The LadyKillers

News and Diversions

NEWS FLASHES!!

• Sharan Newman will be signing at Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Wednesday, October 3.
• Ann Parker and Penny Warner will join debut author Carole Price at the Danville Public Library, Danville, California, on Wednesday, October 3, 1 p.m.
• Michael Black, Mysti Berry, Ann Parker, Penny Warner, and Sharan Newman will be at Bouchercon in Cleveland, Ohio, from October 4–7. See you there!
• Camille Minichino will have a table at the Good Sam Showcase of Miniatures, Doubletree Hotel, San Jose, California, on Saturday, October 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Michael will be at the Legends of the Fall, an annual celebration of the finest in regional mystery fiction, at Booked for Murder bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin, the following week (October 13).
• Camille is teaching a class in Science, Technology, and Cultural Change, in Pleasant Hill, California, on Saturday, October 13 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Emeritus College, (925) 685-1230 X2689 for more information or to enroll.

DIVERSIONARY TACTICS

Next week's topic is DIVERSION—oooooh, what's over here to distract me from the next item on my to-do list?? Pascal puts it succinctly; the image is worth a thousand words.

If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy. ~Blaise Pascal

Do You Believe in Inspiration?

 

OMI--A Little-Known San Francisco Neighborhood

I've been sitting here in my OMI perch for quite some time, trying to sort out my feelings about inspiration. It's complicated.

My mother always wanted to write. She tried and faltered a few times, then finally gave in to the demands of three wild and headstrong children, a husband who was both brilliant and flawed, and times that changed like no other until 9/11. When she died in an accident in the 1970s, part of me wanted to continue what was best about her, and so I tinkered with writing--even became a technical writer, a blending of my father's electrical engineering world and my mother's appreciation for the written word. She wrote all his English papers in college, so the family history goes.

You could say that my mother's life inspired me to take the risks she was unable to.

Later, my work in technical writing and screenplays made me wonder if inspiration is real, or just a fancy word for a set of chemical interactions in the brain, the wicked mating of synapses as ideas collide, more or less at random. I'm not sure I believe this, but I'm not sure I don't, either.

I do know that getting away out into the desert, or deep in a new city with other writer friends juices up my brain. Is that inspiration, or the writer's version of runner's high?

You see, technical writers don't get writer's block. We show up to work every day, we write the best words we can, we edit and reconfigure, structure, inquire, test, explore, rewrite, and rewrite again. There isn't a publisher in New York City as brutal as some subject-matter experts who review technical documentation--we sort the valid comments from the, um, uninformed ones and keep going, because if we don't our customers might have a hard time. We fight for them every day.

Screenwriters, most of them, don't get blocked either, The Orchid Thief notwithstanding. The studio pays you to bang out a script based on a concept they paid a comic book company several million dollars for. 

 

Patton, Inspired

Getting blockd at that stage would be like Patton being overcome with analysis paralysis before landing in Morocco. With millions of dollars and hundreds of lives at stake, you don't get blocked. You're not always inspired, but you are writing.

So do I or don't I believe in inspiration? I believe in influence. I believe that our brains can form connections beyond the logical or physical, and that this is what we call imagination. I believe you can drop into a flow state, a different sort of consciousness that lets you tune out your children, husband and cat in favor of that inner voice.

But if inspiration is something you wait for...nah, I don't believe in that.

See some of you in Bouchercon next week! I'm going early to get the final polish on my novel done. Next time you hear from me, I'll be knee deep in plotting #2 in the Amelia Wells series--a fraud investigator with a chip on her shoulder the size of the Golden Gate Bridge. But more about that next time... 

 

Inspiration, by Guest Author Jennifer Moss

It's my pleasure to welcome author Jennifer Moss to my spot on The LadyKillers this week. Jennifer's debut mystery, Town Red, is out this month from Black Opal Books. A California resident, she enjoys a variety of creative outlets--song writing, web design, photography, and writing--and she is the founder and CEO of the noted parenting website BabyNames.com. Her first book, The One-in-a-Million Baby Name Book, was published in 2008 by Perigee Press and has sold over 20,000 copies. You can visit her on the web at jennifermoss.com.

Welcome, Jennifer, to The LadyKillers.  -- Margaret Lucke

--------------------------

The definition of inspiration is to be emotionally moved to create. A writer can be inspired by real people and events, or fictional elements such as stories, art, and myth. For my first novel, I was inspired by both reality and fiction.

