KN Magazine: Articles

2/15/18 2/15/18

Killer Nashville Interview with Sara Blaedel

Sara Blaedel is the author of the #1 international bestselling series featuring Detective Louise Rick. Recently, Ms. Blaedel took a bit of time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for Killer Nashville about The Undertaker's Daughter, the first novel in her new triology. Thanks to Bree Goodchild for conducting this interview.

Enjoy…and be inspired!

Clay Stafford
Founder of Killer Nashville

An Interview with Sara Blaedel
by Bree Goodchild

KN: The reader is taken through the process of being a funeral director as Ilka experiences it; from picking up the body to embalming, reconstruction and makeup to the funeral itself. What kind of research methods did you utilize to create this sense of realism for your character?

SB: Research is an essential part of my writing process. It always has been, and that only intensifies as the years and titles go by. I place absolute importance on achieving authenticity. Readers are clever and savvy; they know their stuff and aren’t going to buy into anything (in this genre) that doesn’t ring true or feel possible.

As has been the case with all of my books, my research for The Undertaker’s Daughter entailed everything from reading to traveling to becoming an apprentice. When I decided to use the US as the setting for the first time, I studied the various regions until I zeroed in on Racine, Wisconsin, a city which has the nation’s largest number of Danish-Americans and Danish immigrants. I dug into the funeral home industry in the States, comparing and contrasting its laws and regulations and traditions to those in Denmark. I was really struck by how differently this extremely sensitive and reverent work is handled from one country to another. I was fascinated to learn that there are varying laws even from one state to another within the US.

I spent weeks in Racine, living amongst and getting to know the lovely people there and how they navigate. What a wonderful experience- I can’t wait to visit again. I was incredibly fortunate to be able to intern at a funeral home, which proved enlightening, compelling, and so informative.

KN: Ilka seems to miss bits of information and the subtleties of interaction between other characters. What was your thinking behind this dramatic decision?

SB: I’m so glad you caught this. Ilka is a newcomer to the US; this is her first time visiting the country. A Danish citizen, she’s an outsider when she arrives in Racine, and she’s alone and dealing with a death in the family. Being out of her element in so many ways, she struggles, at first, as anyone would, to keep up and to understand the nuances of another language and culture.

KN: Ilka seems more of an observer than a detective in this book - compared to Louise Rick. What was the creative process behind developing Ilka’s character?

That’s an interesting question. Ilka is absolutely more of an observer; at least at first. She’s not a detective. When we meet her, she’s leading a quiet and modest life as a school photographer. She is summoned to the States after the death of her long-estranged father, an undertaker, who lived and worked in Racine. Ilka, while trying to tend to her father’s estate, business, and tax issues, takes some time to try to connect with the man she barely remembers. It is while she is living in Racine and laboring in her father’s funeral home that Ilka finds herself needing to search for information and dig for clues. She’s, at most, an amateur sleuth, with no expertise or experience in detective work.

KN: Reading this book, I was surprised when at the end I did not experience the sense of closure between Ilka and her father as expected. Can you talk about what you hoped readers would get out of The Undertaker’s Daughter?

That’s another fascinating question. The Undertaker’s Daughter is the first in a trilogy, and so, while I had intended to bring to completion many of the storylines in this book, full closure wasn’t part of the plan. Yet.

For me, this series is about familial relationship and the bond between fathers and daughters. It’s about second chances and the many ways in which we can start again. It’s about the ways secrets and lies can devastate, and how love and acceptance, and the truth can be so redeeming.

KN: Do you see this as the beginning of a new thriller series, like Louise Rick, or a stand-alone?

The Undertaker’s Daughter is the first in a trilogy. All three volumes will be set in the States, which is a super exciting first for me.

Many thanks to Sara Blaedel for so graciously taking time to answer our questions and to Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski from Grand Central Publishing for facilitating this interview.

2/12/18 2/12/18

Strong Heroine or Weak Woman? / DiAnn Mills

Whether my source of entertainment is a novel, movie, or vibrant play, I want to experience a strong heroine. Who wants to get involved in the life of a weak, whining woman who never changes or grows and needs someone (usually a man) to rescue her? Readers want to slip their feet into the experience, and that means providing them with a superior adventure.

I write romantic suspense, and a strong heroine guides my stories. In High Treason, CIA Operative Monica Alden was assigned to help protect a Saudi Arabian prince. She battled bad guys and cultural differences todo her job. Determining who she was and what mattered to her took time and patience. Because of what Monica learned in critical life experiences, she changed and grew into a survivor who was strong and independent.

What characteristics make a strong heroine? Let’s start with what it’s not:

It’s not brains or beauty.

It’s not an ivy-league education.

It’s not her skills as a crack shot or a master of self-defense.

It’s not her profession.

Instead, she must possess a tight grip on tenacity to solve a problem or reach a goal.

So how do we writers expand beyond cardboard characters into women who step off the page with real courage?

The following are ten ways to create a heroine who leaves a dynamic legacy that makes readers want to return to your novels again and again.

Build a heroine who has a credible backstory that motivates her into action. Show how her past experiences shaped her mentally, physically, and spiritually, propelling her into a remarkable main gal. She’s the true heroine in chapter one, line one.
Establish a feminine heroine and assign her a meaningful name that fits a startling story world. She’s not a woman in a man’s clothes. A cutesy name may have fit when she was three years old, but not as an adult who is ready to beat down the doors of hell to solve a crime or save someone from a vicious crime.
Incorporate a heroine’s physical attributes into her character. Include how the physical world affects her behavior, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and flaws. For example, a heroine who is seen as inferior may have a difficult time proving her value. Her sacrifice to prevent a crime may be her own life.
Place her in a setting that is totally antagonistic. Every scene should have the setting working against her. The result forces her to be a stronger heroine. For example: Heroine is in a working environment where she must team up with a person she detests.
Discover her physical problem or goal and why it matters to her and the world around her. Ask yourself, why is my heroine the only person on the planet to step into this role? What does she have to lose? What does she have to gain? What will it take for her to accept the problem and put her skills to the test?
Create a psychologically well-rounded character. This means developing a distinct personality and ascribing great communication skills. She’s a character who experiences realistic emotions and uses the lessons of the past to form who she is today. The heroine’s not perfect, nor does she have complete control of her emotions. Give her thick skin and a soft heart.
Unearth her internal struggle and how she will triumph over the issue. The struggle must be faced head-on in the climax and overcome to reach her goal. For example: Heroine was betrayed in her backstory and innocent people were victims. Now she’s hesitant to trust. Force her into a situation where she must trust or not survive.
Provide reasons why your reader will care about the heroine. What is it about her starring role that is endearing? Create sympathy for her in the first sentence and build on it throughout the story. Drop your heroine into a story in which her goals—and the way in which she achieves them—captivate readers.
Ensure your heroine is never a victim. She may have been victimized in the past, but she survived, and now she’s on guard with anyone who exhibits harmful traits. The heroine is focused on the world around her.
Show how the heroine uses her skills and acquires new ones to journey through her story with success. She is constantly filling her brain with new information and striving to improve her mental and physical skills.

The heroines in today’s novels must have the ability to ride the winds of peril while entertaining us with a powerful story.

What traits do you believe are essential for a strong heroine?

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Firewall, the first book in her Houston: FBI series, was listed by Library Journal as one of the best Christian Fiction books of 2014.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Suspense Sister, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and The Mountainside Marketing Conference with social media specialist Edie Melson. She teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Column, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Joseph Borden and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s editorial.

2/1/18 2/1/18

Killer Nashville Interview with Alan Bradley

Alan Bradley is the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning Flavia de Luce mystery series. His first novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie received the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award, the Agatha Award, the Barry Award, the Dilys Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Macavity Award and the Spotted Owl Award. Recently, Mr. Bradley took a bit of time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for Killer Nashville. The author discusses his protagonist and the unique choices made in creating her, his writing process, and offers advice to those who—like Bradley—began their writing careers a little later in the game. Thanks to Liz Gatterer for conducting this interview.

Enjoy!

A Killer Nashville Interview
with

ALAN BRADLEY

KN: When I first looked at the press release for The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place and saw that the story was about a 12-year-old girl, I assumed this was a children’s book, or a middle-grade book and was intrigued that was not how it was categorized. Who do you write your books for?

I write my books for people who are interested in the same kind of things I’m interested in. I dote on curiosities and wonder, and I have been accused of possessing a magpie mind. Fortunately, there are vast numbers of readers of all ages who share my enthusiasms. I have heard of a four-year-old girl who insists upon having the books read aloud to her, then acting them out with herself as Flavia, her father as Dogger, and her mother as Mrs. Mullet.

KN: I must admit, I am a new Flavia fan. I enjoyed The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place so much I have now binge read/listened to the entire series from the beginning. By the way, the narrator, Jayne Entwistle is just fantastic! There is an incredible amount of information in each book. How long does it take to research one of your books? Do you squirrel away factoids for use “at some point” or is it a more focused practice?

Yes, Jayne is incredible. I recently had the opportunity of speaking to her “live” during an internet broadcast. I think we were both in tears of laughter and recognition!

Some of the facts in the Flavia books are titbits I’ve been saving up for years, while others come to light during research. Because I’m a great fan of ancient and outdated reference books, it’s often harder to decide what to leave out than what to put in. In general, it takes about nine months to a year to write each book, a substantial amount of which is research. It’s not always easy to find out, for instance, what the weather was like in England at a certain hour of a certain day in 1952, or whether the 10:32 from Waterloo ran on Sundays in November.

KN: I have read at first you thought this would be a six-book series, and then a ten-book series. Well, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place is book 9… Is book 10 in the works? Will that be the end of the series? (Please say no) Are there any plans for your next series?

In spite of reports to the contrary, I’m presently working on a tenth book. Beyond that? I don’t know. I’m sure my lovely publishers would be happy to continue, but, as Sherlock once so wisely remarked, “It is a capital mistake to theorize in advance of the facts.”

KN: Although the character of Flavia de Luce has certainly developed over the series, she has not really aged. She was 11 in Book 1: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and now in Book 9: The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place she is 12. It has been quite a year for the young girl! Is Flavia destined to be a pre-adolescent forever?

Flavia at 18, for instance, would be a completely different person than she is now, and perhaps not half so interesting. At any rate, there’s still much to be told about her present circumstances, and I’ve never been one for rushing things.

KN: As an author that really began to write in earnest after retirement and who published an award-winning novel after 70, what advice or words of encouragement (or words of warning) would you give to others who are just beginning their writing later in the game?

First of all, my heartiest congratulations to anyone who manages to get published at 60 and beyond! At that age, it seems unlikely that you’ll be changed: your life will be, but you won’t.

My best advice would be, as has been said so many times before, never give up. I was once told that real success takes ten years, but in my case, it took fifteen. To summarize: apply bottom to chair, write, and keep writing.

As Philip Van Doren Stern (author of the book that inspired the film “It’s a Wonderful Life”) once said, “The only thing that’s important is the manuscript. All the rest is just bubbles on the horse-piss.

