Handwriting and the Singularity from James W. Ziskin

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3d grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still handwrite any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time? 

I intended to write this week’s post by hand to prove a point, but it was going to take me five times longer to do it that way. So, in the end, I took the easy way out and decided to type it on a keyboard instead. And I’ll tell you why.

First of all, I would have had to use a physical dictionary if I’d wanted to check my spelling, which is impekable, but still. And, of course, I’d probably already have had a cramp in my hand if I’d been doing this the old-fashioned way.

Some people think writing by hand makes the experience more personal and somehow more virtuous than using a computer or a voice-to-text app. Pshaw! Those are the same folks who believe walking to the furniture store to carry that new queen-size sofa bed back home on their backs is preferable to borrowing a friend’s pick-up truck for the job. Or maybe just order it online using a keyboard.

While it’s true that some technological advances feel more like slippery steps closer to the singularity, typewriters and keyboards ain’t one of them. They’re not going to take over the world and subjugate us all with their tapping and clicking. Okay, we might break a fingernail, but that’s about it.

Here are a few benefits keyboards afford us:

1. Thanks to keyboards, we can erase our errors without leaving a trace. No one needs to know we’re clumsy typists. But you can’t erase pen ink, and who among us hasn’t torn a perfectly fine sheet of paper in a fit of pencil-erasing zeal?
2. Bad penmanship is a scourge of the past. We no longer need to strain our eyes and patience trying to read our own chicken scratchings. (Except on a grocery list.)
3. Spelling errors are (mostly) under control, thanks to the myriad technologies that we access via keyboards.
4. Keyboards also free us from the drudgery of alphabetical order. QWERTY is much more efficient than ABCDE, isn’t it? (AZERTY, si vous êtes français.)
5. And who can forget that pianos became much easier to play once they added keyboards. I upgraded my spinet last year and no longer need to whack away with eighty-eight handheld, felt-tipped hammers.

Let’s be honest. We rarely need handwriting these days. We can scan documents with our phones, dictate speech-to-text, and listen to text-to-speech. We can ask our digital assistants (future overlords) for all manner of assistance, including writing. And, of course, we can even create fonts that mimic our own handwriting. Smudged ink will go the way of the dinosaurs.

But don’t fret. Handwriting will always have its place for signing documents. Oh, wait. There are digital signatures now. Damn!

Perhaps when the singularity comes, a robot will forge our signature and sell our house out from under us. In that case, we won’t need that queen-size sofa bed.

570

Sldkghhslkhn

The pen is mightier

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3rd grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still hand write any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time?

by Dietrich

Let’s face it: a final manuscript must be typed. What editor or publisher would touch a handwritten draft, no matter how neatly penned? That said, there’s something special about handwriting those early brainstorming notes or even an entire first draft, something that transcends mere nostalgia. 

No question, handwriting is slow, but that’s precisely its strength. The deliberate pace forces me to linger, letting ideas simmer and take shape. The rhythmic scratch of the pen allows me to pause, reflect, and refine as I write. For me, this slowness unlocks creativity. And a plain notebook becomes a quiet sanctuary, free from the distraction of incoming emails, pop-up ads and social media. No “quick Twitter checks” that spiral into an hour-long doom-scroll. In a world of constant digital noise, that’s no small thing.

There’s also evidence to back this up. Studies suggest handwriting can improve retention of conceptual information compared to typing. When I jot down ideas by hand, they do seem to stick with me longer. Am I alone in this?

But let’s not romanticize handwriting too much. When it’s time for the second draft, the keyboard is king. Typing is fast, fluid, and efficient, letting thoughts pour onto the screen almost as quickly as they form. It’s perfect for capturing a rapid-fire burst of ideas or restructuring a scene with a few clicks. Cut, copy, paste—try doing that with a pen. Anyone else nostalgic for the days of Wite-Out?

Using a computer makes revisions a breeze. I can reorganize entire chapters, tweak dialogue, delete that paragraph I thought was brilliant at 2 a.m. but now reads like crap. And let’s not forget backups—cloud storage and external drives keep the work safer than a notebook.

