Clues

by Bethany Maines

Recently, I’ve been working on the sequel to my murder
mystery An Unseen Current.  While
thematically not that different from my other books (a young person struggles
with unusual circumstances while navigating the choppy waters of family, love,
and friends), mysteries bring a special level of challenge to the mix.  For one thing, people expect clues.  Oh, there’s a dead body?  Well, writer, where are the clues?  Chop, chop! Produce the clues!
However, it’s not just about clues; it’s about when to reveal
those clues.  Too early and readers are
bored because they already solved it. 
Too late and it seems like the author is cheating and wedging
information to justify who the killer is at the last second.  Then, even if the writer does pop a clue in
the right place, she can’t be too precious about it.  The author can’t present it on a silver
platter with a neon arrow stating: Clue Here!! 
To accomplish the correct where and when of clue placement requires a
stronger outline than other genres.  And
that means that I must do what every writer hates doing—not writing.
Outlining and the synopsis are vital to a successful book.  But they aren’t the FUN part of writing.  The fun part is churning out scenes and
spending time with the made up people who populate my brain.  Outlining requires problem solving and all
the leg work of deciding back stories and motivations and the literal who,
what, when, where and why of who was murdered. (It was Professor Plumb in the
Library with the Candlestick, in case you were wondering.)  But mostly it leaves me thinking: Are we
there yet? What about now?  Can I start
writing now?
Fortunately, the answer is getting closer to being yes.  So wish me luck as I work out the kinks of how the dead body
ended up behind a bar in Anacortes.

You never know what’s beneath the surface.
When Seattle native Tish Yearly finds herself
fired and evicted all in one afternoon, she knows she’s in deep water.
Unemployed and desperate, the 26 year old ex-actress heads for the one place
she knows she’ll be welcome – the house of her cantankerous ex-CIA agent
grandfather, Tobias Yearly, in the San Juan Islands. And when she discovers the
strangled corpse of Tobias’s best friend, she knows she’s in over her head.
Tish is thrown head-long into a mystery that pits her against a handsome but
straight-laced Sheriff’s Deputy, a group of eccentric and clannish local
residents, and a killer who knows the island far better than she does. Now Tish
must swim against the current, depending on her nearly forgotten acting skills
and her grandfather’s spy craft, to con a killer and keep them both alive.

***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries
, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny
and An
Unseen Current
.  
You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Rambling

It’s my turn again and I have nothing. So I’m going to ramble a bit about nothing.

It occurred to me the other day that I’ve been to twice as many conferences this year than ever before. January I was in Honolulu, Hawaii with Left Coast Crime – had a blast and able to cross this trip off my bucket list. April saw me stateside in Bethesda, Maryland for the annual Malice Domestic Convention. This convention will always be in my heart as it’s the first reader/fan convention I’ve ever attended. The first week of June I was on a Marketing/Social Media panel at the one-day Mystery Writers of America/New York Chapter’s Fiction Writers’ Conference held in Stamford, Connecticut. That was a fun excursion as it was my first time taking Metro North and going to Stamford. Two weeks ago, I attended the Deadly Ink conference in Rockaway, New Jersey. This is mostly a writer’s conference but readers do attend. This was also the first time I took a different New Jersey transit train, normally I’ve traveled on the NE Corridor.

So if you’re counting I’ve been to four conventions/conferences so far and I’m not finished. Next up I’ll be in Toronto, Canada at Bouchercon and I’m looking forward to that and last but not least I will be attending for the first time, the New England Crime Bake conference held in Woburn, Massachusetts. They have pizza parties and I heard something about a red carpet.

So all in all, that’s six author/reader-related conventions this year and this does not include the book signings, the MWA monthly events where I get a chance to meet readers and authors. Oh there another conference, ThrillerFest which is held in NYC, I may not attend any events, but I do hope to meet up with authors. I already have a lunch set up with fellow Stiletto Gang member Kay.

Okay, I rambled enough and it was about something.

So do you have anything to ramble about?
What are you looking forward to?
What’s on your bucket list?
 

