Climbing the Unclimbable by Josh Stallings

 This week’s question was about the publishing business, how it’s changed since your first release, where did we see it would be in the next ten years. Luckily writers smarter than me have spoken eloquently to this earlier in the week. 

I’m going to share with you how the publishing industry effects my work and what I’ve done to survive and maybe even thrive. 

New Writer: How do you write a novel?

Me: I don’t know. I can’t. It is an impossible task.

New Writer: No. I meant what software do you use?

Me: Started with MS Word. Moved to Nisus, now I use Scrivener. None have made it any more possible to write a novel. Fact is the only software necessary is between your ears and still it is an impossible task.

(New Writer walks away shaking his head at my mad gibberish.) 

I have five published novels, been up for some awards, gotten some wonderful reviews. And none of that makes the task any easier. Every novel is a new journey with all new pitfalls and discoveries. 

Right now my sixth novel is still a MS (manuscript) out on submission - meaning my agent is shopping it to editors at publishing houses. The upside, an absolute dream list of editors asked to read it. Editors who have worked with some of my favorite writers. Downside: at this moment in publishing history a few factors like a world wide pandemic, fears of inflation / recession, employees reassessing career goals and leaving, have all built up to leave things a bit higgledy piggledy, in an end of days kinda way. One of the results is, it’s taking longer than usual for editors to get to reading new books. No fault of theirs. These are tough days, and nights for all.

   

This is the best book I have written, bigger and stronger in many ways. Deep in some hidden place I had hoped we’d send it out and a few weeks later I’d be popping the Martinelli's sparkling cider to celebrate a sale. 

I try to not take the silence personally. But it effects me personally. What I need to be doing is working on my next book. It was meant to be a sequel to the one we haven’t heard back about, so that’s out. I need a new idea. Yet every idea is met by self doubt screaming “you aren’t good enough to write that book.” It takes massive hubris to stare at a blank page and say, “Oh yeah I can build a world here and people it with compelling characters. No problemo.” And while I wait to hear back I find myself running short on hubris.

Two sides of the same mad man.

And then I’m talking to my friend Chantelle, she acquired and edited my last book, Tricky. I float two or three ideas past her. I have a basic idea that I keep trying to plug into books that I think will sell better. “Instead of LA, it is LA but post apocalyptic LA vegans vs carnivores… Or, it’s about my father but instead of an artist in the rainforest, he’s a talking Raccoon…. Or, it’s all those things and it takes place in France…”

Chantelle says nothing but I can hear these pitches sinking over the phone. I don’t mind, none were good enough to fight for. After I’m done making a fool of myself, she said something like, “The best books come from the author’s original point of inspiration. Maybe you should go back to your original idea. Maybe write that. Write the thing you wanted to write.” 

Damned if Chantelle wasn’t right. 

I sat down the next day and the story flowed out. I have stridently said I don’t work from an outline. I will have to amend that to I don’t work from an outline, unless I do. This thing came flying out, beginning middle and end. Lots to flesh out as I write it, but I can see the structure clearly. And for once I know what the book is about. Good news is my agent and a few of my most trusted confidants agree I’m onto something good.

Today I’ll let inspiration and intuition guide my hand. There is no guarantee of tomorrow so I must type as if these are my last words. Write as fiercely honest as I am capable. And tell my inner critic to fuck the hell off. 

 

I’m three chapters in now. The book is flowing. I feel electric. And I know I am heading for that dreadful moment where I realize I’m not up to writing the book I see in my head. The moment where I see my complete failure crashing down around me. Been there before. Every book has that moment inherent in the journey. I just push through it.

Last night I was reading John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley In Search of America. In a passage where he’s studying a map getting ready for this epic journey he realizes he’s taken on too much, it will be too long, too difficult…

“How in hell I’d got myself mixed up in a project that couldn’t be carried out. It was like starting to write a novel. When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. This happens every time. Then gradually I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all I can permit myself to contemplate and I eliminate the possibility of ever finishing.”

If Steinbeck could eliminate the possibility of ever finishing and still keep typing, then so can I. So can you. The wall only beats us if we stop running our forehead into it.

The future of publishing is yet to be written. But I know what I’ll be doing… typing out my truth best I can. Climbing unclimbable mountains one word at a time.  

***

Photos (my face) by Barry Samson, (type Writer) by Nino Gabaldon

Will We Be Making Lanyards? By Josh Stallings

 Q: You’re organizing a writers retreat with some fellow authors. Friends, perhaps? Describe the plan, the setting, the food, the drinks, and the results. And, of course, who gets murdered…

One of my favorite writing experiences was in the creation of All The Wild Children, a Noir Memoir. It was a writing process for me like none I’d had before or since. 

It started in a two hour long summer camp class I taught on killing the inner critic and freeing the creative self. It involved a technique called word vomit, and learning to write faster than you can think. 

Me and three women who participated in the class decided we wanted to keep meeting every week. They were from vastly different disciplines, a professor of Spanish literature, a feminist art film maker, and a professional puppeteer. They were all brilliant.