The sweet spot lies in blending both worlds. I love marking up a printed second draft by hand, circling awkward phrases and scribbling notes in the margins. Reading the draft aloud, pacing the room with pages in hand, helps me catch clunky dialogue or pacing issues that might slip by on a screen. It’s a tactile way to reconnect with the work.

Ultimately, it’s about what fuels the creativity. I don’t always write my first draft by hand, sometimes the keyboard calls from the start. But staying open to both methods keeps my process fresh and flexible. One day, I might be sprawled on the couch with a pen and notebook, lost in the flow of ink. The next, I’m hammering out a scene at my desk, the keyboard keeping pace with my thoughts.

I'm Typing as Fast as I Can

 

Terry here, with the question of the week: 

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3d grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still handwrite any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time? 

 When I worked full-time in the tech world, I’d sneak out into my car every day at lunch and write. Handwrite, on yellow pads. Snippets of stories. Beginnings of books. Anything that struck my fancy. I know now what I was doing was learning my craft. By hand. 

 Eventually I settled down and wrote a few books. By hand. I’d transcribe them to the computer, which was a great way to do a first edit. Moving from handwriting to print made me see things in a different way. 

 I don’t remember how or why I transitioned to writing my first drafts on the computer, but now I wouldn’t think of writing a first draft by hand. Maybe not for the reason you’d think. In 2016 I had shoulder surgery that went bad. The radial nerve in my right arm (dominant hand) was damaged and for months I couldn’t use the hand at all. It was totally limp and unusable. In fact, I wrote my fifth book, The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake entirely typing with my left hand. There’s no way I could have handwritten it with my left hand. Thankfully, I’m a good typist and my left hand did the job. And by the way, the book won a critic’s award—for which I credit my left hand. 

As for that 3rd grade penmanship, when my right hand gets tired, I write almost illegibly. And my left hand, as good as it was at typing, has never really done well with handwriting. 

But even if my right hand hadn’t suffered trauma, I would not have continued writing first drafts by hand. I type fast, and my typing keeps up with my brain. 

There was some claim several years ago that writing directly to a computer made writing “too easy” and that writers didn’t take the time to think things through before they typed thei first drafts. But honestly, I never thought things through (is this a confession?) in first draft. I always just plowed ahead. It’s in the editing process that I look critically at what I’ve written. 

I’m honestly often surprised at how well my brain has organized my thinking while I’m pounding out words. For example, in my next book, The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes, which comes out December 2, I began to panic at 70,000 words. I had no idea what had actually happened. I didn’t know who poisoned Jewel Barnes or why. Yeah, cutting it pretty close. 

But somehow, in the panic stage, I realized what had to have happened. Not only that, but I also realized that my little brain had been busy organizing the story behind my back (or inside my head, or whatever) so that it all fit together. Sure, there were edits to be done, but the storyline was there. 

 I’m curious to know if others write by hand. Not me, baby! 

Let It Snow by Poppy Gee

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

Nope, but I would love to. I love Christmas movies: I am here for the faux-nostalgia, the magic and hope, the love and redemption, romance and beautiful decorations, the transparent pretence of the idea of a perfect family Christmas. Plots often include a storyline about someone trying to get home for Christmas, and it shamelessly tugs at my heart strings. 

I have a big pile of Christmas picture books we bring out in December. I like reading them as much as my kids do. Many of these are books I was given as a child. For Australian children, Christmas is a wonderful fantasy of white wonderland. All the books I was given as a child featured children living in the northern hemisphere, hanging woolly stockings on the ends of their beds, blazing fires, falling snow, mistletoe and holly, and Santa’s sleigh landing on snowcapped roofs.

In reality, December in Australia is mosquito nets and ceiling fans, balmy evenings and sun-kissed days, and Christmas trees that die of heatstroke days before 25 December. My grandmother would serve a hot roast lunch followed by plum pudding, which we’d eat in the heat of midday, before heading to the beach. These days, we favour a cold seafood oriented lunch. But we love a Christmas-in-July party!

