Do you try to read the books that are nominated for major awards? Do you second-guess the nominations, or do you usually find you agree?

The short answer is, no, I do not. I’ve never watched a movie based on an Oscar nod either. As a writer, I’m what is called a pantser. The same goes for my reading. Now, I know plenty of readers who pick their book choices with an eye to the list, but a lot of these readers, will also DNF (do not finish) a book with the ruthlessness of a literary agent reading a query letter. I am not that reader. If I start a book, I’m pretty much in. So, it behooves me to make good choices from the outset. How can I trust the recommendation of a rando who has no idea what I like? I mean, I heard Stephen King said he didn’t like his book, Insomnia. It’s still one of my favorites. Absolutely hated the Dome, though, ugh.

That’s not to say I don’t love a great recommendation. Finding a new author to love is like Christmas, and your birthday wrapped together, especially if they have a backlist long enough for you to get lost in. I found Kellye Garrett through the recommendation of a friend, and it opened a whole new world of incredible writers that I knew nothing about. I’ll be forever grateful for that. So, for me a book recommendation is special. When I share my love of a book with someone, it’s because I think there’s something in there that I think will bring you joy. A list can’t do that.

The first book I remember reading was a Harlequin romance by Penny Jordan. I was ten years old. I stole the book from my sister who was four years older than me. I thought that everything she did was cool. Her reading choice at the time, confirmed that opinion for me. That one stolen book was a gateway that introduced me to a world that was only limited by my ability to search through the stacks at my local library.

 Forty-six years later, my favorite place to be is in between the pages of a book. In books I am an explorer of worlds. And though, I may never visit the fantastic world of Xanth, or a little town named Derry, Maine, thank goodness, I’m privileged to know them as intimately as my own bedroom, thanks to the writers who made them real through the beauty of their words and their boundless imaginations. It’s pretty darn magical if you think about it.   

As a child, I spent every waking moment not sucked away by school or chores with my nose in a book. If you asked anyone who knew me then, that’s probably the first thing they would say. I read when I was supposed to be studying at school, by putting a book under or between my schoolbooks. I read when I was supposed to be sleeping, with the old flashlight under the covers trick. I read while walking to school, may have bumped into a few trees, or mailboxes.

There was never enough time to read. I graduated from romances to Greek mythology, to the classics, to fantasy, to science fiction, and then to Stephen King, where I discovered that even better than a good story, was a good story with great characters. Oh, how I wanted to be part of the gang, hanging around the Barrens, fighting an evil clown, and the local bullies.

As a grownup on a bullet train to old age, all-night binges have been replaced with long lines at the grocery store, airport lounges, and waiting rooms. I’ll will run out of time before I come near to running out of books. If I chose to, I could select books to read strictly from my author friend circle and never run out of great reads. In fact, sometimes, I go on a tangent and do exactly that.

Then there are my long-time favorites, Stephen King, Walter Mosely, Harlen Coben, Kevin Obrien, and Danielle Steele, yes, I said Danielle Steele. I miss these authors after not reading them for a while. And finally, there are the list.

Every year around this time, I think you could safely call it the award season for books. List of books nominated for the best of are released. You can always count on the greats making an appearance on these lists. But I’m going to keep on ignoring them for books that speak directly to my bookworm’s heart.

Current read, in case you’re wondering, is a new author for me, that I’m happy to add to my favorite’s list. Magic City Blues, by Bobby Mathew. I can recommend this to you, if you enjoy a fast-paced, page turner, with the throwback feel of a classic PI novel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cozy writing - by Harini Nagendra

Have you ever pulled punches in a plot? In other words, when it came time to kill someone, you let them live. Or when it came time to find out someone was a villain, you chose someone else? Or if the plot seemed to veer in a dark direction, you pulled back?

There's a reason I write cozies. And read them. I've never watched a horror movie, read a psychological thriller, or wanted to explore the dark side of life in fiction. Life has enough of the dark side, death can be horrific, and bad things happen around us all the time as it is. 

Given the way I feel - why do I write historical mysteries? I don't have the best of answers for you, or for myself - but I do know that I find it satisfying to solve a good puzzle, read a mystery with a twist, and 'see' justice done at the end. 

