Writing Undeniable Fiction, By Josh Stallings

 

Undeniable, is that even possible? 

Today is the fifth week in the month so we decided it would be blogger’s choice. I’ve decided to muse or mumble on what’s rattling around in my brain. 

As a reader I’m always looking for a book that surprises me both in content and form. It has been said there are only a certain number of stories, and Shakespeare already told them all. In a reductive sense that’s true. But here’s another truth, every human is distinctly different if you are willing to look closely at them. How would you have written Romeo and Juliet? Maybe she was raised in the 1960’s by feminist parents. Same elevator pitch but a very different play.  

No two writers have lived the exact same lives. When we write honestly from our heart and soul no two writers have the same voices. How we lived our lives effects the lens we see a story through. I was raised poor, by well educated politically aware activists. I can’t help seeing the humanity in all characters, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

How do we get to authentic writing? My experience has been that we all have wonderfully unique voices, AND we all have a very similar committee of critics in our heads. So if we want to write unique stories we need to kill the internal critics. You know, the ones that say, “That idea will never sell.” Or, “Great idea, but are you really the one to write it?” Or, a personal greatest hit from my early days, “You can’t even spell, why do you think you could write a book?”

Some of this is imposter syndrome. Ask most writers and you’ll find out they suffer or suffered from this in one form or another. For me I discovered that none of this rears its ugly head when I’m actually typing. I am filled with self doubt when thinking about a new book, not when writing it. I pay those intellectual bullies in my head little to no attention. It seems to help quiet them.

How do I find books that surprise me? 

I don’t limit the kinds of books I read. I follow my intuition from book to book. My siblings or other readers suggest books. What I’m working on effects what I read. The last MS I wrote was about LA, in it is a gang leader, part of writing him was discovering what books he would read. Through this I discovered Paco Ignacio Taibo II and his brilliant fresh take on the detective novel. I’ve now read every book of his that has been translated into english.

Part of my newest work in progress takes place in Ecuador and that introduced me to Poso Wells by Gabriela Alemán. An absolutely original voice, and must read for fans of weird crime fiction. I also discovered City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende, a fantastic Amazonian adventure tale where the old religions are real.  

How do I apply this desire to surprise myself to my writing?

By any means necessary.

How does any means necessary look? 

I was 10,000 words into my current work in progress, had it mapped out. Knew where it was headed, and then… I had a fresh idea. An idea that scared me and would take the novel into an uncharted direction. So I started reimagining, restructuring, and rewriting. Now at 19,000 words I’m excited to keep going. It is my voice, my kinda writing but not like anything I’ve written before. There are one million reasons to not write this book. I don’t care. I am willing to keep going purely on faith. I have a fragile belief that this is the book I should be writing. Fragile, i.e., it can be broken easily, must be handled with care.

Books all start with me in a place of fear. And I must keep slogging through — paying the fear no attention — until at some point the book takes on a life of its own. That is when it becomes undeniable. When it becomes a fully formed world, then it is up to me to shepherd it home.  

How do you write a book that sells? 

That's what we all wanna know. What’s the trick, where’s the secret? Wendy, a friend I walk dogs with reminded me, “Write the book you want to read and you at least know one person will like it.” That’s the truth. 

There are no sure paths to writing a NY Times best seller. You can write a book that's good, and maybe with editing and help you can make it damn good, but will it sell? That my friends is a roll of the dice.

I believe in the two universal forces, chaos and serendipity. Hard work and talent ups your odds of serendipity striking your book. But there are no guarantees. I also believe writing a good book needs to be its own reward. What denotes a good book is absolutely personal. 

My goals have become disconnected from sales. That’s not to say I wouldn’t love big sales numbers, it’s just not my goal. I want to write a book that thrills me to think about. Build a world that is fresh and doesn’t feel like drudgery to play in. And to believe that I have something to say worth saying. As do all of you reading this.

If there is a trick, this might be it:

Have the courage to speak your truth. Speak it well. Surprise yourself.  

The Question That Can Not Be Named

What interview question do you wish someone would ask you but never has? What’s the answer?

by Paul D. Marks

How does it feel to win an Edgar Award? No one’s ever asked because I’ve never won or been nominated for an Edgar, but I wish I was in that position to be asked that question.

