The Long & The Short of It

When I decided to write fiction, I began with a novel. It was something I’d thought about for a very long time and really wanted to accomplish. A short while later, I became a member of Sisters in Crime and was exposed to a different form of fiction: the short story.

SinC pals like Terrie Farley Moran, Hilary Davidson, and Kathy Ryan were writing great short stories and flash fiction pieces, a form I’d never even heard of before. Short fiction had a certain appeal and I thought I’d give it a try.

The results so far have been “Out of Luck,” a story which is in the upcoming New York Sisters in Crime anthology, MURDER NEW YORK STYLE: FRESH SLICES and “Fatal Flaw,” which was published online at “Beat To A Pulp.

I have another story I’ve been working on and saving for the right venue. I think this is it and I’d like to premiere it here at Women of Mystery.
The story, which comes in at 690 words, is entitled “Waiting Room” and I hope you enjoy it.

Hubba, hubba, thought John as the woman took a seat opposite him. The old-time phrase flashed through his mind unbidden and instantly reminded him of walking around town with his granddad when he was a child. A poke in the ribs and a whispered “Don’t tell your Grandma,” had inevitably followed as the old man stared open-mouthed at some pretty young girl they’d passed on the street. Well, granddad would sure be staring now.

Wow, she’s hot, he almost said aloud, catching himself just in time. Better than hot. The woman sitting opposite him was smokin’. She had settled herself comfortably on the end of a small floral sofa and was already immersed in a magazine. Tall—man, he hadn’t missed those long legs when she sauntered in—and curvy, with wavy brunette hair and spectacular blue eyes, she was the whole package. He watched from behind his newspaper as she crossed her legs and her short skirt rose up a little higher on her thighs.

She’s mine. It’s a done deal. All I have to do walk over there, ask her out and she’ll want me so bad she’ll have to say yes. The sex will be great. Like nothing she’s ever had before. So great, we’ll never leave the apartment. Just order in when we have to eat, if we can tear ourselves away from each other. John took off his glasses and started polishing them as he thought ahead to his plans for tonight.

#

Emily had noticed the guy as soon as she’d walked in the office. He’d put down the paper he’d been reading and was carefully polishing his glasses. Cute. Actually very cute with buzz cut sandy brown hair and deep brown eyes set wide apart. Dressed okay, too, in black jeans and a button down shirt. Casual, but nice. He didn’t give off the vibe of a financial type, or a lawyer, which was fine with her. She’d had enough of those guys. He seemed more settled than that. Maybe did something with computers or the web. From where she sat, it looked like he had a good body. Like he worked out and spent more than a little time in the gym. Probably had a few tricks he’d liked to show off at the right time and she was just the girl to coax them out of him. She bit her lip and raised her eyes from her magazine focusing on the middle distance. If she smiled at him now, she bet he’d come running.

#

But what if she gets clingy. John gulped and suddenly was having trouble swallowing. What if she wants a relationship with all the commitment that could lead to. No way. That’s just not happening. Hot or not. I mean I like her and all that. She’s terrific but I don’t think so. This is just way too complicated.

#

No. I’d better rethink the smiling before I do anything stupid, Emily told herself. I mean who is he anyway. Okay, the body’s a plus, but underneath he’s probably just some boring online guy who’s a total nerd. God knows if he even has any imagination. I mean, look at him sitting there wiping those glasses over and over again. You know, they’re not going to get any cleaner, buddy, she wanted to shout at him. I bet he’s all into having virtual fun instead real fun, as if he’d know the difference. He probably never wants to go anywhere, just stay home and play with his computer. Well, he can play with whatever he likes on his own. What a loser. I never want to see him again.

#

“Mr. Matthews,” the receptionist said as she put down her phone, “the Doctor is ready for you now. Through that door please,” she added and pointed to her left.

John rose and tucked his glasses into his shirt pocket. “Bitch,” he whispered to himself as he walked in front of the woman on the couch.

Emily shuddered slightly as the man passed by. “Asshole,” she muttered under her breath and turned the page of her magazine.

The End

Let's be friends on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @cathicopy

Writing Tips Abound on Twitter

Just another reason why I love Twitter ~ hashtags! Especially ones like #writetip or #writing. Such a plethora of advice and quotes, and sometimes the right advice or suggestion appears at just the right time.

Never heard of a hashtag, or not sure what it is? It's a particular keyword or acronym preceded by a pound sign (#). It connects messages related to the same topic. You can enter a search on Twitter for a particular hashtag. As a new tweeter, our very own Elaine Will Sparber recently shared her favorite hashtags.