Many thanks to Alan Bradley for taking time to answer our questions and to Sharon Propson from Random House Publishing for facilitating this interview.

2/2/18 2/2/18

Context and Character in Fiction / R.J. Jacobs

Motive is the intersection of fiction writing and psychology. Authors and psychologists are interested in it for the same reason: we want a basis for understanding human behavior, particularly when it contradicts our expectations of the way that people might normally act. To construct a plot, an author must devise credible characters who behave plausibly. There must be reasons why characters do the things they do— without sound motives, the story suffers. It lacks the resonance of authenticity. It feels untrue.

This is especially the case when characters act aggressive or violent. Outside of literature, psychologists often are asked to speculate about the reasoning or mental state of criminals, particularly after a highly publicized crime. They’re asked to verify that someone was “crazy”, not only to better understanding the event in question but for reassurance, as if a binary distinction between “crazy” and “not-crazy” could make malicious intent easier to spot.

If only such distinctions were possible. It turns out that we all (authors, too) commonly commit what is referred to as The Fundamental Attribution Error, which means we tend to underestimate situational influences upon others’ behavior while overestimating the contribution of their traits or disposition. In other words, we focus on who someone is, rather than on their circumstances. A wealth of social science literature suggests that this process, while intuitive, is inaccurate.

So why does it continually happen? A lot of data exists on that as well. Essentially, this tendency exists because we tend to observe others from a different perspective than we observe ourselves. When judging our own behavior, we observe the situation, not our own person. We might say, “Everything was happening at once,” because our attention focuses on our surroundings.

At the same time, an outside observer would see things differently. Their attention is centered on the person causing the action. They might say, “He seems like an angry person.”

Each person’s behavior tells his or her story, and behavior is contextually elicited. But conceding the influence of circumstance is not to disregard the potential for an individual to be pathological. To be sure, some mental health conditions are characterological. Certain people, for example, harm others for their own benefit. Some people have no moral directive. The vast majority of violent behavior, however, is not executed in so wanton a fashion.

***

Is explaining behavior through situational dynamics the same as making excuses? What about personal accountability?

Feeling states and behaviors are natural consequences of our environment. In therapy, I’m sometimes surprised when people expect to feel good despite the circumstances of their lives. Sometimes, I want to ask, “How did you think you could live that way and not feel anxious?”

In some ways, the notion of a person adapting to the environment is so apparent that it’s taken for granted. One simple example is the shift in style between a person’s home and work environments. If an effective litigator, for example, maintained a professional style with her children or in a leisure setting, most people would view her as socially inept. Given the role expectations of each environment, her behavior would naturally shift. The pace of her speech, her body language, and tone of voice would all adjust without her thinking about it.

A patient recently told me about going through with her wedding despite numerous reservations: “I was twenty-one. What does anyone know at that age? Three years before, I was in high school. I should have known that taking two Xanax meant that I shouldn’t go through with it. I was such a zombie, two of my bridesmaids were making bets on whether I would fall over. I knew I wasn’t in love with him the way that most people are when they get married.”

Her tremendous insight into her own feelings, even at the time, couldn't dissuade her from proceeding. When I asked what made her go ahead with the ceremony, her response was clear and immediate: “I didn’t want to disappoint everyone. Growing up, I’d told my family that I wanted a big wedding and they had gone out of their way to make everything perfect. There were five bridesmaids, a huge reception already paid for; people from all over the country had made travel arrangements. There was no way I could back out.”

She knew the wedding was a bad idea, but the situation dictated her behavior.

Understanding the external pressures on a person in her position is easy. What would be harder to understand, for example, would be the preternatural self-possession of a twenty-one year old halting her wedding in the face of extreme expectations.

Perhaps the study most notable for investigating the power of situation versus character is the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Phil Zimbardo in 1973. (Social psychologists have a reputation for playing tricks on people and then publishing research). By randomly assigning participants either to play the role of prisoner or guard, Zimbardo hoped to shed light on the nature of brutality. Was it the product of evil, sadistic people, or were the institutional roles responsible for the behavior? Or, put another way: Did people make the place violent, or did the place make people violent? He converted the basement of the psychology department’s building into a mock prison and simulated a penal environment where the “guards” were instructed to treat the “prisoners” with standard criminal procedure. They were fingerprinted, booked, stripped naked and deloused while the guards carried whistles and billy clubs. Prisoners were given prison clothes and bedding. Zimbardo found that almost immediately, each group adopted behavior stereotypical for its role. Everyone, including the experimenters themselves, became caught up in the situation. The students assigned to be guards began to taunt and act imposingly, while those assigned to be prisoners began to break down and to rebel. This became something like a feedback loop, in which submissive prisoner behavior seemed to further elicit aggression from the guards. Originally planned to last two weeks, Zimbardo concluded the experiment after six days as a result of extreme behavior on the part of the participants (several left the study even earlier) and because of ethical questions raised by colleagues.

So which specific factors increase the likelihood of aggression?

Aversive experiences such as pain, uncomfortable heat, an attack, or overcrowding all heighten arousal. When hostility is sensed within a group, the group is seen as even more hostile when the space is crowded. In stressful circumstances, aggression cues (the presence of a gun, or witnessing a violent image) can function to ignite hostility. When people’s motivations are strong, and they expect to meet their goals, they become frustrated when their wishes are blocked. Add in an aversive experience and an aggression cue, and a stage is set for violence.

It’s comfortable to believe we are in control of ourselves. We all maintain a self-concept and we tell ourselves that while we might be capable of some things, some behavior is beyond us. Writers develop our characters in the same way: by focusing on their traits. Then, we develop histories to explain them. We ask ourselves: Given who this person is, what would they do in this situation? But the opposite question may be more correct: Given the dynamics of this situation, what would anyone do? Would a “good” person be capable of aggression? Violence? An atrocity? As writers, we have a chance to create resonant plots when we can hold character constant for a moment and consider how an accumulation of circumstances bears upon a particular opportunity to act.

R.J. Jacobs has practiced as a psychologist since 2003. He maintains a private practice in Nashville, focusing on a wide variety of clinical concerns. After completing a post-doctoral residency at Vanderbilt, he has taught Abnormal Psychology, presented at numerous conferences, and routinely performs PTSD evaluations for veterans.

His novel, tentatively titled: Broken Surface, is scheduled to be published by Crooked Lane in 2019.

He lives with his wife Rebecca and their two children.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Column, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Joseph Borden and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s editorial.

1/16/18 1/16/18

Killer Nashville Interview with Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Killer Nashvillle recently spoke with authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child on their Pendergast series. With a new book coming out, the pair talks about writing with a partner, how to keep a series and a main character engaging, and the process behind writing the 17th book in the serial. Even in the answers to our questions, we can see how they play off one another. Thanks to Liz Gatterer for conducting this interview.

Enjoy…and be inspired!

Clay StaffordFounder of Killer Nashville

An Interview with Preston & Childby Liz Gatterer

KN: City of Endless Night is the 17th book in the Pendergast series. How do you plot out such a long-running series? Do you plan the next book(s) in advance, or are they conceived one at a time? How do you keep the storylines straight?Doug: We conceive them one story at a time. When we wrote RELIC, we thought it was going to be a one-off and didn’t think that Pendergast would be (or should be) the main character. He took over the books on his own. We didn’t know his first name until four books later. As for keeping the storyline straight, we often find ourselves re-reading our old books and taking notes, to make sure we’re picking up the right threads. Sometimes we even consult our most passionate fans about various arcane details we ourselves have forgotten. I recall once wracking my brains trying to recall what Pendergast thought of Italian opera, and finally consulted a fan who said, “He hates it.”KN: The first two novels in the series, Relic and Reliquary were published two years apart–1995 and 1997 respectively. The third novel, Cabinet of Curiosities, came along 5 years later in 2002 and since then you have averaged a new Pendergast novel every 12.5 months with each novel comprised of an average of 417 pages. Keeping up that pace is amazing–especially when you take into account the research that goes into each book, the fact that you have written over 2 dozen other books (collaboratively and individually), have book tours, speaking engagements and families that I assume like to see you occasionally. How do you manage it? Linc: We’re pedaling as fast as we can! Joking aside, it really helps having a writing partner on the case—Doug and I have both written numerous solo novels as well as our joint books, so we know. Also, the fact that we now are so familiar with the Pendergast universe—although not necessarily with Pendergast himself—means that the foundation for new novels is already well in place. But the bottom line is that we love what we do: writing about Pendergast and his various adventures remains always fresh and exciting to us both.Doug: Linc does the pedaling; I stand behind him and bark out orders like the coxswain of a rowing crew. Seriously, it is great having a writing partner whose taste and intelligence you trust implicitly, and who thinks like you do.KN: You excel at blending the natural and supernatural in your books. Which comes first? Is the supernatural a bridge between the events you want to happen, or are the natural events a product of the supernatural? Is there a secret to finding the balance?Linc: This was perhaps particularly evident in the earliest books of the series, RELIC and RELIQUARY, although it’s been a factor in numerous Pendergast and non-Pendergast books of ours as well. I’ve always been a fan of ghost stories, and when I was an editor at St. Martin’s Press I put together numerous supernatural anthologies. The idea of trying to mix a straight-ahead thriller with potentially supernatural elements (although with a fair amount of science underpinning everything) was more revolutionary when RELIC first appeared than it is today. In fact, at the time our publishers and booksellers weren’t quite sure what genre to classify it as. Ultimately RELIC was called a “techno-thriller,” but I’m not sure even that quite encompasses it.Doug: We have always been attracted by the hints of the supernatural, because it adds a certain mystery and Gothic flavor to the series. Too much mystery has been taken out of the world and we want to put a little bit back in.KN: As a fan, I LOVE that in City of Endless Night Pendergast returns to NY and teams up with Detective D’Agosta again. And (I don’t want to give anything away) the Epilogue really warmed my heart. However, these events hint at a certain amount of closure for Pendergast which terrifies me a bit (and not in a fun way). I am almost afraid to ask, but, are these harbingers of an end to the Pendergast series?Doug: Not at all. We’re quite fond of Pendergast and hope to see him in many books to come, provided he doesn’t get killed along the way. (Nobody is safe in our books.) We plan to launch a new series starring Nora Kelly, in which Pendergast might, from time to time, make a cameo appearance—if he’s still alive by then.KN: You have been quoted as saying that you try to write thrillers that you yourselves would like to read. This aligns well with the Killer Nashville mission to help writers write books that we would like to read. Do you have advice for new authors on how to accomplish this feat?Linc: I can only speak from my own experience, but with that proviso: I’ve found that writing a book about a subject that I personally find fascinating, either that I know something of already or would like to learn more about, not only makes the research and writing process more enjoyable, but it results in a more compelling and credible story. Readers can tell the difference between a book written from the heart and one written simply in hopes of selling lots of copies. Also, writing a novel can be a difficult and at times even disheartening process—it’s not uncommon to have to rewrite passages or even whole sections of prose along the way, especially when starting out—and writing about a subject of great personal interest can sometimes make that easier.Doug: I couldn’t agree with Linc more. It’s a huge mistake to think you can figure out the formula and write a bestselling book. The “formula” in my opinion is to write about what fascinates you, populate it with characters that you know and love (or hate), and set it in a place you know well.