One of my favourite new picture books is Julia Donaldson's Stick Man. It’s about a stick who lives happily with his wife and three children. Right before Christmas, he gets separated and goes on a perilous journey, facing dangers like being a dog's fetch toy, thrown in a river, and being used to make a swan's nest. Eventually, he helps Santa Claus who brings him home for Christmas. It’s heart-wrenching and heart-warming.

I especially like the stories about Santa and his toy making workshop, and his summertime commitments of training the reindeer. As a child, I was obsessed with the logistics of Santa’s gift-giving operation. Like visions of sugarplums, these images dance in my head!

Once day I will write my Christmas novel. And it might be sooner than later. I think that now more than ever, this world needs stories about hope, magic and kindness.

It's the most lucrative taaaiiime of the yearrrr! by Catriona

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

Have I? 

I have. But I didn't mean to. When I wrote SCOT FREE, the first of what was supposed to be the Last Ditch Motel trilogy, all I wanted was to start off with Lexy Campbell changing her mind about having immigrated to California and fixin' to go. As she'd never say. She had her ticket bought and her bags packed and she was outta here. As she'd also never say. It occurred to me that the funniest day to leave America was the Fourth of July. So that book opened on a holiday.

Then, in an entirely unrelated creative decision, I started SCOT AND SODA at a Halloween party. It had occurred to me, you see, that it's the perfect day to carry out a murder in the US, if you need a bit of breathing room before dealing with the corpse. All you have to do is prop it up on your porch and leave it there. The grislier the better.

Then came SCOT ON THE ROCKS. I wanted Lexy to be feeling her singleness and grumping about all the blissed-out couples in her life. Valentine's Day seemed lke the perfect day for her mega-pout.

So book-by-book and completely by accident my series had a theme. Kinda. The books aren't always about the holiday to much extent but they do open on holidays. And that was when I decided: after book three.

Although the very next one, SCOT MIST, opened on an anti-holiday, a low day and an unholy day, Friday the 13th of March, 2020, the day they shut Disneyland and cancelled the tax deadline. Yes, I wrote a lockdown comedy. Not a pandemic comedy, though - and there is a difference.   

Busines as usual for the next installment. SCOT IN A TRAP opens on the morning of Thanksgiving, with Lexy ranting about the menu like a pumpkin-spiced Grinch, especially the number of pies, especially given the amount of brown sugar and number of marshmallows innvolved in the so-called savoury course preceding. This was Lexy's opinion. Lexy Campbell, a fictional character. Nothing to do with me.

Then, for HOP SCOT, the last of the second trilogy - which might have been the end of the series -  I went for my favourite holiday of all, Christmas, and took the Ditchers to Scotland for some snow (well, slush) and some fun (well, murder (obviously)). Because if that was the end there was no way I was going to let it happen without Lexy getting the chance to rant about the &%$@ing cinnamon. This was less strictly fictional. Because Oh. My. God. The cinnamon!

But then I signed another contract - yay! - for another trilogy - yay! - and SCOTZILLA opens on the Midsummer Solstice and Lexy's wedding day, with her most eff-infested and heartfelt rant yet. Lexy, as the title suggests, has not responded well to the pressures of being a bride.

Then what? Well first came love, then came marriage, and here comes a bundle in a baby carriage. Right? Wrong. For a start, Lexy would call it a pram but also it's not working. The new book, coming in December is called SCOT'S EGGS and opens with an Easter morning disappointment, requiring super-plus tampons.

And I've got one more in this third trilogy to go. I know what it's going to be about and I'm looking forward to the opening scenes, but I'm not going to talk about which holiday is in my sights. I will say it's not Memorial Day and it's not Labor Day. In fact, I'm not sure I get what their essence is or how I could make a rant about one of them entertaining.

