The LadyKillers

m. or f. ?

I was ready to take a pass today and use my Permission-to-Go-Off-Topic card, since I've never written a male protagonist. I can handle men when they have walk-on roles (read that however you want to), and I'll write a male partner, but getting inside the head of a male character? It's going to take more than 40 years of marriage to prepare me for that POV.

But I can speak to gender in other ways.

Teaching an international student body in two online science courses, I often don't know the gender of some of my students. At first this was disconcerting. How could I know how to respond to a posting if I didn't know whether it came from a man or a woman?

I've had students with first names such as Xjigme, Myint-San, Widya, Lieu, and many more that are unpronounceable and unidentifiable as to gender. I can only do so much to encourage them to post a photo. In the past, I'd study the postings to see if he or she would refer to a wife or husband. But that's no longer a clue.

Many "American" names are gender-neutral also. Was the Sean I had last term a girl, like the actress Sean Young, or a guy, like the actor Sean Penn? How about Lee? Female Lee Harris or male Lee Marvin? What about Alex? Casey? And fuggedabout Chris and Dana.

Every year that I've taught these classes in cyberspace, there's at least one student whose gender I never learn, not even as I assign the final grade.

 

The Implorer, Camille Claudel, sculptor (1856–1943)

I had my own name trauma when I was 5 or 6. My family was on a trip up by the East Coast Canadian border. Some French-ish guy named Camille had the nerve to tease me by claiming I had a man's name. Wah! He ignored my cries and pointed out Camille Henry, Camille Saint-Saens, Camille Pissaro, Camille Corot. Too bad I wasn't smart enough to match him with Camille Claudel, Camille Paglia, Camille Guaty, or Greta Garbo (OK, that was a fictional role, but still.)

Back to my class rosters, eventually, I realized that it shouldn't matter whether I'm reading the postings or the quiz answers supplied by a man or a woman. How does it help to know the gender perspective of a person if the issue is nuclear power or gene therapy or bitcoins or the Higgs boson?

Maybe it doesn't.

Multitasking -- where it's at

Who doesn't multitask?

There are a few ways to do it.

1. How to multitask a movie.

For example, say you think you've earned a couple of hours for a movie. Before you sit down with a cup of coffee, you

• put in a load of clothes
• start a soup in the crock pot
• set the timer for a pan of hard boiled eggs
• make sure a pad of paper and pen are handy for notes for

              -- to do list

            -- critique of movie for

                        --- blog

                        --- writing class

• set timers for laundry, soup, eggs
• have pile of magazines handy for sorting

and during the movie

• watch for useful tips for

            -- writing class or

            -- your next short story

• grab a dust cloth and clean up the small table next to you, including
• pull the odds and ends container onto your lap and

            -- sort out the nailclippers from the vitamins, etc.

• whisk off the cloth and arrange a clean one on the table

then

• relax with cold coffee during the last 10 minutes of the movie

Nothing uplifting today

2. Watching the news.

It's harder to multitask on your own while watching the news, because they do it for you. Here's a typical screen from CNN.

In the one second that this frame is showing, I'm getting 15 pieces of information:

• the voice of the anchor woman
• an image of the guest
• audio from the guest
• the name and affiliation of the guest
• the time zone the guest is in
• the time zone the anchor is in
• separate image of the content of the interview, which includes

            -- a video connected to the content

            --- ID of video provider

• a video and captions of separate news item (Irma in FL)
• a thick banner with a summary statement from the AMB
• a scroll along the bottom with information on donations
• a small box with Dow Jones info toggling with time

A few seconds later I saw

• a pop up with COMING SOON (documentary on Reagan)
• news of a royal pregnancy

 

3. Computer Multitasking

I have 2 monitors in front of me.

Monitor #1 has

• list of writing students and status of submissions
• record and schedule of blogs
• handy addresses/phone #s
• Word doc for science students needing attention

Monitor #2 has

• docs being worked on
• folders with open projects
• email open
• FB open (in case of emergency)

I'm exhausted just writing this. I'm going to relax and fold a pile of clothes while I stir the soup and finish the reading for book club.

