After the Murder ... By Brenda Chapman

Question: "Kill your darlings" is classic writing advice. What do you do with the bodies afterwards? 

Hmm. We're delving into the nitty gritty this week-- just what happens to the bodies after discovry?

Truth be told, there are times that I can hardly bring myself to kill off characters whom I've grown to like. In fact, in one earlier novel, I grew so fond of a character slated for the morgue that I killed off a different character instead. The manuscript came to a screeching halt as I struggled to jump start the plot and I reluctantly had to revive the dead character and kill off the intended victim. Last time I let my sympathies get the better of me. Lesson learned.

The murders in my books are not played out on the page. I lead the reader to the scene but stop short of any graphic detail. For me, the murder itself is not the focus of the story. It's necessary to kick start the puzzle and provides a crisis that lets me delve into the characters and their relationships. A necessary evil, really.

The bodies are taken to the police morgue for autopsies with a couple of officers watching. Again, I'm light on detail since I'm not a medical expert and I'm not a fan of describing organ removal. (I often close my eyes when this is on television.) Sometimes, I take the reader to the church service and burial, but these scenes are to bring the suspects together.

I also do not deal with death as an incident without repercussions. Every victim has a family, friends, circle of community that are terribly affected by murder and I attempt to show this grief. Murder causes trauma and a police investigation can exacerbate and prolong the suffering. I also attempt to show that these deaths affect the police officers. Officer Kala Stonechild always says a silent prayer over the dead body or in the place where they were killed. The Major Crimes team will get together to decompress after a particularly traumatic day.

To find out more about how I deal with the bodies, pick up a copy of Cold Mourning and start the journey into my mysteries set in the beautiful settings of Kingston and Ottawa with side trips around the region. The discovery of a body is only the beginning of the puzzle and the hook used to draw you into the story.

Criminal Minds Think Alike

Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not? Why?

by Paul D. Marks

Another Two-fer today. I’ll respond to this week’s question and also talk a little and post some pix from the California Crime Writers Conference that took place last weekend. The CCWC is a two-day conference that lately’s been taking place every other year in Culver City/Los Angeles at the Double Tree Hotel. It’s worth it just for the cookies they give you when you arrive.

It’s put on by the Los Angeles chapters of both Sisters in Crime and the Mystery Writers of America. I’m on the board of the latter and have been on the board of the former (a long time ago). That sort of helps in determining whether or not to go 😉. However, I would go anyway. This is one hell of a good conference. And it’s local – well fairly local for me. And that helps.

Our own Catriona was one of the keynote speakers. The other was Tess Gerritsen. Unfortunately, I could only be there on Saturday so I missed Catriona’s Sunday keynote speech, but on Saturday she also gave a workshop called “Deep in a Bowl of Porridge,” about how to plant clues. I did catch Tess’s keynote on Saturday. Her speech was short but pithy and to the point. She spoke about something that writer’s rarely talk about: what not to do.

My panel was Bringing the Past to Life. Panelists were Anne Louise Bannon, Jennifer Berg, Rosemary Lord, Bonnie MacBird, me, and moderated by Amanya (“A.E.”) Wasserman. We discussed writing mysteries set in the past and how we do our research for them. Everyone on the panel has a book or books set in the past, covering everything from the 1870’s to the 1990’s. My books White Heat and Broken Windows are mystery-thrillers set in the 1990s, the first during the Rodney King riots, the latter during the Proposition 187 debates about illegal aliens, much of which is still in the air today. I also have a new novel coming out in 2020, The Blues Don’t Care, that’s set on the Los Angeles homefront during World War II. And let me tell you, it was easier to research that than the 1990s books, where the era is still fresh but one has to be careful about what was and wasn’t around then since it was very similar to today…but not the same. Everyone on the panel had interesting things to say about how they went about researching the past.

Audio of this and other panels are available from www.vwtapes.com and you can see a list of them at https://ccwconference.org/panels/.

I also ran into Criminal Mind Terry Shames, and it was nice to chat with her for a while.

So that’s the abbreviated version of my weekend at CCWC. I hope you’ll be able to join us there in two years.

***

And now to this week’s question: No, I don’t really read different “stuff” when I’m writing. The problem, if that’s the right word, is that I’m always writing. Always working on one thing or another. So either I wouldn’t be reading or I might as well just read what I normally read.