Hashtags also come into play during Twitter chats; it aligns everyone's tweets if the hashtag is included. Tweetchat is the perfect site if you are participating in a chat (or reading along). It automatically adds the hashtag word or acronym so you don't have to type it, and it counts down your spaces, already taking the hashtag into account.

Hashtags are used when "live-tweeting" at an event. Tweeps may end up using various hashtags, so it's convenient if an "official" hashtag is determined ahead of time; this way, tweeps can literally be on the same page (and cause a trending topic, too). This past April, the Wall Street Journal blog announced, "Royal First as Wedding Gets Official #hashtag" (which, by the way, was #rw2011). According to TV Guide, broadcast and cable stations are adding hashtags to the bottom of the show.

Anyone can create a hashtag ~ and if it goes viral, could turn into a trending topic.

Booktrade.info suggests, "All books should have official hashtags so that people can discuss what they're reading as they're doing so. This would serve both authors and readers remarkably well."

Women on Writing recently asked, "Are Hashtags the New Global Book Club?"

Here are some tidbits I've recently come across on Twitter:

From @pubcoach (Daphne Gray-Grant): "A #writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer." ~ Joseph Conrad #writetip

From @WriterThesaurus (Angela Ackerman): Personality Trait Tool 4 creating Stand out Characters (sidebar). Here's RECKLESS #writetip #writechat

From @lookman "A story isn't about a moment in time, a story is about THE moment in time." - W.D. Wetherell #writing #screenwriting

From @CurtissAnn (CurtissAnn Matlock): Water for Writing -- 5 Practices that Help Me Write: http://wp.me/p3let-vo #writechat #writetip

Interested in more hashtags? Check out 40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers on Daily Writing Tips ~ or conduct a search at hashtags.org.

Do you have a favorite hashtag ~ one that you check on more than others? Or one that you like to add to your tweets? What's your Twitter handle?

Several Women of Mystery are active on Twitter ~ Come follow us!

Laura K. Curtis @laurakcurtis

Lois Karlin @loiskarlin

Kathleen A. Ryan @katcop13

Cathi Stoler @cathicopy

Clare Toohey @clare2e

Elaine Will Sparber @EWSparber

Two Sentence Tuesday - Insanity Edition

OK, so for anyone who doesn't know, I've been absolutely insanely busy with a wedding and two conferences.  The last of the conferences starts today and ends on Friday, and then I will probably keel over somewhere and sleep for an entire week.

In the meantime, I haven't written anything except directions to things. I've been reading Jane Graves' forthcoming Black Ties and Lullabies as I've signed on to do a few reviews over at The Good, The Bad and The Unread and have to have this book done soon. Here are a couple of sentences:

He handed her the decimated contract. She stared down at the jagged pieces in total disbelief. "Are you out of your mind?"

For my own writing, I will give you a pair of sentences from the revision-in-progress:

Cecile had had defensive wounds on her arms and hands and two shallow stab wounds on her back before the final coup de grâce. Bruising on her face indicated she’d been beaten.

And you? Read anything? Written anything? As usual, let us know where you are and we'll put up a link!

• Yay! Leah J. Utas has enough of her revisions done that she can play along with us this week!

My Town Monday: New Orleans Redux (French Quarter)

This is the scene from the edge of the park, where mule-drawn carts line up to walk tourists around the French Quarter. From here, where I'm standing across the street, you're about 30 seconds from the Cafe DuMonde of coffee and beignet fame and the strolling, outdoor French Market. A couple of blocks that same direction, and you're at the Central Grocery, known worldwide for its muffalettas. Turn all the way around instead, and walk a couple hundred yards, you'll be at the Mississippi's edge.

As promised, here's Rocky! Over his umpteen years pulling a cart, he's meant over a million dollars in tour fees.  He led us nobly around the quarter, this "million-dollar mule."

Oysters leftovers from a plate of Rockefeller and another raw on the half-shell.  Yum.

In addition to the many voodoo shops and related items in every store, this was a funny holographic photo in the storefront of a vampire tour booking outfit..  When you look at it from other angles, the choirboy returns, but I think I prefer his alter ego.

Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, the current incarnation, has been built and expanded over two other versions that stood here in the 1700s.  It's the oldest operating cathedral in the United States and looks just this pretty at night.  You can see the time on the clock is ten.  It was chiming as I took the picture.  Hear it?

Behind the building, a skillfully placed spotlight turns the back garden's statue of Jesus into a huge, divine shadow puppet across the back of the cathedral.