A crime writer has to be careful about divulging her inspiration for writing a murder mystery. After all, we get a perverse pleasure out of creating characters we can fictionally kill. The inspiration for my debut mystery, Town Red, came from hearing so many of my friends recount their experiences with “horrible bosses” and dysfunctional workplaces. I found that to be the perfect premise: the murder of two abusive bosses.

Now that I had my victims, I needed the perfect crime. I’ve always been fascinated with all things metaphysical, and wanted to include it in my plot. What if a person were so psychically powerful that her thoughts could create reality? What if both victims just keeled over, simultaneously, of natural causes—in different locations?  Whoa! I had just created my plot and my prime suspect: an ex-employee with powerful psychic abilities.

The next step was to create my protagonist. One of my favorite police dramas of all time, Hill Street Blues, was one of the first television shows to portray cops as rounded human beings—on the job and at home. Tough, but vulnerable. Heroic, yet fallible. Hill Street Blues was a groundbreaking series and completely riveting. We cared for the characters, rooted for them. We loved them, even for their faults.

With a self-analysis of the stories and characters that I love, I patterned my novel on the same concept. My detective would be portrayed both at home and at work. There will be two sides to him, professional and personal. And when he falls for the prime suspect, those two worlds will collide.

I write what I’d like to read. What I’d like to watch. What intrigues me, makes me laugh, cry and enrages me. And I hope that when my story is released to the world it will emotionally move someone else, too.

Inspiration is Everywhere

This post is a little late this morning because I got home late last night from a book tour-slash-research trip at Writer's Police Academy in Guilford County, North Carolina. WPA is the absolute mecca for mystery and thriller writers (or frankly, any CSI/Criminal Minds junkies); we spend a chockablocka week with police officers, firemen (and women), criminal minds specialist, forensics experts, trace evidence teams -- you name it. We get to shoot, brush through shallow graves, lift fingerprints, read blood spatter and this year, take a whole course on weaponized biological agents. I was tackling bad guys, kicking down doors with the SWAT team -- and writing my little fat fingers to the bone -- because inspiration is everywhere.

Ideas are always brewing with authors -- maybe it's just because of our jobs or because most of us have storytelling genes built into our DNA -- but anything can spark a story.

I came out late from my ALS class -- Alternate Light Sources -- where we were viewing crime scenes and fingerprints under different sources of light. You may have seen it on CSI or one of those Dateline specials where they show you all the barnyard animals and 80 years of smudge that are living on your hotel bedspreads. Anyway, I walked into the lunch room where the other writers were chattering incessantly -- heads bent, eyes wild. "I have to finish this next book, but I was in the shallow graves study and I got this idea..." "I'm in the middle of this one story but I was chatting with the bartender at the hotel and it got me thinking..." "I was sitting next to Lee Child at dinner -- don't you think it would make a great story if...""We snuck off to the Piggly Wiggly last night, so here's my latest plot..."

It was incredible to me that so many of us had taken the same courses (there's dozens at WPA) and not one of us had the same idea. Some found inspiration from the subject material, some found inspiration from peers, from people they ran into, from locations. Regardless if your "day at the office" entails data entry or tactical takedowns, inspiration  can come from the most basic sources -- or the slightly off beat.

Need Inspiration? Try a book tour...

            I’m on a book tour, helping to showcase two new authors, Carole Price and Staci McLaughlin. There’s nothing as inspiring as having your first book published.

We’ve already had some great events at local bookstores and libraries, and there are more to come. We’ve brought along wine, bookmarks, and chocolate as bribes.

            I’m hoping the tour continues to go smoothly. My first book tours weren’t quite as good as these latest ones. In fact, the very first time I did an event, no one came, and I ended up buying four books and losing money. But I didn’t have the heart to tell these new authors what my experience has been. It would only scare them off.

            Here are some examples of my first book event, which was held in an unnamed chain bookstore that has since gone out of business (I don’t think I had anything to do with that but you never know). After setting up a table and displaying my brand new book, this is what I encountered:

Possible Customer Number 1: “Where’s the travel/cookbook/self-help section?” (I don’t know. I don’t work here.)

            Possible Customer Number 2: “Does your book have anything to do with Alaska/wine-making/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?” (No, that would be the travel section, the cookbook section, or the self-help section.)

            Possible Customer Number 3: “Do you know Sue Grafton/James Patterson/Carolyn Keene? I’ve read all their books!” (No, Sue doesn’t return my calls, James has other people writing his books, and Carolyn Keene doesn’t exist.)

            Possible Customer Number 4: “Have I ever heard of you?” (Apparently not.)

