Inspired by life by Eric Beetner

What inspires you in your day-to-day life, something that influences your writing? 

Honestly, I wish I knew. Inspiration is a funny thing to me. I find myself thinking of stories or characters quite a lot. Too much, maybe. I was that kid in class labeled a “Daydreamer”. I see someone on the street and I want to know their story. I hear something innocuous about a neighbor and I want the anecdote to keep going, to spin out to unexpected places. I can’t honestly say there is a thing that doesn’t inspire me.

I recently finished a short story based on a prompt, which I enjoy. I like the restraints on a themed story whether it be setting or a person. When the page is blank, where do you start? And I think that’s the secret to inspiration, the difference between writers and “normal” people. If you sit and wait for a prompt, you won’t write much. If you can stare at a blank, white page and find inspiration there, then you just might a writer.

Usually one story inspires another. When I read, it can rev the engine of creativity and make me start thinking of stories I wouldn’t have otherwise. Same goes for seeing a movie or a painting. Newspapers (remember those) are always great sources of inspiration if only to remind you that truth is stranger than fiction. Or at the very least, your wild and crazy idea will likely be outdone by the real world, so go with the wild idea in your head. Nothing is too unrealistic.

Once the river is flowing with ideas, new ones come along because our minds are already in a creative mode. We’re already inspired to write. That’s why so often writers can get distracted by the new, shiny idea that comes along in the middle of writing an idea that was shiny and new last week. 

Inspiration is so intangible that since the beginning of storytelling we’ve assigned a mythical status to it. The Muse is somehow the thing that inspires us to write stories and invent whole people from our imagination. The truth is, that Muse lives inside us all. You need only tap into it, usually through observing the world around you. 

Humans are endlessly fascinating, as well as frustrating, infuriating, beautiful, ugly, rude, polite and on and on. We’re all characters in one way or another. If you look at the world like a page already filled and waiting for the stories there to be plucked out and made into your own tale, then inspiration is all around us every day.

Nothing New Under the Sun by Gabriel Valjan

 

What inspires you in your day-to-day life, something that influences your writing?

 

Let’s be honest, if you’re well-read across time and world cultures, you will realize that nothing is new under the sun.

 

Nihil novi sub sole. The Hero’s Journey. The Stranger Comes to Town. All the plots have been uncovered and analyzed. Consult Ronald B. Tobias’ 20 Master Plots as a resource.

 

What writers do to renew the soil is bring their unique experiences, their particular style, and their personal perspective to the scene. I suspect the ‘What if?’ is applied to familiar scenes.

 

I’m reminded of William Goldman’s preface to Marathon Man, and how he had to hash out why a Nazi would come to the US. What if? After he’d read about a Cleveland cardiologist’s latest, he thought his fugitive Nazi should have a failing heart, as if Nazis had hearts. Goldman would nix the idea when he realized there wouldn’t be many pages or suspense if his villain had a bad ticker. He reverted to an ancient motivation: greed, the want of money. No inspiration there. The real inspiration came from the conversation he had with his periodontist. What if? Bill told the doctor that his dentist didn’t believe in Novocain, and the Gum Man told him that if you wanted to inflict some real and serious pain: drill a healthy tooth. The rest is cinematic history, and the late William Goldman became the bullseye for every dentist worldwide.

 

Writers ask themselves all the time, “Is it safe?” Tropes, conventions—whatever you want to call them—are tried-and true as a cliché and ‘safe’, but Inspiration, that little tweak is the Special Sauce. Sometimes something doesn’t have to be well-written, but if it is unique and clever…

 

Inspiration could be an unexpected take on the familiar or born of randomness, chaos theory.

 

A challenge inspired my ROMA SERIES. A work colleague had told me that men can’t write a credible female character, so I wrote a short story to prove her wrong. It was so much fun (the writing and not the proving her wrong) that I went on then to write what became a series of six books. I’d also been told a straight guy can’t write a gay character, so I wrote two, Bill in the SHANE CLEARY series, and Sheldon in THE COMPANY FILES.