Sure, maybe we can be influenced by what we read. This applies to TV and movies as well. It’s impossible to avoid the buzz in the air...or over the air.

Does it mess with my own writing? I don’t think so. In fact, I’d say just the opposite. Since ideas can come from anywhere—we just pluck them out of the air, a newspaper, TV, a snatch of conversation—we can also be inspired by what we’re reading. Of course, we don’t want to borrow something directly, and that’s not what I’m referring to. But a line, a turn of phrase, a character, an incident, etc., from something we’re reading, might inspire us to get over a hump in our work-in-progress.

But, from the Great Minds Think Alike Department, the frustrating thing for me is that sometimes I might be working on something and find similarities in something else that already exists, even though I hadn’t seen it or read it at the time of writing my project. That just happened to me. I’ve been working on a novel and it’s been going well. But I heard there was something that was similar to it. I debated if I should watch it or not, but decided maybe I should. And sure enough, there’s a couple of characters with the same names as my characters. Some incidents that are similar to mine, though I had written several early drafts before seeing this show. So I’ll change the character names, but the events might stay the same since I came up with them on my own. Still, it’s frustrating. But I guess writing about certain subjects one tends to write about similar things that others might have because we’re exploring the same experience.

Sometimes, when reading something by an author you admire you get inspired by them, not to copy or steal, but to take their inspiration and spin it in a different direction or take it to another level. Like reading Ross MacDonald and wishing I could dig into the psychological depths the way he does or being envious of Chandler’s descriptions and metaphors. I think reading some of these great authors has helped me to become a better writer.

James Ellroy doesn’t read fiction anymore (though that was a while ago so maybe it’s changed). But I like reading fiction and crime fiction in particular. It’s a good escape. Often the world comes out better in the end than in real life.

The worst part is finding the time to do the reading. Seems I used to have tons of time for that, but not so much these days. But when I do read I read all sorts of things, from various non-fiction subjects to literary/mainstream and crime fiction. I don’t read a lot of sci-fi or fantasy, YA, things along those lines. To each his/her own, right?

And I suppose the question can be applied to almost any activity, even just sitting in a café listening to people. Inspiration and ideas, whether for a whole novel or just a snatch of dialogue can come from anywhere, so why limit ourselves? Sure we want to create something from whole cloth, so to speak, but even if we were to shut ourselves off in a hermetically sealed room we’d still be influenced by things we’ve read, watched, seen and lived. So there really is no “escape” from having things “mess” with our writing.

So there you have it. What about you? Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not?

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

My story Past is Prologue is out in the new July/August issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. I don't have a picture of the cover yet, but the issue should be available at bookstores and newstands as well as online at: https://www.alfredhitchcockmysterymagazine.com/. Hope you'll check it out.

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

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Yes, No, Kinda.

Q: Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not? Why?

A: No. Sort of. Yes.

By Catriona

No - let me explain. When people (like Cathy yesterday) say they don't read while writing, I ache for them. I know if writing stopped me reading, I wouldn't be a writer. After all, when studying English literature threatened to get in the way of reading all those years ago, I switched to linguistics. I remember the very day it happened. I couldn't face reading the next few chapters of Jane Austen's Persuasion before a tutorial. There were two possibilities: she had written a dud* or I needed to find my bowling bag and get outta there.

*If she had written a dud, it would be the book chosen for study. After all, the Shakespeare we were assigned was . . . wait for it . . . The Winter's Tale. Because life doesn't have to be good.

I read whatever I want, whenever I feel like it, and count it as one of my great good fortunes that I'm literate, live in a time of electric light, with leisure, with libraries, and with enough disposable income to buy the books I need to feed my habit.

Sort of - let me explain. I read about a hundred books a year. Some of them I've "got to" read: to interview someone; to moderate a panel; to write a cover quote; to give encouragement to a pal. Most of them I choose to read, though: prowling the bookshops and review sections; building up my TBR shelves so I've always got exactly what I'm in the mood for, right there at hand; occasionally going back to old favourites and re-reading them, or re-re-reading them, or even re-re-re-read- . . . 

And usually, I'm writing through it all. But for between two and four weeks a year, I stop writing. Christmas-time and sometime in the summer, I declare that I'm on holiday. I don't write, and I don't read anything I've "got to" read either. Instead, I curate those mid-year and year-end TBR piles with a level of attention bordering on the obsessive. 