Could I write a fourth trilogy? Are there enough imagination-sparking holidays left? I haven't touched the equinoxes yet. What about Cinquo de Mayo? Cesar Chavez? August Bank? President's Day? Whitsun? No idea. I could start recycling. I could have an American Christmas and a Scottish Thanksgiving aka Thursday. I could, I suppose, stop starting the books on holidays completely. Who's going to stop me? (Me. I'm going to stop me. That would bug me to death.) 

For now, it feels good to have the eighth book in the trilogy coming soon and to know as much as I know about number nine,

Cx

    

That time of year by Eric Beetner

 Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

I've never written anything specific to a time of year, though I'm not opposed to it. There is something fun about a holiday movie or something that is timed to a time of year. Obviously people are reaching for scary books right now. A collection like the Hanukkah-themed anthology Eight Very Bad Nights may well have renewed interest every year.

It can be limiting, pinning your story to a specific place and time. For that reason I've never dealt much with current events. Until now. 

It's not a time of year, but the novel I just turned in embraces the current political climate. It's something I've never tackled before specifically for the risks of making your book locked into a particular time that will inevitably move on and become history.

But for me it was both a challenge and something that needed to be said. If it gives the book a shorter shelf life, then so be it.

On the other hand, like a Mariah Carey song or a Charlie Brown special, sometimes the nostalgia is the appeal. Surely we read many types of books in order to bring ourselves back to a certain way of feeling. Or to learn about a time when we weren't around. It's not a sound marketing strategy, but there is the potential.

I'll be the first time put on the Christmas music (after Thanksgiving though, this steady creep of early Xmas is too much) or cue up the horror movies in October. In looking at my bookshelves, I don't see a lot of holiday themed books. At least not a lot that make the time of year the focus. Brilliant books like The Ice Harvest are certainly Christmas novels at heart, and since people love compiling lists and arguing over them, books get lumped into themes all the time. Horror novels don't need to be set at Halloween to get put onto a list of great October reads. 

So in thinking about it, I don't think it limits an audience. I'm warming to the idea more and more. I'd love to have a book make a list of must-read holiday entertainment. I'm certainly hoping I don't limit my audience with a current events-themed book. I know there is a risk, but probably more so for the political element. I come out vehemently anti-fascist and though I don't mention names of certain wanna-be dictators, my political positions will be clear. 

Writers are often warned against weighing in on political issues, which is ridiculous of course. We put pieces of ourselves into our books no matter whether we try or not. And when issues are large enough to warrant speaking out, then of course we use our words to do so. If I get a few angry emails or one-star reviews, that is a small price to pay for speaking out when my silence would be far more hurtful to my ego. 

So who knows, maybe this time next year I'll be in the midst of writing a novel with snow, tinsel and a pine tree. I'll conjure up my inner Mariah and try to write a classic that people return to year after year. I'll see if I can create a character as well-known as The Great Pumpkin. Alone at night in a pumpkin patch waiting for a mysterious creature to rise? Hmmm, sounds like a horror story to me...

Seasons, Symbols, and the Truth Beneath the Gimmick

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

I’ve never set out to write a story centered around a holiday, though seasons often work their way into my fiction—not as backdrop, but as metaphor.

Autumn isn’t just orange leaves and crisp air. It’s decline. It’s beauty giving way to death. Winter, too, is a mood: a kind of silence, a stripping-away. Spring carries the weight of rebirth, whether we want it or not. These associations are ancient, even archetypal. Pagan ritual, the liturgical calendar, folklore—they all whisper through how we experience time. A single image, like a bare twig with a bird chirping in the cold, can echo through literature for centuries.

So no, I don’t write holiday stories in the traditional sense. But I’m not against them either. Writing to a season or event can be an opportunity, not just a chance to “cash in” (though there’s no shame in a little seasonally timed success). The cultural weight of a moment can act as emotional shorthand. If a writer says “Thanksgiving,” readers bring a whole web of expectations—food, family, gratitude, tension—before the story even starts. That’s powerful.

Still, what matters most isn’t the calendar but the emotional truth beneath it. You don’t need to know the specifics of a holiday to feel what it evokes: celebration, longing, loss. The right details can make the abstract accessible. That’s the work, after all—to take something broad and make it matter to a single reader in a particular moment.