Many thanks to Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child for taking time from their book tour for City of Endless Night to answer our questions and to Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski from Grand Central Publishing for facilitating this interview.

12/19/17 12/19/17

The Cognitive Benefits of Reading / Jane Sandwood

We all know that Nashville is bursting with songwriters, but it's also home to many outstanding novelists, poets, and screenwriters. It’s a place where creativity abounds, making it a great place for writers to come together and form a literary community. But, in order to become a great writer, one has to be an avid reader, which is why it is essential to know how reading can impact our ability to create.

There are many advantages to reading—especially for the benefit of your brain. Readers will recognize the way that a good book makes them feel, and these good feelings are ultimately a result of the brain responding to your reading in a positive way. Just as routine writing habits are rewarding, so, too, is developing a reading habit that gives you the power to fuel your mind each and every day.

Here are 3 important ways that reading benefits your mind and imagination:

1. Spikes Brain Connectivity and Function

According to a neurological study at Emory University, reading a novel affects the brain’s function in a healthy, constructive way. Reading a novel stimulates the left temporal cortex, which is the section of the brain that allows you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Reading, therefore, improves embodied cognition in the brain, as a good book produces a heightened connectivity in brain function that can last for hours.

2. Engages You In Deep Focus—Like Meditation

A second benefit is the ability of books to help you relax. Having a similar effect to meditation, reading helps to reduce stress—even more so than listening to music, taking a walk, or drinking a cup of tea. Reading for just 6 short minutes can lower your heart rate and ease muscle tension, making it a great way to focus deeply and relax your brain.

3. Improves Emotional Intelligence

A third effect that reading has on the brain is its improvement of our emotional intelligence—or our ability to be compassionate and empathize. Researchers have found that people who spent time reading fiction showed an increase in empathy one week later. These findings conclude that reading stimulates the area of the brain that allows you to emote and to interact more positively or empathetically with other human beings.

Thus, in its ability to facilitate brain connectivity, inspire you to relax the mind, and improve your emotional intelligence, reading is an all-around beneficial tool to keep your brain healthy and functioning to its fullest emotional and mental capacity.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Joseph Borden, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

*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. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.

12/12/17 12/12/17

The Joys and Challenges of Writing a Series Character / Joe Clifford

I write the Jay Porter thriller series (Oceanview Publishing). With three in the bag (Lamentation, December Boys and Give Up the Dead), and numbers four and five under contract, I am preparing to dive back into the bleak wintery world of Lamentation Mountain.

Oftentimes when I tell someone I write a series character (usually at Christmas parties I don’t want to be at), I get one of two responses. Well, I get a lot of different responses, but two of note. The first is “Hey, I’ve got a great idea. How about I tell you, you write it, and we split the money?” As tempting as that offer is, I pass. The second, more interesting question is whether I find it stifling, artistically speaking. Whereas many of my responses in uncomfortable social situations tend to be standard, here my answer is always authentic and unique.

Like the books and characters in the series, the answer evolves; and like most of life’s compelling examinations, a great deal of conflict presents itself. There are parts I find stifling, but not for the reasons most think. Generally, I get asked this question by other artists, other writers. We are, after all, in this game to forge new ground. How many Jack Reacher books can Lee Child write? As many as he wants! I’d kill for his career, as I am sure most writers would, at least those of us who write genre. And that is where I’ll start.

Part of writing genre is ascribing to a template. I will avoid the word “formula” because it has such nasty connotations. I started out as a literary fiction writer before making the switch to the Dark Side. Even now I retain enough of those sensibilities that I can get slapped with the “literary thriller” label, which I love but drives bookstores mad.

When one says something is contrived, what they mean is he or she can see the strings. Readers don’t want to see the strings. They want to be submerged, lost, whisked away in the fantasy. But all art, by definition, is contrived; we make something out of nothing, create an illusion. One wrong move and it can all fall apart, exposing the machination behind the curtain.

But I like having that map, knowing I am not flying blind; I like a flight chart that gets me from Ashton to Arizona.

In the Jay Porter books, I get to chronicle the life of a man I care very much about. As crazy as it sounds, Jay has become as real to me as most of my friends. I certainly spend more time with him than I do most of my friends. Jay began as part me, part my half-brother, but now, after three books, he has grown into a wholly original creation. Deeply flawed, self-sabotaging, good intentioned but often perverted by anger, rage, and misunderstanding a dream that is just out reach, Jay resonates because of these conflicts (or so I’ve been told). I think it was Mailer who said our heroes need to be larger than life. I counter Norman that they need to be slightly less than. Because that rings truer for me. We all know the life we want. How many of us get it?

To this end, no, there is nothing stifling about watching a creation come into this world, and not unlike parenting a child, having to surrender ownership to allow that child to become what he needs to be, not what you want him to be. When I begin a Jay Porter book I have a loose idea of a plot, and then I see where Jay takes it. This is the very opposite of stifling. It’s exciting, unexpected, and I am often just as surprised (and infuriated) by Jay’s choices. But I find the ride richly rewarding. I hope my readers do too.

But there is a stifling component to writing a series. And like I said it’s not what most think. The hard part is that when you write a series, it becomes harder to write outside that world. Your style becomes immersed and associated with that one character and series, which makes it tougher to write different books. I’ve written several standalones, books I think are just as good as the Porter books, but it’s been harder to find them homes. I’ve heard if I “made them a Jay Porter book” . . . But that is what I am trying not to do in those situations.

Still, this is a minor gripe. I work as a professional novelist. How many writers would love to say that? I am humbled and honored by the opportunity.

Joe Clifford is acquisitions editor for Gutter Books and producer of Lip Service West, a “gritty, real, raw” reading series in Oakland, CA. He is the author of several books, including Junkie Love and the Jay Porter Thriller Series (Lamentation, December Boys, Give Up the Dead), as well as editor of Trouble in the Heartland: Crime Stories Based on the Songs of Bruce Springsteen. Joe’s writing can be found at joeclifford.com.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

12/5/17 12/5/17

KERRIE DROBAN / DOING TIME FOR THE CRIME

As a criminal defense attorney (by day) my clients often complain they are “doing time for the crime” (as if that’s unfortunate). After writing five true crime books that primarily focus on the one percent of crimes (motorcycle gangs, mafia and deep cover investigations) no sane author should explore, I too have done “time for the crime” and have learned a few things: First, everyone has a story, not everyone has a voice; second, it’s the storyteller’s job to investigate Truth (the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me!!) But what is the Truth, and whose Truth is it? How the author derives at that Truth steeped in a world of sociopaths, violent subcultures, unpredictable sources, hidden identities, deep cover investigations and subjects whose norm it is to distrust everyone including the storyteller, involves tenacity and guts. The author is cast in a dual role, as both journalist and novelist.

And unlike typical true crime books (like my own, A Socialite Scorned: The Murder of a Tucson High Roller) that center around a brutal murder, the pathology of the killer(s) and the subsequent investigation, most of mine have involved first-hand accounts with limited (if any) court records or other documentation and corroborating sources who, for safety reasons, cannot ever be divulged.

In my latest book, The Last Chicago Boss, the story is written from the perspective of Peter James, the “Boss” of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club, one of the most violent biker gangs in the world and a chief rival of the Hells Angels. His was an extraordinary rise to power and, like every book I’d written before, his presented unique challenges. For starters, we lived on opposite coasts. I had never been to Chicago. He was dying (which meant I had to build rapport quickly and obtain all the information I needed in less than six months) and disliked the idea of being recorded (his survival in the club, after all, as a “Boss” relied on his ability to avoid government surveillance).

So I improvised and implemented the following: Rule #1: make the subject comfortable. Rule #2: Let the subject guide the disclosures. Rule #3: Listen. Listen. Listen. Rule #4: Interview often (the Boss and I spoke every Sunday for three hours for over six months). Rule #5: Keep everything (you never know what will make it into the final manuscript or what might fill in the gaps). Rule #6: Respect the Subject’s boundaries, if he tells you it’s “off the record” keep it “off the record.” Rule #7: Don’t worry about organization when information gathering, that will come later.

After six months of interviews and hundreds of pages of notes I had a compilation of fascinating, funny and at times terrifying tales; I needed a Hook and a way to organize the material into a compelling narrative. I looked for repetition, themes and significant secondary characters. The Boss loved board games: Risk, Go, Chess. He manipulated the Chicago Outlaws and 38 additional clubs like game pieces; he occupied territories and “captured” enemies. The idea of “games” and “players” provided the structure for the Story. And since The Boss was “larger than life” the narrative had to be written in first person. All I needed now was “The Hook” (or what I like to call, the “Why”).

In The Last Chicago Boss, the real Sons of Anarchy were actually “gangster conformists”, with more rules than a corporate entity. They weren’t rebels. They weren’t even free. And, maybe after all, their “terrifying public persona” was really just part of a more private game. That’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…. according to The Boss (as told to me, the story teller).

Droban is an award-winning author of five best-selling true crime books, one of which (Vagos, Mongols and Outlaws) was made into a miniseries called "Gangland Undercover" initially produced by the History Channel. Her true crime books, Running with the Devil: The True Story of the ATF's Infiltration of the Hells Angels, won the USA News National Book Award for best True Crime in 2008 and Prodigal Father, Pagan Son: My Life Born Into Madness, is a two-time winner of the USA News National Book Award for Best True Crime and Best Memoir. Her book, A Socialite Scorned: The Murder of Gary Triano, was featured on American Greed, Dateline and in "Murders and Mansions" produced by La Brea Entertainment. Her most recent book is The Last Chicago Boss: The True Story of Big Pete and the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Kerrie has written articles for TIME and has appeared on national television on CNN, CNBC's American Greed, "A Widow's Web." "A & E's "Gangland" "Behind Enemy Lines", the American Hero's Channel, "Codes and Conspiracies," Investigation ID and the Discovery Channel's "Deadly Devotion," and in a series entitled, "Deep Undercover." Her website is www.kerriedroban.com

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

11/28/17 11/28/17

Shawn Smucker / The Day the Angels Fell

It’s 8 o’clock, a perfect summer night, and the sky is fading to steel blue. A middle-aged man, my next fare, comes out of the bar and holds up his index finger, then sidles up next to two women talking to the bouncer. He flirts with the older woman. Meanwhile, I wait.

“Don’t you leave me!” he shouts at me. It is the voice of someone used to shouting, used to getting his way.

“I’m going to head out soon!” I say, laughing, only half joking. He storms over towards me. My blood pressure rises. I consider driving away, waving goodbye through the sunroof.

“What did you say?” he asks, squinting his eyes. “You are not f***ing leaving me!” He throws his phone into the passenger seat, pulls out his wallet, leafs through a deck of bills, and tosses a twenty on to the passenger side floor. I do not pick it up.

