The LadyKillers

Looking Back, Looking Forward

When Ann first asked if I’d like to be a member of the LadyKillers blog several years ago, the only response I felt was panic. I needed to blog on a regular basis? With a deadline? Was she crazy?

I mean, sure, I’d been blogging on my own web site for a while, but it was a rather haphazard affair. I’d blog three weeks in a row and then stop for three months, start up again for a couple of weeks, and then forget all about it. Every two weeks with the LadyKillers had such regularity to it. What on earth would I talk about so often? The top reason that I didn’t blog more on my own site was the challenge of finding something to blog about.

When I raised this question, Ann assured me that a topic would always be available as a launching off point, though I didn’t have to follow it. Since my first Blossom Valley mystery was about to be published, I figured this would be a good way to reach readers and get myself out there. So, with some lingering trepidation, I finally agreed.

Now, after all this time participating in the LadyKillers, I have no idea what I was so afraid of. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed expressing my opinions on whatever the topic was for the week. When I was stumped about what to write, I often found inspiration by reading the posts of the other LadyKillers. This is a great group of writers with a lot of interesting things to say.

I’d like to think I’ll blog on my own site again now that the LadyKillers is coming to an end. Realistically, I’ll probably start off with frequent posts before my momentum slows and my posts become more sporadic, but maybe I’ll surprise myself. So just in case I do start blogging, you can find my posts at stacimclaughlin.com, and you can contact me any time at [email protected].

In closing, I want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. May 2018 bring many hours of reading enjoyment!

Creating Suspense

A silent house. A creaking step. A dark basement. When thinking about creating suspense, my mind immediately flies to all the scary movies I’ve watched over the years. I love that atmosphere, where danger lurks at every turn and the most innocent objects can turn into weapons.

It’s a little harder to create that same atmosphere in books. There’s no creepy soundtrack to put your nerves on edge or special effects’ lighting to cause your mind to play tricks on you. Yet, dozens of authors create powerfully suspenseful books. So how do they do it?

Often it comes down to some form of waiting, where a threat exists and the good guys have a limited amount of time to deal with it. It can be a bomb that will explode in less than twenty-four hours, an imminent attack on the White House, or the death of a kidnapped child. Often the hero is battling terrible odds and must overcome a series of obstacles before they can save the day.

Another way to build suspense is to put the main character in a dangerous situation from which they must escape. They might be heavily outnumbered or without a weapon to defend themselves or in some other pickle where they have to use their wits to survive.

The stakes in my cozy mysteries are often not that high, but I still like to include moments of suspense, particularly at the end when Dana figures out who the killer is, usually around the same time that the killer has realized Dana knows the truth. She finds herself alone with someone who wants to keep her quiet, perhaps permanently. Her heart quickens and her breathing shallows. She frantically looks around for a weapon as the killer closes in. Will she survive?

Deep down, the reader knows she’ll make it out alive, just like 99% of the main characters in other books. But if I’m doing it right, there will be a few moments where the reader isn’t so sure. Maybe this is the one time Dana’s amateur sleuthing will take a fatal turn, where she’ll lose the good fight.

I can usually tell when I’ve gotten a scene right when I reread my chapter for editing. If I find myself holding my breath, then the reader will most likely do the same. And it’s those moments when the reader can’t put the book down that make writing them so enjoyable.

Thanksgiving Memories

I realize that Thanksgiving is technically a fall holiday, but now that darkness is setting in at 5 o’clock and temperatures are plunging at night, it already feels like winter. Seeing store shelves stocked with mashed potato and stuffing ingredients and watching the kids work on turkey-themed crafts reminds me of my own childhood Thanksgivings.

Nowadays, kids have the entire week off, but when I was a kid, only Thursday and Friday were non-school days. On Thanksgiving morning, my sister and I would be wound up and running around, while my dad enjoyed a free day to sit in the recliner and read the newspaper in his stockinged feet. Eventually my grandmother and bachelor uncle would arrive and the festivities would officially begin.

