When Book Two Becomes Book One

I recently entered both of my novels, KEEPING SECRETS and TELLING LIES in the Daphne First Novel Contest (details to come in a later post). The second book had been planned and written as a sequel to the first and they have been presented to various publishers as a series.

When I reviewed the comments from the Daphne judges with my agent, we realized that TELLING LIES had been much better received and, in fact, should probably become the first book. The comments also suggested that the action—the protagonist bumping into a man whom she believes has been dead for eight years in the Botticelli Room of the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy—should start the story and move up from where I had placed it.

Okay, I thought, I can do this. Rewriting is the name of the publishing game as Laura and other members of this blog have discussed. And the truth is, it’s not impossible to go back and rethink the work. The tricky part is making it better. There are sections that I love that take place in the Uffizi and set up the sub plot of stolen Nazi art. I want to find a way to work this in that makes sense and still advances the story. Plus, to make this a stand alone, I need to remove the overt references to the story line and action that occurred in book one.

So far, I’ve redone the opening and moved the critical action to page one. It's a start and there definitely is a lot more to do. But, I will be on vacation for a few weeks and the rewriting will have to wait.

MTM: Wings and Wheels for Memorial Day

Corsairs over Connecticut! About 20% of the still-flying F4U machines that exist (5 out of 25 known) were on-hand yesterday to take off from Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Bridgeport, just across the street from the now-vacant factories that used to produce 6 of these planes per shift during WWII.

At Wings and Wheels 2010, transports of various modes and wartime eras are on display, with additional collector's cars tucked around them all over the tarmac. It's well worth the trip if you're the least bit gear-headed, and admittance benefits The Discovery Museum and Planetarium. Honestly, I have never seen such a variety of cool Things That Go in one place! I took over 100 photos (click any here to enlarge), so you will appreciate how ruthlessly I've edited my enthusiasm.

The big white bird with red trim is a Douglas C54-R5D is named the Spirit of Freedom, and was used for the Berlin Airlift. There were all kinds of sports, muscle cars and Caddy I especially liked. This Chinook, as well as even huger transports, was wide open for exploring.

More goodies stored in the hangar for tomorrow. My idea of heaven includes candy-colored convertibles and fried dough. Slushie stand not pictured, but also awesome.This yummy little Global Swift dates from the 1940's.

Panchito is a B-25J Mitchell bomber that actually flies, as you can see. Panchito has gun turrets front and back, and barrels sticking out of everywhere they could fit one. Stationed in the Central Pacific, she was scheduled for another bombing run to Japan on the day of the Japanese surrender. She arrived to the event under the auspices of the Flight Team from Disabled American Veterans, who tour as a way to educate people about the contribution of veterans in wartime and about how we can help once they come home.

Many cars on display were older than the planes, dating from the WWI era as did the costumes of their proud owners. (Note the Gatsby-looking gent, breaking character with his fancy camera rig to capture the rest of the amazing machines.) There were also vehicles of distinctly modern vintage.

Behind the swank auto is one of the flying Corsairs. On the flatbed was another in the very early process of restoration.

Because many of the WWII flyers who'd collected and maintained these Corsairs are passing away, the younger pilots who've taken over their stewardship may not be qualified for tricky formation flying which requires not only seasoned instructors but lots of practice with enough planes. That's why it was such a rare pleasure to see 4 of these flying in formation on their 70th anniversary as Connecticut's state aircraft.

That led to discussion of the important part played around the country in manufacturing locales like this one, where home-front workers toiled non-stop for war effort production. As spectators learned all about them, the F4U Corsairs circled, buzzed the strip, and reformed. They finished their aerial displays with a minute of silence during the "missing man" formation, while the second spot in the line was vacated, holding a place for the pilots who had, as they say, "gone west."

By last evening, I was at a baseball game eating hot dogs, and tomorrow I'll go river tubing. But today, I'll go to my town's tiny war cemetery and local parade in gratitude for those wonderful veterans now gone west and to honor those in service to us today. Have a great weekend!

NoirCon 2010

NoirCon 2010 will be held on November 4 through November 7, 2010, in Philadelphia, the birthplace of noir master author, David Goodis.

Charles Benoit will be the Keynote Speaker.

Johnny Temple of Akashic Books will be the recipient of the Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Excellence in Publishing.

George Pelecanos will be the recipient of the David L. Goodis Award.

The NoirCon Hotel will be the Doubletree Hotel Philadelphia, 237 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA.

The cost to attend NoirCon, including the Award Banquet, is $200. The convention rate at the Doubletree Hotel is $149 per night.