But seriously I’ve done a lot of interviews both as the interviewer and the interviewee, I’ve moderated panels and had to come up with questions, so I’ve asked and answered a lot of questions. The truth is I wish someone would ask me a question that would surprise me. One I’ve never heard before and never even thought of. So I don’t know what that question is, cause I haven’t thought of it yet, but I’ll be excited and happy to answer it when it happens.

But since that doesn’t really address the blog question here, I’ll say one question that I would like to be asked: what other things besides books have inspired your writing? I probably have been asked that question in some form, but it’s one I don’t think I’ve ever fully answered. 

I think to really answer the question would probably take at least 1,000 pages so I’ll try to be brief:

1) The art of Edward Hopper. I like the loneliness and alienation depicted in his pictures. Probably the same reason I like noir films from the 30s and 40s. 

2) The music of the sixties, the Beatles in particular. Although I love lots of different kinds of music. The music of the sixties probably influences me the most. It was a time of a lot of creativity and change in the music world. I remember the excitement of waiting for a new album to be released and rushing out to buy it or calling in to radio stations and asking them to play a certain song. Everything was fresh and new and changing all the time. 

Peace, Love, and Crime anthology edited by Sandra Murphy
 and including my story "Can't Find My Way Home"

3) The films of the 30s and 40s. Film Noir in particular. See #1 above. 

4) My life experiences. I think my life experiences have drawn me towards writing about people who are outsiders, noir anti-heroes. Not because I grew up on any mean streets, but because I grew up in an abusive environment and I guess I want to see justice. And if not justice then at least revenge. That’s one of the reasons I love the Count of Monte Cristo. Revenge at it’s best.

So that’s short version of my answer. Now ask me about that Edgar!

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

I just sold my short story "A.K.A. Ross Landy" to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Stay tuned for more.

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Writers to Read

Please recommend an author who may not be widely known to readers and tell us about them and their book(s). In addition, what books are on your bedside table for July and why did you select them for summer reading?

by Paul D. Marks

I’m not sure these authors are “widely unknown” to readers, but I also don’t think they’re widely known, at least in the larger realm. And I’ll stick with crime writers here, with one exception at the end.

Carol O’Connell:

On the Penguin Random House page it calls Carol O’Connell a NY Times best-selling author, but whenever I mention her to anyone almost to a person they haven’t heard of her. She does stand-alones but is best-known for her tough-as- nails NYPD detective Kathy Mallory. In the first Mallory book, Mallory’s Oracle (1994), NYPD detective Kathy Mallory is a hard-as-nails cop and not just because of her bright red nail polish. As the first in the series, Mallory’s Oracle is probably the best place to start. Even Mallory’s creator, O’Connell, describes Mallory as a “sociopath”. I’ve talked with people about Mallory and recommended the Mallory books to several people over the years. And it seems people either love or hate her. I’m in the former category. I love her no-nonsense, doesn’t suffer BS approach to her job. Nothing, including the law, will stand in her way, at least in this fictional world. Not that I’d necessarily like to be friends with her if she suddenly came alive and jumped off the page. I think the Mallory books would be good for someone who likes solid crime stories, strong female characters and doesn’t mind one who’s a sociopath…

According to Wikipedia, O’Connell started as an artist, but when she couldn’t make it there she started writing mysteries. The art world’s loss is our gain.


Kem Nunn:

Photo by Etonnants Voyageurs - Philippe HUET, Kem NUNN, Leonardo PADURA, Justo VASCO : Regards noirs at 06:20, cropped, brightened, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Nunn is another successful writer that a lot of people haven’t heard of, though when I mention him to others there is more recognition than with O’Connell. These days he’s arguably better known as the co-creator of the TV series John from Cincinnati, as well as a writer on Sons of Anarchy and Deadwood. But he’s also the author of, I believe, six novels. Tapping the Source (1984) is his first and is something special. If it’s not the novel that invented the “surf noir” genre it’s certainly an early and foundational entry. This is not the Beach Boys’ version of sun, sand, surf and surfer girls, but a much darker vision of life on SoCal’s storied beaches. Ike Tucker, a naive and innocent young man from Bakersfield, treks to Huntington Beach (a.k.a. ‘Surf City’) to find his missing and possibly dead sister. There he gets hooked up with bikers, sex and drugs. No Gidgets or Moondoggie’s here. And Ike will be lucky if he gets out alive. Tapping is good for anyone who loves surf, sun and murder. I liked this book so much that I wanted to option the film rights for it. I had them checked out, but they had already been optioned/bought. That had to be at least 25 years ago, probably more, a lot more. But to this day there is still no movie version of this story. It is, however, said that Point Break, with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves was, uh, inspired by Tapping the Source. The story is different and imho not nearly as good.