            Possible Customer Number 5: “My sister’s best friend’s aunt has a copy of your book so I don’t need to buy it.” (Great.)

            Possible Customer Number 6: “How did you get published?” (I hounded an agent, editor, and publisher until they gave in.)

            Possible Customer Number 7: “Is this a mystery? Because I don’t read mysteries.” (No, it’s a literary novel featuring a heroic detective, a flawed victim, and a sensitive killer.)

            Possible Customer Number 8: “My teacher said I had to go to a book signing for extra credit. Will you sign this form to prove I was here?” (For five bucks.)

            Possible Customer Number 9: “Can I find your books on e-Bay?” (Sure. And one day you’ll find me on Craig’s List, under “Will write for food.”)

            Possible Customer Number 10: “Is this free?” (Yes, the glossy bookmarks, glasses of wine, little toys, personalized pens, cute luggage tags, embossed notepads, and gourmet chocolates are free…if you buy the book.)

            Possible Customer Number 11: “Will you read my manuscript?” (Will you read my book?)

            Possible Customer Number 12: “Do you validate parking?” (Will you validate my life’s work?)

            Luckily, those days are over. No more questions about travel books, Sue Grafton, or parking validation. However, I’m still losing money, since I can’t get out of a bookstore without buying my weight in books. Meanwhile, check out TWISTED VINES and GOING ORGANIC CAN KILL YOU if you need some inspiration for that next book.

                                             
 

Inspiration

-from Susan (Sorry it's late. For some reason, my post didn't "take" the first time.)

 

Where do you get your ideas?

How do you manage to finish a whole manuscript?

What keeps you going when there’s so much competition just to find an agent?

 

The need for inspiration runs deep and wide in the writing profession, and the sources are as mixed as the reasons for wanting some help. I was at the first joint NorCal Mystery Writers of America/Sisters in Crime writing workshop Saturday. A score of local writers, most already published, teamed up to present panels on the craft and business of publishing. Successful authors like Sheldon Siegel, Catriona McPherson, Rhys Bowen, Kelli Stanley, and David Corbett shared their thinking about starting off right, using outlines without getting trapped by them, and other pesky problems, as writers who have tumbled into the pit of writing despair themselves more than once. No big egos pretending it’s an easy thing. No holding back good advice. Lots of candor and encouragement to everyone in the room, from brand new writers to others with a handful of books out already.

The biggest thing I noticed, as always when the tribe gathers, is that this cohort, crime fiction writers, is a collective source of inspiration. “Heck, if she can do it, get through that nasty mess in the middle of the book, and make sense of it by the fourth draft, so can I.”

“Wow, he queried 40 agents and submitted to five competitions before someone gave him a break? I guess I shouldn’t be so discouraged that the few I approached so far didn’t like the book enough to take me on as a client.”

“She woke up in the night with the solution to the problem in her manuscript? Maybe I’m not crazy to be obsessing about my bad guy’s motives.”

I get re-inspired when I hear my colleagues talk about how hard the craft is at times, how tough on the ego the business can be, and how much joy there is when you reach a milestone of any kind. (This crowd, by the way, loves to celebrate everyone’s milestones.) My inspiration comes from my individual experiences, history, passions, and curiosity, but it’s also nourished and supported by the people who grit their teeth and work past the hard spots, who don’t give up the dream just because chapter 12 sucks right now or the market for traditional mysteries isn’t strong. We write because that’s who we are, and it keeps me going to know other people are doing the same thing at their computers, stubbornly trying to get it right, at the same time I am.

 

Inspiration By Michael A. Black

I must admit as I sat down to write this one the words of the old Frank Sinatra song, “Imagination,” started floating through my head. I guess imagination is a kissing cousin to inspiration. I’ve often been asked who inspires me. I find inspiration in a lot of places. The tenacity of nature inspires me. Seeing a bird carrying a twig up into a tree to build its nest is delightful. The sight of the sun edging up on the eastern horizon never fails to fill me with awe and wonder. Even the small weed that edges up between the cracks in the sidewalk is something to behold. So is watching someone struggle to overcome what seems like overwhelming odds.

Earlier today I had to run to the store so I hopped in my car and began driving. I came to a red light and stopped. I sat there feeling anxious because I’d caught the light and had to sit there wasting more of my precious time. Then I chanced to see a man walking along the sidewalk toward the intersection. He was dressed in a suit and had on a pair of sunglasses. He also had a long, white cane that he extended out before him, sweeping back and forth, as he walked. My light was still red and cars were whizzing by in front of me on the busy, perpendicular street. The blind man was walking parallel to that street and thus had the green light. I wondered if he somehow knew that.