* * * * *

I am not so good at waiting in the tension. I tend to avoid conflict at all costs and do anything to move towards speedy resolution of the story.

Does this feel like a counseling session?

Avoiding conflict may not sound like a life-destroying personality trait, but it sure makes for terrible fiction. Imagine if Scrooge looked up at the charitable gentlemen who entered his office in scene one and said, “Why, of course! Here’s a donation. And Merry Christmas.” End of story. Or if Bilbo Baggins looked up at one of the dark riders and handed him the ring straight away, muttering, “I’m not really into jewelry anyway.”

As writers, we have to allow our characters to sit in the conflict until it has worked its course in them.

I sometimes drive for Uber. The beginning of this piece? A real-life example of a conflict. In that moment, when the customer threw the bill in through the window, I wanted to leave. But if I would have fled, I would have ruined the story.

* * * * *

He goes back to his conversation. The $20 is still on the floor. He nudges his body up against the younger woman, puts his arm around her shoulders. She shifts. His hand drops, catches her waist on the way through, a passing glance, a pressure point impossible for her not to feel.

Nearly ten minutes later he finally comes back to the car.

“I need to make a pit stop,” he says. He bends over and picks up the $20 bill off the floor and hands it to me. “Here, this is yours.” I shrug and take it. He directs me to another bar. We arrive, and again he wants to control the situation.

“I need you to wait here,” he says. “I’m just having one beer. I will make it worth your time. Do not f***ing leave me!”

Ten minutes later he comes out of the bar alone and climbs into the car. I confirm the address and we start driving.

“I can’t believe you were going to leave me,” he says, starting in on the same old topic. He asks me how often I drive.

“Fifteen to twenty hours a week,” I say. “Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on my other work.”

I ask him what he does.

“I’m a business man,” he says. “I’ve made a lot of money.” He is not bragging. He says it as a statement of fact, the same way someone might say, “I could stand to lose some weight,” or “I had salmon for dinner.”

“I’m on my way home to my girlfriend. I was married. I have some kids. They won’t have anything to do with me, not now.” Now he is back again, chuckling, but in between each laugh is a tiny spark of something. I realize what it is: disappointment. I have never heard someone trying so hard to convince themselves they are happy. Talking to him is like being the lion tamer in the circus – circling, constantly assessing, now firm, now retreating. We pull up outside his house.

“Thanks for waiting,” he says, standing up out of the car. The street is tree-lined and dark and someone in the distance is mowing their yard. I can hear the mower. I can smell the grass.

“I can’t believe you were going to f***ing leave me,” he says. He pulls out a $100 bill and throws it onto the passenger seat. He slams the door.

* * * * *

So, that’s a true story about me staying in the conflict, not running away, not trying to shorten it. Just letting it play out.

As story-tellers, we’d do well to let our characters experience the conflict. Slow down. Let them live the entire story. Because that’s where the real story is hiding.

Shawn Smucker lives in Lancaster, PA, with his wife and their six children. He can also be found at shawnsmucker.com. The Day the Angels Fell is his first novel.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

11/14/17 11/14/17

Patricia Bradley / Ten Clichés to Avoid in Writing

I’ve been writing for a lot of years and there are several things I wish I had known early on. You know, those things that make an agent or editor’s eyes glaze over. Like don’t start your story with a dream, or the weather. Do you know how many times they have seen that kind of opening? The only thing worse than an editor or agent seeing these things is if you Indie publish and your reader sees them.

Here is my personal list of what not to do. It’s personal because I’ve either done these things in a first draft or thought about doing them.

Speaking of dreams, at the end, don’t let your hero wake up and the reader discovers everything that has happened since the opening was a dream.
Your antagonist is pure evil. Give your antagonist redeeming qualities of some sort, especially if you don’t reveal he’s the antagonist until the end. Remember that even the worst villain cares about someone or something, so give him that. If you can make the reader want him to change, you’ve done a great job. Another thing, be sure to make him worthy of your hero. This applies to “the other love interest” in a romance, too.
An incompetent superior. While it can be very satisfying to make the boss look stupid, resist the urge. He didn’t get to be in charge by being dumb. And along that line, don’t make every Southern sheriff overweight, red-necked and a bully.
Character descriptions. Don’t have your characters look in the mirror (or see their reflection in water) and describe themselves. This has been done so many times. If at all possible, have another character describe your hero or heroine. Or have the heroine compare her looks to someone else. It takes a little work, but well worth it.
And please, when you are in a character’s point of view, don't let her flip her long blonde hair, or think about unfolding her long, tanned legs from the car. When you flip your hair, do you think about the color? In thinking of your body do you ever think that you have long, tanned legs?
The alcoholic or former alcoholic detective. Unless you can put a new twist on it, give your detective another flaw.
The waitress with a heart of gold. Or a kindly grandfather. Go against the grain. Let them be grumpy. Downright mean, even.
I’ve heard readers complain there must be an amnesia virus running rampant in the romance genre. I’m not sayinga character can’t block a memory, but for your protagonist to wake up and their whole life is gone is getting a little stale.
Don’t let your story hinge on a problem that can be solved by a good discussion unless you have a really strong reason they can’t have this discussion. I realize your characters are going to misunderstand each other since it happens even in real life. Let them have the discussion and let that discussion make a bigger problem for your protagonist.
The ingenious serial killer who is smarter than the cops. There will never be another Hannibal Lecter. Let your hero/heroine outsmart the killer on smaller levels before the final scene.

You can use the clichés to jumpstart your brain while you’re letting the story jell in your mind. That’s okay, but when it comes time to write, try this. Set a timer for ten minutes and free write whatever plot ideas come to your mind. Then set the timer for ten more minutes and repeat the process. You’ll be surprised with what you come up with.

Winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in Suspense, Patricia Bradley lives in North Mississippi with her rescue kitty, Suzy. Her romantic suspense books include the Logan Point series and the Memphis Cold Case Novels. She also has written sweet romances for Harlequin Heartwarming available as ebooks.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

11/7/17 11/7/17

ROBIN FOX’S SECRETS OF INTERROGATION / Charles Kowalski

From the detective coaxing a confession out of a suspect, to the counterterror operative racing to find a ticking bomb, interrogation has always been a key part of mystery and suspense fiction. Today, Killer Nashville welcomes a special guest: master interrogator Robin Fox, hero of Mind Virus, a 2013 Claymore finalist. Thank you for joining us, Captain Fox.

Just “Robin,” please. I’m not in the service anymore, and that’s a time in my life I don’t care to be reminded of.

Sorry. But you were a military interrogator, and a Bronze Star winner at that. That’s quite an unusual career move for a peace-loving academic like you.

I joined the service just because it was expected in my family, and my father wouldn’t have paid for my education if I’d refused. I didn’t expect to see much action, but as soon as I was commissioned, 9/11 happened. I spoke some Arabic – I was a Foreign Service brat, and had picked up a smattering of several languages – so they sent me to the “Schoolhouse,” the interrogator training facility at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. After that, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq…you name it, I’ve been there. If you can’t name it because it’s top secret, I’ve probably been there too.

What would you say is the most important part of interrogation?

Building a relationship with the subject. The most important questions in any interrogation are the ones you don’t ask aloud. Who is this person? What does he want most? What does he fear most? Once you know the answers to these questions, you have the key that opens any door.

You’ve often said that “interrogation is theater.” Could you elaborate?

A good interrogator is as skilled as a good actor at improvising himself into a role. If you learn that the subject had a traumatic experience in his past, for example, you can create a character for yourself that had a similar experience and can empathize.

That all sounds like more than Jack Bauer would have time for.

Don’t get me started on Jack Bauer. Yes, it takes time, and no, it doesn’t play as well on TV, but it works. If you scare a subject into cooperating, he’ll only cooperate as long as you can keep him scared. But if you can earn his trust, he’s yours forever.

And they say confessions extracted under torture aren’t reliable anyway.

Getting confessions isn’t even the point. Military interrogation is a different game than police interrogation. You aren’t trying to solve a past crime, you’re trying to plan your future strategy. The question isn’t “Whodunnit?” but “What are they going to do next?”

And what strategies do you use to find that out?

The Army has its playbook of approaches with names like Fear Up, Fear Down, Pride and Ego Up, Pride and Ego Down…One example is Establish Your Identity. If the subject refuses to talk about one incident, you accuse him of involvement in another, much worse one. He’ll usually cop to the lesser charge.

That assumes the subject still has some instinct for self-preservation. Would it work on terrorists who’d happily blow themselves to oblivion as long as they could take some of us with them?

That doesn’t describe everyone who joins a terrorist group. Some join out of fear; they see a choice between being on this group’s member list or their hit list. Some were deceived by the group’s leader, and some join because of plain old romantic love. It’s never as simple as “We love freedom and they hate freedom.”

But you must get some who are die-hard ideologues.

Then you let them talk about ideology. Let them rant all they want. When they pause for breath, you can interject something like, “Oh, I read something similar in so-and-so; did you get some inspiration from him?” All human beings have a basic need to be listened to, understood, taken seriously. If you provide that for the subject, you instill a subconscious sense of indebtedness. You lower his psychological defenses, so when his lecture is over, he’s much more likely to tell you what you need to know.

Can you recommend some books for people who’d like to learn more?

There are many books by former military interrogators out there. Here are some of the ones that were most useful:

Alexander, Matthew: How to Break a Terrorist (2008).

Lagouranis, Tony: Fear Up Harsh (2007).

Mackey, Chris: The Interrogator’s War (2005).

Navarro, Joe: Interviewing Terrorists (2011), and many other books about interrogation techniques.

Saar, Erik: Inside the Wire (2005).

Thank you very much, Professor Fox. I hope everyone enjoys reading about your adventures in Mind Virus!

Robin Fox, professor of comparative religions at George Washington University, is a fictional character. Charles Kowalski, whose debut thriller Mind Virus won the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold Award (Action/Thriller) and was a finalist for the Claymore Award, the Clive Cussler Grandmaster Award, and the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association Literary Award, is real as far as he knows. Both of them have spent a large part of their lives abroad and studied several languages; Charles now divides his time between Japan and Downeast Maine.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

10/25/17 10/25/17

Vanishing Point / Lisa Harris

Confessions from a Wannabe Perfectionist

I’ll admit it. I’m not the most organized person in the world. I have hundreds of family photos just waiting to be organized, junk drawers that need to be cleaned out, and my desk is way too cluttered. I could throw out all the familiar excuses, of course. I don’t have enough time, or space, or even that life holds too many urgent things for me to handle besides stopping and organizing things. I’m guessing you probably have one or two of your own excuses as well.

I discovered early on, though, that if I wanted to be an author, I had to find a way to organize my stories. I write complex romantic suspense novels that take place over a very tight timeline. This means I can’t just hope my stories come together smoothly in the end. I needed a way to keep up with my chapters that included both a detailed timeline and running word count. There are many tools to help authors like Scrivner, which I love, but I always find myself going back to one program for a quick overview of my story. And that program is Excel.

