Left Coast Crime 2019 by Cathy Ace (Toastmaster!)

I think Terry’s response yesterday to this week's question is pretty much along the lines I’d have adopted…but…since I have just returned home from Left Coast Crime, Vancouver 2019: Whale of a Crime, where I was honoured to be Toastmaster, please forgive me for going off-script this week.

Four years ago I (somehow) managed to convince Linda McNab and Colleen Glynn to put in a bid to allow Left Coast Crime to come to Vancouver. Their bid was accepted (no thanks to me – I did nothing but cajole them) and last week the event took place. And I think it all went rather well!

L to r: Colleen Glynn, Linda McNab, me - back in 2014 just before our plans for LCC 2019 began!

The Hyatt Regency - half way toward the water on the left!

 As Toastmaster, it’s not expected that a person gets involved with the actual organization of a convention, but – because I was “to blame” (their words!) Linda and Colleen involved me every step of the way. We first visited the Hyatt regency in Downtown Vancouver over three years ago, and I was impressed by their facilities. Since then there have been a million little things to sort with them, then last week we discovered how good their facilities, service, attention to detail and commitment to our event really was – they were excellent! And the banquet team did us proud too – the general response to the setting, food and service was extremely positive. PHEW! 

Oh, and Vancouver herself put on her glad rags for the convention – the sun shone the entire time, the cherry blossom…blossomed and the daffodils and tulips glowed happily in their urban setting. Those who took the side trips to tour the city, over to Vancouver Island on the ferry or out to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC all had a wonderful time. Oh how the sun makes everything look and feel so much better!

The convention had over 200 authors in attendance, and around 700 attendees in total. There were so many panels most of us wished we could clone ourselves and the Guests

Muggin' it up! 2 Minds, one aim - FUN!

of Honour were interviewed in fine style. I was extremely nervous about being interviewed, but Catriona McPherson (yes, OUR Catriona) was gentle and kind. She’d more than done her homework, and her questions allowed me to talk about my work, and give a few insights into my life too. I felt a huge weight lift when the interview was over – I’m not used to being quizzed…I think I prefer to be the quizzer!

A special event was M is for Memories: Sue Grafton Remembered. Sue was delighted to be told she was being given a Lifetime Achievement Award by LCC back in 2017, but her sudden and untimely death in December that year

meant the award was presented posthumously to her daughter. I was delighted (and somewhat nervous) to be the person given the responsibility of organizing this memorial, so I did my best…and it seemed to be well received. I know people laughed, and I saw people cry. Perfect! Her daughter was gracious and a smashing person.

L to R: Me (host) with the guest speakers I invited to participate and Sue's daughter: Barbara Peters (Poisoned Pen Bookstore), Maureen Jennings (Canadian GOH), Jamie Clark (Sue Grafton's daughter), Jim Ziskin (our very own! and Lefty Nominee), Kellye Garrett (Lefty Nominee), Ovidia Yu (award-winning author, in from Singapore)

An important part of the weekend is the chance to raise funds for a local charity. This year One-to-One Literacy BC was

MaryJane Maffini won the quilt

selected; they make arrangements for those who are left behind in terms of literacy skills to be given a helping hand, and work with over 100 schools in British Columbia. In total we raised over $7700 – which, even though it’s Canadian dollars – is a good sum of money! Donna Andrews did a great job as auctioneer, as did those who provided items for the silent auction and the quilt raffle. 

The Lefty Awards are voted on by conventioneers during the convention. This year, 7 Criminal Minds had three nominees: James Ziskin and Terry Shames were both up for Best Historical Novel, and Catriona McPherson was up for Best Humorous Novel. I’m pleased to be able to tell you that Catriona won! 

Photo of Catriona by Kay Kendall

Congratulations to her for her now-award-winning novel “Scot Free” (which I’ve read, and is indeed hilarious).

The final panel of the convention featured all the Guests of Honour, and was one where I didn’t have to do any prep – because Matt Coyle – who’ll be Toastmaster when LCC is held in San Diego in 2020 – was moderating. It was a delight!

Overall – it most certainly is an honour to be Toastmaster, and there are, of course, responsibilities that go along with the title. Now that LCC 2019 is in the books, I’m able to look back and remember all the good times last week…and hope that Linda and Colleen forgive me for persuading them that “they could do it”! Well, they did, and they did a great job of it. 

L to R: Matt Coyle (Toastmaster 2020), Cathy Ace, CJ Box (US Guest of Honour), Maureen Jennings (Canadian Guest of Honour), William Deverell (Local Legend), Don and Jenn Longmuir (of Scene of the Crime Books, Fan Guests of Honour)

One final point - I know you might have seen it on Monday, courtesy of Susan, but I'm also including the photo we managed to get with a LOT of Minds in it! It's more than ironic that we never managed to get Danny into a group photo when he was actually blogging with us, and that we have managed to snag him now he's an Alumnus!  