You can download a registration form here.

Visit the NoirCon blog for more information. NoirCon has a page on Facebook, and is on Twitter: @NoirCon.

NoirCon 2010 sounds like a blast. Are you planning to attend?

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13.

Chesapeake Crimes: And the Winners Are

Thank you one and all for participating in our giveaway of Chesapeake Crimes: They had It Comin'. I really appreciated your comments as to why you read and/or write short stories.

The three lucky winners are:

Larry Chavis, Anita Page and Terri

If you haven't already received an email from me, please contact me through the e-mail link on my blogger profile page, which you can find by clicking on my name in the Women of Mystery list in the banner to your right.

Terrie

FBF: A Nun in the Closet

Dorothy Gilman, recently named Mystery Writers of America Grand Master at the 2010 Edgars Banquet, is best known for her Mrs. Pollifax books, an intriguing cozy series about a senior citizen who is recruited to be a spy. My favorite book by Dorothy Gilman is not a Mrs. Pollifax, although I enjoyed every book in that series. I love and frequently reread A Nun in the Closet.

My twelve years of Catholic education may have instilled in me a bias in favor of nuns or perhaps it is my friends who are Catholic nuns and who have the sparkle, the energy and the acuity to dispatch murder and mayhem as quickly as they would an unruly fifth grader. (Shout out to Sparkill Dominicans everywhere!)

Here's the gist of the story. Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe drive to the old house left to their abbey by a mysterious benefactor and immediately stumble into trouble. I’ll let Sister Hyacinthe tell you about it: “I’ve driven several hundred miles today, Sister John; I’ve pulled money out of a well and a bleeding man out of a closet, and we’ve not had our supper.”

If you want to revel in a pleasant mystery, one in which even the bad guys are not total monsters, than grab a copy of A Nun in the Closet and kick back. After you finish it, run out and grab a Mrs. Pollifax or two.

I have a 1975 copy of the paperback, which has a different picture than the one shown above, still, I’m delighted to see that a newer edition is in print.

Patti Abbott is on vacation, so George Kelly is the keeper of the forgotten books list this week. Click here to see what books other bloggers are bringing to light.

Terrie

Giveaway: Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’

Revenge, ah, sweet revenge. Who hasn’t dreamed about serving some villain his just desserts? For your “getting even” pleasure, our sisters in the Chesapeake chapter of Sisters in Crime have put pen to paper and delivered twenty wonderfully vengeful stories in the chapter’s fourth anthology, Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’.

All of the Women of Mystery are members of the New York/Tri-State chapter of Sisters in Crime, and since the call for submissions just went out for our second anthology, we are all moving into short story mode. (Well, I’m always in short story mode, but that’s another blog post entirely.)

As we all do when reading an anthology, I first turned to a story written by a friend—All in the Numbers by B.V. Lawson. I already knew that B.V. is a talented writer; even so, I was fascinated by her ability to make the story structure seamless and substantive at the same time.

I am not going to review this compilation story by story. It’s a Sisters in Crime anthology—creativity and flair abound. Instead I am going to offer three lucky commenters the opportunity to win a copy of Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’.

Simply mention in the comments whether you do or don’t ordinarily read short stories and why. The comment won’t help or hurt your chances to win. (The trifle bowl equalizes all the entries.) I’m a short story writer and am curious about the who and the why of short story readers.

Please be sure that we can contact you through a blogger link or an email addy in your comment. I promise that if contact info is missing, I will not search for you. I'll just pull another name from the trifle bowl.

Comments will be accepted until midnight on Friday, May 28th and the winner will be announced at noon on Saturday.

Great luck to everyone and if you don’t win Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’, run out and buy this very entertaining anthology.

Terrie

Two Sentence Tuesday

OK, so I suddenly realized the other day that one of the scenes I thought I revised I had only actually revised in a dream. How bizarre is that? But I wanted to post something today that I found amusing and both depressing and inspirational. Because I've been so frustrated by my inability to get my novel past this last step, where my agent would approve it, that I forgot that's not the *last* step. As a reminder, I post for you a video, which will count as the two lines I "read" this week:



Two lines I wrote this week came from the end of my manuscript, so I can't show you those without giving it all away. So instead I'll give you one of the first paragraphs:

Ethan purely hated having his breakfast disturbed. Not that he hadn’t expected it. The precipitous drop in the level of the hum of gossip almost immediately as the occupants became aware of his arrival had set his instincts singing. He’d felt the weight of the diners’ stares viscerally, in a way he hadn’t since first moving to town nine months earlier, and had fully expected one of the clusters of gossip-mongers to appoint a delegate to approach him. The foreknowledge, however, didn’t soothe his irritation, especially when he saw who they’d chosen. With a sigh he did his best to hide, he put aside the paper, swallowed the last bite of his fried egg sandwich, and focused on the seventy-three-year-old woman who’d sat herself down across the table in his favorite booth at Maxie’s diner.