Scams and Gullible Writers by Debra H. Goldstein

Scams and Gullible Writers by Debra H. Goldstein

How many times a week do
you answer a phone call or read a news story or friend’s post and immediately
know someone has been scammed? How many times do you ask yourself how can
anyone be so stupid to fall for the “your computer is reporting a problem,”
“You’ve been left a million dollars, but it will take you $5000 in handling
fees to receive it,” or “I’ve been stranded in Timbuctoo, would you please send
me $1000 to get home?” Most of these seem blatant – things we would never
believe, but this weekend I realized the vulnerability associated with being
scammed.

I had the privilege of
moderating a “Being Published” workshop panel hosted by the Atlanta Sisters in
Crime chapter. Our panel, composed of writers published by small and Big 5
traditionally published authors, was quite lively. Besides the technical
aspects of writing the best book possible, revising it until it really is the
best book possible, pitching and querying, agents, contracts, obligations to a
publisher and marketing, we stressed avoiding scams and noted traditional
publishers handle things without a financial investment by the author. After
the panel, an audience member approached me and related how she wrote a book which
was rejected by every agent and publisher she submitted it to except one house
that loved it just as it was.

According to this author,
the publisher promised, for a flat fee, to copyread it, give it a cover and
ISBN, give her a certain number of hardcover and paperback copies, place it
online as an e-book, and make it available for purchase from Amazon and other
online distribution sources as well as their own catalog. She went with this
publisher, but other than the copies purchased by friends and family, the book
isn’t setting the world on fire, so she decided to bring more attention to her
book by writing some short stories. She entered a few contests without success,
but then found some other sources for short stories. Most asked for a hefty
fee, but she was fine with that until she paid two fees but never received the
promised links to upload her stories. That’s when she realized she might not be
dealing with a legit publication.

My comment – “Don’t do
those anymore! You’ve been scammed.”

I went on to explain that
there may be a legitimate contest fee that is more like an administrative fee,
but for regular publications – literary or mystery, there are many places to
submit without paying a fee. Most reputable magazines and journals don’t charge.
They also specify whether they don’t pay for stories published, pay in copies,
or pay only x per word. These legit outlets can be found by networking with
your friends to see where they are being published, joining groups that
specialize in short stories in the genre you are writing, repeatedly checking
free blogs that announce publication calls (My Little Corner – http://sandraseamans.blogspot.com/
comes to mind), or subscribing to a reliable service like Duotrope.

A few minutes later,
another audience member shared his story with me. I was stunned. Both people
were educated and intelligent, so how did they fall for very similar scams?
Desperation. It is very easy when everyone says “No,” to take the easy way out.
Writers want to see their work in print. To feel they have accomplished
something. Consequently, many cave in a moment of weakness. In the end, being
scammed can hurt in so many ways – financially, a record of poor sales, never
being able to claim a first book again, or having a book or story published
before it is ready giving you a cloud on your name. We all want success, but
getting there means not being gullible. As writers, we are obligated to write
the best book or story we can, but we also are obligated to wear a business hat
to protect ourselves and our work products.

Clicking Our Heels – Our Favorite Numbers and Why

Clicking Our Heels – Our Favorite Numbers and Why 

Kimberly Jayne – My favorite number is 4.  Has been since I was a little girl.  It’s more meaningful now because I had four
kids.  It’s even and sounds good rolling
off the tongue. Four is me.

Paffi S. Flood – My favorite number is 13.  It’s my birthday and kids made fun of it when
it landed on Fridays, so I decided to do the opposite and adopt it.

Dru Ann Love – The number 4. 
It is an even number and my birth date.

Sparkle Abbey – We don’t really have favorite numbers.  Maybe if we played the lottery we’d have a
different answer.  Right now, our
favorite numbers are 9 and 10 because those are the numbers of the books that
we’re currently writing.

Jennae Phillippe – I am terrible at favorite, so I have a list: 3,
7, 8, 9, 13, 42.  Each of them has a
different reason behind it.  The most
obvious ones are 3 and 7, as numbers that show up in stories over and over
again; 13 because it is my lucky number, and 42 because of Douglas Adams.

