restaurant, or would they suck down a burger while standing in line?

The rest of the post is interesting, too, but it is more of the kind of thing you'll hear everywhere: show likable traits through behavior rather than telling about them, etc. Do you have a test you put your characters to in order to decide whether they're whole or not? Do you like this idea or not?

(For the record, my basic problem with the book I am now writing is that neither of my main characters would consider going to an amusement park. It would be totally, um, out of character. I need to find a different test for them, so if you have suggestions, holler!)

Playing Nook-ie

You probably saw the news last week that Barnes and Noble had announced their new eReader, the Nook. It's a very pretty piece of machinery, and it has a key ingredient that other eReaders so far have not: the ability to lend content for two weeks. That's a big step up in the world of eReaders.

The color part at the bottom of the Nook allows for browsing by title, according to the "features" page on B&N's site, and it also provides for navigation by touchscreen, which could be cool. The first is one of those things that's nifty but not really important, the second could be really useful. (Not that both the Sony and Kindle don't have navigation, because they do, but touchscreen is the way most people are becoming used to navigating. B&N has evidently decided that their only real competitor is the Kindle, because if you go to their "comparison" page, they show you Kindle features, but nothing about Sony's eReader.)

I am not sure what the Android Operating System will do for the device. In theory, it could mean various apps designed for the Nook to help readers get the most from their books (like library organization), which would be really great. If it just means web browsing like on cell phones, that's not such a big deal to me. I have devices for that. I've never had the slightest desire to browse the web on my Kindle (though it's possible).

The Nook also allows for the use of memory cards, which the Kindle doesn't, which might be important in some cases. It doesn't do much for me because I prefer to keep everything on my Kindle until I've read it. After that, I delete it and it sits in my account in case I want to read it again. I imagine if you annotated a lot of books, you'd want to keep them on cards, but eBooks are candy for me. I don't buy books I want to do a great deal of annotation on.

There are other differences between the machines, but they don't seem like much other than window dressing to me.

On the other hand, all eReaders today use DRM, which means that if you buy the Bookwise reader, for example, you may be able to read some common formats, but as far as all those bestsellers or current books you'll be stuck with the Bookwise format and the Bookwise website for buying your books. Likewise, on Kindle you buy from Amazon, on Nook you buy from Barnes and Noble. And that's a major point in Amazon's favor I am afraid. Because as fabulous as the Nook's hardware is, the B&N website is nowhere near as good as Amazon's.

So, to sum up, major differences, as far as I can see:

1) Lending ability -- other devices should jump on this and get their R&D departments working. This is going to be the dealbreaker for a lot of people, I think.

2) Android Operating System -- may or may not be a huge difference depending on implementation.

3) Memory cards -- may make a big difference in the education market, in particular.

4) B&N's website vs. Amazon's (vs. Sony's, vs. Bookwise's...). This may also be a dealbreaker, but one in Amazon's favor. B&N needs to completely revamp their website. They may well do so once the Nook actually becomes available, but they'd be well advised to do so now. Actually, they should have done it years ago.

So, those are my observations. Anyone have thoughts?

FBF- Pirate: Rascals of the Spanish Main

For this Forgotten Book Friday, I return to one beloved book, which calls to mind an entire class of books, the popular collections once-branded by magazine or encyclopedia publishers.

These compendiums of science, history, and culture had exciting prose and great illustrations, and were easy to order on the installment plan. They filled a home's bookshelf with aspirational knowledge in colorful, accessible, impressive formats. I still have an oversized hardcover I love about Native North Americans, plus a Collection of American Folklore, both by Readers' Digest. There were series like Britannia's 60-volume set of Great Books of the Western World, re-packagings of classics so they'd all match spines and have the wonderful visual and annotated extras. Perhaps the biggest operator in this arena was Time-Life, and the author of my forgotten book was their executive editor, as well as having been a Life journalist, and boy, does it show!

The non-fiction information in any of these may have become dated. New findings and theories revise our perspectives, as they ought to do. However, these glossy-paged volumes still eloquently represent the optimism of mid-century, middle-class parents. These tomes, with their enriching information and snappy layouts, were going to transform snot-nosed monsters into scholars and model citizens who'd reflect the finest of modern civilization.