Brass band outside the Cafe Iberville. There was more live music than you could imagine tucked around every corner.

From the front of the Cathdral, if you head down the left side, you're heading down a little cobbled lane, with a drain trough running down its center, where it's said people were drugged, cheated, and shanghai'd. Pirate Jean Lafitte, pirate and privateer, was for a time king of the city, running a warehouse/counting-house in the Quarter to distribute his plunder. Later, General Andrew Jackson enlisted him to help fight off the British in 1815. Lafitte helped, then became a Spanish spy, but what do you expect from a pirate? This little yellow house in Pirates' Alley brings back the topic to something literary, at least.

In 1925, William Faulkner wrote his first novel here.  Thus ends our tiny MTM tour!

Tell us about your My Town Monday entries, read others at the My Town Monday blog, and we'll update throughout the day!

Jim Winter's been talking about Cincinnati's,ahem, greatest gift to American culture, after chili, of course.

Why I am Furious . . .

You all remember Homes For Our Troops, a wonderful organization which provides adaptive housing for our newest veterans who were critically injured in Iraq or Afghanistan. We’ve talked about this organization a number of times including here.

And it is old news that I have contributed a story to an anthology called Murder To Mil-Spec, which was written and published by Tony Burton at Wolfmont Press specifically to raise funds for Homes For Our Troops. As always with his charity anthologies, Tony had done an outstanding job.

Thousands of other Americans are contributing money, supplies and hours of labor to help these veterans. I applaud the efforts of each and every donor and volunteer.

But then there are the creeps, the selfish and the self absorbed, the downright unpatriotic. And who might they be? They are the Board of Directors of a Homeowner's Association in a place called Knob Hill in the state of Georgia, U.S.A. After negotiating with Homes For Our Troops for nearly a year and approving plans for a home to be constructed within the confines of their association for severely injured SFC Sean Gittens and his family, (wife and four kids) the Board of Directors rescinded their approval a few days later. Since the Gittens family already resides within this community, you would think that the Knob Hill Board of Directors would do everything possible to help this hero and his family to remain in the community where his children are already at home and surrounded by friends. Instead they argue about covenants and such.

You can read about the Board's disgraceful behaviour here.

Don't bother expressing your outrage in the comments, you can email your view directly to the Board at bod@knobhill.org or email the President of the Association at Rick.Trump@Comcast.net Or you can send a letter to the Board at Knob Hill Clubhouse, 101 Knob Hill Drive, Evans, GA 30809. These email addys and this address can be found as public information on the Knob Hill website.

For the purpose of full disclosure I will say that the Board is feeling the heat and they have put a note to their own homeowners on their website saying that they are protecting the homeowners and that HFOT is at fault. I find this to be weird since the approval was given and then rescinded. And in any event, the Gittens family are the innocents caught in the middle.

Terrie

Beach House Noir @ Do Some Damage

Steve Weddle at Do Some Damage issued a writing challenge earlier this month: our spin on "Summer vacation given the crime fiction treatment, noir at the beach house, or beatings at the beach," anywhere from 500 to 5,000 words. I took up on it, and my story, "Wanderlust," is posted over at my personal blog, From Cop to Mom and the Words in Between, and comes in at about 630 words. Steve offered a copy of Duane Swierczynski's Fun and Games to one of the participants, and Thomas Pluck was the lucky winner, chosen at random.

This summer weekend, enjoy some Beach House Noir!

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13.

It's Wonderful to Write. . .

Over on the Criminal Brief weblog project, our friend Rob Lopresti has written a terrific poem that will hit at the heart of writers everywhere. You can read it here.

I can only tell you the refrain: "It's wonderful to write, but it's better to have written."

Okay, off with you now. Go have fun with Rob.

Terrie

Narcissism and the Supervillain

In response to the hue and cry among clinical psychologists about the loss of the diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, I wrote a post over on Criminal Element called Narcissism and the Supervillain.

If you're anything like me, you might find narcissism a happy compromise in a genre that pushes zombies, serial killers, and psychopaths down our throats.

Now that researchers appear to have concluded that narcissism is on the rise in our society, it concerns me that writers might be wary of choosing a malignant narcissist as a villain. After all, if what has long been considered a disorder is now commonplace, might readers actually identify with our narcissistic villains?

But the behavior hasn't changed, it never will, and narcissists will continue to respond with violence to real and imagined slights. Which makes it all the more believable that a narcissist will kill for revenge - and our readers might well find it all the more chilling to consider that cousins and uncles and neighbors might pose real danger. So carry on, traditional mystery writers; we've got a good thing going.