For me, the real theme across my writing, even the crime fiction, is friendship. That’s the heart of it. Who stands by you in the dark. Who helps you find your way out of the wilderness. Every era has its flavor of noir, but the stakes stay the same: how to survive and stay human.

If that happens to take place at Christmas or under a blood moon in October, so be it.

 

 

Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

Personally, I’ve never written a book or a story around a specific holiday or a specific time of year, but I wouldn’t thumb my nose at those who do. Funny, when I read this question, my mind automatically went to Christmas. It is my favorite holiday and I appreciate all things that highlight that most wonderful season. And while I have never written a Christmas story, I have loved a few. One that comes immediately to mind is Danielle Steele’s, The Gift. It’s a sweet little story that is all about human kindness, compassion, and love, ideas that are becoming harder and harder to find on this current timeline.

I did contribute a story to the popular Noir series, Cleveland Noir. My story was called Bitter. The theme was murder and revenge in Cleveland. Did I feel limited writing that story? Not at all. I’d argue that, in that instance at least, having that narrowed focus helped corral all the wandering ideas that tend to sprout up while you’re trying to focus on the one story. And it was so fun to write. Imagine being asked to write a short story that includes the neighborhood you grew up in and allows you to exact some revenge, in print at least, on an old foe, real or imagined. Good times.

While some may think that writing a story based on a pre-determined theme, be it the holidays or any number of topics, are limiting for the reader, I see them as opportunities to enhance the space that the world around you is already in. I imagine that just like me immediately turning my music to my Christmas playlist the day after Thanksgiving, there are readers that can’t wait to settle down into a good story that is based on their favorite holiday.

After all, I can’t imagine anything cooler than curling up in your favorite reading spot and immersing yourself into a tale that is set exactly where your heart is at that time. And remember, whether it is Halloween, Turkey Day, or Christmas doesn’t matter. You, dear writer, still decide where the story takes you. So, my thriller, horror, suspense writers, feel free to off Santa, the Easter bunny, or the Great Pumpkin, at will, if that’s your pleasure.

 

We Will Sell No Wine Before Its Time from James W. Ziskin

We’ve all seen authors dropping cryptic hints on social media about big news they can’t share yet. Teasers that spark curiosity but also prompt questions like, Why the secrecy? and Who decides what to share and when?

With apologies to Orson Welles and the Paul Masson wine brand, “We will sell no wine before its time.”

Vaguebooking

I really don’t have strong feelings either way about it, other than to say that I doubt it’s effective as a marketing strategy. Or I should say it’s ineffective unless the you’re a big name with really big news. To be honest, if I tried to vaguebook, my FB and Instagram friends would either ignore the post or at least not comment on it. I don’t post news before its time.

In order to (attempt) to stay relevant, I usually post something every week or so, even if there’s nothing major going on in my writing life. Sometimes I resort to something personal, like cooking or cats or drawings, just to make sure my friends don’t forget me. I try not to flood my feed with too many posts too close together. I see many writers who post several items in one day, and while that may work for them, I doubt I could pull it off. I’m not that interesting.

If ever I’m bursting to share great news prematurely, I resist the urge. It’s difficult, but better to get a bang out of one good post than to have people scratching their heads wondering what I’m hinting at in a vaguebook post. I would even say that, at times, a cryptic post about news that can’t be shared is frustrating for the reader. Don’t tease me. I want satisfaction!

I haven’t had a new book out since December 2022, so there hasn’t been a lot for me to crow about, cryptically or otherwise. Every two weeks I post on FB and IG about my 7 Criminal Minds pieces, but not much else besides occasionally giving a shoutout to a friend’s book. And, of course, cats. I recently posted on Black Cat Appreciation Day. And when Tom Lehrer passed away, I put up a link to my favorite song of his, “I Got It from Agnes.” Click here to give a listen. I won’t spoil it with cryptic hints. It’s a funny song that lets the listener’s own dirty mind decide what “it” is.

And here’s a black cat, Boko, eating his salad.

