Guest Blog - Vikki Carter

Instead of you listening to my ramblings today, I'm giving over my space to Vikki Carter. Vikki is one of those wonderful people out there who is not only on her own writing journey but is choosing to do as much as she possibily can to help other writers on theirs. Among other things, she has a wonderful podcast that I've been fortunate to be on more than once (I'll be returning the favor - she will be my featured guest in January 2022 on Wrong Place, Write Crime) and offers resources for writers. 

We should always reward kindness in this world, so give Vikki a read - here, and on her site.

From Frank

Resources Every Crime Fiction Author Needs

By Vikki J. Carter, The Author’s Librarian

As a writer and librarian, I am often asked questions about researching. Because of the number of questions, I wrote my first book, Research Like A Librarian, where I address issues relating to plagiarism and how to research beyond the internet by accessing library sources world-wide. However, I will let you in on one secret: I love genre specific questions. But because of the vast number of possible genre specific questions, I could not address them all in my book.

The questions that I get the most excited about are from mystery or crime fiction writers because there are so many useful sources available. I also love answering these questions because I have a fantasy of breaking into crime fiction someday.

What I believe most readers of this genre expect is authenticity, and authors can make their stories authentic by organizing excellent resources and relying upon experts. Here is how:

I have compiled a list of resources for the crime fiction writers over the years. From that list, I have found that crime fiction resources fall into three categories.

1.    Sources on events that inspire the crime fiction writer.

2.    Sources on criminal justice professions for character development.

3.    Sources on procedures that are common in criminal cases.

 Sources on events that inspire the crime fiction writer: Think about where to get information that outlines events, past or present, that could inspire your work. I encourage writers to focus on primary sources such as journals, first-hand accounts, and interviews to help build a that list. Most times, writers will be inspired by criminal cases found in the news, but the news does not have to be the only resource that can inspire the next thriller.

Here are five sources to explore:

1.      https://www.crimemuseum.org: An educational resource on law enforcement, crime history, and forensic science. A repository of America’s most notable crime cases and artifacts.

2.      https://www.refdesk.com/crime.html: An encyclopedia list of forty-two crime and law enforcement related websites. Each list has a short description for quick reference.

3.      https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/NACJD/index.html: a database to help guide exploration of topics connected to criminology. This database includes special data topics such as guns & weapons, gangs, and homicide.

4.      https://www.officer.com: a dedicated resource website with up-to-date reports on police officer procedures, training, careers, investigations, and tactical equipment.

5.      https://www.apbonline.com: a website dedicated to daily crime news aggregated from multiple news channels. The latest breaking news articles are highlighted as “new” for quick reference.

Sources on criminal justice professions for character development: Research should include information about the people who may develop as characters in a story: police officers, witnesses, or lawyers to name a few. Within writing crime fiction, these characters have to be authentic. With competition for readers coming from TV and live action films, authenticity of characters is imperative to keep readers coming back for more. Many writers will ask me questions about how to find information about the day-to-day procedures of the criminal profession. By learning about the criminal line of work writers can start to add authenticity to their stories that will captivate their readers. I like to remind writers to not forget about interviews with individuals who work in the profession as research. I encourage writers to reach out to local organizations and make friends with people in the field. It’s okay to tell them you are conducting research for a book. And it’s even better to tell them you will mention their help in the book’s acknowledgements.

 

Here are two good starting points for reference on criminal justice professions:

1.      https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/c.php?g=222212&p=1470996:  University of Cincinnati’s library guide of global professional organizations in criminal justice.

2.      https://www.careerprofiles.info/criminal-justice-careers.html: a website dedicated to the criminal justice career with links to career descriptions, definitions, programs, and job outlook.

Sources on procedures that are common in criminal cases: Once again, I encourage writers to seek out the professional. This can be done in many ways. One example is if you need to write about a court room procedure, go to an open court proceeding. Recently, many municipal court cases have been moved online giving access to these types of events to writers to explore for their procedure research.

