Tag Archive for: #amwriting

An Open Letter to Stiletto Gang Readers from Debra H. Goldstein

/in /by

Dear Stiletto Gang Readers,

I’m one of those people who still writes Holiday Letters
and shoves them into my Seasons Greetings cards that are sent to friends I
haven’t seen in years, but still feel close to. You are a different breed of
folks, but I, as well as the other members of the Stiletto Gang, have a special
affinity with you.

 

You fulfill our dreams by reading the words we write. At
the very moment we feel down or lost, one of you posts a good review, sends a
postcard or e-mail, or makes a social media comment that lifts our spirits up.
Your support of our work keeps us actively involved in an unpredictable
business world.

 

It is a world of editor and publisher subjectivity balanced
by dollar signs. Very few of us become New York Times bestselling
authors, but you give us the incentive to continue writing even if our expenses
outweigh our profits. All writers want to make money, but the reality is that they
don’t. In fact, many authors could make far more by ignoring the voices in
their heads that demand to be expressed. Are we insane or, as some think,
simply stupid?

 

I think the answer boils down to one word: passion. We have
a passion to write that can’t be quelled. Luckily, when it does dim, you
rekindle it. Thank you and happy holidays. Debra  

To Find a Monarch

/in /by

 By Kathryn Lane

Mexico, my country of origin, is a cultural
paradise. I always experience a nostalgic yearning for the traditions I grew up
with, especially during the last quarter of the year, which is rich with
festivities. Starting in September, we have holidays that spill over into
multiple days, like the 15th and 16th of September,
independence day. Posada time, from December 16th through the 24th,
brings out families from entire neighborhoods where revelers of all ages gather
in candle-lit processions singing Christmas carols along the streets until they
arrive at the host house for that evening. At the designated home, the carolers
sing “Para Pedir Posada” to reenact Mary and Joseph’s journey into Bethlehem
asking for shelter before the birth of Jesus. The hosts, after several stanzas,
invite the revelers in for food, drink, and games for the kiddos.

Wonderful as Christmas and Independence
celebrations are, it’s Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 1st
and 2nd, that makes my soul yearn for a trip to the state of
Michoacan.

When I was twelve, my mother took me to Lake Pátzcuaro
to experience a vigil in a cemetery where townsfolk would commune with their departed
loved ones by sharing music, dance, food, and drinks.

I’ve never forgotten the scene when we arrived.
Lake Pátzcuaro’s famed butterfly net fishermen, their canoes filled with bright
orange cempasúchil, or marigolds, floated on the lake like a colorful flower
market. The marigolds, like rays of sun dropped along the way, to lead the ancestors’
spirits into town where ofrendas, or altars, awaited them in the private homes
of their earthly relatives.

We climbed into a vividly decorated canoe to
navigate to Janitzio, the largest
island. On the way, Mother told me Día de los Muertos is a truly Mexican tradition, a legacy of indigenous Aztec practices. The
Aztecs recognized that death was part of the continuity of life. Yet Pátzcuaro
is P’urhépecha¹
territory, the other powerful Mesoamerican empire, the one the
Aztecs never conquered.
The two empires fought many battles. Yet, the Purépecha integrated the Day of
the Dead as their own.

We were mid-lake when a
butterfly brushed its brilliant orange-red wings with black veins on the golden
marigolds. The fisherman smiled, saying, “Está perdido este ancestro. Debe tener familia en
Rosario o Angangueo.”

Mother agreed the
butterfly was lost and had overflown its winter home near mountain villages. She
explained that monarchs migrate yearly from Canada and the US to the high elevations
of Michoacán where they cluster on oyamel
trees to spend the winter. They start arriving at the end of October,
coinciding with the Day of the Dead celebrations. The local people believe the
butterflies are the spirits of their ancestors returning home.

I remember asking if we would
visit the monarchs.

“Another year,” she said.

Yet, we never trekked to
the monarch’s overwintering sites. When I see a butterfly, it reminds me of that
trip we never took.

My brother, Jorge Lane, is
a nature photographer and monarchs are one of his favorite subjects. He’s
visited several sanctuaries to photograph them.

Carlos Gottfried, a butterfly
conservationist in Mexico, said: “When you stand in a Monarch butterfly
sanctuary, your soul is shaken and your life is changed.”