So yes, in my books I'm careful not to kill off the main protagonists or the really good folks - most of the time, anyway. Unless it's really needed for the plot. I'm happy to choose villains where the plot takes me - that's not been such a problem. But I can't imagine ever wanting to take the plot in a dark direction - at least not unless I can find enough sweetness to counterbalance the harsh flavors.

But as a writer of historical mystery, I can't completely veer away from the dark side of history. Take my 1920s colonial India book Murder Under A Red Moon, the second in the Bangalore Detectives Club series, for instance. In the scene below, I describe an incident that was commonplace in British India - where rats, snakes and other 'vermin' had a price on them, in a vain attempt to keep the city free of plague and other diseases - and young boys hunted them for money.

Kaveri skirted the twigs and the lathi-wielding constable, and started to go in. Then stopped in surprise when she saw a long line of raggedy-looking boys all between the ages of eight and twelve, clad in grimy loincloths, their ribs showing above bellies swollen with hunger. She looked at what they were holding in their hands, and took a couple of steps back. Each urchin held a number of dead rats in his hand. Flies buzzed noisily around the rats and the boys. She put her sari to her mouth, breathing through it heavily. 

‘What on earth?’ Kaveri turned to the constable. She saw Venu dart out from the door. ‘

Kaveri akka, what are you doing here? Come in, fast.’ 

He hurriedly dragged Kaveri inside, taking her to Ismail’s room. ‘The Inspector is not here. But he said I could use his room.’ 

Venu looked very proud of himself as he perched on the edge of a chair in the corner.

‘Why are you here? And what are those boys doing outside?’ Kaveri demanded. 

‘Didn’t you see the notice in the paper, akka? Because of the plague, the government has offered a reward for the extermination of rats. They will pay two annas for every dead rat brought to them. No one was taking it up, though, and I know a couple of friends of mine who are leaders of local groups of boys – they are all hungry – so I fixed it up with Inspector Ismail. They will come here and hand over the rats.’ 

Venu pointed outside. ‘There is a cart parked behind the station. Once each boy drops off his rats there, he gets a chit from the constable in charge, with the number of rats marked. Then he comes to the station and gets his money.’ 

Kaveri winced. ‘It is not safe for those children to be doing this—’ she began. 

 Venu interrupted her, saying fiercely, ‘What do you want them to do, akka? Just look at them. They are so hungry, they would probably eat the rats!’ 

I can't wish away reality - nor do I want to. 1920s India was a difficult place to live in for many Indians, especially the poor and powerless. But as a writer, I can choose what I want my characters to experience - and while they go through hardships, I want them to come out on the other side, with a good shot at a happy life. Even if it's fiction. Especially since it's fiction - and I'm writing it.

Second Guessing or Simply Proper Reflection? from James W. Ziskin

Have you ever pulled punches in a plot? In other words, when it came time to kill someone, you let them live. Or when it came time to find out someone was a villain, you chose someone else? Or if the plot seemed to veer in a dark direction, you pulled back? 

I don’t believe I’ve ever pulled any punches in one of my plots, at least not consciously. Unless maybe you count some word choices. I have, at times, decided against using a particular word or phrase out of concern for how it might be perceived. This is a trap writers often face when drawing their characters. Things the people in our books say can be interpreted as our own beliefs when, in fact, they are not. Some of my characters kill people, but somehow readers don’t accuse me of murder. So why, then, should they think a particular odious statement in one of my books represents my own beliefs? Maybe a character utters a racial slur or calls his wife an ugly name. That doesn’t mean I endorse such ideas.

And since I write books set in the past, there’s the extra danger of using terms that were in use then but out of favor today. They don’t even have to be super derogatory to pose risks to my personal reputation. In TURN TO STONE, my editor objected to my narrator’s use of “Oriental” instead of “Asian” when describing a group of tourists in Florence in 1963. For a while, I stood my ground and insisted that, while the word is frowned upon today, it was perfectly acceptable in the early sixties when my book was set. But after thinking it over, I decided it was a battle I might win but still lose the war. Why risk offending people needlessly? In the end, I decided to describe the group as Japanese tourists, thus avoiding the problematic word altogether. My final choice didn’t detract from the sense of period, nor did it risk offending anyone. My editor was right.

