KN Magazine: Articles
Understanding Your Social Media Campaign
By Tom Wood
I attended the Faith in Film Conference in mid-June—one of several seminars held during the weeklong Film-Com event in Nashville—and two of the panel discussions merit discussion here, even though this column is about self-publishing your book.
The first one was titled “Understanding Your Social Media Campaign”, the second “The Changing Landscape of Distribution”—a topic I will discuss in next month’s column.
Sounds a lot like issues faced by those of us who have self-published, doesn’t it?
Social media is essential when it comes to getting the word out about your product—yes, ultimately, that is what you must consider your work of art. You may have the best, most unique story in the world, but if you don’t get the word out about it, then nobody is going to read it.
Some are more adept at using—and understanding—the power of social media campaigns to promote and market your book. I think I fall somewhere in between: I’m good on some levels, but I don’t do quite so well in others.
A lot depends on what you’re trying to do with your book: is it mainstream or written for a niche audience? There’s a learning curve to properly using social media, and you may want to consult a professional for help if this is your weakness.
Hiring a public relations consultant can be expensive, but some have different levels of service, although you might have to do some searching to find someone within your price range. Again, it is important to know what you are trying to accomplish.
From personal experience, I will probably hire a public relations agency if I choose to self-publish my next book. I probably did two week’s worth of advance publicity for Vendetta Stone. The campaign should have started much, much earlier. But I hit the ground running and haven’t stopped yet.
There is so much you can do on your own when it comes to avenues like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In, YouTube, etc. And there are other avenues of getting your message out and your books distributed.
A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, Filtered Through Time and conducting an interview with Stephen King for Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. In the last year, Tom has begun writing Western fiction short stories, two of which have been published by Western Trail Blazer. “Tennesseans West” is his next project with four other authors involved. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series “Nashville”. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. Vendetta Stone is his first novel and he is working on the sequel.
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
How Hard Do You Try to Sell?
By Tom Wood
At a recent book-signing event, a little boy followed his parents into the bookstore. He was maybe six or seven years old and walked straight to my table and picked up a copy of Vendetta Stone while the grown-ups veered somewhere to the right.
The silent lad continued to stare at the cover, and then began to flip through the pages, looking for illustrations, I imagine. Friendly as I could be, smiling broadly, I spoke to him in a singsong voice. “Hello there. That’s my book!”
His eyes widened in horror as if I were an ogre yelling at him. He threw the book on the table and ran off, frantically searching for his parents. Another how-to lesson learned.
Know your audience, and be careful how you speak to them.
Approaching the public on how to discuss — and hopefully sell — your books is an on-going debate with some of my fellow members of the Authors Circle in Franklin, Tennessee.
We get a booth at some major events — such as the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, or the Main Street Festival and Dickens of a Christmas in Franklin — where we will have up to a dozen authors and all our books on display under a 10x10 tent.
Some toes have been stepped on, and a few feathers ruffled as we have come to define general booth etiquette. But somehow it works, and we all seem to get along well.
The general debate is this — and it’s one to consider whether you’re doing big events like these or doing a solo signing — are you an active or passive seller?
Do you sit back and allow people to browse through all the available books before them, speaking only when they zero in on one book?
Or do you actively engage them, talking a little about all of the available books? Clearly, at a group event, you can’t have everybody talking at once. We would all be shouting over each other.
Both approaches work, and both are risk/reward. If you wait for them to ask what the book is about, then they might glance at it and move on. Sale lost.
If you approach them too aggressively, they are looking for the first excuse to move on. Sale lost.
There’s no easy answer.
Speaking only for myself (there is divided opinion within our group), I think it helps to have one or two people acting as a group spokesman to say we have fantasy and children’s books here, thrillers and mysteries there, historical fiction over here and non-fiction at that end.
But that’s just me.
I asked a few of my fellow Authors Circle members for their thoughts and here’s what they had to say:
Iscah: “I think it’s wise to work with your personality and strengths, then adapt as best you can to the venue. Your best sales tool is a passive one: a good cover with an appealing (and appropriate) image, title, and description can do a lot of the selling for you. If you’re outgoing and friendly this will be a great asset as you try to engage potential customers. Just take care to read body language and let them go if they're not interested (Aside from being polite, you may be missing other potential readers).”
Bill Peach: “I have thought about one copy of every book on the front table with backup on the side table. Let them look. If they touch or pick up a book and show interest, maybe point to the author if they are close. If the interest continues summon the author for Q and A one-on-one. Don’t push our own book while customer is looking at someone else’s book. Don’t ask any question for which there is a possible negative response.”
Carole Webb Slater: “Selling and marketing my book has been an ongoing trial and error process that has been somewhat successful. Although it reads like a novel it is not a must-read thriller! In fact my book appeals to a specific targeted group of readers.”
What do you think? Send your thoughts to Killer Nashville Magazine and I will use some of them in a future column.
A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, Filtered Through Time and conducting an interview with Stephen King for Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. In the last year, Tom has begun writing Western fiction short stories, two of which have been published by Western Trail Blazer. “Tennesseans West” is his next project with four other authors involved. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series “Nashville”. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. Vendetta Stone is his first novel and he is working on the sequel.
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Being Your Own Boss Means Meeting Deadlines
By Tom Wood
Deadlines, deadlines, and more deadlines.
If you are a journalist thinking about self-publishing your Great American Novel, you know the word too well. But as Bachman-Turner Overdrive sang, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Or you’ve already self-published, so you probably know how the deadlines never cease even after the book comes out. Welcome to my world.
But if you’ve just recently retired, or been downsized, or are a stay-at-home mom or dad who always wanted to write a book and you decided to self-publish, know this:
You’re always on deadline.
Now you might not have an editor hovering over you, an agent sending URGENT emails or a publisher SCREAMING for the next chapters, but it doesn’t mean you can escape the pressures of deadlines.
In fact, self-imposed deadlines might be the hardest of all — precisely because only three people will push you to complete the book.
Me, myself and I.
You have to be a self-driven, disciplined, and motivated individual to finish that story you’ve always wanted to tell. If it never gets written, who’s going to know besides you and your closest friends?
Since I self-published “Vendetta Stone” in August 2013 and began doing speaking engagements and promotional events, many people have sadly expressed a desire to finish the book they started so many years ago. Why didn’t they complete the project? Mostly because life got in the way, or they got frustrated, or…
It’s not easy to find the time to write in a day full of work, chores, raising a family or whatever.