Sundays we’d meet at one of our homes and do automatic writing / word vomit for 2 to 5 minutes, then find a title in that sea of nonsense. Place that title at the top of a page and for the next 20 to 25 minutes we’d write without stopping or revising. Writing so fast that it felt like running down a hill, gravity threatening to topple you at any moment. Then, pens up, we’d snack or sip and read our work to each other. It was amazing that when writing at speed we each had such clear and individual voices. 

I wound up writing thematic memoir pieces. One was called DRUGS, another was called Baby Boy Crazy. The title informed what poured out. As a young man my mother gave me her copy of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg Ohio. I love it, it was linked short stories telling the tale of a town, an American Midwestern Under Milkwood if you will. I started to see I could write an entire memoir of linked essays, each written in a twenty minute time span. 

Spoiler alert: All the Wild Children was up for an Anthony Award. It convinced my agent to sign me. The micro press that published it went out of business. It is out of print and many years later we still haven’t found it a home. BUT, I’m so damn glad I wrote it.

Honesty is my brand. So let me fess up, I first wrote this piece eyebrow arched as a cynical joke where I invited characters from my books to spend the weekend. Erika read it, and called it a “a very clever piece of marketing” not a compliment. She then asked me if I had a real answer to the question. After hemming and hawing I started thinking about what a helpful writers retreat would look like to me.

I love conventions, hanging out with my writing and reading family. I come away tank full and feeling alive to the work we do. The down side is, I spend my time talking and thinking about what I already wrote, or pitching what I intend to write. Past tense, future tense, no present. I want something with the connection to fellow travelers, but with less time in a bar, zero focus on the business end, and lots of creation going on.

An idea is forming…

Location: for this retreat it will be Cedar Dell Word Farm, Home of Hand Curated Sentences Since 2016, better known as our home in Idyllwild. Spring would be best, the adventurous could camp on one of the three decks. Food would be home made soups and chili and bread. Meals that involve serving from large communal bowls. I’d keep cool water and ice tea on tap. BYOB for the night time.

Invitees: a mix of writers, artists, musicians - hell anyone with a creative bent. Price of admission would be that each participant had to share one golden tool they use to access their creativity. And each would be required on Sunday night to share a piece, a poem, a story, a song.Doesn’t matter the form, only that it can’t have existed Thursday when they drove up the mountain. 

The schedule: wake early, the sun and our dogs insist on that. Then massive amounts of rich coffee, I insist on that, or tea or juice - dealer's choice. Then a hearty breakfast, cause we gonna be working. 

Next comes word vomit warm up, where we each find the title for our day. Then hike or sit by a creek or study the light play on the rock faces surrounding our valley. The point would be contemplation and revving the creative motor, get those tires smoking like a dragster before launch. 

Lunch, we eat and drink a lot a mile up. Then disperse and CREATE until dinner. The nights are for sharing our deepest creative secrets. And laughter. And maybe even lanyard making. In honor of Catriona and Erika there will be NO burning of marshmallows.

Then we drift off to sleep, wake and do it again. Sunday afternoon would be show and tell party time. We would sing and dance or howl and rumble until the stars fade and Orion slips away to hunt again another night.

Damn it. I’ve never been to a writing retreat, in fact I was kinda snarky about the whole idea. Now I really want to throw one.

“Wait” you say, “Who got murdered?” 

No one. But, I could murder the hell out of a plate of Erika’s turkey molé. 

Come up to Cedar Dell Word Farm, where creation is the plata of the realm.

The Biz in "Show Biz"

How much scrutiny do you or an attorney give a contract, and have you ever realized after you signed that you left something on the table?

by Paul D. Marks

My topic here will be a little broader. My focus will be writing for “show biz” as well as prose fiction.

When most people embark on this adventure of writing they have stars in their eyes. Maybe they think about the immortality that being an author will bring them. Maybe about financial reward. What they often don’t think about is that the word is Show Biz and Biz stands for business. So the short answer to this weeks’ question is a definite yes.

Just as you scrutinize your manuscript, again and again, to make sure everything makes sense and all the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed, you should scrutinize your contract. And, just like with your manuscript, you will probably miss something and wish you would have caught it before signing.

And just like the doctor who shouldn’t be his own patient, you probably shouldn’t be your own lawyer even if you have a law degree. It’s always best to have a pair of fresh, hard, cold eyes go over the contract.

Most contracts are filled with boilerplate and it’s often relatively easy to negotiate and change certain things to your favor. Most publishers, especially small and medium ones, are open to negotiation. And it’s all about compromise: “which hill do I want to die on”.

Clearly, you want to keep certain things for yourself. One of things for me is to retain the rights to the character. And I would recommend that to you too.

Another thing is, if you do business with certain publishers and/or periodicals over time they will have their contracts customized for you. In fact, I just received a contract today from a major magazine and on looking it over quickly, I see that they have certain things already lined out that are standard in my contract so we don’t have to renegotiate them every time.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t read the contract over to make sure everything is the way its supposed to be.