Bethany Maines – 8.  Because
I kick ass at Crazy Eights.

Paula Gail Benson – 4. It’s always been lucky for me.

Kay Kendall – My favorite number is eight.  I think I love the symmetry of how it looks
as a numeral – 8.  My lucky number,
however, appears to be seven.  Those are
definitely two different things.

Debra H. Goldstein – 27.  It
has a nice ring to it and is the date my twins were born.  I had a difficult pregnancy during which this
type A person spent almost eight months counting the hours to viability.  They were born two days and seven hours after
the point at which I had been assured they would have a good chance of
surviving.

The 80/20 Rule for Readers

By Kay Kendall

This
afternoon my husband asked me an upsetting question. “Are fewer people reading
books these days?”

I gulped. “Yes,”
I replied, “but I try not to think about it.”

On the one
hand, I see statistical reports monthly and year-to-date and this year versus
last year. The trend is down, slowly but steadily down. This depresses me. 

On the other
hand, I hang out with writers and readers—both in real and in virtual life—leading to a false sense of euphoria. Why, everybody reads and buys books and complains about no space in their homes for ever
more books. Heated debates appear online about the virtues of e-books and paper
books, which is better and why. In truth, my world is replete with readers.
Everyone cares, and cares enough to argue heatedly, but usually civilly, which
is nice in this fraught climate of ours these days.

Twenty years
ago I learned how important it is to “compartmentalize” one’s mind. President
Bill Clinton was said to have mastered this skill as he went through his
impeachment crisis. Perhaps I learned how to compartmentalize my views on today’s
declining book sales from reading about his ability. Who knows?

So today,
after I gave my husband my anguished answer, he scuttled off to his French
class and I was left to ruminate on the conditions of publishing today. That is
when I remembered the 80/20 rule.

Have you
heard of it? I first learned about it in a marketing class in the 1980s. The
concept seemed unreal to me at first. The professor said that 80 percent of a
product was bought by just 20 percent of customers. Therefore, the marketers
had to define their target market and sell to them. That way led to high sales
and success.

Since that
time I’ve seen the 80/20 rule applied to all types of situations. I have also
learned that this rule was first promulgated in 1906 by an Italian economist
named Vilfredo Pareto. His research showed that 80 percent of land in Italy was
owned at that time by 20 percent of the country’s inhabitants. From there the
80/20 rule was applied to many other areas of human endeavor. Also known as the
Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule is now used to describe almost any type of
output in the real world. The rule is commonly used to analyze sales and
marketing. Companies must dissect their revenues to understand who makes up
their core 20 percent of customers…or readers as the case may be.