But I’ve met several practicing attorneys, doctors, and public relations specialists — married ones — who have found time to churn out a book. That’s discipline. They spend weekends on the road hawking books and speaking to groups just like the rest of us. That’s motivated.
And if you self-publish more than one book, you must set aside writing time each day while you are promoting events, calling bookstore owners, keeping track of sales, writing blogs, and doing everything else the job entails.
So pardon me if I cut this short.
I’m on deadline.
A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, “Filtered Through Time” and conducting an interview with Stephen King for “Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King”. In the last year, Tom has begun writing Western fiction short stories, two of which have been published by Western Trail Blazer. “Tennesseans West” is his next project with four other authors involved. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series “Nashville”. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. “Vendetta Stone” is his first novel and he is working on the sequel.
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Mining the Gold of Silence
Sometimes a look can say it all. Sometimes there are no words to express a feeling. Author John Dobbyn reminds us in this essay that there are times when it’s best not to over explain and allow the reader to take control of the stories beautifully unfolding in their minds.
By John F. Dobbyn
Vital as it is for a mystery/thriller writer to have a way with words, an even greater gift is to have a way without words.
Words are necessary to erect the structure of character, setting, and plot. But if the writer trusts the reader, an even greater depth to the story can be achieved by leaving enough rooms vacant of furniture, or at least sparsely furnished, to allow, no, compel the reader to enter into the act of “furnishing” it with his/her own imagination.
The central character in my series of four, soon to be five, legal thriller novels published by Oceanview Publications is a 27-year old criminal trial lawyer who tells the stories in the first person. Throughout the series, I have shared with the reader the fact that Michael Knight is an inch or two over six feet. Beyond that, I have never given the reader one more detail of his physical appearance. And that has been deliberate.
By my telling the stories in the first person, I believe and hope that the readers live more personally through every terrorizing situation I inflict upon Michael. They experience Michael’s courage, as John Wayne defined courage, “being scared to death, but saddling up anyway”. They feel constricted by Michael’s sense of honor. He will bend, warp, and fracture the truth to survive a situation, or to gain the advantage over the “bad guys”, but he will walk into hell rather than break his word once given. They feel his profound admiration, if not hero-worship, for his aging senior partner, Lex Devlin, as it grows from one novel to the next into a mutual father/son love.
And along the way, almost without realizing it, the reader has filled in the most finite details of Michael’s physical appearance, from the color of his hair, the shape of his nose, the color of his eyes, to the cut of his physique.
I only know this because I have asked readers how they see him. The answers have been as detailed, and as different from each other, as anything I could have dreamed up. And what they are “seeing” is frequently a far cry from the Michael I visualize. And that’s the magic of silence. The reader has unknowingly entered into the creative process and given birth, at least in part, to a character of his/her own. I love when that happens. It gives the reader something of a personal stake in the outcome of the story, and that gives a greater depth to the satisfaction in the resolution.
In painting other characters, I tend to be more generous with the details of their appearance, but again, not without a disciplined infusion of silence. Rather than giving in to the temptation to describe them elaborately, I use a few brush strokes to paint their most prominent, defining physical features, much like a caricaturist doing a sketch.
Given these few descriptive hints, it is amazing how each reader will draw on the character’s personality traits, as suggested by what the character does and says, to “see” a fully formed image. And that image, unique to each reader, is the personal investment that draws the reader more deeply into my fictional world.
The silence technique works with plot as well as character. I have nothing against an author’s spewing blood in living color across the pages. Some writers have an almost poetic knack for describing raw violence in wrenching terms. It’s not for me. I don’t do it. I prefer to use a disciplined silence to invite readers to infuse out of their imaginations whatever degree of blood, pain, and gore suits their sensibilities.
In the fourth novel in the Michael Knight/Lex Devlin series, “Deadly Diamonds”, there is a scene in which Michel accompanies a former IRA soldier, accomplished in martial arts, to a bar in one of Boston’s dicier sections. Michael needs to confront one of six gang members in the bar and live through it. His comrade tells Michael to wait outside while he “cleans house”.
I keep the reader outside the bar with Michael. The only details I give of what is taking place inside the bar are the sounds Michael hears of smashing bottles, fractured pool cues, impacting fists, and dropping bodies. I never describe the violence visually, but the reader “sees” it in whatever images are conjured in the reader’s individual imagination. Again, probably without realizing it, the reader is drawn into an active partnership in the storytelling. It is like the difference between watching a crime show on television, with all the details presented visually to the passive viewer, and listening to one on the radio, with all of the action and characters played out on the screen of the listener’s own imagination. Somehow, I’ve always preferred the latter for absorbing storytelling.
As for setting, is anything more disconcerting than having the author of a thriller break the flow of the action and suspend the suspense for a cadenza on the charm of the surrounding countryside? Television shows do it constantly for commercials, but that’s to pay the bills.
Here again, silence is not only golden, it is welcome. If anything unique about the particular landscape or cityscape has a bearing on the plot or level of suspense, all to the good. I’ll go for it, but only with enough of the impressionist’s spare brushstrokes to trigger the creative glands of the reader to fill in the details. Even as to my beloved Boston, I have to squelch the desire to give the reader a travelogue at the expense of the suspense.
Ah, but to say it is one thing. To do it in the heat of novel writing is another. I had the good fortune to be tipped off to the technique by two of the best editors I have ever experienced. The first was the former elder stateswoman of St Martin’s Press, God rest her worthy soul. I sent the manuscript to her and received it back within three weeks. Her comment was, “It is twenty thousand words too long. And I say that without reading a single word of it.”
I recovered from that shocker and sent it to my current editor through three novels and counting, the most perceptive and insightful editor I’ve ever known, Pat Gussin of Oceanview Publications. The second shock was when Pat said, without hearing of the previous comment, “We’ll take it – if you can eliminate twenty thousand words.”
My wife, Lois, (my in-home editor) and I set about scanning every phrase of the novel and slicing out everything that was not essential to building suspense. It was like removing my kidneys, my liver, and several other vital organs to see my best and cutest and funniest lines lying gasping on the floor. But it worked. The novel had leanness, a cogency of flow, a sustaining of tension that it never had before.
I’ve carried that lesson in discipline through the next three novels until it is now second nature. And I sense that the storytelling is so much the better for it.
It’s like the sculptor who was asked how he fashioned a perfect likeness of his subject, Harry. He said, “I just take a block of marble and knock off everything that isn’t Harry.” The trick is to do the same with the essence of a story.