The wonderfully-named A.B.C. Whipple was born in 1918 and, among his other gigs, became a(n) historian of sea-faring subjects. Pirate: Rascals of the Spanish Main was first released in a Doubleday hardcover in 1957. I don't know why it wasn't Pirates: Rascals... or Pirate: Rascal, but I've come to forgive the mismatch completely. The Dolphin paperback pictured above is the edition I posess from 1961, with .87 cents still pencilled in the flyleaf. But for a narrow little book, they sure didn't skimp on the maps, pictures, or thrills.. There's no better way to explain why this book captivated me than to share Whipple's first two paragraphs:

You are about to enter treacherous waters.
As the Atlantic Ocean merges with the Caribbean Sea, the colors change from deep blue to cerulean, and the smooth gentle flow alters to meandering currents which turn and twist past menacing coral heads. Around the fringes of the islands the colors melt into translucent green, revealing many feet down the pure whiteness of the shifting sand bars, the waving brilliance of the undersea plants, the flashing belly of the barracuda. The shores are scalloped with hundreds and thousands of coves and bays, inlets and anchorages, ponds and hurricane holes- some with hospitable, gently sloping beaches. many with murderous reefs lurking below the surface and layers of poisonous, spiny sea urchins along the water's edge. From Green Turtle Cay to Port of Spain, from Punta Gorda to Bridgetown, the islands of the West Indies are a sprawling stretch of coral-edged paradise, a brilliant sun-washed trap. This is pirate country.

Ga-Zowie! More Forgotten Books may be found at Patti Abbott's place.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

This is my first October since joining Women of Mystery, and since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I am a survivor, I’d like to take this opportunity to blog about it. However, I am not a medical professional, and this is only one breast cancer survivor’s tale.

In 2004 at age 42, I was diagnosed with lobular cancer, a form of breast cancer I never heard of until the day the breast surgeon told me I had three malignant tumors that were five-and-a-half, three, and two centimeters in size. He said that ten percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have lobular cancer; ninety percent get ductal; and a very small percentage get Inflammatory Breast Cancer (which, by the way, is a very aggressive form of breast cancer). You can read about the kinds of breast cancer here.

When my husband asked the surgeon what happened, since I’d be having mammograms for years due to family history, he replied, “lobular cancer is difficult to detect on mammograms and sonograms.” I asked him, “Do women know about this?” I always considered myself a fairly well-read individual, yet I wasn’t aware of it.

The sad part was that a few years earlier, I had complained to my gynecologist of a lump I detected; he sent me for a sonogram. It was allegedly “normal.” I was confused, since I felt something different, something hard -- what women are always told to look out for.

I did something no woman should ever do -- I gave up on breast self exams (BSEs). I had brought it to the doctor’s attention, it was supposedly “nothing,” and I thought I had to accept the fact that I had lumpy breasts, which many women do. I didn’t want to keep bothering the doctor, so I assumed that the mammograms I was having each year would detect an abnormality.

I was wrong.

How could I know there is a form of breast cancer that is not easily detected on a mammogram or sonogram?

The moral of the story is this: every woman must be her own best advocate. If she conducts BSEs on a regular basis, and one day she feels something hard, something different, she must be vigilant. She knows her body better than any doctor. Also, in my breast cancer journey, I learned a few things that I wish I knew ahead of time:

• Get mammograms at Breast Care Centers, not imaging centers where they also look at elbows, knees, etc.
• If a woman who conducts BSEs on a regular basis discovers something unusual in her breast -- something hard and different than she’s used to feeling -- she should see her gynecologist or even consider seeing a breast surgeon.
• If a sonogram or mammogram doesn’t reveal anything, a biopsy should be ordered. However, this is a catch-22. If the sono or mammo doesn’t pick it up, how do they know where to biopsy? (My first biopsy results were shockingly "benign." I needed an excisional biopsy to confirm the cancer.) It’s very expensive and may be difficult to get approval for, but an MRI can pick up abnormalities.
• I was unaware that birth control pills are estrogen-filled. My gynecologist prescribed these to regulate my period after I complained about irregular periods, without conducting any further tests. I had no idea that the birth control pills were feeding into my estrogen-positive cancer that I didn’t know I had. Had the doctor either consulted my chart or asked me directly if I had a history of breast cancer in my family, he would not have prescribed these pills.