At this
point you probably are wondering what this has to do with my concerns for declining
book sales. The answer is simple. The 80/20 rule relates to the two parts of my
brain. There is the joyful part of my brain that focuses on my
friends who love reading and buy many, many books every year—every month and
even every week. That joy lives because of my acquaintanceship with people who
make up that blessed 20 percent who buy 80 percent of all books.
That happy
part of my brain hums along, plotting my current work in progress and planning
future books to write. It willfully ignores the other piece of my brain in
which knowledge resides that book sales are declining.  
When I unlock
that gloom, I allow myself to think of my neighbors’ house, where I have never
seen one book, and not even a magazine. While I know the whole family can read,
that is not the problem. They simply do not choose to read books. Since they
have lived next door for at least 15 years, I know that even before the
explosion of online media, they read no books, magazines, or newspapers. The
two children read, but it is only on iPads and cell phones, and usually just for
gaming.
This leads
me to share an anecdote that happened a few years ago. Two of my friends were
discussing what to give a third pal for his birthday. The first friend said, “How
about a book for John?” The second friend replied, “No, he already has one.”
Although I
thought that was hilarious—and apt in John’s case—I also wonder if that could
be said of more and more people today.
I cannot
change a societal trend. What I can do is focus on the 20 percent of people
who still read and love books. These are my
people
. I shall write for them. Should I be so lucky as to have one of my books connect by some
miracle with a non-reader, I shall hope to ensnare her or him into the grand
world of the imagination, found in books. Be they real or virtual, books
contain multitudes of wondrous imaginings. What a pity if someone misses out on
all that magic.

~~~~~~~

Read the first 20
pages of Kay Kendall’s second mystery, 
                                                                                     
RANY
DAY WOMEN here!
http://www.austinstarr.com/ 
That
book
won two awards at the Killer Nashville conference
in August 2016—for best mystery/crime and also for best book. 
Her
first novel about Austin Starr‘s sleuthing,
DESOLATION
ROW, was a finalist for best mystery
at
Killer Nashville in 2014. 

Visit
Kay
 https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor

Radical Self Love and Pride

by J.M. Phillippe

I first became an activist in 2008, when, on the night of Barack Obama’s historic win of the presidential election, Proposition 8 passed in California, my home state, voters declaring that same-sex couples shouldn’t have the right to marry. I happened to be watching the results with a good friend and her girlfriend, on the day of my friend’s birthday. Her tears moved me to action, and when she looked for ways to get involved and protest Prop 8, I went with her.

That was also the first year I went to the Pride Parade in Los Angeles. It was the first time I became fully aware of the multitude of rights LGBTQ folks were being denied because of the bigotry of others. And it was the first time I understood what an ally was — and started the long process of learning to be one while confronting my own privilege.

A lot has changed for me since 2008, including earning a masters degree in social work, and working in the field for almost five years post-graduation. My understanding of privilege and being an ally has continued to evolve. It has not been an easy process, and in fact, I often find myself frustrated both with the multitude of battles for equality that still need to be fought, and the various ways I have, both specifically and generically as a white woman, been called out. I am reminded daily that I need to  be called out in order to grow — and that it is up to me to work through my frustration in order to be an effective ally.

June is Pride month in many places across the US, including NY (where I am now). It has also been a very challenging month. It was the one-month anniversary of the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It had the devastating results of the case against the officer who shot and killed Philando Castile (acquittal). It was yet another month full of terrorist attacks against Muslims, both here in the US and abroad. My social media feeds continue to be filled with heartbreaking story after story. Most of us are still reeling from the reality of living in a post-Trump world, and all the hatred that has emerged with it.
I am back to wondering what it is to be an ally, and what it means to make space for pride in my life, not just as someone who feels more queer than straight (though isn’t sure how to identify as queer without a strict label to go with it), but as someone who constantly spends time with others who take pride in the very identities that they are prosecuted and attacked for. Pride is a radical act of defiance in the face of oppression. Pride is about daring to celebrate, even in the midst of all the reasons to mourn. Pride is about radical self-love, and radically loving others.
So I am sharing with folks several websites that have become my go-to spaces for helping me grow as an ally, and celebrate the concept of radical love and pride all year long:
The Body is Not an Apology: founded by Sonya Renee Taylor, the mission of the website is to “foster global, radical, unapologetic self love which translates to radical human love and action in service toward a more just, equitable and compassionate world.”