Gottfried’s quote
beckons me to find monarchs overwintering on Oyamel firs to fulfill that trip
never taken.

¹ Also
known as the Tarascan.

For fun articles on Mexican holidays, you can purchase: The Insider’s Guide to the Best Mexican Holidays. It will be available in Kindle format on Amazon on December 17, 2021. Nineteen authors, including yours truly, contributed articles. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE AT STILETTO GANG!!!

Photo
credits:

Monarca
Encantadora© by
Jorge J. Lane

Rosario
Monarca© by Jorge J. Lane

 

 

Do You Have What It Takes to be a Cheese Whiz? Archaic Words

/in /by

By Kathleen Kaska 
When I worked at Cave Art Press, a small publishing company in Anacortes, one of my tasks was to write the weekly blog posts. It had to address writing styles, grammar and punctuation rules, and the down and dirty of publishing and marketing—and it had to be funny. These blog posts eventually became a tongue-in-cheek book entitled, “Do You Have a Catharsis Handy? Five Minute-Writer Tips.” Here’s one about archaic words and my own take on them.

Thanks to Google, I stumble upon many of my Writing
Tips topics by accident. Here are some archaic (did they
ever really exist?) but entertaining words and phrases
that I discovered while I was researching other topics,
along with some neologisms of my own:

With Squirrel: If you were a woman who lived in the
Ozarks many moons ago and you found yourself “with
squirrel,” then you were expecting a child. (Vance
Randolph’s Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk
Speech, 1953). I would call such a woman Squirrely.

Lunting: I suspect that Sherlock Holmes was into
lunting—i.e., walking while smoking a pipe. (John
Mactaggart’s Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824). I would call people who do this lunters.

The following are from The Word Museum: The Most
Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten, by Jeffrey
Kacirk:

Spermologer: It doesn’t mean what you think. A
spermologer is a columnist! Three of my favorites are
Father Ron Rolheiser; Austin native, John Kelso; and
funny-lady, Lisa Scottoline. In my world I’d refer to them as wittyosophers.

Queerplungers: An English term for a scam in which an
individual jumped into water, was “rescued” by
accomplices, and was subsequently taken in by rehab
houses that cared for people who tried to commit suicide.
In the benevolent society of the time, the rescuers were
rewarded with a guinea each, while the person who
“attempted suicide” was sent away with a monetary
donation to make his life less depressing. Maybe a better word for these folks would be Scam Dunkers. 

Finally, my favorite:

Tyromancy: If you can’t find a crystal ball, use cheese!
One of my Cave Art Press colleagues thought tyromancy
sounds like “a Jurassic love story.” In fact, it is the act of
predicting birth, love, and death by reading the
appearance of a piece of cheese. It is also the act of using
cheese to answer questions: the most obvious answers to
a question are written on pieces of cheese (one answer
per piece). The pieces of cheese are fed to a rat.
Whichever piece is eaten first is the answer to the
question.

I suspect a person who engaged in this method of
prediction and became notable would have been called a
tyromaniac. I would call him a cheez-whiz. 

This is my last post as a member of the Stiletto Gang, but I will stay in touch and follow you wonderfully, creative authors. 

Best always,

Kathleen









Kathleen is a Texas gal. Except for an eighteen-month hiatus
living in New York City after college, she continuously lived in the Lone Star
State for fifty years. Since then, Texas has been hit and miss—a little hit,
but a hell of a lot of miss. There was a time when she thought she would
happily die in Austin, Texas. But circumstances
and weather—especially weather—changed that. Now she spends most of the year on
Fidalgo Island in Washington State with a view of the bay and the mountains.
When she gets homesick, she and her husband plug in the iPhone to Willie—as in
Nelson. Soon they are dancing the two-step, imagining they are at our favorite
honky-tonk in Tokio, Texas, where the mayor is believed to be a dog. Who
wouldn’t miss that?

Kathleen writes mysteries. She blogs about writing,
publishing, marketing, animal rights, birding, and quirky things that come to
mind. Go to her website: Kathleen Kaska and check out her latest blog series, “Growing Up Catholic in a Small Texas Town.”

A Fun Interview with Bethany Maines

/in /by

Interview by Kathryn Lane

(Bethany
Maines is such a dynamic interviewee that I’ve kept the interview pretty much
as it happened. To edit would lose the spontaneity of her responses.)