I’ve known women who died when they were in their twenties and thirties from breast cancer, which is scary when the recommendation of a woman’s first mammo is age 40 (unless there is family history). Again, knowing your body and being your own best advocate is of the utmost importance.

Some books about breast cancer that I enjoyed:

• The Victoria Secret’s Catalog Never Stops Coming: And Other Lessons I Learned From Breast Cancer by Jennie Nash.

• Why I Wore My Lipstick to My Mastectomy by Geralyn Lucas.

• Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can be Really Distracting - A Memoir by Meredith Norton.

I am a Reach to Recovery volunteer for the American Cancer Society, and I volunteered at the Survivor’s tent last Sunday during the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk at Jones Beach. The rain may have kept some walkers away, but I was touched when I saw an entire football team, a lacrosse team, teams of families (including multi-generations), the Suffolk County Association of Women Police (of which I’m a former member), survivors and their families, men walking in honor of the women in their lives, children walking for their moms, aunts, grandmothers, friends, and groups of friends, despite the wind and rain. Their spirits were uplifting. I gave out T-shirts to survivors and helped walkers fill out “In Honor of” and “In Memory of” signs to wear.

You can make a donation to the American Cancer Society in honor or in memory of a loved one by visiting here.

If you’re active on Twitter, why not consider participating in “tweets for boobs.” For this month of October, every time you tweet “#tweetsforboobs” you are making a $1 pledge for donation to the Susan G. Komen foundation. If you follow @tweetsforboobs, they will DM you with your total donation in November to mail.

I attended a wake last night for a member of my breast cancer support group who lost her battle. I’m attending her funeral this morning. She was a beautiful soul, only 44 years old. Rest in peace, dear Quinn. You will be missed.

Pigeon Poop & Luck

Have you ever heard of the superstition that having a little pigeon poop dropped on you is supposed to be good luck? If you haven’t, let me fill you in.

Many years ago walking along the cobbled streets of Verona, Italy with my friend, Franca, we had the misfortune to run under a flock of pigeons who were being their careless pigeon selves regarding their post-mealtime bathroom manners. As I growled, took out a tissue and said, “Oh, s—t!” Franca laughed and said, “Yes, but it’s good luck when this happens, you know.”

Actually, I didn’t, and with my jacket now in need of dry cleaning, it felt like anything but luck. But hey, we were in Italy where some folks love their pigeons—think Venice, Florence and Rome, and others view them as i topi volante, or flying rats—think me.

A couple getting married at Casa di Giulietta, or "Juliet's House" in Verona. Are they pushing their luck?

Ever since that day in Verona, I’ve been wary of those zippy flyboys zooming over the city’s streets directly above my head. Not wary enough as it recently turned out. One morning last week as I was walking to the subway, I was blasted by one of my least favorite birds. Once again, out came tissues, the hand sanitizer and the bad language.

Then off I went to work where the first email I received that day made me think about Franca’s comment: my second novel, Telling Lies, had been named one of the ten finalist in the Brighid’s Firebook Literary Contest. Later that week, I learned that a publisher had requested manuscripts of both of my novels from my agent.

Was this the result of pigeon poop luck or of my hard work?

Do some writers have better luck than others—the right place at the right time kind of luck, getting a movie deal and a book deal together luck—or does luck have anything at all to do with it?

As a writer I like to think that, plot, characterization and a good story are what drive my novels and make them compelling. Characteristics that will ultimately lead to publication and commercial success. But I do believe that luck has something to do with it, as well.

Most of us toil for years creating our novels, our synopses, query letters, changes and edits. We go to conferences and writing seminars, take classes, read blogs and join groups such as Sisters In Crime to perfect our craft and tap into the wisdom and camaraderie of kindred souls. We put ourselves out there, face rejection and come back for more. We rethink, rewrite and redouble our efforts. But most importantly, we never give up. And maybe, just maybe, after all of this, if we’re lucky, something clicks into place.

Can anyone blame us for wanting fortune to smile on us, the fickle finger of fate to point our way, or destiny to decide it’s our turn to succeed? Would rabbits’ feet, wishbones and horseshoes help even more than pigeon poop?