So my recommendation is to go over everything with a fine tooth comb, then go over it again.        

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

The Blues Don’t Care has been chosen by the terrific and well-respected crime magazine, Suspense, as The Best of 2020 Historical Fiction Novel. I’m grateful to the fans, staff and contributors of Suspense for this terrific honor, which came totally out of the blue. And, besides infusions of platelets, as you can imagine I needed an infusion of good news right now… 

And not only did Blues win a Best of 2020 Award from Suspense Magazine, but Coast to Coast: Noir, the third volume in our Coast to Coast crime stories series that I co-edit with Andrew McAleer, also won a Best of 2020 Award from Suspense Magazine in the Anthology category. So I’m thrilled about both of these awards:

And Blues Don’t Care was also on two other best of/favorites of 2020 lists:

DeathBecomesHer, Crime Fiction Lover: Top Five Books of 2020 

and

Aubrey Nye Hamilton, Happiness is a Warm Book:  Favorite Books of 2020

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What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Tell us about the first story/stories you ever wrote. First book, published or no.

by Paul D. Marks

I don’t really remember what the first story I wrote was. But when I started writing I was trying to write more mainstream or literary fiction. And just in the last few weeks I resurrected one of those ancient stories, rewrote it as crime fiction and sent it out into the world to hopefully be picked up somewhere. The theme is the same as the original story, as well as some of the elements, but I like it better as a murder mystery than as “serious” fiction. Especially because, as one of my first stories I was horrified at how badly written it was. But I liked the idea enough to keep it in the back of mind all these years and try again with the basic elements from it. I think it works better this time. Hope so anyway.

Breaking News: Speaking of stories, and before I get back to the current question, Coast to Coast: Noir from Sea to Shining Sea, volume 3 in the Coast to Coast series of crime fiction anthologies that Andy McAleer and I co-edit dropped last week. Twelve noir stories from twelve terrific authors, with stories set throughout the US from…coast to coast. The “chronology” of the book (if that’s the right word) goes from the West Coast to the East Coast, noir all the way. The authors are: Colleen Collins, Brendan DuBois, Alison Gaylin, Tom MacDonald, Andrew McAleer, Michael Mallory, Paul D. Marks, Dennis Palumbo, Stephen D. Rogers, John Shepphird, Jaden Terrell, Dave Zeltserman. See the post I did earlier this week at SleuthSayers for more on this collection: Hope you’ll want to check it out: 

Available at Amazon and Down & Out Books

And now we return you to our regular programming already in progress: Another thing I remember is that I began by writing poems and song lyrics. I wanted to be a rock star—who didn’t? But I was always writing something.

One of my early novels—maybe my first completed novel, that’s also hard to remember—a satire about a screenwriter trying to make it in Hollywood, was almost published way back in the 80s. Almost. It was accepted for publication (if that's the right terminology) by a major publisher.  But then there was a "housecleaning" at that publisher: the old team of editors and assistant editors got swept out. And the new team didn't want most of the old team's slate of projects, so I got swept out with the "new broom". So that one almost got published. But by the time it was put into “turnaround” it was too late for it as a lot of the humor was dated. Remember Fawn Hall, Jessica Hahn, Donna Rice and Gary Hart—see what I mean, dated. ’Cause even though it was about a guy trying to make it in Hollywood, it had a lot of topical and satirical humor of the day. I work on it every once in a while to remove the dated satirical elements and make it more neutral in terms of topicality. So one of these days it might see the light.

The first writing that I got paid for was a piece in one of the L.A. papers about John Lennon on, I believe, the one year anniversary of his murder. It wasn't fiction, but it felt awfully good to actually get paid for writing something. But even though it felt good to be paid, I had mixed emotions because of the subject matter. Appropriate that this should appear today as today is John Lennon's birthday.

Available on Amazon

My first published fiction, but certainly not the first story I wrote, was a short story called Angels Flight (before Michael Connelly borrowed the title from me 😉). It was published in the Murder by Thirteen anthology and republished in L.A. Late @ Night, a collection of five of my stories. A review of L.A. Late @ Night in All Due Respect calls Angels Flight the reviewer's favorite story in the collection and says this about the two main characters, "They're a dynamic pair, and I'd like to see them together in more stories," so I might just have to oblige him.

The title for Angels Flight was inspired by the famous funicular railway in downtown L.A. and my love for old Los Angeles. I think the story was inspired when they drained one of the lakes in L.A. and found all kinds of junk there. So in my story they drain Echo Park Lake, find a dead body and the story takes off from there. And even though it was originally published a looooooooong time ago, it's still one of my favorites. I think it's (hopefully) surprise ending brings to mind Shakespeare's quote, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 

Angels Flight

After Angels Flight, I had more stories published and eventually my novel White Heat, and others. And then I happily reached one of my major short stories goals, getting published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and its sister publication Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Another thrill was to be listed on the cover of EQMM, as well as winning their Readers Award. So there’s always hope, don’t give up.