And you? What did you read? Write? Let us know and we'll update this post with links throughout the day.

• David Cranmer has some western pulp at his place.
• Leah J. Utas' characters find themselves in hot water at her place.
  
• Terry Odell has a whole chapter of her novel up on her website!

The Amazonian Empire Strikes Back

Will this device soon belong on a shelf between the Model T and the Kitty Hawk?

According to a recent report I read at the Telegraph, rather than "bowing out of the competition," Amazon's Kindle division, Lab 126, may be on a hiring spree, expanding their stables of thoroughbred geekery because they're "fighting back with a new product."

As a reading-crazed shopper, I say, Coolness! Watching job boards has become fodder for trendspotters, too. Now, somebody get me some robust file structure and customizable library functions!!

MTM: Gawker's Rules for New York Tourists

I won't bother with making excuses for the lateness, but simply offer these 7 tidbits of NYC assistance, courtesy of Gawker. It happens to be mean and snobby, but also funny and mostly true. The offense of unwritten sidewalk etiquette does annoy when thousands of people are trying to make their way on the same stripes of cement, already narrowed by garbage bags and heel-catching sewer grates. So yeah, two at a time!

More Word Worries..with Graphs!

from GraphJam, via Maggie's Farm.

Wordy Wordsmithery

Logo from the site of supercool word artist John Langdon, who creates ambigrams, among other things. To see them is to know the definition.

Bob Greene declares, via CNN, that typos are a big deal.

Blogpal Charles Gramlich covers more problem words from a book by Bill Bryson. I missed it when Charles began this series at Razored Zen, and if you did, too, it's a goodie. I larned stuff!

William Zinsser, at the American Scholar, posts his speech to incoming international students of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism about writing English as a second language. In explaining its vagaries and abuses to people who aren't native speakers, he exposes how to write if you sincerely care about being understood.

A Writer's Insatiable Hunger for the Wider World

To bogart Laura's post on focus:

Like most forms of publicly consumable art, the writer's work lives through its experience in the imaginations of others. If crafting impeccable tales in garrets of solitude and burying our perfected manuscripts were in our DNA, we wouldn't be posting or surfing at this moment (admit it!) More likely, we'd have gotten into watch-making, or some other unique, one-off endeavor.

Many of us find joy in creating, but we also desire/need the patronage of the wider world. Fine and dandy, because our loved ones and agents and publishers want that for us, too. The more readers, the more exposure, the more royalties, the better advances and auxiliary deals, the more readers, etc. The sides of buses only advertise readers you already know. Success breeds success. Onward and upward!

Okay, but I think it's important to realize that the writer's keening outreach to the wider world is a hunger that may never be satisfied. It has to be understood to be used and mastered. You could be on the bestseller list fifty weeks in a row, and some raincloud in a suit will tsk-tsk, reminding you that your backlist has gone out of print in Guam. If you're prone to mourn along, you've got the disease.

It is an enormous, abundant world. There are always new frontiers. There is always more to want. There are always new, even worthy, tasks to undertake. And there is always an angle of perspective on accomplishment that looks like failure. In fact, there are many miserable and outwardly successful people who specialize in locating that angle for themselves and anyone unlucky enough to be next to them at the banquet table.

For most of us, getting fiction into print at any commercial level takes years. Years of determination when there's not much progress to demonstrate. Many of us survive that by stoking the fires of our desire, feeding our hunger to see our creations validated by the public at some personal threshold of acceptability. However, where quality of life and even career longevity are concerned, it's important to keep that striving, craving ache in its proper place. Let it be your fuel, or even a tool, but never a whip.