Local NYC flyer

I don’t know but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Welcome to our newest Woman of Mystery: Cathi Stoler

Image via Melissa Gordon

As I hope you can tell from our posts, we just love having a variety of topics and voices here at Women of Mystery. So, we're delighted to announce a new addition to our roster, Cathi Stoler!

In addition to being a crime fiction writer, Cathi's also got a terrific background in advertising and copy-writing of all sorts- yet another angle and background for us to draw from! Her first post is coming tomorrow, and we couldn't be happier to have her.

Tuesday Twosome and Hooray for Me!

One of the annual anthologies that gets the blood pumping for mystery writers is The Best American Mystery Stories, series editor Otto Penzler. The year long process includes a screening of the approximately three thousand short stories published in Canada and the United States during the year. Eventually a group of fifty finalists is produced and submitted to the guest editor. For the most recent edition, Jeffrey Deaver had the privilege of culling through the fifty and corralling the top twenty which includes stories by Joyce Carol Oats, Alafair Burke, Alice Munro, Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Clark Howard, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and other luminaries in our field.

And what of the other thirty stories? Well, while not selected as the very best that 2008 had to offer, the other thirty are listed in the anthology, alphabetically by author's name as the Other Distinguished Mystery Stories of 2008. Here, direct from the middle of the list, are the two lines I read:

MORAN, TERRIE FARLEY
When A Bright Star Fades, Hardluck Stories, ed. Ed Gorman and Dave Zeltserman

For your reading pleasure and my bragging rights, here are two lines from “Bright Star.”

“Mr. Hoover’s Depression wasn’t the reason I was broke and jobless. When Roosevelt’s New Deal finally got around to the Sunshine Hotel, it would scamper right past my bed and on to the next guy.”

I know I am cheating a bit since I didn’t write those sentences this week, but don’t let that stop you from sharing your two sentences read and two sentences written with the rest of us, either in the comments or by telling me to link to your blog post.

*******TAKE A LOOK***************

Our dear friend Leah has put up two lines of song lyrics that have a wonderful history and she has written two lines that show how carefully we try to present our countenance. Click here to see her post on the Goat's Lunchpail.

Barbara Martin has a chilling piece of Diana Gabaldon's newest book and Barbara's own two sentences are filled with foreboding. Click here to read them for yourelf.

Terrie

Writing The Tough Stuff

I assume that every author has something she finds difficult to write. Some find they're constantly being told to "add more detail," while others are told not to clutter their writing with too much extraneous stuff. Some writers have a hard time with action, keeping their mysteries lower key, while others have trouble finding a place for readers to breathe in their thrillers. Leann Sweeney recently posted about her realization that she had a hard time with humor (and criticism). [image courtesy of The Classic Typewriter Page]

And yet, all those things are important. Even the slowest mystery needs enough action to keep the reader interested, and if a thriller doesn't leave room to breathe, the reader will get fatigued and give up. Likable characters with senses of humor (even if they aren't showcased all that often in grittier books) are vital. So while writing, you probably have to do things that don't come naturally.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that the hardest part of writing romantic suspense for me are the love scenes. I was out to lunch recently with someone who asked me why I bothered writing them at all. Did editors insist on them? Did readers? Why not simply write something that wasn't "romantic" suspense if writing RS forced me to write sex scenes?

I've never spoken to an editor, so I don't know whether they'd force me to add sex to a story if I didn't have it. Certainly, readers do have expectations of what a book will contain, but I don't think the lack of sex would be a crushing blow to most of them. They might say "I did wish the bedroom door hadn't been closed so soon," as I once saw a reviewer say of one book, but I doubt it would actually affect sales. Romance readers are a flexible lot, and as long as you don't claim to be writing erotic romance, they're happy to go along with whatever you give them, so long as the relationship is well-developed.

Why not write something else? Well, that goes back to the "well-developed relationship." Most people don't want that from a thriller. If you're going to spend as much time on character growth as on police procedure and tracking a killer, and if part of that growth is going to be a strong romantic relationship, you ought to be targeting the romance market. That only makes sense.

But still, that leaves the essential question she asked, and the most important one: why write sex scenes at all if they're that hard for you?

