Fresh Out of Ideas?

/in /by
Where do your
ideas come from?
Hands down, the
question I’m asked most often.
I have a vision
of an old School House Rock song. I can’t remember which one…Get your Adverbs
Here, maybe. There are shelves stocked with words. Wouldn’t it be lovely if
ideas worked the same way?


“I’d like a
murder, a motive, and some secondary characters, please. A sale on sub-plots? I’ll
take two.”
The reality is
that ideas sometime take their time arriving. They’re there sitting on a shelf
deep in my brain but the salesman with his spiffy vest and tie is missing. I
have to paw through the merchandise myself if I can even find the shelves.
Walking helps.
That repetitive motion allows me to access different parts of my brain.
If I really need
an idea, all I need to is take a shower with no paper or pen anywhere nearby.
Is the brilliant idea that just popped into the front of my brain worth dashing
naked through the house? Yes? No? If I don’t jot it down, it’s gone forever.
And then there’s
that magical place between sleep and waking where ideas percolate like an
old-fashioned coffee maker.
My ideas come
from reading a fabulous book and thinking I’d have answered what if? differently.
My ideas come
from the news, favorite television shows, and beloved movies.

And finally, my
ideas come from the people around me (because who hasn’t thought, “I could kill
her”).



Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders. 

She is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean–and she’s got an active imagination. Truth is–she’s an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions. 

Her latest book in The Country Club Murders, Send in the Clowns, is available for pre-order.

Transitioning in Age and Writing

/in /by
Transitioning in Age and Writing by Debra H. Goldstein

For the past few months, many
members of the Stiletto Gang have given you the opportunity to learn about our
similarities and differences through our 4th Thursday Clicking Our
Heels column or by interpreting the same topic in one of our monthly
posts.  Unfortunately, although I usually
pull Clicking Our Heels together, I’ve missed the monthly topics because my
travel schedule necessitated pre-scheduling my blog post before it was picked.  Not this month!  This time, you get my take on whether my
maturity as a writer (translate that to transition in chronological years) affects
my manuscripts.
The problem addressing this topic is
that even as the years pass, I don’t think I’ve matured yet.  Sure, I know more of my strengths (plotting)
and weaknesses (I’m reserved in life and have to go back and let you know more
of my characters’ inner thoughts), but I’m a writing neophyte.  I only began seriously writing in the past
five years. 
What comes to mind when you think of
a five-year-old? Curiosity? Incessant why, what, when, where

questions?
Exploration? Or, perhaps that adorable moment when the whirlwind falls asleep?

For the first few years, I punted. I
often was too naïve to ask the right questions, but I observed. Today, my
writing life is exactly like a five-year-old. 
I can’t soak up enough knowledge. 
Whether

I’m reading, taking a class, or talking to someone, I want to
learn everything.  Sometimes, I pick up a
habit or a concept that impresses me, but isn’t right for my writing. Other
times, I have a eureka lightbulb moment during which my writing jumps to a new
level.  Hopefully, the result of my
five-year-old wonder is that both my short and long pieces have improved. 

Whether I’m writing flash fiction, a
six-thousand-word story, or a novel, the length is dictated by what is required
to share the tale with you rather than my maturity as a writer. I remove boring
parts more easily because I am a better editor than I was five years ago, but
those edited parts may be replaced by longer passages of enhanced
characterization.


So, my answer as to whether maturity affects the
length of my manuscript is “It depends.” The only thing I am certain of is my
prayer that as I transition in years, my writing never loses the wonder of
being a five-year-old

