Bodies Can Show Up in Strange Places in Soft Mysteries

    Decided to indulge in some softer mysteries this week. After tossing a couple cozies on the trade pile, I ended up with a historical: Lou Jane Temple's The Spice Box.

   My reward was seeing several inches of wall underneath the picture hanging over three to-read piles. It's still white. I was beginning to wonder. [Who knows? Gremlins might have snuck in and painted it a different color.]

   The Spice Box focus's on the Irish experience in New York City of the 1860s ... where a former street rat, Bridget Heaney, is achieving her ambition to become a chef when she is employed by a prominent Sephardic Jewish department store owner. Things turn south when she finds her employer's son's body in the dough box [a large cupboard where bread dough is put to rise]. The book was off and strolling through enough twists and turns to make the story line interesting, if somewhat unbelievable.

   Yeah. The book sometimes felt anachronistic, but is readable. More and more women were breaking out of their "little women" stereotypes. I don't think I'm being insensitive, but the protagonist felt a little too modern to my expectations. I also thought the sub-plot of searching for her long missing sister felt like an after thought and the renewed relationship between the two sisters rushed. But it did bring the book to an end and threw a sop to the cooking theme of the mystery.

   Never heard of Lou Jane Temple before, but she has quite a few books under her name, released by a major publisher. Guess she sold a few even though she hasn't garnered as many reviews as other popular mystery writers. The book was published in 2005 so she operated in a different environment than today. So, I'm guessing there was a copy editor checking for facts so my feelings about anachronisms may be off the mark.

   The plot line was better developed than the characters. Other than the main character, not enough of the other characters had enough quirks to round them out. But they did their duty in carrying the plot along. Can't complain too much.

   Recommended, +/-. Some of the history bothered me, and I kept waiting for the characters to break out of their stereotypes. But I was too lazy to check the background or just too busy. Still, the book kept me reading. I give it a pass since the other two books I started ended up on the trade pile without getting finished.

Read excerpts and some unhappy reviews at Amazon and B&N Nook.

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Interesting Links

   Folklore has writers needing coffee like vampires need blood. "Ilona Andrews" of the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series blogged about her coffee troubles recently, The Keurig Quit. Must say she reinforced my perceptions of the machine...besides the fact they're expensive to use unless you get those little re-useable containers to old the coffee like some cheapskates I know.

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My Writing Rut

   On the Run has another chapter down ... at least until I start revising. Amazing what concentrating on dialog can do to speed my writing pace. Of course, the setting and tags limp along or are absent, but I guess something has to be sacrificed in the name of speed. Tried to get those mended over the week-end, but too many extraneous things happened. Of course, I could stop editing was I write ... but ideas keep popping into my head about the characters as I write.

   Sounds like I make more excuses for slow writing than actually writing.

   Still, haven't gotten to my website. It must be feeling as much an orphan as Bridget Heaney. Maybe next week.

   Still, haven't gotten to any of my short story outlines...

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Can You Write a Gripping Book?

I'm sure you've been told gripping books sell. I'm sure you've tried or are trying to write one. But have you figured out why writing a good book is so hard? 

My take: it's a matter of opinion. Publishers. Agents. Writers. Book Stores. Readers. All have their own idea of what works. Was thinking about this when I read Ilona Andrews, of the Magic urban fantasy series of Atlanta gone awry with fluctuating magic, making a comment in a blog which I think sums the situation up beautifully:

"A gripping book is like porn.  You know when you see it, but if you try to identify the elements of it, chances are someone will come back with a gripping book that does exactly the opposite."

Want an amusing look at a successful writer's day seen through the eyes of his/her hypothetical intern? Here's a link to the blog "Interns".

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So do I write gripping stories? I don't think so. I'm sort of a dilettante who writes more to amuse myself than become a great author or even a best-selling writer. Still, do have a publication date for "There Be Demons" of Spring 2014. Arcs should be ready about October-November. Then, I have to go into marketing mode to justify the investment Grumpy Dragon is making in me.

Have a big editorial meeting coming up in a couple weeks. I'm hoping my editorial board asks enough questions to fill in the holes in my storyline, characters, descriptions and all that other stuff that goes into making a readable story. In the meantime, I hoping the storyline is gripping enough not to put them to sleep.