To avoid the worst, each person needs to define what feels most viscerally like success. If you don't already have a personal vignette, and I'll bet you do, check whether imagining any of the following makes your heart sing:

-Ambling through town, knowing everyone you pass and being greeted warmly
-Being approached by a stranger for an autograph in front of your family
-Secretly shopping and finding your work in the bookstores of a huge city
-Traveling abroad, and having the hotel clerk recognize your name
-Winning an award from your professional peers
-Sending in the final payment of a long-standing debt with artistic earnings
-Celebrating a great fiscal year with your team and brainstorming for the future
-typing THE END
-Discovering your work mattered importantly to someone
-Gaining a grudging admission of respect from a rival
-Having an instructor assign your work to students
-Being mentioned in national media

There's no right answer, but what does your glorious vignette tell you about your priorities? If winning an award from peers is important, spending time learning those expectations and cultivating industry relationships is better than collecting fans who can't nominate you. It doesn't mean you won't cultivate fans, but some writers remain critical darlings despite sluggish sales. If peer recognition is your giddiest pleasure, it helps you to choose among the many different, scattered efforts you might make otherwise.

My wildest dreams don't include being recognized or approached at-large, and I value the warmth of personal connections and shared successes. For me, social media's fun, but I don't spend a lot of time campaigning for Followers or Friends, except on behalf of our SinC chapter, which isn't for my individual benefit anyway. Online traffic and attention will tick up as it goes, I figure, but I'm not pimping hard. That's neither right nor wrong, just personal predilection.

I do spend a lot of time critiquing other authors' work. It takes me hours weekly--as long as some spend Tweeting-- but I'd rather be in another writer's good will or on their acknowledgments page than have thousands of followers unrelated to my fiction. When I'm in the position to develop my base of readership, I may need to reduce what I can offer other writers. I know my limits, and that's my own calculus. If I'm feeling stretched thin, it's usually because I'm too busy offending my internal priorities. When I allow that, my frustration at being put-upon rises like quick lava. Once I realize where I've misplaced myself, I can return to the equally resource-consuming things that measure up in my soul's tally. Then, I'm content again, even if still overbooked : )

What future vision makes you jump with joy? How does it color your choices?

P.S. Happy Birthday, Mom!

I Got LOST Years Ago.

When I rescheduled an evening event earlier this week, a friend asked if I were staying home for the real-time finale of the TV series LOST. (Note to the most rabid of fans, the Emmy Award committee is apparently extending a special exemption so that this extended episode can be considered among this year's nominees. I squee on your behalf!) Truthfully, this series did seem like my kind of thing, and I hit it a couple of times, but the habit didn't take somehow.

Now I recognize why. My receptors for an uber-complex surreal and allegorical mystery tease were already burned out by David Lynch and Mark Frost! If you don't remember the confusing bliss (and the pie!) of the nineties sensation Twin Peaks, click to play below. The Log Lady you see slurping received psychic messages from the lumber she petted. Yeah, really, and she wasn't the oddest thing in the show. Audio by MC Chris, images assembled by formaldehydepictures, and link via PopCandy.

Focus, or Lack Thereof

In the next couple of weeks, you'll probably get several posts from me on focus. Why? Because it's something I'm not feeling right now. At the moment, I feel as if every aspect of my life is spinning out of control or, conversely, sitting in a holding pattern.

Part of this feeling is real. I have a sick, old dog (my responsibility), a wrecked truck (that one's my husband's job to take care of) and I am waiting for word on two work-related projects that are in other people's hands. My brain and my life seem to be filled with white noise, which makes getting anything done nearly impossible.

But I have come to realize that part of the static in my head comes from trying to do too many things. Splitting my focus into shards isn't something I've ever been particularly good at. I've always had multiple jobs, but they're usually very different from one another (ie: beadmaker & computer consultant). Right now, it seems, everything I do involves sitting in front of a screen. I still have my computer clients. I write. And now, on top of it all, there's the "marketing" aspect. I love Bill Cameron's take on social media and marketing. These are things I don't mind doing, but they do suck up time and force you to spend more of it in front of the computer.

I'm not bemoaning a lack of time. I figure I have more than many people do. But I only have so much mental and emotional energy, and I am beginning to wonder how I'm supposed to effectively channel that so I can get my novel published. Not create a brand. Not have lots of "friends" on twitter. Not even, though I hesitate to say so because it is part of my plan, write short fiction. But get the novel done.

So I hope you'll bear with me, and even offer suggestions, as I try to figure this out. Have you had this experience? What did you do to winnow away the time-sucks?

The "Last 72" Essay Contest

What would you do if you were told you only had 72 hours to live?

Everest Productions and The Foundation Magazine (a bimonthly published magazine of scientific and spiritual thought) are holding "The Last 72 Writing Contest," and are searching for 13 winners who will get to appear in a brand-new TV series, receive up to $5,000 in cash prizes and more.

The guidelines state that participants must be 18 or older. Entries must be 1,000-1,500 words, written in English. "Express your own experiences and intentions and not the idea from another work of fiction. Move readers with its originality and your unique personality. Describe actions that you could realistically achieve in 3 days or less that could have a long-term, constructive impact on your life and others."