News and Next Week: Multitasking

News

• Camille Minichino’s story “The Magnesium Murder” (#12 in the periodic table) is included in the anthology Sleuthing Women II, released September 5. She’s now working on The Aluminum Murder, of course.
• Jean Rabe's novel, The Dead of Night, releases September 15th. It is the second in my Piper Blackwell series. ONE WEEK TO GO, then my second Piper book comes out.
• Ann Parker's next in the Silver Rush series, tentatively titled FALL ON A DYING NOTE, is making a ghostly appearance here and there on the web, such as here and and here, which she finds simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.
• Ellen Kirschman talks with San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolanos about her latest mystery novel, The Fifth Reflection:  Wednesday, 9/13, 6:30 PM at the Downtown Redwood City Library. Put it on your calendar. It will be hot and she's not talking about the weather.
• Margaret Lucke will appear with authors J.J. Lamb and Bette Golden Lamb to celebrate the launch of Margaret's new mystery, Snow Angel, and the Lambs' new medical thriller, Bone Slice. When: Sunday, September 17 at 4 pm. Where: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera, CA. All are invited.
• Michael A. Black is at the C3 (Crimes, Creatures, and Creativity) Conference in Columbus, Maryland this weekend.
• Priscilla Royal's brain is off in frolick mode. It has disappeared, and she can't be held responsible for anything until it returns. 
• Camille Minichino is plugging away at three classes with a total of 67 students. Anyone have an extra red pencil?

Next Week

Multitasking. First they said it was the only way to survive the information revolution, then they said it eats our brains and leads to poor work product. Which is it, People Who Know Things?  Join us next week as we discuss multitasking while drinking coffee and writing our todo lists. Kind of. Not really. What was I talking about?

Seriously, join us. Every writer knows the pain of multiple deadlines, or the penalty you pay when you sign up for a conference but forget to book the flight, or family and pets who can't QUITE remember what you look like. Join the conversation next week!

One and Only One

One-off: done, made, or happening only once and not repeated.

Possibly the story of my life. Once I've "done" something, I don't want to do it again. There are so many other things to do that first time.

This can be good, when it comes to a marriage, for example. But for other projects, results vary.

I blame my Gemini beginnings—by some readings, we're "restless and distracted." Not the kind of person who can do the same thing twice.

In my knitting days, this was borne out by the fact that if I wanted to make a pair of mittens, I had to do it with both mittens on the needles at the same time. Otherwise, there was a good chance the second would never get made. The same with socks. My best products were one-offs: ponchos (yes, it was the sixties); hats; scarves. Especially scarves, since I could quit whenever I wanted to.

My husband, an engineer whose favorite thing to do is something he's already done over and over, says I'm not a finisher, thus compounding my one-off personality trait. (It's also said that Geminis can't do the same thing once.)

By contrast, the Cable Guy, as I call my husband (he who will not be named on social media), is an obsessive finisher. Case in point: We both do crossword/crostic puzzles. Once I know what the theme of the puzzle is and I know I could finish it, I'm done (see definition of One-off, above). The Cable Guy on the other hand, is not finished until he puts that final letter in place, even though he crinkles it up and tosses it away immediately after.

The same goes for jigsaw puzzles, even though—hello? the picture is on the cover!

The Cable Guy never tires of asking me, "Aren't you going to finish that?"

"I'm done," I say, but not every time.

Back to School

 

It is impossible to repristinate a past world picture by sheer resolve, especially a mythical world picture, now that all of our thinking is irrevocably formed by science. A blind acceptance of New Testament mythology would be simply arbitrariness; to make such acceptance a demand of faith would be to reduce faith to a work.

A blast from the past, as they say. "They" being only people as old as I am, and as Christian and/or formerly Roman Catholic as I am, who remember the demythologization attempts of Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976), quoted and pictured above.

Although I was embroiled in a physics curriculum in graduate school, I took mental breaks for classes in theology and philosophy. At Fordham, a Jesuit University, you could hardly not do that. Not only was the faculty at the forefront of theological thinking, the guest speakers in special programs were a lineup of the newsmakers in the field. Every day started with a trip to the campus bookstore to see who was speaking and what was on the Latest Releases shelf (no preorders or months-long run-ups to publication in those days).

Who would be the first to read the latest by Harvey Cox? Marshall McLuhan? Hans Kung? Reinhold Niebur? Or a newly translated Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Had Cardinal Bea of Rome issued another ecumenical proclamation after we'd gone to bed?

"Every little 'ism' has a Jevvie (nickname for Jesuit) all its own" was the mantra, and no matter which side of the theological spectrum you prayed on, there was a Jesuit to mentor you.

Demythologization as it was understood then was a hermeneutic approach to religious texts, an attempt to separate historical claims from philosophical and theological teachings. Bultmann introduced the term demythologization in this context, although it was most likely used earlier.

 "Demythologizing the New Testament" was the task of stripping the elements of the gospels that had accumulated over 20 centuries. It was "Religion without Myth."

Is this meaning of the word what the LadyKiller admins had in mind when they scheduled the topic for this week? Is it a coincidence that today, July 31, is the Feast Day of Jesuit Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556)?

I think not.

Small/traditional/ or Indie?

Small/traditional/ or Indie?