Bethany, I’m amazed by your dexterity as
an author. You write in various genres, from crime fiction to mystery, to action adventure
to sci-fi. Do you move from one to the other to keep your stories flowing?

Growing up I
read mostly sci-fi/fantasy and mystery. I always assumed that if I wrote it
would be sci-fi/fantasy based, but as with most half-baked childhood notions, it
hasn’t turned out that way. Mystery/Adventure/Romance seems to be where I sit
most easily, and my occasional visits into sci-fi are usually with co-writers.

By the
time this interview is published on November 2, you will have launched your
mystery, Hardest Hit, the third book from your Deveraux Legacy series. Congratulations!

Share
with us what worked for the launch and what you’d do differently next time.

I can tell
you what doesn’t work. Accidentally scheduling the launch for nearly the same
time as a work conference is… not the best thing I’ve done lately. I work with
a marketing company; they give me lots of support, and I don’t think I could do
it another way considering my scheduling conflict. But other than that, my
number one tip, is plan ahead.

Moving to
your mystery/action adventure books, you have taken an innovative approach to
undercover work. Your protagonist, Nikki Lanier in the Carrie Mae series, is a
no-nonsense investigator who takes on drug smugglers and arms dealers.

How did
you get the idea for the Carrie Mae series?  

OK, true
story, I once received a cease-and-desist letter from Mary Kay corporate to not
mention Carrie Mae in the same breath as Mary Kay. Meanwhile, Mary Kay Ladies
love every book in that series. And they should because they gave me the idea. I
once had to pick up lipstick from my MK lady. She was at a meeting and invited
me to stop by. When I stepped into the Red Lion Inn… it was a packed ballroom!  They were recruiting new Mary Kay Ladies. On
stage, an imposing woman was laying down the MK rules like she was Patton in
pumps. And I thought… these ladies could take over the world and they’re
kind of scary. It’s probably a good thing there isn’t a militant wing of Mary
Kay. (Lightbulb!) Later I went out for drinks and told my girlfriends I had
a great idea for a book. They laughed, saying they loved the idea of Nikki and
her team.

Nikki and
her team set out to save the world from gangs, smugglers, and arms dealers, all
the while looking fabulous. You do mention, though, they try to remember clean
underwear! Is humor in your genes or do you work at it?

Surprise! It’s
nature AND nurture. My Dad is an excellent and humorous storyteller. In
childhood I watched him hone a story from one telling to the next. That method
of refining the funny until it’s the funniest is something that takes years to
perfect, but I feel that I got a leg up through proper parenting.

You write
several novels and novellas every year. Do you program your writing for the year
ahead and decide which series will get the bulk of your time? Or are you a
complete pantser that gets up in the morning and decides what you’ll work on
that day?

I used to
pants it. I loved the discovery and joy of finding out what happened. But
sadly, I don’t have the time anymore. Pantsing is joyful but inefficient, and
if I want to tell ALL THE STORIES… well, I need to plot. However, I do employ a
strategy of “cheat stories”. If one isn’t cooperating I go cheat on it with a
different story. That will teach it! 

I’m
intrigued by your sci-fi novellas, The Beast of Arsu being the latest. For the Galactic Dreams series, you write with two
other authors, Karen Harris Tully and J.M. Phillippe. Do the three of you get
together to discuss and plan the next collection of Galactic Dreams? 

Karen and
J.M. and I came up with a simple proposition (such innocent, foolish, past
selves): we would create a shared universe and spread the hard parts of world-building
around. Then we would each write stories within that universe. And, just to keep
it interesting, we would base our stories on fairy tales. Clearly none of us
had read fairy tales recently – they’re insane. None of us counted on the fact
that each of us would want to break the rules of the universe at some point, or
that we would have to keep track of all the weird words and technology we
invented. At this point, we have a massive spreadsheet and a five-page single-space
word doc on our universe. Fortunately, our friendship has survived the great
battle over whether or not to include the word OK in space. Surprisingly,
we were all 100% fine with bringing in Octopus aliens. We touch base multiple
times while writing our individual stories and use each other for research, as
sounding boards, and as spare memories. Then, at the end, we all read
everything for universe cohesion.

Bethany, let me tell you, I’d
be lost in space if I could not use the word OK. One last question. If
you were not writing, what would you be doing?

I actually love
my day job of graphic design. If I weren’t writing I’d be getting to all of the
art projects that are languishing in my office that I swear I’m TOTALLY getting
to. Stop judging my art supply purchases!!