Here are several good starting points:

1.      https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/types-cases/criminal-cases: a website that helps to define the terms and procedures for American criminal cases. This site offers a free eBook titled Understating the Federal Courts.

2.      https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=310516&p=2826979#s-lg-page-section-2072141: Harvard Law School Library Criminal Justice Resource guide is created to be the starting point for researching criminal justice and criminal law issues. This website is regularly updated but is primarily focused on the United States.

3.      https://backgroundchecks.org/11-alternatives-to-crimelibrary-com-and-courttv-com.html: A list of alternative websites that are similar to Crimelibrary.com (which stopped being updated in 2014,) and CourtTV.com.

Another excellent website to add to your resources that expands on information about equipment, weapons, types of crimes, and forensics is The Internet Writing Journal:

https://www.writerswrite.com/journal/research-resources-for-mystery-and-crime-writers-2994

As The Author’s Librarian, I will always encourage authors to move beyond internet researching by developing relationships with criminal justice professionals to gain real details that will enrich their stories. In my book, Research Like A Librarian, I call these types of sources “secret agents” for writers. The important key to developing a strong network of “secret agents” is to draw upon these professionals for details surrounding cases that a writer may miss.  By developing these relationships and using the information gained from discussions, writers can create realistic storylines.  And when you give the readers that type of story, they will keep coming back for more.

My final advice is to not neglect the one source that could be your best bet for finding the information you need: the public, state, or university librarian. Many authors are surprised when I coach them to reach out to librarians to get access to data or high-level documents that would help them with their fiction work. But I am convinced that librarians are an author’s best resource for researching.

For example, during a Facebook meeting I was asked to present at for historical fiction authors several weeks ago, I encouraged the authors to email a librarian with a question they may have been stuck on during their researching process.

One author reported back the next morning that she was surprised to have an answer within a day from a state librarian regarding data that she had been hunting down for a few months.

Another example can be heard on my podcast. In episode one hundred and five, Kim Taylor Blakemore and I talked about her working with an out of state librarian.  This librarian helped Kim gain access to historical records about an asylum that ended up being the inspiration to many aspects of Kim’s award-winning historical thriller novels.

As a librarian, I encourage you to organize your list of sources based on events that inspire, criminal justice professions, and procedures. As a writer, I challenge you to interview expert witness in the field. And as reader, I encourage you to ask a librarian for help when you are stuck. By incorporating these techniques into your writing, you will be able to write your next thrilling with excellent sources that will give your book the authenticity your readers expect.   

Get a copy of the links and descriptions listed in this article in a free eBook titled: 

Resources Every Crime Fiction Author Needs.

 

About Vikki J. Carter, The Author's Librarian:

As a professional librarian and author, Vikki J. Carter, The Author's Librarian, reveals the techniques that librarians use to help writers effectively find valuable sources. Vikki’s book, Research Like A Librarian is available in eBook and in print.

Since the publication of her book in March 2021, Vikki has scheduled a fall appearance on The Creative Penn Podcast and she will be presenting at The 2021 Self-Publishing Advice Conference.

You can learn more about The Author’s Librarian, future online courses, listen to her podcast, gain access to the free Author’s Librarian Checklist: Avoiding Plagiarism, or watch her YouTube channel by visit the website at https://www.theauthorslibrarian.com.

Summer Vacation

 Q: I recently heard a comment that the big publishers are trying to hold onto an old model of publishing that doesn’t work so well anymore. Is this true? Why doesn’t it work, and how could the model be changed?

- from Susan

Good question. I have no answers. As someone who’s always been traditionally published and bears some scars from that model, I hope someone comes up with solutions. I have an agent who believes in it, and friends who are doing quite well – some astonishingly well – so it can work. I plan to venture into self-publishing with a series now out of print but the project isn’t ready for launch yet so I have no lessons learned to share. 

So, instead, let me indulge myself and maybe give you a moment to breathe deeply and relish summer with a couple photos from a tiny slice of paradise: the Hawaiian island of Kauai. 