 

The ‘What If Question’ inspired THE COMPANY FILES. While reading postwar history, I noticed that the US was the only country that had emerged from World War 2 unscathed. I’m talking about infrastructure. Europe and everyone else had to rebuild. Literally. It became clear that the US had an unprecedented geopolitical advantage. I’d known about the Office of Strategic Services, that it was the precursor to the CIA. The Brits had already created MI5 before World War 1. What if the US created their own intelligence agency BUT didn’t know what the hell they were doing? History proved truer than Fiction. Research led me to Operation Paperclip, and writing THE GOOD MAN, the first of three novels. Two subsequent novels would be nominated for Agatha and Anthony Awards.

 

Contemporary discussions on diversity plus my own life experiences inspired the Shane Cleary Mysteries. The novels would receive nominations for the Agatha, Anthony, Shamus, and Silver Falchion awards. With Shane, I tweaked tropes. Bad guys were sometimes good, and good guys, bad. The real fun for me as a writer is to play with reader’s comfort levels in the series. Moral ambiguity seems to horrify American readers, whereas it’s a given for Europeans.

 

While all the stories have been told, I try to write in scenes other writers have not imagined. 

And let the fun begin.

The Images in My Head

 Q: What inspires you in your day-to-day life, something that influences your writing?

-from Susan

 

People. People and their quirks, their heroics, their embarrassments, their bonhomie or opaqueness, their pride, their charms, their prejudices…oh, just everything!

 

It’s not just the people I already know or have met formally. It’s the lumpy man in flip flops shuffling down Mission Street muttering to himself about an insult he wants to avenge, and the young woman waving a Starbucks coffee cup as she trips along Sausalito’s upscale Bridgeway in stilettos, talking rapidly into the air – oh wait, it’s a phone that might as well be invisible – about a deal she’s trying to finalize at her real estate job. He’s saying, “Goddamm, he had no right to talk to me that way.” She’s saying, “That creep had no business saying that in front of the couple.”

 

I wonder if he’s homeless and that he saw that the guy who told him to get lost had just knifed someone. What will he do? She could be a dishonest broker whose multi-million dollar sale just got dinged. Will she try something illegal to complete the sale?

 

My four French village mysteries were all inspired by a couple I thank in my books, California friends who moved on a whim to a hamlet in France about 25 years ago, where I visited them several times. 

When he died, his widow moved a few kilometers away into a somewhat larger town, and I have visited her there several times. Her health is declining now and there may be no more visits. But I have walked the perimeter of that town, met her friends and neighbors, been in the modest little shops, and eaten many meals at their tables. In recent years, I have admired her constant companion, a handsome young French hunting dog.

I have heard my friends’ stories and frankly borrowed their experiences of being ex-pats. 

 

Location. In all of my books, the other major inspiration is place: Santa Fe, Manhattan, New England, France. I know these settings, can see, smell, and taste their pleasures from my own life. 

If I love a place, I can call it up in my fiction almost at will. I even have a couple of places I really didn’t enjoy that can be folded into my fiction. My hunch is I’m saying nothing new to writers because we don’t create fiction in a vacuum. We create it from what we know, can imagine, fear, hope for, and love. 

 

 

 

 

Let's Talk Business: Book Launch Day, by Harini Nagendra

 What a perfect book prompt for today: 

As far as the business side of your own writing, what are you looking forward to in the near future?

Why perfect, do you ask? (or even if you don't...) 

Because today is pub day, aka book birthday, aka - the day that my new book releases!

That's right, book 3 in The Bangalore Detectives Club series - A Nest of Vipers - is out in bookstores across the US, UK and India today. It's my third published book of fiction, and my seventh book overall, but the feeling of happiness, the excitement that a new book is out there in the world, interacting with readers, is still the same. And thank goodness for that!