Perhaps the first teacher of us all in this art was the “master of lean” Ernest Hemingway. Without knowing it at the time, I think that aspect of his uniqueness was what drew me instinctively to his writing style. If you want to see this technique in its ultimate degree, try any novel by the powerful Irish novelist, Ken Bruen.
Like all writing techniques, if this use of silence can be done, it can be overdone or underdone. It requires practice, experimentation, and fine-tuning. The instrument the writer is learning to play is the imagination of a hypothetical reader. And that is truly a challenge. But once it becomes instinctive to the writer, silence can be at least as effective as words.
John F. Dobbyn is an American mystery writer and Professor of Law at the Villanova University School of Law. As a mystery writer, he is best known for his stories set in Boston and featuring the lawyers Lex Devlin and Michael Knight. He is the author of four novels, including "Black Diamond" and “Deadly Diamonds”, and he is currently working on a fifth, “Deadly Odds”. www.johndobbyn.com
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Louisiana History as Backdrop for Debut Novel
By Maria Giordano,
Killer Nashville Staff
You could say that Mike Rubin was destined to become a writer. It was as “they” say in his blood. His mother was a short story writer, his father a federal judge whose opinions are still quoted today, and his wife has written numerous television scripts and has served as a developmental editor of nonfiction books.
A Louisiana native and full-time attorney, Mike had already penned over forty articles for periodicals, newspapers, and law reviews, and several non-fiction law books, before taking up historical fiction.
His debut novel, “The Cottoncrest Curse”, combines many of his talents in what he calls a legal thriller.
“Although I have written a number of legal books and articles, my wife, Ayan, and I developed the story and characters of “The Cottoncrest Curse” during our daily, early morning walks,” Mike said. “We wanted to create a tale that dealt with issues of family identity, truth, justice, race, and religion in the context of a compelling, page-turning thriller.”
The story deals with three major questions that can apply to anyone, he added.
“Can we ever really know the whole truth about our family history? If we learned the truth about our heritage, would it change our perception of others or ourselves? And, do we have a responsibility to tell the unvarnished truth if it would hurt some but help others?”
Cottoncrest is not a real plantation, but Rubin took care in creating the historical context surrounding the story because LSU Press, a university press that has a special concentration in southern history, published the book. His work was researched and vetted by historians for accuracy, he said.
He explained that his descriptions of plantation life, Civil War battles, how physicians cared for the wounded, the plight of both sharecroppers and former slaves, the details of raising sugar cane, the culture, the speech patterns, and the New Orleans locale are all historically accurate.
“Likewise, the historical events surrounding the famous separate-but-equal case of Plessy v. Ferguson, described in the novel, are true,” Mike said. “Attorney Louis Martinet, who is depicted in the novel, was a real person, a black lawyer succeeding in racist, post-Reconstruction Louisiana. It was Martinet who came up with the idea of creating a test case to vindicate the rights of former slaves under the 14th Amendment. Martinet had a great plan and solid legal theories, but unfortunately it took almost six decades before the United States Supreme Court came around to the views he had articulated in the 1890s and overruled Plessy with the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, which figures in the storyline as well.”
Steeped in his Louisiana history and legal know-how, Mike will be attending the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference for the first time. He looks forward to meeting with fans of thrillers, other writers, and making new friends.
Michael H. Rubin’s career has many facets. A full-time attorney who is Chair of the Appellate Practice Team of the multi-state law firm of McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC, with offices ranging from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast up the East Coast from Florida to Washington D.C. to New York, he’s also been a professional jazz pianist, performing in the New Orleans French Quarter as well as a radio and television announcer. A nationally-known public speaker and raconteur, he has given more than 400 presentations throughout the US, Canada, and England. A prolific writer, he has authored a number of non-fiction books covering a variety of legal issues as well as writing over 40 articles for professional journals and periodicals; his writings are used in law schools and have been cited as authoritative by state and federal courts. He’s been president of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the Bar Association of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and of the national American College of Real Estate Lawyers. His debut novel, The Cottoncrest Curse, published in September of 2014 by the LSU Press, has been praised by Publishers Weekly as a “gripping debut mystery,” by James Carville as a “powerful epic,” and by Sheldon Siegel, New York Times best-selling thriller writer, as “impeccably researched, deftly plotted, and flawlessly executed.”
Texas Roots Bear Terry Shames' Craddock Series
By Maria Giordano,
Killer Nashville Staff
Writing wasn’t on author Terry Shames’ mind when she was a child. When she was about 6-years-old and asked what she wanted to be when she grew up her first thought was to be a detective.
“I had been reading the Raggedy Ann and Andy adventure stories before I graduated to Nancy Drew,” said Shames, who has since received numerous awards for her writing. “The characters in these books were always finding clues, so I used to walk around looking for clues. A gum wrapper? A button? In my childhood imagination, I was sure that one day I would be called up to bring out those clues to solve a real, live mystery.”
Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Novel for her 2014 mystery-thriller A Killing At Cotton Hill, Shames has perhaps become a detective in an indirect way.
Shames says Killer Nashville provided a great boost for her writing career. Two years in a row, she was a finalist for the Claymore Award.
“Although I didn’t win, it gave me a lot of buzz and something for my agent to pass on to publishers considering my manuscripts.”
She is currently working on the fifth book in a series featuring the beloved Samuel Craddock, a country gentleman and the former police chief of the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas. The recurring character is loosely based on her grandfather, who did indeed live in Texas.
Shames described her grandfather as strong and sometimes brusque, but a person with whom she connected.
“When Samuel showed up in my book A Killing at Cotton Hill, I thought I was channeling my grandfather, and let him have his way,” Shames said.
“The bigger truth is that Samuel is not any one person. I think he reflects the best of the men I’ve been closest to—my grandfather, my father, my husband and my close friend Charlie, who died a year before I started writing the first book. I’m so happy that people love Samuel. As one of my neighbors said right after the first book came out, ‘Everyone needs someone like Samuel in their lives.’”
Growing up, Shames’ family would visit her grandparents in central Texas. They had a huge extended family that would meet there for holidays. All the cousins slept tumbled together on pallets made of quilts, she said. And, there was plenty of adventure together, from fort fights and wrestling matches to storytelling sessions.
“Even beyond this though, there is something about the smell of the air, the heat and humidity and the look of this area of Texas that has a deep hold on me,” said Shames, who now lives in California. “I hope it comes through in my books.”
Based on her following, those Texas roots are showing. She has quite a few fans in Texas, many of them her relatives, she laughs.