If you’ve always assumed the Excel is just for numbers, this might come as a surprise for you. But it’s not. And while my husband uses Excel charts for all his accounting needs, it can be used for so much more. You can use if for lists, addresses, inventories, and even for your next grocery store run. For me, it’s become the key to organizing my novels.

I have a new book, Vanishing Point, that’s getting ready to come out in November. It’s the perfect example as to why I have to stay organized. When I started this book, I had just concluded writing my Nikki Boyd Series, which is a three-book series about a Missing Person Task force. One of the story arcs throughout the series deals with the disappearance of Sarah, Nikki’s younger sister. Sarah’s vanishing ten years ago is important to the storyline, primarily because it becomes the motivation behind Nikki joining law enforcement. My publisher came to me last year and asked me to write a fourth book to go along with the series—Sarah’s story.

In writing Nikki’s sister’s story, I had a new challenge. Instead of the storyline taking place over a few short days, I needed it to take place over an entire decade, beginning with her disappearance. To do this—and to keep the story moving—I broke up the action into four different time periods, and kept each of those time periods short. But on top of the different time periods, I had to make sure that the facts—from the characters, to every mention of Sarah in the Nikki Boyd series, and the detailed timeline—meshed with book four. Thankfully, I’d been using excel spreadsheets for years to organize my books and could go back to them for a clear look at the storyline. With Vanishing Point, this was going to be essential.

The wonderful thing about using a spreadsheet to organize your books is both the quick flexibility of changing the order of chapters or adding a new one as you write. You can also add as many columns as you need for your particular project. And because Excel is primarily for numbers, you can incorporate a running total of your word count.

All of my spreadsheets have a basic layout in order to keep track of my chapters. I include my word count, a detailed timeline, chapter description, a note on when a chapter is incorporated into the final manuscript, and the chapter hook. On top of listing my chapters and my timeline, I also use the sides and bottom of my spreadsheet to take notes. This includes keeping track of physical traits—so my heroine’s eye color doesn’t change from chapter to chapter—characteristics, and an ongoing list of anything I might need to double check on at the end. In addition, I add a section for things like the seasons, weather, sunrise/sunset times, as well as a list of minor character names and descriptions.

So while my photos and junk drawer might never be organized, at least I’ve found the solution for my writing. And the other added bonus to this is when I come back to the story months later for my publisher’s edits, I have every I need right at my fingertips, all on one handy spread sheet.

Happy writing!

Lisa Harris is a bestselling author, a Christy Award winner, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 and 2015 from Romantic Times for her novels Blood Covenant and Vendetta. The author of more than thirty books, including Vendetta, Missing, Pursued, and the Southern Crimes series, Harris and her family have spent fourteen years living as missionaries in southern Africa. Learn more at lisaharriswrites.com.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

10/18/17 10/18/17

Lady Jayne Disappears / Joanna Davidson Politano

Mapping the Mystery Novel

I’ll be frank. I don’t consider myself a mystery writer, and I never set out to write a book in that genre. Yet when I created my debut novel, which is simply a collection of all my favorite elements rolled into one story, mystery naturally flowed into the plot. I figured if it was going to be there, it should be effective and surprising. I didn’t really know the tricks most mystery novelists used so I did one simple thing in my debut that made it all function together. I outlined my reader’s train of thoughts through the entire novel.

Different than a plot outline or scene sketches, this is a map detailing what I want my reader to be assuming is going on, what they should be thinking about this hint or that character. The key here is focusing on, and then upending, what your reader thinks is happening.

First, I dealt with the main story question. What did I want readers to think was the solution to the mystery posed as the story progressed? In my first novel Lady Jayne Disappears, the mystery centers around the missing Lady Jayne, mother to the heroine. Several hints point to evidence of a murder while others indicate possible villains, and I send the readers on a hunt for Lady Jayne’s killer. It’s a mystery of who killed Lady Jayne. Readers would analyze each character’s motivations and opportunity to kill her, thinking up various possible explanations for the mystery. Then when the heroine discovers partway through the novel that the victim is someone else entirely, it completely changes the significance of every clue, every character, and every situation. It also keeps the story fresh and interesting with a nice little twist.

Next I put my characters through this analysis. What do I want readers to think is this character’s purpose in the novel? Readers unconsciously label all the characters with roles as they keep track of motivations, relationships, and possible villains. If you disguise your villain as, say, a friend of the hero, you can then weave in plenty of lies that your readers will catalog as truth because they think this character’s purpose is to deliver hints or advise the hero.

Hints are easy to assess with this method, too. We’ve all heard of red herrings, those clues tossed in to purposefully send your reader-sleuths on the wrong trail—but take it further. What do I want the reader to believe is the significance of this item or that information? Have it clearly in your mind, then make sure to change directions on a few of them.

Knowing what the reader believes and assumes throughout your novel also makes it easier to see where you need to throw in a twist or a shock. If the story’s becoming too slow, look at your reader assumptions for that predictable point in the book and throw in the exact opposite of they would expect.

In Lady Jayne Disappears, my beginning few chapters seemed to smooth out into a nice little rut. The heroine had gone to live with her relatives and begun to search for information about her mother, and things were going as expected on a nice little mystery trajectory. I broke up that pleasant introductory section with the random intrusion of a man named Nathaniel Droll—which was the pen name her father had used to write his anonymous serial novels. It was a very nice “didn’t see that coming” moment right near the beginning of the book that opens a whole new thread of curiosity for the reader.

As you outline what you wish readers to know through the book, let the hero help you, too. He or she can “paint” what the reader is picking up on the same way music in a movie can tell you when to look for an ominous moment, a tender one, etc. Internal thoughts, physical reactions, and dialogue will set the tone of the scene. The hero’s “perceptions” might not always be right, but you’re painting a picture with them all the same—use that influence.

Mapping out your readers’ assumptions helps you roughly guide their journey through your novel, allowing you to make it surprising, thrilling, tense, or fresh whenever it’s needed. The key to all of this is to simply give readers something in the distance to stare at so they miss all the real clues when you drop them into their peripheral vision. They will be utterly surprised at the ending you’ve created but unable to deny the plausibility of it because of all the real clues you offered along the way. It’s not your fault if they missed them.

Well okay, maybe it is.

Joanna Davidson Politano is a freelance writer and debut novelist who spends as much time as possible spinning tales that capture the exquisite details of ordinary lives. She lives with her husband and their two babies in a house in the woods near Lake Michigan. Learn more at jdpstories.com.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

10/4/17 10/4/17

Getting it Right / Irene Hannon

While I was working on my master’s degree in journalism, three rules were hammered into me and my classmates.

Accuracy…accuracy…accuracy.

Excellent advice for journalists—and also for novelists.

Because while our stories are made up, and the character are figments of our imagination, we write about real places…real law enforcement organizations…real military units…real careers…real medical issues. And people who have knowledge of all of those read our books. One mistake, and our credibility takes a huge hit.

So when I dive into a new book, research becomes a high priority.

Before I even begin connecting words on my laptop screen, I spend hours trolling online for any and all information that might be helpful.

That’s why, with my new release, Dangerous Illusions, I have 55 single-spaced pages of research notes and internet links on a host of topics—medical issues, homicide investigations, organized crime, forensic toxicology, private foundations, crime scene procedures, background checks, vital records accessibility, computer hacking, and internet connectivity in rural areas…to name a few.

Valuable as Web research is, however, it only takes me so far. At some point I need to run story-specific questions past an expert.

That’s where the process can get intimidating.

In fact, for many years the research challenge deterred me from diving into suspense. When I began writing novels, there was no internet (yes, I’ve been at this a while), and I had no contacts in law enforcement or the military. I was also reluctant to make cold calls.

So I shelved suspense and switched to contemporary romance. Most books in that genre do require research, but typically not at the same technical level as suspense.

Seventeen books and quite a few years later, I once again felt the urge to write suspense. At that point, the internet was available as a resource. Plus, I was acquainted with a detective captain in a large police department.

So I took the plunge. The result was my bestselling, award-winning Heroes of Quantico series.

Since then I’ve written thirteen romantic suspense novels…with more to come.

Along the way, I’ve discovered that once you have a source or two, it’s much easier to expand your network of experts. My detective friend ended up putting me in touch with a U.S. marshal, who was instrumental in helping me get it right with two books in my Guardians of Justice series—Fatal Judgment, which featured marshals protecting a federal judge, and Lethal Legacy, which involved the WitSec program. Both of these were bestselling award winners too.

Through existing sources, I’ve connected with a just-retired FBI agent, forensic anthropologist, medical examiner, private investigator, and countless others.

I also got over my aversion to cold calls—and found that once you’re an established author, most people are more than happy to answer questions about their profession.

That said, I’m very careful not to overuse my sources. If I can find information on the Web, I do. I respect my sources’ time and don’t waste it by asking questions that can be answered with online research. As a result, when I do need them, they are very responsive.

While I’ve never paid anyone to provide information, I do thank those who help me in a concrete way with a gift card to Starbucks or Panera. I want them to know how grateful I am for their help—because truth be told, I would never attain the level of precision I aspire to without their input.

And the professionals in the fields I write about who read my books appreciate my commitment to accuracy. I’ll give you my favorite example.

My first suspense novel, Against All Odds, featured the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team, and the plot involved a diplomat’s daughter and a hostage standoff in the Middle East.

A few months after it released, a short—and odd—note arrived in my inbox. It said, “I enjoyed reading your novel—but I chewed tobacco, not cigars.”

That didn’t make sense…until I checked the signature line.

The note was from a former HRT commander—who happened to have the same first name as my fictional commander.

I wrote back at once to assure him my character wasn’t based on him and that the name was just a coincidence. His response was gracious—and he also said that while he didn’t expect me to divulge my sources, he was impressed by the realism of the book, right down to the actual radio call signs the HRT used.

That made my day.

Do non-expert readers realize the effort required to nail down that kind of detail?

Perhaps not.

But I’m betting they do recognize the ring of authenticity in my books.

And I’m convinced that getting it right can help set an author apart—and contribute to best-sellerdom.

Irene Hannon is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than fifty contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels. In addition to her many other honors, she is a three-time winner of the prestigious RITA Award from Romance Writers of America (the “Oscar” of romance fiction) and a member of that organization’s elite Hall of Fame. In 2016, she received a Career Achievement award from RT Book Reviews magazine for her entire body of work. A former communications executive with a Fortune 500 company, she has no regrets about leaving behind the rush-hour commute and corporate politics to focus on fiction. She loves to interact with readers on Facebook, and invites you to visit her website: irenehannon.com.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

9/26/17 9/26/17

Here’s a Story Prompt / Blake Fontenay

Here’s a story prompt:

A middle-aged man is sitting at a stoplight. An attractive young woman pulls alongside him.

“Is your bumper sticker for Star Trek?” she asks.

“No, Trek bicycles,” he stammers.

“That’s lame,” she says, holding up an arm bearing a tattoo with the serial numbers of the Starship Enterprise. Before he can come up with a clever reply, she speeds away…

As a writer, there are about a million different directions you could go with that story, but I didn’t come up with that prompt on my own. It’s an anecdote a friend posted on Facebook.