Today is also a very special day because I very recently also got the news that the New York Times featured book 1 in the series, The Bangalore Detectives Club, in its list of Best Books Since 2000 - one of 21 mysteries in the list, surrounded by so many terrific writers whose work I deeply admire.

The Top Books to Read From 2000-2023 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

So - back to the question - what am I looking forward to on the business side of things? Well, I'm a writer based in India, and I do most of my in-person promotions in bookstores, talks, events and the like in my home city of Bangalore, where the series is located. It's difficult for me to make it to promotional events outside - I did make it to the Motive Crime and Mystery Festival 2023, in Toronto last June, and had a blast, but I haven't been able to participate in any bookstore events or writer fests in the US or UK. 

I try and do as much book publicity and marketing as I can online - podcasts, blogs, online conferences - but I know how limited that is. Ultimately, though, I have realized one thing - the best way a writer can promote her books and reach wider audiences - is to spend more time on what I like best, which is to write! 

I just returned from a fabulous research trip to the misty mountains of Coorg, where book 4 in the series - Into the Leopard's Den - is set. I got to explore an 18th century wooden palace with an underground dungeon that is so pitch dark, it was used to terrify prisoners kept in solitary confinement into confession. A 300 year old ancestral home where ancient traditions of the Kodava warrior clans are still upheld. A devara kaadu - sacred forest - on the top of a hill where a family was holding special prayers - they welcomed us into their fold and insisted on feeding us and sharing holy prasada with us before we left. 

And I returned with so many stories. Of coffee plantations and exploitative colonial planters; of forests cut down in the name of progress; of leopards and wild boar attacks; and so much more. Rich grist for a writer's mill.

The business side of writing is best served by more writing... or anyway, that's the fun part, so that's where you'll find me hanging out! 

Minding My Own Business from James W. Ziskin

As far as the business side of your own writing, what are you looking forward to in the near future?

I never look forward to promoting my books, probably because I don’t believe my meager efforts move the needle on sales or brand-building to any appreciable degree. Or maybe just because I’m tired. Schmoozing exhausts me, as do bookstore signings. All writers worry that no one will show up at our signings and we’ll be embarrassed as well as stressed out.

Furthermore, I have no plans to attend any conferences in the near future. While I used to adore going to writers conferences, I now have mixed feelings. I love seeing old friends, attending interesting panels, and pumping up my creative energy, but it’s exhausting and expensive. And I’ve never noticed any bumps in sales of my books following a conference, even when I’ve been nominated or won awards.

So, no, I’m not looking forward to any of the so-called business-side activities of my writing career.

What I do look forward to is writing.

I look forward to starting a new novel, even if I’m not sure I’ll be able to devote enough time to it. I teach high school French, you see, and there’s simply no time for writing during the school year. I have to wait for summer vacation to get cracking. Last summer, that worked out well; I managed to finish the first draft of an 85,000-word novel, The Prank, in 40 days. I’d never written anything that long so quickly before, so it was a hoot. Extremely satisfying. Since then, I’ve been revising and polishing the book. I don’t compromise on revisions. Revise, revise, revise, say I. A first draft is fine (and, of course, necessary), but I can’t imagine anyone’s first draft is good enough for publication. Mine certainly aren’t. I suppose, in a way, revision is part of “the business side” of writing. It’s essential to the creation of the product I want to sell. 

So what exactly do I edit and polish anyway? Every word. At least that’s the idea. One tool that helps me revise is the Read Aloud function in Word. Try it. You’ll be amazed at the number of errors you’ll catch and the improvements you’ll make hen you listen to your manuscript. Here’s an example of a recent tweak I made to the manuscript.

“Something was definitely off with him, and I couldn’t fathom a guess.”

I’d passed over this line perhaps twenty times before, but suddenly it caught my ear. Something about it bothered me. I stopped the Read Aloud, backed up, and read the text carefully. What was it that had triggered my doubts? Do you see it?

It was the word, “fathom.” Merriam-Webster defines it as, “to penetrate and come to understand.” 