“The readings I do in Texas are very well attended. But I get a lot of fan mail from people who live in small towns all over the country, saying ‘You could be writing about my town,’” she added. “So, it isn’t Texas that draws readers so much as the small-town setting, and of course Samuel himself.”
Her fourth book, A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge, comes out April 7. Inspiration for this book comes directly from her past and based on a true story her mother told her that stuck in her mind for years. Reviews for this book can be found on GoodReads.com and Amazon, and a review for A Killing at Cotton Hill can be found in Killer Nashville’s “Past Books of the Day”.
Mind your Ps and Qs: Deni Dietz Discusses An Editor’s Perspective on the Art of Manuscript Submissions
By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff
To say Denise “Deni” Dietz loves to read is a major understatement. An avid reader since the third grade when she was caught reading her mother’s copy of Gone With The Wind, the experience only fueled her passion more. She was later caught red-handed, reading her father’s Perry Mason paperbacks.
All this early reading was an excellent foundation for a career as senior editor for Five Star Mysteries, an imprint of Gale, which is a part of Cengage Learning. They have hundreds of books in print in the Western, Romance, Mystery and Science Fiction and Fantasy genres.
Deni has been a mainstay of the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference since it’s beginning. Deni will be attending the 2015 writers conference, bringing with her a wealth of experience.
We catch up with Deni for a Q&A about her work. She also shares some laughable moments in working with writers. Word to the wise, writers should steer clear of landing on her “laugh out loud” list.
Q: Tell me about yourself and your work at Five Star?
A: I’m the Senior Editor for Five Star Mysteries. I’m also known as “the Slush Pile CEO.” I am called this because every submission is vetted by me. If a submission is too short, too long, wrong genre, sloppy presentation, it’s an automatic rejection. Many writers refuse to format or proof their manuscripts before submitting, and if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard “If it’s a good book, the editor will fix it,” I could retire. Not true!
Often I’ll do a 20, 30, even 100 page edit and ask for a rewrite if a new author is very close to publication. I find that most first-book authors tend to overwrite. Recently, I did a 100-page edit, deleting large chunks of extraneous information (a.k.a. “info dumps”) and asked for a rewrite on a novel called, Trojan Horse. The author, S. Lee Manning, trimmed approximately 37,000 words from the 119,800-word manuscript. I will be recommending that Five Star go to contract on her book. The edits are my way of paying it forward since I wouldn’t be published if so many people hadn’t helped me.
Q: How long have you been an editor?
A: I’ve been a free-lance editor for many, many years. I’m good at it because I’m somewhat of a chameleon and, just like a chameleon is able to change colors to suit its surroundings, I can make editorial changes in the “voice” of an author. Of course an author has to have a voice before Five Star can publish him or her.
Q: Tell me about Five Star.
A: In brief, Five Star likes to focus on library sales, which is why I acquire the crème de la crème. Library sales depend, for the most part, on reviews from a variety of publications such as Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and Kirkus. Nevertheless, Five Star Mysteries are also available at all major venues including online bookstores and brick-and-mortar bookstores. Our author-friendly contracts include a nice advance and generous royalties for hardcover, eBooks and large-print editions. Authors and/or literary agents may keep audio, softcover, foreign and film rights.
Q: What do you look for when considering manuscripts?
A: All genres and sub-genres of crime fiction, everything from hardboiled to amateur sleuth. I love history-mysteries and Science Fiction/Fantasy crossovers, and I’ll consider Young Adult novels if they are suitable for adults. The Book Thief and The Hunger Games are good examples. I look for characterization, story and pacing, in that order.
Sometimes, though, aspiring writers go too far. Here are some queries that illustrate what I sometimes confront.
First… the “perhaps you should consider spell-check” queries:
1.) I’ll even gaurantee that my novel would sell as much copies (if not more) than those previously published by your company. I will even buy a number of books myself.
2.) I am certain this novel has potential. it’s not just me that’s saying this, it’s a number of people who have got to read the novel for the first time who loved it to bits, including a mature profeesor in English, which had seen many manuscirpts and done tons of proof reading in his days.
3.) Where once her unyeilding selfishness is veiled by the customs of tradition, her determined hostile spirit is LAID BEAR in her northern prison.
Next, my favorite “couldn’t help LOL-ing” queries:
1.) What goes through your mind when you discover your father, who you thought was just a successful business man, turns out to be a major HEROINE dealer?
2.) The HEROIN is confronted with the decades old cold case.
3.) She was rumored to be the real HAIR to the kingdom.
4.) God wakes up with amnesia, to begin the discovery of who she is and what has happened only to stumble on an incredible truth that changes everything she thought she knew about herself. With slapstick humor and keen insight into the irony of her predicament, God pieces together the traces of her past, from her childhood when she believed she was a cat, to her psychiatric sessions with a mysterious Russian émigré. My book is the love child from Franz Kafka and Alain Robbe-Grillet and I’ve sent it to tens of publishers. Interested?
5.) May I submit for your consideration my first novel, a manuscript of 130,000 words. It is the story of an artist whose best friend is a giant walnut tree—to the humiliation of his progressively hostile daughter. Attempting to do the big leafy guy in with an ax, during a storm, she is crushed and killed under a fallen limb. Depressed and filled with guilt, the artist experiences a religious conversion and an unexpected relationship.
Third, “I hope you’ll read my manuscript despite my dumb query” query:
1.) I have turned down two offers to have my book published because I won’t do marketing.
2.) (The typo is his!) It would take me over 3 hours to re-format my manuscript per the subsmission guidelines. I am an attorney and that would be quite a chunk of my time, and my time is valuable.
3.) Please note that my book is NOT a “mystery.” It is researched historical fiction. Also the manuscript contains some “gaelic” spellings, not many, but those should not be put through a homogenizing process for mass appeal.
4.) The book covers middle age angst and naughty youth and needs to be pitched chameleon-like to varying readerships emphasizing what for each of them would be the particular selling points. The book would need to be perused by ultra busy people so the first few chapters have been written in a magazine style that allows it to be put down and picked up again. The cover of the book is probably the most significant selling item. This I believe should exude the idea of wealth and fame playing somewhat to the cliché’ of popular culture. In terms of the market it should sell for under five pounds, a price which the reading shopper would readily place in the shopping trolley as a non-extravagant purchase.