All I can do to end is quote another rock band, the Grateful Dead, "What a long strange trip it's been." 

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

The Blues Don't Care got a nice review from It was a Dark and Stormy Book Club.

“On one level it’s a mystery where Bobby Saxon, with secrets he wants no one to find out, works to solve a murder and clear his name under extraordinary racially tinged circumstances. With a lot of twists and turns, this is an excellent mystery.  It takes place in World War II-era Los Angeles, and the author does a brilliant job that brings the long-gone era alive with memorable characters, scents, descriptions, and most of all, jazz. Highly recommended."

Buy on Amazon or Down & Out Books

***

And Tom Bergin at The Name is Archer Facebook page had this to say about Coast to Coast Noir:

"This is the new book out that contains stories by Archer group members Paul D. Marks and Dennis Palumbo. There are 12 stories in all in this collection and so far I've read the stories by Paul and Dennis. They are both really good stories. Paul's story is called Nowhere Man. The story is set in Southern California and the year is 1965. The story does conjure up the Beatles song but is also a very clever nod to the 1944 movie Laura. The story by Dennis is titled Steel City Blues and is set in Pittsburgh in the year 1970. Here's the opening line of the story - I'm sitting at my usual spot on the roof, back against one of the brick smokestacks, the revolver across my upraised knees. Dennis never wastes any time getting the reader involved in his stories and Steel City Blues is no exception. Interestingly both of these stories deal with obsession. Both stories show what can happen when a man becomes obsessed with a woman. It's noir. Things don't go well. Check the book out. I have a feeling the remaining ten stories will be as good as these two."

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Marketing in the Time of Covid

This year has thrown us plenty of curveballs. Have you (and your publisher) adapted new ways to market your books?

by Paul D. Marks

I have to admit that I just did a blog post recently over at SleuthSayers on this very subject before I looked to see what this week’s question is. So this will be a rerun of that for people who didn’t see it there. The one thing I’ll add is that in addition to everything below, I’ve also been trying some Facebook and Instagram ads, with some okay results. The Amazon ads we tried had virtually no results. And we use KDP Rocket and do whatever we’re supposed to do but for whatever reason not much came from it.

And so now to what I said a couple of weeks ago on SleuthSayers. Still valuable and definitely responds to this question:

We’re all hunkered down these days under house arrest. Some people are binging on Netflix, others catching up on all the cute cat videos they’ve missed. Others still are too anxious to do much of anything productive. I’m lucky in that my life hasn’t changed all that much on a day to day basis since I’ve worked at home for ages. I still walk the dog/s. Do my writing. Listen to music. Watch the old black and white movies that I love. Read. The one big change is that my wife’s been working at home since March. Luckily we seem to get along. Blame that on her more than me 😉.

But, as writers there have been some changes, most notably that in-person events have been cancelled. Most of the conventions and conferences that we enjoy have been zapped, Bouchercon, West Coast Crime (right in the middle of the actual convention), and others. In-store book events and launches have largely disappeared for now. But we live in an age of new-fangled thingies, an amazing age, an age of the internet, Zoom, Skype and other modern marvels.

My virtual acceptance speech for Ellery Queen Readers Award

So, the other day, as I was doing a Zoom panel for a writer’s conference, it dawned on me how cool it is to be able to do this. Not all that long ago it couldn’t have happened because the technology wasn’t there. With something like the Covid pandemic the event would just have disappeared. But with Zoom, Skype and others they just sort of morph into something virtual.

Since the lockdown began I’ve done several Zoom events. I haven’t yet hosted one though I’m thinking about doing that for the Coast to Coast: Noir anthology that I co-edited that’s coming out in September. That will be a new learning curve. But before that I had to learn how to Zoom as a guest. It’s not hard—and it’s really cool and fun. I also did a short (non-Zoom) video for Ellery Queen on coming in second in their readers poll since they, too, cancelled their in-person event in NYC. And I’ve done several panels and interviews and even virtual doctor appointments. As I write this a bit ahead of its posting date just a few days ago I did a Skype interview for a radio station in England. Could we have done that even twenty years ago? Maybe by phone, but with much more difficulty and expense.

E-flyer from Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles first House Arrest virtual reading

Remember long distance phone calls (and long distance could virtually be just across the street in some cases). They were ridiculously expensive. You’d call the operator before your call and request “time and charges,” then when the call was over the operator would call you back and tell you how long the call lasted and how much it cost. And you’d get sticker shock.

The "good old days".

In the near last minute my wife suggested doing a virtual launch for The Blues Don’t Care in June since there were no in person events happening. So we had to scramble to figure out how to do that. We weren’t sure if we should try Zoom or another service or stick to the old standby (yeah ‘old’ standby) of Facebook, which is what we ended up doing. And it turned out better than I had expected. We had a big group of people and questions flying back and forth. Plus I’d toss out tidbits of info on various things related to events that took place in the novel, like the gambling ships that lay off the SoCal coast back in the day. It was fun, if a little hectic, and I think people enjoyed it.