Several decades ago a friend of mine in the WGAw turned me onto Nunn and some other authors, telling me how terrific they were. Thank you, Elliot. Tapping the Source is Nunn’s first novel and with it he pretty much invented his own genre: surf noir. I guess I’m not the only one who likes it since it was a finalist for the National Book Award.


David Goodis:

Goodis, who I’ve probably mentioned before, has been called the “poet of the losers” by Geoffrey O’Brien and his stories of people on the skids certainly bear that out. I came to Goodis through the movies, which is how I’ve come to several writers and/or novels. I’m a fan of the Bogie-Bacall movie Dark Passage, so after having seen it a couple of times I decided to check out the David Goodis novel it was based on. I liked it enough that I began to read pretty much anything of Goodis I could get my hands on, but this was before he came into vogue again so mostly I had to pick up very scarred paperbacks (many, though not all of his books were only published in paperback), and I devoured his whole oeuvre. And, though I liked pretty much everything to one degree or another, Down There (1956) (a.k.a. Shoot the Piano Player, after the Truffaut movie based on it) really stood out for me. It’s the story of a World War II vet, a former member the elite Merrill’s Marauders who, for a variety of reasons, is down on his luck—way down. Francois Truffaut made the book into a movie called Shoot the Piano Player which, to be honest, I don’t like very much, but that’s why the title of the book was changed from Down There and is probably better known today as Shoot the Piano Player. I think it would be good for fans of classic noir, old movie buffs, and others.

When it comes to noir, David Goodis is the man. His stories deal with failed lives and people who are definitely on the skids. They’re often people who weren’t always in this position though and the interesting part is seeing how they deal with their downfall—not always so well. Goodis inspires me so much that I wrote a story that might be considered an homage to him. Born Under a Bad Sign was originally published in Dave Zeltserman’s Hard Luck Stories magazine, but is now available in LA Late @ Night, a collection of some of my previously published stories.

Dan Fante:

Dan Fante photo by Camila Emar

As a bonus, I’ll add Dan Fante, yes Dan, not John. Dan is John ‘Ask the Dust’ Fante’s son (And Ask the Dust is one of my favorite novels in any genre.) Dan’s books are what I would call an acquired taste. They can be rough and gross in a lot of ways. But I turned my mom onto him, thinking she probably wouldn’t like his work. So imagine my surprise when she did. You might want to start with Mooch (2001) and Chump Change (1998).

Oh, and another lesser-known writer you might want to check out is some dude called Paul D. Marks, who just had a new book come out in June that’s getting pretty good reviews:

"I hate saying a book transcends the genre and I honestly usually don't like books that do. This one however does and might win some awards because of it."
                                                                          —Jochem Vandersteen, Sons of Spade
                           

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

Please join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.d.marks and check out my website  www.PaulDMarks.com

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My lockdown life

"Describe your lockdown life. Has it had any unexpected sweet spots in it? And what are you most looking forward to doing again afterwards?”

by Dietrich

Well, for a writer who sits at a desk at home and spends a lot of time in a make-believe world, not that much has changed on that note. Probably the greatest challenge these days is staying positive and keeping focused. 

Of course, outside of my little writing world, so much is different right now: no hugs, no handshakes, no contact. And praying for the health and safety of all those around us. Wearing a mask and keeping a safe distance is the order of the day. While many businesses are closed, the ones that aren’t generally require customers to stand in line on marked spots several feet from the next spot, all to get into a place that only allows a handful of people at a time.