 

 

Rip It Up and Start Again

Have you reread any of your books since they were published? How did you feel about them? Did you like them? Do you think you have improved as a writer? If you haven’t read any of them, is there a particular reason? What do you think you would discover if you did?

by Abir

Morning. Abir here. This is my first post on here for over a month. My last two slots were admirably tackled by my good friends Imran Mahmood and AA Dhand. If you get a chance to read their books, please take it, because they’re both fantastic writers.

 

So what have I been doing in the interim? Firstly I got comments back from my editors on the first draft of the new standalone novel I’m writing. Let’s just say it felt like being hit by an elephant driving a truck at high speed. At least that’s what it felt like at first. I was about to throw myself out of a window when I remembered that a) I live on the ground floor, and b) the only way I’m going to grow as a writer is if I’m challenged to do better. Well these editors have certainly thrown down the gauntlet, (after having slapped me in the face with it first).

 

Rather than wallow in a slough of self-pity, I did what any self-respecting writer would do, I left home and went on a three day bender with some friends on the remote Scottish island of Islay. Now Islay is a strange place. Back in the day, it was rather religious in an austere, Presbyterian way; the sort of place where the churches are circular so that there are no corners for the devil to hide in. In three days of looking, we didn’t find a single pub or bar that wasn’t inside a hotel. But that didn’t matter, because what Islay lacks in pubs, it makes up for in whisky distilleries. 

The Lagavulin distillery - Ron Swanson's favourite place on earth

There are eight or nine distilleries on the island, soon to be joined by a few more, and they are world famous – Laphroaig, Lagavullin, Bowmore, Arbeg, the list goes on. Our plane landed on the island at 9.30 in the morning and we were all drunk as a skunk by 11am. I don’t remember too much after that.

That dram in the middle looks pretty serious.

Having returned from Islay with my ‘chi ‘very much back in balance, I got back to the task of writing, which is to say that I stared at the editorial notes and started crying again. What I needed to do was take my mind off things, and when I need to do that, I read books. I read a lot of them. In the last month I’ve read six novels, which is a bit of a record for me. Some for the first time, others I’m returning to because they’re brilliant books. 

 

The books I got through were:

 - The Cut, by Christopher Brookmyre;

 - I Know What I Saw, by Imran Mahmood;

 - Money in the Morgue, by Dame Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy;

 - The Less Dead, by Denise Mina;

 - The City and the City, by China Meiville; and currently

 - Razorblade Tears, by SA Cosby.

 

I admire the writers of each of them and feel that they all had something to teach me. 

 

Right. On to the business of this week’s question. The answer is I can’t stand to read my old books. Whenever I’m forced to read parts of them, either for a book event or simply to remember what the hell it is my characters did in them, it fills me with dread. I hate reading my own work. It makes me cringe. And the reason why, I think, is because I really have no belief in my ability as a writer. I read the works of others such as the authors listed above, and I feel their work sings, their prose flows, their characters are deep, their stories taut and thrilling. When I read my own work, I never get that feeling. I always think of how far I still have to go as a writer, so much I still have to learn. 

In honesty, the older the book, the harder it is to read. I find the first book I ever wrote, A Rising Man, especially difficult. There’s so much in it that I would change: from simple turns of phrase, to descriptions, to characters. And yet, that was the book that started everything for me. It’s won awards and been a best-seller. It would be wrong to change it.

 

Do I think I’ve improved as a writer? I hope so. Otherwise what would be the point? I hope I always continue to improve - heaven knows there’s plenty of room for it. I hope each book is better than the last, better written, more interesting, more complex. Because to stand still is boring. It’s painting by numbers. It’s going through the motions. I want the pain and the challenge of an editor’s critical comments, because that, I hope will push me to write better. And even though there may be some dark nights of the soul, some days when I just feel I’m not good enough, those moments will pass. Especially with the help of some good whisky.