That was a fantastic interview, Bethany. Thank you!

Biography

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of
mystery, crime and romantic suspense novels, as well as many short stories.
When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her
black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the
computer working on her next novel. bethanymaines.com

“Solitude in the Outback…”

/in /by

 By Kathryn Lane

Years ago, when I lived in the Outback of Australia, I often found myself alone for weeks at a time at the homestead while the men were in the field catching
feral cattle. That solitude gave me time to read the Russian novels by Tolstoy,
Dostoevsky, Pushkin, and Pasternak to name a few. Dr. Zhivago and The Brothers
Karamazov remain favorites to this day.

In my Australian days, I’d visualize the great books I read as a
lighthouse that would light up the path of my life. A silly image, perhaps, but
when one is completely alone, the mind creates interesting imagery.

Even after the Outback became only a memory, I rarely read novels
hitting the New York Times bestseller list until the original hoopla
surrounding their launch had quieted down. The hectic schedule of my international
corporate career left little time to indulge in big books. I’d discovered less
lofty but more enjoyable reading – the mystery genre – my pleasure reading for
long flights from New York to South America, Asia, or Europe.

Fast forward to 2021 when I’ve become a writer myself. My love of
mystery intrigues me so much, that it’s what I write. Revisiting the idea of
best sellers, I still wait until the hoopla quiets to a whisper. Recently, I must
have heard crawdads heralding Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing
as being a mystery wrapped in a coming of age story woven with romance.

So I purchased it.

What a delicious dip into the wondrous world of nature in the
swamps of North Carolina as seen, felt, and described through Kya’s life.

Delia Owens said in an interview that Kya represents what we can
be when we have to be. I concur with the author that all of us have the ability
to do more than we can imagine when life requires it.

Delia Owens described how her life of studying lions and elephants
in Africa brought extreme or partial isolation for twenty-three years of her
life.

My own isolation in the Outback, for a mere three-and-a-half years,
changed me in many ways. I became, like Kya, more self-reliant, more
introspective, and a problem solver. When I re-emerged into life in Mexico
after the Australian experience, I was socially insecure. I thought it’d take
several years for me to feel like the extroverted girl who’d left the comfort
and love of her family to form a family of her own on the other side of the
world. Then I realized the young girl had been transformed into a woman capable
of following her own lighthouse to accomplish her dreams.

Has
solitude changed your life in any way?

***

Kathryn’s mysteries – The Nikki
Garcia Mystery series:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B08C7V2675/ref=dp_st_1942428944



Kathryn’s short story collection – Backyard
Volcano and Other Mysteries of the Heart

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Volcano-Other-Mysteries-Heart/dp/1943306044

 All available on Amazon

 About Kathryn

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving
artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked
on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation.
After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery
and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels
in over ninety countries.

Visit my website at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com

I love hearing from readers. Ask a question,
suggest an idea, or comment about the blog. kathrynlaneauthor@gmail.com

Photo
credits:

All
photographs are used in an editorial or educational manner.

“Follow the Road” by ASTRORDINARY is licensed
under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

“Where the Crawdads Sing” Public Domain

“Perthling” by ASTRORDINARY is licensed under
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 

 

Deadlines

/in /by

By Kathryn Lane

I love
deadlines! They revitalize me. Twists and turns in my mystery novels become
more exciting once I’m approaching the deadline with my editor.

Not all
deadlines are equal. Some are important; others can be juggled. Then there are
deadlines I gleefully ignore.

At times, I
fantasize what would happen if I missed such and such important deadline. That activity
takes the form of various possible outcomes, as if I lived in a quantum world
where there’s an infinite number of possibilities.

Meeting a deadline!

And it
reminds me of a wonderful European film from 1998 titled, Run, Lola, Run.
An experimental film at the time, the lead character, Lola, needs to acquire
$100,000 deutschmarks in TWENTY minutes or her boyfriend will die. The film
gives three versions of what happens. Each version is predicated on the lapse
of a few seconds where random, unexpected events happen that impact Lola’s
ability to obtain the money. These random events change each one of the three
endings.

In the past
month, I’ve had the opportunity to think about random, unexpected things that
happen. Some are good, some not so good.

On the
return trip from the Killer Nashville International Mystery Writers’ Conference (which was wonderful) in late August, we experienced an unexpected event.