Everyday Feminism: founded by Sandra Kim, the mission is “to help people dismantle everyday violence, discrimination, and marginalization through applied intersectional feminism and to create a world where self-determination and loving communities are social norms through compassionate activism.”
Wear Your Voice Magazine: is an intersectional feminist magazine “run by women and femmes of color who are trying to make more room for marginalized voices away from the white, cis-centric, heteronormative, patriarchal gaze.” 
PEN America: part of PEN International, it is an community that works together to “ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to make it possible for everyone to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others” with a specific focus on “the intersection of literature and human rights.”
And finally:
Pajiba: a community of movie and pop culture reviewers and commenters that is my favorite corner of the Internet, and who I have been reading for so long, I have added all the writers as social media friends because I feel like I know them that well. Radical self-love is also about connecting with community, and I have been part of this online community (if often as a lurker) for as long as I can remember. 
***
J.M. Phillippe is the author of Perfect Likeness and the 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 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.

The End and Beginning of a Journey: Five Questions (and a Bonus) for Life and Writing


by Paula Gail Benson
During the month of May, numerous commencement speeches have been
featured on social media sites. I feel for the persons selected for this “honor.”
In a matter of a relatively few minutes, these folks are expected to be
inspirational, reflective, humorous, wise, and memorable. It’s a tough gig.
My friend Art Taylor, a Yale alumnus and Associate
Professor at George Mason University, faced the challenge when asked to address
his son’s preschool graduation. He writes about his experience in his “Graduation Day!” post on SleuthSayers.org.

Art Taylor

Initially, Art had questions about the relevance of
a preschool graduation, but after evaluating all he had seen his son learn,
considering the relationships developed that might not continue as students went to different
kindergartens, and watching the joy the graduates expressed about celebrating their
milestone and preparing for their transitions, he realized that the occasion very
much deserved its own recognition and struggled to keep his remarks within the
allotted time frame.

As I viewed recent videos of commencement addresses, I came across a
speech that I found particularly meaningful on two levels: first, for its perspective on the
human experience and life lessons, and second, probably unintended by the
speaker, for its applicability to writing fiction.
Dean James Ryan

The speech was given by Dean James Ryan (another
Yale alum) to the Harvard Graduate School of Education on May 29, 2016. Dean
Ryan, who has been described in a Harvard press release as “a scholar at
the crossroads of education, law, and policy,” received his A.B., summa cum
laude
, from Yale University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia,
which he attended on a full scholarship and from which he graduated first in
his class. He clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
before teaching law at the University of Virginia. He became dean of the Harvard
Graduate School of Education on September 1, 2013.

In his speech, Dean Ryan addressed the five
essential questions to be asked in life along with a bonus question. [Here’s a link so you can read and watch the entire speech. I hope you will. It’s very inspirational.] The
questions Dean Ryan recommended were:
(1)       “Wait,
what?” According to Dean Ryan, this question indicates that the audience has focused its attention on a
particular subject. Dean Ryan’s example was asking his children to clean their
rooms. He said what they heard him say was: “blah, blah, blah, and I’d like for
you to clean your room.” Their “Wait, what?” signaled that they were not really
listening closely, then suddenly heard something that applied directly to them,
and needed him to repeat it for clarity.
In fiction, this is what we call the hook, the
reason why a reader chooses one story over any other, the personal, emotional
connection that convinces the reader, I want to spend my time with this author
and what he or she has to tell me.
(2)       “I
wonder, either why or if?” Dean Ryan characterizes this question as demonstrating curiosity and shows that a person is interested in learning more. The person has become
engaged with the subject.
For fiction writers, the “I wonder” often leads to
the germ of the story they decide to tell. By pondering, what would happen
under certain circumstances, they come up with characters and a plot.
Similarly, seeking the why or what if often is the
catalyst for a protagonist, in Christopher Vogler’s A Hero’s Journey parlance, to leave his “ordinary world” and consider “the call to adventure.” What might be possible? Is this a challenge I
should accept or decline? Where will it take me?
(3)       “Couldn’t
we at least . . .?” Dean Ryan says this question shows progress. Not only has the person
become engaged, but he’s beginning to care about the people and process
involved.
At this point in a story, the protagonist has
crossed the threshold. He may not be all in and he may have obstacles to face,
but he’s not going to retrace his steps back to the beginning. He’s signed on
for the journey.