“Fathom” is a fine word. Just not one that works with “a guess.” The verb I wanted was “hazard.” One does not fathom a guess. One hazards a guess.

“Something was definitely off with him, and I couldn’t hazard a guess.”

This is just one example of what I mean when I talk about challenging every line and each word of your manuscript. It may seem a small thing, one that an editor might well catch for you. Not worth worrying about.

Think again.

Another “error” I discovered while listening to The Prank was a reference to pizza delivery. The book is set in 1968, and while delivery was just getting started around that time, it was not yet common. Since The Prank takes place in a small Central New York town, I figured it would be better to have my character pick up the pizza herself. I remember clearly that my dad always drove to get the pizza whenever we ordered it in the sixties. Back then, there was no delivery in my upstate New York town.

I doubt many editors would flag those two errors. Hell, I’d missed them during many previous revisions. But that only means I needed to concentrate better. Challenge myself. Know what I don’t know. Never be satisfied until the clock runs out and the buzzer sounds. Then you live with what you’ve created, warts and all.

I hope to find a home for The Prank. To that end, I’ve been trying to write a compelling pitch to pique the interest of editors, and I’ve been searching for comp titles to help market the book. Two more “business” tasks I loathe doing. 

In fact, my fondest wish is to be able to write. Just create something new and then something else new. I wish I could leave all the business of writing to someone else. Any volunteers?

Keeping on the sunny side

As far as the business side of your own writing, what are you looking forward to in the near future?

by Dietrich

I’m looking forward to the launch of my next one, Crooked, published by ECW Press, set to hit the shelves on September 24th. The story’s based on the real life and crimes of Alvin ‘Creepy’ Karpis. Set in the 1930s, the story kicks off as Karpis joins forces with the infamous Barker brothers as they set on a trail of bank robberies, murder, and kidnapping on their way to becoming the most hunted outlaws in America. 

Ahead of its release, I’ll be looking at ways to promote it, along with attending some events to share and celebrate it. As far as the business side, there are things to consider which have certainly changed since my first one came out a decade ago. It looks like print books remain the most popular format, not to mention my favorite way to take in a book. There’s an ever-growing demand for audiobooks and Ebooks as well. Audiobooks are the way to go when I’m doing something else, and Ebooks are perfect for when I’m going someplace. I recently found out that Amazon controls nearly half the Ebook market now, not to mention hosting 200,000 audiobooks on Audible, showing the growth of both formats. 

And many readers are borrowing digital media from public libraries and online libraries as well. It’s sad to see many indie book stores continue to suffer the ups and downs of a changing industry, but I remain a fan of the the local book shops and the super-knowledgeable staff that work there. I’ll continue to support them, and I hope you will too. 

Other things have changed over the past few years too. Digital printing has taken a quantum leap, and there’s a steady increase in self-published books too. Fan review sites like Goodreads and Amazon keep growing, complimenting traditional book reviewers like Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Library Journal. Me, I’m happy anytime a reader takes the time to add some stars, and I’m thrilled when I see a positive review too. It’s always supportive and reassuring. 

Then there’s the impact of social media, intersecting trends, the coming of artificial intelligence, accessibility, diversity, and so on.

While it’s good to be aware and to embrace change as it comes, I think there’s no doubt, books in whatever format will remain in demand, and with so many options and opening doors, I see good things ahead.

What Next?

 

Terry here, with our question this week: As far as the business side of your own writing, what are you looking forward to in the near future? Having just had my Bahamas thriller, (pictured, Bahama Mama Cocktail) 

Perilous Waters come out on April 2, my world has been centered on doing the requisite (and enjoyable) interviews, blog posts, bookstore events, and searching for promotional opportunities. In addition, I’ve been reading books in preparation for panels at Left Coast Crime and Thrillerfest. I’ve also been reading to provide blurbs for authors whose books I enjoy. 