Driving through
Georgia, a speeding motorist hit us a few miles south of Atlanta. Fortunately,
everyone, including the motorist who hit us, walked away with only minor
bruises. A different story for the vehicles – both were totaled.

Random events,
good or bad, set off unexpected consequences, which ripple through already
planned events, like getting a manuscript finished for your editor.

Meeting manuscript deadlines!

As in the
three outcomes in Run, Lola, Run, my mind considered various
scenarios: If only we had not stopped for gas when we did, if only we had
started our journey a few minutes earlier (or later) that day, if only we had
been in a different lane. But we don’t live in a quantum world. Nor do we live
in a world where we can restart the day and get a different outcome.

Small, unplanned events can add spice to life.
Large ones, like car accidents, can create havoc on deadlines. C’est la vie.

Deadlines
are important to my characters too. It’s like they’re telling me “If you write it
this way, it will be better”. Or they will kick my butt, saying “Go this other
direction and get our story told”.

Maybe that’s
a little like the different outcomes in Run, Lola, Run. In novels, only the
author knows the various endings that could have taken place.

How do you
handle deadlines?  

***

Kathryn’s mysteries – The Nikki
Garcia Mystery series:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B08C7V2675/ref=dp_st_1942428944

 

Kathryn’s short story collection – Backyard
Volcano and Other Mysteries of the Heart

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Volcano-Other-Mysteries-Heart/dp/1943306044

 All available on Amazon

 Kathryn Lane started out as a starving
artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked
on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation.
After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery
and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels
in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

 

Make Setting Work for Your Story

/in /by

 

by Donnell Ann Bell 


Have you ever been reading a novel, only to find yourself skimming over a passage of long, drawn out setting or description? My guess is you did that because you already had a clear visual and were ready to get on with the story. Setting and description belong in a writer’s tool kit and used right are part of an invaluable arsenal.

One of my favorite quotes is by Russian Writer Anton
Chekhov who wrote, “I don’t need to know
everything that’s in the room, I only need to know what I need to know is in
the room.” That made so much sense to me, and why I’ve tried to remember it
in my own writing.


What would you write to describe this room?

When I write, I choose locations familiar to me or
spend long hours checking out a town’s Chamber of Commerce page, Google maps,
and then I contact people who live in the area to beta read and verify I have
it correct. I try to sprinkle in popular landmarks, although be careful here;
you don’t want it to read like a travelogue.  The
best way to mention a landmark is to make it imperative to a scene.

Additionally, because I write mystery, suspense and romantic suspense, if I’m ever going to say something negative about a place, e.g. place a dead
body or a murder there, I change the name or make up a fictitious place
that blends in seamlessly with an actual area.

Writing around the theme, Suspense too Close to Home, I’ve
written about Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, El
Paso, Texas and in my most recent novel, Black Pearl, which takes place between
Denver and Montrose, Colorado. But the book that I think I did setting particularly
well is in my adopted hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the best-selling The Past Came Hunting. Because I’d lived
in that city for thirty-plus years, I had a good grasp of the community
and its surroundings.

As I mentioned earlier, the best way to mention a
landmark is to make it imperative to a scene. (In the following scenes my cop protagonist
is on his way to a hearing and my female protagonist is at her job after a
brutal end to their relationship.) I could have described the places first then
written about their turbulent emotions. Instead, I combined both setting and
the emotions they were going through into the narrative. Hopefully, by doing
this I upped the pacing . . . .

Joe walked into the building,
flashing his badge to the security guards and bypassing the metal detectors. He
had the record, the credentials, votes of confidence from peers and
subordinates and the support of the district attorney. Combined, these factors
all but guaranteed him the promotion to commander.

            He
was one lucky cop.

Images of Melanie flashed
through his brain as he entered the Division Room Four of a proceeding already in
progress. So, with so much going for him, why wasn’t he smiling?

Transition
to Female Protagonist

On the West side of town,
things weren’t going much better for Mel. With Aaron visiting family in New
York, she cleared the glass shelves of Christmas, Hanukah and seasonal items and
prepared to mark them down. The best way to overcome heartbreak, she reasoned,
was to throw herself into the things going right, namely her son and her job at
Pinnacle Creations.