For example: the winter list needs at least one celebrity biography and one light non-fiction. Ideally, there'll be new poetry too. The summer list definitely needs poetry, but it doesn't have to be new. The summer list also needs at least one absolute banker: Harlan Coben, Lisa Scottoline, Kate Atkinson . . . 

And I try - I really do try - to keep Stephen King for these weeks. I usually fail.

That's as far as it goes with me combining reading and writing. I know I'm lucky. A writing pal of mine can't read first person while she's writing. She sometimes asks about a book I'm enthusing over, and I never know whether it's first or third because it doesn't matter to me. (Kind like how I said to my mum that Silence of The Lambs wasn't gory, because I'm not squeamish, and then spent the hour before she walked out going "Oh yeah. Sorry. Forgot about this bit.")

Yes - let me explain.There's one exception: P.G.Wodehouse. He must have the most infectious prose style ever to smack a scribbler right on the third waistcoat button. See what I did there? I love him and I laugh like a regiment marching over a tin bridge (did it again) when I read him, but I give him the extreme mitten (and again) while I'm trying to throw my own rose petal down the Grand Canyon in hopes of an echo. There's no more mordant description of writing than that, right? The man was a genius.

Cx

The joy of rabbit holes... by Cathy Ace

Reading: Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not? Why?

This is an interesting one – because I “don’t read at all” when I’m writing (see section below for more about what I do, in fact, read when I’m writing!). 

Maybe this is because I’m not the sort of writer who writes every day. Not fiction, in any case; oddly, I don’t think of writing blog posts or promotional stuff as “writing”. What I mean by “writing” is my writing or editing of works of fiction, created by me. And I don’t do that every day – I only do it in a burst of activity associated with one book. When I was writing three books a year the periods associated with writing and editing each book bumped up against each other and overlapped; I didn’t read much at all then, other than on vacation (and research-y stuff…see below), during those years. 

The reason I don’t read when I’m writing is because I find it difficult enough to cope with my own created world swirling about in my head, without having to contend with those created by others at the same time. I do, however, watch TV and movies when I take a break in the writing day, as a world created by others and shown to me is something I am able to cope with…it’s just the imagining of a created world I can’t manage!

Last year I promised myself and my husband that, from this year on, I would write only one book a year; we want to spend more time together, and now that he’s retired we’re able to do that. Nowadays, therefore, I am wallowing in the delight of having more time to read…so what am I reading?

Let’s just say I’m not short of options! My “To Be Read Pile” toppled over to create a “To Be Read Mound” some time ago; I reorganized it, and it’s now a collection of short stacks of books sitting on the floor along the baseboard. I’m working my way through them.

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I’m only now getting around to reading ARCs of books given to me some time ago – several have been launched to much acclaim, and have even been superseded by the next book by the same author in some cases…I refuse to divulge the names of said authors on the grounds I might offend some lovely people.

What I’m trying really hard to do is not buy new books until I’ve read those I already have – but that’s a bit like telling the sun to not rise. Pointless.

As for what I DO read when I’m writing – well that can be anything, and sometimes it might seem a bit of an odd collection. For me, researching a new book begins with points of inspiration for plotting, which might require me to read widely…or even joyfully disappear down rabbit holes for a while. 

For example, knowing the basics of the story I wanted to tell in The Wrong Boy, I read dozens of psychological suspense and thriller books through 2018…from books that were fifty years old to books not then yet-published...to help me find my footing within the sub-genre. I wanted to work out which paths were already well-trodden, and which seemed to be largely unexplored. It helped. I also then read books delving into Welsh mythology as well as archaeological discoveries in Wales, plus a great deal of online research reading to allow me to deal with specific factual points. Excellent fun! And all for research purposes. YAY!

Now the Blatant Self Promotion bit: on June 11th I found out I didn't win something...but that I was one of seven finalists! The International Book Awards have been presented for the past ten years, and this year The Wrong Boy was judged a finalist in the suspense/mystery category. Congratulations to everyone else on the list, and to the winner Steven James (who is published by Berkley/Penguin Random House, by the way....so my book was up against the Big Guns!) So chuffed! More info here.

And maybe please consider reading my books? You can find out about me, and them, by clicking here. Thanks! 

Read When I'm Writing?

Q: Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not? Why?

From Frank Zafiro

At any given time, I've got at least three books going. 