The only answer I can come up with is that they're necessary. They're organically necessary to the plot and arc of the story I'm writing. For example, my current WIP is about a woman whose mother was a small-town prostitute. Naturally, sleeping with the hero is a major turning point for her. It's a huge step, and one that has to be given time and space to be believable. (That doesn't mean the act has to be described in explicit detail, mind you, just that it requires a certain weight.) If she can't get there, or if the reader doesn't believe she would have gotten there as the story is written, I've failed.

So, that's why I write the tough stuff. And how I evaluate whether I've done an acceptable job with it. What about you? What's the hardest thing you have to do when writing, and how do you judge whether you've done it properly?

A Few More Writing Contests

I recently posted about writing contests, but I found a few more you might find interesting.

The Simpsons Character Contest

If you're a fan of The Simpsons, you've got less than a week to enter their "Character Contest." To celebrate their 20th year, the folks behind The Simpsons are asking the public to come up with a great name, catchphrase, and a brief description of a new character for the show. The

winner will be brought to Los Angeles to meet with an artist from The Simpsons who will bring his/her character to life in the episode currently planned for January 31, 2010.

The contest just opened on October 16, and it ends October 24, 2009. Find the entry form here. I found the deadline information here.

December Serial Contest - Nanoism

Nanoism (an online publication for twitter-fiction) is holding a contest for a five-tweet serial. Each tweet must be 140 characters or less. According to their contest rules: “Each piece in the series should be a complete and engaging story...but all five should come together to form something bigger and better. You could write about the same character and tell us his or her biography, but you don’t have to -- the interpretation of ‘life story’ and how to do it is up to you.”

Nanoism will choose four life stories. For the last four weeks of December (ending on New Year’s Day 2010), they will publish four different five-tweet serials.

There is no entry fee. You can submit up until October 31, 2009. One submission per person. The four winners receive $10 each and a week of Nanoism to themselves.

Reading Writers Flash Fiction Contest

The folks at readingwriters.com have announced a flash fiction contest of 500 words. The Grand Prize is $100 and the story will be published in the February 2010 issue of the ezine The Verb. There is no entry fee. The deadline is January 15, 2010. According to the contest announcement, the milieu of the story must include snow. Read more about it here. (Thanks to Wendy Burt who tweeted about this contest).

Good luck!

Hint Fiction Anthology List of Contributors Announced

I have been blogging about “Hint Fiction,” the phrase coined by author Robert Swartwood, which describes a story consisting of 25 words or less that hints at a larger, more complex story (with a title that also contributes to the hint), and packs an emotional punch, since I first read the announcement of his contest in April . As you may recall, the contest led to an offer by W.W. Norton for Robert to edit an anthology of Hint Fiction, to be published in the Fall of 2010 -- starting with the Top 20 winners -- which I’m thrilled to say included my story, “Playing with Matches.”

For the month of August, Robert accepted submissions to consider additional stories. Between the contest and open call, he received over 2500. He has chosen a total of 125 to include in Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 words or less (working title).

Robert has announced the list of contributors, which I’ve copied here. There are a few missing from the list, those who have not yet responded to Robert.

I am proud to say that one of our blogpals, author Charles Gramlich, who read about the open call on my blog post, has had a story accepted. Congratulations to Dr. Gramlich, and to all of the writers whose stories will appear in the anthology.