According to Aaron, they
had thirty days to reduce inventory, then gear up for Valentine’s Day, Thanks
to holidays and special occasions, the floral industry never ended. Unlike
relationships.

Ideally, I didn’t have to describe a courthouse or a
floral shop because these things are so well known to us. Setting and
description are vital to a book. But like dialogue, external and internal
narrative, emotion, and above all, an author’s voice, they are tools. Too much
of anything is overwriting.

How about you? Any tips on setting you’d like to share? 

Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning
author, including finalist in the 2020 Colorado Book Award, she is the author
of Black Pearl, book one of a series, and is currently editing book two.
You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, or Bookbub. Sign up for her newsletter
at www.donnellannbell.com

 

 

 

Clicking Our Heels: Muddle in the Middle or at the Begining or the End?

/in /by

Clicking Our Heels: Muddle in the Middle or at the
Beginning or the End?

Today, the Stiletto Gang
examines what each finds the hardest part of writing – beginnings, middles or
ends?

Saralyn Richard – Whatever I’m currently writing
(beginnings and endings are harder than middles).

Lois Winston – I spend quite a bit of time deciding on an
opening sentence that will hook the reader.

Kathleen Kaska – The hardest part of writing fiction comes
between the middle and the end. This is where I have to pull everything
together. Being a punster makes it difficult, but outlining doesn’t work for
me.

Linda Rodriguez – Middles! Always middles – when I often
despair that I’ve forgotten how to write.

Debra H. Goldstein – Endings because I have to remember not
to rush to tie things up and in a series give a taste of the future.

Shari Randall – Hands down beginnings are the toughest to
write. I love spinning different endings and middles happen organically, but a
beginning that entices the reader and sets the tone for the book is always a
challenge.

Gay Yellen – I usually don’t begin writing until I know how
the book starts and how it ends. The middle is the bugbear, because the mix of
plot details and suspense is so critical.

Kathryn Lane – Middles are the nemeses I struggle with to
make my writing as exciting as possible so the reader continues side by side
with the protagonist, solving life-threatening situations.

Dru Ann Love – The beginning as I don’t know what to write
without revealing spoilers.

Debra Sennefelder – The hardest part of writing for me
lately hasn’t been the process of writing. It has been dealing with my upended
routine and noise in the house during the day.

T.K. Thorne – I tend to write from beginning to end. If I
have a concept of the ending, then the middle is hard, if I don’t, the end can
be challenging, because everything has to come together in a surprising but
satisfying way. I love beginnings, lol!

Anita Carter – Definitely beginnings. When I first start a new
story, the possibilities of where the story can go are endless. Sometimes I’ll
rewrite the first 50 pages three or four times until I feel like I’m taking the
story in the right direction. It can be exhausting.

Mary Lee Ashford – Oh, I love beginnings and endings. But
middles? They are hard. I think the good news is that in the middle there are
so many choices and then the bad news is that there are so many choices. I do
quite a bit of plotting before I begin writing but I find that once I’ve
written to the middle of the book, there’s often a need to reassess what I
originally had planned. It provides an opportunity to ask if there is a better
choice now that the story has grown. So middles are hard, but also great fun.

Bethany Maines – Ends! I can churn out a great first act at
the drop of a hat, but oh my, those endings. Managing to get all the pieces of
the puzzle to line up and come to a satisfactory conclusion is the toughest
part for me.

Robin Hillyer-Miles – Editing is the most difficult and
most important for me.

 

When I Visited Walden Pond

/in /by

By Kathryn Lane

The
past three years, my husband and I have spent the summers in a cabin in northern
New Mexico. We are isolated, in a way. We are connected to the outside world
with excellent internet, workable phone communications, and muddy dirt roads
during the rainy season.

As
I watch the deer, elk, birds, and the occasional bear, I’m reminded of my favorite Henry
David Thoreau quote “We can never have enough of nature.” And that takes me to his experiences at Walden Pond.

During my corporate years, I mostly
worked overseas, but on two rare occasions I had domestic assignments. One of
those instances, I went to Boston for three weeks. I loved the city and became mesmerized
by its history, especially that pertaining to the American Revolution. Being
from Mexico, I did not know US history and this was a unique opportunity. In
the evenings, I walked the Freedom Trail, stopping along the way at Faneuil
Hall, the old State House, and continuing to Paul Revere’s statue and his home,
now the oldest building in downtown Boston.