(4)       “How
can I help?” For Dean Ryan, this question indicates the person has developed a relationship with the subject. Even
more important, the person’s beginning to insert himself into the mix.
In a story, this question pervades during the midpoint through the
climax. The protagonist is committed; he knows the goal and he’s going to help
obtain it. He’s preparing to face the ultimate struggle.
(5)       “What
truly matters (to me)?” For an individual, this is the answer to the “why” or “what
if?” Dean Ryan says it explains the purpose in life and reveals the person’s heart.
For the protagonist, this is the reason the story
began, the true basis for his existence, the challenge he must face.
(6)       The
bonus question: “Did I get what I wanted out of life even so?” For Dean Ryan, this is the evaluation. In essence, was
it worth it?
Whether the protagonist wins or loses, was the
struggle a significant and valiant effort?
No matter how a story might be perceived, a writer
can only hope the reader can find some level of appreciation and meaning in the outcome.
So graduates and writers, as you go forth into the
world after reading this post (and hopefully the two referenced links), take these questions with you, seek out your path and that of your characters, and I hope you
find the most satisfying answers possible. Thanks, Art Taylor and Dean James
Ryan, for the inspiration!

Men Who Take on Other Men’s Children

by
Linda Rodriguez
My stepfather coaches my little brother’s team
When
I look back on my life, I realize I’ve been lucky enough to be
closely involved with three men who had the ability to take on
children who weren’t their own genetic children and love and care
for them as fathers. It will be Father’s Day soon, and I want to
say a word or two about these kinds of unsung heroes.
My
birth father was a brutal, unpredictable man. I suspect he would now
be diagnosed as a clinical sociopath. After my parents’ scandalous,
highly contentious divorce and all of the violent, ugly fallout
afterward, my mother settled in a small college town in Kansas and
met a quiet man she married when I was fifteen.
My
stepfather immediately tried to be a good father to me, which meant,
among other things, setting limits and being protective. My birth
parents had both been irresponsible and sometimes dangerous children,
so from my earliest memories I was the pseudo-adult in the house, the
one who worried about all my younger siblings and tried to protect
them and care for them so they could have as normal a childhood as
possible. No one had ever looked after me or tried to take care of
me, so I resented my new stepfather’s efforts tremendously.
As
the next few years went by and I observed my stepfather’s treatment
of my younger siblings, for whom I still felt so responsible although
I’d left home at sixteen, I warmed to him. He was doing his best to
be a real dad to them, taking them camping and fishing, making them
toys, coaching Little League teams, etc. In time, like my younger
siblings, I came to call him Dad. When I gave my parents their first
grandchildren, he was a doting grandfather, and when he finally died,
he died in my sister’s and my arms with all my brothers and the
grandchildren around his bed.
At
the time I married my late first husband, I already had a baby, whose
father had died. My late first husband loved my oldest as much as
either of the two children we had together, and that was one of the
things I loved about him, that capacity to open his heart to a child
who wasn’t his own genetically just as much as to those who were.
Later
when I was a single mother of two teenagers in the final years of
high school and my youngest was only four years old, I met and
married a man who’d never been married or had children. He had
enough sense not to try to be a father to my teens, who would have
only resented him for it, but he loved and raised my youngest as his
own. This gentle, totally urban intellectual did the zoo safari, even
though he was embarrassed that everyone else had to help him put up
the huge tent he’d rented, and when our little one left the tent
open to the depredations of peacocks and collapsed the whole tent on
his stepfather when they were packing up to leave, he was so kind
that he earned a hand-printed, hand-drawn certificate of membership
in “The Loyal Order of Peacock Fathers.” My youngest and my
husband to this day have a close, loving father-son relationship, and
because he was so patient, he and my older two children have a warm
relationship as well.
My
sister has two sons. One father is a deadbeat, missing in action
because he’s never wanted to be financially responsible for his
child after the divorce (just as he hadn’t for all of the other
children he had that my sister didn’t know about when they
married). The father of the youngest paid support but simply refused
to see his own son. For these boys, my current husband has been a
father-figure. The younger one clung to my husband and waited eagerly
for our visits and his to us. My husband used to shake his head on
the way home and wonder at the idiocy of the men who refused to have
any contact with their gifted, charming boys. At Christmastime, these
two nephews, now grown, delight in finding eccentric books and other
gifts that will please my husband, often keeping an eye out for them
all year.
I’ve
seen firsthand what a difference men like this can and do make in the
lives of children whose fathers are gone, sometimes dead, sometimes
by choice. So here’s a toast to the men who take on other men’s
offspring and give them love and a true father’s care, even when it