Jenn Alandy, Nick Arvin, Samuel Baldwin, Max Barry, Kirsten Beachy, L.R. Bonehill, Ryan W. Bradley, Gary A. Braunbeck, William Brazill, Yvonne Brockwell, Jeremy D. Brooks, Randall Brown, Ken Bruen, Stace Budzko, James Burt, Frank Byrns, Jonathan Carroll, John Cashman, Adam-Troy Castro, Douglas Clegg, Danielle Combs, Chris Compson, John Connors, Hannah Craig, Brian Crawford, Blake Crouch, Kirk Curnutt, Tara Deal, Gay Degani, Stephen Dunn, Nicole Duson, Stuart Dybek, David Erlewine, Camille Esses, Merrilee Faber, Nada Faris, Jamie Felton, James Frey, Janet E. Gardner, Roxane Gay, Shanna Germain, Tess Gerritsen, Bill Graffius, Charles Gramlich,Val Gryphin, Jane Hammons, Ann Harleman, Bruce Harris, Donora Hillard, Rachel Lopez Hohenshell, Robin Hollis, Kevin Hosey, Eric Hsu, Gregg Hurwitz, Ben Jahn, Ha Jin, Jason Jordan, David Joseph, Michael Kelly, Jack Ketchum, Jack Kilborn, J.A. Konrath, Christina Kopp, Minter Krotzer, Joe Lansdale, Don Lee, Min Jin Lee, Sarah Lyons, K. J. Maas, Nick Mamatas, Lewis Manalo, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Michael Martone, Natalie McNabb, David Miller, Ty Miller, John Minichillo, Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz, Christoffer Molnar, Madeline Mora-Summonte, Rose Rappoport Moss, Barry Napier, Joyce Carol Oates, Brendan O’Brien, Daniel A. Olivas, Will Panzo, Sarah Pare, Edith Pearlman, Benjamin Percy, Sophie Playle, Jason Rice, Katrina Robinson, Jess Row, Robin Rozanski, Kathleen A. Ryan, Marcus Sakey, Joe Schreiber, Jessa Slade, Noel Sloboda, Andrea Slye, Jenn Sober, Kelly Spitzer, Agnieszka Stachura, J. J. Steinfeld, Peter Straub, Jake Thomas, Bob Thurber, Jade Walker, Ben White, Amber Whitley, Sue Williams, F. Paul Wilson, Robley Wilson, Mercedes M. Yardley, Mabel Yu, J. Matthew Zoss.

I could never have imagined, as I analyzed, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," by Joyce Carol Oates, during 7th grade English in 1974, or when I devoured Ghost Story by Peter Straub at age 18 in 1979, that I would one day be included in an anthology with these two and so many other literary greats.

I guess wild dreams occasionally do come true.

("Dreaming" oil on canvas by Noelle Schrieber)

FBF: Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes written by Edith Hamilton is another one of those books that was first published before I was born and will be around long after I am gone.

Writers and readers have bandied about the arguments that simmer around the concept that the heroic legends are the foundation for all literature. If you are looking for the how and the where of a particular yarn, you will have no better resource than this book. And if, like me, you are often confused by the who of a story, well, Ms. Hamilton has worked that all out for you.

Family trees are clearly drawn in the final pages before the index. The index itself is filled with clarifying information. For example, next to the name Artemis (you remember her, Apollo’s twin sister) is the notation “see also Diana.”

But the most enchanting part of the book is the explanations of the myths themselves. Ms. Hamilton has arranged the stories in categories so that if you want the story of the Trojan War or the Quest of the Golden Fleece, you can find it in a jiffy.

And if, like me, you read Ovid in the original Latin in high school, so you never understood what was actually going on, then you will love Ms. Hamilton’s comments about him. While acknowledging that “Ovid is a compendium of mythology,” she argues that the myths were sheer nonsense to him and that he says in effect to his reader, “Never mind how silly they are. I will dress them up so prettily for you that you will like them.” So Ms. Hamilton declined to use Ovid as a source unless she was forced to by lack of other resources. For that alone, I thank her.

For other Forgotten Books please stop by Patti Abbott’s blog and see the wondrous list she has compiled this week.

Terrie

Giveaway Winners: LOCKED IN

I was looking at the post title, and realizing even I can't bear to make that joke again, and having pasted up this distinctive cover a bit, too, I hope I'll be pardoned for shaking things up.

Today's the title's official release date, so while the rest of the losers toddle out or log on to get the latest Sharon McCone novel by Marcia Muller, all you lucky 5 need do is sit back and relax while the USPS does its stuff.*

*Don't commence relaxing until replying to me with your shipping info, though.

Many thanks to everyone who entered- you made it fun! At the bottom is the very ceramic jack-o-lantern stuffed with your very paper slips behind his grin. If you'd like to read lots of funny lock-out stories from the contest, go here, and my full review of the book's here. Now, without further ado:

Congratulations to

debra, Helen K, Marlyn, Sue Mickelson, and Carol M

Another Chance To Win An eReader!

Writerspace is giving away your choice of a Kindle 2 or a Sony Reader. Check here for more details. (Basically, you have to sign up for their newsletter. It doesn't come out all that often and you can always cancel it later.)

And don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post to enter to win a copy of Marcia Muller's latest!

