Part 1: Starting Out as a Writer

I’ve been writing most of my life. As a child I kept a diary, in school, I wrote reports, dissertations, grant proposals, and other boring documents. Mostly I wrote for my jobs. First as a teacher, then as an educator at a museum, then as a museum director. None of the writing could be classified as creative, however, and until about 1995, I had never tried writing fiction. Most of what I read was fiction, though, usually mysteries, but occasionally “literary fiction.” I distinguish mysteries or other “genre” fiction as light, while literary fiction as heavy. When I attempted to analyze this, I came up with this simplistic division: genre fiction uses easy words, literary fiction uses harder ones, sometimes requiring a dictionary (and often being selected as an Oprah book.) Both, on the other hand, can be poorly-written or well-written.

So I decided I could write a mystery, light, easy words, twisty plot. Why not? My first step was to come up with the mystery, no, the characters, no, the time period in which to set the mystery (I love history), no, a beginning, or an ending. Argh. Where to start?

The idea came to me unexpectedly. When I was director of education and exhibits at the Reuben Fleet Science Center in San Diego, the Smithsonian came to town. Balboa Park, where the Science Center is located, is similar to the Smithsonian Mall (with better weather!) in that there are about 22 museums scattered throughout.

Museums from the Smithsonian were paired with Balboa Park Museums to host lectures. We hosted a speaker from the National Museum of American History who did an illustrated talk on Civil War photography. I was hooked. I knew at that moment I was going to write a mystery that revolved around Civil War photography.

Now, I also love forensics and technology, working at a science museum, of course. So, why not add a modern element? An historical mystery that would be solved a hundred and fifty years later by modern digital photography. I wrote TIME EXPOSURE in nine months. During that time, my husband and I took a research trip to the Civil War battlegrounds — Washington, D.C., Manassas, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and the Burgs: Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, etc. — and I worked with the same expert from the Smithsonian to make sure my research was authentic.

For the modern element, I worked with some digital photographers to learn the latest analyzing techniques. How could I take photograph taken during the Civil War and enhance and clarify it today to identify a killer? I also worked with the San Diego Sheriff’s Dept. Crime Lab to make sure any forensics I used was correct.

And then I wrote, and wrote, and wrote. In less than a year, I had my first manuscript, a masterpiece, not an ordinary, run-of-the mill mystery. Something really different, special, unique. Like no other. Like yours?

Then I joined a critique group.

Watch for next Tuesday’s Blog to get into the critique group experience.