 

Have a great weekend, friends, and stay safe.

 

Carrot or Stick? From James W. Ziskin

Have you reread any of your books since they were published? How did you feel about them? Did you like them? Do you think you have improved as a writer? If you haven’t read any of them, is there a particular reason? What do you think you would discover if you did?

From time to time, I re-read parts of my books after they’ve been published. Sometimes it’s to find a suitable passage for a public reading, and, other times, it’s to check on details I need for consistency in the series. But I also re-read to see if the books—or the writing—have held up, at least to my own standards.

I’ve found errors—minor—and stylistic issues I wished I’d noticed before publication. Things like repetition of words in the same paragraph, or overuse of adverbs and adjectives. I even discover the odd misused word here and there. “Burr” instead of “bur” in one book. Ouch. All of these make me cringe, of course, even if most readers don’t notice or might not care. I often say that I wouldn’t throw a book against the wall if the author writes “he shrugged his shoulders” or “I blinked my eyes.” I have good editor friends who would… In fact, I found one of those examples in my first book not too long ago. Not much I can do about it now.

But, in my defense, I will point out that the expression “in the blink of an eye” is legitimate and acceptable usage. Why, then, can’t we say, “He blinked his eyes”? One can blink a flashlight or a turn signal, after all. Not just eyes.

My point is that such irregularities inevitably creep into even the best written and edited books and stories. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up if we fall prey to them, too. Yes, I believe it’s better to say “He blinked” than “He blinked his eyes.” But that doesn’t ruin a story for me.

Re-reading my past work is also a good way to sharpen my current style. When I find a passage I think I could have written better, I remember it. It bothers me. It’s a sting that remains with me as I dive into new work. Perhaps that’s why most writers improve their craft as they write more. Repetition should produce better quality over time. And, for the writer, introspection and critical honesty should help. Self-loathing is an excellent tool as well. That’s why, despite the cringes and the regrets, I will surely continue to read my earlier work, for guidance and instruction, not to mention the hard-to-swallow errors I’ve made. Sometimes I’ll smile and think a turn of phrase was well done. Other times, I might slap my own wrist and vow never to write such treacle again. I look at re-reading my own work as offering myself a carrot or a stick. The carrot, in theory, is the reward. Mind you, I don’t much like carrots, but they’re better than sticks.

In my latest book, Bombay Monsoon, coming in December 2022 from Oceanview Publishing, I’ve used a similar attitude toward my writing in the editing of the manuscript. Several beta readers, including my agent and editor, suggested that the action needed to get up and go more quickly at the start of the book. I had taken my time with the development of my characters and location, but clearly at the expense of the pace. So I’ve been slashing repetition and wordiness—two things I fear I’m guilty of in my Ellie Stone books—in favor of more economy and speed. I’m trying not to lose the flavor and style of my narrator’s voice, but the book will still weigh in at about 95,000 words, even with my edits.

If I manage the job well, I won’t have to cringe when I re-read the book years from now. In this case, I’m putting the stick to use now so I can enjoy my carrot down the road. (Blech.)

Going forward while looking back

Have you reread any of your books since they were published? How did you feel about them? Did you like them? Do you think you have improved as a writer? If you haven’t read any of them, is there a particular reason? What do you think you would discover if you did?

by Dietrich 

I stayed with relatives a few years back, and the only reading material in the house was To Kill a Mockingbird, a dusty old Reader’s Digest, and my first novel, Ride the Lightning (God bless them for having a copy). I finished the Crumley I brought along on the flight, and I was saving the Willeford for the return flight. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorites, so while I was up late alone anyway, I reread it for the umpteenth time. A couple of nights later I polished off the Reader’s Digest, liking most of the vintage stories. I hesitated reading my own, not because I read it so many times during the writing process. And although I enjoyed writing every minute of it, I knew the story and characters inside out, and since it wasn’t a sequel, I was done with it. I never considered that I would find it awful, I think the only other hesitation came from not wanting to turn a page and stumble onto a typo, blunder, or gaffe staring like an angry pimple — something that snuck past my own eyes through numerous drafts, and past the eyes of editors, copy editors and proofreaders. Funny, I did enjoy reading it, and there were details that I’d forgotten about.