5.) (From a really moronic writer’s brief query-synopsis): He had to maintain what his boss considered to be a businesslike appearance for the sake of the law firm. And with a tight-fisted Jew for his boss Kevin knew better than to expect any other attitude.”
Next, the “I feel your angst, but…” queries:
1.) My book has never been published. I did send a query to Alicia Condon at Kensington Publishing and she rejected it because I kill off the heroine.
2.) (Writer’s response after I sent her formatting guidelines and asked for a one-page synopsis) Does this mean you are accepting my manuscript for publication once I fill out all these forms? I did send you a five-page synopsis. Do I need to redo my manuscript according to your guidelines? If so, fine, but I may need some time to do this since changing font sizes, margins, etc. may affect the layout of the book.
3.) Demi Deitz (note misspelling of first as well as last name!) I am unpublished but an ex newspaper feature writer, so while I have experience writing I am new as to how to get my book considered by a publisher. I have tried to get an agent but to no avail. My book is a Psychological novel. It is the story of a woman’s plunge into madness and is based largely on my mother’s very sad life. Right now I only have a hardcopy of my book, but if you are at all interested I will gladly put it into the computer, although this would take me some time.
4.) I expect you’ll turn this down, but I won’t take it personally.
5.) (I guess she’s never heard of the Harry Potter books, The Hunger Games, The Book Thief, et al) This is a just-under 16,000-word shirt-pocket version of a novel. Very handy for your readers to take on the subway, bus or to stick into their purse or knapsack. These days, kids like “small”. It intimidates them less!
6.) I hope you will read the entire manuscript since, in my own opinion, it starts very slowly and I have not yet, even after several re-writes, found a way to get around this. I have been told Part two is better than Part One.
7.) I have completed my first book. I am looking for a publisher and I am having trouble finding someone to take me seriously.
8.) If I format, I’ll have to proof the whole manuscript.
9.) **Please note** Writing is a recreational pass time, along with traveling and caring for elderly parents.
10.) Please let me know when we can meet. Next week would be ideal as I will be off my meds!
And finally, my favorite response to a rejection, I usually state why I’m turning the submission down, but this person has not: “Thanks for the quick clear reply. Good to hear from a human for a change.”
And my favorite laugh-out-loud synopsis: “Not to give too much away but the lead character goes from bottom to top to bottom again and it’s quite the rollercoaster ride along the way.
Besides being a well-respected editor, Deni Dietz is a best-selling author of the Diet Club Mysteries, in addition to Footprints in the Butter, co-starring Hitchcock the Dog, and a dozen other novels. As Mary Ellen Dennis, Dietz also penned Heaven’s Thunder, circa 1893 – 1923, with an emphasis on Colorado’s silent film industry, and The Landlord’s Black-eyed Daughter, a paranormal history-mystery-romance. Dietz’s Annie and the Grateful Dead was nominated for an Anthony in the short story category (Grateful Dead is a “pop culture cat” who foils a robbery and, at the same time, solves a murder).
To Self Publish? Steering Clear of the Slush Pile
By Tom Wood
When Clay Stafford asked me to write about self-publishing for his new Killer Nashville Magazine, my first thought was:
“Really? Why me?” They probably ought to be talking to English author Sheila Rodgers, who writes under the pen name Rachel Abbott. Her three self-published eBooks—“Only the Innocent” and two sequels—have a combined one million sales, according to a story recently published in the Sunday Times.
I’m guesstimating that I am about three zeroes behind in total sales across all platforms for my self-published debut novel Vendetta Stone, a fictional, true-crime thriller.
It has been a whirlwind 18 months since Vendetta Stone was published in August 2013 and I still consider myself a novice at all this. There have been a lot of successes, a few failures—and one very big learning curve.
And that’s why I agreed to write this. It has indeed been a non-stop adventure, one I love—even though I probably work harder at it than I ever did in my 36 years as a sports writer and copy editor at The Tennessean, Nashville’s morning newspaper.
Maybe the journey I’ve embarked on will inspire you, or at least warn you, for what lies ahead.
I’ll explore each of these in detail in upcoming Killer Nashville blogs, but here’s kind of an overview about why I chose to self-publish instead of choosing the traditional route.
After getting the idea for my novel in 2008, I wrote a first draft over the next year, began attending Killer Nashville in 2009 and pitched it over the next three years, as it underwent multiple rewrites—and rejections.
At the 2012 conference, it was suggested to me that I connect with a local editor and give it a hard edit before submitting for consideration. I took that advice and was so happy with the results that I decided it was time to get it on shelves, five years after starting this project. I’d taken an early retirement offer at the newspaper, allowing me the necessary time to devote to complete the project.
The final editing process took about three months, then I spent several months doing all the formatting—I chose to publish through CreateSpace—and hiring someone to do the cover. I saved a lot of money going this route and it allowed me creative control over the process.
And much like Jackson Stone, the protagonist of Vendetta Stone, it put the target squarely on my back. If I was going to succeed—or fail—as an author, it was all on my shoulders.
When I decided to go down this road, I decided that I wanted to be taken seriously as any high-profile author in the genre. I wanted Vendetta Stone to stand up to the same scrutiny, to be of the same high quality, to be considered as much a work of art as anything written by Michael Connelly, Robert Dugoni, Lee Childs, John Grisham, Stephen King or any other author you can name. After all, I am on the same shelves with all of them, competing for the same sales.
If you’re going to aim, aim high. So that was the goal. I think I have succeeded in many ways, not so much in others.
Whatever success I have enjoyed has been the result of my own determined publicity efforts. One of the great highlights of 2014 was being able to discuss my book on A Word on Words With John Seigenthaler before he died last July. John was publisher and editor at The Tennessean when I started there in 1976 and he did the public television show for four decades, interviewing local and national authors and promoting literature. To honor him, in 2014, Killer Nashville created the John Seigenthaler Legends Award. I will forever treasure that opportunity.
I have spoken to library groups and book clubs, participated in and hosted festival appearances and minor events across the South, traveled across three states, talked to numerous bookstore operators and owners of non-traditional venues about carrying my book. I’ve tried to think outside the box and my book is available in several restaurants and even a grocery store.
My approach is that all anybody can say is ‘no thanks.’ I have a pretty thick skin.
One thing surprising to me is that a lot of the ‘no thanks’ responses came from some independent bookstores. I expected that from chains, but not Indies. They hate Amazon and will not carry anything published by CreateSpace. I understand and sympathize with that point of view, but totally disagree.
Not carrying my book is hurting me. And readers. Not Amazon, certainly not them. Sigh. But I’ll press onward and continue to swim against the current.