Embracing the Change

/in /by
by J.M. Phillippe

Like many other writers, I have a day job. I am a social worker and have spent the last four years working in child welfare. While this can be a very rewarding field to work in, it is also a very draining field to work in. Self-care is a constant challenge due to the demands of the job. When you rarely get time for lunch, it is even harder to make time for writing — which has not been good for me, or my publishing schedule. 
It’s not just the hours, which are long, or the paperwork, which even the most prolific of writers would find daunting to keep up with — it’s that the constant stress leaves you so little mental energy to dig into character and conflict. Writing is work, of course, but it began to feel like more work than it ever had before. 
Every writer, regardless of their outside life, struggles to fit writing into that life. Writing is a very time consuming enterprise, and much of that time is spent away from other people, and away from the maintenance of every day living. It’s hard to write and do dishes at the same time (though so easy to get dishes done when you are avoiding a particularly challenging writing session). Time spent writing is time AWAY. You have to have the time to spare (or the ability to create it).  I was running out of away time to dedicate to writing (or laundry, which was piling up on the regular). Something had to give. 
So I sought out and found a new job at a mental health clinic — I will now be working as a therapist full time. What I am hoping this means is that I will have more time — and energy — for writing. 
And yet, change is hard. Change makes people very uncomfortable. (As someone who helps people change their lives for a living, I can attest that most people find it at best, a frustrating experience). So even though I’m very excited for this change, I am also nervous. What if this doesn’t work out the way I hope it will? What if I start to feel burned out again? What if I don’t make time for writing in this new schedule? 
Change comes with risk — it invites the unknown into your life. It leaves variables on the table that only time and experience can solve. And at this point, I’m still not sure what X will turn out to be. 
It feels very much like sitting down to write a new story with only a vague outline in mind, and no real idea how it’s going to end. So you’d think I’d be used to this feeling, used to facing down the unknown. The very act of writing is the act of embracing change over and over, solving for x time and time again. Writing is meant to be uncomfortable and challenging, or else it wouldn’t also be rewarding. Change, like writing, is hard every single time. It also is the only way that something new, and potentially amazing, can happen. 
Here’s to opening the door and inviting in the amazing!
***

J.M. Phillippe is the author of Perfect Likeness and the newly released short story The Sight. She has lived in the deserts of California, the suburbs of Seattle, and the mad rush of New York City. She worked as a freelance journalist before earning a masters’ in social work. She works as a family therapist in Brooklyn, New York and spends her free-time decorating her tiny apartment to her cat Oscar Wilde’s liking, drinking cider at her favorite British-style pub, and training to be the next Karate Kid, one wax-on at a time.

My Swan Song by Marilyn Meredith

/in /by

Swan song definition, the last act or manifestation of someone or something; farewell appearance: 


Yes, this will be my last scheduled appearance on The Stiletto Gang blog. I’ve been a member since it was first created, but now I find that I need to cut back on a few things and this is one of them.


I’ve had a great time writing posts for this great group of women writers, and loved getting to know each one. 


I have my own blog, and am a regular on two other blogs, and when I forgot my regular time on The Stiletto Gang and neglected to write a post, I knew it was time to cut back.


For those who don’t really know me, I’m much older than anyone who contributes to this blog–and I’m even a great-great grandmother!


Great-granddaughter and her little-one.

This baby was a surprise to the whole family, including her mom. Docs told her she had something wrong with her spleen. If I wrote something like this in a novel, no one would believe it.

My family is way bigger than most–and many of them live nearby, including another granddaughter and hubby and two little girls and a great-grandson and his wife all share are big roomy house. As the years pass, I want to spend as much time enjoying everyone as I can.

Yes, I’m still writing–I have a new Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Seldom Traveled, and I’m working on a new Rocky Bluff P.D. 


I’ll be popping in from time to time to see what these gals are up to. And that’s my Swan Song.

Marilyn Meredith

Celebrated by Americans since 1884

/in /by
By Kimberly
Jayne
“All
other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and
battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power,
of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day… is devoted to no
man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.”
~
Samuel Gompers
Founder
of the American Federation of Labor
Happy Labor Day! It’s
not just for traditional American workers — those 8-to-5’ers who bring home a
regular paycheck and enjoy the benefits of paid vacations, sick days, and
coworker relationships. It’s for everyone who works hard at their craft too,
alone in their struggle, like writers.
I always wonder if the broadest section
of society that does not write books understands the labor that goes into it.
Countless people remark, when they learn I’m a writer, that they could or want
to write a book too. Or they offer me a great idea for a book, which is not
such a good idea because it’s something that doesn’t fit me; it fits them.
The truth is most people will never write
a book. I think on some level, they must have an inkling of the time, energy,
persistence, dedication, and honed talent it takes to finish a project of that
size and scope. And for most writers, the ROI for our hard work is abysmal. It truly is a labor of love.
I think we all have a book within
us — certainly, we all have stories within us. But it’s those who do the work, who
push beyond the self-doubt, who churn out the paragraphs and pages and plots
that make magical worlds come to life inside the reader, who can be most proud
of their achievements.
This holiday weekend alone, I’ve written about 2,500 words, which is hard to accomplish during the regular work week where I am a writer and editor for a trade publication and where I enjoy all the perks of more “traditional” workers. 
So to all you writers out there who toil in the spare
hours of your day, the weekend warriors who fast-write while they have free
time away from the J.O.B., those who overcome the obstacles and blast through
the blocks, and those midnight-oil-burners who punch those keys long after everyone else is asleep, I celebrate you! I hope you’re celebrating your successes on this Labor Day too. 
________________ 
Kimberly Jayne writes in multiple genres including humor, romantic comedy, suspense, erotica, and dark fantasy. Her latest foray into a dark fantasy released in episodes is as much an adventure as the writing itself. You can check her out on Amazon. Find out more about her at ReadKimberly.