A lot of people have come to regard Facebook and its social media ilk as monumental time sucks – and they can be. I’ve personally lost too much time cruising Facebook when I could have been writing.

There is, however, an upside for writers hanging out on social media, even when they’re not promoting their work. When used properly, social media can be a terrific source of creative inspiration.

Let me start off by saying that I don’t think there’s any honor in warming over someone else’s reality and calling it fiction. I get mildly annoyed when people ask me if Character X in my stories is Person Y in real life.

It just doesn’t work that way, at least for me. There’s no doubt that real people and real life experiences inform my fiction writing. I don’t believe most authors pull their ideas out of thin air. We’ve all got bits and pieces of writing material floating around in our heads that hopefully we can weave together in original ways to produce bestselling books.

To get what we need to create our stories, we have to find out what’s going on in the world around us. In olden times, aspiring authors might have done this by hanging out at shopping malls or movie theaters to watch people interact with each other.

The trouble is that with the advent of Amazon and Netflix, nobody goes to shopping malls or movie theaters any more.

So what’s a good way to find out what real people are doing, thinking and feeling? Go to where they are - the Land of Political Rants and Cat Videos.

Let’s face it: Social media have helped us learn things about our friends, acquaintances and third cousins of our elementary school classmates that we would have never learned in a lifetime of normal interactions with them.

We find out that the worker across the hall is coping with the terminal illness of a relative. Or the neighbor down the street is a ballroom dancing champion. Or a childhood crush has that one awful habit that you absolutely cannot stand.

There’s a lot of great material out there. But it should be used wisely and ethically.

It’s obviously wrong to take unaltered facts and present them as fiction, particularly if they could cause embarrassment to the real people involved. But there are a lot of times when a writer can take a kernel of truth and transform it into a sumptuous ear of fire-roasted literary corn.

Take the example I used at the beginning of this post. (In case you were wondering, I did get my friend’s permission to use his story.) In reality, my friend just sat in his car, trying to think of a snappy comeback, while the pretty woman who never talks to guys his age sped away.

What could have happened next, in the wonderful world of fiction? Maybe she jumped out of her car and into his, brandishing a gun and telling him to give up his wallet and get out. Or what if he watched her car drive away, followed closely by a black van driven by a menacing-looking man, then he decided to follow them? What if her car got half a block away, then exploded? (I remember a writing seminar where one of the panelists said one of the best ways to overcome writer’s block is to “blow up a car,” so I always keep that as an option.)

The possibilities are limitless, which is the fun. You could take that one scene, which lasted no more than a few seconds, and spin it into a 100,000-word novel.

I’m not suggesting that people should get all of their story ideas from social media. You can learn a lot just by sitting on a park bench at lunch hour. Or by recapping the daily grind with your significant other.

What I am saying is that we blame social media, at least partly, for the decline in interest some people have in reading books. Why not use social media to harvest ideas that may help rekindle their interest in books again?

Not even Spock could fault that logic.

Blake Fontenay is the author of three novels. His most recent, A Three Team Town, is available for order on Amazon.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

9/19/17 9/19/17

Beauty and Brutality in the Southern Mystery/Thriller by Bryan Eugene Robinson

As a Buddhist and writer, looking back on my Southern upbringing, I am fascinated with the Tao or coexistence of opposites — shrouded in darkness and mystery. Nowhere is this paradox more striking than in the customs, natural beauty, and brutality of the southern United States.

Where I come from, we serve sweet iced tea and call you “honey” even if we don’t know you. We ask you to “come back” as you leave, even if we don’t want you to. We scrape our feet at your front door whether or not they’re dirty to show respect before entering your house. We offer you food, even if we don’t have any left, praying you’ll say “no, thank you.” While we’re eating one meal, we talk about the next one over fried chicken, rice and gravy, and homemade biscuits. Before we badmouth somebody, we preface it with, “Bless her heart” so we sound respectable. And we say, “yawl” to make sure everybody’s included.

But there’s a brutal underbelly to this genteel Southern hospitality. Many of us — not me of course — dodder along in our pickups, throwing friendly hand-waves at strangers, shotguns mounted firmly in gun racks behind our heads “just in case.” The innocent-looking church ladies planning a reunion under the shade trees in the churchyard welcome you with open arms, then gossip and shun you behind closed doors because you’re “different.” If you’re from Florida looking to buy mountain land, you’re out of luck. Mountain folk call Floridians “Southern Yankees,” and smile and point them in the wrong direction.

Southern traditions — the savory food, cloaked messages full of contradictions, dysfunctional relationships, and deep pockets of religious fundamentalism — exemplify the beauty/brutality paradox. As a child I remember camp meetings where fireflies punctuated the dark summer sky and believers fanned away the sweltering heat as they gathered under huge tents to worship. I loved to peek through slits in the tents to watch preachers scream warnings of the devil and threats of burning in hell. I watched worshipers’ arms raised to the heavens, clapping their hands, speaking in tongues, running up and down aisles, sometimes cutting cartwheels in ecstasy as they became “slain in the spirit.”

Classic Southern fiction — from Tennessee Williams to Flannery O’Connor to Pat Conroy — have excavated these fundamentalist religious traditions, teasing to the surface the underlying dysfunction with one suspicion, one misunderstanding, and one murder at a time. Like old varnish, they peel off the veneer of deeply flawed, eccentric characters hiding behind a façade of respectability and superiority. Southern mystery writer John Hart said, “Family dysfunction makes for rich literary soil. It’s a place to cultivate secrets and misdeeds where betrayal cuts deeply, pain lingers, and memory becomes timeless.”

The natural beauty and wildlife of the South also reflect the paradox. The embroidered branches of sprawling live oaks droop with heavy beards of Spanish moss, stretching low to brush the lush vegetation. Blooming azaleas burst with color, the humid evening breeze carrying perfume of Confederate jasmine, honeysuckle, night blooming cereus, and gardenias and magnolias. The night calls of whippoorwills and hoot owls and the monotonous droning of tree frogs echo across a moonlit sky.

On the flipside, we observe the brutality. Underneath Florida’s Suwannee River, stunning marine life and primeval underwater caves — some as tall as ten-story buildings, wide as three football fields — draw divers across the world. Eerie lime rock formations, resembling gargoyles and screaming faces, carved for thousands of years by the Suwannee cut through prehistoric limestone. At night, river dwellers sit around campfires on the river’s sandy shores, complaining about motorboats scarring the backs of endangered prehistoric manatee. Or they tell stories of lost divers drowning in the twisted, turning underwater caves, stretching miles beneath the earth — cavers running out of air, stabbing each other with dive knives to steal a last breath from their partner’s tanks. Tales of corpses wrapped in tangled guidelines, entombed like mummies, arms tightly pinned against their stiff bodies. Stories of bodies so bloated that rescue teams have to pry them out of narrow passageways. And of goodbye messages hastily carved in limestone walls during final dying breaths.

One night I sat around a campfire listening to the harrowing tales, watching campfire shadows dance like ghostsagainst the white Florida sand, trying to ignore my thudding heart and the chills that lifted the hair on the back of my neck. That’s when it hit me: “I have to write about this.” I started to read or re-read all of my favorite Southern novelists among them Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, Pat Conroy, John Hart, Flannery O’Connor, Fannie Flagg, James Lee Burke, and Zora Neal Hurston.

I researched cave diving and actual cases of divers drowning in the caves. I listened and watched the people and customs of locals with the ardor of an anthropologist (Margaret Mead would be pleased). I read the history of the area, including a 1948 novel, SERAPH ON THE SUWANNEE by famed novelist Zora Neal Hurston. I frequently kayaked the Suwannee, tubed down Itchtuknee Springs, and listened to locals’ tales about the history of the area. I read books about the Florida laws and dangers of underwater cave diving, conducted Internet research, and interviewed local expert dive outfitters about the technical aspects of their underwater treks.

Influenced by my favorite Southern writers, I used many traditional “noir” themes in my debut novel LIMESTONE GUMPTION: A BRAD POPE AND SISTERFRIENDS MYSTERY. My protagonist is 35-year-old psychologist and reluctant sleuth, Dr. Brad Pope, who finds himself accused of a murder he must solve to save himself. When the police drop the ball, he outsmarts the cops by relying on his own psychological wits and instincts as he unravels a tangle of murder and intrigue. He confronts his tortured, dysfunctional past and a finger-wagging grandmother who heads a sinister garden club – six quirky women of a certain age who at first glance look like sweet little church ladies. Upon Pope’s closer investigation, however, they appear to be cold-blooded murderers. Glued together because of a sinister secret, the women are not exactly sisters but are more than friends, hence “Sisterfriends.” Their biggest claim to fame is the garden they tend under the welcome sign on the outskirts of town, where passersby wonder what they planted there.

Striking a balance between the beauty and brutality of small-town Southern life without idealizing it, yet without vilifying it, was a challenge: the mixed messages of the townspeople, macabre ironic events, religious zeal fraught with dysfunctional relationships, and a penchant for exotic homemade foods. Writing the novel required suspension of judgment and a bird’s-eye view to show the Tao as it exists in nature. There are many truths to be mined in the darkness of the South, few strictly good or bad. Truth contains elements of both, and all of us, writers and readers alike, are stuck with that paradoxical mix for life.

Bryan E. Robinson is a licensed psychotherapist and author of two novels and 40 nonfiction books. He applies his experiences to crafting insightful nonfiction self-help books and psychological thrillers. His multi-award winning southern noir murder mystery, Limestone Gumption, won the New Apple Book Medal for best psychological suspense, the Silver IPPY Award for outstanding mystery of the year, the Bronze Foreword Review INDIEFAB Book Award for best mystery, and the 2015 USA Regional Excellence Book Award for best fiction in the Southeast.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

9/5/17 9/5/17

OUTLINING IN REVERSE / Michael H. Rubin

Some authors start with a detailed outline of their novel and know every plot point before they write the first word. Others avoid preparing an advance blueprint, confident that the story will unfold as they work.

My wife, Ayan, and I (who write jointly under the name of “Michael H. Rubin”) approach the process differently from both those who need to know every aspect of their storyline before they start and those who do not plan ahead, assuming that the plot develop once they begin.

In the case of both our debut novel, the award-winning historical thriller, The Cottoncrest Curse, and our new contemporary legal thriller, Cashed Out, the main characters and the arcs of the story were fleshed out during our daily, early morning power walks. And I do mean early—we head out at 4:30 a.m. each morning.

We delve into who our primary characters will be, conjuring up their backgrounds and motivations. We decide how the book should start, brainstorming catchy first sentences and ideas for a compelling first chapter. We also confer about the overarching plot of the story, focusing on two or three crucial events in addition to potential endings. But, we do not commit any of this to paper. Our conversations allow our story to develop within a fluid framework. It is only after the essential building blocks of our thrillers have been established that we actually start writing.