So we make do as best we can. And we don’t have to shower or drive to get to our meetings 😉. It’s also kind of cool to just see someone when you’re talking one to one with Zoom or Skype or other services. My wife’s family reunion was cancelled this year because of Covid but her and some of her cousins get together semi-regularly with each other via Zoom. Like they used to say, it’s the next best thing to being there.

So what’s next? Virtual reality meetings? Holograms? Mind-melding? Beam me up Scotty! There seem to be no limits to technology, but there is still something to be said for meeting people face to face. Standing close enough to whisper something, closer than 6 feet apart. Laughing, talking, sharing good food (and drink!) and good stories. So until we can do those things again, at least we have the virtual world, which is the next best thing.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

Thanks to Steve Steinbock and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for the review of The Blues Don’t Care in the current September/October 2020 issue just out. Four stars out of four. My first time getting reviewed in EQMM. A great honor!

And our own Cathy Ace’s The Corpse with the Crystal Skull is also reviewed in this issue.

You can find them here: https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/current-issue/the-jury-box/

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All the News That Fits

Talk about newsletters.  Do you or do not have one? If you do, how often do you send it out? On what venue? How did you get your newsletter list? If not, why not and how do you contact your readers instead? Are there any authors whose newsletters you think are particularly good?

by Paul D. Marks

Some people swear by newsletters. They say that’s the best tool for marketing. And I think they are a good thing. I have one called PostMarks (clever, huh). And if you’d like to sign up for it you can do it here or at the end of this post or just go to my website: www.PaulDMarks.com. There’s other “fun” stuff at my website, too, like my weird encounter with Cary Grant, my encounter with Gene Kelly and the time I pulled a gun on the cops and lived to tell about it.

My newsletter logo.

I had a column in a small paper called PostMarks some time back so I stole my newsletter title from myself. But you know what they say, great artists steal, bad artists only borrow. I guess I’ll have to sue myself. Why not, it seems to be the national pastime these days.

I don’t send it out on any regular schedule. I do try to send it out about 4 to 6 times a year on average, particularly when I have something noteworthy to mention, like a new book or short story coming out. But I don’t send it out for every little thing that comes up like a new interview or guest post (like my recent post at CrimeReads).

I try to make the newsletter interesting and fun and more than just selling and BSP. It contains various sections. There’s a greeting, with a little news. Then a Current News section that talks about any new books or stories I might have coming up (or out). Sometimes it might mention interviews I’ve done or that are coming up as well. But then we get to the fun stuff. There’s a section on La La Land (Los Angeles). Anyone who follows me on Facebook knows I post a lot of pictures and articles about L.A. and in my newsletter I talk about various aspects of L.A. history. Often the topics are tied into L.A. locations in a novel or story of mine, so there’s sometimes that link. But sometimes they’re not related to my work. L.A. history is fun. In one of the recent newsletters, before The Blues Don’t Care came out, I talked about the gambling ships that used to lay off the Los Angeles coastline, just outside the 3 mile legal limit because some of the action in Blues takes place on one of those ships. From the feedback I got people found that fun and interesting.

An excerpt from my newsletter

Then, there’s often a section called Noirville, which can deal with noir aspects of my writing or just noir in general, maybe a little talk about a film noir that I like. In one of the recent newsletters I talk about the Nat King Cole song The Blues Don’t Care, from which I borrowed the title of the book and ask the question “can a song be noir”? There’s also a What’s Next section, which should be obvious as to what it’s about. And the penultimate section is usually Dog Tails where I talk about whatever critters (not necessarily just dogs) we have at the time and post pictures of them. And then The End of the Line, a farewell. Of course, there’s also ways to get my books, links to Amazon and also to my social media. So it’s a full deal. Doing the newsletter can be a little labor intensive, but it’s also fun.
Here’s a link to one of my recent newsletters if you’re interested: June 2020 PostMarks.

Dog Tails :-) 

The venue I use is MailChimp. There might be other places out there. I’m not really familiar with all of them. And I don’t really remember why we chose to go with MailChimp. Maybe ’cause my wife likes the chimp logo. And I do like MailChimp. It’s fairly simple to use and it’s free if your list is under 2,000 people.

As to how I got the list of names, there’s various ways. When I meet someone I often ask if they’d like to sign up for it, I mention it when I’m speaking. And in the days when we did live events (remember those days?) I bring a clipboard with my newsletter signup sheet. I’ll just ask people if it’s okay for me to sign them up. And I let them know I won’t bother them too often, just a few times a year. No one wants to be bombarded with 20 emails a month.

I also recently added a popup to my website so that if people subscribe to my newsletter they can download a free copy of my novella Vortex. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really increased my subscriptions, but it was worth a try.

One of the questions above is, “If not, why not and how do you contact your readers instead?” Well, even though I do a newsletter it’s not the only way I stay in touch, of course. I have my website. I blog here and at SleuthSayers. I get interviewed in print or on radio or podcasts. I do events, though these days they’re all virtual on Zoom or Skype, etc. I did the book launch for The Blues Don’t Care on Facebook, and it was more successful than I’d imagined. There’s a whole host of ways to contact people and stay in touch and get the word out, including: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a host of others, but you have to limit yourself or all you’ll be doing is social media.