One is usually non-fiction, probably history. At present, I'm re-reading a biography of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome by Anthony Everitt. It is a very accessible bit of history, and after Julius Caesar, Octavian/Augustus is probably the most interesting Roman in his era.

The second book is fiction, and frequently crime fiction (I wonder why!). James Ziskin's Cast the First Stone has been this book for months now. It keeps getting bumped by library books that come available and spring to the front of the line. The most recent example is K Chess's Famous Men Who Never Lived. 

The third book is on audio, usually borrowed via Overdrive and played through my phone. I have an account with my local library, and if I'm confessing my sins here, I kept my account back in the city where I used to live. My dad still lives there, so I use his address. This gives me two library systems to find titles to download, which I know sounds greedy, but whatever. I hit return as soon as I'm done listening, so at least I'm polite that way.

Right now, I am sans audio, having just finished Bernard Cornwell's War of the Wolf. I'm sure I'll seek out an new audio book before this post even goes live.

Add to that a slew of eARCs on my phone that I can pull up in those odd moments where I have down time away from home, and I'm pretty stacked with stuff to read. 

Now, as to the question at hand, do I read different stuff when I'm writing than when I'm not?

No.

Because I am basically always writing. There may be a few down days here or there, but I always have an active project. As I write this, I just finished one collaboration, am embarking on another with a different author, and am hard at work on River City #6, Place of Wrath and Tears.  So one is in final edits, one is just jumping off, and one is in the midst of a first draft. With that, there's just rarely a time when I'm not writing, and if it happens, it's for a very short period of time.

But I will say that I am careful what I read while I'm writing a particular project. For instance, while working on a police procedural, I don't read that subgenre. If I'm writing something hard boiled, I stay away from that in my reading. 

The reason is simple. I don't want to be unduly influenced by a similar project while I'm in the middle of a project. We writers are already little sponges, soaking up everything around us and then wringing it out in slightly different form as our own creation (and truly, it is, but let's not pretend it wasn't influenced). At least this method is indirect. I don't want to risk direct influence.

For example, I loved Sons of Anarchy. Watched the whole series, years ago. When I was writing In the Cut, though, I tried to not even think about the show, much less re-watch an episode. See, the book is set against the backdrop of an outlaw motorcycle gang. I'm certain my seven seasons, or whatever it was, of the show had an influence on my writing. But I'm all for keeping those influences indirect, as I said.

So right now, I'm not writing about Rome. Not writing an amateur sleuth, or about Ninth Century Britain. If I do, though, you can bet my reading list will shift accordingly.

Blatant Self-Promotion, brought to you by me

My novel Charlie-316 came out just a couple of days ago. It's a suspenseful procedural set in the aftermath of a controversial police shooting.

Dana King, Shamus-nominated author of the Penns River series, said about it: “Few books have the ambition to cover the scope attempted here; fewer can pull it off. Charlie 316 does more than pull it off: it succeeds. Not since The Wire have I seen a better mixture of crime, law enforcement, politics, and media.”

Trust Dana.

Read, Read, Read

Q: Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not? Why?

-from Susan

When I was starting out, I was afraid of inadvertently borrowing from other novels, so I avoided art-related mysteries, for example. I also worried that my “voice” would not be strong enough and that I’d sound like Sue Grafton or Sara Paretsky. Fat chance! For better or worse, my own voice got stronger even in the first draft of the first book, so I let go of my fears. And ten talented writers can create fiction about the same topic and write ten different stories, I now know.

Now, my reading changes from time to time for other reasons:

• I can only read so much crime fiction before it loses its genre appeal – even too much chocolate gets boring!
• 
  
• There’s so much non-fiction I want to read – books about intelligent octopuses, about the film industries in the 1940s, about the recuperative power of the natural world, what Jane Austen’s life was like….
• 
  
• The fiction outside the genre that’s getting rave reviews – Elena Ferrante’s quartet of novels set in Naples, the re-published early 20^thcentury novels offered by Persephone Books, Kim Stanley Robinson’s alternative histories and future fiction, short story anthologies…the list is endless.
• 
  
• The classics. I reread my favorites, like Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, Octavia Butler, Rex Stout whenever I get tired of current trends. 
• 
  
• And I have to grit my teeth, be a grown-up and face the dangers of our time as chronicled in long articles in the New Yorker, in books like FALTER by Bill McKibben, and accounts of how humans are driving everything from whales to butterflies to extinction.