- Lois

Feed-Your-Brain Tuesday

Our Laura is on some remote Caribbean island, but before you get jealous let me add that she’s hosting a wedding for a relative (!) So I’m covering her Two Sentence Tuesday post this week, and am delighted to do so.

Maybe you’ve already read the dystopian cyber-punk novel Feed, by M. T. Anderson. I’m a bit slow getting through the stacks of books that line my walls, so I’ve only recently begun to read it. Or rather, hear it…which is appropriate, in that the audio book is a more realistic experience of what the characters “hear” in their brains. In fact, listening to the beginning of the novel is pretty rough going for someone who prefers singer-songwriter music and has chosen a peaceful life in the country.

I wasn’t sure how I’d find a two-liner to share, since I have no paper or digital copy. No worries, I found an excerpt on NPR’s website. It’s certainly the most bizarre book I’ve come across in a long time, and I’m pretty sure it wins best-first-line, hands down. (If you’ve got a better one, let me know.) It starts:

“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.”

Feed is a YA novel, but it is darkly satirical and well worth the read, if you can get past the annoyingly punky beginning. An important book, in my opinion. Here’s more:

“We flew up and our feeds were burbling all sorts of things about where to stay and what to eat. It sounded pretty fun, and at first there were lots of pictures of dancing and people with romper-gills and metal wings, and I was like, This will be big, really big, but then I guess I wasn't so skip when we were flying over the surface of the moon itself, because the moon was just like it always is, after your first few times there, when you get over being like, Whoa, unit! The moon! The goddamn moon! and instead there's just the rockiness, and the suckiness, and the craters all being full of old broken shit, like domes nobody's using anymore and wrappers and claws.”

My own lines this week are also from a YA; in this case a paranormal:

“The building had always seemed a little overstuffed, with notes stuck to the doorways and bulletin boards all down the hall, like people passing by tacked them up on the spot as ideas occurred to them. “You can feel the gears turning,” my dad always said. Today it felt more like a jail under lock down. People who passed in the halls looked nervous, like they were under observation or something, and in the elevator they stood like frozen statues.”

Let us know what you’re reading and writing. If you’ve posted your Two-for-Tuesday elsewhere, send us a link and I’ll add it below.

Oh! And happy summer solstice!

- Lois

Go, Amanda!

In case you missed it, here's a link to Strawberry Saroyan's interview with Amanda Hocking in yesterday's NYTimes Magazine.

You know about the success story--the $2 million she grossed in the year after she uploaded her first book to Amazon, the $2 million St. Martin's is giving her for her next four books--but here are some facts you may have missed.

Her first novel, which she finished in her teens, was widely rejected.

She writes a novel in two to four weeks, but that's only after working on it in her head for more than a year.

She has no pretensions about her work. She calls her books "silly."

Her career began to take off after she listened to the advice of a good friend who suggested she stop trying to write like Kurt Vonnegut and instead write like Amanda Hocking.

She likes her friends and family and home in Austin, and has no interest in moving to New York.

Amazon, in conjunction with Houghton-Mifflin, offered more than St. Martin's, but Hocking turned them down. For one thing, she was concerned that big bookstore chains wouldn't carry an Amazon title. Also, Amazon would restrict e-book rights to Kindle, and its royalty rate compared poorly to what she received when she self-published.

Anyone who says no to the giant is my hero. Go Amanda!

Sleuthfest 2012 at Disney!

Best news ever--Sleuthfest will be held in Orlando next year AND the headliners couldn't be more near and dear to my heart. Charlaine Harris, editor of the anthology, Crimes by Moonlight, which contains my story, "The Awareness,"noted novelist Jeffery Deaver, who writes short stories with the best twist ending ever, and all around great guy Chris Grabenstein, who writes fun mysteries for adults and creepy/fun YA novels for the younger set.

Come one, come all! This fabulous and entertaining gathering of mystery lovers and mystery authors will be held on March 1st to 4th at the Royal Plaza located in the Walt Disney World® Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Orlando, Florida. Here is the link.

I'll meet you in the bar.

Terrie

Listen To Me!!

So, last week I posted an anniversary tribute to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine over at Criminal Element. Happy Seventieth, EQMM.
One of the highlights of the post is a link to a podcast of our Criminal Brief pal, James Lincoln Warren and MaryJane Maffini reading MaryJane’s story, “So Much In Common,” winner of both the Agatha and the Arthur Ellis Awards. Now I loved the story when I read it, but listening to it was magically awe-inspiring. You can hear it here.