These days of digital printing, it’s possible to correct minor flubs that sneak past all the eyes, and catch it on a reprint. And it can be done without the publisher incurring the cost of tossing out film and plates. I suppose, if there isn’t a second printing, then the author likely has bigger problems than a mere typo, depending on how you look at.

Anytime I reread something I’ve written, I check for mistakes, but also for the rhythm of my own words. Having read that first novel, I was also curious to see that the voice and rhythm hadn’t changed much from book to book.

Like most writers, when I’ve got a new release, I read from it on a tour or at various events, going over the same passages or chapters several times. I never tire of it, in fact, with Covid restrictions lifting, I’m really looking forward to some live events. Who knows maybe I’ll get a chance to plan a live Noir at the Bar event later this year.

In addition to reading my own books, I also enjoy listening to my audiobooks, and it’s a treat when the narrator nails the rhythm and pace. My latest one, Cradle of the Deep, was read by Keith McKechnie, a talented actor who absolutely nailed the rhythm of the words. You can sample it or listen to the entire unabridged novel on Spotify here.  

So, while I have reread my own stories, and enjoyed it, I’d rather focus on what I’m currently working on, and just stick to reading or listening to somebody else’s book in hopes of discovering a new favorite author, a great story that’s unpredictable, inspiring, and entertaining. 

Digging for the Magic

 

Terry Shames here, answering our question of the week. Have you reread any of your books since they were published? Do you think you have improved as a writer? 

 I haven’t read any of my published books in their entirety, although I read them at least a thousand times when I was editing (okay, I exaggerate, but it seemed like a thousand). But I have read chunks of them. I usually have one of two responses: “Wow, this isn’t bad,” or “Wow, how did this even get published?”

There’s more than one reason I don’t read them all the way through. First, having read them so many times, I feel like I remember every word. It turns out that isn’t true. 

I recently was invited to a book club that had just read my first book, A Killing at Cotton Hill. They didn’t want me to give a talk; they wanted to quiz me. And quiz me they did! About halfway through the hour I spent with them I realized there were many things I didn’t remember at all. They wanted to know the psychology behind some characters’ actions. It seemed ungrateful for me to say, “How the hell do I know? I can’t even remember the scene you’re talking about.” So I tried to wing it. Of course, there’s always the old, “What do YOU think was the psychology?” That at least gave me something to swing off of. 

Other reasons I haven’t read them in their entirety? It’s complicated. My agent recently suggested that I read all of the books again to remind myself of what I’ve written. Shudder. I don’t want to do that because even in small doses, I intimidate myself. I always worry that I’ll never be able to come up with the clever lines, the interesting characters, and the plots that seemed to flow so easily in the first books. It all seemed to happen by the magic of the sub-conscious. What if my sub-conscious decides it has had enough and it prefers to go to the beach? 

Oddly, as a character, Samuel Craddock, the protagonist of the series, always seems within reach for me. It’s all the other characters and the plots that seem slippery. My worry about “losing traction” with them became a self-fulfilling prophecy last year (I know, I know, you can’t judge yourself by Covid Time, but still…). I wrote a Samuel Craddock book that belly-flopped. Big time. My writers group hated it, my agent hated it, and I hated it. Time to jettison it and move on. When I sat down to start over, I was able to salvage one character from it. Eventually, I got in the groove, but it was touch and go for a while. 

The thing that always surprises me when I’m reading the manuscripts is the little moments of humor. I’ve been known to laugh out loud when reading a section. And humor, I’ve found, is something that can’t be forced. It seems to pop up most when I’m deeply immersed in the characters’ lives. 