Tuesday Twosome: Free Marcia Muller

...Because she's LOCKED IN, get it? This one joke and a rubber chicken and I'm ready for the Catskills. Anyhoo, we're delighted to be giving away 5 copies of the newest Marcia Muller mystery about private investigator Sharon McCone. (full review here )

On a normal Tuesday, I'd post 2 sentences I'd read and 2 more I'd written, but because this is an extra-special event, I'm adding them up to give you a four sentence nibble out of the new book.

"It's only a twenty-minute trip," he added, "and we'll try to make you as comfortable as possible."

Why does he sound as if he doesn't believe I can understand a word he says?

Will somebody please look at me and see I'm still here?

Weariness washed over me and I slept.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment, but make sure it includes a profile link or your e-mail somewhere, because that's how we'll notify you and get your mailing address. If you want to make your entry really fun, you could leave a story about a time you got locked in (or out) of somewhere. Will it help your chances? I can't tell, try me!

You're also welcome to participate in our regular feature, leaving us the text or links for 2 sentences you've read and/or written during the past week. I will be updating the links throughout the day, and giving Terrie's trifle bowl a rest by putting these entries into a timely grinning punkin.

We'll accept entries through tomorrow at midnight- mwa ha ha. Winners will be announced on Thursday, October 15th, so if you don't win one, you'll be able to console yourself with a piping hot copy from your local bookstore.

UPDATE: Barbara Martin's a Tuesday regular, this week offering grand environs and learned persons.

MTM: Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, New York

If you don’t remember the melody to the song “Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee” from the movie Grease, here is the You Tube of Rizzo (Stockard Channing) singing it during the pajama party.

And here is my rewritten version, which I am singing at the top of my lungs.

Look at me, I’m cancer free.
No more scans or meds for me.
Don’t glow in the dark.
I can play in the park
I’m com-plete-ly cancer free.

This miracle of medical science took place in and around the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, a 48-acre campus sprawled along the border between the eastern most corner of Queens County in New York City and western Nassau County, Long Island.

Long Island Jewish Medical Center is a clinical and academic hub of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System as an 827-bed voluntary, non-profit tertiary care teaching hospital serving the greater metropolitan New York area.

LIJ Medical Center has three components: Long Island Jewish Hospital, Schneider Children's Hospital and The Zucker Hillside Hospital. Long Island Jewish Hospital is a 452-bed tertiary adult care hospital with advanced diagnostic and treatment technology, and modern facilities for medical, surgical, dental and obstetrical care. As the Long Island Campus for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, LIJMC's graduate medical education program is one of the largest in New York State, and programs are in divisions headed by full-time faculty.

LIJ's full-time staff includes more than 500 physicians, who supervise care in all major specialties and participate in the medical center's extensive teaching and research programs.
Surrounding the hospital campus are acres of office buildings housing doctors offices and labs and facilities of every description making life very simple for a patient who has to see several doctors during the course of diagnosis and treatment.

All of this is within three or four mile of my house, and easily reachable by car or bus.

And since I have now appointed myself chief proselytizer in charge of YOU WILL GET YOUR THYROID CHECKED THIS YEAR, here is my story.

When you go for a regular physical you may have noticed that your doctor will poke around your neck looking for who knows what. Well the technical term is the doctor will palpate to check for any abnormalities, i.e., enlargements, nodules etc. in the neck area and specifically in the thyroid. Both my internist and my endocrinologist do this check regularly. Last May, during a routine exam and blood draw, the endocrinologist handed me a glass of water said “take a sip” and then she palpated, followed by “hmm, I think I feel a bit of goiter. Can you hang around until I see if we can get a sonogram done today?”

“Sure,” sez I.

That was on a Tuesday. Wednesday they called me back for biopsy on a cold nodule found in the thyroid. A cold nodule is a nodule within the thyroid that does not have any thyroid hormone in it. Biopsy was done on Thursday and by 3 o’clock on Friday I knew I had thyroid cancer. By 3:30 I had an appointment with a neck surgeon, whose office is in this building in the medical complex immediately north of the hospital.

Of course the minute I got home after the sonogram I began to scour the web (just in case) and found the absolutely invaluable website of the Thyroid Cancer Survivor’s Association.

