The LadyKillers

Contest's End and Next Week: Composting

Finishing up this week, congrats to Kindle winner Kay M. of Lubbock, Texas, who said, in part:

"You just wouldn't believe what a wonderful thing this was to find in my email this morning!...I have wanted one (Kindle) forever..."

Thanks again to all the tenacious readers who entered this contest. We're just sorry we can't send a Kindle to each of you!!!

News:

Camille Minichino is excited about her ThrillerFest panel assignment: Science in Thrillers, July 8 in New York City!

Next Week:

Composting! Whether you're talking about a big pile of leavings in a barrel or the mish-mash of experiences and emotions that swirl in the subconscious before springing forth, sometimes fully formed, as characters, plots, or themes, composting is a lot more exciting than you might think.

Join us next week, please, for a discussion that's bound to be richly fermented :)

And the winner is...

...wait, before I tell you the winner's name, I have to confess, as I was verifying everyone's entries, I noticed a few friends had participated. So clearly I couldn't use my favorite method of random selection:

M., R., D., sorry about that! I wanted to pick everyone, actually!!!!

But I couldn't.

That is, my credit limit isn't high enough...

So I asked my favorite random number generator to generate a random number between 2 and 354 (that's how many individual entries we had). The software gave each entry a number, and the one who matched number  243 is...

...Kay M!

We'll post later today and let you know more details. Just didn't want to keep anyone waiting! We've notified Kay and expect to hear from her shortly.

 

Thank you everyone for participating!

 

 

The End of the Story

Staci here, thinking about how tricky the end of a mystery novel can be, with so much to accomplish in those last few chapters.

Foremost, of course, is the revelation of who killed the victim and why. This information has to be kept secret until as close to the end of the book as possible while making the reader think it’s a host of other people. The victim’s cousin has offered the detective a car ride home. She must be the killer! Oh, wait, she dropped him off safe and sound. But the victim’s jealous ex-husband is waiting for the detective when he arrives home, claiming he wants to talk. He’s the killer! No, never mind, he really does just want to talk. Now the detective is inside, alone, enjoying a scotch on the rocks. The phone rings. The victim’s coworker asks to meet at the victim’s office because she’s found new evidence. Is this it? Will the coworker turn out to be the killer? Yes!

But getting the detective to a dark, secluded place is another thorny part of the novel. The reader loves that confrontation at the end (or at least I do), when the detective and the killer struggle, with the detective’s life in danger. Even cozy mysteries have this adrenaline-filled ending. But why would the detective endanger himself in the first place? The reader needs a plausible reason for why he would show up at the designated meeting place, surely knowing that he’s being lured into a trap. That can be quite a challenge for the writer.

Once the killer and detective are face to face, the detective reveals all the clues and tidbits that led him to the identity of the killer. And, of course, the motive is revealed, oftentimes by the killer trying to justify his or her actions. Here, the writer must be sure that the motive is substantial enough to warrant a death.

And let’s not forget those subplots! Either before or after the big confrontation, all other secrets must be revealed. The other characters get a last chance to speak, their stories given a sense of closure.

With the killer carted off to jail, the detective reflects on the case and what he might have learned and where he goes from here, then he wraps up any personal storylines and calls it a day.

Whew! I’m exhausted just thinking about all those loose ends to tie up!

Is it the End or the Beginning?

Ending are tricky.  Not just writing them but also identifying them.  Everything that seems like an end: a graduation, a harvest, a fire or flood, even a death, can be viewed as a beginning.  The idea that events are linear is actually a strange and recent one. (By recent you understand that I mean anything less than 500 years ago).  And it’s really only in Western culture that this odd idea exists.  It must have taken a great deal of effort to convince people not to believe what they saw - that everything in life is a cycle. 

In the Middle Ages, the concept of a Wheel of Fortune (no letters involved) was everywhere.  Not even kings or popes were exempt.  The seasons turned, the stars revolved in yearly patterns.  Everything moved in a circle or a spiral.  In religion and philosophy, not just Christian, each event resembled one past and presaged a similar one to come.  Even death was definitely not at end but a gateway into something probably wonderful.