You can read the rules here; and be warned: Enter the contest only if you are willing to be on television! You can follow the contest on Twitter @Last72.

The deadline is July 30, 2010. ****This deadline has been extended to October 3oth.

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13.

Two Sentence Tuesday

You know how it is--it never rains but it pours. My house is a mess, my finances are a mess, even my hair is a mess! I can't get my dogs' vet schedules straightened out. These revisions are kicking my tushy, I have to get my short story written, and I just found out I am "waitlisted" for a hotel room the last day of the RWA National conference. Waitlisted? What on earth does that mean? How am I supposed to make plane reservations if I don't know whether I'll have a room?

Needless to say, scattered thoughts do not make a productive writer. I wish I could be like Dan O'Shea, who is managing to do two things at once! He's losing weight while writing. Can you imagine? You should visit his blog and check out his thriller that he's serializing over there.

Me, I can't even do one thing at once. But at least I've managed to get this post together. So without further ado, I give you two lines I wrote using Dr. Wicked's Write Or Die on my revisions the other day:

"And, frankly, even if you dismiss all those people, I'm a bit pissed off that you can dismiss me. would have thought that last night ranked me among those people you felt you could count on."

And if you can't guess what part of the manuscript that came from, well, you're probably as scatterbrained as I am!

The book I am currently reading is kind of interesting. It's a historical romance with a hero who has Asperger's Syndrome (albeit a mild enough case). [Edited to add: this is The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley. So sorry for not saying so--did I mention I have no brain?] The idea intrigued me, and so far it's proven a fun read. (Of course...it's fiction, and romantic fiction at that.) Here are a couple sentences:

He stared at the droplet, something inside him singing at the perfection of the ball of ink, the glistening viscosity that held it suspended from the nib. The sphere was perfect, shining, a wonder.

What about you? What have you read this week? What have you written? As usual, let us know where to find your work in the comments and we'll link to you!

• Leah J. Utas has a couple of intriguing sentences -- and a fabulous picture! -- up at her place.
• Mason Canyon ruminates on humor on her blog.
• Kathy Ryan has a flash fiction piece up for this week.
• Terri has been interviewing her characters for fun and inspiration.

My Town Monday: Central Park

One of my favorite places in New York City is Central Park. This oasis in the heart of Manhattan is filled with beautiful lawns, amazing flora, and places for people of all ages to relax and have fun

Central Park was opened in 1859 and completed in 1873. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963.

Winners of a landscape design contest, the writer Fredrick Law Olmstead and the English architect Calvert Vaux, who developed the Greensward Plan created an idyllic and natural landscape in the middle of the city. Central Park stretches two and a half miles from 59^th Street (Central Park South) to 110^th Street (Central Park North) and is half a mile wide running from Fifth Avenue to Central Park West.

Points of interest in the Park include walking tracks, bridal paths, two ice-skating rinks, the zoo and children’s zoo, the Conservatory Garden, a wildlife sanctuary, Delacorte Theater (home to Shakespeare in the Park), Belvedere Castle, the Carousel, the Dairy, playgrounds, ball fields, lakes, ponds (including one for model sail boats) and the ramble (a great spot for bird watching) just to name a few.

As I hope my photos show, this weekend the Park was filled with tourists, entertainers, and New Yorkers making the most of a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.

To learn more about Central Park and its history visit: http://www.centralpark.com/

See more My Town Mondays here.

On the Topic of Wickedness

This can't really compete in evilness with Laura's deathly Dr. Wicked, but I Bwa-Ha-Ha'd when I saw it at Agent Bedhead.

Write or DIE....

You know those days. They happen in NaNo. They happen in life. You NEED to get that 5000 words down on the page. You can worry about editing them into beauty later. You just have to get them DOWN so there's something there.

That's where Dr. Wicked's Write or Die comes in. Use the free online version, or download the one with all the bells and whistles (which even allows you to compete with your writing "partners" head to head). Need to be locked out of the internet to allow your productivity to flow? Use the desktop version.

This afternoon I had to write a scene that just wasn't working for me. I logged into Write or Die and set myself a goal of 1000 words in 10 minutes. No, I didn't expect to make it. The scene didn't need to be 1000 words long. I wanted the push, though. Every time I paused to think, or deleted words, the screen background around the box in which I was writing would begin to flash. First pink, then redder, then scarlet, then WHAM, I was hit with loud and foul music because I hadn't written anything in a minute. Let me tell you, once that happens once, you don't want it to happen again. You'll write just about anything to prevent it.