What am I most looking forward to doing after lockdown? Well, I’m looking forward to hugs and handshakes, and no more masks and line-ups. Then I’d like to pick up on some travel plans that I was getting my head around before ‘lockdown.’ First off, I’d like to get in a fall trip down the coast to California, something that’s become an annual thing for my wife and me. I’m also looking forward to walking into some of my favorite indie book stores and sticking my nose into some new arrivals. And I’m sure looking forward to going on some very long walks. 

I had to pull the plug on a Noir at the Bar event here in Vancouver earlier this month. We had a great line-up set and everything was in place, and it was the first time that there hasn’t been a spring noir event in Vancouver in seven years. I do have a fall event in the works, and I’m certainly looking forward to that.

I’m also thinking of new ways to promote my upcoming book Cradle of the Deep, which comes out at the beginning of November. At this point I don’t know how much will be blog tour versus actual tour. I love taking part in book readings and events, so I’ve got my fingers crossed. If it isn’t possible, then I’ll have to find some different ways to promote it via social media, blogs, podcasts and through my website. 

Have there been some sweet spots? Well, I have found more time for reading (except for the news), and I’ve been listening to more Audiobooks. I’ve also caught up on a few series and some films I’ve wanted to watch.

So, while I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been able to keep writing through these times, it sure will be nice for all of us when times take a turn and this pandemic and lockdown are behind us.

The Underground Railroad

Review a black American author’s work that you think a white person would love.

by Dietrich

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a gripping tale of escape from slavery in the deep south. It’s set before the civil war and looks at the network of black and white activists who helped slaves escape northward.

The story follows young Cora as she escapes along with other slaves from a Georgia cotton plantation, then tries to elude slave-catchers, patrollers, lynch mobs and informers. The almost-impossible pursuit takes readers from Georgia, through South and North Carolina, to Tennessee and Indiana. Cora runs for her life, finding a little help along the way, escaping through a series of rail tunnels, hiding for days in the dark under trapdoors, or in the attics of safe houses and barns, among the rats and bugs, with little water or anything to eat. Although it’s a book of fiction, one realizes the mountain of injustice she escapes and encounters has been ripped right from the history books.

The story’s told in Colson Whitehead’s powerful, matter-of-fact narrative, one that conveys the horrors of slavery and the daily brutality of life on the plantation that she escapes from. Here’s a passage that I think conveys the flavor of Colson’s voice and style:

“The whites came to this land for a fresh start and to escape the tyranny of their masters, just as the Freeman had fled theirs. But the ideals they held up for themselves, they denied others. Cora had heard Michael recite the Declaration of Independence back on the Randall plantation many times, his voice drifting through the village like an angry phantom. She didn't understand the words, most of them at any rate, but created equal was not lost on her. The white men who wrote it didn't understand it either, if all men did not truly mean all men. Not if they snatched away what belonged to other people, whether it was something you could hold in your hand, like dirt, or something you could not, like freedom.”

In the telling, the author both shocks the reader with the savagery of those times, and he gives cause to think of the imprint that those times have left these many decades later.

A couple of other books worth noting here are Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. It was the first time out for Mosley’s low key black detective Easy Rawlins, a good place to start if you haven’t read any of the series. And another one to check out is Half-Blood Blues by Canadian author Esi Edugyan. It’s the story of a black jazz band who flee Berlin at the rise of the second world war. Many years later the surviving members of the group reunite for a reunion, looking back at those times.

And still, other great black American authors come to mind: Delia Owens, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker. And of course, there’s our very own Danny Gardner who wrote A Negro and an Ofay. If you haven’t read it, hurry up because Danny’s got a sequel coming out later this year; it’s called The Tales of Elliot Caprice: Ace Boon Coon.

Look who dropped in

What’s the most important thing a publisher can do for an author?

Well, look who I found! Our very own Rachel (RM) Greenaway and Robin Spano. I really miss having them here, so it’s a special treat to have them both make a guest appearance and answer this week’s question. 

Robin is the talent behind the Clare Vengel Undercover novels, and she’s currently working on her fourth novel, only she claims to be doing it extremely slowly.