556

Ldjgadvjh

Big Things Coming Soon — Stay Tuned!

by Dietrich

We’ve all seen authors dropping cryptic hints on social media about big news they can’t share yet. Teasers that spark curiosity but also prompt questions like, Why the secrecy? and Who decides what to share and when? 

Vague posts like Big things coming soon, stay tuned! build anticipation while respecting professional constraints. The publishing world is complex, with agents, publishers, editors, and marketing teams all shaping when and how news is shared. Contracts may still be in negotiation, cover art might not be finalized, or the publisher may want to align an announcement with a broader marketing campaign. Teasing news without revealing details allows writers to connect with their audience, maintain momentum, and signal that something “exciting” is in the works, all while keeping specifics under wraps.

The decision of what and when to share isn’t necessarily up to the writer. Publishers often set guidelines in order to maximize impact. A major book deal or movie adaptation might need coordination with press releases, trade announcements, or events like the Frankfurt Book Fair or the U.S. Book Show. Agents may also advise writers to keep mum to avoid jeopardizing a deal or breaching confidentiality. A contract might include a clause requiring silence until all parties have signed off.

Independent authors or those with established platforms may have more flexibility. They might tease a book’s release date or share snippets of a work-in-progress to gauge audience interest. Even then, timing is important—revealing too much too soon can dilute anticipation, while waiting too long risks a loss of momentum.

Personally, I don’t follow a lot of hard-and-fast rules, but I do stick to a few guiding principles like not revealing a book’s title too far in advance. I also tend not to share many details about what I’m currently working on—not out of paranoia or secrecy, but because a work-in-progress is fluid and many elements are subject to change.

Common sense means deferring to agents and publishers. If they say wait, I wait. When I share news, I aim to time it right, revealing just enough to build anticipation and spark curiosity. Readers appreciate getting a glimpse of what an author’s up to and feeling included in the process.

It’s all about striking the right balance. And when I do share, I want the news to feel genuine, not gimmicky. While I’m excited about any new release (and what author isn’t?), I want to share that energy in a way that invites readers to join the journey. It’s more than just a tease; I want it to be a promise of something worth waiting for.

Shhh, Don't Tell Anyone

 

Terry here, with the question of the week: 

I see a lot of writers post vague messages about news they “can’t talk about yet”. What are your rules about what and when to release info on upcoming releases, big contract news, exciting things on the horizon? Do you decide what and when to reveal, or is it coming from agents, publishers, etc? 

Rules? Rules? I’ve got no rules. When the contract is signed, I shout about it. No hesitation. And no, I usually don’t post “teasers.” If I’m going to be showing up at a bookstore or some event, I let people know. No teasers. If I finish writing a book and send it off to my agent, I tell everyone. No teasers. 

I see all these things on social media that people “can’t talk about yet.” Vague-booking they call it on Facebook. I suppose it’s designed to titillate and to garner excitement. But mostly it just irritates me. Maybe it’s jealousy because I don’t have anything to keep secret. 

But here are some things I’d like “not be able to talk about yet.” 

A letter saying, “Hi, we finally tracked you down. Remember that funny little stock you bought fifty years ago? Well guess what…?” 

An email saying, “We have to swear you to secrecy, but this is to let you know that Tom Hanks has just read all your books and wants to play Samuel Craddock in a TV series.” 

A knock on the door and it’s somebody saying a long-lost relative has bequeathed me a zillion bucks. 

A phone call from someone who says “Molly Gordon read Deep Dive and is determined to play Jessie Madison in your series.” 

My former publisher writing to tell me he’s finally releasing my backlist to me. 

My agent telling me my current publisher is doubling my advance. (Not sure I'd ever mention this)

I can pretty much guarantee that none of those things is likely to happen, but you can be sure if they do, I’ll be all over social media, hinting like crazy! So much for not posting teasers. 