Giving Secondary Characters a Chance to Star: Exploring the Sidetracks in Your Story Lines

Have you ever been enchanted by a secondary character in a novel? One that lurks in the background until needed for the plot? One that deserved to be a star, at least in your opinion?

The writing team Ilona Andrews does just that in Gunmetal Magic with Andrea, the were-hyena or Bouda friend, and later, partner of Kate Daniels in the Andrews' Magic series.  Andrea's problems get star billing ... as she works through a twisting mystery ... while she clears up some personal issues with authority and reconciliation with her lover. Yeah. Andrea is a busy girl in this book.

Perhaps Andrea shows too much "teenage horror-movie stupidity" -- going where "no one with any sense" would go -- in the book, but it's excusable. Workers employed by Andrea's former lover, Rafael, are killed at a construction/mining site. The mystery rises about what was in an empty vault and where did the killing viper bites come from. The puzzle complicates when the possibility of snake weres arises ... when no snake-weres were known before.

Andrea follows the clues to solve the murder mystery no matter where it takes her. Andrea lucks out each time by coming up with both new information and a new twist in the plot line. The complications requiring Rafael's help annoy her the most. 

Andrea has always been an independent sort of girl. One who rejects being the delicate sort who needs always needs rescuing. She'll wreck her own mayhem, thank you very much. The Andrews set up the dual conflict and Andrea's problems with authority all in the first two fast moving chapters ... with a minimum of back story.  In short, Andrea'd be damned if she'd "bow and scrape" to be admitted to Clan Bouda. -- The book almost earns five stars right there.

The romance is entertaining as well. Not only does Andrea have to face a mother-in-law-from-hell in Auntie B, Rafael's mother and leader of the were-hyena clan, she has to put up with Rafael's protective instincts. How bad is Auntie B? Well, she can make the word "dear" the most threatening word in the dictionary. As for Rafael, he finds some creative ways to annoy her until she gives in and let's him back into her life. Andrea readily admits she loves him, but there's that subservient thing.  -- To say more, would destroy the fun of reading the book.

Rating: Five stars. It took me some time to review the book since my pile of "read" books is about a fourth the size of my "to-read" pile. Not only did Gunmetal Magic keep me ready "just one more chapter" past my bedtime, but it goes on my keeper pile.

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I seem to have slowed down for Christmas -- not that I'm not doing things like cards/letters. Did get the edits/revisions done for Bad Luck Emma. Now I'm be sending it out into the cold, cruel world to be rejected by agents.

Did get some good news. Pat, the Pet ... my vowel controlled, pre-primer color-a-comic has made it onto the publisher's list. Here's what Grumpy Dragon had to say:

"Pat the Pet by Kay Theodoratus.

This is a coloring book/comic for English as a Second Language readers as well as emergent readers. The focus is on short vowel sounds, and it features Pat, a lovable, goofy brown monster who would fit in well with the Muppets. This book is going to be a Lightning Source title available through The Grumpy Dragon, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. ... We also have plans for a DVD with institutional licensing as well as a coloring app for phones/tablets..."

Of course, cynical me, isn't holding her breath. As I said somewhere ... maybe around Christmas 2013?

Review: Gregor, the Overlander -- Overcoming Genre Norms

Pity the poor boy whose two-year-old sister saves his life when he drops down the laundry chute into a strange underground world.  Fortunately, Suzanne Collins created a caring eleven-year-old boy in Gregor, the Overlander who managers to be the hero because he's able to work with a team rather than be a super-hero, who can take on all comers. Collins has Gregor using his brain more than his muscles -- even when one of the "good guys" turns into a traitor.

Think I like Gregor more than Collins' Hunger Games series, even though that work is a masterpiece. Why? My intro is one reason. The other is that Collins creates a complete, self-contained alien world out of the few elements that might exist in an interlinked cavern world. How would you do with a group of humans who disappeared into the independent underground world, giant cockroaches, giant rats, spiders, and bats?

[Cows are mentioned and explained briefly, but aren't concerned with the over all plot -- except to provide jerky which runs out. Fish also provide protein.]