Books by Kimberly Jayne:


Take My Husband, Please! A Romantic Comedy
Watch for Episode 4, coming soon!

Hot, Hot Summer

/in /by
by Linda Rodriguez
It’s the first of September, but it still feels like August, and that’s gone on so long that my eyes are permanently raw from sun and heat and truly excessive humidity. This photo is me at sixteen in my senior play, Li’l Abner, playing Moonbeam McSwine, a sultry woman whose way of dealing with the heat of summer was just to give in to it–and to every man who came along. So it seemed like a good choice for this post all about summer heat and how it makes us feel lazy and… decadent.

Here’s a poem I wrote about summer heat and how it can turn good girls (and women) bad–at least in their minds and imaginations.


BLAME IT ON SUMMER

that I smile too widely,
grinning really, and
laugh
too loud and often; that
I walk
with spring and sensual
sway;
that I stretch myself and
twist
like a cat
baking in the backyard
brightness; that my brain
is sun-bleached,
all rule and thought
boiled away, leaving
only sensory steam;
that my feverish eyes see
strange dancing
flames in afternoon
shadows
along the sides of
streets and Bedouin oases, fragrant
with dates and goats and
acrid desert waters,
in every suburban garden
we pass
while you argue and drive
and I stare,
heavy-brained with heat
and too aware of my own
body
and every other;
that I take a lover,
brazenly, crazily,
too sun-stupid to be
careful,
in my dreams.
Published in Heart’s Migration (Tia Chucha Press, 2009)

Lourey/Baker Double Booked Tour

/in /by

by  Shannon Baker and Jess Lourey


Today our guest bloggers are the amazing Shannon Baker and Jess Lourey. We’re so glad you’ve stopped by! Take it away ladies!

A big hello to the Stiletto Gang from me (Shannon Baker) and Jess Lourey. Thanks to Sparkle Abbey for inviting us to chat today. We’ve been zooming around the Internets on this crazy, month-long prelaunch blog tour and we’re tuckered out. Or, at least, I am, Jess is much younger so can probably still dance all night. I’m not nearly as pooped, though, as if I’d had to go it alone. Take my word for it, traveling with a friend is so much better. As our host(s), Sparkle Abbey, well know.


Shannon Baker

Shannon: I’m all giddy with excitement to tell you about my new Kate Fox mystery series. The first book, due out September 6th but available for preorder, is Stripped Bare. Set in the Nebraska Sandhills, it’s been called Longmire meets The Good Wife.


Jess: I’m thrilled to talk about Salem’s Cipher, my political suspense novel which is not coincidentally also releasing on September 6th and also available for preorder. Salem’s Cipher features Salem Wiley, an agoraphobic cryptanalyst who must crack codes Emily Dickinson hid 100 years earlier in order to save the first viable female presidential candidate from assassination. USA Today bestselling author Alyson Gaylin kindly calls it “a bona fide page turner.”


Shannon: Together, Jess and I have published 19 books so supposedly, we know something about writing novels. However, I’m plotting another book in the Kate Fox series and would love some expert advice. So today, we’re going to talk about plot and see if Jess can get me out of my mess.


I’ve always been a plotter, as opposed to a pantser (magicians who start on the novel highway and only see as far as their headlights but drive the whole trip that way—to paraphrase E.L. Doctorow) I know Jess is a plotter, too. 


I used to use an Excel spreadsheet and plotted every scene, along with detailed notes. I found I usually jumped away from the outline but having it made me less psychotic. Slightly less. 


In the past I’ve used all kinds of models, from Laura Baker’s Discovering Story Magic, to Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, and most recently, Larry Brooks, Story Engineering.
But I really admire writers who stay more flexible and I felt like the Universe was trying to tell me to trust myself more. So with my last book, I started with way less planned out. 


As it happened, I got bogged down, wound around, tangled up, and right before I got to the climactic segment, I realized I’d skipped a whole book. So I quit right where I was and now, am backtracking to the lost book.
And I’m taking more time to plot.