Because we don’t prepare an outline in advance, we’re not locked into any specific path. Our story and characters can evolve as we write. In The Cottoncrest Curse, for example, we originally conceived of Dr. François Cailleteau, a grizzled, plain-talking former Confederate war physician, as a minor player. As we wrote, however, it became clear to us that he was a key ingredient, both to provide some of the necessary historical background that undergirds the action and to facilitate the plot. Ultimately, we expanded the role we had initially intended for him. Likewise, in Cashed Out, Washington Eby, an elderly next-door neighbor whom we originally thought of as only a comic foil, developed into a fully-rounded character whose interactions with the protagonist became key components of the novel.

Although we never begin with a written outline, we “outline in reverse.” In other words, once we write a chapter, we jot down general information concerning that chapter on a spreadsheet. As each new chapter is drafted, the essence of its contents gets added to the spreadsheet. This helps us in several ways.

First, it aids us in keeping continuity straight. Did characters say or do something in chapter 14 that is unintentionally at odds with what they said or did in chapter 3? Keeping an outline in reverse helps us avoid inadvertent continuity errors that can creep into a manuscript.

Second, a reverse outline is extremely useful in keeping timeframes aligned, especially in a novel like The Cottoncrest Curse, where part of the story is set in the post-Reconstruction era and part in the 1960s.

Third, a reverse outline is invaluable when you’re trying to locate something you wrote in a prior chapter so that you can properly reflect the foreshadowing you built in while composing earlier portions of the manuscript. Although computers can electronically search for words you used, they won’t help you find concepts you had introduced, plot points you had staked out, or twists and clues you had added. That’s where a reverse outline comes in handy.

Fourth, once a manuscript is finally completed and it’s time to write a synopsis, a reverse outline provides a quick way to review the entire storyline in detail.

We’ve found that the reverse outline method saves us from being straight-jacketed into a pre-ordained plot. We prefer not to spend time creating a detailed outline in advance because we do not want to tire of the story before we even start writing it. Likewise, employing the reverse outline method in conjunction with our intimate knowledge of the main characters and the primary arc of the novel before committing anything to the page lets the story and characters evolve as we write while simultaneously enabling us to see where we’ve been. It’s like having a back-up camera in a car that works in tandem with the rear-view mirror. You need to pay attention to what’s in front of you, but when you have to look backwards, it’s reassuring to know that you’re getting the clearest and broadest view possible.

Michael H. Rubin heads the appellate team of a law firm with offices from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the East Coast and is a speaker and humorist who has given more than 400 multimedia presentations throughout the United States. He received the Burton Award at the Library of Congress for outstanding writing and is a member of the Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers, and the International Association of Crime Writers. Ayan Rubin has been a developmental book editor, a nonprofit consultant, and, for almost three decades, the Coordinator of the Educational Services Division of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, a state-wide television network. Writing under the name of “Michael H. Rubin,” they are the authors of the award winning historical thriller, The Cottoncrest Curse, released by LSU Press, and of the contemporary legal thriller, Cashed Out, which will be released by Fiery Seas Publishing on August 15, 2017.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

8/9/17 8/9/17

What You Always Wanted To Ask A Bookseller, But Were Afraid To Ask / Donna VanBraswell

It was the second day of April in Savannah, Georgia. I wanted to check off an activity on my bucket list: Interview a Bookseller. Spying The Book Lady Bookstore, I jaywalked across the busy street of East Liberty and walked the few steps down into #6. It was small, with low, dark-wooded beamed ceilings. The main room was crowded with new and used books. I milled around the shelves and crept into nooks wondering what treasure I might find.

The treasure turned out to be just a few feet from the entrance. His name was Chris Blaker. He was a youngish, handsome-ish, and cautious manager of the store. After a rather inept attempt of explaining that I wanted to pick his brain and a request for honest answers, we commenced.

The questions began in earnest, but they were from Chris. Who are you? Why did you stop here? What are you going to do with the information? Who will read your blog? Are you a published author?

I felt he was trying to subtly determine if I had a book to sell, that day.

I answered the questions as best as I could stutter out. My name is Donna VanBraswell. I stopped at this store because I’d sent an email requesting an interview with the manager of E Shaver Bookseller and hadn’t heard back, thus this cold call. My plan, I explained, was twofold, to write a blog for Killer Nashville and to present the information verbally at my writers meetings.

The atmosphere became more charged. He asked, “Are you published?” This is where things are tricky in the bookseller’s world. I was glad (for once) that I could honestly say that my novel wasn’t at that point, yet. He didn’t have to worry that his time would be wasted on someone trying to cozy up to him. PHEW! He wouldn’t have to say, ‘Unless you have a traditional publisher, I’m not talking to you.’ or, ‘If you are self-published, don’t let the door to hit you in the buttocks as you make your way back to Amazon.’

Guards were dropped and information began to flow. The more questions that were asked, the more Chris warmed up to explaining the ins-and-outs of his shop.

Here is a brief summary of my questions and his answers:

A traditionally published crime novelist, I’ll call her Jane, was sent to a book signing in Las Vegas. Only five people came. Jane’s “top-five” publisher explained that they sent her there to meet with the store manager and the workers. They need to have a familiarity with her because they would talk about her book and hopefully make a sale. From another source, a different publisher indicated that these low-turnout events are sometimes the price you pay for being an author. What is your take on this?
- Chris agreed that the authors need to interface with bookstore people. The author doesn’t want to “kiss their rears, so-to-speak” but it’s good to express interest in their store as opposed to sending out a postcard announcing the new book. Also, “from an author’s point of view, it’s a lot harder to say no to a person face-to-face. So, you may get your book in a store, just because it’s hard to say no to a person face-to-face with you, and the book is on the margins.” He said one shouldn’t be disappointed with a bad turnout. Two possibilities for this came to his mind, bad weather and/or everyone was at a Van Halen concert.
- --- So, I really liked Chris at this point. ---
- Chris went on to say that a part-time resident of Savannah, George Green, has 3 books and 2 movies under his belt. He drove from New York City to the Barnes and Nobles in Connecticut in a snowstorm and one person showed up. She had come to the bookstore because her heat was out. He read the whole book for her. At the end of the event, she said that that was very nice and she might get it when it comes out in paperback.

The Book Lady Bookstore is small, maybe a couple thousand books, how do you choose the number of each new title? One or two at a time? Or do you keep extras in a storage room?
- If it has good reviews, they know the author, or they are interested in the subject, they will typically try two. If one sells, then they would order another. Based on quick sales, they may increase the order number to five or more, to stay in stock.
- How often are you approached by the big five to get books into your store?
  - Not that often. They may send advance reader copies once a month, but The Book Lady Bookstore is off the beaten path and Savannah is a smaller city. They don’t have a lot of contact with the big five publishers.
  - How often are you approached by the indie publishers? Not their authors, but the actual publishing company
    - Not that often. They are much easier to get in touch with than a large corporate network. They don’t come into the store very often because they are very busy. Just as he (Chris) doesn’t go to their offices because of his work schedule.

What can you tell us? Do you have hints to getting traditional and non-traditional published books into an independent bookstore? (This is where Chris got very real.)
- Go to the store and see what they are about. See what kind of books they carry. Determine if your book is a good fit for their store. Buy a book. Don’t just show up without an appointment. (Ooops! Tried that. Didn’t work.) It assumes our time isn’t valuable. If it’s your first and only time in the store… (he paused to choose his wording carefully) …it’s like calling your parents only to ask for money. The author is hitting someone up for a favor without establishing a relationship. (WOW!)
- The promotion of the book is also partly the author’s job. Some self-published authors have a field-of-dreams mindset – If I Write It, They Will Come. He counters, if you write a book and place it on the shelf without promotion, it will go nowhere. You have to be on social media. Tell your friends. Tell strangers about your book. You have to perpetually promote it.

My final question: When the Book Lady Bookstore has a signing, how much publicity will you provide?
- They are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. However, Chris believes that Facebook is the only one that counts. They will promote the signing two weeks out, one week out and then the day of the signing. They use the email service, Constant Contact, for a widespread email notice two weeks prior, then a few days before the event as a reminder. Occasionally, they will make fliers or posters. It is incumbent on the authors to do as much publicity as they can.

I came away feeling that at least this bookseller is comfortable with non-Big Five and self-published book providers. I had to leave immediately, but came back the next day with another thank you, and, purchased a book.

Donna’s Bucket List

Go to Europe

Interview a bookseller

Be blessed with a grandchild

Finish first novel, Daughter of the Ancients

Get published

Many thanks to Chris Blaker and everyone at The Book Lady Bookstore, 6 East Liberty St., Savannah, GA 912-233-3628. http://www.thebookladybookstore.com/

Donna VanBraswell is an army brat. She’s lived from Alaska to Turkey and many places in between. This nomadic life provided a wide variety of influences, both with people and environments. Upon retiring as a senior software engineer, she started writing in earnest almost two years ago, after her husband, Jim, was transferred to Colorado. She joined a critique/writers group in Colorado Springs, CSWriters. The long days and evenings were filled with the writing of her first novel, The Daughter Of The Ancients.

This wonderful group helped her to learn the ins-and-outs of starting a novel, providing valued lessons that she still applies. Upon returning to Alabama, she joined two more critique groups and one national group, Sisters In Crime (SinC). Donna attended her first conference, Killer Nashville, in 2016.

In addition to writing, she enjoys hiking and volunteering at a Veteran’s Retirement home and her church. Donna will be attending the next Killer Nashville conference anxious to meet many more people that enjoy writing as much as she does.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

7/26/17 7/26/17

Sorry I Murdered Someone in Your Kitchen / Kevin O’Brien

Setting can be a tricky component to your story. People only seem to notice it if it's done incorrectly or otherwise breaks the emersion. That's why a common piece of advice is to keep your setting close to home, a place where you know every crack in the sidewalk and can create a truly relatable scenario. This week's guest blogger, Kevin O'Brien, discusses just that.

Happy reading!

Clay Stafford

Founder Killer Nashville

Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine

In my new thriller, Hide Your Fear, my heroine makes an appointment with a male prostitute to question him about a stalker. I wasn’t sure what Seattle neighborhood to use for the prostitute’s apartment building. A famous author friend lives in a high rise in Seattle’s Belltown — not far from the outdoor Sculpture Park. It seemed ideal. So — I set the scene there, with my heroine arriving early and having an introspective moment in the park before her appointment. Just as she crosses the street to go into the building, the prostitute plunges nine stories from his balcony and crashes on top of someone’s Prius parked on the street.

I hope my writer friend never finds out.

They say when coming up with locales for a book, beginning authors shouldn’t stray far from their own backyards. After eighteen novels, I still set my thrillers in my own backyard — scenic, soggy Seattle.

Thanks to the rain, it’s a perfect city for chills and thrills. And with all the surrounding forests and bodies of water, my fictional murderers always have a perfect spot to dump a body.