So, like with anything, newsletters have their pluses and minuses, but overall I think they’re a good way to stay in touch with friends and fans (I have 3.2 of the latter).

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

I want to thank Living My Best Book Life for this great review of The Blues Don’t Care. Here’s an excerpt and a link to the full review.

“𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 by @pauldmarks is a mysterious historical fiction set in the WWII time period. It tackles topics like corruption, racism, and many others that we are still facing today. I was taken aback by Paul D. Marks's talented writing style. This story is powerful and Paul did a wonderful job developing his main character, Bobby Saxon...

…I was captivated from the very start. This author tackled so many subjects that few care to bring up. The detail of the story gave me an insight on all the injustices in the 1940's. I appreciated the heart of the story; a person chasing their dream and never looking back. Bobby Saxon is a well-developed character that was able to learn, grow, and hone in on his craft. There is a main secret of Bobby's that I didn't see coming. This is such a fascinating historical fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed!”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CC3_3gxAZq6/
                           

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Getting Crafty by Brenda Chapman

When you have craft questions, where do you go for answers? A particular website? A book? Podcasts? Writer friends?

 Like all writers, I’m constantly on the look out for any new information that will advance my craft, be it improvements on writing style, story arcs, character development, building suspense, or pretty much anything. I can’t say that I have one website or one writer friend to turn to when I have questions. My method for acquiring knowledge is more of a shotgun approach — I’m constantly absorbing information from wherever or whomever I can get it.

One of my primary resources is the wealth of books written by my fellow authors. Not only do I read for enjoyment but I also read to analyse why a story works and even why it doesn't (in my subjective opinion). I look at word choice, sentence structure, plot, character development ... you name it. This isn't to copy their style or to steal from their stories but rather to improve on my own writing. (A lot of this goes on subconsciously at a mystical level that authors sense but can't explain.)

I've also read a lot of writing wisdom online as well as watched writing workshop videos. There's an amazing amount of solid writing advice at our electronic fingertips. Stephen King's famous rules of writing are a good place to start. Last year I gave a writing workshop on point of view and found an amazing amount of information online. I also turned to a book that I bought at a book conference a few years back Write Away by Elizabeth George.

A little anecdote about the book. I bought a hard copy and stood in line to have Elizabeth George sign it. I've long been a fan of her Inspector Lynley series and was excited to meet her The lineup was long as you can imagine and the wait time was more than I had to spare so I bowed out after about twenty minutes. Anyhow, when I finally opened the book back in my hotel room, lo and behold, I'd unknowingly bought a signed copy! This reminds me that book conferences and attending panels have also been great ways to glean tidbits to improve the writing craft. I can't tell you how many times a bit of advice from an author on one of the panels comes back to me as I write or market my work.

Back to this week's question. I've been fortunate to belong to two crime-writing organizations that are into writing development and information-gathering in the crime field. Any writers getting started in the business can't go wrong joining an organization or two for support, friendship and information.

Capital Crime Writers is Ottawa-based. Over the years, they've had numerous experts in to speak about everything from art theft to gambling in sport to gang activity. Psychologists have spoken about narcissism and detectives have given workshops on murder scenes. In addition, authors have spoken about various aspects of the craft and generously given tips and advice. Every speaker has donated their time, making this an invaluable resource that I've never taken for granted.

Crime Writers of Canada is our national organization for crime writers and they offer online workshops on the writing business and the craft of writing. I recently watched a presentation on poisonous plants, for example. Canadian crime writers - I urge you to join if you haven't already!

I also belong to The Writers' Union of Canada and note that they have a number of online presentations not tailored to crime writing specifically but still very informative about all aspects of the writing business. I've yet to watch any although several are of interest. I read their newsletter, which is also a good resource. 

As for specific craft questions, I've worked with various editors assigned by my publishers and have learned a great deal from each one. The key is to be open to their knowledge and to absorb whatever makes sense for my writing going forward. I've also learned a lot speaking with other authors and reading their blogs and like nothing better than getting together with another author to 'talk shop'.

Ultimately, what to use from all the advice on craft that one takes in is up to each individual writer, but we're lucky to be in the community of people who like to share and mentor. I can't imagine the day will ever come that there won't be something new to learn or to tweak.

website:  www.brendachapman.ca

Twitter: brendaAchapman

Facebook: BrendaChapmanAuthor

Who's Hiding Behind Your Characters?

Do you ever base characters on real people? Famous or people you know in your real life. And, if so, how do you deal with that?

by Paul D. Marks

This is sort of a two part question. First there’s the question of basing characters on people that you know. Then there’s the question of basing them on celebrities or historical figures. I do both.