And Rachel’s the author of the awesome B.C. Blues crime series. The fourth one is Flights and Falls, which was just released on March 16th. Congratulations, Rachel.

Thanks, Dietrich, and thanks for inviting me back to Criminal Minds! I've missed the challenge. This week's question was more troublesome than I expected, and my answer is also a confession.

But here goes:  

What is the most important thing a publisher can do for (this) writer?

A fat advance? No. I'd rather get one I can pay out fast.

Send me on world tours? Would be nice, but I've heard those days are over. So I count myself lucky that I got sent to the NY BEA (was fab!). Any further travels are likely on my own dime. 

Provide more honest feedback? No. That's great on the upswing, but otherwise ignorance is just fine with me.

Cooperate on cover art and other visuals? Very important, but not the most ...

So what is my answer? It finally pinged this morning: My publisher should LOVE MY PUBLISHED BOOKS.

What kind of a stupid answer is that? In my case not so much, because I have this condition -- and I'm sure I'm not alone -- unofficially called finishtabookaphobia.

Strange to fear my own finished books, because the WIP is all joy and light. From conception to ISBN I love that thing to death. I edit it a billion times. I lie awake considering its width and breadth, its cadence and credibility, what pitfall to place before my hero next, et cetera.

But as soon as it's done and out of my control, this cold feeling clamps over my heart. Doubt. Even dread. It's like the child I've nurtured has become a slightly menacing stranger. 

I know that's wrong, and a bad attitude, something to do with fear of failure, and it's something I need to fix. But in the meantime, until I get some psychological help, I need my partner in creativity, my publisher, to take custody of that freshly published work and give it the unconditional love it needs to hit the market.

So in a nutshell that's my answer: Cherish and promote is the most important thing a publisher can do for its authors, at least when the author is not so great at doing it on their own. — R.M.

And here’s Robin:

Q – What is the most important thing a publisher can do for an author?

A – Help the author write a better book.

Promotional help is great too, but books sell through word of mouth. If a great book gets read by three initial readers, and two of those readers eagerly thrust the book into the hands of three more people, eventually that book will become a bestseller. If an okay book is blasted onto prime position on airport shelves and finds a thousand initial readers, but only one out of ten readers is excited enough to tell a few friends, that book's sales will fizzle and eventually die.

My goal for each book I write is simple: to take the idea I have, the character and themes and premise that are milling around in my head, and turn all that into a story that readers are excited to read.

Making that happen is not quite so simple. By the time I'm finished working those characters and themes and premise through their first draft, multiple revisions, and final edits, I'm so close to the story that I can't possibly see the forest for the trees.

A good editor will clean up the messy parts, help tighten and polish the book on a sentence level, and  identify the loose ends the writer should tie up in the plot. A great editor will see what the author is trying to say and help them say it better, more clearly, more compellingly. They will help the author nail the big picture and fine tune the microtension to make sure the book will have emotional resonance for the reader.

Yes, it's the writer's job to write a great book—both in the plotting stage and in the revision. But a writer's career is a lifelong trajectory of learning. I don't know a single writer who doesn't push their limits and try to make each book better and different from the last. (If we were looking for a career where we could do the same thing over and over again for easy money, we would have become brain surgeons.) 

The best gift a publisher can give an author is an editor who is also a great writing teacher, who challenges the author to get better at her craft from one book to the next, who can take those ideas that are milling around in her head and turn it into a book that readers are excited to thrust into the hands of ten friends. — Robin 

— 

A big thanks to both R.M. Greenaway and Robin Spano for dropping in and answering this week's question.

And if you're attending Left Coast Crime you can catch all three of us on the Vancouver Noir panel, Friday morning at 9:00 AM in Regency A. Drop in and say hello. 

And you can also find R.M. online here, and Robin here. 

Always leave 'em laughing

What do you remember about the first time you read your crime fiction work in progress or finished novel/short story to an audience?

From Abir

The first time I read from my own work was t a month after my first novel, ‘A Rising Man’, had been published in the UK. I’d been invited to a summer party, entitled ‘What’s Your Poison’ at Heffers in Cambridge, England, a bookshop which is a bit of an institution in those parts.

I was extremely grateful for the invite but had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I was one of sixteen authors who’d be reading from their work that night. 