 All that is kind of “in the present” activity, leaving me little time for speculation about looking forward to much more than taking a deep breath. But answering this question makes me pause and consider. I’ve heard from my publisher that they are going to offer me two more contracts, but I have not actually seen the contracts. As any writer knows, until you sign on the line, it isn’t a done deal. And just between you (all of you) and me, I’m not sure I’ll be content with the same old, same old. 

I really love some things about my publisher, and I can tell they are striving to support their authors. Meanwhile, they asked when I could be done with the next two books. I hate to break it to them, but without a contract, I’m not excited to work on a new book. 

Instead, I’m tiptoeing into a different mode. I’ve had several conversations with people who have begun to try their hand at self-publishing. Some of them have left traditional publishing altogether, and others have become hybrid—remaining with their traditional publishers for some work, and going on their own for others. In both cases, most authors tell me they although it’s hard work, they make more money in the self-publishing venue than through traditional publishing. And they like the freedom it affords. One author I talked to said that he suspects in the future most authors will do a little of both. 

 I’m not prepared to jump off the cliff entirely. I like having a solid editorial staff and I have to admit the covers my publisher has come up with have been wonderful. (Wait until you see the one for the Craddock series, coming out next fall). I can do editing for myself, and can pay an editor if I think it’s necessary, but I have absolutely no eye for cover design. For sure, I’d have to farm that out. I’ve seen some terrible book covers, and I don’t want to fall into that trap. I feel like there’s a solid team working on my behalf. It comes at a price, the price of the lion’s share of proceeds going to the publisher. 

But self-publishing comes at a price, too. 

To put out a really first-class project, you have to work just as hard on the writing, and in addition you have to pay for an editor, a copyeditor, a cover designer, and someone who knows formatting. You have to decide where you want your book published and in what form—e-book only, or e-book and print. And you have to do your own promotion. But since I already do most of that myself, that’s a wash. 

 I don’t want to do anything impulsive, so when I say I’m tiptoeing into the self-publishing world, it’s just that. Trying it with one book—a book I wrote several years ago and abandoned when I began writing under contracts. It’s a book I still like. I have been revising it in what I laughingly refer to as my spare time. We’ll see what happens next. 

 As for the “near” near future, I’m going to be doing bookstore appearances in May: Here are the promo ads for them, courtesy of fellow-Minds author, Gabriel Valjean: The first is with Susan Shea:

The second is in the wonderful Book Carnival:

Getting Down to Business

As far as the business side of your own writing, what are you looking forward to in the near future?

Brenda here.

The business side of writing is an ongoing challenge. My latest release Fatal Harvest hit the shelves April 15 with the launch at Perfect Books in Ottawa this Wednesday, May 1st. I've got several bookstore signings lined up through May and June. I've also accepted invitations to appear at events around the city. If you live in or near Ottawa, all my public events are updated on the main page of my website.

It would be great to do signings and events outside my city, and I'm hoping some invitations come my way over the summer. Book clubs are also welcome to contact me for author visits. For those far away, I can pop in via Zoom.

Social media is also part of what I consider the business end of writing. It's a way to keep books in the public eye and to broadcast upcoming events as well as to extend my reach. It takes up time to post and keep everything updated, but it would be so much harder to interact with readers without these avenues.

I'm currently deeply into writing book four in the Hunter and Tate series and plan to have the first draft completed by the end of May. While the editing will take up most of the summer, I'll also begin writing book eight in my Stonechild and Rouleau series, requested by my publisher Dundurn. These two projects will take up a lot of my time and energy. I have to admit that I'd rather be writing than working on publicity and marketing, although I look forward to meeting readers throughout the spring.

So lots going on business- and writing-wise. No moss growing on this writer!

Website: www.brendachapman.ca

Instagram, Threads & Facebook: BrendaChapmanAuthor

Twitter: brendaAchapman

How To VS Why To, by Josh Stallings

 Q: Do you have favorite craft sessions, or articles/books on craft that you return to for inspiration or help?