Running out of food is the least of the problems Gregor faces. The book is basically a quest novel. Granted Collins has Gregor being the focus of a vague prophesy. But, once he learns his father is alive, Gregor's main problem to find his father, who is a captive of the rats. All in all, Collins kept coming up with twists on the obvious as Gregor built his team ... which had me amazed at her creativity.

More important, Collins left me thinking I should read more middle grade.  Only problem there? Too many books seem to have the hero/protagonists do most of the heavy lifting. Actually, it's a problem inherent in much of genre fiction. You know a good author, when they break the conventions. 

On the other hand, writers have come a long way from many genre limitations: Ilona Andrews a popular fantasy writer [and one of my favorites] wrote a blog on Rules for Mystery Writers. As I read through them, I kept thinking urban fantasy couldn't exist if writers still followed them. Of course, the Brit social life was once bound by all sorts of rules of conduct.

What do you think? Can you have civility of discourse with hide-bound rules of conduct?

Another lead from Andrews sent me to another discussion of "strong Women" by Shana Mlawski on Why Strong Female Characters are Bad for Women. Actually, Mlawski takes on the super-nerdy concept of females as they all too often appear in action movies. Made me feel bad for nerdy adolescents who dream of banging the cheerleaders as opposed to the human encapsuled in the body, which would entail making love rather than banging.

Which makes me wonder what kind of flaws you give your characters to overcome. Isn't that the key to writing memorable people? I know I struggle with it. Do you?

Magic in Paranormal Fiction, etc.

Fantasy Book Comments [aka Review]:

Is there a greater cliche in fantasy than "magic"?  Ilona Andrews Magic Slays and the other books in that series has one of the more interesting concepts of magic I've discovered.  The stuff ebbs and flows, making everyone -- nulls, weres, vampires, magic workers -- cope.  In Magic Slays, the coping becomes more complicated because a bunch of nulls is taking advantage of disaffected magic workers to create sleeper cells dedicated to destroying magic.

Do you catch the hint of social commentary there?  Yeah, the team writers, known as Ilona Andrews, make some interesting comments about the "human condition"  within the context of the story.  What amazed me was they stopped before the commentary became tedious a la Edward Bellamy's Looking Backwards.

On the writerly level, Andrews trims all sorts of dangling loose ends as they complicate Kate Daniels' first job as a private investigator.  Yeah, its a delight to watch how the flaws in characters come back to bite Daniels in the behind with fangs longer than a were's.  The reader is even treated to some back story about her family which doesn't clog the action flow.

Never fear, even though lots of complications are resolved in the Magic Slays' story line, there're plenty more to carry the series forward.  This is a series that hasn't bogged down ... yet anyway.

Grumping About My Lessons:

Barb Drozdowich at the Indie Book Collective has blog on book blogger/reviewers, simply titled "Reviews".  The reason I mention it is to kick myself in the butt ... or is that "but ..." ... because I've been ignoring the "email for books reviews" on my to-do list.  But then, I've also got this little item about formatting for Amazon and Pub It that's languishing from list to list.

Guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and ask "followers" on Twitter to do it.  --  My Facebook pages are for people I know/met so I really don't want to beg there.  --  I think my dislike of marketing could very easily rub off onto social networking.  --  What do you think about begging for reviews?  Personally, I don't even care if they're bad.

I'm glad I don't expect to make any money as a writer.  It saves me from lots of disappointment since I'm so deep in an accounting hole, I may never see black again on my Schedule C.  Then, I discovered a fascinating blog by Ellery Adams "Bares All" ,giving us the statistics on the life of a mid-list author.  While he makes some money, he seems to be getting about as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield.

Guess I should say I found him doing a guest blog on Jessica Faust's Bookends blog.  No, Faust isn't a slouch as an agent.  Adams has three mystery series, at least one of them published by Berkley.   Still, he doesn't make enough to make the IRS sit up and pant ... unless he didn't file his taxes. -- It's just that most authors don't make the best seller lists.  It's statistically impossible.  So, forget the leather elbow patches and pipe.

[How's that for a sexist comment?  

Whatever, the article is fascinating ... or did I say that already.]

