by Lynne | Jul 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
It Really Matters
I’m nearing the end of a mystery that has me completely riveted. I haven’t been able to put it down for three days now, and I know I’m going to be bummed when I finish. Fortunately, a sequel is coming out in September.
The title is “A Killing in the Hills” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Julia Keller. The prose is distinctive and original, the characters intense yet believable, and the story is artfully compelling. But when I analyze why I am so enjoying this book, I have to say, it’s the location. It takes place in a small, poverty-ridden town in West Virginia. Keller paints a grim and sorrowful image of a backwards country town thrown into chaos by a horrifying triple murder.
The idea made me think of other books in which the location kept me turning the page. Peter May’s “The Black House” takes place on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. A forbidding and dark, cold place and perfect for murder. Then there are TV series like “The Killing.” The Killing takes place in Seattle, but somehow the filmmakers managed to film only on days when it was raining — pouring buckets, actually. Bleh.
I guess I have a penchant for dark, cold, wet, poverty-stricken and forbidding places. It seems like crime would be rampant. But crime is pretty darn rampant in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and they’re not exactly dark and cold locations.
I also like big city grit. New York, LA, Chicago but there’s something about small, isolated towns that calls to me. To prove that location is an important factor for me, I’ve tried three of Louise Penny’s books now and really haven’t been thrilled. But I keep trying because they’re set in Québec and I’m fascinated by the area.
I’ve enjoyed the Amish series by Linda Castillo, which takes place in a small town, Painters Mill, in Ohio. Love the backdrop. And Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” Trilogy. I guess I love cold and snow as well as dark, dirty and cold.
Obviously, my feelings about location feed into my own writing. First book, the poverty-stricken tenements of the Lower East Side in NYC, second, the Civil War battlegrounds with its dead and dying, and third, Nazi Germany and France during the occupation. Can’t get much grimmer than that.
How about you? Does location fit prominently in your choice of where to set your stories? Do you pick places that are familiar, or those that are foreign and exotic, so you have to learn about them? A good trick for getting a travel write-off. How do you select the books you read? Does location play a role? Think about it.
Now, lest you think I live in one of these cold, dark, grim places . . . you’d be wrong. I don’t want to live there. I just want to read about them. Jeez, in San Diego, if the sun isn’t out 350 days, I’m depressed.
Hmm, I wonder if Jack the Ripper would have equated our morning marine layer with London fog.
by Lynne | Jul 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
Still Not Quite a Dream
I’ve just self-published my third mystery. About a year ago, I blogged about the dream and the nightmare of self-publishing. I want to give an update now.
First, let me say, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that I made a mistake using a company called BookBaby. Their accounting system is dreadful. It takes months to find out what your sales have been. Their excuse? Amazon takes a long time reporting. I don’t buy it. This is the reason I’m tempted to switch to Amazon’s KDP Select. Frankly, it makes me tired just thinking of changing, however. But I will at some point.
I will say that BookBaby did some excellent book cover designs for me. Check them out. And they were pretty inexpensive. But then I tried having them do the paperbacks and was very disappointed. They offered no help unless I had some premium package, and in the end, the books wound up with ridiculous margins and no page numbers or headers. Yikes. Thanks a lot, BB!
I went with Create Space (Amazon) and did POD paperbacks and have been very happy. Plus, their sales figures come in right away. Glad I own stock in Amazon and not BookBaby.
So, I’ve conquered the publishing aspect, sorta, kinda. Now what about the marketing? I’ve been focusing on social media. While I’ve made some good friends, and have some fans, I’m not soaring. What’s next? After self-publishing (or any kind of publishing) comes self-promotion. Endless possibilities. Maybe.
I could pay for advertising. I could hire a publicist. But I’ve come up with another idea. I’ve got a hook for my latest book that might generate interest. Widespread interest. I won’t tell you about it here; you’ll find out soon enough what it is and whether it’s successful. This “hook” will also allow me to provide regular updates to keep the idea constantly re-energized.
Author Lynne Kennedy
I guess I can say I’m into phase two of my book drama. Wish me luck!
And, by the way, writer friends, despite all the “I’s,” this is not just about me. Insert your name in one of the I’s above because many of you have had similar experiences.
I’d love to hear your success stories.
by Lynne | Jul 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Is He Still a Joe?
One of the most important, but often most difficult part of writing a novel is selecting names for your characters. When you begin you might already have some in mind. But as the characters morph during the writing process, that name might no longer fit. If you’re writing a series and the same characters reappear, you still need to name new characters.
Villains’ names are particularly important to get right. Common sense tells you that “Melvin Fuddrucker” is probably not the best handle for a serial killer. Or is it? Do you want to throw the reader off and let him like or sympathize with your bad guy? Do you want the reader to think: Melvin, hmm, an accountant or a store clerk, when in reality, Melvin is a triathlete, computer genius, and serial killer? Obfuscation may be a good thing.