                                                         *** 

An addendum to this week’s post. I just got back from Bouchercon, and it was wonderful this year. Too many friends I would like to have seen didn’t make it, and I was sorry to miss them. But I had some good meals, some good laughs, excellent talks with friends both old and new, and went to interesting panels. The Debut Author Breakfast was even better than usual, with Michael Connelly lending his emcee skills, a beautiful brochure, and what sounded like some outstanding new authors. 

I didn’t get Covid or a cold, didn’t faint from the heat (yes it was hot, but there was usually a breeze, and it was not bad), didn’t eat or drink too much, and didn’t go crazy buying weird New Orleans tourist gifts. 

Added bonus: the hotel was close to the exceptional World War II museum, where the opening ceremonies were held after a celebratory march, New Orleans style with a brass band to accompany us. Next year, Calgary!

And here are some photos from Bouchercon:

                                    The Opening Ceremonies parade: 

With fellow 7 Criminal Minds author Poppy Gee

    

                                        With two rogues, Marjorie McCown and Smita Jain:

    

                                          With the incomparable Georgia Jeffries

                        

Penmanship Confessions by Matthew Greene

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3rd grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still hand write any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time? 

My second grade teacher was very troubled by my penmanship. She would hover over my shoulder clucking her tongue at the misshapen loops of my Bs and the sad, sorry tails of my Rs. Things got even worse when we made the switch to cursive, and this teacher took to giving me extra assignments just to drill some proper technique into my malleable little head. My mom, an educator herself, thought these concerns with legibility were overblown. When I was sent home for holiday break with an extracurricular handwriting workbook and a fresh batch of insecurities, Mom promptly threw it away and sent me off to play.

Needless to say, I’ve always had a complicated relationship with my own handwriting. I don’t like letting people see the pure, unvarnished chicken scratches that fill the various notebooks on my shelves. When someone gives me a fancy journal—a favorite gift idea for the writer in your life, apparently—it usually goes unused, since I’m loath to sully its gold-edged pages with my subpar script. I prefer cheap, disposable composition books bought in bulk where I can scribble away without scrutiny. 

Maybe this is why I do all my “real” writing on the computer. Brainstorming, ideating, even outlining often lives in the aforementioned messy notebooks. But when the time comes to do the actual work of composition, to put down the words that someone else will actually see, typing takes over. 

Someone should do a neurological study about the different parts of the brain that are activated by different modes of writing. For me, the chaotic early work of creation flows naturally through a pen on paper. But the more organized, orderly task of writing scenes and chapters is triggered by fingers on keys and a glowing screen in front of me. The different modes of creation feel like different muscles groups, and I have a hunch there’s some science to it. (Maybe someone has done this research; I don’t really keep up with neurological research these days.)

Maybe, like most writers, I’m still working out childhood issues through my work. But as far as childhood trauma goes, being browbeaten for bad handwriting isn’t so bad. It just might be one of many reasons my laptop is my preferred writing tool and my notebooks are kept safely out of sight.

PS: The aforementioned second grade teacher wasn’t all bad. She came to a signing of There’s No Murder Like Show Murder and we buried the hatchet once and for all.

Scary Stories by Poppy Gee

Writers should establish systems that create calm in the chaos that can come with creativity.

I recently lost 30K of a novel in progress and had to start again. What’s the biggest setback you’ve had in your writing, and how did you overcome it?

This is the one of worst things that can happen to a writer. It's a real life horror story that happened to my blogging colleague Eric, who wrote this question. Read his post here to see how he coped by writing his way through the despair.

I’ve lost sections of work, but never this amount. The paralysing fear of losing a substantial part of your novel looms over us, an ominous, inevitable spectre. 

Not long ago, on a rainy Friday morning, I was putting the finishing touches on a Powerpoint presentation that I would use to teach a crime fiction workshop. For no reason, my computer froze. Panic rising, I employed my repertoire of IT skills. This involved turning the computer off and on. Northing happened. I pressed escape. When that didn't work, I simultaneously held down control, shift, delete. Nothing I did made my laptop resume operation. I felt sick with fear. I only bought it last year, and I don’t have a back up computer. I needed the Powerpoint presentation, and the computer, for the weekend's class.