So what has this to do with writing?  To my medieval mind, everything.  Ending a book is more of a pause, generally occasioned by a deadline and/or the need to feed oneself and one’s family.  With my Guinevere books, I was really ready to make an end.  I took the story long beyond the death of Arthur, killed off the main characters and most of the minor ones. (There was a convenient plague about 540ce) I was sure the story was over.  Other people didn’t think so.  I was asked for short stories about bits I hadn’t talked about enough.  Some people even wanted a prequel. 

Well, I was young then.  I didn’t understand about endings.  Now I know that whatever I write won’t be finished, even when it’s taken away from me and published.  One of the joys I’ve recently found, that is when I master the technology, is that I can rewrite my earlier books as they are digitized.   I’m looking forward to adding photos, music, editorial comments and, maybe, even alternative endings.

 

As a serious codicil to this, I have been reading reports about how Terry Pratchett, in my opinion the most brilliant writer of my generation, has decided to end his life before his Alzheimer’s robs him of his amazingly wonderful mind.  It breaks my heart but I think I would do the same.  After all, I do believe that nothing ever really ends.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203622/Ill-die-endgame-says-Terry-Pratchett-law-allow-assisted-suicides-UK.htm

 

[Sharan argues this particular point of view about our inablity to believe in endings in her recent non-fiction book THE REAL HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD  Berkley, 2010]

Contest Winner Announced Sunday!

Hi everybody!

We'll announce the winner on Sunday, no worries!

Have a great weekend everyone, and enjoy this clip from Tony Hillerman's COLORES, which includes him reading (I think it's him!) and an interview (starts at about 6:37).

Or, if you are in a restless mood, or feel like counting the continuity breaks, here's THE chase sequence from Bullitt. Something luxurious about the time it takes to build and then rip! and the gorgeous sound of those engines!

 

The End is Nigh

Ann Parker here, every other Thursday at The LadyKillers.

"The End" is a touchy subject for me right now, because I just finished making corrections to my "uncorrected proof" (otherwise known as the Advanced Reader Copy or ARC) of my next book, Mercury's Rise. As Mary Anna noted earlier this week, the ARC provides the last chance for the author to catch errors before the final printed (or electronic) copy is let loose on the world.

Personally, I hate this part of the process.

Because, no matter how often I (or others) have gone over the draft, there are always plenty of little tweaks to make and "oopses" to rectify, even in the ARC version, where everything is typeset and neatly bound. The problems are usually on the "small" scale of things, but I'll tell you, it's the little things that drive me crazy—a character moves to the right, but then references are made as if she's moved to the left. People sit in a certain order on a bench, but that order gets all kerfluffled with "who's sitting next to who" kinds of interactions. Apostrophes are mysteriously missing or wandering (Pike's Peak vs Pikes Peak; Williams' Canyon vs William's Canyon). A hotel that only has two stories suddenly sprouts a third level.

 As this stage of the game, I become fixated on the minutiae, and my friends receive frantic emails late at night, asking:

In this sentence... should it be who or whom? (Answer: whom)

Did they call "English breakfast tea" English breakfast tea in 1880 in the U.S.? (Answer: yes)

Could oleander grow in Manitou, Colorado, in 1880? (Answer: no)

This doesn't even begin to cover those lovely little passages when a character rises from her chair... and then a paragraph and a half later, rises again... and on the next page, rises again... How did THAT happen?

  I drive myself and everyone around me batty, until the deadline looms and the ARC, bleeding red-ink inserts, delete marks, and notations, is mailed overnight to Poisoned Pen Press and I can truly say "good-bye."

Now it's time to catch my breath and catch up at work (more text-tweaking minutiae to mull over). It's also time to focus on beginning the next book in the Silver Rush series. Endings and beginnings: one leads to the other.

T.S. Eliot said it better (and far more eloquently):

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."

ENDINGS IN LIFE AND ENDINGS IN BOOKS AND TV SERIES

Our guest is MARILYN MEREDITH.

F.M. Meredith, also known as Marilyn Meredith, is the author of nearly thirty published novels. Her latest in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, from Oak Tree Press, is Angel Lost. Marilyn is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Internet chapter, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

 When I thought about endings in life, the first thought that came to mind was death, but you could add the endings of marriages—fortunately I’ve never experienced that one personally—and the endings of friendships—that one I have. All are painful. None of those are very cheerful topics, so I’ll settle on books and TV series and I’m going to begin with TV series.