Thanks for asking. I've tried them all, and have a crazy history of publishing, so anyone looking for a model path to follow, please hang up and call 9-1-1.

SMALL PRESS

The first book in my first series, 1997

 My first 2 books were with a small press, Avalon Books.

At the time, I would have taken any offer from anyone. I was already old, and wasn't about to wait around for a better deal. This small press, recently bought by amazon, got me started. My first editor was so great, she'd send me boxes of Macintosh apples when I complained that the ones we got on the west coast were awful.

• Pros: personal attention
• Cons: limited distribution, mostly by subscription; smaller than standard hardbacks, giving them a YA look (not that there's anything wrong with that).

REALLY BIG PRESS

# 3, with a really big press

 Based on the first 2 books, I was able to get an agent, who put the next 2 books in the Periodic Table Mysteries up for auction, and got me a 'uge contract with William Morrow for standard hardbacks..

• Pros: big company, big distribution, lots of reviews, Mystery Book of the Month Editor's Choice
• Cons: really big company bought by really, really big company; editor and staff lost. Series dumped; back on the street.

 

 BIG PRESS #1

Big Press #1 (but not Really Big); #5 in the Periodic Table Mysteries

• My agent got me a new contract with my Avalon editor, who had moved to St. Martin's. Four hardbacks added to Periodic Table Mysteries, now up to Oxygen.
• Pros: more apples, great working relationship
• Con: edge of seat, one-at-a-time contracts; no publicity support. Series dumped; back on the street.

 

BIG PRESS #2

#5 in the Miniature Mysteries, Monster in Miniature

My agent placed 3 new series (not all at once), with 3 new pen names, with Berkley Prime Crime, big in the cozy world. I've done 12 PBO's with them; future uncertain.

• Pros: good distribution, yet another good editor
• Cons: they favor really-big sellers; otherwise useless "publicists"

 

VERY SMALL PRESS

The 9th and last in the Miniature Mysteries

Perseverance Press, based in California, picked up one of my dropped Berkley series: the Miniature Mysteries. Four books with them, all trade paperback.

I was now at a total of 24 books in 4 series and 4 sizes.

Time to try something else.

 INDIE PRESS/SELF-PUBLISHING

Self-pub novel of a nun in the sixties

I know it's not always acceptable to think of these as synonymous, but for all practical purposes they are to me.

In between all of the above, I've self-published 1 novel, 1 nonfiction book, and several short stories.

• Pros: no deadlines, no pesky tropes, no long lead time from finished ms to on sale
• Cons: responsible for all publicity, but not that different from traditional route (see above)

Is this a recommended journey to publishing success? NAH. There's no way to know what new technology will emerge from one year to the next, and how that will affect our publishing lives. This story spans 20 years, with all the changes in technology of two decades.

MANAGING A DIY ADDICTION

This blog is about three months late --- I should have written it for April 1. Because the follow up to "Managing a DIY Addiction" is: You can't! April fool!

I can blame my DIY addiction on many things, starting with the lack of toys available when I was a kid. The proliferation of toys now is exponential; they're found in just about every retail outlet from bookstores to produce stores and even at the dry cleaners. (We wouldn't want the sweet little tots to be bored while the nanny picks up Mom's business suits.)

Not that our family could have afforded toys anyway, but I consider myself lucky in both regards – few toys available and little money to buy what there was. I, and my friends, were left to our own imaginations.

I turned a mini log cabin into a rural post office, where packages are delivered by drone.

My father built me a crude dollhouse and that's all I needed. I've written elsewhere (ad nauseum, you might be thinking) about furnishing that house and probably hundreds of room boxes, scenes, and houses in the intervening years. Thank goodness for the countless charity auctions that are willing to take the finished products off my hands, or I'd have to have a separate dwelling for my crafts.

DIYing my dollhouse carried over to other areas. Not, I'm sad to say, into major work like painting a life-size house or fixing the plumbing, but to many other crafts. From my earliest days, I would look at something in a store—a greeting card, say, or a skirt, a bookmark, a scarf, a calendar, a paperweight, an ornament—and think, I can make that.

Of course, sometimes the attempts were colossal failures, but enough projects succeeded that I kept on going. From friends and relatives, I learned sewing, knitting, crocheting, drawing . . . whatever it took to make that thing that was in the stores.

One time I took a cartooning class so I could make a comic strip for our Christmas card. The instructor was about 17 years old, and had worked on  the movie Toy Story! Fun, but that was my last try at that.

Dick (note the pocket protector): How do you like our tree this year?

Camille (remember this was 20 years ago): It's our best ever!

And you see the "tree" is really a tv image.

~*~

Make a chair from a champagne cage. Instructions self-evident?