Is there a cure for paltry sales?  Maybe the WANA? Don't know the term?  Maybe you should read about Kristin Lamb and her approach to social networking. It's a little self-promotional, but has some great insights on increasing your ebook sales.  Basically, it gives some pointers on not promoting alone. Kay rating:  worth printing so you can underline the pertinent parts.

Doesn't all that sound good?  Unfortunately, I think I'm more congenitally geared to growling than glad-handing ... even if I'm only pressing keys.

Trivia:

The dumb cat has decided it likes to be twirled in my computer chair.  I get up to touch my knees so my hip doesn't ossify, and he's usually there meowing for a ride.  Today, he hissed at me when I tried to remove him.  He soon got the message he's not the boss.

Finding New Authors to Read and Writing Craft Ideas

Fantasy Book Review:

Need a new author to read? Novella collections make a great way to discover new writers.  Hexed, which includes stories by Yasmine Galenorn, Ilona Andrews, and Allyson James about magic and mayhem, was no exception.  Granted it included two of my favorite authors and reminded me of another whose name I had forgotten [James].  Jeanne C. Stein was new to me.

While I usually don't care much for vampire stories, Stein hooked me with her Anna Strong in Blood Debt.  I've a soft spot for people who stand up to arbitrary authority, especially when they use their brains.  James even came up with an interesting "other" antagonist which hasn't been overused -- at least not in the books I've read.  So, I gave her four stars for creativity.  I think she lost a star from me for the vampire protagonist -- even if Anna Strong fights to keep her humanity and can walk in daylight. -- Hey, the vampire meme needs all the innovation it can attract.

Another reason I like novella collections is they can fill in the back story of important secondary characters in a series. Galenorn first hinted at a tragic past when she first introduced Iris Kuusi, a Finnish house sprite, in her D'Artigo sister's Otherworld series.  Her story Ice Shards fills in the details.  Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews does much the same for a more minor secondary character in her alternative world of magical Atlanta. Allyson James reminds the reader that a relatively minor character can wreck greater havoc in a story than writers normally assign to them in Double Hexed ... if a writer pushes beyond the obvious.

I was sorry when the book ended.  Fortunately, I had rebuilt my to-read pile so I've a couple juicy reads to look forward to.  And no, I'm not going to comment on the quality of the writing in this collection.  These be master's here. -- Maybe I write half as well.

Grumping about My Lessons:
[Are we learning yet?]

Are you search engine friendly?  Like do you want to make it easy to find what you write whether blog or novel?  Chuck Sambuchino at the Guide to Literary Agents recently had a guest blog by Hollis Gillespie on How to be  Click Magnet. If your a writer, its a skill you must learn to improve your sales and/or the readership of your blog.  I know I printed a copy of the blog to study it.

Lesson:  Out of the ten tips, I picked up on writing titles.  I did notice my longer, more descriptive titles got more visits from search engines, but didn't think much about it.  Now I have a list of handy-dandy ideas to improve my blog readership.

Good thing I printed the article.  My eyes glazed over the first tips on getting most out of your titles.  Did you know Google only lists 65 characters in their search engine titles?  I didn't.  Now I know why so many search engine listings dangle in mid-idea. 

And, while you are writing that title, make it specific. I have to quote Hollis' example.  Newspaper speak:  "Senile Feline Enthusiast Dies".  Web speak: "Dead Crazy Cat Lady of Dayton an Undercover CIA Spy".  -- Rather nice that the old lady had an interesting life ... but, maybe, the red tape drove her crazy.

Did you read the article? Which tip seemed most appealedl to you?

Opening hooks have also been on my mind.  Since I've been curtailing my time on the web, blog opening lines have to hook me.  Then, I find K. M. Weiland's Word Play blog on hooking readers:  Is Your Opening Line Lying to Your Readers?

Found another gold mine, I think, on Twitter. Galley Cat did a blog on Find Reviews on the Book Blogs Search Engine.  This one's not a list of things to do.  It's a link to Fyrefly Books which has compiled a search engine about people who blog about books.  They also feature reviews you can search by genres.   

Trivia:

Remember.  No one ever said writing is easy.  I've notice it's also time consuming.