 Some of my favorite TV series had really disappointing endings—Lost for example. So many events were never really explained—and he ending—well, I won’t go into it in case someone one day watched the whole series on DVD, but wow, not what I’d hoped for.

One of my favorite series was Friday Night Lights. Hubby and I loved that show all about family, high school football, and changing young people’s lives. I suppose the powers that be thought it had to be scheduled for Friday night because of the title, but Friday night is often the kiss of death for a TV show. It was cancelled and a cable station picked it up, then it returned to the regular station, but by this time anyone who cared couldn’t find it. We watched the last season on DVD and since the writers knew it was the last season, everything was tied up enough that the viewer could guess what might be coming next.

 And now book endings. Because I mostly read mysteries, I’m quite happy if in the end, the mystery is solved and the bad guy is caught. What I don’t like is when the bad guy is still out there and I know that I have to read the next book in the series. I love series, after all I write two, but I want the main story to have an ending by the time I reach the last page.

 I don’t mind some of the minor plots not quite being finished in a series, because I’m sure I’ll find out what happens later.

 In my latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel, Angel Lost, there’s a lot going on. Officer Stacey Wilbur is thinking about her upcoming wedding to Detective Doug Milligan instead of concentrating on being a decoy for a pervert exposing himself to women joggers on the beach. Doug is not happy about Stacey putting herself in danger. Sergeant Abel Navarro is worried about his mother who is showing signs of Alzheimer’s. An angel appears in a furniture window every night and draws a bigger and bigger crowd. Officer Felix Zachary, an expectant father, and the new guy, Officer Vaughn Aragon are called upon for crowd control. Aragon has a secret that is going to cause him and the department a big problem. And as usual, Officer Gordon Butler, bumbles his way through his shifts, but ultimately comes through. Not every single story line is totally completed, though the most important ones are.

 This series is about the men and, right now, woman, on the Rocky Bluff Police Department and their families. I like to depict how the job affects the families and what’s going on in the families affect the job in a realistic manner. My son-in-law was a 15 year veteran of the Oxnard P.D., and over the years we’ve had many friends who serve in law enforcement so I’ve been able to witness some of this first hand.

Rocky Bluff is a small beach community located between Ventura and Santa Barbara, but it’s not a real place though it has similarities to many beach towns. I chose to use an imaginary town with an imaginary police department, mainly so I could tell my police friends that it’s my police department and I can do “it” anyway I want. And that’s the ending to this blog. Thanks for letting me visit.

 

Preview of Angel Lost:

As plans for her perfect wedding fill her mind, Officer Stacey Wilbur is sent out to trap a flasher, the new hire realizes Rocky Bluff P.D. is not the answer to his problems, Abel Navarro can’t concentrate on the job because of worry about his mother, Officer Gordon Butler has his usual upsets, the sudden appearance of an angel in the window of a furniture store captures everyone’s imagination and causes problems for RBPD, and then the worst possible happens—will Stacey and Doug’s wedding take place?

 

 

LadyKillers contest: Clue #13

Clue #13. Find the following image on Priscilla Royal's website (http://www.priscillaroyal.com)

"A 1250 goblet"

When you find the page with the image, enter your information on the LadyKillers contest form, here.

Thirteen clues in all! Every clue you report on the online form increases your chances to win a Kindle or a $100 gift certificate from your favorite indy bookstore!

Making an End

There are many things this topic brings to mind, but the sun is out, my aging bones are warm, and I don’t feel like channeling my inner Kafka. Instead, I’ll concentrate on fictional ends, in specific the series. However sad that can be, it still isn’t the end of the world.

There are series that come naturally to an end. A series is really just a very long book, with many chapters, but certainly possessing a storytelling arc. At the end, the reader should feel like the major character developments have been completed, and the primary issues have been resolved. Since readers are part of the creative process, there may be some areas we each wish would go on or be resolved, but, overall, readers should agree that the author has little left to say.