Meanwhile, my poor mom would be hard at work in the kitchen. As a kid, I never paid much attention, but as an adult, I realize now that my mom was essentially in charge of everything, from the planning and shopping to the cooking and even carving the bird. My sister and I would be assigned ridiculously easy tasks like setting the table and finding out what all the grown-ups wanted to drink, but I rarely set foot in the kitchen. That was my mom’s domain, and she didn’t want anyone trespassing.

Nowadays, my sister and I rotate who hosts Thanksgiving, while my mom has taken on the role of a guest. The meals are a little different, but the feeling of kinship are the same. It’s a day to feast, tell stories, and laugh, regardless of who is doing the cooking.

Wishing you all a wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving!

What Do My Characters Read?

As I pondered this week’s question about what my characters read, I realized that to an outside observer, it appears they read very little. In all of her many adventures, Dana, my main protagonist, only picks up a book once or twice.

The problem is the act of reading itself. While any number of books can be full of excitement and keep a reader engrossed for hours, reading about someone else reading can be awfully tedious. That’s why I try to keep Dana busy. Unless she’s actively looking for clues or performing some work-related tasks in the farm’s office, she spends most of her time with other people, allowing for plenty of action and lively conversation. Even in her down time, she is often on a date with Jason or hanging out in her apartment with her sister, Ashlee. It’s far more interesting to hear the two sisters banter about their favorite Survivor contestant while they watch TV together than it is to read about Dana reading a book.

But she does read, and her favorite genre is mystery, of course. All those tips and tricks she reads about come in handy when she’s investigating the occasional murder in Blossom Valley. She has also borrowed quite a few books from Esther on organic farming and caring for animals, plus she reads every issue of the Blossom Valley Herald, especially the articles that Jason writes.

Ashlee, on the other hand, mostly reads fashion magazines so she can keep abreast of the latest trends and styles, plus she scans the occasional gossip rag. But while the coffee table in their apartment is often littered with these magazines and tabloids, Ashlee is turning to the digital versions more and more. She likes to say she’s saving trees, but really she finds print media too slow for her tastes.

As for Jason, he is a nonfiction lover through and through. He especially enjoys military books and focuses much of his reading on World War Two, with the occasional side trip into the Civil War.

Now that Dana’s relationship with Jason is heating up and she’s finding her duties increasing at the farm, she finds less time to enjoy her books. But on those cold winter nights when the wind is howling and the temperature is dropping, she loves nothing more than to curl up with a mug of hot chocolate and the latest cozy mystery.

Graphic Violence

The one nice thing about writing cozy mysteries is that when the question of how much graphic violence to include comes up, the answer is always “not a lot.” Cozies, by their very definition, contain hardly any violence, sex, or swear words.

In my books, I’ve had plenty of people stabbed, shot, or strangled, but the majority of the action takes place off screen. Usually my main character hears about it from friends, or else her boyfriend, who’s a reporter, passes along information he heard from his connection at the local police department. Even when Dana does stumble across a body, the scene is brief and the descriptions of gore are sparse.

This style of writing seems to fit me, because I realized recently that I’m not a fan of reading about graphic violence myself. I just finished reading two thrillers back-to-back and had very different reactions to each. Both were written by authors will plenty of books to their names, and both had quite a bit of violence as the main catalyst for the plot, plus lots of ongoing violence throughout each book.

However, while one book had a lot of implied violence, it wasn’t graphically portrayed. I only winced once or twice when reading about some of the victims’ injuries and causes of death. I don’t remember any over-the-top descriptions of blood spattered walls, bone-crunching hits, or blood-gushing cuts. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and plan to read more in the series.

On the other hand, the second author’s book was full of page after page of excruciating detail about a sexual assault and several murders. I found myself cringing and my stomach clenching into a little ball as I read some of the passages. At one point, I realized how little I was enjoying the book and skimmed several paragraphs until the scene was over. This is the second book by this author that I’ve been dissatisfied with for this exact same reason. I prefer that some of these details be left to the imagination. While the author is an excellent writer, I’ve decided not to read any more of their books.

That’s not to say that graphic violence has no place in books. Many readers love these detailed, gory scenes. I’m just not one of them. And when those thrillers and hard-boiled mysteries start getting a little too detailed, I know I can always turn to a cozy.