And then I recalled another Criminal Briefer, Leigh Lundin advising me that if I ever have the opportunity to hear someone else read one of my stories I should grab it with both hands, er, ears.

And so I did.

A week or so ago, I discovered that Crimes by Moonlight was released in CD format in April, so I ran out and bought a copy. Last evening I heard “The Awareness” read by narrator Natalie Ross. The entire process was enchanting. If I had coached the reading, there are one or two slight changes I would have recommended, but overall I was delighted that Ms. Ross gave voice and inflection to my characters almost precisely as they spoke in my head when I first met them. She is a true professional. Hearing my words as they were meant to be spoken heightened my joy in having my story recorded and encourages me to write still more stories, in the hopes of having another recorded one day.

Terrie

Pardon moi for being MIA

Chuck Norris**

I keep thinking things will slow down, but really, they just get stranger, and only I am slowing down.
I haven't had much time for my own writing--read, none--but everyone goes through times like this, I know. Times when one's own creative work has to take a backseat to someone else who needs help more, to illness, to competing commitments, or to the simple, fixed number of hours in the day.

I notate a little here and there about my aspirations fictional, but mostly, I try to keep better understanding the story I want to work on, so that when I do have time again, I'll know it and my characters even better than the last time I wrote them.

What's the longest break you ever took while writing a still-first draft? I'm not sure what else I might do, but if you have great ways to keep your notions fresh during hiatus, let me know!

**Chuck Norris stops Father Time anytime he wants with a roundhouse kick to the throat.

Two Sentence Tuesday

Well, I certainly hope some of you were more productive last week than I was! I've gotten almost nothing written at all. Here are a couple of revised sentences:

Ethan added these names to the list and circled Jed Martin’s a couple of times, frustrated by his neophyte status in the town. His first suspect in a relatively small crime maintained a years-long friendship with his first suspect in a murder. Coincidence? Fact of life in a small town? Or something more?

On the other hand, I've been enjoying the forthcoming Rizzoli and Isles book by Tess Gerritsen, The Silent Girl.  Here are a couple of sentences from that:

It was two AM, way too early in the morning for anyone to be so damn chatty, but Detevtive Jane Rizzoli let her partner babble on about his latest date as she focused on driving. To her tired eyes, every street lamp seemed too bright, every passing headlight an assault on her retinas.

And you? Did you get anything written or read this week? As usual, let us know and we'll link to you!

• Leah J. Utas has some hot blooded sentences up at her place.
• Dorte H.'s entry this week includes a cipher!

A Woman of Mystery Turns 50

Today I celebrate my 50th birthday. Fifty is quite a milestone birthday, one that could put some people into a depression. Since I survived breast cancer seven years ago, every day is a gift. I'm lucky and happy to be alive. Getting older doesn't bother me. I usually don't think about my age until my birthday arrives. I reminisce about fond memories of previous birthdays with loved ones and can't help but smile. I look forward to what the future brings.

I am inspired to learn that today is the birthday of Dorothy L. Sayers. The talented author was born this day in Oxford in 1893. Check out this fun quote from Ms. Sayers: "Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force."

Speaking of interesting quotes by outstanding writers, Agatha Christie once commented: "I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming...suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say -- that a whole new life has opened before you."

Please join me in my virtual celebration today. Stop by and join the party! Impart your words of wisdom of growing older ~ I'd love to hear it ~ even if you're a young 'un! Share your favorite quote on aging, a joke, etc.

For a chuckle today, check out this clip of my favorite female comedienne, Rita Rudner, during her debut on Johnny Carson in 1988.

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13.

Friday Reads

If you're curious about what other people read, today is the day to find out.  Well, any Friday will do, really. If you're on Twitter, you should check out the hashtag #FridayReads (and actually you don't have to be a Twitter member to click the link and see the list).  On facebook, the page can be found at Friday Reads. They're up to several thousand contributions a week now, and I find it fascinating.

But then, I'm weird.

Two Sides

There is a wonderful article in the New York Daily News which tells us how much a local indie bookstore can contribute to a neighborhood and to readers in general. You can read it here.

And over on Criminal Element our own Laura talks about the new Amazon imprint, Thomas and Mercer. Click here to read all about it.

Terrie

Netspeak: A Writer's Tool

NetspeakCommon Language Search

I recently learned about Netspeak, a cool resource for writers on the internet (hat tip, Seth Godin). It helps when you are trying to remember a particular saying, or need to check on the correct word usage in a phrase.

The "Make Use Of" web site explains the functions and features of Netspeak, and lists similar vocabulary web sites.