L to R: Susan Shea, Terry Shames, Jim Ziskin, Cathy Ace, Brenda Chapman, Catriona McPherson, Danny Gardener

So here's me, saying thanks to everyone who came to LCC 2019, thanks to the hard-working, long-suffering Linda and Colleen for choosing me to be Toastmaster, and a BIG thank you to my husband...he's never been to one of these conventions before and was a bit overwhelmed by how many people were there, and how lovely they all were. Oh, and he took the photo of me at the start of this blog post, which I actually like (I never like photos of myself!). Cheers, folks!

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You've got to pick a pocket or two... by Cathy Ace

CRAFT: Which writing advice tropes do you follow, and which do you ignore in your books and short stories?

“A literary trope is the use of figurative language, via word, phrase or an image, for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech. The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works.” Wikipedia

 

These days the word “trope” is often used to mean “cliché”, so I’ll take it in that form for the purposes of today’s post, which is therefore going to be all about this: it’s important to know what the clichés of your sub-genre are, so you can use them, play with them, or avoid them. Rather than talk about lots of them (and there are a good number, whatever your sub-genre) I’m going to pick on one, and talk about that in depth. It’s close to my heart, having been one of the pivotal factors when I was writing THE WRONG BOY, my most recent novel.

Having become “known” for writing a traditional whodunit series and a cozy PI series, it was a bit of a risk to write a psychological suspense standalone. I know this. So why on earth did I do it, instead of just writing another Cait Morgan Mystery, or another WISE Enquiries Agency Mystery? In all honesty, because I HAD to do it. The story had been squirming around inside my head for some time, but I had to fulfill contracts before I could focus on it…then I did.

If you’ve ever read (or even heard of) Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, etc. etc. you’ll know that the concept of “the unreliable narrator” is all the rage!  I've loved that premise since I first read THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, so decided to read across the sub-genre of psychological suspense for about nine months, and found myself an entire football-stadium full of these liars…but have to admit I got a bit fed up with them all, having seen too much drug-taking, alcohol consumption, somehow-induced amnesia, pure willfulness, and some truly bizarre physical and mental illnesses being employed to make the unreliability “play” better. 

Hallie Ephron's favorite book by Agatha Christie!

You see, for me as a reader, I began to open books expecting unreliability, and then the trope loses its edge. 

So – how did I plan to deal with it? Use it? Ignore it? Well, my approach was to write THE WRONG BOY from five distinct viewpoints – each one being “unreliable” in their own way, because each person possessed different knowledge about the facts, and none could see the whole picture not only of what was going on around them, but also of themselves.

I also enjoyed playing with the other key trope in this area I knew readers would expect – twists, turns and reversals. That was great fun! 

Oh, and one other thing, I called it The Wrong BOY, despite the fact the three core characters are female…because…well, you know, there are a LOT of books with girl, woman, wife, sister, daughter, mother etc. etc. in the title, and that was another trope I didn’t want to use – so I played against that one from the start, with the titular “Boy” only being shown to the reader through the eyes of other characters until the end of the book. 

Maybe you'll consider reading my work? You can find out more about me, and it, here:  http://www.cathyace.com/

Inspiring people... by Cathy Ace

With "half" of Annie Parker!

LIFE: Do family and friends and their lives become fodder for your stories and, if so, do they ever recognize themselves and complain?

I suppose the most honest answer to this question is that every single person I have ever known or met – even fleetingly – has, in some way, become food to nourish my writing. I write about people, and people are my fascination in life. I cannot help but observe, filter, and eventually use everything I see and experience. 

I base some main, and most subsidiary characters, on a synthesis of several people I know in real life. Those whose physical characteristics stick with me and get used might be less well-known to me, but those whose psyches I dredge, and elaborate upon, tend to be closer. They don’t usually recognize themselves a) because I have physically “disguised” them, and b) because few of us are sufficiently self-aware to see ourselves as others do. If they do recognize themselves, or if I tell them about how they have become part of one of my characters they have - every one of them...so far - been delighted.

1981: One of these flatmates inspired "part of" Carol Hill in the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries

So, yes, people I know do, in and of themselves, inspire my characters. What about their life stories? To a certain extent, yes. But I have often found that truth is far stranger than any fiction that would prove acceptable to readers, so I quite often have to “tone it down” or leave out parts of lives, because readers just wouldn’t “buy it”. For example, I have a friend who is a total “disaster magnet”. Maybe you know someone like that too? Someone whose entire life has been beset by truly dreadful things – most of which have been beyond their control. People DO get struck by lightning more than once in their life. For me the fascination is why they ended up in circumstances where that was even a possibility…and by that thread often hangs a story about poor or at least questionable choices…

Another thing I have done is to use some real names of people, with their blessing...though sometimes with a funny outcome. If you've read THE CORPSE WITH THE PLATINUM HAIR you'll have met Arthur Sauber and his wife Joan. Here I am with the real Arthur and Joan Sauber; they thought it was hilarious that the character bearing Arthur's name was the finance controller for a Vegas casino, as neither of them has ever placed a bet in their lives!