isn’t easy, even when those other men have left emotional damage
behind. To Dad, to Michael, to Ben, and to all of the other men out
there like them, you are the true salt of the earth!


(This post is a revisitation of one Linda wrote for this blog several years ago.)

Linda Rodriguez’s Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel,
based on her popular workshop, and The
World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East
,
an anthology she co-edited, are her newest books. Every Family
Doubt
, her fourth mystery novel featuring Cherokee campus police
chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear in autumn, 2017. Her three earlier
Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust,
and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart’s Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as St. Martin’s
Press/Malice Domestic Best First Novel, International
Latino Book Award, Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices
& Visions, Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and
Ragdale and Macondo fellowships.
Her short story, “The Good
Neighbor,” published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has
been optioned for film.

Rodriguez is past chair of the AWP
Indigenous Writer’s Caucus, past president of Border Crimes chapter
of Sisters in Crime, founding board member of Latino Writers
Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of International
Thriller Writers, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and
Storytellers, and Kansas City Cherokee Community. Visit her at
http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com

Virtually IRL

by Bethany Maines
I laughed when I read AB Plum’s recent post about unhooking
from the virtual world.  It has been a
long time since I didn’t enhance my RL (real life) experience with some sort of
virtual interaction.  Photos on Facebook,
the occasional witty comment on twitter, blogs and websites, they are all part
of my life. Partially this is simply a function of my life and jobs.  As a graphic designer and a writer, social
networking is part of the must do list.
As a designer, it’s important that I be able to design ads for Facebook and
other social media platforms and understand how the platforms function.  As a writer, it’s important that I use those
platforms to reach an audience.
Which is not to say that I’m an expert.  As a designer, I get to create content and
simply walk away.  The writer half of me
definitely has it harder.  I have to remember
to post (you wouldn’t think this was hard, but…), to come up with valuable and
interesting content, and then not waste all of my writing time on marketing and
social media.  On the other hand, for the
last six months I’ve been swinging very much the other way.  I have not been doing a lot of marketing.  I have in fact been writing.  A lot. 
A ton.  Lots of tons.  So much so that I’ve planned out my releases
for 2018 and 2019. 

So, stay tuned for tons of updates later this summer.  Crime, sci-fi, a touch of fairy tales, and of
course more than a little bit of romance are heading your way.  And strangely, I can’t wait to start
marketing ALL of it.  If you want to get
in on early give-aways (print and digital!) and announcements, join my mailing
list at: bethanymaines.com/contact
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries
, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny
and An
Unseen Current
.  
You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and All Things Social Media

By AB Plum

Thanks to the wonders of technology, I can write this blog a week ahead of its due date, schedule it, and take off tomorrow for a fun-and-frolic vacation in San Francisco. 

I’m writing the day before the Comey Testimony. (I capitalize testimony b/c it’s almost as if Mr. Comey’s appearance is a TV program or movie or book title).

I am also writing before President Trump tweets about the upcoming testimony or during the testimony itself.

Either the testimony or tweet content could provide enough commentary for dozens of riveting blogs. But. I’m going to take advantage of the scheduling feature on this blog and leave posting the excitement/amazement/disgust/disbelief/etc. following the event to others to wax on about.

I am going to SF without my laptop or any other handheld devices. Except for one. Because I have kids (adults, true) in other cities and a friend watching over the home front, the need to take my cell phone will win out. But … no calling or tweeting or texting except in an emergency.

Admittedly, sending a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge will be tempting, but I hope to resist. My grown kids have walked across the span many times. Some of my relatives, like my house sitter, have never taken a single step on this engineering marvel. 




Here’s my rationale: Even if I send my relatives or the house sitter a picture, they’ll probably all be too busy watching The Testimony. Or the analyses of The Testimony. Or the late-night panning of The Testimony. 

Whatever …. I’ll catch up when I return home. Until then, I’m about to retreat to Luddite Land.

How about you? When was the last time you “unhooked” from your electronic wonders? Do you remember a time when we didn’t text? Didn’t tweet? Didn’t share pictures of our vacations via Facebook?

******************
AB Plum lives off the fast lane in Silicon Valley, where she writes about mayhem and murder in her psychological suspense series, The MisFit. If she doesn’t overstay her vacation, she plans a late summer release of The Lost Days and The In-Between Years, Books 2 and 3 in the series.