I planned on reading the first few pages from the novel. As RJ mentioned on Tuesday, it’s often the best place to start in order to introduce potential readers to your story, especially when you’re a debut author. I remember taking the train from London, reading the section aloud, possibly worrying the other passengers. I did a bit of editing, honing the passage I was going to read, cutting out a few sentences or extraneous words, just to maintain the pace of the narrative.

I arrived at the station with a good thirty minutes to spare for what Google Maps told me was a fifteen-minute walk to the bookshop. I set off and promptly got lost, my phone making me turn left instead of right. After walking ten minutes in completely the wrong direction, my keen sense of direction told me that something was wrong. I turned my phone upside down and found I was now almost half an hour away with twenty minutes left before the start. So I decided to run. I should point out that this was the end of July, the height of the English summer, and I finally turned up just as things were about to kick off, a jabbering, sweaty mess.

It transpired that I was thirteenth on the bill. Which seemed apt. We were told that we had five minutes in which to introduce ourselves and our books and to give our readings. All seemed fine, but as the event unfolded and I awaited my turn, I noticed that almost all the authors were reading from the openings of their novels and many were running over their allotted five minute slots. It was a very warm evening and the attention of the audience seemed to be wavering after the first half dozen readings. Maybe it was the impact of all the dead bodies coming in quick succession. After all, this was an evening of crime fiction and you’ll be amazed by how many gruesome murders can take place in the first few pages of a dozen crime novels. Then an author came on who did something a bit different. She opened with a joke and then chose a passage, not from the start, but from midway through her novel which contained a few laughs. The audience hung on her every word and she went off to what seemed like a heartier applause than some others. 

That taught me something. You see, humour works. Humour entertains, even when it’s spelled wrongly by North Americans and is missing the ‘u’! I decided then to change my approach. I spent the next ten minutes frantically searching for a light-hearted passage in my novel that didn’t give away the plot, finding an appropriate section minutes before it was my turn to speak.

I went up, introduced myself while standing underneath a sign for second hand books, and read out my passage – rather badly as it happens. But it got some laughs, and it got me remembered, and afterwards an established author came up and gave me the ‘you done good, kid,’ speech.

I was thrilled.

He said, she said.

This week we’re talking about dialogue tags, hints, tips and gripes.

by Dietrich

Dialogue Tags

There’s been a lot written about whether dialogue tags should ever be more than ‘he said’ or ‘she said’. 

“While to write adverbs is human, to write ‘he said, she said’ is divine.” 

— Stephen King

“The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.” 

— Elmore Leonard

Okay, some writers think it’s a sin to use more than said, and I don’t usually use more than that. And sometimes a dialogue tag isn’t needed if it’s obvious who’s speaking. 

I go for economy of words to give the text a flow, so ‘said’ usually does the trick for me. Maybe it just comes down to an individual writer’s style. I wouldn’t put a book down just because a writer used babbled, bawled, begged, bellowed, mused, mumbled, moaned, or muttered after a character’s words.

Hints and tips

The best hint or tip or words of advice I can come up with is don’t take too much of it as gospel. If a bit of advice rings true, take it, or whatever part that makes sense, and make it your own. 

Here are a few tips and pearls that work for me. 

“Read, read, read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.”  

— William Faulkner

“Know you’re writing something good even if nobody else does.”

— Dennis Lehane

“Never tell your reader what your story is about. Reading is a participatory sport. People do it because they are intelligent and enjoy figuring things out for themselves.” ― George V. Higgins

“Present the world as it is, rather than the way the reader wants it to be. I don’t care about twists or manufactured surprises.” — George Pelecanos

“My advice is, ‘Live every day as if your rent is due tomorrow.’”

— Carl Hiaasen

“When you're not concerned with succeeding, you can work with complete freedom.” — Larry David

“Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work.” – Ezra Pound

Gripes

I’ve been guilty of it, but really, nobody wants to hear it. Maybe griping is like a release valve to let off some steam, but too much of it and it might cloud your day. So, just don’t do it, and don’t hang around it. It’s better to go look for something that doesn’t tick you off. Sorry if that sounds like another tip.