Apparently he did because, without hesitation, he began to walk across. He had a confident gait and crossed the street with as much assurance as if he’d been able to see everything clearly. I watched as the prehensile cane explored the curb, alerting him to step up. My light was still red, and he turned precisely at the juncture of the sidewalk, took a few more steps, and then turned left and went toward the church on the corner. He ascended the steps with such ease that I marveled at his confidence. I wondered if he’d been counting a set number of footfalls he’d committed to memory.

The light changed as he crested the stairs and pulled open the front doors. I shifted into gear, inspired by this man’s courage and temerity. I wondered if I would have enough courage to venture into the world without the benefit of being able to see. It was a scary thought, but nothing compared to the risk that man took every time he strolled along a busy street without hesitation. Could he hear well enough to detect an approaching car? He obviously had an enormous amount of courage, and wasn’t afraid to take risks to lead the kind of life he wanted. Risk takers often are inspirational figures.

Last weekend I heard Neil Armstrong’s ashes were scattered at sea. There was a risk taker for you. Imagine being strapped to the nose of an enormous rocket and launched upward through the atmosphere, and then jettisoned off in the vastness of space to pilot a small craft all the way to the moon. Take a look up at the dark sky and think about being up there so high that the earth looked about the size of a tennis ball. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong said as he became the first man to set foot on the moon. He and his partner, Buzz Aldrin, played “Fly Me to the Moon.” as they moved over the lunar surface and placed the American flag on the dusty surface. Like I said, risk takers are inspirational. Those two men certainly were.

I’ve been inspired by many other brave individuals throughout my life . . . My dad, who gave up some of the best years of his youth in the service of his country during World War II . . . My mom’s courageous battle with cancer years later, which she knew she couldn’t win . . . Mr. Andrew Vachss, who continues to dedicate his life to defending and protecting the innocence of children from predators . . . Officers Dave Gryczewski, Fred Newstat, and Dwight Turcol who rushed into a burning nursing home with me one midnight shift and repeatedly carried one patient after another to safety. We technically were out of our jurisdiction and never received any official accolades or recognition for that one, but I felt inspired by their selflessness and courage. We stood outside afterward, coughing and hacking outside the smoldering structure, our faces blackened by the smoke. We’d taken the risk, and we knew we’d done our best. That was our reward. One man, whose mother was a patient in the home, later came up to us to say thanks. “You guys are real heroes,” he said. “You’re an inspiration.”

So like the intrepid little bird building the nest, or the confident blind man crossing the street, inspiration comes from many sources. It’s all around us if we look. It’s part of that indefinable quality that keeps us moving forward.

News and Next Week: Inspiration!

News

• Please visit us on Sept. 28 to visit with Guest Author Jennifer Moss.
• Michael Black, Mysti Berry, Ann Parker, Penny Warner, and Sharan Newman will be at Bouchercon. See you there!
• Michael Black will also be at the Legends of the Fall in Madison, Wisconsin the following week.
• Our daily lineup has reshuffled a little. Just check the pictures on the left to find your favorite LadyKiller's new spot.

Next Week

• Inspiration! Where do you get it? How do you keep it? Join us next week for all the inspiration you need to get you through Bouchercon 2012. 

Image of a Writer: Which One?

I think most folks have particular images of what the life of a writer is like. Something like this:

Or this:

Or maybe some version of this:

Or you go back far enough in time, and perhaps it's this:

All of these images show writers as serene, contemplative, focused, and, if you notice, somewhat removed from "the everyday world" outside of the world of words.

Very very few real-life writers that I know write in situations such as these, however. Most have day jobs they must attend to, family members they must interact with/take care of/organize and supervise, pets they must deal with, laundry they must do, meals they must prepare, etc., etc.,  in addition to writing (and sleeping and so on). Days can evolve into multitasking madness. This is not the usual image folks think of when they envision the writer's life. Some of the times, it feels more like this (with apologies to Picasso):

Anyhow, test this out yourself: Look around at how writers are visually portrayed on the internet or in books. Most show a writer at a table or a desk (usually a neat, uncluttered one), surrounded by the tools of the trade.

I think I'd like to see a photo of a writer, laptop perched atop a washing machine, surrounded by piles of laundry, and a couple of toddlers tugging for attention. I think that sort of image comes closer to portraying the reality of the writing life for most.

from Alice Walker

 

"Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.”