One weekend, I visited Lexington and
Concord where the revolution started. Being an avid cyclist at the time, I
rented a bicycle so I could visit Walden Pond. Thoreau’s book, Walden,
intrigued me and here was my opportunity to cycle around the entire pond and
enjoy the place where he had lived for a couple of years.

The pond, a kettle hole formed by
retreating glaciers about 10,000 years ago, was worth seeing, not to mention experiencing
the place Thoreau made famous. The shores of the pond consisted of terrain
suitable for walking but I quickly learned that tree roots and sharp rocks were
not kind to bicycle tires! After fixing a flat halfway around, I decided to
walk the bike the rest of the way to make sure I could ride back to Concord
where I’d left the rental car.

Now that I live close to nature part
of the year, I reflect on Thoreau’s years there and his writing.

The central ideas expressed in Walden
are experience, self-reliance, and worship. He examined the fundamental
elements of humanity. Very lofty ideas.

My novels are genre, plain and simple. And I love writing them from a mountain cabin! Yet, as an author who loves
history, you’d think I’d write historical novels. Mysteries and thrillers
fascinate me and that’s what I write. I’m captivated by the twists and turns of
mystery and suspense.

Of
course, there are historical mysteries. Humm, I’ll have to ponder that thought
while enjoying the mountain scenery of northern New Mexico!

Do you secretly wish you wrote in a different genre?

***

Visit me at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com I love
hearing from readers. Ask a question, suggest an idea, or comment about the
blog.

The
Nikki Garcia Mystery Series: eBook Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZNF17G

Kathryn Lane started out as a
starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and
embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational
corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into
writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply
from her Mexican background as
well as her travels in over ninety countries.

Crossword Puzzles or a Writer’s Research

/in /by

 

by: Donnell Ann Bell 

“What’s a three-letter word for expert?” my husband asks as
I’m getting a glass of water before returning to my office. I stiffen. Here it
comes, where I should be concentrating on three letters my brain turns into a
giant mushroom cloud and I think of every word under the sun meaning expert, including, adept, proficient, and skillful, sans one with three letters.

“You know,” he says, reading glasses perched on his nose, “Daily mind games keep your mind sharp.”

I swallow some of my water and say, “So you’ve said. See you
later, you know where I’ll be.”

What he doesn’t get is that while he works crosswords, Sudoku
and other puzzles our doctors insist keep our minds sharp, I work mind games
all day long.

I do research!  What’s
more the research I do has to. . . you guessed it . . . fit into a puzzle.  Further, that research has to appear seamless
and relevant, or you can come up with a pacing problem or worse, tell the
reader you’re DOING research.  As a new
writer years ago, my critique partner laid a dreadful accusation at my feet,
saying, “Your research is showing.”

Talk about red-faced. You never ever want your research to
show. It’s akin to a plumber’s crack or a piece of toilet paper clinging to your
shoe.

Here’s something that puzzles me, and I’ve often asked
myself why I don’t write less complicated books. The only answer I’ve come up
with is I love suspense, police procedure and want to address the topics
that interest me in my writing.  I want to understand
more divergent topics that I normally wouldn’t come across in my ordinary world. I
love thwarting my protagonists, then watching THEM work to outwit the
antagonist.

Wouldn’t it be incredible to hold all the answers in our
heads as we wrote our novels? Certainly would be simpler and imagine the productivity. But then, what fun
would that be? And how would existing knowledge stretch our imaginations? I
love discovering new avenues, further knocking around the plot with Lois Winston, my very smart critique partner, then brainstorming with experts.

One thing my husband and I are fairly equal at is Jeopardy. We watch it most evenings at 6 p.m. What’s a three-letter word for
expert? Try ACE.  Do you love puzzles? Research?
Both? Something else that keeps your
brain churning? I’d love to know.

About the Author:  Donnell Ann Bell gave up her nonfiction career in newspapers
and magazines because she was obsessed with the idea she could write a mystery or
thriller. Years later, she is an award-winning author, including a 2020 Colorado Book Award
finalist for her latest release Black Pearl, a Cold Case Suspense. Donnell’s
other books include Buried Agendas, Betrayed, Deadly Recall and the Past Came
Hunting, all of which have been Amazon bestsellers. Currently she’s submitted
book two of her cold case series to her publisher and is hard at work researching book
three.  www.donnellannbell.com