Crafting as therapy. There's nothing like it. It's impossible to stay stressed and unfocused while trying to glue tiny pieces together or twist wires (above) tightly to attach the chair top to the bottom.

  **Miniature scenes are on display in the gallery on my website.

Save

NEWS and DIY Crafts

NEWS

Mar Preston is speaking in the Golden Pen Writers Club at the Newhall Library on Sliding Backstory into your fiction.  Her EBook on the same subject will be available at Amazon June 30^th. 

Ann Parker's WHAT GOLD BUYS is nominated for a Macavity Award, for the Sue Feder Award for Best Historical Novel! Winners are announced at the Bouchercon opening ceremonies in Toronto in October.

Ann is also up in Leadville, Colorado, today, doing a reading at the Matchless Mine with author Donna Baier Stein for "A Day with the Tabors" celebration. Burro and mule demonstrations included. And a beer tent. And music. Should be fun!

Camille Minichino reached the halfway mark on a novella, “The Magnesium Murder," the 12th installment in the Periodic Table mysteries. It will appear in the second volume of the 10-writer anthology, Sleuthing Women, due out in November. 

Priscilla Royal is back from Portland OR and the Historical Novel Society Conference. She has also sent off Wild Justice, the 14th book in series, to the Editor at Poisoned Pen Press for yea or nay. She would be grateful for any libations to the book gods! They like all formats...

Ellen Kirschman went to hear the amazing feminist writer Roxane Gay speak at Kepler's and came home with Gay's latest book "Hunger." Gay is an engaging speaker-direct, funny, genuine and very present. Her kindness towards others was incredible, considering the years of judgment and abuse she has endured.

Get Your Glue Guns Ready...

Next week is do-it-yourself and crafts week! Have a craft to share? A special do-it-yourself project/hobby? Be sure to check out our posts this week and chime in!

(Colorful) Tools of the Trade

Computers, sure, but for some of us the old tools still have a certain appeal. We used to call them office supplies—pens, pencils, folders, staplers, you might remember—and I've always loved them.

Early on my husband figured this out and stopped trying to find just the right necklace or earrings and bought me a paper cutter for my birthday one year. Wow, my own paper cutter, like the ones only offices and schools had back then! I guess my gratitude was apparent because he's been sticking with the category ever since—an electric pencil sharpener, a supersize three-hole punch, an electric stapler, a postal scale, reams of colored paper, and expensive three-ring binders that don't eat your fingers when you open and close them.

I have special package labels that thrill me more than a gold bracelet. I guess I'm a cheap date. And it suits him, too, given the discomfort he feels in every retail store except Radio Shack and Fry's Electronics (where they also sell office supplies).

Relatives and friends have caught on and I have clever folders, teal bookends in the shape of hands, and a high-fashion tape dispenser. And an update to that old paper cutter: one that has a laser beam shoot down the side, for perfect alignment, as soon as you raise the handle!

When I was a kid, pencils were green and pens were black and dipped in ink wells. Paper bags were brown, folders were manila, clipboards were brown, index cards and mailing envelopes were white. The first sticky notes came in yellow only, with no clever sayings or die cut edges.

No wonder I lived an uninspired life, coming to writing only as an older adult. I needed color and florals and plaids to get me going.

Any ideas for an office supply I shouldn't be without?

NEWS and Tools of the Trade

NEWS

Priscilla Royal will be at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Portland, Oregon, next week. She is also trying to get her next mystery, Wild Justice, ready to send to editor verrry soon...

Michael A. Black is busy working on the Public Safety Writers Conference, which takes place in Las Vegas July 13-16. He will be teaching the pre-conference workshop along with LadyKiller Mar Preston and Marilyn Meredith. Michael has also been invited to be on a panel at the San Diego Comic Con (July 20-23) by virtue of being one of the finalists for the Best Original Novel Scribe Award given by the IAMTIW.

Ann Parker submitted the first 100 pages of Silver Rush Book #6 (aka the Book-With-No-Name) for an eyeball by the editor. Nervous chewing of fingernails begins.

Ellen Kirschman is deep diving into the run up to the launch of The Fifth Reflection. Lots of blogging, newsletter creation, and email. Stay tuned to LadyKillers for more launch news.

Tuesday, June 20, is National Ice Cream Soda day and Camille Minichino will be observing that. Come to Loard’s ice cream shop in Castro Valley, California, to help celebrate!

Tools of the Trade

Look around a writer's office. What do you see?

Reference works? Books for new writers? Desktop/laptop/pencil+paper?

Every profession has its tools. Few writers pick up quill and ink bottle any more, so drop on by this coming week when the LadyKillers reveal their favorite (and maybe most hated) tools and rumble through their own private toolboxes for inspiration!