With Joan & Arthur Sauber in 2008

I was inspired by a few real people, and a real place, when I wrote THE WRONG BOY...but I cannot tell you about the people. At. All. So here's the real place - Rhossili in Gower, near Swansea. This is the original of the photo used on the cover of the book.

Photo by Emma Mugford

Please consider reading my books? You can find out more about me and my work here: http://www.cathyace.com/

Time, please! (And a VERY SPECIAL OFFER!) by Cathy Ace

BUSINESS: How best do you manage your time and resources? What tools are helping you manage life while you complete your next work? Websites? Apps? Tricks of the trade?

My only real resources are my time, and my money. I probably give more thought to how I spend my money than my time, because my money is a limited resource, whereas I think of my time as something I can keep giving...

Let's start with promotional costs. I have to put time into promoting myself, rather than money, whenever possible; blog posts, guest blogs, interviews, podcasts...all are ways I can try to bring news about my work to potential readers at no cost - except time - to me. My use of social media is limited to Twitter and Facebook; I work on both every day, reading, Retweeting or Sharing, commenting and so forth, as well as creating my own posts. I post to my Cathy Ace – Author FB page probably four or five times a week, but interact on my Cathy Ace Facebook page several times each day, including weekends. If anything, this tends to INCREASE when I am writing or editing because – let’s be honest – that’s when I'm looking for displacement activities, and can only wash the kitchen floor so often!

However, sometimes I just have to put my hand in my pocket and try something new. For example, RIGHT NOW (starting today, February 6th, but only for a few days) I am offering my latest book, the psychological suspense novel The Wrong Boy, for just $2.99 (local currency) in the USA, Canada & Australia, £2.99 in the UK and ₹195.00 in India. (Buy links are below, of course!)

Click here for KINDLE link

Click here for NOOK link  

Click here for KOBO link  

Why? I decided to buy into a BookBub deal (BookBub is a daily email I get as a reader which tells me about cut-price offers on e-books. I don't feel "guilty" about taking advantage of the low prices because I know the author/publisher has made the decision to offer them at a low price for a short time, with the explicit aim of getting the books to be read by as wide an audience as possible.) Today an email will go to about 750,000 people around the world telling them my book is available at just $2.99 etc. Since I've had to drop the price for the Kindle, Kobo and Nook books in any case, it makes sense to me to now tell as many people as possible about the offer...you included! It will never be available at a lower price. Honestly. Try it?

Sales pitch over!

 

The next "Biggie”? My website. When I began this writing journey I had a rudimentary website that I’d set up using a free template on (I think!) Wordpress. It did its job for a while, but as soon as I gave up work to write full time I knew I needed something that would actually work on my behalf. I found a local website designer who set up something just for me at a low-ish cost, and he updated it for me on an ongoing basis as I added books, a new series of books, questions for book clubs etc. I was able to update my own events, but that was about it. He decided to not do this sort of work any longer at about the time I knew I needed a different solution – a website I could be more hands-on with managing myself, without having to pay someone to update it for me each time I needed that done...balancing time and money.

So, what to do? Well, I did what being in this business has taught me to do – I asked people whose websites I admired how they handled theirs, and was delighted when Terry Shames (yes, our own Terry) came back to me and told me her son had put together her new website, which I liked very much. I was delighted with what said son-of-fellow-blogger did for me, and now I have a website I can update and change for myself…which looks exactly as I wanted it to – which I love! Thanks Geoff Shames. It required an investment which (to me) was a lot of money but it’s worth it, because now I am in control...more time, but less outgoings over time. 

Click through here to reach my website

Now that I can update it myself I do so often – because I think a website needs to be up to date to be effective. A good deal of what I do online (Twitter, Facebook) is with the aim of driving traffic to my website to “find out more about…” whatever it might be, so it’s important that the website is able to cope, becoming the go-to place for much of what I do online. 

When it comes to time management, I am hopeless. There, I have admitted it. I ABSOLUTELY HATE ROUTINE (loud enough?) which means I cannot work to a schedule because I feel stifled after a few days and begin to lose the will to live. So I do what I do when I feel I need to do it. I tend to give priority in the day to “business” and leave writing/editing until later…right through to 2am (my most productive writing hours are usually 9pm-2am) which works for me. 

 

So, I suppose you could say I do have a routine, but I don’t dare acknowledge it as such, or I would fight against it. Yes, my rebellious streak shows itself even now.

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