The good guys shouldn’t be shortchanged either. You want your characters to be memorable and to have your readers calling them by name six months after they’ve read your book. I have a hard time remembering names six hours after reading some books. But characters from other books stay with me for a lifetime. LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry comes to mind. How can you forget Augustus, Call, Newt, or for heaven’s sake, Pea Eye?
So how do you choose names?
One thing to remember. Try not to have too many characters with the same first initial. So, Bob, Bill, Binky, Belinda, and Bruce would probably be confusing. A couple are okay, of course. My two main characters are Maggie and Mead. Duh. One’s a first name, one’s a last. But I’ve avoided other “M” names unless they are historically necessary.
Also, unusual names are okay but too many are dicey. Throw a few Jenovas in with the Jennifers. Don’t make them too hard to pronounce, either out loud or in the reader’s head. It’s frustrating. Of course, if many of your characters are from countries other than the States, throw that idea out the window. But, perhaps, giving them a nickname will make them easier to recall.
One problem with historical novels is that using the real names of people involved can present problems. For instance, in some books by Sharon Kay Penman, one of my all-time favorite writers of historical England, she explained that the spelling of some characters had to be changed to distinguish one Maud from another Maude. (Lots of Henrys, Johns and James as well. Yoiks!)
Timing is very important. Names fall in and out of favor over the years, so take care not to use a very modern YA name like Aisha or Brandon in a book about merry old England.
When you’re creating a character name from scratch, consider these: personality, looks, age, ethnicity, stature in the community, occupation, attitudes toward politics, etc., values, whether the character is single, married, gay. Does the character remind you of a good friend, a bad friend, a worker, colleague, television or movie character (Dexter? Miss Marple? Morse? Lynley? Zen?) Does the character have a sense of humor? Is the character always depressed, upbeat, brutally honest, or unbearably shy? What are their quirks, flaws, hobbies, passions, hates? Does he carry around a blue plastic bag instead of a briefcase like Tony Hill?
Do you want the character’s name to conjure up something in the reader’s mind? Like Charlie Parker in John Connolly’s books makes me automatically think of the jazz musician.
My villain, Jack Cade, better known as John Wilkes Booth
I had a difficult time giving my villain in TIME EXPOSURE a meaningful name. He was, by profession, a Shakespearean actor in disguise on the battlefield as a sutler (a guy who went around selling goods to the foot soldiers.) What name would this actor choose for himself? He selected the name Jack Cade for his cover. Why?
Jack Cade was actually a real person who led the peasants in the Kent rebellion of 1450. He was also a character in Shakespeare’s play Henry VI, Part 2. In the play he talks to his friend, Dick the Butcher, whose most famous line is “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” I thought my villain would get a kick out of that, and since he probably didn’t want to be called Dick the Butcher, Jack Cade he became.
Don’t underestimate the importance of your character’s names. If you want your readers to love a character, naming him Hitler or Attila would be a tough sell. Find names you like as you read books or newspapers, watch movies, or meet new folks at a party, and jot them down for the future. You might even try the phone book, but then you don’t have the advantage of seeing the name in action on a real person. Make something up, but explain in the novel what the name means to the characters involved.
While Shakespeare said “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” it would be hard to conjure up a picture of a beautiful flower if you called the rose, Limburger.
by Lynne | Jul 9, 2013 | Uncategorized
What Makes You Give Up Your Latest Read?
Have you had trouble finding a good read lately? I know, I know, most folks say they have so many books waiting to be read that it’s no problem. But, it seems that every sample I pick up these days just hasn’t made it. Jeez, what did we do before we could download samples? We’d stand around in Borders (maybe B&N) and read the first chapter, I guess.
What makes you put the book down? And how long do you give it? I still have friends that feel obligated to finish a book once they’ve started. Not me. Life’s too short. So I thought I’d try to figure out what makes me give up on a book. This is a very helpful exercise for writers – if you can figure out what you don’t like to read and why, maybe you can avoid writing the same. Let’s see.
The usual writers’ mistakes come to mind. Too many clichés, too many adjectives and adverbs, passive verbs, poor grammar, spelling or punctuation, run on sentences, which gets you all flummoxed. These are a given for dropping a book quickly.
How about tension? If the characters are just moseying along, going shopping, dying their hair, cleaning their kitchen – I’m bored to tears. If they’re walking through a dimly- lit parking garage at midnight, glancing over their shoulder nervously (ach, an adverb!) I’m still bored. It’s been done.
What about characters? There’s such a thing as too much description. I want to picture the character, but I don’t need to know height, weight, hair and eye color and where every beauty mark is. It’s more about their personality, attitude, sense of humor, values. But I like that in short doses, building as I read on. And character names that all begin with the same letter drive me nuts. Jane, Joan, Jim, John, Jasmine, Judy, Jonathan. Aiyiyiyiyi. How can I keep them straight?