Of course, I work some of Seattle’s landmarks into my thrillers. The Space Needle and Volunteer Park (24 acres of lawn, trees, gardens and trails) have figured prominently in several of my books. The Experience Music Project was in Unspeakable. In Terrified, there was a kidnapping by the Freemont Troll statue (a “monster” sculpture — grasping a life-size VW bug — under a major bridge). And in No One Needs to Know, a woman was hurled down the Howe Street Stairs — 388 steps connecting one Seattle neighborhood to another.

People love seeing a city’s landmarks in novels. If they’ve visited there, they feel like they’re seeing the place again. If they’ve never visited, they feel like they’re taking a trip there.

But not everyone has been happy that I’ve cast their neighborhood haunts in a sinister light.

In Final Breath, I killed a character in the women’s room at an old “art house” movie theater, the Harvard Exit. The victim was a young woman who kept checking her phone messages during the movie. She finally ducked into a stall in the restroom to make a call. The killer reached under the partition, grabbed her by the ankles, dragged her out of the stall and slit her throat. I received several emails from women who said they were afraid to use the restroom in the Harvard Exit, because of Final Breath. I was really kind of hoping it would make people more afraid to use their phones in movie theaters during the film.

A neighbor was doubly upset with me, not only because she was scared to use the bathroom at the Harvard Exit after Final Breath, but because I made her favorite jogging path through Volunteer Park the site of a woman’s fatal abduction in Vicious.

Because these locales are real and familiar to me, it’s easier for me to make the scary fictional events in these spots seem realistic. And I never have to go far to find the right location for a crime scene.

“I can’t pass that duplex at the end of our block without imagining a woman getting hacked to death in the upstairs unit,” another neighbor complained to me. I modeled my heroine’s apartment in Killing Spree after a grey two-story duplex on my street. My neighbor used to walk his dog past it twice a day.

Now he’s changed his dog-walking route.

A writer friend, David Massengill, lived in that upstairs unit when I was writing the book. So — it was his kitchen ceiling that in Killing Spree had drops of blood which would later be a clue to the killing. Dave, Garth Stein (The Art of Racing in the Rain) and I are in the same writers group. Dave has lived in several different apartments over the years. He recently pointed out during a writers group session that I’ve used nearly all of his apartments for scenes of murder or terror in my books. “No wonder you keep moving,” Garth said.

I’ve found there are perks to using local businesses for locales in my thrillers. I always make sure to let these establishments know they were mentioned in my books — and it’s been good for free publicity and more sales. After a character ordered pizza from a Seattle staple, Pagliacci, in Killing Spree, I got certificates for two free pizzas in the mail. I was also treated to a free dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, That’s Amore, after a couple had a date there in Vicious.

Of course, I’ve gotten in good with local book merchants by setting scenes of intrigue in their stores.

But sometimes, it can backfire. I live in the city, and gave up my car ages ago. For long trips, I rent a car at a local Enterprise dealer. Not long ago, I was there, filling out paperwork for a trip to Portland while the representative checked my reservation. “Wait a minute, Kevin O’Brien? I know you,” the man said. “You wrote One Last Scream…”

I was really flattered he knew me and my books. “Did you like it?” I asked.

“You got me in trouble with my boss!” the man replied. “In that book, you had a woman rent a car here. Then she went into our restroom, and you described it as ‘grimy!’”

I told the man the same thing I tell everyone when they’re not too happy to find I’ve brought murder and mayhem into their neighborhood, their work place or their home.

“Well, it’s only fiction,” I said.

Before his thrillers landed him on the New York Times Bestseller list, Kevin O’Brien was a railroad inspector. The author of 18 internationally published thrillers, he won the Spotted Owl Award for Best Pacific Northwest Mystery, was Guest of Honor at Killer Nashville, and is a core member of Seattle 7 Writers. Press & Guide said: “If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today and writing novels, his name would be Kevin O’Brien.” Kevin’s latest nail-biter, Hide Your Fear, will be in bookstores this summer. He’s hard at work on his 19th novel. Contact him at kevinobrienbooks.com

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

7/19/17 7/19/17

Writing the “Near” Alternate History Mystery / John Hegenberger

The majority of what we call “historical mystery” takes place during or before WWII. It used to be that the term “antique” could only be applied to things over 100 years old. But now it frequently includes items from as recent as the 1960s. Blame it on the increasing pace of today’s electronic life, but there is now a growing interest in thrillers that take place less than fifty years ago- especially if they involve a fascinating setting, theme, or character.

The Stan Wade, LA PI series, including my novel, STARFALL, is an example of a Near Alternate History Mystery.

STARFALL is an adventure story of a Los Angeles private eye who gets hooked up with several well-known personalities of the time. The idea is to take the reader back to a specific time and place, so they can vicariously experience the fun and mystery of another, not-too-distant world.

For example, Stan’s office is in a cramped little room at the back of the Brown Derby restaurant, which lets him and the reader encounter several famous Hollywood stars and other notables of the day. The boat where he lives is moored out where they’re dredging what will one day be the glamorous Marina del Rey. And his biggest client is a movie producer, whose initials are W.D. and who is secretly connected to the FBI.

Stan is hired to figure out who murdered the 8th candidate for what today we know as the Mercury 7 astronauts.

You would think that in 1959 L.A. everything was calm and quaint on the outside, but underneath we all had fall-out shelters and knew the world could end it any moment.

Where did you get the idea for STARFALL?

I came to the idea by thinking about all the great television shows that originally aired when I was a kid. What would happen, I wondered, if the characters of these programs had to team up and deal with the real historical events of the time? In other words, what if someone like Mike Hammer were to visit 77 Sunset Strip in order to work with Sky King or Joe Friday to help stop the commies or organized crime in L.A.

What is the setting of this series of books?

Stan and his associates live in the Los Angeles of 1959. I fell in love with the year 1959. It seems to me that the majority of great private investigators worked out of Los Angeles at one era or another, and I want to put the reader in a setting that’s full of wonder and historical significance.

Historical fact or alternate history fiction?

The beauty of the Historical Alternate History Mystery is that practically every celebrity in Los Angeles 1959 becomes part of the Stan Wade saga. Bobby Darin, Lloyd Bridges, John Ford, Mickey Cohen, Jack Benny, George Reeves, John Wayne, Ross MacDonald, Noel Coward, John Steinbeck, Philip K. Dick, and the Kingston Trio. As well as significant places like Pacific Ocean Park, Marineland, the Hollywood Playhouse, all gone… but not forgotten.

1959 was an important point in time when:

We still used the Univac to predict election outcomes.
The first color TV programs were broadcasted.
First use of those beeping hospital vital signs monitors.
Secret Soviet missile bases in Germany pointed at the UK.
Alaska and Hawaii become states.

At the back of each book in the series I’ve added “The Fact Behind the Fiction” which details the truth and gives deeper insight into the hidden underpinnings of our world today that began back in 1959.

Does your series have a support team?

One of Stan’s friends is what we today would call a “geek.” Norman “Weirdo” Weirick has a knack for inventing proto-types of the devices we find common today. He has successfully cobbled together a car phone, fax machine and several other tools like a parabolic microphone which were only just beginning to be thought of in 1959. Norman is also a big fan of science fiction which is why writers like Philip K Dick and Rod Serling show up in some of the stories.

Do you change the world? Does the world change your characters?

Interesting question. I would say that in all cases the world changes them. These are tales of discovery, sometimes external but most times internal. However, in many cases the characters are not aware that they have changed the world. For instance back in 1959, Stan Wade rescues a little boy who has fallen into a dangerous situation. Later he learns the boy’s name is George Bush, which means nothing to him at the time, but everything to the reader today.

Can you describe your interest in these historical periods versus contemporary times?

I’ve lived through a lot, so why not share a little? I try and put as much of my own past into the historical fiction that I share with readers. I love fiction when it blends with history. I think the sub-genre is called “Secret Histories.” A good example is Nicholas Meyer’s “The Seven Percent Solution,” where Sherlock Holmes meets Freud. John Jakes wrote “The Bastard” series that placed his characters in critical historical points from the pre-revolutionary war to the 1930s, loaded with famous Americans. The “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” used to run on TV and the main characters met John Ford, Mata Hari and Lawrence of Arabia. We don’t know everything about the past, so the door is slightly open for fun “what-if” adventures.

If you wrote like that with all the fantastic things happening to a character in today’s setting, it would seem flat-out impossible. But by placing the story back in a historical period, readers can suspend their disbelief as I have my private eye character, Stan Wade, meet Walt Disney, George Reeves, Mickey Cohan, Johnny Mercer and Bobby Darin, all in the same week.

Are there other books in the series?

You bet! During one of the novels in the series, STARFALL, Stan has to figure out who murdered the 8th candidate for what today we know as the Mercury 7 astronauts. In another of the novels, a TV actor vanishes into the witness protection program, while the world still thinks he’s committed suicide.

Yes, Stan also appears in:

SPYFALL

In September 1959, someone is out for revenge against a young L.A. PI who has to travel outside the country and his own comfort zone to discover the secret life of Ian Fleming and stop a nuclear threat to Europe that remained classified until 2012.

SPADEFALL

In December 1959, a hard-luck PI risks life and livelihood in search of a lost Hammett manuscript, where Sam Spade meets the Continental Op, and confronts a frustrated Hitchcock in Hollywood, a young Jack Ruby in Dallas, and a Neo-Nippon threat in America’s new 50th state.

SUPERFALL

In June 1959, America’s TV superhero took a bullet to the head in an apparent suicide. But was it? And is he really dead? A Hollywood PI comes to grips with his ideals and a host of Mob and Soviet intrigue.

The latest book in the series is STORMFALL

In October 1959, a young, hard-luck PI is lost in America, determined to untangle a series of grisly murders spreading like a disease from the set of The Alamo. Fighting for his life from a dry desert storm, to a mind-bending fog in San Francisco, and a snow-blinding mountain top outside Hollywood, Stan Wade gropes his way through drug-induced, false trails to outwit an aggressive, obsessive mass killer.

You can find a link to all my books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and on my website at johnhegenberger.com

Award-winning author, John Hegenberger has produced more than a dozen books since mid-2015, including several popular series: Stan Wade LAPI in 1959, Eliot Cross Columbus-based PI in 1988, and Ace Hart, western gambler in Arizona in 1877. He’s the father of three, tennis enthusiast, collector of silent films, hiker, Francophile, B.A. Comparative Lit., ex-Navy, ex-marketing exec, happily married for 47 years and counting. Active member of SFWA, PWA, SinC and ITW. His novel SPYFALL won a 2016 award at Killer Nashville. His latest book is TRIPLEYE, hardboiled science fiction about the first PI agency on Mars.

(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you.)

Thanks to Tom Wood, Arthur Jackson, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog.

For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.

And be sure to check out our new book, Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded, an anthology of original short stories by New York Times bestselling authors and newbies alike.

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OUTLINING IN REVERSE / Michael H. Rubin

What You Always Wanted To Ask A Bookseller, But Were Afraid To Ask / Donna VanBraswell

Sorry I Murdered Someone in Your Kitchen / Kevin O’Brien

Writing the “Near” Alternate History Mystery / John Hegenberger

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