Netspeak is more than just a phrase dictionary. In a YouTube tutorial, KindleExpert reveals how Netspeak can help generate keyword ideas.

Netspeak is an excellent resource for second-language speakers.

Check it out ~ let us know what you think!

Follow Me on Twitter @katcop13.

Two Sentence Tuesday

Ooops. Forgot today was Tuesday! But here I am. This week I've been reading Flowerbed of State by Dorothy St. James. It's tons of fun, so if you're a cozy fan, you should definitely check it out. Here are a couple of sentences.

Good God, he'd lost his mind! I squeezed my eyes shut. Wincing, I turned my head away and braced myself, half expectng him to hit me.

For myself, I haven't done much writing this week. In fact, I have a very hard time believing it's Tuesday again already! But here are the opening sentences I revised last week. They still need to be revised again, but that's the nature of the beast.

Ethan Donovan had endured more than his share of bad days and recognized the signs of impending trouble the minute he walked into Maxie’s Diner. The place was busier than usual and as soon as people noticed him, the buzz of conversation hushed.

What about you? Were you more productive than I was this week? Did you read anything? Write anything? As usual, let us know and we'll link to you!

• Leah J. Utas is A Fly On The Wall this week.

My Town Monday: Storyville, New Orleans, LA

My husband and I were recently recreating in New Orleans, the French Quarter mostly, because we like it so darned well. But a key feature of any domestic summer vacation is being able to find a congenial spot to enjoy the occasional New England sporting event, especially mid-day baseball, off limits during the usual work week.

(I'll have other, high-quality pictures of New Orleans once my new camera cable arrives, but for now, I'm harvesting these various, tourist-blurred, cell phone shots from elsewhere online.)

About 30 feet off of Bourbon St. on Iberville, almost catty-corner from the tony Hotel Monteleone and next door to the dueling pianos, is the Storyville sign advertising Louisiana seafood. We found it on an evening when a bunch of other places were already making lists at their doors, and we'd hoped to find an actual sports bar that might let us watch the Red Sox and Bruins. (Bittersweet to recall, as the Stanley Cup proceeds and the Boston Bruins are currently down 2 games to the Canucks and facing the potential loss of the Stanley Cup on home ice tonight. But in those halcyon days of a couple of weeks ago, they were still playing to make it into the finals. Ah, memories.)

We found places calling themselves "sports bars" that had an extra little TV in a corner, no HD or cable/sat packages for sports, when we'd anticipated a place with amenities at least as good as our living room. One place did, however, look absolutely top-notch for cocktails and oystery--and drinking can be its own, Olympic-class event on Bourbon--but on we pressed. When we turned the corner and looked into the store front windows of Storyville, seeing walls of 65" TVs airing everything from girls' softball to the French open and pro-am golf, things looked definitively sporty. Not only that, but they had two, playable duck-pin bowling alleys in the front window. A first even in my experience of dedicated sporting hang-outs.

Terribly Blurred, but they Bowl well.

So, we settled into the A/C and for the game(s), which they were happy to put on a couple of the screens, and gave the menu a once-over.  We began with the exceptionally yummy "cajun eggrolls" made with crawfish.  You always remember your first, but I can't tell you how many we ate before our return flight : ) For dinner, I had the delectable red beans and rice with andouille sausage, and my husband had the shrimp po'boy, declaring it the best of his life.  Suffice it to say, the heavens opened and the angels sang, and the Sox and Bruins won, too, come to that. Add to it all how genuinely friendly the staff was--as is the almost-universal experience in New Orleans--and it was a great home away from home for a few games during the week we were there.

Storyville's Crawfish Po'Boy

One fantastic thing about visiting New Orleans (which you should do if you haven't, and you should do again if it's been too long) is that even the street food and the most casual dining is SO good. You can splurge on a couple fancies, but the regular muffalettas and beignets and southern specialties will get you far for just a little. And when Bourbon Street is hopping too high, a couple of streets either direction, and the nighttime French Quarter is serene and pretty, with the chance to stroll and window shop for amazing oddities, antiques, and art with only the occasional mule-drawn carriage or voodoo/vampire tour group to puncture the dusky silence. Eavesdropping on those tour guides your paths cross is not only educational and entertaining, but another swell vacation value. We did a ton of walking around the Quarter, early and late, but in those hot, footsore mid-days, when every sane Southerner knows to stay indoors, Storyville beckoned.

You don't always find a place that you'd want to take home with you to have in your own town, but this was one. Thanks for being such a hospitable oasis for out-of-town sports fans and hungry travelers everywhere. (See Facebook here and Urban Spoon reviews) Long may you wave!