Why I Write

Why do I write? For the simple fact that I enjoy it. I remember writing short stories back in middle school and then giving them to friends to read. At one point, I was even planning to team up with a fellow classmate, who was an excellent artist, and write a book with her. The plot had something to do with a bunny, but we talked about the project more than we actually wrote or drew anything, and the idea fizzled out after a while.

In high school, I dabbled in comic book creations and even novel writing. I was a huge Christopher Pike fan at the time, and his specialty was teen thrillers. I hammered out the words on my Brothers word processor in the evenings when all of my schoolwork was finished. The results, painstakingly saved to a floppy disk, are probably lost in a dump somewhere by now.

My creative writing stalled in college, most likely because I was an English major and already writing essays or stories for class assignments. Between that and the rest of my schoolwork, I didn’t really have any time for extra writing.

That all changed during one of my first technical writing jobs. A coworker had been writing novels for several years and was very involved in the writing community. He introduced me to National Novel Writing Month and asked me to join him. At first, I blew him off. I was supposed to write 50,000 words in 30 days? What a preposterous idea!

But the more he talked about it, the more interested I became, and before I knew it, I’d agreed to give it a try. That first effort wasn’t great, but I hit the 50,000 word mark. The next year’s efforts were a little better. Before I knew it, I was starting to plot out books, buying the latest release of Writer’s Market, and setting my sights on publication.

To this day, I still enjoy writing. Sure, there are days where trying to generate a sentence is unbearably hard or I simply can’t picture any part of my story in my mind. But other times, there is nothing like being in the zone, when the words flow faster than I can type and I feel like I’m physically in the middle of a scene. It’s those moments where I feel fantastic that remind me of why I write.

Writing the Opposite Gender

Like Camille, who had her own post on this very topic on Monday, I have never written a book from the viewpoint of a male protagonist. While I have plenty of men in my books, they’re all supporting characters. I intend to keep them that way, too, because I’m not sure I could successfully write from the viewpoint of a guy.

While men and women are similar in many ways, and most characters can’t be lumped together based on gender alone, I know that my husband and I view the world differently. When Heidi Klum walks out at the start of America’s Got Talent, my husband is thinking about how hot she is (as evidenced by the way he immediately perks up and leans toward the television), while I’m wondering how she dressed herself in such tight clothing without ripping the fabric.

Our communication styles are also very different. Occasionally, we need to send joint e-mail replies to our insurance agent or a work contractor or some such thing. Whoever is sitting at the computer when the initial e-mail arrives generally drafts the response. Invariably, when my husband writes his suggested reply, I will tell him it’s too terse, bordering on rude, while he tells me my replies are too wordy and nobody really talks like that.

It’s these types of differences that make me worry that my male protagonist won’t sound authentic. I’ve encountered such books in my own reading. I remember one book that was told in first person with the main character having a very gender-neutral first name. I was halfway through the story before I realized the main character was a man. I’d been picturing a woman the entire time based on the dialogue and the person’s mannerisms.

I suspect my own books would suffer from a similar problem if I tried to write from a male perspective. So for now, I think I’ll stick with what I know.

Multitasking

I multitask constantly, mostly when I watch TV. Back when I was a kid, and even a young adult, I could sit and stare at the TV for hours, mesmerized by the activity on the screen. Now that I’m older, I have a very hard time doing nothing else while the TV is on. I find that my mind begins to wander.

Don’t get me wrong about how I’m spending my time. I’m not solving the world’s hunger crisis or trying to win a Nobel Peace Prize. My activities are not nearly that impressive. Sometimes I fold laundry or work in my puzzle books, and I often play Candy Crush. As long as I’m doing something to break up the monotony, I’m happy.

I’m the same way when it comes to housework. I find it fairly boring to only focus on one chore at a time and prefer to break it up with other tasks. I might vacuum two rooms but stop when the cord no longer reaches. Then I’ll go off and clean the stovetop before coming back to plug the vacuum into an outlet in another room and finish the rest of the house. I often spray cleaner on the shower walls and then go start a load of laundry before coming back to scrub the walls. And if something catches my eye on my way back to the bathroom, say a dusty tabletop that needs wiping, then I’ll stop and do that first.