In the ten minutes, I had my 350 word scene written. Is it perfect? Nope. But it's 350 words I needed to get down so I could edit them into some semblance of perfection. I am now seriously considering purchasing the desktop version for no other reason than because, wow, it's just so cool.

You can find Dr. Wicked on Twitter at @DrWicked.

Maybe, if you come back Tuesday, I'll even post two of the sentences I wrote for Two Sentence Tuesday!

Mayhem at BookHampton

Anyone in driving distance of the eastern end of Long Island should consider attending this weekend's "Mayhem," a gathering of some of the biggest names in mystery-writing talent at several BookHampton stores, in Sag Harbor, East Hampton, and Southampton. All the events are free and will be followed by book signings.

The schedule for the two day event (Saturday, May 15 & Sunday, May 16, 2010) can be found here. Read the New York Times article about the event.

Nelson DeMille, Linda Fairstein, Alafair Burke, Carol Higgins Clark, Reed Farrel Coleman, S.J. Rozan, Susan Isaacs, Alex Berenson, Andrew Gross, Laura Joh Rowland, Chris Grabenstein, Stefanie Pintoff, Elizabeth Zelvin, EJ Wagner, and so many more will be in attendance. The tough part is deciding which BookHampton to go to!

Some of the panels are: Noir at Dark, Dark & Dangerous, Tough Guys, High-Heeled Shoes, Whatever It Takes: Getting Read & Getting Published.

The stores are listed as follows:

East Hampton: 41 Main Street, 631-324-4939
Southampton: 91 Main Street, 631-283-0270
Sag Harbor: 20 Main Street, 631-725-8425

You can follow @BookHamptons on Twitter, or check out their page on Facebook.

Come follow me on Twitter!

Attention! Murder to Mil-Spec.

Each year the Women of Mystery support the charitable anthologies published by Wolfmont Press. From 2006 through 2009, the anthologies have had a holiday theme and the proceeds were distributed to Toys for Tots, an exceedingly worthy organization. This year Wolfmont’s publisher, all around nice guy and generous soul, Tony Burton has announced that the guidelines for the charitable anthology have changed. I’ll let Tony tell you all about it.

This year, the focus of Wolfmont's charitable effort has changed. It's not because Toys for Tots is not a good charity--it's a great cause, and I urge you to support it in any way you can. But this year, we're focusing on something I think is just as worthy, and perhaps more urgent.

As a military veteran of 12+ years, I have seen a lot of bad things happen to our vets. Both in war and peacetime such events occur, but the past few years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen a marked rise in veterans with crippling disabilities, very often caused by IED attacks. These disabling injuries often leave vets in situations where their old homes are no longer usable. When you are required to use a wheelchair and your door is at the top of a flight of stairs, or your home has doors that are 28" wide, you're in a bad situation. Or when you require special accommodations to get in and out of the shower, use the toilet, or even do something as simple as cook a meal or wash the dishes, your original home may no longer meet your needs.

This is where Homes for Our Troops comes in. (Please visit their site to get an idea of what they do. It's both heart-rending and heart-mending.)

Here is some brief information from their website: "We are Homes for Our Troops, a national non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2004. We are strongly committed to helping those who have selflessly given to our country and have returned home with serious disabilities and injuries since September 11, 2001. It is our duty and our honor to assist severely injured Servicemen and Servicewomen and their immediate families by raising donations of money, building materials and professional labor and to coordinate the process of building a home that provides maximum freedom of movement and the ability to live more independently."


We at Wolfmont researched a lot of charities before making this decision for this year's anthology. Homes for Our Troops has a four-star rating on Charity Navigator and uses 89.6% of its revenue toward actually performing their good works, with the remainder going to pay administrative, fundraising, and supportexpenses.

What do we want for this anthology, MURDER TO MIL-SPEC?

First of all, what is MIL-SPEC? Though I have a substantial history with the military, I sometimes forget that not everyone else is familiar with all the acronyms and terms. MIL-SPEC stands for "military specification" and is technically defined as "A document that describes the essential technical requirements for purchased material that is military unique or substantially modified commercial items."

In general use, it means anything that is either created specifically for use in a military environment or that has been modified to be more suitable to use in a military environment. Thus, the stories in this anthology are intended to be about military/veterans and specifically deal with those sorts of settings, rather than in everyday civilian settings with primarily civilian characters.