The thing is, I read, read, read all the time. Sometimes I watch streaming TV series, but when they cut into my reading time too much, I am not happy. If I really thought I had to curtail my reading in order to write, I’d be miserable. 

One last thing: There is nothing – no class, no workshop, no degree – that is a better teacher of good writing than good writing. 

While I am not trying to suggest my own writing equals theirs, I’d love to have you read one of my books if you haven’t yet. My stories? 

"A pleasant getaway from hard-core killers." - NYT Book Review

“Fresh, fast-paced, and great fun.” —Library Journal

The Dani O'Rourke series

The French Village mysteries

A flair for the dram-atic

By Abir

This week's question: What one thing do you wish you could write off against tax, that you (legally) can't. Make your case.

Don’t tell anyone, but I was an accountant in a previous life. In fact I still am on Thursdays…, so you might be forgiven for thinking I’d have a pretty good idea of what’s tax deductible and what’s not. Truth is though, I haven’t a clue. (I never said I was a particularly good accountant. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I’m pretty keen for this writing malarkey to work out). But accountant or not, I confess I’ve never played this game of fantasy tax write-offs before.

Nevertheless, I am up for the challenge (and it is a challenge – I expect you, dear readers, to read this and the four entries from my co-bloggers this week and decide whose tax-deductible frippery you think is best and most deserving of becoming a real tax write off.)

I would suggest two stipulations though:

-      Firstly, the tax-deductible expense of choice has to be book or research related: there’s no point in me trying to justify that new kitchen I keep promising my wife  (three years now and counting) as a tax deduction; and 

-      Secondly, that it it’ll be something vital to the smooth running of the plots of our stories or the life and well-being of our protagonists.

With those in mind, I humbly put to you my proposal for a tax-deductible expense:

A three month, all expenses paid, whisky tour of Scotland 

(and, if there’s time, Ireland too)

My business case is a follows.

My lead detective, Sam Wyndham, has a taste for the whisky – especially single malts. Now in the first three novels of the series, this ‘hobby’ was somewhat overshadowed by his little problem with opium. But in book four, Death in the East (out this November and available from all good retailers, thanks for asking) he goes into rehab. It means that from book five, he’s going to have a wee bit more time for drinking, and so, in the interests of realism and attention to detail which I know you discerning readers expect, I feel I have little option but to carry out a comprehensive fact-finding tour of the distilleries of Scotland in search of the perfect dram for me Sam.

 

Such an endeavour, as you will be aware, is no easy task. At last count, there were over a hundred and twenty working distilleries in the country, stretching from the Orkneys to the Lowlands, and from Islay to Speyside, and while Scotland might not be very large in North American terms, the journey is likely to be long and dangerous (pronouncing some of the place-names requires a degree in linguistics, and getting them wrong could have me mistaken for a foreigner, or worse, an Englishman).

 

So this is what I think I’m going to need for my grand tour:

-      A car (preferably a big one) – to carry all the bottles I’ll need for further, desk-top based research;

-      A chauffeur (preferably teetotal) – because let’s face it, my dedication to research is going to mean I’m unlikely to be in any fit state to drive;

-      A GPS system that understands Scottish. As the video below will demonstrate, this is harder to obtain than you might think;

-      Appropriate accommodation – I would be happy with a tent, but I think I should set an example to aspiring authors everywhere by staying in five-star accommodation where possible; and

-      Certain funds to acquire further research materials. (About sixty bottles should do).

I would hope to come back and redecorate my study so that it looks more like this:

 I’m sure, you’ll all agree that this is by far the best suggestion for a tax-deductible expense. Indeed, some of you are probably of the opinion that it is even worthy of some sort of government funding. I would whole-heartedly concur and will start a campaign tomorrow to convince the faceless bureaucrats in Westminster, Brussels, Washington, and whatever the capital of Canada is, that this whisky tour is definitely a good use of your tax dollars. (I'm kidding! Trust me, I know what the capital of Canada is.) The campaign will take some time of course, and in the interim I shall be most happy to accept any donations you might wish to make towards this noble endeavour.

The only snag I can foresee is convincing my wife to let me go on this trip. She's an understanding, caring soul but I've found that it's best not to suggest whisky related adventures to her without first sugaring the pill. To that end, I'd be grateful if one of you could supply me with a fabulous (and very cheap) new kitchen.