 As to whether I’ve improved as a writer, I think I’ve improved in terms of craft. I know how the arc of a story works. I can settle into a pace easily. I recognize if the plot starts to veer off course--unlike book three, where I had to write the whole thing before I realized I’d done that. I now recognize if a character needs pumping up (or dialing back, not to mix metaphors). I’ve become familiar enough with my process to know that about 20,000 words in, I need to step back and figure out where I’m going. And I’ve learned the most valuable lesson for me—when something isn’t working, the devil is in the details. I need to settle my characters more firmly into their setting; look at things from their points of view; dig deeper into their relationships with each other; their goals, their fears, what makes them unique. It’s all part of what in the end makes the “magic” happen. 

 But there is still that indefinable “something” that bubbles up from deep inside and makes the book begin to take shape. If I thought rereading my books would help me identify and replicate that, I’d probably do it.

The Rereads

Have you reread any of your books since they were published? How did you feel about them? Did you like them? Do you think you have improved as a writer? If you haven’t read any of them, is there a particular reason? What do you think you would discover if you did? 

Brenda Chapman

By the time I finish with a book, I've spent so much time on the editing that I can't stand to read it through again. This doesn't mean I haven't tried. After each Stonechild and Rouleau book, I've started to read the book as a final edit to make sure there are no errors. Inevitably there are some, no matter that I, the editor, and copy editor have been through the manuscript about ten times. Partway through each reread of the published novel, I stop. All the time and sweat I've put into the book are too fresh. I need time and distance.

I'm always deep into a new manuscript by the time a book is released. When I was working on the series, I'd get confused going back and reading the previous book, often losing track of the sequence of events - what happened in the published book and what was I working on now? It's easier to set aside the published book and immerse myself in the new project. I always intend to go back and reread the published books, but have not as of yet. Perhaps now that the series is complete, I'll start from book one and work my way through. Soon, but not yet.

There was one exception to my rereading. I had a contract to write books seven and eight in the Anna Sweet mystery novellas for Grass Roots Press. In preparation, I reread the first six books and found myself enjoying them. Most impressively, I did not find one error, in large part due to my terrific editor Pam Robertson.

The last two books in the Anna Sweet mysteries

The second question asks if I like the books when I'm done. I've found that by the time I'm finished reading and rereading, editing and tweaking, I'm usually sick of the manuscript, unsure if it's any good, and have lost all perspective. It always feels as if I need to keep rewriting, and I don't think I'm alone in this. Can you simultaneously like and hate your work at the same time? I like the manuscript when I'm first done writing it and again after I've had some distance to regain my objectivity.

Finally, do I feel that I've improved as a writer? I honestly hope so. Writing is a craft and there is always something to be learned. Working with good editors is always an opportunity to grow. Trying new plot lines, developing characters, taking workshops, the act of writing itself ... all are important pursuits in progressing as a writer. After all, as in life, it's all about the journey.

website: www.brendachapman.ca

Facebook & Instagram: BrendaChapmanAuthor

Twitter: brendaAchapman

Live fully. Type honestly. By Josh Stallings

This week’s question is actually multiple nested questions, so I’ll break it out into parts…

Q: Have you written about any controversial issues?

Yesterday’s controversial is today’s milk toast. In 2010 when I wrote Out There Bad (Moses McGuire book 2) sex trafficking Russian and Ukrainian girls wasn’t on the mainstream news’ radar. I heard rumors about it while interviewing a Russian stripper, researching Beautiful Naked and Dead (Moses McGuire book 1.) The 3rd and final Moses McGuire novel deals with American girls sex trafficked across state lines, and forced to work as prostitutes. At the time this wasn’t talked about either. Underage prostitutes were treated as criminals, not victims of sexual abuse. 