So, we want short crime stories that involve military personnel or vets. I do NOT want the military or veterans played up as being all evil, and any story that comes in with a slant that implies that the military person is bad or evil simply for doing his/her job in a wartime situation will be, as we used to say in the Navy, s**tcanned.

I don't mind if the criminal is a vet or military person, but if that is the case, I'd like the protagonist ("good guy or gal") to be a military person or vet as well. No demonizing of the military will be tolerated.

One more note about the theme: There is no required holiday component for this year's anthology. No Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or anything else like that is necessary.
Final contributors for this anthology will be a mix of invited authors and open submission, about fifty-fifty. The competition may be stiff, as the charitable anthologies have been popular projects since their inception.

As in the past, potential contributors should also be cognizant of the fact that, because this is not commercially a big hit with the bookstores (the discount is low to maximize the amount going to the charity), we really need authors who are willing to go the extra mile to promote the book. The authors for previous anthologies have been great and we'd like to continue that trend. We would prefer authors who are willing to commit to signings, try to get local newspaper coverage or radio coverage, talk up the book to their friends and neighbors, etc. Remember all those Girl Scout cookies or holiday cards you bought from the neighbors’ kids? What goes around, comes around. If you are not willing to make these extra efforts, maybe it would be better for you to support the anthology by simply buying a copy when it's released.

So there it is. If you think that you would be interested in submitting a story before the June 15, 2010 deadline, everything that you need to know can be found here.

Rest assured that the Women of Mystery will be touting Murder to Mil-Spec as soon as it’s available for sale.

Terrie

In Praise of Passivity

Recumbent Buddha courtesy of Shane Sakata at The Nihon Sun.

(Especially) when writing about political or legal processes, is it okay to use the dreaded passive voice? Ruth Morgan of the CSM argues with herself and the ghosts of Strunk & White.

"In a recent newsletter, a colleague reminded me of some advice from Strunk & White: "Many a tame sentence ... can be made lively and emphatic by substituting ... the active voice...." "Can be made?" Were Strunk & White pulling my leg? But "Many a tame sentence" is more important than the unknown "doer" of the verb [snip] And sometimes the desire to eliminate passive verbs leads us to substitutes that are even worse. "He won the race for city council" does have more energy than "he was elected to the city council." But "She was appointed chief of staff" is better than simply "she became chief of staff." [snip] One of the classic formulations of this concept, "Mistakes were made," has such a long history in American politics that it has its own page on Wikipedia.

Fiction writers are told always to use active voice, but I do see instances where particular characterization might benefit from using the passive voice in dialogue and sneaking it into description for its reflexive, even subconscious, implication of bureaucracy and double-speak.

One of those rules to break when you've got a good reason? You'll get away with it if it works.

The Critical Critiquers

As we all know, writing is a solitary occupation. You sit at your computer and type away, creating characters, plot, and stories that you think are absolutely fabulous. And why wouldn’t they be? You wrote them after all.

That’s the perfect reason why you need a good group of critique partners. Partners who can be invaluable in keeping you honest, and keeping your work on track.

My critique partners have become good friends, as well. We met at Marymount Manhattan College when we were studying novel writing with a talented young writer of historical fiction, Alyson Richman. When our class was dropped from the curriculum, Alyson agreed to work with the three of us privately. When she became pregnant with her second child and could no longer lead our group, we decided to continue on our own.

It’s been about five years now that we’ve been working together and it’s been a wonderful experience. Each of us is totally honest about and respectful of the others work. We give our suggestions freely and receive the same in return. Our discussions are lively and always helpful. Since the three of us are working on very different projects—mysteries, a memoir and a young adult novel—the competitive factor is totally absent. I value every idea that Kathy and Terry offer and I think they have contributed greatly to making my novels as good as they can be. I hope that I’ve done the same for them.

What about you? Are you part of a critique or writing group? Do you find that it's made a difference in your writing? Let us know.

Image source: http://www.clker.com/clipart-9408.html

Two Sentence Tuesday: Frantic

OK, so as we all know, I had to do a major revision. And I sent it off to my agent, and now I have to do another major revision. This is not making me happy. Still, I am plugging away at it and here are two sentences I added this week.

Rosalita’s sat on the very edge of Dobbs Hollow PD jurisdiction. When fights broke out, which they did with depressing regularity, they were quelled nearly as often by the Adams County Sheriff’s Department as by the DHPD, mostly because deputies were often the cause of the fights.

This week I have an ARC of Elizabeth Lowell's forthcoming Death Echo. Although this one is starting off slowly, I am sure I will enjoy it as I generally love Lowell's work. Here are a couple sentences to tease you:

Temuri dead was worth five thousand dollars. Temuri caught with his pants down was worth more than a million dollars.