Then there’s plot. I’m sick of serial killers, abductions, sexual abuse and missing kids. Surely there are some other interesting plot lines out there. Or, at the very least, a twist on an old one. What? A missing kid who’s a serial killer. Ugh. I’m beginning to agree with agents and publishers who say it’s all been done . . . many times. Are there really no new plot lines out there?
Background description. I really like to get the atmosphere of the work early so I can step into the character’s shoes. But, again, no trite descriptions, please. No white sails against a deep blue sea, please. Also, flashbacks and backfill to give us the history is okay, but only in bits and pieces at a time. Nice if it comes from the character’s head, too, and not from the omniscient observer.
So, who can I suggest as a writer who has the skill, maybe talent is a better word, to carry all this out? A writer I’m usually not disappointed in? Believe it or not, it’s not often a mystery writer. I think one of the best writers I’ve read is Barbara Kingsolver. She has a splendid way with words and makes the English language sing. I highly recommend “The Poisonwood Bible” or “Prodigal Summer.”
If you’re more interested in characters than beautiful phrasing, try “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry (OMG, a Western!) And if you want a dynamite mystery that has all plus oodles of atmosphere, try “The Blackhouse” by Peter May.
I would have made a good literary agent. If I don’t fall in love with the book in the first five (okay ten) pages, it’s a goner. How about you?
by Lynne | Jul 1, 2013 | Uncategorized
How Fiction Can Bring History to Life
In “Time Exposure” I used the technique of letters and diary entries to bring out the human side of the Civil War. July 2 is the second day of the three day battle at Gettysburg, 150 years later. In only three days, 51,000 were killed, wounded or gone missing; 5,000 horses were slaughtered on the battlefield.
I visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to gather details for my book. I roamed the sites of its bloody history, Cemetery Ridge, Devils Den, Big Round Top, Little Round Top. The excursion provided me with background elements to set the scene. But it also elicited dark, yet poignant emotions to help me paint the picture of the grim aftermath. Rather than report that here, I excerpt a letter from my fictional Civil War photographer, Joseph Thornhill, to the love of his life, Sara Kelly. All other characters and events are real history. This letter might well have been written at the time.
July 3, 1863
My Dearest Sara,
I felt I had to write you today, after three of the bloodiest days I have ever witnessed. I must get it off my mind, and I might not even post this letter, lest you be terribly offended. But I feel I must unburden myself somehow.
Rumors have it that General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia suffered great losses, maybe one third of their forces dead, wounded or captured. The Union Army is said to have lost a good deal, maybe one quarter of their troops, but it is safe to say we won the battle of Gettysburg. Lee’s army is retreating back to the South and Mead’s men are elated. Finally, victory, and an important one.
It is sad to think that this particular battle may have been fought over something as simple as shoes. There was rumored to be a large supply of shoes in the town of Gettysburg and on July 1 an officer under Ewell’s command led his men there to confiscate these shoes. Unfortunately for them, they ran into the Union Army.
I was slightly wounded today, some shrapnel lacerating my arm. But don’t worry. The doctors have bandaged me up and say I will be fine, no permanent damage, and I take a bit of laudanum for the pain. Luckily my camera, which was caught in the crossfire suffered no harm.
I must admit that until now I had no real concept of the power our modern weaponry wields. The force of the injury knocked me clean off my feet. I think this experience will prove useful to me in my work.
The wound has not stopped me from working, however, although it is a bit difficult with one arm in a brace. I rely on my apprentice more. I’ve been busy photographing the town and its people. Now I’ll begin, once again, to shoot the battlefield remains. I am steeling myself to this task slowly, but have not made much progress.
Both Alex and Tim O’Sullivan–you remember, I mentioned this fine young man and competent photographer to you–will arrive in the next few days. I look forward to working with them.
Now, other gruesome scenes await my camera. Embalming surgeons, as they call themselves, have arrived. Although many of the dead soldiers are hastily buried where they fall, many end up in mass graves. Some are later exhumed and buried in military cemeteries, whether they’ve been identified or not– often with the headstone reading only: “A Union Soldier” or “A Confederate Soldier.” It is hard to imagine–dying in the name of one’s country but that country not even knowing your name.
On a lighter note, I have also photographed some of the Union soldiers and officers after the final skirmish, and they were truly in high spirits–dirty, sweaty, exhausted, some wounded, but all euphoric. There was optimism in the air and hope, hope that this war would soon end. But for now we must deal with the brutal aftermath of this battle. Hospital tents crowd the countryside and the small population of Gettysburg is inundated with the sick and wounded. I doubt this town will ever be the same.
Tomorrow is July 4. I wonder if anyone, in the midst of all this furor, will appreciate the irony that this day marks the eighty-seventh year of our nation’s birth.
I miss you, my dearest, and long to see you this Christmas. You are always in my thoughts as I pray I am in yours.
Yours ever truly,
Joseph
Devil’s Den at Gettysburg.
Happy 150th Anniversary, Gettysburg. I hope we’ve learned from your tragedy.