A lot of my characters are based on people I know —including on myself. I think there’s a little piece of me in all of them. Or sometimes a bigger piece. But when I do base them on people I know or who I’ve come across they’re usually composites of multiple people. So far no one’s come up to me —probably because the people I know don’t read my books, just kidding —and wanted to bop me on the head for a portrayal. Most people see the good and the heroic in a character in themselves. They don’t see the bad.

Villains are often based on people I’ve come across one way or another. At least certain traits of theirs. But I don’t want to make them exactly like the real person for obvious reasons.

Just released 6/1/20

In my just released novel The Blues Don’t Care, the main character, Bobby, is loosely inspired by a real person. But that person didn’t become a detective in any way, at least to my knowledge. There are other characters in the book also inspired by real people. Tony Leach, the gangster who runs the gambling ship off the L.A. coast, is sort of a combination of infamous L.A. gangster Mickey Cohen and Tony Cornero, the guy who ran the real gambling ships off the coast. But probably a little kinder and gentler than either, though still a gangster under his fancy suits. Cary Grant’s real name was Archie Leach and the gangster’s last name was chosen because of that, so he has a little of Cary in there too. (See my website for my close encounter with Cary Grant.) Bobby’s tough guy pal, Sam Wilde, is based on some people I knew, though I knew them in contemporary times but set their character traits in the 1940s of the story. And there’s a character in The Blues Don’t Care, Mary Cooper, named after a girl I knew a long, long time ago. I’m sure she hasn’t thought of me in ages. But she crosses my mind every once in a while and since she’s a benign character in a small part I used her name. Others in that story are also composites of real people.

In Broken Windows, the second in my Duke Rogers series after White Heat, there’s a producer character named Joseph Hartman who, if you call him Joe the thunder will reign down. He is definitely patterned after a real person —or at least that affectation is patterned on a real producer. Though I think when I’ve mentioned him before I conflated him with another famous person who hung up on someone for calling them by their first name.

I sometimes pepper real people into a story because it hopefully gives the reader a sense of verisimilitude (one of my favorite words) —a sense that the world the characters inhabit is a real world with people they know and landmarks they might have heard of. But you have to use the people in small cameos and not show them in a bad light unless there’s something demonstrably provable that they did that you want to include. They might get only cameo parts but it gives the story a feeling of being set in the real world. For example, in Blues Don’t Care Bobby runs across Gable at the zigzag moderne Sunset Tower Hotel and Louis B. Mayer at the Coconut Grove, as well as others in various situations. The book is, after all, set in Los Angeles and seeing movie stars from time to time is part of the L.A. experience:

Someone bumped into Bobby.
“Excuse me,” the man said in a familiar voice.
Bobby was too flustered to respond to Clark Gable, as the King of Hollywood walked past. Bobby went to the front desk.
“May I help you?” the clerk asked.
“I’d like to see Tony Leach.” The words stumbled out. Bobby hoped his nervousness didn’t show. He’d heard that Leach lived here. Bugsy Siegel too, as well as several movie stars off and on. Infamous gossip columnist Hedda Hopper had said so.
“Can you just call up and tell him Bobby Saxon, from the ship’s band, is here.”
“You play in a band on his ship? I’m afraid he’s too busy for—”

And in Broken Windows, Duke, the main character, goes to a producer’s house above Sunset Boulevard. He finds two Jags in the driveway and expensive art in the house. The character who lives in the house is the Joseph Hartman character mentioned above. But in real life the producer who lived there was another person. And in real life, though he lived in the lap of luxury he wanted me to work for free.

And then there was the time that I based a character on another producer—a major ass—in a script I was rewriting…for him. He never made the connection. And I’m not telling what it was.

The character of Warren in White Heat is based on a friend of mine, though someone who isn’t as angry as Warren.

Duke Rogers series

So, yes, I base characters on people I know or have come across. Which is a good way to have more realistic, well defined characters ’cause you have real life experience in how someone acts.

Everyone I come across is fodder, the way they look, the way they talk. Their character, etc. Not just people I know, but people I may cross paths with for only a few seconds or a few hours. A clerk, someone on a street corner. Someone in a bar. It’s like we costume our characters, disguise them and send them out into the world incognito.

The first novel I wrote, about a screenwriter trying to make it in Hollywood, was basically a roman a clef. All the characters were based on people I knew, some very well known, others obscure and struggling, including little ol’ me.

So, not only do I base characters on family and friends, but on people I dislike, too, enemies. And isn’t that fun? We get our little revenges against people who’ve wronged us and, as long as we disguise them somewhat, we get away with it. What’s better than that? Sometimes just naming the bad guy after someone can be a satisfying way to get back at someone who wronged us.