And you? What have you been reading and writing this week? Let us know and we'll update the post throughout the day!

UPDATES: Mason Canyon posts two delicious ones in the comments from today's blustery blog. Leah J. Utas discusses matters financial and finishes offering a new, favorite two-word phrase! Crystal Phares reads for a good cause, then cheats us in more ways than one. On Kathleen A. Ryan's solo blog, she gives us the pop and fizz of darkness.

"Once Upon a Day" Writing Contest

The folks at "readingwriters.com" are hosting a "Once Upon a Day" writing contest. There's no fee, and the grand prize is $100 and publication in The Verb (a monthly e-zine). The deadline is approaching rapidly, though - it's this Saturday, May 15, 2010. The short story contest is open to writers worldwide.

The first line must start with, "The sun rose..." and the last line of the story must end, "....just as the sun went down."

Your entry must be original and unpublished, up to 1000 words.

Read the submission guidelines here.

Come follow me on Twitter!

Mother's Day Bouquet

In honor of Mother's Day, here's a bouquet of links:

Love movies? Here are Ten classic movies to watch on Mother’s Day. For women, here are Ten best movies for mothers and daughters to see.

Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol celebrate Mother's Day by residing on

the New York Times best seller list.

Still stumped on what to get Mom, or as a mom, you don't know what to ask for? Here's a list of some of the Best mother’s day gifts.

The median age of a woman giving birth for the first time is 24.8. Here's more Mother’s Day trivia.

Forgot to pick up a Mother's Day card, or misplaced the one you bought? Know a child who'd like to make something for his/her mom, or need a poem for Mother's Day? Check out Printable Mother’s Day Cards, Coloring pages for kids, poems. Here's a free Mother's Day Craft E-book.

How about printable cards for the "moms" of pets? Check these out! Here are some nifty ideas for the pet-loving mom.

Thinking about cooking or baking for Mom? Review these Mother’s Day recipes.

Read some of the best money lessons from mom.

More wisdom: 35 life lessons from mom.

Read about Moms giving the best advice.

What about those facing Mother's Day without a mom? Consult tips for mother’s day without mom and what to do when your mother is gone.

Mother's Day can be difficult for women trying to conceive. Here's how to support an infertile friend on Mother's Day.

However you spend or honor this day, I wish you a pleasant Mother's Day.

Come follow me on Twitter!

Saturday's Scramble

Image courtesy of Berlin, Ohio's singing innkeeper and the Lamplighter Inn.

Odd links, both spicy and original recipe:

Was Shakespeare's ghost writer really...Shakespeare? CNN's Todd Leopold reports.

The Telegraph's Bonnie Malkin reports on a South Pacific tribe preparing for the return of their god, Prince Philip, the almost 89 year-old Duke of Edinburgh.

Also from the Telegraph, Dean Nelson reports that Indian military scientists are studying a man who's claimed to have no food or drink for 70 years. Hoaxster or modern Methuselah?

Charlie Jane Anders of New Scientist's CultureLab lists the Top 10 Greatest Science Fiction Detective Novels. I'm with him on Dirk Gently, and a couple of others. Who's missing?

Weekend Movie? I Predict Which One You'll See!

If you're going to the movies this weekend, I hereby predict you ARE GOING to see the one from the trailer below. At least in part, I'd betcha. Am I right?



via Quotulatiousness.

Friday Chapter Brags

Women of Mystery isn't, and won't ever be, non-stop SinC chapter news. I and the other WoM are each more than Sisters in Crime members alone. In fact, most of us belong to multiple writing or literary organizations, as well as maintaining professional affiliations in other fields. However, there has been some big and great stuff happening in our local SinC that truly deserves wider sharing, so please to indulge me.

Chapter member Anita Page won a Derringer short story award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society! Chapter member Hilary Davidson won a short story award from Spinetingler Magazine! Chapter member Stefanie Pintoff won the Edgar Award for best first novel! Of course, you already know about our own Terrie Farley Moran's book launch and Kathleen Ryan's new works-in-print, and they're both chapter members, too! The chapter is hosting our first workshop with pre-eminent editrix Chris Roerden, and we just announced the Call for Submissions for our second anthology!

This is a big, blooming spring for us, and I can't even reveal all the members who have lots more projects and announcements in the works. So I wanted to take this brief moment to say, I'm so proud to be a Woman-Sister in-and-of Mystery-Crime!