The Sheila Rodgers Success Story inspires me.
A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, Filtered through Time and conducting an interview with Stephen King for Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series Nashville. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. Vendetta Stone is his first novel.
From Stuntman to Literary Agent
By Maria Giordano,
Killer Nashville Staff
Preparations for Killer Nashville 2015 have been in full swing pretty much since the close of our 2014 conference. It is as it should be as we enter into our 10th year of operation. We’ve got a lot of planning to do.
That’s why we’re delighted to announce the upcoming attendance of agent Alec Shane. A junior agent with Writers House Literary Agency in New York City, Alec will be appearing on panels, serving in agent / editor roundtables, and will generally be available throughout the conference to hear your pitch. He’s actively looking for new clients just like YOU.
“Having attended Thrillerfest, Sleuthfest, and CrimeBake in the past, I have heard many wonderful things about Killer Nashville from my colleagues and am hoping that I might be able to attend,” Alec said in an email.
We said, “Come on down,” in our best Hee-Haw voice.
Alec majored in English at Brown University, a degree he explained that he put to immediate use by moving to Los Angeles after graduation to become a professional stunt man.
After realizing he preferred books to breakaway glass, he moved to New York City in 2008 to pursue a career in publishing. Alec quickly found a home at Writers House Literary Agency, one of the largest literary agencies in the world.
He works under Jodi Reamer and Amy Berkower on a large number of Young Adult and Adult titles.
Alec is now aggressively building his own list and is always looking for great mysteries and thrillers, as well as horror, historical fiction, and YA/middle grade books geared towards boys. On the nonfiction side, Alec would love to see humor, biography, history (particularly military history), true crime, “guy” reads, and all things sports.
Genres he prefers include: mystery, thriller, horror, literary fiction, historical fiction, noir, biography, military history, true crime, sports, action/adventure, dark fiction, and humor.
Tweeting Like a Bird
By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff
When I first encountered Twitter, I veered onto the twitter-sphere highway flush with skepticism. I posted a link here, a witty comment there. I connected with a few people and discovered that the whole endeavor was a bit of a time-suck and abandoned it with flair.
I mean, 140 characters or less? Pshaw!
But times have changed, or better said, I have changed my thinking since.
It happened when, as a reporter for a local newspaper, I was following an accident that occurred on a major thoroughfare near my office. Right away, people I knew, law enforcement officers and other reporters were sharing real-time posts. It was that friendly, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, to other folks in the Twitter-sphere area not to drive towards what was a major traffic jam.
It was good advice, and I learned an important lesson. When I tweeted, people followed to learn what I learned, and I followed back to learn what they learned. It was like peanut butter and jelly. I became better connected to a different kind of community and I gained followers. Before too long, I was getting more information from Tweets than actual phone conversations. Strange, I know.
All kinds of writers need Twitter. Besides the fact that it is a fun puzzle to unlock – try dropping a heavy concept in 140 characters – it’s a great way to reach likeminded people, other writers, authors, agents, and publishers. It also provides a simple, easy way to promote.
Courtney Seiter, Content Crafter for Bufferapp.com, explained it like this, “Publishers want someone who is willing to work with them and carry a bit of the weight when it comes to book publicity, and Twitter is one of the easiest ways to create or tap into a community that’s interested in what you have to say as a writer.”
Courtney said that she had recently spoken with a writer that told her that a publisher asked about her Twitter following.
A decent-sized and relatively engaged Twitter following provides a bit of social proof to a publisher, she added. “It’s also awesome for fans of your work to feel the personal connection to a writer that Twitter provides.”
But Twitter is an interesting animal. You want to grow your followers and it’s not always the easiest thing to do. Here are some ideas:
Start with people you know. Then, branch out, follow other writers you may have heard of and, of course, businesses in the writing and publishing community. You’ll find that others will follow you back. Twitter offers up columns of folks to follow as well.
Give people a taste of who you are. “I just ate a sandwich” might work for Chef Mario Batali, but not for everyone. Stick to what you know. Offer links to your work. Share your latest success.
Keep your posts tasteful. Remember, you are building awareness around your name and your work.
Most importantly? Have a little fun.
Co-Pilot Family posted a tweet recently that said “You’ve gotta dance like nobody’s watching, but post like somebody is.”
Follow us on Twitter. (@KillerNashville) We will even follow back!
Start with people you know. Then, branch out, follow other writers you may have heard of and, of course, businesses in the writing and publishing community. You’ll find that others will follow you back. Twitter offers up columns of folks to follow as well.
Give people a taste of who you are. “I just ate a sandwich” might work for Chef Mario Batali, but not for everyone. Stick to what you know. Offer links to your work. Share your latest success.
Keep your posts tasteful. Remember, you are building awareness around your name and your work.
Most importantly? Have a little fun.
Co-Pilot Family posted a tweet recently that said “You’ve gotta dance like nobody’s watching, but post like somebody is.”Follow us on Twitter. (@KillerNashville) We will even follow back!
Otto Penzler: Four Decades of Rockin’ the Mystery World
By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff
In the world of mystery writing, Otto Penzler is one of those legendary rock stars.
No, crowds are not chanting his name and throwing their underwear on stage. Still, Otto appears to receive a similar kind of reverence, mostly among other writers. Voices fade away and eyes grow wide when they speak of the owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and the publisher of some of the most well-known writers in the world.
Penzler, one writer said, is a major influencer in the publishing world and is responsible since 1975 for mainstreaming the mystery-writing genre in America. He has published such best-selling mystery and crime authors as Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, P.D. James, Ed McBain, Ross Macdonald, Mickey Spillane, and Donald Westlake. The Mysterious Press still publishes today as an imprint of Grove / Atlantic.
But it all started fairly innocently to hear Penzler talk. He arrived in New York in the 1970s as an English major fresh from the University of Michigan. He had been reading some of the greats in college, but needed a break. “I wanted to read something light and more fun, not so challenging,” he said.
So, he turned to mysteries and discovered writers who were every bit as talented and complex as the ones he had learned about in college, including Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Agatha Christie, to name a few.
Out of this experience grew a love of mystery fiction so deep, he founded a mystery store devoted to the genre, and developed the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, a book he co-authored with Chris Steinbrunner, and for which he won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1977.
Success with both enterprises found him in the business full-time and instrumental in the careers of many authors such as Donald Westlake and Ellis Peters. He also continues to edit and write.
