Thinking about why I do what I do

 Q: Give us your writing manifesto.

 

-from Susan

 

“Manifesto: a public declaration of policy and aims.”

 

 

(Who asks a question like that?) For writers, I guess it means what we’re committed to in our work and how we aim to achieve it? In an effort not to sound pompous or self-aggrandizing, I guess what I want is to put on paper the kinds of stories about people that show them in three dimensions, often under stress. 

 

We are all so complex, a mix of high and less high ideals, strong and weak in our ability to face life, variable in our ability to love or to hate. We are sometimes tragic, other times funny, albeit usually unintentionally. I try hard to build characters readers will feel they’ve met, some that they will love as I do, others that I hope I lead them to see in the harsh light they earn in my stories. One of my chief habits is to observe real people, then take small and large parts of them and transform them into fictional beings, not unlike the writer at the heart of MISS BUNKLE’S BOOK, by DE Stevenson, 1934 (Persephone Books) * huge shout out to Catriona, who gave the book to me and turned me on to Persephone.

 

I’m committed to keep learning so I can write books that I’m proud of, taking my readers seriously, hoping to entertain and reward them. I’m committed to creating plots that don’t insult people’s intelligence, don’t rely on tired tropes, and maybe include a bit of information about places, people, history, cultures that might surprise them. Selfishly, I’m committed to writing books I hope will sell, even if only enough to pay for my writing and promotion costs and a bit of bread and moldy cheese.

I aim to surprise and delight, to write well enough to pull readers into the environments I’ve tried to bring to life, and to leave them wanting more. 

 

That’s a lot, and even having the opportunity to try - I have six published books so far and a new one in process, all since I quit my day job and began this thing in earnest - has been a thrilling ride.

 

 

P.S. Re-release of the 3-book Dani O’Rourke series is coming out later this summer. Great new covers (cover release soon) that I hope will attract new crime fiction fans. People haven’t been able to get them recently and I’ve thought about writing a fourth one for the readers who’ve asked. That’s fun when you liked the characters you created so much you want to go back and find out what they’ve been up to!