As much as I resisted the idea that John Rebus retired and I would not have his gloomy presence to look forward to again, I agreed with Rankin that Rebus had had his run. Occasionally, a series may have an open-ended feel, but, even then, the reader should be able to imagine a conclusion either fun or satisfying. That said, I still want Rankin to try a series with Siobhan…

And then there are the series that should have ended, say five books ago. I’ll ignore these. We’ve all read them. We’ve all given up on them. Enough said.

The series I grieve over are the ones slaughtered before their time. Caroline Roe had a wonderful medieval Spanish series going with Isaac of Girona. I loved the Bak Egyptians by Lauren Haney. Too many beloved mystery series disappear without apology or explanation by the publisher. I deem this literary murder.

There is a special problem with the abrupt dropping of series when the author is still eager to continue, one that isn’t discussed too often. When readers have been jilted too many times, we grow slower to embrace new books when there is reason to fear that a series may be quickly dropped. This is not an encouraging trend.

It is hard on writers as well, although we’ll flex to put food on the table. But how can we fully invest in the slow and complex development of character if our creation may well face composting after a few books? Even when we force ourselves to find love again with another set of characters, we are still faced with an increasingly hard time convincing readers to buy our books when we cannot promise them an interesting and satisfying run.

There may be a growing number of solutions to this developing problem. This is the digital age which presents a potential upside to the slaughter of innocent series. With the advent of e-readers, self-publishing, independent presses and even downloads from independent bookseller websites, we may see the continuation of well-loved series by mid-list authors. Promotion becomes an even greater burden on the author but informed planning might cut that down. Independent bookstores are growing creative and savvy about downloads to e-readers.

Do I sense a hint of promise for the survival of favorite authors? Independent and smaller presses already pick some series up or tolerate long ones that may be profitable but won’t buy anyone a small ski resort on the profits. Dare I, as a reader, feel some optimism about ending the death penalty on favorite series?

-------Be sure to forget to check out today's clue for The LadyKillers contest! You could be the lucky winner of a $100 gift certificate from the indie bookstore of your choice, or a Kindle! Just keep scrolling down a little further, and you'll see it: the next post down.---------------

From Mary Anna--The End of the Book

How interesting that our theme this week is "Making an End," when I made an end to my current work-in-progress, Plunder, last week. 

Oh, it'll come back to me.  I sent a completed manuscript to my editor, Barbara, on Wednesday.  Once she reads and comments on it, she'll send it back for me to fix, then I'll send it back.  The copyeditor and typesetter will make it beautiful, then I'll get it back again one last time.  Sometime next month, I'll really be at the end of it.  Then I'll have that final moment of terror when I realize that I can't twiddle with it any more.  It will be set in stone...or set in type, which is almost the same thing.

While I'm waiting for Barbara, I'm doing all those things that don't get done while I'm feverishly finishing a book.  Working in my garden.  Going to the gym.  Spending time with my friends.  Cleaning up the debris that has gathered in my house and is threatening to crowd out my daughter and my cat and me.   I've just started a series of blog posts about what writers do when they finish a book here.  (I've written another entry and have more in the queue, but they won't upload quite yet, because one thing that writers do when they finish their books is clean the viruses off their computer, unfortunately.  I'll get it all done somehow...)

As far as the story ending goes, every writer does it differently.  Golden age mystery writers had their detectives round up all the suspects in a beautifully appointed drawing room, where they presented the clues and their solution of them so cleverly that the culprit confessed and the book was over.  Some writers resolve their characters' love stories, leaving the protagonist in a clinch with his or her one true love at the very end.  Some writers make sure all the bad guys are dead or in jail before they draw the curtain on the story.

I myself find that, in my Faye Longchamp books, there's still a lot of book left to write when Faye figures out who the killer is.  In my stories, it's important for the forces of good and evil to go toe-to-toe, so provoking a clean and sanitary confession within the four safe walls of a beautifully appointed drawing room just ain't going to work.  Then, when justice has been served, I need a few pages to let the dust settle.  I care as much about what's going to happen to the girl orphaned by a murderer as I care about solving the mystery.  I feel like it's a disservice to Faye if I don't spend a few moments showing my readers how this crisis has affected her.

In its way, I like to take my time and finish a story deliberately and intentionally.  The ending of a book is my opportunity to say good-bye to my readers.  Until the next time...

Mary Anna