Writing a trilogy depicting sex workers not as femme fatales or hookers with with a heart of gold, but instead as fully human three dimensional characters went against macho hard-boiled stereotypes. The subject matter demanded the Moses books have graphic sex, but those scenes are in no way sexy or erotic. In the first book Moses gets a lap dance, it is a sad harsh scene, transactional and unromantic. This way of looking at sex for sale brought me some great readers and pissed some others off. What made me proudest was when I talked to sex workers who’d read the books, and thought I’d got it right. None of this was meant to be controversial, I wanted to tell the stories from behind the curtain, not the fantasy laden front row. 

Q: Have you created controversial characters in your books?

Young Americans is set in the wonderfully fluid 1970’s, San Fransisco Bay area. Although we didn’t use these words then, it was fluid in both romantic orientation and gender identity. Young Americans is a homage to my teen years, my friends and our glitter rock world. 

One of my all time favorite characters is Valentina Creamarosa - the patron saint of fabulousness. Six foot two inches of drool inducing Tina Turner sexiness. In her past she was known as Henry, a US Marine. A trained killer, who honed her skills in Vietnam. Valentina is based on two women I knew from a San Francisco club called The City. I received an angry review from a reader who said because she has a love affair with one of the young men, Valentina is a predator and should have been arrested. Oddly - few people complain about violence or other mayhem but write about sex, and oh my god people run searching for pearls to clutch. 

Timing made Valentina controversial, today Loki on Disney Plus is gender fluid and no one freaks. I didn’t write Valentina to be controversial. But to tell that story and exclude her would have been false and a damn shame.

Do you raise issues of conscience or do you steer away from moral questions?

    

I write worlds that are honest to what I’ve seen and what I discover in research. I saw a review of Tricky, that said it was “written for people that want to defund the police.” Forgetting the fact that that term wasn’t being used when I wrote it, and that I actually do think we need to reallocate the way we spend our city budgets, none of that was what the book was about. It was about characters, and the most interesting characters are always the ones dealing with moral questions/conflicts. For Detective Madsen, the easy move would be to railroad Cisco, whom he believes may be guilty. But morally, he knows his job is to discover the truth, convenient or not. At the same time, Cisco, if he’s to be believed, has a past he doesn’t remember but must come to grips with if he is to move forward.

None of this is new or wildly brave, it is what storytellers have been doing since the dawn of time. Norse mythology is full of flawed characters and complex morality. Thor says at one point, the first person he suspects when evil is done, is Loki. And the first person he goes to when he needs wise, intelligent council is Loki.   

***

Ok, so that answers our weekly question. I hope I’ve earned your indulgence for a moment… 

This week Lucy our beloved Chocolate Lab left us, no, um passed away, no… I’m struggling to stay away from euphemisms, it’s difficult. I want to say, I held her while she was put to sleep, but the truth was I held her while the doctor injected her and she died peacefully in my arms, head on my chest while I cried big ugly tears. 

Lucy was silly and brave, and lived a long good life. She came to us as our son’s dog, when he left, she stayed. For fourteen of her fifteen and a half years she was a member of our family. She trained our puppies and kittens, modeling how proper animals behaved. If they played too rough, she’d pin them with her mouth until they stopped acting wild.

Over the last year her body started breaking down. Finally last week it became clear she wasn’t enjoying life. I was keeping her alive for me, not her, and that wasn’t our deal. 

I held her with love and grief as she slipped away. Driving home I remembered our son when he was maybe ten and his hermit crab died. He was deeply sad for a while. Some days later he said, “I think small pets die, so that when grandparents die we’re better at handling it.” 

At the time I thought how wise this child is. But as Lucy died I realized — you never get better at grief. Every loss is distinct and personal. I have been struggling with a key moment in the book I’m currently working on. It is about loss. So I’m driving and crying and part of my brain is working. I see the solve — I’m going to give this memory to my protagonist, he will realize that stacking grief upon grief doesn’t diminish or increase it, each is a separate entirely unique experience. 

Part of me is living my life, while the writer in me is taking quiet notes. My job — as I see it —is to feel this life fully, and type it as honestly as I can.

"Let's be kind to everyone" and other raging controversies.