A: Craft questions often come down to how-to questions. I’ve spent much of my life thinking about creative processes in one way or another. There are many good books on the writing life, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird, John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, are the first to come to mind. I have collected stacks of how-to books on writing, Zen meditation, sobriety, and conquering depression. Many I haven't finished, some I never opened. I guess I think the act of buying and stacking them will teach by osmosis. It doesn’t. I am a natural born contrarian. I seem to need to struggle and batter my way through and discover my own solutions to problems.

Reading is my best teacher. When I come upon a writer that really excites me, I read everything they’ve written to try and absorb their techniques. Reading Who Killed Palomino Molero?, I found Mario Vargas Llosa has a way of covering multiple conversations at once that is stunning and seamless. After reading several of his other books I’m no closer to discovering his secret, but damn glad to have found his work.  

Against my will I’m getting older. I have many fewer words to write ahead of me than those I’ve left behind. Years ago sitting with my friend Charlie Huston he told me given what it took to write a book we had maybe x amount of books left in us. We needed to choose wisely what those books would be. I only half listened. The thing the Greek philosophers knew was that wisdom takes time to achieve. And once you achieve it your time is running short. 

SIDE NOTE: It is universally unfair that we only achieve wisdom at the near end of our journey. It is equally unfair that great dogs don’t live as long their human companions do.

My real question now isn’t how to write a book, but why to write a book. The former is more universal, we all write differently within the limitations of twenty six letters and  five to ten thousand unique word choices. We want a beginning, middle and end. Story elements and structures are objective. But the why of the matter, is subjective and purely personal. It can be as simple as, because I have a contract for this book and bills to pay. A very reasonable reason to write a book. But inside this lays a deeper reason. We all make known and unknown decisions about the books we write. I have called my books Trojan Horses where I hide ideas I want in the world inside. We all do this, it is impossible to write a book and not infuse it with your personal beliefs. Our books are conversations with readers, and they are conversations with ourselves. I continually have readers correctly point out themes in my work that I didn’t know I was chewing on.

I need to be clear here, I had a very personal motivation in writing Tricky. That isn’t always the case. Often I am hooked into an idea because I find something in it intriguing. This original idea is the vessel to hold the why that I will discover as I write. That seems a bit muddy. How do I come up with the why, really, at a how-to level. I spend a lot of my non-writing time thinking about the world around me. At a micro level I think about relationships, how they work and where they fail. At a macro level why have we built a dysfunctional world order? Why are celebrities given swag and hotel suites while childcare workers don’t make a living wage? Why online or on the road are we all spoiling for a fight? Why do we scan for evidence of other’s failures instead of scanning for their brilliance? I question everything including my own beliefs. This then feeds what I’m working on in both subtle and bold ways. I’m not afraid to let new information change my work in progress. I invite new thoughts, it’s the only way I know how to grow as a writer and human. 

“I let myself dream that my voice had a place in this that nothing else could have filled.”— Catchpenny: A novel by Charlie Huston

Back to Charlie Huston, his latest book Catchpenny just came out. It took him ten years to write. It is for my money his greatest work. The Trojan Horse is a thrilling urban fantasy crime heist novel. In the acknowledgments he calls it a “book about a depressive thief who walks through mirrors, and a girl who wants to break the world in order to save it.” And that’s true. It is also his response to looking deeply into the state of a world that seems at the brink of self-destruction. As a writer he has evolved from noir to hopefully romantic without losing any of his edge. He has written a book that helped pull me from a depression I had slipped into and given me hope. It is a book that compels me to keep writing, and that is the best compliment I can give any book.

I hope that all of you readers and writers will find the whys for your work and life. Regardless of how prolific you are we all have a limited number of words we get to say, choose them wisely.  

****

Where to find Charlie Huston 

https://crimereads.com/charlie-huston-on-writing-his-way-to-sobriety/#

https://www.charliehustonwrites.com/

*****

What I’m Reading: 

ASH DARK AS NIGHT, by Gary Phillips