Penzler has edited more than seventy anthologies of crime fiction, both of reprints and newly commissioned stories, including the prestigious Best American Mystery Stories of the Year. His 2012 title, In Pursuit of Spenser, was nominated for yet another Edgar Award.
Penzler says pivotal moments in his own career were 1) unlocking his appreciation for mystery fiction and 2) having access to an entire building on 56th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to grow his enterprise. Another highlight was signing James Ellroy early in his career, he said.
A fast-talking sophisticate, Penzler continues to helm his specialty store now located in downtown Tribecca. As a credit to him, when times changed, so did he. When digital books looked like a train that wouldn’t stop, Penzler adapted. “It looked scary for a while, but then I started with the E-books. I wish I could tell the future.”
Upcoming major projects Penzler is working on include Jack of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates, works by Johan Katzenbach and Thomas Perry, and the continued growth of The Mysterious Press.
According to the Mysterious Bookshop website, Mysterious Press exists in three forms: MysteriousPress.com, The Mysterious Press at Grove / Atlantic, and The Mysterious Press at HighBridge Audio.
The following can be read at www.mysteriousbookshop.com:
MysteriousPress.com
Working in conjunction with Open Road Integrated Media, MysteriousPress.com is converting previously-published works to eBook formats from notable authors like James Ellroy, Donald Westlake, Ross Thomas, Brian Garfield, and Christianna Brand, among others. The press is also publishing original novels by previously published authors and talented newcomers, some of which are available as print editions.
The Mysterious Press at Grove / Atlantic
This press, an imprint of Grove / Atlantic, features new releases from such Edgar Award–winning authors as Thomas H. Cook, Andrew Klavan, and Thomas Perry.
The Mysterious Press at HighBridge Audio
HighBridge Audio, a leading publisher of spoken word audio, is producing audio books of Mysterious Press’s books, from both the Grove / Atlantic and MysteriousPress.com lines.
Hank Phillippi Ryan: Four Plots, One Great Story
by Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine
For the first issue of the Killer Nashville Magazine, we could think of none better for our cover story than Hank Phillippi Ryan. I was thrilled with the opportunity to interview Hank, being a fan of hers for over 6 years now. Hank started out of the gate in 2007 with her first published novel, Prime Time, winning the Agatha award. Add her on-air investigative reporter’s list of successes: she’s won 32 Emmys, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards, and dozens of other honors for her groundbreaking journalism for Boston’s NBC affiliate. In the literary world, she has been nominated and/or won every major mystery literary award including being a finalist this last year for Killer Nashville’s very own Silver Falchion Award.
So, Hank, you’ve won both Emmys for investigative reporting and national book awards for fiction, which interest came first? Reporting or fiction writing?
Oh, impossible. It’s fun to think about, because who knows how our brains work, and who can ever really understand why we’re doing what we’re doing—or how it will turn out?
When I was a little girl, if I asked my mother another of what I’m sure she considered my endless questions, she’d say to me: “I’m not going to tell you. Go and find out.”
So—a little kid asking questions means they’re curious about the world, right? Is that from an interest in reporting, or storytelling? Or is that essentially the same mental process?
I’ve always loved mysteries—as a little girl, my sister and I would read up in the hayloft of our barn, and I fell in love with Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew and Hercule Poirot. We all did, right? But was it the tracking down clues and following leads and solving puzzles that I loved? Or the words and the creativity and the story telling? It’s the same, right?
And as I grew up, each career was a natural outcome. It just took me until I was 23 to become a reporter. And 65 to become a crime fiction author!
The reason I just fell over in my chair: there is no way you are 65 or anywhere near it. What makes your books stand out is the depth within the character’s setting. You use your fiction to highlight social issues. How do you keep the issues from becoming too heavy-handed within the storytelling?
Well, thank you! But I don’t think of it that way. Just as with television reporting, it’s all about telling a good story. It has to matter, people have to care, viewers have to learn something new, and come away from it with a different way of looking at the world. And it has to be entertaining, right?
Same with my books.
Books are about the real world, and what’s going on in the real world. And why we care about it. Ripped from the headlines? Adultery, political corruption, adoption scams, mortgage fraud, the housing crisis—and in the new WHAT YOU SEE (Forge, October 2015), surveillance and privacy.
Every day as I write, I ask myself—sometimes out loud!—“Why do I care?”
So because Jane and Jake are real people handling situations that could really happen, it’s all about how they deal with that reality. And we can ask ourselves—what would we do? And since we love Jake and Jane, and we understand the mysteries they are trying to solve, we care. The “social issue” is just one of the puzzle pieces—it’s the people that matter.
You’ve written several series with distinct characters. How does one decide to write a series and how far ahead do you need to plan as the writer?
Plan? Ahead? Cue the crazed laughter.
My first series grew out of my love for television and the voice of protagonist Charlotte McNally. She still talks to me. But when I had the idea for THE OTHER WOMAN, I knew that story was too big, too textured, to be carried by the first-person voice of Charlotte. It needed multiple points of view. So out of that came Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan. And they’re a series—Charlotte is, too—because we care about their lives, and we’re eager to find out what happens next.
If there is any planning, it comes from the juggling of keeping the books fast-paced and suspenseful and giving them a big fat satisfying ending, but still with some things left unresolved in the characters’ lives. If the book ends with the happily married couple flying off into the sunset, that’s an end-end, right? If there’s a sinister figure watching them as they speed away, or if the bride is having second thoughts, or if the husband will be unemployed when they get home, that’s a series. So the juggle is to get to the end without finishing everything. And the bigger juggle is that I have no idea.
How do you juggle your life: writing, reporting, book tours? You must be exhausted.
Oh, well, sometimes, yeah. But there is so much fuel in the wonderful responses, and the terrific audiences, and the friendship of readers and writers, and the joy of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am very lucky, and that goes a long way to erasing exhaustion. That and under-eye concealer.
And your family life?
My husband (a criminal defense attorney who is also juggling big cases and life-and-death situations—but in real life!) is very patient. And we eat a lot of carry-out salmon from Whole Foods.
What is the craziest interaction you’ve ever had with a fan?
No idea…let me think about this.
Attendees could not praise you enough when you were at Killer Nashville this past year for the Sisters in Crime special event.
Aw, thank you. It was a real joy, and some of the manuscripts I read were fabulous.
Who have been your mentors and/or the teachers who have influenced you the most?