TRIGGER WARNING: survivors of childhood abuse who are in danger of PTSD episodes -  1. You are amazing and your grit and courage light up this world. 2. Don't read this blog, or at least stop reading when I suggest you should, about two thirds through. Love and loud cheers, Cx

Q: Have you written about any controversial issues or created controversial characters in your books? Do you raise issues of conscience or do you steer away from moral questions?

Great question. Great pair of questions, actually. 

The answer to the first one is . . . I don't think so. Or at least not deliberately. Which is to say, it's a big world and it's got some very strange people in it so there's always going to be someone who finds controversary somewhere, but I haven't mined stuff that I find controversial in anything I've written yet.

Exhibit A: not a controversy-soaked tale

So, for example, I genuinely don't know what I think about physician-assisted suicide. I can appreciate the arguments on both sides, and the repercussions of both extremes, and I've never been able to make up my mind which way I'd jump if it came to a vote. I've also never written about it.

The stuff I have written about - cannibalism, physical abuse, psychological torture, and of course murder are issues that most reasonable people agree are pretty poor sorts of things on the whole.

Folk find religions controversial, don't they? I've written hysterical fundamentalists, but I've also written compassionate priests and deacons, and some of the sweetest nuns who ever donned a wimple. (It might be controversial to choose to depict kind nuns running an orphanage - given what we know about forced adoptions and the mass graves of infants. I didn't mean it as a denial of our harsh reality though. If anything I meant it as respite from it, the same way mysteries where justice is served are a respite from the endless grind of corruption and indifference.)

More details here

And then there's politics. Again, I wouldn't say I've written anything controversial. I've never touched on deficit reduction v spending, the best way to encourage energy conservation, sensible approaches to the funding of public education. Call me a quitter but I don't think politics would fit comfortably into any of the stories that bubble up in me. Of course, I write things that some other people would find political, because some other people have a self-serving habit of calling their own vapid cold-heartedness a reasonable position, and calling any criticism of it "dragging politics into everything". But we're onto them, right? So when I write about love, compassion, acceptance, fairness, and the profound joy to be had in celebrating diversity . . . there ain't no politics involved.

(If you look very closely you might be able to see what I did there.)

The second question - about conscience and morals - is another matter. I think we all write about them all the time. If our books look amoral or uninterested in conscience, we've probably made an even stronger statement about both than if our characters constantly agonise about doing right and frequently realign their compasses as they let life in.

Anyone with the PTSD I talked about above should stop reading now. Love and hugs, Cx

There's a character I would love to write, who would be a fascinating - to me anyway - nest of conflict. And that's a "virped". The term describes a virtuous paedophile; an adult who has paedophilia as an unchosen aspect of their personality, but who recognises it as inherently wrong and never to be indulged. These people are heroic, in my opinion. If you are not a paedophile, it's very easy not to commit paedophilia. And most of us - let's be honest - give way to our (massively much milder) worst selves sometimes, don't we? The "virped" lives a more moral life than me. 

But. And it's a big one - I have never written a solemn book. I've written gothically dark books but always set at the place where gothic darkness tips over into hilarity. (See the amateur taxidermists in The Reek of Red Herrings, for example. Wouldn't you agree that any self-respecting dotty taxidermist has the same dream . . .?) So, I'll never write about a virped. I don't want to write a book sombre enough to earn the privilege. And my kind of book, with black humour and a delight in absurdities, would be an conscienceless moral outrage.

More details here

Instead, I'll stick with my little bit of ivory two inches wide: the corrosive nature of secrets, the unbearable weight of respectability, the search for found family, the mess of life with its moments of transcendance. 

Although - and this only just occurred to me as I write (Now that's what you call a pantser!) - my new book, A GINGERBREAD HOUSE, out in the US next month, does have a plot element / theme that one foreign publisher said was too dark and too upsetting for their list. I'm not sure that constitutes controversy, but it's the closest I've come. Hey - why not read it and decide for yourself? It's out on the 3rd of August and I have no shame.

Buy links here