Jess: Shannon, I feel your pain. Or at least I see it. I don’t feel it because I’m too chicken to go without a plot, though I know I’d be happier if I was more laidback across ever area of my life. I think about writing novels much like I thought about coloring back in kindergarten, though. I liked to outline the coloring book picture with a dark line of crayon first, and then fill in the middle with a lighter version of the same shade.

Jess Lourey



Similarly, I like to trace the shape of a book before I write it, creating an overarching rhythm by not getting into the details. I usually write a one sentence summary of each scene (and my novels average around 70 scenes), one sentence per note card, and then I lay them all out in a room to make sure they’re all necessary and all in the right order. Once I determine they are, I start writing, leaving room for surprise and rearrangement. You can do something similar to my notecard plotting exercise using Scrivener, which I like, but which I don’t entirely trust in a “I’m going to save my money in a mattress” kind of way.


So Shannon, with the book that you pantsed before realizing you’d skipped a book—was that experience worthwhile for you? Is it helping you to write the book you are writing now, or does it feel like wasted time?

Shannon: I think all writing helps. I believe the more words a person writes, the better she gets. So, no, I don’t think it was wasted. And I will probably use much of it later on. At least I know where I don’t want to go.


In my new series, Kate has several issues going on. She’s got to figure out a whole new life, after she’d thought she had it all planned out. She’s got a beloved niece on the run and is trying to figure out why. And, of course, in every book there is a crime to solve. It’s fun trying to puzzle out where she’s going next and what she needs to do, but keeping all the subplots and threads weaving together can be a challenge. 


Jess, Salem has personal issues, historic, cryptologic and crime going on. That makes for a complicated story. Did your notecard method help you to keep it all running smooth? 


Jess: Yep. Not only that, it kept me sane. In Salem’s Cipher, Salem Wiley, the protagonist, has to crack codes left by Emily Dickinson to find out why powerful women throughout history have been systematically killed. It’s the only way to save her mother as well as the first viable female presidential candidate the U.S. has ever seen. I had the race-against-time plot to crack the codes, the go-back-in-time plot to set up the codes as well as to develop characters, and the across-time plot to set up relationships real time in the book. That’s why I took my notecard game to a new level with this book and color- and shape-coded the cards. Colors signaled whose point of view the scene was being told from, and shape (no corners cut, one corner cut, or two corners cut) indicated which plot thread I was handling. Laying them all out on the floor was a quick and easy way to make sure nothing was getting bunched up or neglected. I have so much admiration for a writer who can weave all those threads with no map!




A little about our books:

Salem’s Cipher: Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst, courted by the world’s top security agencies ever since her quantum computing breakthrough. She’s also an agoraphobe shackled to a narrow routine since her father’s suicide. When her intelligence work unexpectedly exposes a sinister plot to assassinate the country’s first viable female presidential candidate, Salem finds herself both target and detective in a modern day witch hunt. Drawn into a labyrinth of messages encrypted by Emily Dickinson and codes tucked inside the Beale Cipher a hundred years earlier, Salem begins to uncover the truth: an ancient and ruthless group is hell-bent on ruling the world, and only a select group of women stands in its way.

Stripped Bare: Just when everything seems about perfect, someone leaves the barn door open and all hell breaks loose. At least, that’s what it feels like for Kate Fox. Born and raised in the Nebraska Sandhills, smack in the middle of eight interfering siblings, related to everyone in the county by one degree of separation or less, Kate’s managed to create a her perfect life.


A shattering phone calls hits Kate like a January blizzard. A local rancher is murdered and her husband, the sheriff, is shot. When her husband is suspected of the murder, Kate vows to find the killer.


Jess and I are both giving away a copy of our new books, Salem’s Cipher and Stripped Bare. For a chance to win, share one of your plot tricks or leave a comment. 




Not only that:


If you order Salem’s Cipher before September 6, 2016, you are invited to forward your receipt to salemscipher@gmail.com to receive a Salem short story and to be automatically entered in a drawing to win a 50-book gift basket mailed to the winner’s home!


If you order Stripped Bare before September 6, 2016, you are invited to forward your receipt to katefoxstrippedbare@gmail.com to receive a Kate Fox short story and be entered for a book gift basket mailed to your home. 




Join us tomorrow as the Lourey/Baker Double Booked tour trips over to Mysteriastas, where we’re going to talk about recipes. (really)