I faced a similar issue in CAST THE FIRST STONE, which dealt with the theme of homophobia in 1962 Hollywood. Given the subject matter, I had to decide how to treat the language—what was acceptable usage as well as the slurs—of the era. This proved to be difficult. My editor and I finally landed on the idea of using quotation marks for the offensive words, indicating that those were not my narrator Ellie’s words, but the bigoted remarks of others. Still, it’s an apt example of rethinking some editorial choices and pulling back.

So even if I’ve never stayed my hand to spare the life of a character In my books, I certainly have debated and reversed myself where word choice is concerned. I believe that in writing words are just as important as story. Not more important, but not less either. That may not be a popular opinion in writing circles, but that’s what I believe. Our words are the raw materials we use to build stories. And I wouldn’t want to use anything but the best materials in my work.

Let the punches land

Have you ever pulled punches in a plot? In other words, when it came time to kill someone, you let them live. Or when it came time to find out someone was a villain, you chose someone else? Or if the plot seemed to veer in a dark direction, you pulled back?

by Dietrich

There’s no blueprint for my plots. I wing it and let the story develop as I roll with an idea and go by what feels right. Nothing’s set in stone, especially in a first draft. Fresh ideas and new direction pop up and want to be considered, and when something lands that’s better than what I started with, then I’ll go in that direction. So, I’m often making a choice that feels like I’m at a pivotal moment or a crossroads between keeping the momentum going or pulling back. 

"Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.” That’s how Ray Bradbury put it. 

I’ve learned to trust my instincts, and that’s what tells me when I’m dwelling too long on an emotional beat and the pace is dragging, or when a chapter feels like it’s in overdrive with non-stop action and there’s a need for some breathing room. Navigating through a scene, I try to stay aware of when to let the full weight land or when to pull back to maximize a scene. And in pulling back, care needs to be taken to keep the scene from lacking honesty and coming off as soppy. A lack of consequence can deflate the tension, and I want the reader to feel the highs and lows alongside my characters. I sure don’t want them to feel cheated or to yawn because I’ve watered down a scene. It’s about keeping tonal consistency.

Having said that, there are times when I might hold back something to keep a scene light-hearted, or if I want to build up for some upcoming suspense. And often the best way to handle a heavy moment is by implication rather than by splashing blood all over the place. 

Maybe it’s a way of pulling punches, but I often use levity when revealing aspects of a character’s greed or rationalizing their acts of corruption or revenge. And that often helps maintain the story’s overall vibe.   

On that first pass, the draft’s rough and the characters aren’t fleshed out yet. I really get to know them by the second pass, and the villain might end up as the hero, and vice versa. By winging it this way, I often make changes to resolve certain character arcs or plot points. 

What I don’t want to do is shy away from the harsh realities and the darker aspects of human nature — something that would just water the whole thing down. After all, it’s a crime novel.

Pulling Punches

 

Terry here with this week's question:

Have you ever pulled punches in a plot? In other words, when it came time to kill someone, you let them live. Or when it came time to find out someone was a villain, you chose someone else? Or if the plot seemed to veer in a dark direction, you pulled back? 

I’ve done every one of these things, so I’ll take them one at a time. I wouldn’t exactly say I’ve pulled punches, but I do have one problem in my first drafts that I always wind up having to address : Everybody is always too nice.

Somewhere around 2/3 of the way through, I’ll suddenly realize that there isn’t enough conflict. That doesn’t mean the plot isn’t rolling along, and the action is okay. But conflict is at the heart of not just mystery novels, but every novel. I don’t remember who said it, but a wise author said, “On every page, every character should want something they can’t get—even if it’s only a ham sandwich.” 

 At the heart of my lack of conflict is characters don't show their true selves on the page. So I have to go back and fix that. The sweet mother of a teenager will suddenly get a sharp tongue. The “nice” man who runs the grocery store will turn into a vicious gossip. The devoted church lady will hit her dog. And worse. When I stop ignoring their vices, I discover deadly sins: greed, envy, sloth, lust, and pride. I discover people who have a dark side and who aren’t so nice. So yes, in the beginning of a book I sometimes inadvertently pull punches, but eventually true nature comes out. 

How about killing someone vs letting them live? Yep, been there. The only reason someone should die is to further the story. No gratuitous death. Every now and then I’ve thought about having an extra murder to spice things up, but it doesn't really serve the story, so instead I’ll have them beaten up, or threatened, or afraid for their life. Sometimes this can be even more satisfying than having a body. It adds to the mystery of what’s might happen…instead of what did happen. 