But this blurry cell phone shot is all my fault : )

Once I can get to them digitally, look for a later post on the fantastic WWII museum and Rocky, the million-dollar mule!

*You can't see the dangling logo, but, yes, these are my Red Sox Mardi Gras beads, because we came to party!

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

This is always the first line of Snoopy’s Great American Novel. Unfortunately, he never seems to get any further along with it. Still, it’s a good start to a story.

I’ve been enjoying the program, “The Killing” for the past few weeks, and it has made me think a lot about atmosphere. I don’t believe this story would have been as interesting without the gloom, rain, and fog that rules in Seattle. The weather is as much a character in this setting as any of the people.

The crime, of course, is murder, which lends itself to gloomy atmosphere and the incessant rain makes everyone’s job more difficult. The rain also does a great job of representing the despair of the people involved—the parents, the investigators, the suspects, and most of all, the victim, who was killed in the water.

How much do you think about atmosphere when you’re writing? The weather can strengthen emotions, push action forward, and add to the suspense. Beautiful, sunny weather is always expected for a happy wedding and marriage. Rain signals trouble down the line. A storm raging outside adds to the terror inside during a horror movie . . . especially if your character is left in the dark in a strange place. A hurricane adds an element of danger when the law and the criminal finally meet face to face, especially if there’s no escape.

Weather, darkness, even the danger of sunlight can add strength to whatever you’re writing and bring the reader right into the midst of your story. Wind whistling outside a haunted house always makes it easier to believe there’s movement and noise on the inside.

Think about atmosphere the next times you’re reading. Would the poor young woman have known she wasn’t alone if that flash of lightening hadn’t revealed the knife-wielding villain headed toward her? Would Dracula’s kiss have sealed her fate if the shaft of sunlight hadn’t penetrated his lair?

Make atmosphere your main character and use it to charge emotion, increase suspense, and bring utter despair to life. It’s a valuable tool.

Share an example of using atmosphere from your own writing.

How to Sign An E-Book

Check out this video in which TJ Waters, the co-founder of Autography, demonstrates the signing of an e-book.

Author J.A. Konrath mentions Autography in his post, "What Works: Promo for E-books" on his blog, "A Newbie's Guide to Publishing."

Forgotten Book Friday: Ngaio Marsh's Artists in Crime

I was searching for something to read a while back and picked up Ngaio Marsh’s Artists in Crime. I'd loved Marsh's books but hadn't read her in years and wondered if her work would feel dated. In fact, I went from that first title to all the others on my shelf, and am just now returning from a well- deserved vacation from the twenty-first century. I highly recommend it.

First, some background. Ngaio Marsh, born in New Zealand in about 1895 (the exact date is unknown), published 32 detective novels—sometimes two a year—between 1934 and her death in 1982. She is considered one of the four Queens of Crime (Sayers, Allingham and Christie are the others) writing during the British golden age of mysteries. All her books are police procedurals featuring Roderick Alleyn, who, like Sayers’ Peter Wimsey, comes from an upper-class family. For Alleyn, though, crime isn't a hobby. He's a gainfully employed Scotland Yard detective. Most, but not all, of Marsh’s books are set in England. A number of them have a theatrical setting, reflecting her own involvement in professional theater as an actor and producer.

When you step into Marsh’s world, you learn to think journey and not just destination. Her pace is leisurely, and that’s fine because, really, what’s the rush? Artists in Crime, published in 1938, begins with a prologue in which we witness the first meeting of Alleyn and the artist Agatha Troy aboard a ship. We know immediately that Troy’s instant antipathy toward Alleyn can only lead to a great love affair—isn’t that the convention?—and we happily anticipate that unfolding. Then follows an exchange of letters between Troy and a friend, and Alleyn and his mother, Lady Alleyn. The letters set up the situation: a variation on the country house mystery, in this case an art school at Troy’s home. The letters also introduce the cast of characters whom we know will include the victim(s) and killer. In fact, we have a good idea early on who the victim(s) will be: the obnoxious individual(s) whom other characters dislike, thus providing us with plenty of suspects.

These conventions are predictable, yes, but what I came to realize is that they’re part of the fun. They put us, the readers, exactly where we want to be: in familiar territory where we know the rules and become collaborators of sorts in the solution of the crime. Of course, this only works if the author plays fair with the clues, and Marsh does that, even with her very clever titles. (My favorite: Died in the Wool.)