My husband is the exact opposite. When he decides to work on a project, he starts at the beginning and works straight through until it’s finished. He doesn’t get distracted by anything and stops for nothing.

When we were first married, we thought it was cute to do everything together, including cleaning, but more often than not, we’d spend less time scrubbing the floors and more time arguing over whose cleaning style was better.

Over time, we learned to split up the chores and rarely do them together. It works much better that way. He can focus on one chore at a time, while I flit around like a butterfly in a flower garden. As long as everyone gets their chores done, it doesn’t matter how we do them.

One-Offs vs. Series

I like stand-alone books and books in a series, spin-off books and even spin-off novellas. Essentially, I’ll read anything as long as it has a solid plot and good writing. Following the life of a series regular or reading about a brand new character both have their pluses and minuses.

Let’s start with books in a series. When I pick up the latest one, I feel like I’m bumping into an old friend at the grocery store. As I read their story, all their quirks and character traits come back to me, making me feel comfortable at the familiarity. Of course, if I read too many of those books in a row, as I’ve done with the Stephanie Plum series, some of those traits start to grate on my nerves. What was funny in the first book or two can become downright annoying in the next. When that happens, I know it’s time to put the series aside and move on to a different author.

That’s when I usually turn to a stand-alone book. Sure, it will take me a few chapters to get a handle on the main character to the point where I feel like I really know them, but the upside is that I have no expectations. Everything feels fresh and new and like I’m meeting a new friend. The downside is that if I fall in love with that particular character, I’m never going to see them again. It’s like meeting someone for the first time at a party and clicking with them right away. You spend the night talking and laughing at one another’s jokes but then you part ways, never to hear from them again and regretting the fact that you didn’t ask for their contact information.

From a writing standpoint, I can certainly see the appeal of a one-off book. There’s no commitment for future books, so you can do whatever you want with the main character, even kill them off at the end. You don’t have to worry about giving the character a job or hobby that might not hold up for another ten books or so. One-offs are a great way to try something different, either with character development or writing style. And if you normally write a series, sometimes it’s nice to take a break and write about someone else. Not only is it fun to work with a new character, but it can also spawn ideas for when you return to your regular series.

If I had to choose between reading only one-offs or only books in a series, I don’t know that I could. There are things I like about each category. Fortunately, I don’t have to pick one over the other. With so many books available, the only question is which book I want to read next.

Starting a New Series

If I were to start a new series, I would take what I’ve learned from my first series and make some adjustments. There are lots of little things I would do differently the second time around.

For example, I discovered early on (but not early enough) that one problem with a series is that once you put in a telling character detail, you’re stuck with it. Book after book after book.

When I wrote the first book in my Blossom Valley series, I decided I wanted the main love interest to be a little different, so I made him a neat freak. He ironed his jeans, kept his car immaculate, and even lined up his pencils and pens on his desk just so. Roughly two books later, that feature was already driving me crazy. What was so attractive about being a neat freak? Luckily, I have some control over the idiosyncrasies of my characters and have adjusted how tightly wound the boyfriend is. Here I am in my sixth book, and while I still make vague references to some of these tendencies, I’ve relaxed his character quite a bit.  He’s stopped ironing his jeans altogether, in fact.

The first book also contained several argumentative, judgmental characters. I wanted lots of conflict in that first story, mostly to show how my main character faced difficulties in all aspects of her life and still persevered. The problem, of course, was that these characters would be sticking around for future books. Did I always want them to be so difficult? The answer was no. I managed to ditch one character completely, since she was more of a “guest” character anyway, and the others have been toned down. They still cause problems on occasion, but they’re a lot more tolerable and even likable on occasion.

Of course, one rather drastic solution is to kill off the less likable people. I am writing murder mysteries after all. But some characters, like close family members, are here to stay for each and every book.

That’s one lesson I would take with me to a new series. Make sure you like all your characters, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time with them.