Using my phone, I googled laptop repair person near me. Fortunately, there was a guy up the road. I rang him, explained my crisis. He was available, and I drove straight there.

The man took my laptop out the back, disappearing behind a curtain. I sat in the waiting area for fifteen stressful minutes. He smiled when he emerged from behind the curtain and told me that my computer was fixed. Deeply relieved and grateful, I paid him $150. He reflected that it was not good that a new computer glitched like this. 

That night, my husband expressed doubt about the true nature of my computer’s glitch. He wondered what the man even did to my laptop. My husband claimed he could have fixed it himself and saved the money. (I don’t know if that’s true. He’s a builder, not an IT expert.)

Maybe the repair man had a secret and complex process to fix it, maybe the computer simply restarted by itself. I’ll never know. But what else do you do? We’re helpless in this scenario. 

My process of backup is to email the Word doc to myself once a week. If I’m making complex and tiny edits all over the manuscript, I email the m/s to myself several times a day. This is not a good process. Please refer to Gabriel Valjan’s excellent tips here on saving your work - there are better ways than emailing it yourself.

Losing your work is a horror story that no one wants to experience. It will happen at some point. Having a system of techniques to protect your work is the best way to minimise the damage and stress. 

No crying on the yacht, by Catriona

I recently lost 30K of a novel in progress and had to start again. What’s the biggest setback you’ve had in your writing, and how did you overcome it?

[Be there in a bit after I've driven down to give Eric a hug... Okay, I'm back.]

That has never happened to me, but it's like the idea of accidentally grating your knuckles off while zesting a lemon: you don't have to experience it to wince.

I have had some disappointments more than setbacks as such, but they still rankle. Mostly because I can't complain about them. Let me explain.

1. Away back in 2005 when my first novel was coming out, it was chosen to be crime novel of the month for September at Ottakar's (a chain of bookshops in the UK). Woooohoooooo! Then Ottakar's went bust in August.

Links here

Such a crushing disappointment for a baby debut author and the most irritating thing of all was that jobs and livelihoods had been lost and I was the least of the casualties. I couldn't really, in conscience, grumble.

2. Then I started shutting down publishers. First, I sold US rights for my first and second books to Carrol and Graf, a venerable New York publishing house that had been going for decades. They published one book of mine and . . . curtains. Disappointing but not actually painful. Unlike the demise of Midnight Ink. I'm still not over that. Terri Bischoff took on my off-brand psycho-thrillers and put out six of them with fantastic jackets and genius edits, then took on another off-off-brand trilogy of comedies. Except there were only two of them because Midnight Ink, rather suddenly, closed down. It was a huge loss to the mystery landscape and a massive blow to the people who worked there. Again, I was gutted but couldn't whine when so many around me had lost so much more.

How gorgeous is that book?

I felt, for a while, as if I should go into editorial meetings ringing a bell and calling out "unclean, unclean".  I definitely want to reassure Hachette, Severn House and Thomas and Mercer that things go in twos. Right? Right.

3. Then there was the big one. In both senses. Actually, in all three senses: the disappointment was huge; the scale of the event was huger; the amount by which I was so lucky it would have been an outrage for me to moan was hugest. I was honoured beyond words when the local organising committee chairs of Bouchercon Sacramento asked me to be toastmaster. (It can't all have been because I was right there and they wouldn't have to pay an airfare.) My parents were coming; we were going to book a two bedroom suite at the conference hotel; I was going to the gym a lot; I was all set. It was 2020.

Aaaaaaaabsolutely no way was I going to say one single syllable about how it felt for me to be healthy and solvent, at home, doing my job, with everyone I cared for safe and well, even if thousands of miles away and no planes flying. Someone said we were all in the same boat. (I think it was Kate Middleton.) Then someone else said we were all in the same storm but some of us were in luxury liners and some of us were clinging to rafts. (I think that was Prince Harry.) 

Appropriately enough, my biggest disappointments are are all variants of one of my favourite sayings: no crying on the yacht.

Cx