So, yes, everything, everyone, is fodder. So be nice or reach a gruesome death…at least on paper.
What about you? Tell us about how you base characters on people you know.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

The Blues Don't Care is getting some great reviews:

"It’s the first entry in what promises to be an entertaining and thoughtful series --- mysteries that not only have the requisite twists, turns, surprises and reveals, but also offer a penetrating look into our ubiquitous all-too-human flaws: greed, corruption, fear of the “other” and, especially, racism."
—Jack Kramer, BookReporter.com

"This is a beautifully noirish book, set firmly in the dark days of wartime and offering a sharp insight into the life and times of Los Angeles, 1940s style. Yes, it’s a mystery thriller, but The Blues Don’t Care is so much more than that, with historic detail, chutzpah, a cast of hugely entertaining characters, a really unusual protagonist and, best of all, a cracking soundtrack too."
—DeathBecomesHer, CrimeFictionLover.com

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The Hard Way – Keeping a Series Bible...Or Not

Do you keep a “bible” for your series characters and stories? If so, what does it look like? What does it contain? Do you use a specific program or just Word or Excel files? What do you put in it, how detailed are you?

by Paul D. Marks

I wish!

If I did it would make life so much easier. But why would I want anything to be easier? Why do anything the easy way when you can with even more ease do it the hard way?

I have good intentions to do bibles for all my work. But just like New Year’s resolutions, which start out bright and shiny and perky on January 1st, by the end of January—or sooner, much sooner—they’ve mostly fallen by the wayside.

I’ve tried keeping bibles for various things, such as my Howard Hamm series of short stories that’s been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. I have a couple of different Word files with various categories, everything from what furniture is in his house, and the layout of the house, to what gun he carries. I also started an Excel file. I made a chart in Word, distinct from the above-mentioned Word files. The problem is I don’t keep them up—any of them. I put a few things down then abandon the file, every time. So when it comes to the next story I have to go back to the earlier ones to see if X did or where Y lives, etc. And some readers remember those things a lot better than I do…

The problem is if you try doing a bible while you’re working on a project it slows or even stops the forward momentum. And you can’t stop writing, especially if you’re on a streak, to put X in the X bible category and Y in the Y category. If you do you might break your streak or forget where you were going, etc. So is it worth it to stop along the way?

And then, at the end of the writing day, when you could go fill in those blanks, well, who wants to do that? I’d rather be walking Buster.

That said, I’m working on the third in the series of Duke Rogers novels (White Heat, Broken Windows) and finding it frustrating to have to go back and look things up in the earlier books. You think you’ll remember everything but it’s really hard, especially when you’re working on multiple things at one time or have multiple series going.

I haven't read this book, but it looks like it might be good resource

It can be hard to remember what kind of gun X uses, what car Y drives, color, year—and that can change within a story, as where someone’s car gets blown up like Duke’s beloved Firebird in White Heat. So what’s he driving now? What cigs does Bobby in The Blues Don’t Care smoke? Viceroys. And Booker smokes Lucky Strikes. But I have to remember not to mix them up—which I did in the first draft of this post until I went and looked in the novel to verify. And Bobby drinks Bubble Up. What music does this character like as opposed to that one? Where does so and so live? If I describe his house/apartment this way have I messed up cause before it was that way? You can get mixed up.
Then there’s character arcs and relationships among characters—relationships that change. So am I picking up where I left off with that relationship? Timelines—same thing. And backstory. Habits, mannerisms, likes, dislikes. Physical details. Oh, how I wish I had a bible for these things.

When I started out I created forms (which if I can find any, since they’re from the old typewriter days, I’ll post here), some for characters and their backgrounds and descriptions. What they eat, music they like, etc. Some forms for rooms and how they looked. But I don’t do that anymore. I’m in too much of a rush. Too many things to work on—though that’s sort of penny-wise and pound foolish ’cause it would ultimately be easier to just look on a form or computer file. Now I mostly keep it in my head and often have to go back to previous stories in the series to get the details.

A sample character development worksheet

I write a lot my first drafts in screenplay format. And the script program generates lists of characters, locations, etc., that I sometimes transfer to Word when I begin working in it. That can be helpful, but becomes incomplete as I add or change characters in the Word version. And it’s also basically for a single story and doesn’t really act as a bible across several stories with the same character/s.

I believe Scrivener has a bible function. And I have a copy of Scrivener that I bought years ago. But the learning curve was so steep I gave up on it.

I keep thinking I should hire someone to do this, to make bibles for my various series. Easy job, you can work from home in your spare time—you know like those old ads at the back of magazines: Make Money Growing Mushrooms in Your Basement in Your Spare Time. Perfect for lockdown. Lousy pay. But if anyone’s interested…

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

The Blues Don't Care released on June 1st. I had my first virtual book launch party on Facebook and despite not really knowing what I was doing, it turned out pretty good. I want to thank everyone who came and everyone who bought the book. As usual, Buster seemed to get the most likes.

The Blues Don't Care was reviewed on DiscoveringDiamonds.com and is short listed for their "Book of the Month."

"This story was a breath of fresh air, set in a familiar period, thanks to Sunday afternoon TV movies. Which means the author had to get his world-building right. The good news is - he did, and did it very well indeed."

I was also interviewed by Nancie Clare on her Speaking of Mysteries Podcast. You can check it out here.

And I did a Guest Blog on Stacey Alesi's BookBitch.com where I talk about how important conflict is in creating characters. I hope you'll check it out here.

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

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