As for the villain, I have yet to write a book in which I know who the villain is when I start out. It almost feels like I’m the detective and I have to discover the perpetrator along with the reader. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t chosen someone who eventually turns out not to be the villain. That’s because of the “one more twist” rule. At the end of the book, it’s up to me to have one more twist. That means the person everyone, including my detective (and sometimes I), thought was guilty is not guilty after all. It adds fun for me, as a writer to stretch it out. It also means I really have to think about it. I’ll be totally satisfied with the bad guy (or gal) and suddenly, I’ll think, “Oh, wait. That’s not it.” That happened in Murder at the Jubilee Rally. 

The killer was staring me right in the face, but I didn't want him to be the villain, so I wrote in someone else. And then I had to go that last step and bow to the inevitable. 

In fact, I was just going through notes on the book I just finished writing and found a note that I had written that suggested a perfectly rational outcome. The note said exactly who was guilty. But I realized it wouldn’t have tied everything up at the end. I had to take a further step. And in the end, the actual killer not only makes sense, but takes the plot a step further. 

As for going dark, I have a tendency, as I noted earlier, to make everyone too nice—and therefore, the mystery is not nuanced. That is, there isn’t enough darkness in it. I like dark. Someone once called my books “Hill Country Noir.” So if it feels too sweetness and light, I have to go back to the drawing board and think where I skirted the darkness. 

But that's not always the case. One of the hardest books I wrote, A Reckoning in the Back Country had a lot to do with dog fighting.

That subject was dark, dark from the beginning. But I knew that it exists in rural Texas, and if I didn't write about it, I was a coward. I didn't have to look for darkness in that one. 

The book I’m just finishing has probably the darkest moment any of my books have had. (Not counting the one I wrote during COVID and threw out because it was not just dark, but mean). The dark moment sneaked up on me. I presented a dilemma: arresting the killer would bring down bad consequences for a lot of people. When I wrote that dilemma, I didn’t expect it, and I felt a real gut reaction. So I have to say, far from pulling back from something veering too dark, I welcome it. It feels real.

www.Terryshames.com 

The Art of Plotting

Have you ever pulled punches in a plot? In other words, when it came time to kill someone, you let them live. Or when it came time to find out someone was a villain, you chose someone else? Or if the plot seemed to veer in a dark direction, you pulled back?

Brenda starting off the week.

I'm basically a pantser, which means I don't do a lot of detailed plotting; however, I usually have an overarching plan for a novel and key plot points rolling around in my imagination. Sometimes, though, nothing goes as planned.

When I wrote my first standalone In Winter's Grip, I'd decided that it would not be a murder mystery. I wanted to focus on setting and a more literary style. By the second chapter, I had a dead body, and my foray into non-crime fiction effectively ended.

Have I ever changed my mind about killing off a character? Only once. I grew very fond of a particular character whom I intended to bump off. I couldn't do it. Instead, I killed off a less likeable character, and the entire manuscript ground to a halt. With some reluctance, I rewrote the scene and murdered my original target. The story was stronger for it, but I was a bit sad for a while.

As for changing the killer, this has happened once or twice. The one time I recall, the character I had in mind appeared too obvious to me. I like to keep the reader guessing, so I knew the killer had to be someone more unexpected. As a general rule, I know the killer, motivation, and crime before I begin writing and usually stick with these decisions except for those times when a better suspect shows up. 

When the plot has veered into darker waters, I've gone with it for the most part, although I'm careful how these scenes play out. For example, when I was writing Cold Mourning, we had a serial killer, who was high up in the military, living a few blocks over from our house (true story). His murders were being made public through a trial, and I found the entire series of events very disturbing. This man became a fictional character in my book as I worked through the horror of what he'd done in real life. I didn't use any of what actually happened, only created a rather nasty character who doesn't fare well in the plot. (Therapy?) 

If I've learned anything writing crime fiction novels, it's to be flexible and to follow along where characters and the story lead. Not only will there be unexpected developments but the book will be stronger for it. There's a magical bit to writing that can't be quantified, and that's half the fun - being open to the creative process and seeing where that leads.

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