Something else I rediscovered about Marsh: She was a gorgeous writer. Her prose is elegant, fresh and often very witty. Her dialogue is perfect, each character’s voice absolutely distinctive. The characters themselves—minor as well as major, bad guys as well as good—come to life on the page. Here’s what she does with a chorus girl who plays a small but significant role in Artists in Crime:

“Sit down,” she said, “and make yourself at our place. It’s not Buckingham Palace with knobs on, but you can’t do much on chorus work and ‘Hullo, girls, have you heard the news?’ Seen our show?”
“Not yet,” said Alleyn.
“I’ve got three lines in the last act and a kiss from Mr. Henry Molyneux. His breath smells of whiskey, carbide and onion, but it’s great to be actress.”

Can't you hear the breezy Miss Bobbie O'Dawne saying those words?

Finally, here's a quote from Earle Stanley Garner, taken from the back cover of one of Marsh's books: “You forget you’re reading. The pages and words disappear as you’re absorbed into the life of the story.”

I can’t think of a greater compliment one could pay a writer.

You'll find more Forgotten Books over at Patti Abbott's place today.

A Rant For Thursday

If you aren't interested in rants, pass right on by.  Nothing to see here.  I promise.

Still here?  OK.

This has been on my mind for a while as a reader, and now it's invading my writing space as well, so I just have to spew.  What is it with the lack of patience these days? Everyone wants everything explained, laid out in neat, careful lines so the reader never has to wait for answers, try to figure things out for themselves, or delay their gratification.

Recently, I was reading an urban fantasy/paranormal romance by a woman I know can write. When she writes outside that genre, her writing is lush, descriptive, and intriguing.  This, on the other hand, was flat.  Why? Because she spent pages and pages and pages explaining the hierarchy of demons, mages, etc. And she didn't have to. I could have figured it out if she'd just dropped me in and let me swim.

And I am seeing this more and more often in books of all genres. Thrillers where every motive, every justification is laid out, romances where every flitting thought of the hero and heroine is described in excruciating detail.  The only place I can find any mystery is in, well, mystery.

Three times in the past week I have had critiques of my own work decry the fact that I don't explain enough.  Twice, the complaint was that I didn't spend enough time in the "headspace" of my heroine, that I didn't give details on the things that affected her.  (For example, why does my heroine in the contemporary romance not have any savings? Or why does the heroine in my romantic suspense feel guilty about her mother's murder? I do explain these things, but not until much later in the book--the reasons are left unexplained when the situations are introduced.) The third time was when I put up the epic fantasy I wrote years ago for critique and someone said that it needed a prologue explaining the world.

Why is it that villains can have hidden motives, that when they think about their pasts we don't expect those pasts to be given in great detail, but when the hero or heroine does so, everything has to be laid out? I'm tired of reading it, I'm tired of writing it, I'm tired of being expected to conform to that idea.

So there.

Don't Read into My Fascination with Revenge

Um, nothing to see here except a Sunday Times online article by David Hawkes about a book examining England's historical, cultural, and artistic romance with revenge (hat tip Arts & Letters Daily):

It is by definition a loser’s weapon. Not even the avenger “wins”. If his revenge is to be pure, he must gain nothing from it but the satisfaction of payback. He usually pays a heavy price to even the score; in [English] revenge drama he almost always dies.


Revenge subverts the ethical basis of a competitive society. It is also a revolution in miniature; it assumes that the existing state of affairs is insupportable, and it actively seeks to transform it. Indeed, the English revolutionaries of the 1640s often conceived their revolt as revenge for a broken contract between monarch and subjects. In this exciting analysis of English revenge drama at its Elizabethan and Jacobean zenith, Linda Woodbridge argues that early modern audiences and playwrights enjoyed and celebrated revenge, associating it with the pursuit of social and economic fairness. Revenge, she notes, is an evening of scores, a levelling.

Image above comes from latter-day New England, 1970 Yankee Magazine, hat tip Passive Aggressive Notes, who point out how dangerous a writer's revenge can be.


I've written characters who crave answers, but it occurs to me that I've only written one actively vengeful character, and that one was hanging off her hinge by a single, stripped screw.  Do you write revenge tales, or have you read it done so well that it made absolute sense for the character as the inevitable, perhaps even sympathetic, course of action no matter how costly?  Have you read where exacting vengeance was well-justified as the most rational, if bleak, position? Or, does an inexhaustible pursuit of revenge always end up seeming nuts?


Bonus if you can think of great revenge-driven characters to illuminate me outside westerns, organized crime, and war stories.  Can there be Omerta without a clan or code to offend?  Let's chat revenge...or else!