My high school English teacher, Tom Thornburg (hi, Mr. Thornburg! He lives in Montana now) taught me be to be analytical, and critical, and careful. And to revere Shakespeare, which I still do. Hunter Thompson, who I worked with when I was at Rolling Stone magazine, taught me (among other things, like how to inhale lighter fluid and breathe fire) to go for it, and not be afraid to take writing risks. A news director named Jim Thistle—who taught me how to ask questions, and then one more, and then one more. Oh, gosh, so many. Sue Grafton, certainly.
You live such a varied life. Where do your ideas come from?
There’s a question that some authors loathe...but I love. And that is: where do your stories come from? Some authors answer with caustic throwaways—Schenectady, says one very famous guy. The grocery, says another.
But I think “where do your stories come from” is fascinating.
And as for Truth Be Told, I can tell you exactly where it came from.
It’s a puzzle of four parts.
The first? My husband is a criminal defense attorney. When we first met, I asked: Have you ever had a murder case where the defendant was convicted, but you still thought they were innocent?" His eyes softened a bit, and then he said: “Yes.” The man was charged with murder in the death of a young woman—the prosecution said he had lured her to a forest, and tied her to a tree.
The first time Jonathan represented the man, the case ended in an overturned conviction. The state brought the charges again, and again Jonathan represented him, and again, overturned conviction.
The state brought the charges again, and again Jonathan represented him, and again, a hung jury.
The state brought the charges again, and the defendant—well, let’s just say he decided he wanted to handle the case his own way this time. Jonathan disagreed. The man got a different lawyer. He was convicted, and is still in prison.
Jonathan told me he still, to this day, thinks the man is innocent.
Hmmm. Idea.
Another puzzle piece? Another of Jonathan’s cases. A man in prison, incarcerated with a life sentence for shaking a baby to death, recently confessed to a cold-case murder. It’s very unlikely that he actually did it—so why would he confess?
Hmmm. Idea.
Another puzzle piece. I have done several stories about mortgage fraud, and foreclosure fraud. And here in Massachusetts, three new laws were passed as a result of our Emmy winning series on manipulation and deception in the banking and mortgage world. We got peoples homes out of foreclosure! And millions of dollars in refunds and restitution. So, that’s great.
But one day, my photographer and I were shooting video of an eviction. I can confess to you --there’s a lot of that going on here today! --we didn’t know who the owner of the home was that day. We were simply getting pictures of an eviction to illustrate the dire consequences of when someone is unlucky, or misled, or has a catastrophe of ad disaster, or makes a mistake. It is devastating.
At one point, a deputy came to the front door of the almost-empty house. I remember he was silhouetted in the door, his entire body the shape of unhappiness and confusion. Head hanging, his outstretched arms one each side of the open door, as if having to hold himself up.
What as making him so upset, I wondered?
I said to my photographer—who is used to my musings—“What if they found a dead body in there?”
And then I realized what that would mean. The deputies had been in that home clearing it out, cleaning it up, yanking out the possessions and throwing them away.
What if, I thought, the law enforcement officers themselves had ruined a crime scene? Obliterated the evidence, trampled on everything, wiped the place clean? And then…
Oh. The cops ruined their own crime scene!
Hmmmm. Idea.
I also thought about the people who had been evicted from those homes. People who’d gotten mortgages from banks with lots of money, but who through some failure of their lives, some catastrophe or disaster, some wrong decision or bad luck had not been able to keep up the payments. Wouldn’t there be something that could have ben done to prevent that? If a banker-type really cared about their customers, wouldn’t there be something that could be done to keep people out of foreclosure?
Hmmmm. Idea.
And finally, I was sitting at the computer in my TV station office, writing a story, and thinking about why I do what I do as a reporter. It’s making history, I decided. It’s creating the record of what happened in our lives, the comings and goings, that issues and the solutions, the documentation of how we live. And people believe it, right? What’s on TV and in the newspapers becomes a resource by which all is remembered and relied on.
And then I thought—what if some reporter decided not to tell the truth? Not big discoverable lie, but simply—little things. A sound bite, a reaction, a quote. Who would know? What difference might that make? And what would happen when the truth was finally told?
Hmmm. Idea.
And in the way we all do as authors, by spinning and polishing and twisting and turning, and shooting it full of a lot of adrenaline and a little romance, I got the key elements of Truth Be Told:
A mortgage banker turned Robin Hood decides to manipulate bank records to keep people out of foreclosure, a murder victim is found in a foreclosed home, a man confesses to the unsolved Lilac Sunday murder, and a reporter makes stuff up.
And when it all comes together in the end: Truth Be Told.
If I wanted to read one book on how to be a writer, what book would I read?
Wow, impossible.
A how-to book wouldn’t do it, you know?
There are a lot out there.
There are terrific ones—On Writing by Stephen King. Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. But “how-to” can’t teach you “how” to write if you’re not a reader. Shakespeare for storytelling, Edith Wharton. Hunter Thompson. Stephen King. Tom Wolfe. Even reading bad stuff can make you better, right, if you think about why it’s bad.
I try to write the kind of book I’d like to read. And that’s how I know when my revision is compete—there’s a moment, in every book, where I forget I wrote it. I’m simply reading the story. And then I think—wow, it’s a book. I’m done.
A great list of people to study from, but Hank, I think you left one out: Hank Phillippi Ryan, right up there with the best writers on the planet. Check out Hank’s body of work…and learn from the best.
Thanks, Hank, for being with us! For more on Hank, visit her at www.hankphillippiryan.com.
Until next month, read like someone is burning the books.
Clay Stafford,
Founder / Killer Nashville
Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker (www.ClayStafford.com) and founder of Killer Nashville (www.killernashville.com). In addition to selling over 1.5 million copies of his own books, Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” (www.oneofthemiracles.com) and writing the music CD “XO” with Kathryn Dance / Lincoln Rhymes author Jeffery Deaver (www.jefferdeaverxomusic.com). He is currently writing a film script based on Peter Straub’s “Pork Pie Hat” for American Blackguard Entertainment (www.americanblackguard.com).
Truth Be Told
Families unfairly evicted from their suburban homes, dead bodies found in vacant houses, and a shocking confession in a notorious cold case! Top-notch reporter Jane Ryland digs up the truth on these heartbreaking stories—and discovers a big-bucks scheme and the surprising players who will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep their goals a secret. Financial scheming, the power of money, our primal need for home and family and love. What happens when what you believe is true turns out to be a lie?
HankPhillippiRyan.com, on Twitter @HankPRyan and Facebook at HankPhillippiRyanAuthorPage.
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