This website is filled with information, caveats and follows treatment options step by step. I learned that there are four types of thyroid cancer, (I had the slow growing, papillary type) that there is a very high survival rate and that surgery, followed by a brief course of radiated iodine treatment, is the current gold standard. I wandered all over the internet verifying what I had learned. When the endocrinologist called, she concurred with what I had already read. She has been my trusted doctor for years so I was confident I was moving in the right direction. I then went to see my internist, who has been treating me for more years than I can remember and he also concurred.

When I met with the recommended surgeon, I was very comfortable with his personality and his approach to surgery and thyroid cancer in general. That is a huge help. I chose to have the surgery on July 8th, which was my 63rd birthday. My thought was that my regular birthday and my cancer free birthday would always be the same and easy to remember and celebrate.

I walked into LIJ at 5:30 in the morning. Had surgery at 7:30. At 9:15 the surgeon was telling my loved ones that I was fine with no complications and no anticipated future problems. That afternoon I was admitted to the hospital for overnight observation. The surgeon came to see me at 7:30 the next morning, gave me my follow-up directions and I was back in my own living room, sitting in the recliner sipping tea at 9:30 in the morning.

Surgery recovery was uneventful, and I moved on to the preparation for the next stage of treatment—radioactive iodine, which would be done at the LIJ Division of Nuclear Medicine. The thyroid is a gland that releases thyroid hormone into the body. Traveling with the thyroid hormone is the odd thyroid cell which lands here or there. And of course there are a bunch of thyroid cells gathered in the neck area. Thyroid cells are the only cells in the body that absorb iodine, so the point of the radioactive iodine is to find those cells and zap ‘em.

A month after surgery, it was back to the endocrinologist for me. Each week I took a blood test to see how thyroid hormone deprived I was. (Hypothroidism.) When I was about half way to goal, I began a low iodine diet. (No fish, no dairy, no soy, no whole eggs, etc.) The optimal condition for a patient before beginning radioactive iodine treatments is to be super hypothyroid, (exhausted, brain fogged and listless) and to have any remaining thyroid cells be starved for iodine.

Two months post surgery, I ingested a capsule of low dose radioactive iodine, went into isolation at home and had a full body gamma scan the following week. That scan is actually three separate scans and takes about two hours to complete. It identified where all my thyroid cells were lurking. Two weeks later I ingested a larger dose of radioactive iodine, went into a longer period of stricter isolation (still at home, which is much better than hospital isolation.) A week later I had another two hour scan. I waited about half an hour before a doctor came out to tell me that I could go off the low iodine diet and ~TA DA~ I could begin taking synthetic thyroid hormone.

This morning I took my eleventh pill. I already notice that some of my hypothyroid symptoms are gone—no more tingling in my hands when I write or type, no more pain in my feet, and no more aches at the sites of old bone breaks. Not to mention--NO MORE CANCER!

So that is why I felt that Long Island Jewish Medical Center, which was a small local hospital when I moved to Queens forty years ago, is worthy of a My Town Monday post.
As for you—the next time you see your doctor, make sure he or she palpates your thyroid. I can honestly tell you that my thyroid blood work has always been normal, including in the test run on blood drawn the day the doctor found the nodule. Also, these are the outward symptoms of a potential for thyroid problems:

Problems with swallowing
Hoarseness
Enlarged lymph nodes in the neck
Breathing difficulty
Pain in the throat and/or neck

I did not have ANY symptoms. I had a doctor who poked and prodded as she should and that has made all the difference.

My blogmate Kathleen Ryan sent me a link to the Dear Thyroid website and if you check the thyroid resources links in the sidebar you can find all sorts of information about the thyroid and potential problems from various thyroid diseases.

Depending on the source, I have read that somewhere between 20,000 and 37,000 new cases of thyroid cancer are diagnosed each year. The cure rate hovers above 95% so don’t you think that’s worth a palpate now and then? If your doctor doesn’t do it routinely, ask that it be incorporated into your physical. It is the fastest, least invasive cancer test around. Just do it.

For more My Town Monday posts visit Claire, the Other, over on the My Town Monday blog.

NEWS FLASH********NEWS FLASH*********NEWS FLASH
On Saturday, our Clare2e posted a fantastic review of Marcia Muller’s latest Sharon McCone book, Locked In, which is a lead-in to our giveaway of five copies of the book which will appear here tomorrow. You can read the review here.

Terrie